Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) thinks Democrats are playing games and having fun with Washington budget negotiations — specifically the closure of public memorials and national parks. But Paul doesn’t think it’s funny.
The Kentucky Republican and possible 2016 presidential contender condemned the Obama administration for setting up barricades at national memorials during the shutdown.
“I think Democrats who think this is a parlor game, who think this is fun — here’s what the Democrats think. They think, ‘We’ll send a bunch of government workers out there to close off the roadside viewing of Mount Rushmore because that’ll be funny,'” he told Candy Crowley on State of the Union this week. “So I think it isn’t funny.”
He criticized President Barack Obama for refusing to negotiate with Republicans over the debt limit increase. Paul said that he thought there should be an agreement reached in the debt ceiling debate prior to the impending mid-October deadline for hitting that limit. But he added that the U.S. credit rating was downgraded the last time as a result of too much debt, not because of brushing up against a deadline.
“[A credit downgrade] can happen again if we don’t wake up and do something to manage this debt,” he said.
He pointed out that Democrats were refusing to accept even reasonable budget deals.
“I think we’re seeing that the Senate Democrats are getting greedy about this whole thing,” he told Crowley.
