Cornyn: Shutdown 'about politics, plain and simple'

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- Republicans are eager to end the government shutdown, but Democrats are refusing to negotiate on the federal healthcare law, a Republican senator said Saturday.

Delivering the Republican Party's weekly media address, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said Senate Democrats had rejected a number of bills House Republicans had passed to keep the government going, The Hill reported.

Cornyn said it was "disturbingly clear" that the impasse "is no longer about healthcare, or spending, or ideology. It's about politics, plain and simple."

Senate Democrats have rejected the House's spending bills, which would fund specific agencies or programs, "effectively arguing that the House bills are simply illegitimate, because they contain policy measures the Democrats don't like," Cornyn said."

He blamed the partial government shutdown on Senate Democrats who "refused to make any changes whatsoever to the deeply flawed healthcare law known as Obamacare."

Democrats have said they won't link changes in the law to passing a budget resolution.

The senator said the White House had claimed it was "winning" the budget battle.

"Apparently they think the government shutdown is good politics, and they're in no hurry to break the stalemate," Cornyn said.

"Hopefully our friends across the aisle will eventually get tired of playing politics," he added. "Hopefully they'll remember that neither house of Congress can set the national agenda all by itself."