Columbia, S.C. Mayor Stephen Benjamin (D) in an interview that aired Wednesday on “Rising” urged Americans to look beyond rhetoric from partisan media amid the partial government shutdown, and instead look at the impact on families across the country.
“I encourage those of us who usually watch one channel [to] maybe watch the other channel and vice versa,” Benjamin told Hill.TV’s Jamal Simmons on Tuesday.
“At the very least we can ignore some of the anchors, and let’s look at the human component and the impact it’s having on families all across America,” he continued.
The government shutdown, which is a result of a disagreement between President Trump and Democrats on border wall funding, is in its fifth week.
In addition to negatively impacting various government agencies, the shutdown has left thousands of workers furloughed or working without pay.
“It’s significant. If this continues to grow, it’s going to be much more pervasive in affecting our local economy,” Benjamin said.
“We still have as a capital city with the army’s largest training base in the world, a number of federal contractors. I can only imagine how this can, certainly not only affect our economy but begin to bite into this bull market that we have, where we’re losing GDP growth every, single day,” he continued.
“Every single day, families are affected in significant ways, so we’d love to see a resolution to this sooner rather than later.”
— Julia Manchester
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