Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told Newsmax on Thursday that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is "cheering" for a potential government shutdown so Democrats can blame Republicans.
"The one person cheering for a shutdown is Chuck Schumer," Blackburn said during "Wake Up America." "The Republican senators are saying, 'Let's have the House send us something that we can work from so that we do not have that government shutdown.'"
The House is expected to vote on a stopgap continuing resolution put out by Republicans today, ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline that would keep the government funded through the end of the year.
"From what we're hearing, it should pass and come out of the House," she said. "Then the Senate will take it up. With a [continuing resolution], which no one likes, everybody wants to get back to regular order and pass all of these bills. But the House is going to have to step up and do this.
"The spending originates there. The Senate has finished with their appropriations bills. They all spend too much money for me, but the work has been done. So, let's push the House to the finish line, and get something over to the Senate. No one wins in a government shutdown."
Blackburn said passing the resolution today would also allow for the continued funding of Republican-led investigations into President Joe Biden and his administration, including the southern border issue.
"Joe Biden continues to try to find ways to make illegal legal, and this is what he is doing there at that border," she said. "He's got an app, and the cartels are using the app and then the Biden administration does not count those that have illegally entered the country, but those that filled out a form on the app. They don't count those in the illegal entrants' numbers."
Part of the funding would also go to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for his failures at the border, she said.
"Moving forward with impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas," she said. "That is something that the House ought to do. This is why they need to find a way forward on the spending bill so that they do not interrupt their work so that they continue to carry this."
Blackburn said that at the end of the day, her constituents in Tennessee want to see an end to inflation and don't want increased government spending to cause a rise in that rate.
"They are so burdened by inflation that they don't want anything to happen that is going to cause inflation to continue to rise," she said. "When you look at the fact that the prices at the pump, the price at the grocery store, and the price to heat and cool their homes, that is the mark, the basket of goods that they're concerned about."
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