Democrats Threatening to Shut Down Government Over ‘COVID-Era Giveaways’

Democrats are essentially threatening to shut down the government over “COVID-era giveaways,” Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) said during an interview on Breitbart News Daily.

Johnson referred to the impending possible government shutdown as “the stupidest shutdown,” explaining that Republican requests have been made crystal clear.

“We don’t have a deal yet. [If] we don’t get a deal by tomorrow, the government shuts down tomorrow,” he said, referring to September 30 at midnight.

“[The] President [is] saying, ‘Hey, listen, let’s finish the deal. Let’s have a short term pause button for six or seven weeks, November 21.’ Democrats are not willing to do that. Instead, because they can’t get all their demands immediately, Chuck Schumer says they’re going to shut it all down,” the congressman said.

“So what do they want?” he said, detailing some of the left’s demands. “They want us to extend COVID-era enhanced premium tax credits that helped to give, you know, give away health insurance to people, some people making 400 percent, 500 percent, 600 percent of poverty. … At the very least, Donald Trump and the Republicans in Congress are not going to give that away for just a six-week pause in a shutdown,” he said.

“During COVID, the Democrats — Obamacare already gave pretty big tax credits to people so they could buy health insurance on the Obamacare exchange. These are not affected. Those are not affected by this debate,” the congressman clarified.

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“During COVID, even more money was layered on top of that. Again, COVID! COVID has been gone for five years. Those COVID-era extra tax credits expire at the end of the year if Congress doesn’t do something. The Democrats are saying, we are going to ransom a six-week short-term funding package, and we will not agree with that — a clean six-week CR — unless we continue the COVID-era giveaways,” he revealed. “It’s insanity.”