Democrats accused of hypocrisy over ‘hostage-taking,’ ‘ransom’ rhetoric in past shutdown fights
WASHINGTON — Democratic lawmakers’ attacks on Republicans during past government shutdown fights have resurfaced now that liberals are the ones making demands in order to keep the lights on.
In a role reversal from past partial shutdowns this century, the GOP is trying to force through temporary legislation funding the government at current levels — known in Washington as a “clean” continuing resolution — while Democrats are holding out for concessions.
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“We are not willing to pay $2.5 billion or $5 billion and wasting taxpayer dollars on a ransom note because Donald Trump decided that he was going to shut down the government and hold the American people hostage,” then-incoming House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) told ABC’s “This Week” in late 2018.
“That’s unreasonable.”
At the time, President Trump and Republicans were demanding funding for a border wall as part of any measure to fund the government. Democrats had wanted to keep the issue separate from any continuing resolution (CR).
“To use the shutdown as hostage, which they had no arguments against, is wrong and we would urge them respectively to reconsider,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) groused in early 2019.
“…Open the government as we continue to debate what is the best way to secure our border.”
Ultimately, the government entered a partial shutdown for a record 35 days, from Dec. 22, 2018, to Jan. 25, 2019.
Schumer had taken heat back in March of this year from his progressive base for declining to block a “clean” GOP CR that kept the government running through Tuesday.
Following that pressure, the Senate Democratic leader has tagged along with the progressive base’s push to get into a shutdown showdown with Republicans to extract concessions from them on healthcare.
One of the most outspoken voices among Senate Democrats in both the March showdown and the current one, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), panned the GOP for making demands during the 2018-2019 fight.
“Stop trying to negotiate. Open the government. Then we’ll talk about whatever you want to talk about,” he declared as the standoff neared its end.
This time around, Murphy is decrying Republicans for not negotiating with Democrats.
“There’s no negotiation happening because Trump has told Republicans not to talk to Democrats,” he whined to MediasTouch earlier this month. “We’re not asking for the moon.”
However, what Democrats are asking for in terms of healthcare concessions carries a much larger price tag than what Trump had demanded for the border wall in late 2018.
A full extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies could cost as much as $350 billion through 2035, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Fully reversing GOP-backed Medicaid reform could cost close to $600 billion, according to some estimates.
“Under Biden, Democrats claimed they were ‘saving’ the government from shutdowns. Now, Democrats are threatening a shutdown to push their radical wishlist. Pure hypocrisy,” Republicans chided on their official X account last week.
Hudson Valley Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) inked an op-ed in The Post last week raking Dems over the coals for the contrast between their past and present talking points.
“Next time you hear a Democrat lecture you about ‘extremists’ and ‘hostage-taking,’ remember this: When it suited them, they said exactly the same thing about shutdowns,” he wrote.
Groups like the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the official House GOP campaign arm, are seeking to use potentially vulnerable Democrats’ past remarks against them with the miderm elections just over one year away.
“Two-Faced Tom Suozzi, Lying Laura Gillen, and Fake Moderate Josh Riley gambled away the safety and well-being of the very people that trusted them with their vote, and they know it,” NRCC Spokeswoman Maureen O’Toole told The Post.
“Even for these out-of-touch Democrats, this is a new low, and New Yorkers won’t send them back to Congress because of it.”
The NRCC flagged past examples of Long Island Rep. Suozzi blasting Trump in early 2019 for “holding all these people’s lives hostage because he’s trying to negotiate a deal for an issue he wants.”
It also resurfaced quotes by upstate Rep. Josh Riley (D-NY) warning last year that a shutdown would leave “seniors without benefits, kids without care, and workers without pay” and Rep. Laura Gillen (D-NY) knocking the GOP for a “circus and brinksmanship put millions at risk.”
An estimated 20,000 federal workers in Gillen’s, Riley’s and Suozzi’s districts combined could lose pay if the government shutters.
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