McCain Warns Against Government Shutdown
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Mark Wilson/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — Disdain for the government doesn’t mean you put it out of its misery. That was the message Arizona Sen. John McCain delivered Monday to fellow Republicans who seem intent on a government shutdown if they don’t get their way on a short-term funding bill due on Oct. 1.
Appearing on CNN’s New Day Monday, McCain argued, “I hope my colleagues in the House who believe we need to shut down the government will understand that that’s not want the American people want. They hate government, but they don’t want it to stop functioning.”
The last time this happened was when the GOP controlled the House in 1995 and 1996, costing the federal government around $1.4 billion.
At the time, most Americans blamed Congress, not then-President Bill Clinton, for the shutdown and McCain is warning GOP lawmakers, history is liable to repeat itself.
What Republicans in the House oppose are annual funding bills to subsidize the Affordable Care Act when health insurance exchanges officially get underway on Oct. 1.
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