Whitehouse Slams Miserable Trump Shutdown
Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) today released the following statement after Republicans voted down a Democratic proposal to keep the government open:
“Trump and his creepy billionaire backers are trying to swamp the country in chaos, this time by shuttering the federal government. Republicans may control the White House, the Senate, and the House, but they do not want to govern. Speaker Johnson, petrified of a vote to release the Epstein files, has not even brought House Republicans to Washington to make any attempt at solving this.
“Democrats will use every bit of leverage we have to swiftly end both the Republican-created health care cost crisis and the widespread misery of this Trump shutdown. For the good of the country, Republican leaders need to start engaging in basic bipartisanship to protect the legislative branch’s power of the purse – a constitutional check on a runaway executive.”
Whitehouse called out Republicans’ refusal to prevent a shutdown on the Senate floor after the vote.
In July, President Trump and Congressional Republicans jammed through their Big, Beautiful-for-Billionaires bill, which cuts almost a trillion dollars from Medicaid and raises health insurance costs, all to bankroll tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Without bipartisan action to extend the Affordable Care Act enhanced premium tax credits, health insurance premiums are set to more than double on average next year.
Republicans’ Beautiful-for-Billionaires law also included a hidden cut to Medicare. By adding $4.1 trillion to the national debt, the legislation automatically triggers the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) Act, which will impose $536 billion in automatic cuts to Medicare over the next decade unless Congress takes bipartisan action.
Whitehouse’s office will remain open to help Rhode Islanders navigate the shutdown.