Florida Republican Rep. Greg Steube says Democrats show no signs of cooperating to reopen the federal government, even now that the "No Kings" protests have ended — telling Newsmax they're waiting for a politically convenient moment rather than acting to fund vital services.
Appearing Monday on Newsmax's "National Report," Steube said that despite Republican efforts to pass a continuing resolution (CR) to keep government operations running, Democrats remain entrenched.
"That would be great. But you don't see any talk or movement in that direction," Steube said when asked if Democrats might finally vote to reopen the government now that the weekend's coordinated protests are over.
Steube suggested that Democrats are deliberately waiting for the wave of notifications about the expiration of Affordable Care Act tax credits to gain political leverage rather than acting to end the shutdown.
"The reporting that I've been reading is the Democrats are kind of putting November first on their calendar as a date that once those ACA tax credits expire at the end of the year, but that's the date that everybody gets notified, that politically they can — that's their kind of off ramp," he added.
Regardless, on Day 20 of the shutdown, Steube said there's no movement toward ending it.
"Both sides are obviously pretty dug in in their position," he said. "And our position is we passed a continuing resolution to fund the government. It's not a Republican bill. It's a continuing resolution — the same thing that [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer has voted like 12 times for over the last eight years."
The Florida lawmaker pushed back on Democrat claims that Republicans are obstructing, arguing that the GOP's CR is a standard measure to let government operations continue while Congress works through appropriations.
"They want to say Republicans are in control, but it takes 60 votes in the Senate to get anything done," Steube said. "And so they're holding hostage illegal immigrant funding for health care. They're holding hostage our military pay. They're holding hostage border agents. They're holding hostage all of the federal workforce."
Steube added that the GOP plan provides the administration with flexibility to make spending cuts while preserving key government functions — a move he said Democrats are blocking "because they're failing to just continue operations as it was."
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