Gardner: 'Washington Bozos' Would Be To Blame For Government Shutdown
WASHINGTON (CBS4) - Sen. Cory Gardner spoke on CBS This Morning Friday about the looming possibility of a government shutdown with a message that there's still time to avoid it.
Gardner, a Republican and Colorado's junior senator, is chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and a member of the Senate Budget Committee. He worked with five other lawmakers on a bill that might end the immigration stalemate in Washington by giving "dreamers" (beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program) a pathway to citizenship. Those lawmakers include Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat and Colorado's senior senator.
"What Washington doesn't need to do is pick up its sticks and go to its collective partisan corners," said Gardner on the national newscast.
The plan includes bipartisan compromises, such as preventing DACA recipients from sponsoring family members to enter the country, allocating more than $1.5 billion for a border wall, and granting visas based on merit -- not a lottery system.
Gardner says Congress would be "irresponsible to shut the government down ... when we still have opportunities to solve this problem." He likened that drastic action to a "temper tantrum."
"The shutdown politics we're seeing today are simply ridiculous. Who's going to get the blame? Well, how about a bunch of Washington bozos who can't seem to get the job done," Gardner said.
Gardner said he hopes that before midnight Friday -- the deadline to reach a compromise -- "people will realize that shutdown politics is not a smart way to govern."
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