On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Arena,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) responded to a question on whether Democrats have held that you shouldn’t shut down the government over policy before by saying, “No, but this is about the budget. The budget is a statement of our values. The budget is about where we’re putting money.”
Host Kasie Hunt asked, [relevant exchange begins around 21:30] “[I]n the past, Democrats have said policy is not a reason to shut down the government, right?”
Klobuchar answered, “No, but this is about the budget. The budget is a statement of our values. The budget is about where we’re putting money. They chose to put a whole bunch of money in the pockets of wealthy people with the big, beautiful betrayal of a bill. That’s what they did. And they put us into much, much bigger debt, and, as a result, triggered Medicare cuts. They already had Medicaid cuts in there, and then they didn’t correct this. So, that’s their values. And, now, we have this moment, because another budget’s coming up here, another decision about how we’re going to spend money, and this is the place where we should do that. So, that’s what this is about. And it is about my constituents. One guy, a soybean farmer, whose markets completely dried up and he’s got higher fertilizer costs because of the tariffs on that in Canada and no market and now these healthcare premiums. He said to me, it’s a perfect storm of ugly. They know that’s what we’re in the middle of, and I don’t — I listen to them say, blame, you’re doing this, you’re doing that. I just look at the people who come up to me who say they need help. That’s what this is about.”
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