Donald Trump and Senate Republicans have just shut down their own government and immediately began desperately pulling out the cheapest tricks in the book to try and pin the blame on Democrats.
In an absolutely appalling show of ruthless opportunism, they began the negotiations by taking hostage the healthcare funding for nine million children – and now they’re crying crocodile tears about how the shutdown is affecting our poor troops.
Senate Democrats have let down our troops, our children, and all Americans. All of this is just unnecessary. It is reckless. Senate Democrats have brought us to a shutdown. https://t.co/RlGYYue4Hh pic.twitter.com/MVJiTZFvDt
— Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) January 20, 2018
Democrats are holding our Military hostage over their desire to have unchecked illegal immigration. Can’t let that happen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: "They will see which senators vote to shove aside veterans, military families and vulnerable children to hold the entire country hostage…until we pass an immigration bill they haven't even written yet" https://t.co/bw0oOEZlFg pic.twitter.com/vld3lr4iWQ
— TicToc by Bloomberg (@tictoc) January 20, 2018
The last time this happened, Congress passed a bill that would guarantee that the troops would be paid on time, refusing to punish our fighting men and women for the dysfunction on Capitol Hill.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) just introduced a similar bill – but it was immediately killed by Mitch McConnell himself in a show of cynical cruelty.
Early this morning, @clairecmc tried to pass a bill to guarantee military pay and death benefits in the #TrumpShutdown.
Republican Leader Mitch McConnell: I object. WATCH: pic.twitter.com/n3a7RBaxzi— Senate Democrats (@SenateDems) January 20, 2018
It is an act of political hypocrisy so heinous that it’s hard to understand how Mitch McConnell didn’t spontaneously combust into flames on the spot, let alone sleep at night or function like a person who isn’t a callous sociopathic.
Will Fischer of VoteVets expressed his frustration in a statement to Shareblue Media. “It gets harder and harder to believe that Donald Trump and the Republicans want anything other than a shutdown, when they make military pay a key talking point, but then block Democrats’ bill to make sure our military is paid, during a shutdown.”
“It’s becoming clear that shutting down the government, and holding people hostage for ransom, is the goal of Trump and Republicans. There simply is no other reason for Republicans to kill a Democratic measure to pay troops, other than to keep holding our troops and their families hostage. It’s disgusting.”
It is beyond infuriating to watch the Republican Party and Donald Trump use our military as a cheap political bludgeon at every turn while refusing to take even the most basic steps to actually do anything to improve the lives of our armed forces.
Watch the full video here:
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