Following is the statement of Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate on the deal to end the government shutdown.
“It’s great news that some reasonable Republicans were able to join Democrats in putting an end to the Tea Party tantrum that shut our government down for 16 days and endangered the full faith and credit of the United States of America.
“I’m sure everyone is ready to see government operations back to normal, except maybe Scott Walker, who won’t have the shutdown as an excuse for his jobs failures anymore and whose conservative thunder has been stolen by rising Tea Party star Ted Cruz.
“But even though the GOP shutdown has ended, the Republican brand in Washington, D.C. and back here in Wisconsin has been irretrievably broken.
“That a handful of Tea Party extremists were able to shutdown our government over their opposition to healthcare reform and nearly cause a global economic crisis in order to deny women birth control is a symptom of the larger threat to our democracy at the hands of ideologues like Ron Johnson, Paul Ryan, Sean Duffy and Scott Walker.
“Now, though, their craven pursuit of power at any cost and open contempt for the will of the people has been exposed, and radical Republicans are in trouble. So if there’s one piece of good news to come out of the government shutdown it’s that the Tea Party has damaged itself the most.”
