Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., will eventually give in to public pressure to end the government shutdown, because Americans will side with Republicans over the Democrats' demand to fund health care for illegal immigrants, Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, told Newsmax on Thursday.
"I imagine Chuck Schumer is going to be checking the polls every single day to see how long he can last before the American people are clearly with Republicans," Gill told Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "The ball is in their court."
Gill also mocked Schumer's recent appearance on CNN, where a technical glitch left the senator unable to respond to questions about the shutdown.
"It is emblematic of a senator who not only can't hear CNN and left-wing media, but can't hear the American people who want to see us get back to work in Washington," he said.
The congressman said House Republicans had already advanced a short-term continuing resolution to keep the government open for seven weeks while appropriations bills are debated, but Democrats refused.
"This is a bill that Democrats have voted for multiple times in the past, including in March of this year," he said. "What's changed between then and now? It's that Chuck Schumer has some political pressure from his left ... and wants to show his liberal bona fides by fighting for health care for illegal aliens."
Gill said the GOP-backed measure was a "good faith negotiation" and not a partisan effort. "We want to be proper stewards of our tax dollars," he said. "Democrats won't do it. This is a Democrat shutdown, plain and simple."
He accused Democrats of pushing to use taxpayer dollars for Medicaid coverage for illegal immigrants. "It is right there in the bill text … so there's no debate about whether that's actually what they're advocating for," he said.
"What I would encourage Democrats to do here is to take a step back, breathe, and finally, for once, put the country above partisan politics so that we can get the government reopened," Gill added.
He also dismissed Democrats' $1.5 trillion spending proposal. "They want to take $1.5 trillion of your hard-earned tax money to give to all kinds of liberal pet projects. That's irresponsible. We're not going to let that happen," he said.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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