NPR's Morning Edition with Matt McCleskey - Van Hollen on NPR: Tea Party Wing of Republican Caucus Driving the Government Shutdown Show
Statement
Today Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee, joined WAMU's Matt McCleskey to discuss his effort to block another disastrous Tea Party shutdown of the federal government. Below are excerpts from the interview:
"Republicans seem intent on shutting down the government if they can't get rid of funding for Planned Parenthood and women's health programs, which is why we're trying to provide this other alternative for them to consider -- again, negotiations. But we are not going to allow them to defund women's health programs, and it's important that people understand that none of the federal dollars that go to Planned Parenthood go to the abortion services that are provided."
"You've got Ted Cruz and the Tea Party extremists trying to use the budget to accomplish these other goals, and what worries me is that two years ago Speaker Boehner said he wasn't going to allow them to do it to shut down the Affordable Care Act, and we know the end of that movie. We had a 16-day, unnecessary, costly government shutdown."
"This is a case where the Tea Party wing of the Republican caucus is driving the show, which is why when Speaker Boehner, or even Mitch McConnell, say they want to do one thing, you can't bank on that happening. You cannot bank on the leadership of the Republican Party to be able to bring along their rank-and-file, which is why we've reached out to the leadership to say we stand ready to negotiate. Two years ago we did get an agreement, the so-called Ryan-Murray agreement, to avoid very deep cuts. The problem was that agreement came after a 16-day government shutdown. This time we're saying to the Speaker and the Republican leadership, let's do this before we go over the cliff."
Congressman Van Hollen has introduced the Prevent a Government Shutdown Act of 2015 to start budget negotiations and prevent a shutdown.
Source