Dems Threaten Government Shutdown If GOP Tries to Defund Obamacare

In 2013, when Republicans prompted a government shutdown from October 1 through October 16 because of Obamacare, they received an onslaught of criticism from Democrats.

At the time, The Atlantic ran a hit piece called the “32 Republicans who caused the government shutdown,” to which gave way to then Sen. Harry Reid to publish a statements  just prior to the shutdown where he trashed Republicans.

Reid argued that “the responsibility for this Republican government shutdown will rest squarely on [Speaker John Boehner’s] shoulders, as all America knows.”

Here we are in 2017, with Republicans still controlling Congress and another government shut down looming, but CNN reports that Democrats are threatening a government shut down if Republicans continue to make changes to Obamacare funding.

According to the CNN report, a Democrat source indicated that they previously had plans in order to tie Obamacare funding to cooperation with a funding bill that would allow the government to continue operating beyond April 28, but “President Trump’s comments the day before threw gas on the fire.”

Trump’s comments in reference came from an interview he gave to the Wall Street Journal last week where he discussed using Obamacare funding as leverage to get Democrats to stop obstructing everything and begin negotiating.

ABC News also confirmed that Trump is going to use the Obamacare funding threat to keep both parties at the table so that Americans have the help and protections they need:

“Obamacare is dead next month if it doesn’t get that money. I haven’t made my viewpoint clear yet. I don’t want people to get hurt.”

A joint poll from Morning Consult and Politico last week showed that a majority of Americans do not want a government shut down.

Interestingly enough, more respondents in the poll said they would blame Democrats for a government shutdown in Congress (34%) than on Republicans in Congress (22%) or on Trump (22%).

The same poll also offered some very important advice to the president going forward about which allies he should keep close.

Many of the respondents supported the Freedom Caucus rejecting the Obamacare replacement bill from Paul Ryan (41%). Just 32% believed that the caucus should have supported the bill even if it didn’t satisfy all of their intended goals.

It’s funny to see Democrats carrying out many of the same things today that they once chastised Republicans for doing years ago when they were in the dark.

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