With a little more than two weeks to go before funding halts for the Department of Homeland Security, rhetoric is being amped up on both sides of the aisle.
In a Wednesday afternoon Senate floor address, Sen. Chuck Schumer went after House Republicans for “playing hostage” and “holding a gun to the head of America” over their attempt to withhold funding from DHS to implement President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration.
“What the House did is say if you don’t do it our way, we’re shutting down the government. Everyone knows what our colleagues in the House did. They’re playing hostage,” Schumer said. “They’re holding a gun to the head of America and saying unless do you it our way, we’re going to shut down the government.”
“No one…objects to debating what the president did on executive orders. We welcome that debate,” Schumer said. “It’s the act of tying it to funding the government, the same thing they did with Obamacare a few years ago, that says we’re going to shut down the government unless we get our way.”
Schumer was responding to Speaker John Boehner’s Wednesday remark that it’s time for Senate Democrats to “get off their ass and do something, other than to vote no” on the dealings with DHS funding.
Funding for Homeland Security expires on Feb. 27th, leaving 16 days for the sides to reach a deal.