1. United States
2. Ala.
3. Letter

On the local news tonight I saw an extended clip of you complaining about how the Federal Government Shutdown is hurting Alabamians - and of course blaming Democrats. This is disingenuous, to say the least. When the One Big Brutal Bill passed the Senate in July you, and every Republican Senator, knew that it had passed with less than 60 votes. You knew that to pass the next year's budget you would need 60 votes in the Senate. Attempting to pass the exact same budget (via continuing resolution) should have been an obvious non-starter. The fact that this is what Republican leadership attempted shows that (unless they simply do not understand the budget process) either they fully expected Democrats to cave to a demand they had already rejected or that the leadership was willing to force a shutdown because that is what the President wanted. Either way, this shutdown is on you and your fellow Republicans. You failed to negotiate something different from the Big Brutal Bill, even when it became apparent that it was horribly unpopular nationwide. You failed to negotiate when it was clear that a majority of your constituents rejected a budget that would throw people off of healthcare. Frankly, I am used to the President never accepting responsibility for anything he does, but I thought you were better.