As Congress moves to a possible end of the federal government shutdown this week, U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island is expressing disappointment in the eight Democratic senators who broke ranks — and predicting that fallout could still come back to haunt the GOP.
In a conference call with reporters on Monday, Whitehouse said he hopes that Democrats can put internal dissension aside to focus on the impact of policies supported by President Trump.
“The key for our success defending this democracy is in significant measure how quickly we can come back into focus on addressing Trump’s behavior and the harms that American families are feeling, whether it’s SNAP or healthcare or home insurance,” he said.
Whitehouse said he was holding out for a one-year extension of healthcare tax credits before voting to end the shutdown, already the longest in U.S. history.
Republicans and Democrats have blamed each other for the stalemate.
Speaking a week after off-year elections that boosted Democratic candidates, Whitehouse said the recent weeks of the shutdown have focused attention on threats to health insurance and food assistance.
U.S. Sen. Jack Reed offered this reaction to the news on the possible end of the shutdown: “Over the last several weeks, I voted seven times to responsibly reopen the government and lower health care costs. But I can’t support this bill because it fails to deliver actual relief and doesn’t stop the devastating health care price spikes. It is also clear that President Trump will continue to flout the laws passed by this Congress until my Republican colleagues stop supporting him in lockstep.”
Whitehouse said the Republican majority in the Senate faces a burden of proving to the eight Democrats who voted with them “that they were not fooled, they were not tricked” into believing the GOP will collectively vote to extend affordable health coverage for those at risk of losing it. And he referenced an old Peanuts cartoon strip to make his point.
“If this is another Lucy pulls the football away from Charlie Brown moment,” Whitehouse said, “I think all eight of them will be very, very angry and upset.”
