Obama should allow govt. shutdown

One of the top Democrats in the House said Friday that his party should be willing to shut down the government this fall unless the spending cuts brought on by sequestration are ended.

Rep. Rob Andrews (D-N.J.), the co-chair of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, said that he hadn’t blithely come to the conclusion that this type of political standoff was necessary. Rather, it was talks with victims of the spending cuts and a new Congressional Budget Office study showing that up to 1.6 million jobs would be at risk next year if sequestration continued that convinced him a government shutdown threat was worth it.
Andrews told The Huffington Post in an interview, “I think the president should draw that line in the sand. I think it would create clarity, that our side wants to have a no-drama, sensible economic policy and that they want drama. So let’s have the fight.”
It’s fairly bold for a member of the president’s own party to advocate shutting down the government. It also creates a bit of an awkward situation, as Democrats attack Republicans for threatening a shutdown in their quest to defund the president’s health care law.
Andrews stressed that he was speaking on his own behalf and not drawing on conversations he has had with members of the administration.
But frustration with the spending cuts, and worries that they will linger beyond this fiscal year, is clearly a motivating force as Democrats enter the major budget battles of this fall.