Marjorie Taylor Greene Blames Democrats for Looming Government Shutdown

House Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene said that there will be a government shutdown when funding runs out on Sunday, but blamed this on Democrats during an appearance on conservative network Newsmax.

Republicans and Democrats in Congress must agree a new funding bill by the end of Saturday to avoid a government shutdown. This would see millions of federal workers furloughed and many others forced to work without pay.

Currently, there is no indication the two parties are anywhere near an agreement. Speaker Kevin McCarthy failed to get a short-term spending bill through the House on Friday after GOP hardliners joined Democrats to vote it down. Even if passed, it almost certainly would have been rejected by the Democratic-controlled Senate, since it mandated steep government spending cuts.

Appearing on Newsmax's Eric Bolling The Balance on Friday, Greene said: "Yes, there is unfortunately going to be a shutdown, but you know who we can really blame for that? Democrats."

A clip of the remarks was posted on X, formerly Twitter, by the Acyn account where it received more than 161,500 views.

Greene's comments are just the latest contribution to an ongoing war of words over who is responsible for any shutdown, which is likely to intensify if one does go ahead.

The official White House X account has been giving an hourly countdown to the beginning of shutdown, which it blames on "extreme House Republicans."

For example, at 9 a.m. ET, the White House X account posted: "15 hours until Extreme House Republicans shut down the government.

"This shutdown would jeopardize vital nutrition assistance for nearly seven million women and children across the country."

McCarthy has taken a different view, commenting: "I don't have a journalism degree—but why does the media expect the Republican House to just follow the Democrat Senate's lead on government funding?"

As the House failed to put through a stopgap spending bill on Friday, the Senate was pushing its own legislation, which passed a procedural vote earlier this week with a bipartisan split of 76-22.

Another procedural vote is due on Saturday, but it is unlikely the bill will pass the Senate before a shutdown begins. Even if it does go through the upper chamber, it is unlikely to be accepted by many Republicans in the GOP-controlled House.

If McCarthy makes concessions to the Senate, he risks hardline Republicans calling a vote to remove him from the speaker's office. Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz said earlier this month that the House GOP leader must be in "total compliance" to avoid a motion to vacate the chair.

In an interview with ProPublica, due to be published on Sunday, President Joe Biden said: "The speaker has made a terrible bargain. In order to keep the speakership, he's willing to do things that he, I think, knows are inconsistent with constitutional processes, No. 1."

Biden added: "No. 2, I think it says that there is a group of MAGA Republicans who genuinely want to have a fundamental change in the way that the system works. And that's what worries me the most."