Senate Democrats are prolonging the government shutdown at the expense of American workers through using "the politics of pain" to hurt the public while blaming Republicans for the impasse, Rep. Mark Harris told Newsmax on Friday.
"We've been saying for now, 38 days, somebody needs to ask [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer when he's going to bring an end to this charade," the North Carolina Republican said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America Early." "It's been tragic for the American people. It seems to be the politics of pain trying to be inflicted upon Americans."
He added that as the Democrats "have been all over the map" in negotiations, he does not know when the shutdown could end.
"I don't think that they have any idea now," he said. "I think that many of them want an off-ramp, and I think they're trying to look for an off-ramp, and then there are others of them that I think feel a certain sense of being emboldened after Tuesday night, and they're thinking, if we hold out longer, maybe we're going to get more."
The situation is also harming critical federal services, including aviation safety and national security, said Harris.
"We've got to begin to pay our air traffic controllers again," he said. "We've got to get back [to] paying border patrol, paying our military."
Republicans, however, voted in the House on Sept. 19 to keep the government open, Harris pointed out.
"The Democrats are the ones that have said over and over again, now 14 times, 'No, we're going to keep it closed,' and I think the American people are wise to that overall."
Harris pointed to the thousands of flight cancellations early Friday as further evidence that the shutdown is hurting Americans.
"As of 6 a.m., thousands of flights were canceled via [Transportation Secretary] Sean Duffy because of safety issues," he said. "Those air traffic controllers are not getting paid."
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