Carney and Coons on the Republican Shutdown

Congressman John Carney:

Carney lays the blame [for the shutdown] at the feet of a small group of House Republicans who he says are intentionally trying to use the shutdown as leverage to gut the Affordable Care Act. He adds that he believes that most House Republicans don’t want a shutdown.

“But they’ve allowed some of the tea party elements in their conference to control the agenda here and I’m looking towards those members to try to find a way out that addresses the real problems that we face as a country, a fiscal plan that seeks to improve the Affordable Care Act, not defund it,” said Carney. […]

Carney says that the easiest option to ending the shut down is to approve a continuing resolution that re-opens the government, then continue talks between the two parties.

“Congress is supposed to do its business through committee process on budget, in a fiscal plan that could include all of these issues around health care funding,” Carney told WDDE. “To do it in a hostage situation like this using federal employees and federal services is just crazy.”

Senator Chris Coons, through a press release:

[This] is as embarrassing as it is frustrating. There is no reality where the Senate and President Obama agree to repeal the Affordable Care Act — which was passed by Congress, upheld by the Supreme Court, and sustained in the last presidential election — but the House of Representatives has been unrelenting in its drive to tear it down. They know that shutting down the government won’t stop the new health insurance marketplace from opening tomorrow, but are determined to make their point, no matter the cost to our nation.

Delawareans deserve better than this.

There are too many important things Congress should be working on — helping businesses create jobs and grow our economy, first among them — for it to be wasting its time on these needless partisan conflicts.

Congress should be working together to invest in our nation’s aging infrastructure, revitalize our schools, and keep our communities safe.

It can’t seem to pass laws anymore, but Congress has become very good at manufacturing crises. This one was months in the making, and completely preventable.

I’m a member of the Senate Budget Committee and am proud to have helped write a budget that not only fairly replaces the sequester and responsibly reduces the deficit, but still invests in economic growth. The full Senate debated and ultimately approved that budget, but a few Senate Republicans have blocked negotiations with the House from moving forward — ensuring that the federal government will operate without a budget for the fifth straight year.

I’m also a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which has passed 11 spending bills for the Senate to consider. We tried to pass one of them earlier this year — the bill funding the departments of Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, which had bipartisan support in Committee — but Senate Republicans blocked even debate of the measure.

It is insanely frustrating.

I’m doing what I can to bring the Delaware Way to Washington, steering clear of needless partisanship, working with my Republican colleagues on constructive legislation, and generally trying to put our nation’s interests above our political priorities.

I regret that some in Congress have once again delivered us to the doorstep of an economic crisis, but I will continue to do everything I can to bring us back.