On Friday’s broadcast of “CNN News Central,” House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) argued that “the American people lost” the government shutdown, because Republicans decided “they’d rather shut the government down” than make health policy changes.
Co-host John Berman asked, “Who won the shutdown?”
Jeffries responded, “Well, the American people lost because Republicans made a decision, intentionally — they control the House, the Senate and the presidency — that they’d rather shut the government down than actually provide affordable health care to everyday Americans all across the country, including in the states that are going to be most affected, which happen to be states like West Virginia, Wyoming, Alaska, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, South Carolina, Alabama, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Those are the ten states most affected by the failure to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. And Republicans have been able to do everything else, including finding $40 billion to bail out Argentina, but [are] unwilling to find a dime to actually provide affordable health care to everyday Americans. And so, hopefully, they’ll adopt a different approach. And we’re going to continue to press the case on these core issues of making life better for everyday Americans in a country that is far too expensive, far too many people struggling to live paycheck to paycheck. They can’t thrive and can barely survive. This should not be the case in the wealthiest country in the history of the world.”
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