Mike Lee: Government Shutdown 'May Be Absolutely Necessary' (AUDIO)

Mike Lee, Utah's Tea Party-backed Republican Senate candidate, floated the solution of a total government shutdown Thursday to deal with increasing budgetary concerns and growing debt.

NPR spoke with Lee, who said that a governmental standstill may soon be "absolutely necessary":

"Our current debt is a little shy of $14 trillion. And I don't want it to increase 1 cent above the current debt limit and I will vote against that," he says.

Even if it leads to government default and shutdown?

"It's an inconvenience, it would be frustrating to many, many people and it's not a great thing, and yet at the same time, it's not something that we can rule out," he says. "It may be absolutely necessary."

On Wednesday, however, Lee even went above and beyond these statements, saying that he intended to force Obama to slash federal spending by 40 percent or else face a government shutdown.

Lee's willingness to consider such drastic measures is particularly relevant considering the extreme likelihood that he will become the next senator in the heavily-red Utah, and will apparently not hesitate to filibuster any budget that adds to the deficit or debt.

Though Lee has repeatedly raised eyebrows before with some of his less conventional positions, the concept of a government shutdown has recently become a more common feature in Republican circles.

Alaska's Joe Miller recently told the National Review that the idea had even been recognized as a possibility by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

"There was a comment made at breakfast this morning about shutting down the government, and he reacted in a positive way," Miller told the Review's Robert Costa. "I'm not going to quote him, but I think that he recognizes that that's on the table."

McConnell's camp has since denied these claims.

Other Republicans have similarly proposed a shutdown in the past months, while some, such as former House Majority Leader and current FreedomWorks chairman Dick Armey, Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor have addressed such suggestions with skepticism.

LISTEN:

Comments

[Armando Olmos]

04:48 PM on 10/30/2010

The Republicans and Tea Party have only one goal that is privatizing government programs bolishing the Safety Net. These people are Fascist they want to destroy Democracy, to see pain, to see war, and too see blood. We can’t afford to have these unqualified KOOKS ran our country. We must stay engaged and vote. The worst thing we can do is not vote. That’s like giving the Republican Party an extra vote. The only weapon that we have against this assault is our vote; they fear this, they want to censor us, and they want to take away our voting rights.

[amleth]

07:29 PM on 10/30/2010

Excellent post.

Faved.

Peace, best wishes.

[amleth]

06:00 PM on 10/29/2010

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0

Why our government is broke.

[amleth]

05:58 PM on 10/29/2010

A big part of the reason we have elections is so that we can have change in government and yet still have a functioning government after the change.

It may be a gentlemen's agreement in effect, but the deal has been, with rare exceptions in the US that once the election is over, we ABIDE BY THE RESULTS.

When W Bush was ushered into office by the Supreme Court, which decided in effect that that particular election does not count, the Democratic party ABIDED BY THE RESULT, as odious as it was to most of us. We abided during eight years of the most horrendous mishandling of office and assault upon our freedoms in modern times.

The Democratic party was placed in the White House in the embodiment of Barack Obama in 2008, whereupon the Republican party opted to NOT ABIDE THE RESULT.

These people are betrayers of democracy, an appellation they make little objection to: indeed some who are prominent strut and brag about their willingness and ability to break the essential contract with democracy and establish an elitist republican rule.

This is an echo of the right's willingness over centuries to oppress human rights and freedoms, to support government by military or paramilitary rule, and to destroy the social contract spoken of by Rousseau and other humanists of the past.

The scenario played out in the past decade is a perfect example of the difference between the two parties:between the left and the right.

Peace, best wishes.

[Armando Olmos]

04:56 PM on 10/30/2010

Big money is flooding our political landscape by transnational corporations thanks to our Supreme Court to take complete control of our government. They want to finish off the middle class. They want to completely wipe them out. They want cheap labor to maximum profits that all the care about. It’s about money and power.

[amleth]

07:28 PM on 10/30/2010

A very large portion of our population apparently does not want to believe what you see and say so clearly.

An ancient sign of impending defeat among warriors was said to be that a cloud or a wave of smoke would pass over those who are doomed.

I fear that the cloud of smoke has passed over us.

Good to see you making sense to those with the good sense to listen.

Faved.

Peace, best wishes.

[CindyinAtl]

05:48 PM on 10/29/2010

Oh yeah, great idea. Bring the country to a grinding halt, stop spending and decrease incoming revenue (taxes.) That's a sure fire plan.... to put us back in the depths of recession, or worse yet depression. Get a clue, guys.

[AmericanLeslie]

05:47 PM on 10/29/2010

Mike Lee: Government Shutdown 'May Be Absolutely Necessary'

But I bet you and your cronies will still expect a paycheck during any such shutdown.

[profmsf]

05:42 PM on 10/29/2010

You can stop paying Granny's Medicaid bills - her economic value is probably negative anyway - but defaulting on our current debts to our bankers on in Beijing and New York might actually cause a real problem.

[nobodysgirl]

05:17 PM on 10/29/2010

O you sanctimonious jokester - do it! Do it! Please shut down the govt!

The last time repugnants took that action onto themselves, they paid a hefty price, as they should have.

[pennsykid2000]

05:00 PM on 10/29/2010

This proves Repubs know nothing about George Santayana. These clowns have completely forgotten what happened the last time they tried this, and so they will be condemned to repeat the experience. And the country will suffer once again.

[InfinteShibumi]

04:35 PM on 10/29/2010

Some people will say anything to get attention.

[Cacey]

04:15 PM on 10/29/2010

If there are any Utahn's out there reading this, I urge you to look back to the history of your state's great Senators in the pre-Hatch days. Back then, there was a spirit of bipartisanship in Utah that was quite effective for the progress and success of our state. I remember when I was a kid and we had a Democrat and Republican representing us and they both and together did great things for Utah.

[NVEd]

05:06 PM on 10/29/2010

Sorry Cacey but now is not then. One reason why I didn't stay in Utah.

[iwonderaboutpoliticians]

03:42 PM on 10/29/2010

good. we're better off when they're not working.

heard a guy on DMZ this week... suggested that congress work from their districts 80% of the time... ya think 'we the people' would be listened to a little more intently if we could wander in to their strip mall offices a couple times a month?

[sojourning]

03:20 PM on 10/29/2010

I see from the looks of this guy's jowls that he's been eating pretty well lately. And I bet he has a roof over his head and, obviously, clothes on his back. No wonder he wants to shut down government . . .

[nsgo123]

03:04 PM on 10/29/2010

Shut it down!! Make sure no one in government get tax paying, pay checks either. Let's see how long they stay shut down. My bad, I forgot the Teaparties use their campaign funds to live off of, so that won't work either.

[Dennisrf]

03:01 PM on 10/29/2010

Despite all the blather to the contrary, we don't have a spending problem. We have a banking system problem, bequeathed to us by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. If you're not familiar with the subject of monetary reform, check out the Money Masters video here:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515319560256183936#docid=6076118677860424204

and the American Monetary Institute site here:
http://www.monetary.org/

[PWM]

03:11 PM on 10/29/2010

Before the Federal Reserve GP Morgan decided our monitory policy - to his benefit.

[dbishop76]

03:34 PM on 10/29/2010

Please don't bother him those facts. Gets in that way of his truth.

[Dennisrf]

03:42 PM on 10/29/2010

Yep. And, there seems to be some evidence that he may have singlehandedly engineered the financial crisis of 1907. Of course, he had some illustrious predecessors like Jay Gould and Jim Fiske. Morgan, the Rockefellers and the Rothschilds were behind the creation of the Fed, even though they pretended to oppose it.

[Raster]

03:13 PM on 10/29/2010

Monetarism will be our downfall!

[Dennisrf]

04:09 PM on 10/29/2010

You're right. In fact, it already has been. We've had several decades of monetarist policy from the Fed. Now they are, I think, getting desperate. They are trying to pull the economy out of its tailspin with monetary policy alone, and it's not working very well.

[KnoxScott]

03:00 PM on 10/29/2010

shut it down dude---everyone in washington needs to be fired---let the states run it all by vote...

[Raster]

03:17 PM on 10/29/2010

Would be a very positive development for States, who CREATED the Federal Government not vice-versa remember, to re-assume their "Inalienable Rights" as our original entities.