Schumer Warns House Republicans to Avoid Shutdown
Monday, January 31, 2011
(Roll Call)Senate Democratic Conference Vice Chairman
Charles Schumer (N.Y.) accused the new
Republican majority in the House on Sunday of
risking a government shutdown as the expiration
of a stopgap spending measure approaches.
The continuing resolution expires March 4, and
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said
last week that the chamber will consider
another on the week of Feb. 14. That measure is
expected to include steep cuts that reflect
pledges made by Republicans before November’s
midterm elections.
Speaker John Boehner said on “Fox News Sunday”
that he would like to see non-defense
discretionary spending return to 2008 levels,
but he didn’t specifically outline where cuts
would be made. Details would be available in
the upcoming spending bill, the Ohio Republican
said.
“There’s no limit to the amount of spending
we’re willing to cut,” he added.
New White House Chief of Staff William Daley
pointed Sunday to President Barack Obama’s
proposal to freeze domestic discretionary
spending for five years as a “substantial”
plan. But he declined to give specifics, saying
they would become public when the president
presents his budget in February, Daley said on
CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Boehner did not address the possibility of a
government shutdown resulting from a standoff
over the spending cuts, and Senate Minority
Leader Mitch McConnell was repeatedly asked on
NBC’s “Meet the Press” whether a shutdown is on
the table.
“We have two opportunities, both the
Congressional resolution and the debt ceiling,
to try to accomplish something on a bipartisan
basis on both our short-term debt and our
long-term unfunded liabilities,” the Kentucky
Republican responded.
Schumer pleaded with GOP lawmakers in the House
to avoid a shutdown.
“It seems that a lot of Republicans in the
House want to risk a shutdown of the government
if they don’t absolutely get their way,”
Schumer said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“That was a mistake when Newt Gingrich tried it
in 1995, it’ll be a bigger mistake now.”
A shutdown would disrupt military funding and
programs that Americans count on, such as
Social Security, and it could risk stability in
credit markets, he said.
“If they feel that people are willing to shut
down the government, you could risk the credit
markets really losing some confidence in the
United States Treasury, and that could create a
deeper recession than we had over the last
several years, God forbid, even a depression,”
Schumer added.
“What government is all about is having
strongly held views but, when not everyone
agrees with you, coming to a reasonable
position,” he said. “We can come to a
reasonable agreement that curbs spending.”
Schumer concluded, “But to just stay in your
corner and say, ‘It’s my way or I’m shutting
down the government,’ that could lead to
terrible, terrible problems, and I would plead
with my new Republican colleagues in the House
who seem to want to do this that that’s playing
with fire, please don’t do it.”