Sen. Rand Paul Face the Nation
U.S. Senator Rand Paul leaves the U.S. Senate chamber after fellow Republican Ted Cruz held a marathon attack on Obamacare at the U.S. Capitol in Washington Reuters

On Sunday, Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., appeared on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” to discuss the fight in Congress over funding the government and reaching an agreement over the Affordable Care Act (ACA), more commonly known as Obamacare.

The host of “Face the Nation,” Bob Schieffer opened the interview asking Paul immediately, “Are you willing to take the blame if the government shuts down?”

“You know I’ve said all along, it’s not a good idea to shut down government. I’ve been saying that for months. But I also think that it’s not a good idea to give the President a hundred percent of what he wants from Obamacare without compromise,” Paul said in response.

Schieffer then asked, “How can hold the entire Federal government hostage just because you want to postpone [President Barack Obama’s] signature achievement. He’s not going to do that. The Senate is not going to do that. You know that. You know that even if they did that, the President would veto it. Isn’t this just an exercise to accomplish nothing?”

“All we’re asking is, if [President Obama] thinks [Obamacare is] so messed up, that he’s going to delay a big part of Obamacare on his own -- and it looks like he’s going to do some special favors for the unions, why don’t we actually bring it to Congress and try to figure out how to somehow meet somewhere in the middle,” said Paul. He added, “That to me is the president being intransigent and unwilling to compromise.”

With the government on the brink of being shutdown, Schieffer asked Paul if there was any way to prevent it from happening.

“Why don’t we have a conference committee on this? You could appoint one today, they can meet tomorrow and hash out the differences. That’s the way it’s supposed to work. Republicans and Democrats are supposed to find a middle ground. But right now, it’s the president saying ‘my way or the highway if I don’t get everything I want,’” said Paul. He added, “We think he should come to Congress. We should negotiate how to fix or make Obamacare less bad.”

Watch the full interview in the video above.

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