What’s the best way to browbeat a Republican in Washington? Mention that time they shut down the government.
Elizabeth Warren called the GOP the “anarchy gang.” Bernie Sanders accused them of taking the country “hostage.” And Chuck Schumer slammed them as “fanatics.”
But four years since the last real shutdown, Democrats have come around to what they once widely condemned. Now they’re the ones threatening to shut it all down.
Yesterday, Senate Minority Leader Schumer announced his plans to pull the plug if Republicans pursue President Trump’s agenda. Specifically, the New York liberal warned that Democrats won’t support a must-pass funding bill if it includes money for a border wall or defunding Planned Parenthood. A shutdown is in order, he argued if Republicans “put those poison pill amendments in and try to shove them down the American people’s throats.” I guess life comes at you fast on Capitol Hill.
That’s because every member of Schumer’s leadership team has roundly decried shutdown strategies. Here’s the roundup:
1. Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York told a Brooklyn street festival on September 29, 2013 that “a small group of fanatics” were running Washington: “These things sometimes get resolved at the last minute, but right now I’m worried because we have a small group of fanatics who seem to have a stranglehold on the Republican Party.”
2. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts called shutdowns “anarchy” during a December 11, 2014 floor speech: “The anarchy gang is quick to malign government, but when was the last time anyone called for regulators to go easier on companies that put lead in children’s toys? Or for food inspectors to stop checking whether the meat in our grocery stores is crawling with deadly bacteria? Or for the FDA to ignore whether morning sickness drugs will cause horrible deformities in little babies?”
3. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota accused Republicans of holding firefighters and police hostage during a September 26, 2013 floor speech: “There are some who are willing to hold these first responders hostage. There are some who are willing to hold our country hostage just to score political points, Mr. President. The fact of the matter is that a government shutdown would be painful and it would be expensive.”
4. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois slammed the “Tea Party approach to dealing with our budgets” in an Oct. 1, 2013 statement: “This is no way to run a country or manage our economic recovery. Moderate Republican members have started to speak out in the House and the Senate and are rejecting the Tea Party approach to dealing with our budgets. It should have never come to this. The House needs to set aside the political brinksmanship, stop manufacturing one crisis after the next and pass a short-term funding bill so the government can get back to work.”
5. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington described the shutdown as “the height of irresponsibility,” in an Oct. 1, 2013 statement: “Tonight I join with so many Washington families in being frustrated and disappointed that House Republicans have shut down the federal government over a crisis of their own creation. Shutting down the government over a law that has – and will continue to – provide Washington families with access to affordable health care is the height of irresponsibility and Washington state families deserve better.”
6. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont ridiculed Republicans for throwing a tantrum in a September 26, 2013 statement: “People can disagree about the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, but it is very wrong for right-wing Republicans to hold the American people hostage and shut the government down because they can’t get their way in defunding that legislation.”
7. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia was “mad as hell” and later called for an investigation into the economic effect of “this irresponsible action” in an Oct. 31, 2013 letter: ‘‘I heard from countless federal employees and small businesses across the Commonwealth of Virginia who faced undue hardship for no good reason due to the 16-day shutdown…to better understand how this irresponsible action fully impacted our economy.”
8. Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin called shutdowns “manufactured crisis” in an Oct. 16, 2013 statement: “I support the bipartisan Senate plan to end the shutdown, open the government, pay our bills and prevent a government default. This bipartisan compromise will provide our economy with the stability and certainty it desperately needs and it is my hope that it will break this destructive pattern in Washington of drifting from one manufactured crisis to the next.”
9. Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, then a U.S. representative, famously sparred with Rep. Jason Chaffetz on the floor on Oct. 15, 2013. Again and again, Van Hollen asked if the Republicans had “the rules rigged to keep the government shutdown.”
10. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia took a measured approach in a September 26, 2013 statement: “I do not believe that this issue should be used to shut down the government, and I will not vote to shut down the government. We need to work together as Americans to solve these problems so we can get our economy back on track and create American jobs.”
11. Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan described the Republican shutdwon as a “manufcatured crisis in an Oct.16, 2013 NPR inteview: “I believe that this will in fact get fixed in the short term. It certainly hasn’t been without tremendous amount of reckless and irresponsible behavior. We should’ve never been in this position. My focus is on manufacturing jobs not creating manufactured crisis which is what has happened here.”
Did they think we’d just forget?
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
