Sen. Wicker: Republicans will not come away from budget fight empty-handed
As the government shutdown goes into its fourth day, Sen. Roger Wicker, Mississippi Republican, said that there has to be give and take between the two parties, neither of which are willing to give up on their set of requests.
“I don’t think either side is going to totally abandon their position. I can say from a Republican standpoint, we’re not going to come away from this series of negotiations with nothing, and we don’t expect the Democrats to, either, there has to be give and take,” Mr. Wicker said Friday on MSNBC.
It’s not just the government shutdown that needs to be dealt with on Capitol Hill. The federal government will hit the debt ceiling on Oct. 17 and could default on its loans if Congress does not raise the limit. Mr. Wicker said that he sees the issue of the government shutdown and the issue of the debt ceiling limit as being one issue.
“I think these two issues have now been merged,” he said. “The temporary budget shutdown and the debt ceiling, if you think about it, the negotiators are looking at a short-term fix and then making another deal after that, it just seems to me the natural human impulse is to merge those two issues and I think that’s where we are.”
Washington Times
