On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-MD) said that he has gotten calls from people who are glad the government shutdown is coming to an end because they were “worried about their air travel. And God bless them, I don’t want to keep anybody from getting to where they’re trying to go for Thanksgiving. But there are larger forces at work here, in some ways.”
Ivey said, “I’m a definite no on this bill. I think it was the wrong way to go. It’s essentially the same vehicle they passed back in March, and they haven’t improved it in any way. In fact, it’s gotten worse, because, in the interim, they passed the big, ugly bill, and that was the $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, among other terrible things for the American people.”
Host Jake Tapper then asked, “You represent almost 50,000 federal workers in your district in Maryland. Obviously, you’re concerned about the SNAP benefits. There must be — is anybody — are any of your constituents happy that at least the shutdown’s coming to an end?”
Ivey answered, “If they are, they’re not calling me. The people that I ran into while this was going on, sometimes standing in line to get — at the food pantries to get food, were saying, to a person, stay strong. I’ve gotten contacted by people from other places, outside of my district, who, a lot of them are like, thank God, are worried about their air travel. And God bless them, I don’t want to keep anybody from getting to where they’re trying to go for Thanksgiving. But there are larger forces at work here, in some ways. Certainly, with respect to the extension of healthcare tax credits, you’ve got millions of Americans who could lose their healthcare coverage based on the failure to extend those tax credits. The SNAP issue was sick, frankly. They had the billions of dollars to make the payments so that people could continue to eat, and they kept trying to drag their feet. We had to take them to court on multiple occasions. And I think they’re still litigating it, frankly. So, it’s kind of unfortunate that that’s the way they’re choosing to govern, but that’s the way they’re going about it, and we’ve got to fight them.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
