Tester: Lack of cooperation on budget is 'crazy'

Montana's U.S. Sen. Jon Tester said Friday afternoon that Republican opposition to passing a budget and preventing a federal government shutdown is political grandstanding at its worst, and that all should work together to keep operations running while conducting long-term planning to reduce the deficit.

Unless a budget or short-term resolution is passed by midnight, all but essential government services — military and law enforcement, essentially — will shut down.

Tester said the Senate has been working to meet the House in budget cuts, but the House refuses to give, and now is hung up over a...