WASHINGTON, D.C. — The negotiations continued on Capitol Hill over the weekend yet neither side could agree on a plan that would end the partial government shutdown and avoid a possible default.
The nation nears the week two mark of the shutdown and U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller grows more concerned about its effects.
“The damage and destruction caused by this government shutdown are very, very real,” said Rockefeller.
In two days of special negotiations Saturday and Sunday, the dialogue remained open between both sides but separate pieces of legislation proposed were shot down.
A proposal by House Republicans was rejected by President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rejected a bipartisan proposal.
Rockefeller said there is a small group in Congress that is causing a great deal of problems in all this.
“They have, in my judgment, been recklessly putting our economy at risk of a relapse which would be a disaster,” he said.
The latest legislation to get shot down would have funded the government for six months and increased the federal debt limit through January. The bipartisan proposal was rejected by Reid, but is still alive in the Senate.
Rockefeller hopes an agreement is reached soon because he said this shutdown is hurting the economy’s progress.
“There continues to be new jobs pumping into the economy, which is the good part, and then you start thinking about all the people that have been laid off and then the ripple effect of all that so you don’t really know where the economy is but you have the feeling that it’s not making much progress,” he said.
Rockefeller fears that if the debt ceiling isn’t raised before Thursday and the U.S. reaches its borrowing limit on top of being shutdown, the economy may roll back into a recession.