A top economist in the Trump administration offered a fresh warning Friday about the record-setting government shutdown’s damaging effects, as the Senate struggled to make a deal to end the closure and airports began to reduce flights.
“Because it’s so long, then the things that you can sort of fix for a little while are starting to run into blocks, and so we’re seeing that in air-traffic control and permitting,” Kevin Hassett, director of President Donald Trump’s National Economic Council, told reporters. “Basically throughout the economy, there are disruptions because of the Democrat shutdown that are going to start to really bite the economy.”
Hassett and other Republican officials have made an effort to blame the 38-day shutdown on Democratic lawmakers, who in turn have tried to pin it on the GOP. The shutdown began Oct. 1, largely because the two parties became locked in a standoff over including an extension of Obamacare subsidies in a bill that would fund the federal government through Nov. 21. While the funding bill passed the GOP-controlled House of Representatives in September, Democrats in the Senate have managed to block the bill, since 60 votes are needed for it in that chamber and Republicans only have a 53-seat majority.