On Sunday’s broadcast of CNN’s “State of the Union,” Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul slammed Democrats for trying to score political points by making the partial government shutdown as painful as possible.
Paul told host Candy Crowley the hit the Republican Party is taking is exaggerated and said that ultimately both sides will held accountable.
“I think our demise is a little bit overstated,” he said. “I would say that both parties are going to catch a lot of blame on this. This is not good.”
Paul then called out Democrats, who he said were making a game of the shutdown and getting “greedy.”
“[I] think Democrats who think this is a parlor game, who think this is fun — here’s what the Democrats think. They think we’ll send a bunch of government workers out there to close off the roadside viewing of Mt. Rushmore because that will be funny, you know? So, I think it isn’t funny. And I think that Democrats and Republicans are going to catch blame. So, I don’t want to be here. I don’t see this as winning or losing. This is a lose-lose situation. We need to open up government, and it does require conversation. But the president is the one saying he won’t negotiate. And now, it’s Senate Democrats saying, we don’t — we used to want a clean CR, but we think you’re squirming. So, now, we want to raise spending and break the budget caps. I think we’re seeing that the Senate Democrats are getting greedy about this whole thing.