Ben Shapiro: A “government shutdown isn't the end of the world. We've done it before. It's not that big a deal.”
Shapiro: “When I say it's not that big deal, it is for the people who are furloughed, but, typically, they don't last all of that long”
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From the December 19, 2024, edition of The Daily Wire's The Ben Shapiro Show
BEN SHAPIRO (HOST): It means that now they are no longer asking just for a clean CR, which, again, would have been the best plan. Just get for a few more weeks of spending. That's it. Get Trump in office. Get the Republicans in office, and then negotiate all this stuff out.
President Trump would love for the debt ceiling to go away so when he comes into office, Republicans can pass the new tax bill, for example, or pass a border bill without having to worry about the debt ceiling. So the question is this, how? Again, this is where the principle and the pragmatism meet. How? How do you get all those things?
So the only way you're gonna get all those things is by, wait for it, giving concessions to Democrats because Republicans do not run the Senate. Because Republicans probably don't have enough votes in the House to get something like that across the finish line. There are a lot of Republicans who don't wanto to increase the debt ceiling and sort of sign a blank check. Why exactly would Democrats vote to increase the debt ceiling to help Republicans in the future? That doesn't make any sense. They're not gonna do that. This idea that Democrats are desperate to increase the debt ceiling on behalf of Trump and the Republicans taking office, that is not how politics works, and Democrats are already pointing this out.
So for example, Chris Murphy, the execrable senator from Connecticut, Democrat, he put out a statement, quote, remember what this is all about. Trump wants Democrats to agree to raise the debt ceiling so he can pass his massive corporate and billionaire tax cut without a problem. Shorter version, tax cut for billionaires or the government shuts down for Christmas.
So Democrats are now opposing a clean continuing resolution. House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, suggested Wednesday, Democrats will oppose any federal spending bill that strays from the deal that was announced the day before because they understand that they sort of have Republicans boxed in. Politically speaking, what they believe is that if the government shuts down, Republicans will be blamed. Why? Because Republicans were perfectly willing to back the bipartisan deal until Elon Musk pointed out the flaws in the deal, and then Donald Trump and JD Vance didn't like the public blowback on the deal and decided to walk back the deal. And so Democrats, like, why would we help you out? What exactly would be the purpose?
So if there is a government shutdown, who will be blamed is sort of the question. I think that on the right side of the aisle, there's a generalized perception that the left will be blamed. That if Republicans, for example, pass a continuing resolution and still somehow are able to pass an increase in the debt ceiling, and then Democrats refuse all those things, Democrats will be blamed for the continuing resolution's failure. Democrats will be blamed for the ensuing partial government shutdown.
Again, government shutdown isn't the end of the world. We've done it before. It's not that big a deal. When I say it's not that big deal, it is for the people who are furloughed, but, typically, they don't last all of that long. And, also, all of these sort of essential services, meaning Social Security checks, for example, those continue to go out on time.