Hoyer: GOP ‘warfare’ ups shutdown risk

A sharply divided Republican Party intensifies the risk of another government shutdown next month, House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.) warned Tuesday.

“If we shut down government it will be because you have willful Republicans who are prepared to take the government hostage to attain their ends,” Hoyer told reporters in the Capitol.

“It will not be a stumble, it will be a considered objective,” he added, “and a number of them have said so publicly.”

{mosads}Several dozen conservatives from both chambers have vowed to oppose any spending proposal that includes funding for Planned Parenthood, which has long been a target of Republicans because of its abortion services.

A series of recently released undercover videos that opponents say show the group has profited illegally from the sale of fetal tissue has only stoked the conservative push for Congress to defund it.

Hoyer was quick to note that both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) have vowed not to allow a repeat of the 2013 shutdown.

“They think it’s bad politics, and … I think they both believe it’s bad policy,” he said. “So my expectation is they will work towards that end.”

But the the task facing GOP leaders, Hoyer added, is made “is made much more difficult by … internecine warfare within the Republican Party” and conservative lawmakers who have made the threat of government shutdowns their fallback strategy when they can’t move favored legislation through traditional channels.

“We have had a series of efforts to accomplish things that could not be accomplished by votes … and therefore the Republicans have threatened to take government hostage and shut it down if their interests were not accommodated,” Hoyer said. “They don’t have the votes to do [it], and they’re not happy with that.”

“Whether it was the Affordable Care Act, immigration, now Planned Parenthood, shutting down the government is the default position of our Republican colleagues — not all of them, some,” he added.

“They have been pursuing it as a policy. Their leaders don’t like the policy, but so many of their members have been pursuing that.”

As Congress approaches the Oct. 1 deadline to fund the government, Hoyer said Democrats are ready to sit down in search of spending compromise, but won’t cow to the shutdown threats.

“Neither the president nor Democrats in the Senate or the House are going to take anything just because the Republicans threaten to shut down government if we don’t,” he warned.