Democrats are deepening the ongoing government shutdown for political gain, leaving workers and taxpayers to bear the consequences, Florida Rep. Scott Franklin said in a Newsmax interview on Friday.
“Unfortunately, I don’t [see an end in sight], and I’m clearly not a good oddsmaker because I never would have imagined we’d be in this position at this point,” the Florida Republican said on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America Early.”
Republicans have watched “one deadline after another” pass, expecting Democrats to negotiate, but “it just seems like with every passing day, they entrench even deeper,” he added.
“They’re adamant that they don’t want to play ball,” Franklin said. “They don’t want to do the right thing for the American taxpayers.”
The shutdown has halted pay for thousands of federal workers, including air traffic controllers — a concern Franklin said underscores “the real-life safety impacts” of Washington’s political stalemate.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has accused Democrats of playing politics with the standoff, citing comments from House Democrat Whip Katherine Clark, who said, “Families are going to suffer, but this is one of the few leverage times we have.”
Franklin said those remarks reveal the Democrats’ true priorities.
“We’ve seen it from her, we’ve seen it from [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer — back to his saying that every day of the shutdown, it gets better and better for us,” Franklin continued.
“Clearly the ‘us’ he’s talking about is not the average American out there who’s suffering under this gamesmanship, brinksmanship they’re playing,” he added.
Franklin said Democrats “claim to be the party of the working people,” but are instead “focused on Chuck Schumer’s reelection” and partisan advantage.
He said, “These obstacles that they’ve thrown up to us were not things that were brought up during the process of our negotiating this year’s budget.”
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