Paul Ryan: Senate Dems Want to Shutdown Govt Over Unrelated Issue

Senate Democrats are willing to shut down the government over an issue that is not related to the continuing resolution that's being considered, and if a shutdown happens, it will be wholly because of them, House Speaker Paul Ryan said Friday.

"This is needless, completely unnecessary and wholly because of Senate Democrats trying to shut down the government, holding the entire government hostage for a completely unrelated issue that doesn't have a deadline right now," Ryan told Fox News "America's Newsroom" co-host Bill Hemmer.

Democrats are insisting on a fix for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. However, the deadline for that program is not until March, and Democrats are holding government operations "hostage" over the issue, Ryan said.

"If we have the government shutdown the Democrats insist on, troops don't get paid," Ryan said. "[They are] holding our military hostage. Seven states run out of money for children's health insurance. Anybody getting a medical procedure involving a device will pay more for that procedure. Those are things that will happen if the Senate Democrats continue to insist on shutting down the government."

DACA negotiations are underway that have been going on for some time, Ryan said, so what the Democrats are trying to do is "hold all of government hostage, our troops, kids' health insurance, for a completely unrelated issue. I think it's shameful."

Sixty votes are needed in the Senate to pass the continuing legislation, but meanwhile, Democrats are hoping to get Republicans into situation where they can make "Republicans look bad," Ryan said.

"I think the Democrats hope the American people won't know it's the Senate Democrats filibustering this," Ryan said. "I found it interesting that Sen. [Chuck] Schumer said we should do an appropriations process. Guess what? The House passed all the appropriations bill and it has been sitting in the Senate since September. Every single appropriation bill to fund all of government, those bills passed the House and are sitting in the Senate."

The House also passed the defense appropriations bill twice and a hurricane relief appropriation bill in December, and both are still sitting in the Senate, Ryan pointed out.

"There is one theme as to why none of this activity is occurring," Ryan said. "Senate Democrats are filibustering appropriations, funding the government and now they are filibustering a continuing resolution to keep the government own."

Even if a deal is reached on Friday, the extension will run out in mid-February and DACA expires in March, Hemmer pointed out, wondering if Congress can reach a deal to handle both issues and border security.

"You can't do it in four or five days," Ryan said. "That's ridiculous. We've been negotiating it for more than that. The house passed these bills with respect to funding. Do I believe we can fix these issues? Do we want to deport 700,000 DACA kids? No, we don't want to do that. We also don't want to have another 700 DACA kids in five years. We want to fix the underlying problem."

And that, he said, will require border security.

"Can we get the government funded? We've already passed these bills in the House and proven we're willing and able to do it," said Ryan. "The Senate Democrats have to stop filibustering, come to the table and negotiate in good faith and get these things done."

Meanwhile, the House passed its vote on the continuing resolution after members of the Freedom Caucus agreed to vote for the measure, and Ryan said he think that threw Senate Democrats off.

"I think they were counting on us to being disunified and we would ourselves shut the government down," Ryan said. "We saw this play for what it was, the Senate Democrats are holding our men and women in uniform hostage over an unrelated issue."

The "craziest thing," Ryan said, is that Democrats are refusing a bill that contains items they wanted, including a long extension to the Children's Health Insurance Program.

"This is nothing more than legislative hostage taking," said Ryan. "The collateral damage is people in the military, kids who need health insurance and people needing medical devices. This is a short term extension to make sure the legislative talks get completed. The Democrats don't oppose anything in there."