Idaho Republicans are OK using us as human pawns in their shutdown | Opinion

“Make no mistake: letting the government shut down is neither good policy nor good politics. It is a failure of the responsibility to govern that hurts Idahoans, harms our nation in the short-term, and fails to put us on a more sustainable long-term path to financial stability.”

Who said that? U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, in 2023.

The U.S. is now in uncharted territory, the longest government shutdown in history. Federal workers and members of the military have gone more than a month without a paycheck, hurting their ability to pay rent or utilities or buy food for their families.

Congressional Democrats and Republicans — the GOP controls the House and the Senate, as well as having the presidency — seem to have a complete and utter inability to work together to end the shutdown.

Democrats remain resolute in not passing a continuing resolution without some sort of assurance that health care subsidies will be protected for millions of Americans. How unreasonable.

Republicans, meanwhile, are unwilling to negotiate anything at all, unwilling to compromise or even discuss health care subsidies.

Rather, they use the tired bogeyman of Democrats demanding to give away millions to “illegal aliens.”

We see through the ruse and recognize it for what it is: political grandstanding, and a lie.

In the meantime, President Donald Trump is taking this opportunity to permanently lay off some federal workers, cut off Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and threaten Women, Infants and Children subsidies for millions of Americans, and is now threatening to shut down certain portions of U.S. airspace under the guise that he wants to “help” air traffic controllers through this difficult time, knowing full well that Thanksgiving travel is quickly approaching.

In other words, Trump and the Republicans are using Americans’ well-being as a negotiating tactic to try to get what they want, rather than even talk to Democrats.

This week’s elections in New Jersey and Virginia, in which Democratic voters showed how eager they are to vote by sweeping in a host of Democratic candidates, is an indication that Americans aren’t happy with the state of things.

And fingers are increasingly beginning to point in the right direction at who’s to blame for this shutdown: Republicans.

Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch, and Reps. Mike Simpson and Russ Fulcher, have done absolutely nothing to end the shutdown, choosing to merely sit by and watch as Americans and their constituents — more often than not those who voted for the GOP — are hurt by these cuts and the shutdown.

Of course, in Idaho, there’s nothing closer to a sure thing than being a Republican running for reelection, and Idaho’s congressmen barely have to lift a finger to win in the general election.

But if we can’t appeal to fear of being voted out of office, perhaps we can appeal to their common sense and humanity — assuming they have any.

We ask Crapo, Risch, Simpson and Fulcher to consider the harm that’s being done to so many of their constituents because of the shutdown, and to think about all of their constituents who rely on SNAP, WIC and health care subsidies.

We have a message for our Idaho Republican congressmen who are going along with the hateful Trump strategy: Negotiate with the Democrats on protecting health care subsidies and end this government shutdown.

We blame you for the shutdown, and shame on you for using Americans, often the poorest and most in need of help, as pawns to score political points.

We remind Simpson of his own words two years ago, when — of course — Trump was not in office: “The American people want their elected officials to have the political courage to roll up their sleeves and do the hard work needed to right the fiscal ship, not refuse to come to the table just to hone their political brands.”

Statesman editorials are the opinion of the Idaho Statesman’s editorial board. Board members are opinion editor Scott McIntosh, opinion writer Bryan Clark, editor Chadd Cripe, newsroom editors Dana Oland and Jim Keyser and community members John Hess, Debbie McCormick and Julie Yamamoto.