Webster: ‘No CRs,’ ‘Stand Firm’ Against Shutdown Threats

Representative Daniel Webster (R-FL) stated he would “stand firm” if Democrats threaten to shut down the government and that he would tell the Senate “No CRs” on Monday’s “Sean Hannity Show.”

Webster was asked if the GOP surrenders when it says it won’t shut down the government. He responded that the problem is waiting until the last minute to resolve impasses over shutdowns, and stated the House should “take up the most important issues first,” like the Florida Legislature did when he was speaker of the Florida House of Representatives.

He continued, “if you made that charge that government was going to shut down six months before the deadline, it’s not going to stick. It’s going to stick if you do it the day of, and that’s the problem.”

Webster also argued that if the House used its rulebook, it would take bills up “every day,” and “passing through, not just regular order, but the rules order. And that would go through and pick out things, as opposed to yanking things out of the sky and bringing them up, giving them same-day authority, and running them through the…Congress. That’s wrong.”

Webster was then asked how he would handle President Obama threatening to veto a funding bill. Webster said, “when a body passes all of the appropriation bills…this shifts the burden to the next body, which would be, let’s say the Senate.”

The questioning then turned to how Webster would handle a filibuster by Senate Democrats of a funding bill. Webster answered, “We have done our work. We have passed, not a CR, we’re going to tell them ‘No CRs.'”

Webster was also asked if he thought Senator Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) Obamacare filibuster was the right thing to do. He responded that this was a decision for Cruz to make, and this wasn’t a position Congress should even be in in the first place. He re-iterated that if the House does its job by passing funding bills, Democrats can’t blame any shutdowns on it, and said he would “stand firm” and “stand our ground” if Democrats accused House Republicans of shutting down the government after the House passed a funding bill.

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett