The Federal Government officially went into a shutdown early Wednesday morning because Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Senate failed to work together to pass a resolution.
Congressman Brandon Gill (R-Flower Mound) represents Texas’ 26th Congressional District. He said the blame lies on the left.
“House Republicans did our job in funding the government,” he said. “We passed a clean, continuing resolution that Democrats have supported multiple times in the past.”
Gill said Democrats are “holding the country hostage” trying to increase the country’s deficit by nearly $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years and push left-wing ideas.
“What Democrats are demanding in exchange for keeping the government is handouts for illegal aliens, including taxpayer-funded healthcare, and they want to ensure our tax dollars are paying for gender ideology programs and transgender surgeries in foreign countries,” he said. “That’s irresponsible. They know it, we know it and they’re simply demanding a ransom so they can push left-wing priorities on the American people just to keep the government open.”
Gill said nothing is hidden in the resolution and it isn’t packed with conservative policies, it’s just a measure to keep the government functioning for about seven weeks.
One concern for Democrats, according to a CBS News report, is making the Affordable Care Act tax credits permanent. The tax credit system “is a refundable credit that helps eligible individuals and families cover the premiums for their health insurance purchased through the Health Insurance Marketplace,” according to the IRS.
Gill said that problem can be dealt with in the future, but it isn’t necessary to address in regard to the current shutdown.
“Right now, that has nothing to do with the shutdown. That’s something that will last until the end of the year, we’re talking about a government shutdown today,” he said. “To bring an issue into a government shutdown fight that has nothing to do with what we’re actually discussing is grotesque from Senate Democrats. We’ll have that discussion on those subsidies when the time comes, but it’s not time for that.”
Locally, Gill’s office will remain open during regular business hours so constituents in his district will be taken care of.
“We’re not the one shutting the government down. This is clearly from Senate Democrats,” he said. “I know that a lot of my constituents from TX-26 are concerned about what’s gonna happen, but our office will remain open throughout the duration of the Democrats’ reckless shutdown.”
Gill said he believes his constituents might only be affected by delayed social security checks or Medicaid benefits.
However, his office will have case workers that will be able to help with federal issues including passports, social security checks, Medicaid, Medicare reimbursement or anything else. He said constituents just have to call his office and they’ll work on it.
“We’re going to be here to help and make sure that we’re still serving the people of Texas 26,” said Gill. “Regardless of what Democrats in the Senate are doing.”
