Katie Jerkovich writes for RedState.com about a Republican senator’s response to his Democratic colleagues’ proposal for ending the federal government shutdown.
Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) had a savage response to his fellow Democrat leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer (NY), offering to reopen the government, and said it involves needing “bail money” if God were to give him strength rather than patience after hearing it.
On Friday, Schumer announced his proposal, in which he said that he and his Democrat colleagues would agree to reopen the government if, and only if, the Republicans extended COVID-19-era Obama-care subsidies for another year, and then they could sit down to negotiate with the GOP to deal with healthcare costs. …
… Speaking to Fox News’ Martha McCallum on Friday, the host asked Kennedy his reaction to the proposal, which wasn’t new in any way.
“God, please give me patience, because if you give me strength, I’m going to need bail money,” Kennedy replied, and the host couldn’t help but laugh.
“What Senator Schumer is suggesting is that we do the dumbest thing possible that won’t work. Stupid should hurt more.” “[Schumer’s proposal] means we would have to take $35B of taxpayer money and give it directly to health insurance companies without any commitment of lowering premiums.”
“How’s that going to reduce healthcare costs?” he added. “How’s that going to reduce premiums? The healthcare companies are going to take $35 billion from the taxpayers and put it into their pocket.”
“I don’t know what Senator Schumer is thinking,” Kennedy continued. “I mean, Earth to Chuck… Am I going to vote for this? The short answer is no. The long answer is hell no. I think we are just going to have to get used to the fact that we’ve been in a shutdown, we’re going to be in a shutdown for a while.”
