Hakeem Jeffries Won’t Pay GOP ‘Ransom’ To Keep Government Open
Jeffries said he wanted to be “delicate” when he spoke of the “novelty” of Republicans’ language to “disguise their intentions” of shutting down the government.
To put it less delicately, Republicans want to destroy the federal government however they can. Jeffries said many Republicans are “not interested in a functional federal government” because they “fundamentally do not believe” in one that is “designed to meet the health, the safety and the economic well-being of the American people.”
We know that, Jeffries said, “because for the last 25-plus years, Republicans, largely led in the House, have repeatedly shut the government down.”
Jeffries had hoped that a new speaker of the House would have brought “a different approach,” but “that remains to be seen,” he said.
Then he laid down his gauntlet: “Let's be clear: The only way forward is in a bipartisan way to pass a continuing resolution at the fiscal 2023 level,” he added.
“We are not going to allow Republicans to try to impose right-wing cuts that devastate and undermine the health the safety or the economic well-being of the American people, because they are unable to achieve their policy directives outside of threatening a government shutdown,” Jeffries continued. “We have never paid a Republican ransom note in the context of the threats to shut the government down. We've always stood on the side of the American people and we will continue to do that.”
Stay tough, Leader.