Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill (Mo.) on Friday falsely claimed that it would be unprecedented for the government to shut down while one party controlled both Congress and the presidency.
McCaskill wrote on Twitter that the federal government has never "shut down" while one party controlled the House, the Senate, and the White House.
Never before in the history of this nation has the government been shut down with one party in control of both Congress and the Presidency. Never.
— Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) January 19, 2018
But in fact the government has shut down several times when the same party controlled the presidency and both houses of Congress, and every single time that party was the Democrats.
As a Vox explainer published Friday noted, the government shut down five times under President Jimmy Carter in the 1970s, when his fellow Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate. Most of the shutdowns lasted for one or two weeks, and nearly all were caused by the House and Senate favoring different abortion policies.
"The Senate wanted to loosen restrictions on the use of Medicaid dollars to cover abortions (restrictions known informally as 'the Hyde Amendment'), by allowing funding in cases of rape, incest, and when the health of the mother is in danger," Vox reported, referring to a shutdown from Sept. 30 to Oct. 13 in 1977.
"At the time, only abortions necessary to save the life of the mother were funded," Vox added. "The House, however, insisted on maintaining the stricter ban."