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At the beginning of the week, it appeared as if Democrats and Republicans were gearing up for a long fight over a government shutdown. By Wednesday, however, the showdown had fizzled out, and despite New York Senator Chuck Schumer’s best efforts to declare the negotiations pointless, a continuing resolution to keep the government running was a reality. New York Congressman Mike Lawler (R- NY 17TH) appeared on 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning program to highlight why the resolution was critical for the nation. He summed up his explanation of what happened in two words: “Schumer blinked.”
As Lawler told host Larry Mendte, Schumer’s effort to rally Democrats around torpedoing the bill were not appreciated by the GOP. “This is a guy who, for years, has said how devastating a government shutdown would be, and only because Donald Trump is in office and Republicans control the House and the Senate, was he willing to now, all of a sudden, reverse himself and risk a shutdown, solely for the purpose of having political leverage in a negotiation… [Democrats] wanted to try and limit the power of the President, and that’s really what this fight was about. They didn’t expect that Republicans would pass [the budget] through the House- we did- and so they were really in a box and, ultimately, Chuck Schumer blinked.”
Lawler, who is in his second term in the House, says voting to shut the government down does more than just give Congress a bad image. “Folks have to recognize this is not a game. When I was in Congress last term, Joe Biden was the President. I voted for every single spending bill to keep the government funded and open. You’re playing around with people’s lives and livelihoods when you shut the government down. It is stupid.”
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