Patty Murray: “let me be clear: Shutdowns do not require Presidents to fire people en masse. They actually do not require Presidents to…”

“let me be clear: Shutdowns do not require Presidents to fire people en masse. They actually do not require Presidents to cancel projects and raise energy prices; nor do they give Presidents new magical powers to destroy programs they don't like or to target political opposition. You don't have to take my word for it because this is not our first government shutdown. It is just the first time that a President has blatantly and gleefully tried to use a shutdown against the American people. So when President Trump fires hundreds of public health workers at CDC without thinking twice about if it would put lives in jeopardy, that is a choice he is making. When President Trump puts at risk special education programs through mass layoffs, that is a choice he is making to abandon students with disabilities and their families and weaken their access to rights under our special education laws. When Trump outright shutters a key community development fund, which has strong bipartisan support and finances housing and healthcare and other community projects in our country, that is a choice he is making. President Trump is choosing to fire as many people as he thinks he can get away with to break as much of the government, as is possible, to hurt the American people as much as he can, because he thinks he can use regular people as leverage. That is the cold, hard reality, and it is plain as day. That is why Trump is governing by a principle of maximum pain.”