DPCC Co-Chair Matt Cartwright: The Shutdown Damages the American Economy
WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Matt Cartwright, Co-Chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC), appeared on America's Newsroom on FOX News to discuss the federal government shutdown created by the President. Below are excerpts from the interview. Click here to watch the video
"I'm here to tell you, Democrats and Republicans alike are interested in border security. I've been here six years in the Congress. Since 9/11, 2001 we have quintupled our budget for border security –a 00 percent increase. These are things that both sides voted on. So there isn't that much disagreement that we ought to be border security, particularly with our border with Mexico."
"The solution is to not shut the government down. Well, let's see what they talk about this afternoon over at the White House. Shutting the government down is the dumbest thing you can do. I've been here six years…Here's why it's dumb. It damages our American economy. Last time we had a shutdown it was Senator Ted Cruz that ginned up the Freedom Caucus to shut down the government over Obamacare. That shutdown lasted 16 days. And according to Moody's Analytics and Standard and Poor's, that cost our economy $20 billion…according to the Council of Economic Advisors it cost 120,000 American jobs taking that amount of money out the economy."
"If you want to talk about border security, the first thing to focus on are the ports of entry where all the drugs are coming through or the tunnels. This is why we've increased customs and border protection, because this is how you stop the entry of this stuff - not by building walls in places where goats don't climb or people don't travel. What you want to do is spend your money wisely…Democrats are ready, willing and able to do that. What we don't want to do is hurt the American economy, hurt the people trying to apply for home mortgages now, 800,000 federal workers having their credit impaired."
"What we're not going to have is just satisfying some political stump speech promise. What we want real solutions. Democrats want that as well as Republicans. More than anything. here's what I want: I want to get past this national struggle, this national ongoing divorce that's going on about immigration. Why don't we talk about comprehensive immigration reform?"
"Absolutely. We have to address the opioid crises and that is something like 90% of the drugs coming across the border go through the ports of entry. This is why we're willing to increase amounts of money for technology and for agents inundated with drugs coming across at the ports of entry. Let's do something that makes sense. Let's not shut the government down and hurt our national economy just to fulfill some political stump speech promise."