Dem Rep. Smith: Shutdown ‘May Well End’ When Dems Decide to Make Deal After November 1

On Wednesday’s edition of CBS’s “The Takeout,” Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) said that the government shutdown “may well end with Democrats saying, look, as we get to November 1, our opportunity to address this healthcare crisis has kind of passed,” and so they decide to “enter some other type of an agreement.” And “it is possible that we shift tactics in terms of how to get their attention, but the issue is incredibly important.”

Host and CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent Major Garrett asked, “Absent a willingness from the Republican leadership in the Senate to negotiate, how does this end, Congressman Smith?”

Smith answered, “It’s hard to say. There [are] a couple of different possibilities. We have heard that the White House does understand the problem with health care. Thusfar, they haven’t taken the step to want to do anything about it. But, hopefully, as we’ve…shone a light on this particular problem, that gets people to pay more attention to it. And it may well end with Democrats saying, look, as we get to November 1, our opportunity to address this healthcare crisis has kind of passed, the Republicans have shown they don’t care, they don’t care about people losing their health insurance, they don’t care about the health costs going up, so maybe we need to come — enter some other type of an agreement. That is possible. But it is absolutely crucial that Democrats did what we did on October 1 and didn’t just sign up for a budget that was going to continue the Trump budget, continue the Trump government, and do nothing to address the healthcare crisis, which was coming at us in a matter of weeks. So, it is possible that we shift tactics in terms of how to get their attention, but the issue is incredibly important. And it is just really, really unfortunate that the Republicans don’t seem to want to address it or deal with it in any manner.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett