Exclusive | Sen. John Fetterman rips Dems over record 36-day government shutdown: S-y political game
WASHINGTON — Sen.John Fetterman slammed his fellow Democrats Wednesday for prolonging the government shutdown for 36 days — making it the longest in US history — even as millions of Americans lose their food stamp benefits or work without pay in their federal posts due to a “s—-y political game.”Fetterman, one of three Democrat or Dem-leaning senators — along with Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Angus King (I-Maine) — consistently voting with Republicans to end the shutdown, told The Post that the standoff “should have never started.”“People like to celebrate about breaking a new record, but this is a terrible record and that’s why I refuse to ever be a part of it,” the 56-year-old Pennsylvania Democrat said.“And here we are — what is it, like three weeks out from Thanksgiving? — and 42 million Americans now are going to lose … their SNAP [benefits].
And now you have a lot of people [who] are going to be flying and anyone that spent time in our airports can realize things are seriously deteriorating,” Fetterman went on.“I couldn’t even find a flight to get here last weekend.”“And then also, our military — who wants to vote to not pay our military?”Though Republicans and Democratic Rep.
Jared Golden of Maine voted the stopgap measure through the House, more than 40 Senate Democrats have blocked a bill funding the government at current levels until Nov.21 now fewer than 14 times.The measure first passed the lower chamber on Sept.
19 but has languished in the Senate — despite talks among moderates of both parties aimed at resolving funding lapses.The stalemate has imperiled the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for poor Americans, stopped paychecks for US military service members and air traffic controllers and stalled negotiations on health care subsidies whose expansion was Democratic leaders’ express purpose in forcing the shutdown in the first place.According to Fetterman, the shutdown has inflamed ...