Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., said Monday on Newsmax's "Wake Up America" that the Senate filibuster – the 60-vote threshold needed to pass most legislation – should be "tweaked" to help reopen the federal government, arguing that Senate Democrats are to blame for the ongoing shutdown.
"I agree with the president – the filibuster needs to be tweaked," Carter said. "I think that you can do it in such a way as to surgically adjust it and not have to do it with a sledgehammer."
He added that a narrowly tailored change could exempt shutdown situations, allowing essential government functions to resume while preserving the broader rule.
Carter maintained that House Republicans had already done their part to avoid the shutdown, which began Oct. 1.
"We did our job in the House," he said. "We passed a clean continuing resolution to get us through so that we could finish the appropriations process, and what they don't understand is that these are real people and that this is impacting real people."
The Georgia congressman pointed the finger squarely at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and other upper-chamber Democrats.
"Let's make sure we understand how we got here," Carter said. "This is a shutdown that was instigated by Chuck Schumer, [Sen.] Jon Ossoff [D-Ga.], and the Democrats in the Senate. They are the ones who caused this."
Carter then described the toll the shutdown – now nearing its fifth week – is taking on federal workers and their families.
"I was at the Capitol yesterday, and I talked to a staffer who was telling me he had to get an extra job," he said. "He had to get a second job working as a bartender. He didn't get off until 3 o'clock in the morning because he's not able to get a paycheck right now."
Carter warned that the shutdown's effects are spreading across the country and are being felt by an increasingly wide swath of Americans.
"Look at SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program], look at WIC [the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children], look at all the programs, telehealth, rural healthcare, that's being impacted by this," he said. "That's what the Senate Democrats ... don't understand."
Carter also commented on Sen. John Fetterman blaming his own party for the shutdown, saying he doesn't think the Pennsylvania Democrat's colleagues will listen to his calls to reopen the government.
"I don't think they will, but I think they should," he said. "Thirteen times they have voted against opening up the government, and the simple solution is just to open up the government. That takes care of everything."
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