Source: United States Senator for New Jersey Bob Menendez
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), released the following statement after Senate Republicans blocked the House-passed continuing resolution (H.R.5305) to extend federal government funding until the end of the year and provide emergency assistance for Americans struggling in the aftermath of natural disasters:
“Once again, Republican politicians are hurling America toward a fiscal cliff of no return by voting to default on our debt and shut down the federal government at the exact moment so many Americans are counting on it.
“Our communities are already grappling with immense challenges, from rebuilding in the aftermath of deadly floods and wildfires, to fighting a pandemic that continues to claim hundreds of American lives every day, to responsibly resettling tens of thousands of Afghan refugees who helped us in the war on terror.
“That Republicans are willing to shut down the government in the face of so many crises and create a brand new one in the form of a job-killing global economic meltdown defies reason and basic decency. A default on our existing debt obligations would jeopardize millions of jobs, send markets crashing and interest rates rising, destroy our economic recovery, and wipe out household wealth in retirement accounts, all so that Republicans can score short term, meaningless political points.
“It’s astonishing how many of my Republican colleagues had no problem running up our national debt with their trillion-dollar tax giveaways for big corporations and wealthy CEOs, but now that it is time to pay for them, they would rather reject the values of personal responsibility and have no regard for the human consequences of their actions. It’s clear the GOP is now the party of default.”
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