Mick Mulvaney: If fixing budget requires a shutdown, "so be it"
WASHINGTON -- White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said that President Donald Trump "is willing to think outside the box and do things differently" in order to change Washington, and that if there's a government shutdown, "so be it."
"I think the president is frustrated that the process in Washington is broken," Mulvaney said. "What we just did this week was fine and passable but not ideal. The appropriations, the spending process, Congress using the power of the purse has been broken here in Washington for more than 10 years. And I think a good shutdown would be one that could help fix that. It's part of that overall drain-the-swamp mentality about Washington, D.C."
"This president is willing to think outside the box and do things differently around here in order to change Washington. And if that comes to a shutdown in September, so be it," he said Sunday on "Face the Nation," when asked about Mr. Trump's threats of a government shutdown in September.
Mulvaney also said to not underestimate the president.
"No one thought the lights would be on this week, but they were," he said. "So don't ever underestimate the president."
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, responded to Mulvaney's comments on "Face the Nation," saying that a government shutdown is "un-American" and adding that he hopes "we get" the word shutdown "out of our vocabulary."
"There is no good shutdown," Manchin said. "There should not even be the talk of a shutdown. John, basically we can do a CR, a continuing resolution, for one day. We can do it for one week. We can do it for one month. But we should at least stay there and get our job done. Shutting it down puts too much, absolute too much, absolute agony on people. And it's just un-American."
Lawmakers just averted a government shutdown. Mr. Trump on Friday signed a $1.1 trillion spending deal that funds the government through the rest of the fiscal year. The Senate passed the measure Thursday and House lawmakers approved it on Wednesday.