The leverage of a government shutdown should not be used to pass legislation that the process won't deliver itself, Rep. Dan Kildee said Tuesday, while calling for the government to reopen.
"The framers of our Constitution designed a system that is intended to reconcile the big differences that we face," the Michigan Democrat and chief deputy whip told Fox News' "America's Newsroom."
"They never imagined that we would use leverage, that leaning on public safety and national security in order to get something through the legislative process that otherwise wouldn't wouldn't result from a deliberate process."
He called on people who did not think the matter could be resolved without a shutdown to have faith in the government's system.
"Our system was designed to reconcile big differences, and we ought to have faith in that system," Kildee said. "We seem to have people who have so little faith in our system of government that they're willing to shut the government down in order to get something in exchange for reopening the government and provide the basic elements of a civil society. I think this is a really bad moment for us."
Democrats do support border security and have supported fencing in the past, but now what is wanted is "smart border security, said Kildee.
"How do we get through this?" he said. "We don't do it by shutting down the government. We have an honest conversation between people of goodwill and try to come to some solution but we can't solve this very obviously very complex set of issues with this shutdown being used as leverage."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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