Democrats need to understand that forcing a government shutdown could result in the permanent loss of jobs for some federal employees, Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., told Newsmax on Monday.
Meuser appeared on "Wake Up America" as time winds down for Republicans and Democrats to agree on a short-term government funding bill.
Although a clean continuing resolution has passed the House, Democrats in the Senate are refusing to support the measure without the addition of some partisan spending. Without the CR, a shutdown will begin shortly after Wednesday arrives.
Meuser told host Marc Lotter that Democrats and their supporters must grasp the effects of a shutdown.
"The TSA [Transportation Security Administration] is going to be rattled. Social Security's going to be rattled. The military is not going to get paid. There are serious negatives along with this," the congressman said.
Lotter mentioned that TSA and the military will "remain operational" during a shutdown.
"They won't be getting paid," Meuser said. "But there will be rattles for the economy.
"You know what I love? What the Trump administration is saying. It's saying, 'OK, you're going to do this, we're not going to have a prolonged shutdown and then just bring people back so everybody in federal, all the nonessentials get a two-week vacation, OK. They're going to be furloughed and then perhaps terminated if we feel those agencies can function effectively without them.' And so that's something that they better take into consideration."
Meuser said the Democrats' refusal to support a CR is "100% politics" because the legislation is based in former President Joe Biden's spending.
"I think usually what they do is at least 90% politics. It's 100% politics. There's no reason for this," he said. "Look, we were focused on the OBBB [One Big Beautiful Bill]. They were against that. OK, fine. But it's done. Now we're trying to do our appropriations through regular order, where they have all their say within the committees. We need to get the appropriations bills. We're looking for seven weeks of their CR.
"It's largely their budget. So most Republicans out there, my base isn't all that happy about it, but they understand that we do this now and then. We fill in a real budget moving forward that they can certainly be a part of. This is all politics on their part. [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer is looking to shut down the government to position himself best with his base."
Republicans passed the OBBB via the reconciliation process in July to make significant changes to taxes and immigration. The bill dealt with mandatory spending and tax policies, but it did not fully fund the government for the next fiscal year.
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