Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said President Donald Trump is using the government shutdown to maximize “harm” to Americans.
Host Kristen Welker said, “On the government shutdown, three of your colleagues in the Democratic caucus have broken ranks. They voted with Republicans to keep the government open. How confident are you that democrats will stay united in this fight?”
Schiff said, “I’m confident all Democrats understand that millions and millions of their constituents are about to be priced out of their health care. I was in California last week, in Oceanside, and in Anaheim. Average families of four will see their premiums go up by $900 to $1,000 a month. No one can afford that. And that’s going to happen all across the country. So I think all of my colleagues understand the crisis. We need a president who can act like an adult, who can come to the table and negotiate an end to their self-imposed health care crisis. Right now, we don’t see that. We see Trump out on the golf course. We see the speaker telling his House colleagues to not even come to session, there’s no work for the federal government to do, apparently.”
He added, “That’s completely unacceptable. And in addition to the need to restore health care affordability for people, we need to make sure that any agreement we reach with the Republicans, they will honor. Right now they’re telling us, you can reach an agreement with us, but we’re simply going to withhold any programs or money that’s important to you. As for the speaker not telling you or not telling you his position on the president threatening mass layoffs of federal employees, there’s no one forcing him to do that. He will do that because he wants to do that, because he and Russell Vought want to cause even more pain for the American people. That is unprecedented. No other president during the shutdown has sought to maximize the harms to people. That’s where this president is coming from.”
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