Vitter: Shutdown Antics Like Sequester Game All Over Again

The partial federal government shutdown continues as Democrats and Republicans continue to convince their counterparts to begin negotiations on their terms.  Senator David Vitter says Republicans are ready to talk to the President and Senate Democrats.

There reportedly was a rift between Senator Ted Cruz and other Republican members of the Senate last week over how to handle the government shutdown.

"The first thing we [the Republicans] agree on is for the two sides to talk and compromise and discuss and that's what we are urging President Obama and [Senator] Harry Reid to do," Senator Vitter told 710 KEEL this morning.

Both sides of the debate have stood by their position of not negotiated, or saying they would negotiate if the other caved.

Republicans had wanted to delay or defund Obamacare in exchange for increasing the debt ceiling and resolve the budget crisis.

Democrats wanted a debt limit increase without any strings attached.

But while the headlines of many news outlets across the country told the story of the battle between the parties, they also detailed all effects of the government shutdown.

The signs of the federal shutdown are everywhere, literally.

But the problem is that in many cases, it takes more effort to say something is closed because of the government shutdown than to just close it.  Unless government servers are paid for October 1st every year, this shouldn't be a problem:

"You see a lot of instances where actually more work has to be expended on this public relations campaign to try to make the partial government shutdown be noticed and hurt as much as possible," Vitter explained to 710 KEEL.

But, truly and honestly, how terrible of a position are we as a nation currently in this government shutdown?  We asked Louisiana's Republican Senator to compare it to the debate that brought the enactment of the sequester.

"The sky wasn't falling, hasn't fallen yet, the sequester continues.  I'm not saying there aren't real issues that arise because of it, but it wasn't the crisis the administration tried to portray in its first month or so in the sequester," noted Vitter.  "I think it's basically that game all over again maybe on steroids."

The Louisiana Republican also told 710 KEEL that the debt debate should have been had well before the budget and the debt ceiling deadline.  Vitter said the biggest goal he and fellow Republicans have is to get a handle on government spending.