WASHINGTON — Republicans have acted responsibly by advancing a clean, nonpartisan 24-page continuing resolution that keeps funding at current levels through November 21 with no partisan policy riders. It averts a government shutdown and ensures essential services and benefits continue uninterrupted for the American people.
Meanwhile, Democrats are doubling down on false narratives as the threat of a Democrat-led government shutdown looms.
Democrats – who once claimed that shutdowns would be “dangerous,” “disastrous,” and “self-inflicted harm” to seniors, veterans, servicemembers, families, and the economy – are now actively trying to force one over policies completely unrelated to government funding.
Democrats must stop using lies to manufacture a shutdown and do what’s right for the American people by voting to keep the government open.
Exposing Democrats’ Shutdown Lies
DEMOCRAT DELUSION: Democrats will not support a partisan Republican spending bill that “rips health care away” from the American people.
REALITY: The current funding bill is a simple short-term funding extension with no policy changes and health care programs are fully funded at the current levels. Democrats want to hold September government funding hostage over an unrelated December policy fight of their own making. Policy debates can happen separately, and Democrats don’t need to shut down the government to do it.
As Democrats have even admitted, “There is a time and a place to debate health care, just like there is a time and place to debate energy policy and immigration and education — but not when the funding of the federal government, and all the lives that are impacted by it, hang in the balance.” — Senator Chris Murphy
DEMOCRAT DELUSION: Republicans are pushing a partisan bill passed on a strict party-line vote.
REALITY: The nonpartisan clean CR only appears “partisan” because 212 House Democrats and 46 Senate Democrats chose to make it that way. This CR is the same short-term funding extension that virtually all Democrats voted to pass 13 times during the Biden Administration. Despite this voting history, nearly every Democrat has refused to support the current clean, nonpartisan funding extension to keep the government open and operational.
DEMOCRAT DELUSION: Democrats have made a serious counterproposal to keep the government running.
REALITY: Democrats so-called proposal is a partisan wish list with a $1.5 trillion spending increase tacked onto a four-week funding bill. Democrats demand:
- Free health care for illegal aliens
- $500 million in taxpayer funding to prop up liberal news outlets
- A $50 billion cut in investments for improving rural health care
- Billions in funding for DEI and climate projects in foreign countries
DEMOCRAT DELUSION: The American people will blame Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress if a government shutdown happens.
REALITY: House Republicans, Senate Republicans and the White House all support the clean CR to keep the government open. Passing a clean, short-term continuing resolution in the Senate requires 60 votes, and there are 53 total Republican senators. Meanwhile, 212 House Democrats and 46 Senate Democrats are on the record voting against it. Democrats are willing to force a government shutdown just to oppose President Trump even if it means abandoning the American people.
DEMOCRAT DELUSION: Republicans have not tried to convene a bipartisan process.
REALITY: No matter how hard Democrats try to characterize a clean short-term funding extension as a “partisan” product, it does not make it true. Appropriators held bipartisan talks on a nonpartisan, clean funding extension to keep the government open. Republicans made the conscious decision to offer a clean, short-term, 24-page long continuing resolution – with no policy riders – meant to solely keep the government open while full-year funding negotiations continue among Appropriators. That’s what the American people expect and deserve.
DEMOCRAT DELUSION: Donald Trump and Republicans are walking away from the needs of the American people.
REALITY: It’s the radical Democrats who have walked away from the American people to cower to their far-left base. The only ones walking away from solutions are Democrats. In recent days, the House and Senate voted on a simple question: do you want to keep the government open? That’s it. No extraneous issues, just a clean funding extension. Democrats voted to shut down. Republicans voted to stay open. It’s that simple.
DEMOCRAT DELUSION: President Trump and Republicans are using our federal workforce as political pawns and Democrats must stop them from doing even more damage before it’s too late.
REALITY: President Trump and Congressional Republicans fully support keeping the government open and have put forward a clean, short-term funding extension to do so. If Democrats choose to force a shutdown, the Trump Administration must be ready to responsibly manage the situation, including making tough personnel decisions to prioritize operations. But this disruption is entirely avoidable should Democrats support the responsible solution is on the table. If Democrats reject it, they alone will bear the blame for using federal workers as pawns in their political games.
DEMOCRAT DELUSION: Democrats are fighting to protect health care access for Americans. Republicans are forcing hospitals, nursing homes, and health clinics to close.
REALITY: Democrats are forcing to shut down the federal government because President Trump and Republicans won’t force American taxpayers to pay for free health care for illegal aliens. Democrats’ “dirty” CR proposal repeals a historic $50 billion investment in improving rural health care.
In contrast, Republicans offered a nonpartisan bill that is a straightforward, short-term funding extension with no policy changes and health care programs are fully funded at the current levels. By voting against it, Democrats are on the record for blocking the continuation of a program that allows low-income and Medicare patients to be treated at home rather than in a hospital.
DEMOCRAT DELUSION: Republicans are putting our communities at risk of increased hunger.
REALITY: Democrats are taking the food out of the mouths of children by rejecting a clean, nonpartisan CR to continue funding food assistance programs that help families feed their kids. A government shutdown would significantly disrupt the federal Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program.
DEMOCRAT DELUSION: Democrats will not “write a blank check” to the Trump Administration to avert a government shutdown.
REALITY: Republicans put forward a clean, short-term continuing resolution that responsibly extends government funding at current levels to avoid a government shut down and to protect any interruption of essential services and benefits to the American people. Meanwhile, Democrats threaten a shutdown unless their radical $1.5 trillion spending spree increase is approved and paid for by American taxpayers.
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