On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) responded to criticism that Senate Democrats have failed to pass appropriations bills by stating that “when it comes to the appropriations process, Congress has been broken for a while.” But Elon Musk shot down an agreement to keep the government open “For the drama of it.”
Host Andrea Mitchell said, “So, we’re now facing a possible government shutdown. I was talking to Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY). And he said, there can’t be a shutdown and there has to be a bipartisan agreement, but I don’t see where the running room is. And he is also blaming the Democratic Senate for not passing appropriation bills. He says no appropriation bills have been passed by the Senate, and that the House has passed them all. There must have been some poison pills in there or tell me what the obstruction was.”
Welch responded, “Well, the bottom line, when it comes to the appropriations process, Congress has been broken for a while. But that’s — we had an agreement that we’re going to keep the lights on, as Speaker Johnson (R-LA) said, it cleared the decks actually for President Trump. What you have that’s different here is you have an agreement, but you have a person who’s the elected president, but hasn’t taken office, he’s got an adviser who has the weight of somebody who gave $277 million to the campaign, who has a seat at the table, probably the head seat, and, at the midnight hour, he is unraveling what was a hard-won and hard-negotiated agreement, that would keep the lights on for government, would allow President Trump when he takes over to pursue his agenda, and, most importantly, would help the folks across this country who have been hammered as a result of these natural disasters. And for what purpose? For the drama of it. That is really what it appears to be.”
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