The White House budget director on Monday threatened Democrats with a government shutdown if they don’t “behave” when it comes time to write a federal budget in September. He also defined a “good shutdown,” advocated earlier by President Donald Trump on Twitter, as one that proved Trump correct about the dysfunction of the federal government.
An animated Mick Mulvaney responded first to a reporter who asked about Trump’s Twitter dispatches Tuesday morning, in which the President urged, “Our country needs a good ‘shutdown’ in September to fix mess!”
“I think the President is frustrated with the fact that he negotiated in good faith with the Democrats and they went out to try and spike the football and make him look bad,” Mulvaney said, presumably referring to Democrats’ taunts that Trump got almost nothing his White House budget advocated for.
“I get that frustration because I think it is a terrible posture for the Democrats to take,” he continued. “If we are sitting here trying to prove to people that Washington is going to be different, that we’re going to change things and can figure a way to work with them and they do that to this President, listen, I would have taken offense at that so it doesn’t surprise me at all that his frustrations were manifested in that way. We’ve got a lot to do between now and September. I don’t anticipate a shutdown in September. But if negotiations — if the Democrats aren’t going to behave any better than they have in the last couple days, it may be inevitable.”
“How would a shutdown clean up the mess?” one reporter asked.
“Sooner or later, we’ll have to start doing something different,” Mulvaney said, adding: “If we get to September and it is still business as usual, business as usual, business as usual and nothing changes, and takes a shutdown to change it, I have no problem with that.
Later in the press conference, NBC’s Peter Alexander asked Mulvaney to define what he thought Trump meant by a “good shutdown.”
“I don’t know,” Mulvaney said, pausing. “We haven’t had one.”
“But to the extent the President advocated one today, if you wanted to imagine what a good shutdown was, it would be one that fixes this town,” Mulvaney said. “One that drives the message back home to people that it really was as broken as they thought that it was when they voted for Donald Trump, and they trusted him — if that’s what is necessary to do to fix Washington, D.C., that would be a good shutdown.”
Please proceed Mr. Budget Director. Your Jeffersonian Utopia is just past that sign that says “Road Closed - Bridge Washed Out”
Emmmm Eyyyyyye Seeeee
See you burn in hell
Kaaay Eeeeee Whyyyyy
Why? Because you’re despicable!
Emmmm Ooooooh Yuuuu Teeeee Ayyyytch
Spicer insisted he get the podium because next time Sean will appear to be an improvement.
Well, if anyone knows about dysfunction, it’s this administration.
what a crock of pure, unadulterated horseshit. First of all, WHEN exactly did Trump negotiate “in good faith” with the Democrats? Secondly, the idea that Trump gets his way or else is so disgusting, so contrary to our Constitutional government, that anyone putting forth these ideas is clearly violating his/her oath of office.
And what on earth is a “good shutdown” anyway? One that costs billions of dollars? One that hurts hardworking government employees? One that accomplishes nothing in the end (like Cruz’ shutdown several years ago)?
This sound like “I am going to hold my breath until you say yes and if I pass out it will show how dysfunctional this all is” - a truly remarkable argument
I am beginning to think that this Mulvaney guy is almost as crazy, venal and destructive as Trump. Lord help us all
“I think the President is frustrated with the fact that he negotiated in good faith with the Democrats and they went out to try and spike the football and make him look bad,” Mulvaney said, presumably referring to Democrats’ taunts that Trump got almost nothing his White House budget advocated for."
Wow - how we forget so soon. He seems to have forgotten that he was a member of the House Freedom Caucus along with the entire House and Senate Republican Caucus that did the exact same thing to Obama for 8 years straight.