Minority Whip Steny Hoyer and other congressional Democrats vowed to shut the government down over the impending health care vote, according to a Thursday report from CNN.
Democratic leadership ignored the many times they slammed GOP representatives for shutting the government down during President Barack Obama’s administration.
“If Republicans announce their intention to bring their harmful TrumpCare bill to the House Floor tomorrow or Saturday, I will oppose a one-week Continuing Resolution and will advise House Democrats to oppose it as well,” Hoyer said in the published statement.
If Democrats oppose the continuing resolution, the government won’t be funded through Friday, effectively shutting down many federal services.
Hoyer himself rejected the idea of a shutdown in a September 2013 statement, where he slammed GOP representatives for standing their ground.
“We have [not] a matter of days, but hours left to prevent our government from shutting down. A shutdown is not a tactic, it’s not a strategy, it is a failure for this country. Let us not be the country whose representatives cannot work together to fulfill the most basic function of government,” Hoyer said.
Obama joined the rallying cry, asserting “You don’t get to extract a ransom for doing your job, for doing what you’re supposed to be doing anyway” he said. “Or just because there’s a law there that you don’t like.”
Virginia Sen. Mark Warner called the idea of a shutdown “irresponsible” in his October 2013 statement. “It’s irresponsible for Republicans to hold the nation’s budget hostage over a single ideological issue,” Warner said in a phone call to supporters.
Former candidate for Vice President Tim Kaine called the idea of shutting the government down “extreme” in 2010.
“It’s an extreme position of obstruction that’s not going to do anything but take us backwards,” Kaine said.
“For years, Democrats and the media excoriated Republicans for even the slightest demand made during government funding debates,” Republican National Committee Communications Director Michael Reed told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“Now that the shoe is on the other foot, Democrats should heed their own rhetoric from the past several years, and commit to doing their jobs without using the threat of government shutdown as a tactic to score partisan points.”
Republicans refused to pass a spending resolution in 2013 that would have provided funding towards the Affordable Care Act, shutting the government down for several days.
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