On Thursday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) responded to arguments that he would be furious if Republicans used a government shutdown to try to make Democrats repeal legislation they just passed and doing so would be bad precedent by saying that “What is bad precedent is the Republican refusal to engage in bipartisan negotiations.” And “if the government shuts down, they’ve made the decision to shut the government down, and they can re-open it right now if they chose to, with a rule change in the Senate.”
Co-host Joe Kernen said, “[W]e’re talking about a continuing resolution to keep the government open and then going into the normal appropriations process. There was an election, and the Republicans were put in a position where they were able to pass the big, beautiful bill or you call it the big, ugly bill. To then say, we don’t like any of that, so we’re going to shut down the government until you take back all the things that you duly passed through legislation, if Republicans had tried to do that to the Inflation Reduction Act or any of the acts that Biden and that administration have passed, if they said, we’re going to shut down the government because we don’t like any of those things you did, we’re going to not pay our military, we’re going to not allow the government to re-open until you do what we want, after an election where the American people put them in — put Democrats in power, you’d be going crazy. You’d be going crazy about using a shutdown of the government with a continuing — on a continuing resolution to get what you want, just because you don’t like what the Republicans did. It’s not how it — it’s bad. It’s bad precedent. And it’s just clear — and you’re talking about the House, you’ve already passed this. The Senate is who we’re talking about, and they have a bill which will re-open the government right now, with five more Democrats.”
Jeffries responded, “What is bad precedent is the Republican refusal to engage in bipartisan negotiations. What is bad precedent is the Republicans embarking on a my way or the highway approach from the very beginning of this Congress. Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the presidency, Joe, you’re exactly right. So, if the government shuts down, they’ve made the decision to shut the government down, and they can re-open it right now if they chose to, with a rule change in the Senate. … The reality is, they want to keep the government closed, cruelty from the very beginning of this administration has been the point, and the responsible thing to do is to sit down and negotiate a bipartisan path forward to address a very real healthcare crisis that’s upon us right now.”
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