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Former college football coach and broadcaster Lou Holtz put out a lengthy video Tuesday weighing in on the current government shutdown.
In the video, posted to X, the College Football Hall of Famer called the situation “unfair,” while condemning a system of government reliance.
In the caption for the video, Holtz only called out Democrats, writing “Democrats know that as long as you depend on them, you’ll vote for them — and that’s exactly how they like it.”
Senate Democrats have remained firm in refusing to back Republican-led proposals to reopen the government unless their plans include extensions to federal healthcare subsidies.
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President Donald Trump presents the Medal of Freedom to former college football coach Lou Holtz in the Oval Office of the White House Dec. 3, 2020, in Washington, D.C. (Doug Mills/Pool/Getty Images)
“It’s ridiculous to have so many people count on the government, and have one party say, ‘No, we aren’t going to open it up.’ That’s unfair,” Holtz said.
“What I see what the government is doing, it’s unfair. It’s unbelievable. That’s not the way it was set up to be. And yet, we’re trying to play games. Just open up the government, let it function along as we go along. But, no, you want to make more people rely on you. That’s why you want to give them government subsidies. As long as they rely on you, they’ll vote for you, and that’s not the way it should be.”
The former coach went on to cite his experience growing up after the end of World War II and being born in during the Great Depression.
“I was probably 10 years old then, and, at that time, there was no help from the government at all. You were counted on to take care of yourself. No government … I believe up until 1947, that really never happened. It was up to you to take care of yourself. And you found a way to do it,” he added.
“I was born during the Depression. My father had a third-grade education. Things didn’t always go very easy. But my father worked a lot of different odd jobs in order to put food on the table for the family. We never had an awful lot, but what you did then, you bought what you could afford, not what you wanted, but what you could afford and that was so critical.”
Holtz expressed concern for the future of the country amid growing government control and reliance.
“I worry about the future of this country. Why is that? Because we’ve gotten to the point where everything is about government and, ‘What can you do for me?’ And I’m going to vote for the person that promised me more free things than anything else. There’s no free lunch,” he said.
“They put together a group that tries to tear down the secret to success.”
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Lou Holtz of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
Holtz coached for 33 years in college with six different programs, most notably Notre Dame, where he went 100-30 over his 11 years with the Fighting Irish. He has been a staunch conservative and supporter of President Donald Trump in recent years.
The current government shutdown is hours away from breaking a record to be the longest in history.
The prior record was held by the 2018-2019 government shutdown during President Donald Trump’s first term. Trump signed legislation ending that shutdown in the 9 p.m. hour on the 35th day.
Tuesday marks the 35th day of the latest fiscal standoff. And with no deal reached yet between Democrats and Republicans in Congress, it’s all but certain the dispute will bleed into day 36.
Republicans have for weeks pushed a short-term extension of fiscal year (FY) 2025 federal funding levels called a continuing resolution (CR) aimed at giving lawmakers until Nov. 21 to strike a deal on FY 2026 spending.
The measure is largely free of unrelated policy riders, save for an added $88 million aimed at enhanced security funding for lawmakers, the White House and the Supreme Court.
But Democrats have said they will reject any federal funding bill that does not also extend enhanced Obamacare subsidies that expire at the end of 2025. The enhanced subsidies were a COVID-19 pandemic-era measure that a majority of Republicans have said is no longer needed.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., have said they are open to discussing a revised version of those subsidies but rejected pairing the two issues together.
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The House passed the CR Sept. 19. Johnson has kept his chamber out of session since then in a bid to pressure Senate Democrats to agree to the GOP bill, though they have rejected it 13 times since then.
Meanwhile, funding for critical government programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Women, Infants, and Children program (WIC), as well as national flood insurance are running critically low on funds, potentially ensnaring millions of Americans.
Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind and Alex Miller contributed to this report.
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