As the government shutdown enters its fourth week, some Republican senators are getting squeamish about President Trump's punitive measures toward blue states, the Hill reported.
In addition to targeting thousands of federal employees at "Democrat agencies," Trump has leveraged the shutdown to pause billions for infrastructure projects in Democrat-controlled states like New York and Massachusetts.
Democrats under Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D), of New York, have now voted 12 times against Republican bills to fund the government.
As the impasse continues, Trump has sought to make Schumer pay a political price by cutting staff at "Democrat agencies" and targeting projects like a $16 billion Hudson River tunnel linking New York and New Jersey, the Gateway Project.
“It’s petty revenge politics. And who gets hurt? It’s going to screw over hundreds of thousands of New York and New Jersey commuters, choke off our economy, and kill good-paying jobs,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.
Republican senator Lisa Murkowski (Al.), a frequent critic of Trump, warned that Trump's retaliatory measures could hurt conservatives who live in blue states.
“You show me one blue state in America where you don’t have pockets, maybe even big pockets, of Republicans, of conservatives, of MAGA people, of pro-Trump. Do we not care about them?” she said.
“Are we just saying, ‘If you don’t like it, you should move to a place where you’ve got a Republican governor?’” she added. “It makes no sense. Why are we being punitive? It’s hard enough when the government is not operating as it should be. Let’s not be punitive to Americans just to score political points.”.
While some say Trump is improperly seeking retribution, the White House says Democrats deserve blame for any shutdown fallout.
"The Democrat shutdown has drained the Army Corps of Engineers' ability to manage billions of dollars in projects," White House budget director Russ Vought posted to X, while noting the administration is “immediately pausing over $11 billion" for projects in cities like New York and Boston.
One of those Army Corps projects is a $600 million effort to replace two decaying bridges spanning Cape Cod, a popular tourist destination that draws millions annually.
Susan Collins of Maine, Jerry Moran of Kansas and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia also told the Hill they do not approve of what Trump is doing to blue states.
Capito fretted that Trump's action could create a precedent for Democrats to strike back in the future. But ironically, Capito acknowledged that President Obama had already "killed" her state by throttling the coal industry.
“During the Obama administration, he basically killed my red state,” she said.
If Democrats are going to be partisan anyway, some might argue, why not fight fire with fire?
While Trump's hardball approach might make some Republicans uncomfortable, he's just giving Dems a taste of their own medicine. And if the goal is to convince Democrats to end the shutdown, playing nice obviously won't do the trick.
