House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said the shutdown of the federal government over a budget impasse in Congress gives President Donald Trump “the keys to the kingdom.”
The Hill reported that Johnson told a radio host in his home state of Louisiana that the government shutdown “ultimately could be a benefit” to Trump’s overall reduced government spending approach if the White House takes the opportunity to cut federal spending where Republicans “never had the votes in the Senate to do.”
Johnson’s comments followed a media briefing in Washington where Republican leaders pushed for Democrats to support a short-term funding plan to keep the government operating.
He was asked about a 2019 comment from Charlie Kirk, who said government shutdowns offered an opportunity to make dramatic cuts in the size of government.
Johnson offered, “There are some good things that could come out of a shutdown, but there’s pros and cons.”
The cons are considered to range from thousands of federal employees either off the job or working without pay, and reduced availability of some government programs.
“The pro side,” said Johnson, “is what Charlie was referring to and what I talked to the president about in the Oval Office 48 hours ago. It does give an opportunity to the power in charge, the president in charge, to make unilateral decisions that don’t need a vote of Congress about which programs in the government are essential and which are not.”
“[Senate Democrat Leader] Chuck Schumer very stupidly,” said Johnson, “just walked right into that trap. He’s handed President Trump the keys to the kingdom.”
Johnson added, “Charlie [Kirk] was right those years ago. It does give an opportunity to eliminate bloated, unnecessary federal programs that we would like to vote down, but we never had the votes in the Senate to do.”
Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought signaled Wednesday afternoon that spending cuts were already in the works, posting, “Nearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda is being cancelled. More info to come from @ENERGY.”
Vought previously indicated that federal agencies should be prepared to issue reduction-in-force notices in the event of a shutdown.
The Senate on Wednesday failed in a repeat attempt to approve stopgap funding to avoid a shutdown.
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