After 33 days of congressional gridlock, Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., acknowledged what h says many in his party and the media have avoided saying: that shutting down the government runs counter to democratic principles.
"I feel like the Democrats really need to own the shutdown," Fetterman told CNN's "State of the Union" host Jake Tapper on Sunday. "I mean, we're shutting it down. I know why. They claim because they want to address the tax credits, and I fully support that."
But, Democrats in the minority party are going about getting their way the wrong way, he added.
"It's the wrong tactic," Fetterman said. "It was wrong when the Republicans did it. It's wrong now that we seem to be driving it.
"Reopen this thing, and we can find a way forward," he added. "That's the way democracy operates."
All Democrats have to do to get to the negotiation table is open the government with the House continuing resolution to fund the government under former President Joe Biden's spending levels, according to President Donald Trump, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
"I mean, this is an absolute fail," Fetterman admitted. "It's actually, it's embarrassing, honestly, if we can't even kind of get — keep the lights on like this — and now reminding everybody federal workers have had to borrow more than a third of a billion dollars just to pay their own bills."
Fetterman is one of three Democrats voting with Republicans to keep the government funded, saying he refuses to "put 42 million Americans in food insecurity."
"Now people can't count on their SNAP benefits, and now also WIC and Head Start," he lamented. "These are [just] the kinds of people, why I'm a Democrat, fighting for people that – just like that.
"Now it seems like we're moving against our core values to keep our government shut down at this point, as now we're approaching now 33 days now."
Democracy is about voting for the cities, states, and party policies you support, Fetterman said, noting that a democratic socialist, Zohran Mamdani, is on the verge of being elected the mayor of the largest financial hub in the U.S.
"That's going to be New York's voice," Fetterman said. "Socialism is not the future of my party. And if that's going to be their future, that's really up to New York City to decide those things. We all know how socialism works out.
"Ask anybody that's lived under those kinds of systems all across the globe.
"But for me, as a Democrat, as a committed Democrat, I might disagree in some areas, much like shutting down our government or other areas now. But, for me, as a committed Democrat, I'm going to push back and announce [to] people that this is wrong.
"And now we are hurting the very people that we fight for. And now we're getting nothing for them if we continue to keep our government shut down."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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