Speaker Johnson flips script on Dem leaders with staunch warning against government shutdown
Republicans and Democrats are continuing to trade blows ahead of a potential government shutdown next week, with both sides indicating that neither is willing to budge from its position on federal funding.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., released a memo earlier this week highlighting past years’ comments by Senate Democrats warning of the pitfalls of a government shutdown.
‘House Republicans acted responsibly last week to keep the government open with the clean short-term continuing resolution,’ Johnson’s memo said.
‘Senate Democrats, who used to warn that shutdowns would hurt seniors, veterans, and working families, are now threatening to force one unless Congress repeals the Working Families Tax Cut, restores taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal aliens, and sends half a billion dollars to leftist news outlets, among other partisan spending demands.’
The rest of the memo features a list of Democrats’ comments, beginning with then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., warning on Sept. 16, 2024, ‘If the government shuts down, it will be average Americans who suffer most.’
At the time, the Democrat-controlled Senate was negotiating with the House GOP majority under then-President Joe Biden to avert a government shutdown. That stand-off ended with Biden signing a short-term extension of the previous fiscal year’s government funding levels on Sept. 26, 2024 – days before the Sept. 30 shutdown deadline – through Dec. 20, 2024.
Johnson’s memo also referenced comments by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., from Jan. 4, 2018, during President Donald Trump’s first term, ‘The truth is that shutting down the government is a serious and dangerous action that we must do everything possible to prevent. Shutting down the government would impact tens of millions of our fellow Americans who would be unable to access government services.’
Senate Democrats, then in the minority, agreed to the GOP’s short-term funding bill in exchange for public assurances for a vote on immigration legislation.
Anna Bahr, a spokesperson for Sanders, told Fox News Digital that the Senator ‘absolutely still believes that a government shutdown is serious and dangerous, and urges the Trump administration and his Republican colleagues not to do it,’ but that he’s been clear he’d support Senate Democrats’ counter-proposal over the GOP’s bill.
‘President Trump’s party controls the House, Senate, and White House and has the responsibility of keeping the government open,’ Bahr said.
During an earlier stand-off in late 2023, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said, according to Johnson’s memo, ‘A government shutdown would have serious impacts. Servicemembers won’t get their paychecks. Airports could have major delays. Nutrition assistance for children could be cut off. We can’t let any of that happen. Congress needs to work together to prevent a shutdown.’
Kelley argued in a statement to Fox News Digital that Trump would ‘rather shut the government down than keep health care premiums from skyrocketing for millions of Americans.’
‘The only person who wants a government shutdown is President Donald Trump,’ he said.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said in November that year, ‘The priority has to be keeping the government open and I think this is a moment where reasonable people in the Senate, and that’s where most of the reasonable people are these days, have to make sure that we are not making the perfect the enemy of the good.’
And Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., who along with Schumer voted to advance the GOP’s CR earlier this year, said in Dec. 2024 that shutdowns would risk ‘national security and threatening livelihoods – which is why it is important that we voted on a bipartisan basis to avert a shutdown.’
A spokesperson for Hassan told Fox News Digital that she still believed that a government shutdown could cause real pain.
‘Which is why she is urging President Trump and Congressional Republicans to come to the table and work with Democrats to keep the government open and pass a funding bill that protects access to health care for millions of Americans,’ they said.
The House passed a short-term extension keeping federal funding levels roughly the same, called a continuing resolution (CR), last week. The vote fell largely along party lines, with just one Democrat crossing the aisle in the measure’s favor.
The bill also included an extra $30 million for lawmaker security, which was welcomed by both sides, as well as $58 million requested by the White House for executive and judicial branch security.
An effort to consider the bill in the Senate hours later was scuttled when most Democrats, along with two Republicans, opposed a vote to begin debating the measure.
Now both parties are blaming one another for a potential shutdown – which could hit at midnight on Oct. 1 if a deal is not passed in both chambers by then.
Republicans are accusing Democrats of recklessly pushing for a shutdown and making unworkable demands in exchange for keeping the government open. They’ve also pointed out that government funding levels have remained relatively steady since fiscal year (FY) 2024, when Democrats supported then-President Joe Biden’s spending priorities.
But Democrats, infuriated by being sidelined in discussions on the bill, have also been pushing for the inclusion of enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies that are set to expire at the end of 2025 without congressional action.
Fox News Digital reached out to the offices of Schumer and Murphy, but did not immediately hear back.
