On CNN's “Outfront” broadcast on Friday, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) said that while the government funding bill passed by the House is not an improvement over the original bill, it does ensure a government shutdown. He said his goal is not to have any.
host Sarah Sidner asked. [relevant exchange begins around 5:30] “Do you think it was better than the original?”
Swalwell replied. “No, but my privilege is to make sure that our hardworking employees who serve our veterans, keep our airports safe at TSA, and monitor air traffic as air traffic controllers are compensated for their work. It was to make them pay.’ They do. This wasn't perfect. This was totally unnecessary, Sarah.”
Sydner then said, “You said you didn't think this was any better than the bipartisan bill that was crafted over weeks, but this was Plan C.'' “Did you do any calculations?” he asked. Are you saying that if you don't vote for this, you'll be held responsible for shutting it down? ”
Mr. Swalwell replied: “Well, again, the TSA guard was more important. Two weeks ago, as I was going through security, he pulled me aside as I was trying to help him and said, “Hey, I saw you coming by, and my wife asked me, “Are you okay?'' I mean, just knowing that people expect us to solve this problem correctly, and it's by no means perfect, but if that person isn't getting paid, and thousands of others… I haven't been paid, and that's not right either. So for Democrats, I think the message we have to get across is, Republicans, they're going to fight for the wealthy. The rest is us. ”
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