Friday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said shutting down the government was an “immoral, stupid policy.”

Hoyer said, “Our position is we have to stop using the shutdown of the people’s government as a strategy to obtain our objectives.”

He continued, “The problem with using government as a lever, as a tool and taking hostages—not only the 800,000 federal employees but taking all the millions and millions of people who are served by government every day hostage is—that is very, very debilitating to our country — essentially taking our country hostage. So what we’re saying is, Mr. President, we need to negotiate. It could be hard; you can veto some of our bills, but don’t shut down government in the process. So this is a bigger issue than just the wall or education or the Affordable Care Act, it’s an issue of whether or not we’re going to use as a continuing policy shutting down the government of the United States and undermining the confidence of our employees, the confidence of people who deal with the government, and the confidence of the international community looking to see whether the United States of America can act in a rational, responsible way.”

When asked why Democrats are not negotiating with the president, Hoyer said, “What happens next time when the president says, ‘do as I say, and if you don’t I’ll shut down the government.’ or the next time after that, or the next time after that? This is a policy that is an immoral, stupid policy, shutting down the government of the United States to achieve an objective.”

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