Wisconsin representative reacts to possible US government shutdown

SUPERIOR, WI. (Northern News Now) - A looming government shutdown is closer to becoming a reality as the House and Senate struggle to pass solutions.

“It’s going to be really tight,” Wisconsin Republican Representative Tom Tiffany said.

Tiffany blamed past spending for getting the government to this point.

“It’s all been deficit spending,” Tiffany said. “We need to start pulling that back because there’s a direct impact on every American and that’s inflation and higher cost of living.”

If the government does shut down Sunday, millions of federal workers and military personnel will lose their paychecks, essential workers and TSA employees will have to work without pay, and some food programs relying on federal aid will stop.

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“I think it’s important for people to remember, if there is a closure, the people will continue to get their social security and Medicare checks, VA benefits will continue to be paid, and U.S. postal service will continue to deliver,” Tiffany said.

Tiffany is fighting for 12 appropriation bills, rather than continuing resolutions bills or CRs. Tiffany said CRs don’t overview budgets, claiming those past CRs have caused the major debt we see now.

“It looks like the Senate is going to settle over what we call a clean continuing resolution,” Tiffany said. “In other words, they’re not going to make any reforms, they’re going to accept the status quo, to me that’s unreasonable.”

However, Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, majority leader of the U.S. Senate, argues CRs are the solution.

“Speaker McCarthy needs to stop letting the MAGA radicals drive his decisions and do the obvious sensible thing: follow the Senate’s lead and pass a bipartisan CR to prevent this reckless shutdown,” Schumer said.

We also reached out to Congressman Pete Stauber. His team denied our request for an interview.

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