Democrat tells "This Week" "It's really a moment of health care crisis."
By Kendall Wright
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said talks remain stalled on the fifth day of the government shutdown, with Democrats seeking to undo Medicaid cuts and restore Obamacare subsidies and Republicans demanding a clean funding bill to fund the government into November.
“It's really a moment of health care crisis,” Booker told ABC News' "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
Booker said he’s less concerned with which party is to blame for the shutdown and more focused on Americans’ health and personal finances that he said are at risk from the shutdown.
“I don't care about the blame game. I care about Americans losing their health insurance, rates of death going up, hospitals being crushed, medical services ending in places in rural America. This is a tsunami of Donald Trump's creation,” Booker said.
Here are more highlights from Booker's interview:
On GOP criticism that Dems have supported past continuing resolutions
They're [GOP] not negotiating. Remember, the speaker of the House has kept the House out for the last two weeks. They're not sitting down. And when he asks, "What's different?" What is different is we are, for the first time in America ever, we're on a moment where because of Donald Trump's attacks on Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, on the verge of tens of millions of Americans losing their health care and most of Americans experiencing a significant rise in their health care costs.
On whether he has any criticism of Democratic leadership
Raddatz: Do you have any disappointment in your party leadership?
Booker: You've seen Chuck Schumer go to the podium, negotiate with us, almost begging the president to bring the parties together, like he said, Donald Trump literally has said, it's the president's responsibility to bring the parties together and negotiate a way through.
Raddatz: So you're fine, you're fine with your leadership, with everything the Democrats have been doing?
Booker: I am proud of those people who are standing up right now and saying, we're not doing business as usual in Washington with this many millions of Americans are literally going to be hurt because when they're sick, they won't be able to afford to go to a doctor, when they go to the emergency room, the lines will be two times as long we are in a crisis. We are in a crisis. We need a president to stand up and bring us together to help to solve the problems of American people.