Rubio: Government shutdowns are 'dumb. They're really stupid.'

The longest-ever government shutdown came to an end on Jan. 22 after 35 days. The standoff was triggered when Democratic lawmakers refused to agree to a federal budget that included $5.7 billion in funding for President Trump’s border wall.

On Monday, news broke that U.S. lawmakers had reached a tentative deal to avoid another government shutdown. On Tuesday, Reuters reported that “congressional aides said it did not contain the $5.7 billion President Donald Trump wants for a border wall.” On Wednesday, CNN reported that Trump is expected to sign the deal, which includes $1.375 billion for a border barrier, before the Friday deadline.

Lawmakers on both sides are determined to avert another shutdown and prevent Trump from declaring a national emergency. And Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said he is “optimistic” that the U.S. will another stalemate.

‘I think they’re dumb. They’re really stupid’

“Government shutdowns aren’t good,” Rubio told Yahoo Finance on Wednesday. “Actually, I think they’re dumb. They’re really stupid. They’re not good leverage for anything, and I think one of the things that’s certainly been learned here in the last few years is there is no issue in America that the American people are willing to shut down the government for.”

The GOP senator’s comments echoed former White House Economic Advisor Gary Cohn, who said on day 27 of the partial shutdown, that the situation was “completely wrong” and made “absolutely no sense whatsoever.”

The recent shutdown affected the lives of nearly 800,000 federal employees with furloughs or work without pay as well as tens of thousands of contractors. It also impacted various government agencies, including the Department of Transportation, Department of the Treasury, and Department of Homeland Security. As a result, tax refunds were at risk of being delayed from the IRS, TSA employees began refusing to show up for work, and the FAA had to halt flights into New York’s LaGuardia Airport because of a shortage in air-traffic controllers.

“We all have priorities we believe in,” Rubio said. “I am a strong supporter and believer in border security. I don’t think the way to achieve it is by using a government shutdown as leverage. So, I expect we’ll be able to avoid it, but this is an issue we’re going to have to continue to work on, because we do have a major problem on the U.S. border, and a major problem with illegal immigration.”

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported that the most recent government shutdown cost the U.S. about $11 billion, with at least $3 billion permanently lost from loss in productivity from furloughed workers and weakened economic activity. Ironically, that is almost twice as much as the $5.7 billion that Trump demanded for his border wall.

Rubio said he doesn’t know if the president will sign the deal, but the structure of the agreement gives Trump flexibility “without having to exceed his constitutional powers to do additional construction to make real progress on constructing the border barriers, be the wall or whatever they are these days, and slats or what have you, but to secure more border, which is one of his fundamental promises.”

Adriana is an associate editor for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @adrianambells.

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