Democrats were responsible for the recent government shutdown, and their repeated votes to prolong the situation caused widespread hardship for federal workers and their families, Rep. Tony Wied, R-Wis., said to Newsmax on Friday.
"It is so unfortunate that we saw the Democrats continue to vote to shut our government down," Wied told "Wake Up America Early," adding that Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., "continued to vote over 14 times to shut our government down."
House Republicans are "ready to get back to work and get back to regular order," he noted, but warned that another standoff could occur when funding expires on Jan. 30.
"It's politics, [and] the hard part is seeing Democrats put politics over people," he said.
Wied also said that Democrat leaders are worried about primary challenges, commenting that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., "is the new leader of the [Democratic] Party and going to run to take [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer's [D-N.Y.] seat."
"That's the unfortunate part," he said. "They will put pain on the American people just for politics."
Meanwhile, House Republicans are working to process appropriations bills "the correct way," said Wied, adding they hope to complete most, if not all, of them by the end of January, so Americans won't "endure the suffering that they did."
Wied also responded to comments made by Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., who said that the shutdown was a success, as it allowed Democrats to "get everybody else focused on the unaffordability of healthcare across this country."
"What I see is career politicians in Congress, and you're seeing that the leadership on the Democrat side, that it doesn't hurt them at all," said Wied.
"There is no pain. What they are interested in is their own political future, and that's the unfortunate part about it."
Looking ahead to the 2026 midterms, Wied noted that when he ran for office, his goal was to "put more money back into people's pockets."
"We just put together into one, big, beautiful bill — the Working Families Tax Cuts — the best tax policy that I've seen in my lifetime," he said.
"People are going to have more money in their pockets with no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security, and I think that's going to be very important."
The country's economy will also continue to move in the right direction under President Donald Trump, Wied said.
"President Trump is working on great trade deals across the world," he said.
"We have lower gas prices, more affordability in the grocery stores. I think we will do very well in midterms, and that's going to be based on affordability and the economy doing well."
Wied praised Trump's first 300 days in office, saying the president "is delivering on his promises."
Wied said the United States now has "a secure border with very few encounters" and credited Trump with unleashing domestic energy production.
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