Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) warned Republicans in an interview on Sunday that another government shutdown will cost them their majority in the House of Representatives.
Reid told Univision that he hopes the GOP has been chastened after suffering the brunt of the political fallout from the first government shutdown since 1996. The bill that re-opened the shuttered government only funds federal agencies through Jan. 15, raising the possibility of another shutdown in a few months.
“I don’t blame the American people for being upset. What we have here in America today is a crisis created for no reason, other than to satisfy the shrill right-wing Tea Party. … And I would hope that this crisis as some Republican members of Congress have said, you can look at Roy Blunt, a Republican of Missouri, Lindsey Graham from South Carolina. I’m paraphrasing, but they said this was a terrible waste of resources,” Reid said, as quoted by Roll Call.
”All it did is hurt Republicans. … I hope they’ve learned a lesson. The American people will not put up with that. And if this happens again, I don’t think it will, but if it does, I think the House of Representatives will go Democratic.”
A poll released Monday showed that a majority of Americans think it’s a bad thing that the GOP controls the House.
