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Coming up on C -SPAN's Washington Journal this morning, we'll take your calls and comments live.
And then CQ roll call budget and appropriations reporter Aidan Quigley discusses the latest on negotiations to avoid a government shutdown on Friday.
After that, a discussion on federal spending, the incoming Trump administration, and congressional news of the day, first with Republican Missouri Congressman Mark Alford, a member of the Armed Services and Agriculture Committees, and we'll also talk with Democratic Texas Congressman Al Green,
a member of the Financial Services Committee.
Washington Journal starts now.
Join the conversation.
Good morning.
It's Thursday, December 19th.
The bipartisan deal to keep the government funded past tomorrow at midnight is dead.
President -elect Trump and Elon Musk came out against it yesterday.
The deal had included an additional $100 billion in disaster relief for areas affected by Hurricane Milton and Helene, $10 billion in aid for farmers, and a cost of living adjustment to lawmakers' pay.
This first half hour, we'll get your thoughts on the looming funding deadline.
Here's how to call us.
You can also send us a text.
It's 202 -748 -8003.
Include your first name and your city state.
And you can post your comments on social media.
Facebook .com slash C -SPAN and X at C -SPAN WJ.
Welcome to today's two -hour Washington Journal.
The House is planning to gavel in at 9 a .m. this morning.
And before we get to your calls, we'll speak to a reporter.
This is Aiden Quigley.
He's budget and appropriations reporter for CQ Roll Call.
Aiden, good morning.
Good morning.
Thank you for having me.
So the government funding runs out tomorrow at midnight.
Where do things stand right now on Capitol Hill?
Right now, there's a lot of confusion and uncertainty when it comes to tomorrow night's spending deadline in a way that we haven't seen since October of last year, which, as I'm sure the viewers can recall,
preceded Speaker Kevin McCarthy losing his gavel.
We are right up against the deadline with no clear plan on how to move forward.
House Republican leaders were scrambling late last night to come up with a new plan after the president -elect and his advisors who, you know, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy on the so -called Doge Committee decided to kill this bill.
So what's going on with this, with a new request for raising the debt ceiling?
Can you explain that?
Yeah, that really came out of nowhere yesterday.
It had not been a part of these spending talks, but Vice President -elect J .D. Vance sent in a tweet that President Trump wants that to be taken care of before he takes office.
Right now, the Treasury is set to run out of its borrowing capacity next summer, which typically the party that is in the minority uses that as a way to get some concessions from the party that's in the...
So what is the likelihood,
do you think, of an actual government shutdown?
I'm always an optimist when it comes to spending and them working out a deal, but I think we are in, at least in the past few years, uncharted territory here with the Trump administration returning and a level of uncertainty when it comes to what the president -elect wants.
I mean, now it's a little more clear about his desires, but it...
And you mentioned former Speaker McCarthy losing his gavel over a similar situation.
What does it look like for Speaker Johnson keeping the speakership?
It's still a really far way away from January 3rd, at least from where I'm sitting.
There's definitely some members who are upset about how this was handled, but I think as long as he maintains the support of President -elect Trump, I think he will end up continuing to be Speaker at this point.
But it's definitely a lot less certain now than it was a few days ago.
So explain how today and tomorrow play out.
What are you going to be watching?
What's the process here?
So right now, we are waiting for some signs from House leadership about what their next play call is going to be.
Yesterday, you know, they had a 1 ,500 -page bill that there's $100 billion in disaster aid, $10 billion in economic aid for farmers, a lot of unrelated provisions, including a member pay raise,
transferring the ownership of RFK Stadium back to the city of D .C.
I just on and on and on many, many provisions, and that bill is is no longer moving forward.
So House Republicans are right now trying to come up with a new plan that they think that can get the support it needs to pass the House.
That said, Democrats are pretty clear at this point.
They are not on board.
They had an agreement.
That's what they want to to go with, and it will be difficult to see how we, how we move forward at this point.
At the end of the day, We'll have to wait and see what Democrats decide to do.
It is, again, right up to Christmas, and there's a reason they put these deadlines so close to Christmas, which is really a motivating factor for lawmakers to get out of here.
All right, Aidan Quigley, budget and appropriations reporter for CQ Roll Call.
You can find his work at rollcall .com.
Thanks so much for getting up with us this morning.
Thanks for having me.
And we will take your calls.
Our question for this first half hour is your comments, essentially, on being one and a half days away from a potential government shutdown.
And we'll start with Doug in Ohio on the Independent Line.
Hi, Doug.
Hi.
Good morning and Merry Christmas to you.
I'd just like to say President Musk and Vice President Trump have really got it bad this time, if you think about it.
All right, Doug.
And Eric in Kensington, Maryland.
Democrat.
Good morning, Eric.
I agree with the sentence of your last caller.
It's going to be more of the same chaoticness.
I think the government is going to get shut down to show their power, even if it's for a day.
You know, and it is.
You know, when I think of half of my friends who voted for Trump, this will only hurt them.
Anything that these billionaires will do is for themselves, and they will step on the poor to get there.
And I just can't believe that he won the popular vote.
You know, as compared to Ronald Reagan.
It's just shameful.
And I'm a veteran.
You know, I served seven years in the infantry.
I just, I'm shocked.
And I've worked in the public in many years.
I cannot believe that this man represents the Christian national movement, has all these billionaires in his administration.
I mean, dropping $23 million on homes here in D .C. and stuff now.
It's just shocking.
I don't know.
That's all.
I'm just dumbfounded.
I just heard this news this morning driving to work.
And I'm just dumbfounded that they shut the deal down.
Thank you.
All right, Eric.
And here is the Republican line in Akron, Ohio.
Justin, good morning.
Good morning.
I don't know what that gentleman's talking about about Christian nationalism, but that's a silly comment.
Here's what I'm optimistic about.
I heard Aiden say he's optimistic about a spending deal.
I'm optimistic that Speaker Johnson figures out what just happened in this election.
He passes a spending bill that cuts government spending by 1%.
Sends it to the Senate, and the House goes home and tells Chuck Schumer to do his job for once.
The Senate is a joke.
These guys don't pass any budgets.
They haven't passed a single appropriations bill.
The Democrats are hell -bent on bankrupting America, and it's time for Mike Johnson and the Republicans to stop it immediately.
So, Justin, what would you like to see happen?
A clean CR, so no additional funding for, say, the disaster relief, etc.?
Our government's so bloated, they can find the money they need for those additional things.
They can cut defense spending.
They can cut all kinds of other departments to focus on the important things that need funded.
We don't need to clean anything.
We need to stop this deficit spending.
It is crushing Americans, and they're too ignorant to know.
What deficit spending is doing to the dollar?
They're too ignorant to know that the interest expenses on our debt are going to surpass the Pentagon?
People have got to start being smarter about economics in this country.
We've got a massive financial illiteracy problem.
All right, Justin, let's take a look at what Hakeem Jeffries says.
He's the Democratic leader in the House.
He made a statement to reporters last night saying essentially that Republicans are on their own.
House Republicans, House Democrats, Senate Republicans, and Senate Democrats reached a bipartisan agreement to fund the government, keep it open, and meet the needs of the American people.
We reached a bipartisan agreement to provide disaster assistance to everyday Americans whose lives have been upended and turned upside down.
As a result of hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, floods, and other types of extreme weather events, we reached a bipartisan agreement to meet the needs of the American people and provide assistance to farmers,
families, children, seniors, veterans, men and women in uniform, and working class Americans.
House Republicans have now unilaterally decided to break a bipartisan agreement that they made.
House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government and hurt everyday Americans all across this country.
That was Leader Hakeem Jeffries last night at the Capitol.
We're taking your calls, and this is Dwight, an independent in Fairfield, California.
Good morning.
Good morning, Mimi.
Good morning, Washington Journal.
First thing, Mimi, there is no such thing as a Department of Government Efficiency.
What it is is two private citizens that are walking around the nation's capital that are telling elected officials what it is that they are going to do.
And that's exactly what they're doing.
And as far as the government shutdown is concerned, Republicans have the ball.
The American people have spoken.
Let it fly.
Let's see what happens.
I'm 72 years old, Mimi.
I've heard this government shutdown year after year after.
I think going probably all the way back to Richard Nixon, probably.
And we go through this all the time.
And as a seasoned citizen, Let it fly.
Let's see what happens.
This is what the American populace voted for.
They're going to shut the government down, and they also spoke of raising the debt ceiling.
So we know there are going to be more spending and more spending and more spending, and we're going to get what we voted for.
When I say we, I'm speaking the majority of the American electorate wanted this.
All right, Dwight.
We have what we have.
Thank you, Nene.
Thank you so much.
Patty in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.
Democrat.
Hi, Patty.
Hi.
I just wanted to say that I didn't vote for Elon Musk.
Elon Musk is owned by Elon Musk.
He gave him hundreds of millions of dollars, and so are now the Republicans.
These oligarchs that are now running our country, people are going to protest.
If they shut this government down, friends of mine were saying, oh, we'll never vote again.
Any more Republicans in office.
But if you remember what Donald Trump said, that if he gets into office, he promised his Christian nationalists that they would never have to vote again.
So if they shut down the government this time, I think there's going to be a real uprising.
Thank you.
Here's Gina in Decatur, Alabama, a Republican.
Hi, Gina.
Hi, Mimi.
How are you?
Am I coming in clear this time?
Yes, you are.
Go right ahead.
Okay, good deal.
Number one, happy holiday for 30 days.
Number one, I'm the budget hawk that always calls about them double dipping with the CRs, you know, running agencies for six months and then getting a budget and then spending it for the...
You know, getting the whole budget and spending it in six months before September 30th.
But number two, I would like to mention that the good news is the NDAA, the National Defense Authorization Act, did get passed and my son and his buddy are on active duty and they just made it in at 5 :15 this morning.
So, glad to have a couple of sets of boots in the house for Christmas.
And another thing is I agree that we should shut it down, but I would like to reassure veterans, Social Security recipients,
federal employees that are retired and everything, you're not going to miss a check, so they don't need to be scaring the old people that they're not going to get their Social Security.
And you have a wonderful, blessed day.
And as Gina said, the Senate did pass the $895 billion defense bill with CBS News saying, with controversial gender -affirming care restrictions.
Said that this was approved yesterday on Wednesday, despite concern from some Democrats.
Over a controversial policy restricting gender -affirming care for children of service members.
The vote was 85 to 14.
Senate approved the legislation, which the House passed last week.
Eleven Democrats and three Republicans voted against it in the upper chamber.
The bill now heads to the president's desk for his signature.
And Jason, Montgomery, Alabama, Independent Line, good morning.
I appreciate callers like Gina.
I really, really do.
My fellow Alabamian citizens that call in and just put their cards on the table and say, all right, I want the government to be shut down.
We live in a state dependent on federal dollars, like most red states.
The budget, like, 30 to 40 percent.
Gina calls in and says, hey, and turn off that 30 to 40 percent ticket, and then what we're going to do?
And I think it speaks to some...
All the people were talking about was like, oh, well, this isn't going to happen.
That's going to happen.
Trump is a liar.
Blah, blah, blah.
Republican voters want what Trump is doing.
So they want to be able to sit on his couch in Mar -a -Lago, down the border bill, the bipartisan border bill, to tell Mike Johnson what to do.
Because Mike Johnson is the least experienced speaker in the history of speakers.
So he's just going to do whatever the caucus wants to do.
Voters want them.
They want them to.
They don't want them to be productive.
Ask the government to shut down.
All right.
All right, Jason.
And let's take a look at this is President -elect Trump and Vice President -elect Vance's statement.
This was posted on X yesterday.
It said, increasing the debt ceiling is not great, but we'd rather do it on Biden's watch.
If Democrats won't cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration?
We're good to go.
Susan Clarksville, Tennessee Democrat.
Hi, Susan.
Hi there.
A lot of people said what I wanted to say, actually.
But I don't know if anybody remembers Trump shut the government down for the longest in history last time.
And I swear I heard them say they wanted to give themselves a raise.
Is that real?
Yes.
So as part of the deal that has died, Susan, that was a cost of living increase for lawmakers.
That is correct.
They haven't done anything.
What do they need an increase for?
We're not getting increases.
But I found a good app.
It's called Good Unites Us.
And it shows exactly who funded Trump and Musk.
And who I'm going to boycott.
So it's a good app, and man, I just pray we get through this clown show.
Thank you.
And this is Eugene in Marietta, Georgia, Independent Line.
Good morning.
Yes, good morning, Mimi, and Merry Christmas and the best for the new year.
Thank you.
You too.
Boy, this is an instant replay again.
Trump has done this before, and now he's doing it at the very last minute.
Putting a squeeze, and it's so cheap, it's rotting out the core of this country.
It's just rotten.
Rotting and making everything cheap, even though everybody's paying more.
But it's just cheapening everything.
And it's sad.
It's sad, but it's an instant replay.
Thank you, and all the best.
Alan in Brooklyn, New York.
Democrat.
Good morning, Alan.
Good morning.
Thank you again for the time.
A few points on this.
First of all, Trump has interest in cryptocurrency both as a policymaker and as an investor.
And cryptocurrency is an alternate currency that benefits when the U .S. economy and the U .S. leadership in the world is viewed more dimly.
So there's nothing more likely to make the world view The United States and its currency more dimly than to have these frequent government shutdowns that are just a definition of dysfunction.
Trump also has an interest in pushing whatever decline in the economy may occur in the future into the period during the Biden term, the last few weeks.
So causing a government shutdown now will benefit them by allowing them to say in the next campaign, look how much better things are during our term.
Then during the Biden years, Biden now has a very excellent economic record going into these last few weeks.
If Trump engineers a collapse that causes the last weeks to look worse, that's not Biden's fault.
But the bigger picture here to me is what I saw on Russian television excerpts a few weeks ago.
Commentators were laughing at the prospect that all these incompetents were being appointed to the cabinet.
And they said that if...
Earl, in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, Democrat.
You're next.
Ramaswamy.
Ramaswamy.
Yeah, he's...
You could see...
I'm from the streets of Philadelphia.
I just moved in.
You could see he's a liar, cheat, and a crook.
And so they're all...
And the people, the maggot crowd, what do they get out of this?
Because he's a Christian nationalist now?
He doesn't even know how to read a Bible.
Trump, when the lady asked him what's his favorite verse, he couldn't come up with a verse.
Everybody can come up with John 316.
He couldn't even come up with that.
Trump's a bad, bad dude.
All I can hope for is the vice president gets to his senses in a couple months or a year or whatever and 25s him, kicks him out of office.
Because I think we would do better with Vance than Trump.
Trump's an evil, evil person.
All he cares is about the big bucks.
And he don't care if he hurts Joe, an 80 -year -old person collecting Social Security.
He don't care if he has him living in the woods or in the streets.
He just is a no good man.
All right, Earl, and this is Lee, a Republican in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Hello.
Hi, good morning, Mimi.
How are you doing?
And I hope you're doing well, and Merry Christmas to you.
And to you as well.
Yeah, and the one thing about the...
I did hear a caller call in and was talking about the pay raise.
No, let's not forget what Trump also said.
He doesn't agree with that pay raise either.
I really, you know, the Trump derangement syndrome, I can't believe that so many people are still just really, you know, bent on destroying the guy.
They talk, you know, they can't understand that he is our president still.
I mean, he's been elected, and there's reasons he's been elected, because the people are sick and tired of how our country's been ran for the past four years.
Joe Biden's running into the ground.
They put in Kamala Harris.
So Lee, let's focus on the funding deadline, which is tomorrow at midnight.
Were you in favor of the bipartisan deal that was struck to the continuing resolution, or were you against it?
Yes.
Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off.
I heard you say we've got way too much spending.
How long would you think a good, would you be okay with a government shutdown?
As long as it takes to get it right.
It's obviously not right now.
So define right.
Like, if we can get it right right now, what would we need to do for this spending?
If I was an economist, I could tell you better, but just being a normal person, one thing we could do is stop giving other countries so much money.
The other thing is take care of our own citizens.
Our citizens in our streets are struggling, whether in Chicago, California, New York, with the migrant crisis.
How much money have we been pork -bellying into that?
And how much of the COVID money wasn't actually used?
There's a lot of questions that, you know, should be answered.
All right, Lee.
Let's talk to Ralph, also a Republican in Virginia.
Good morning, Ralph.
Yeah, good morning to you and have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
And I appreciate you taking my call.
Trump has not put us in this position.
The Democratic Party...
Biden has broke the bank.
Now, that partisan bill that was signed into law for Social Security fairness is correct.
And we've been messed over for years.
I lost $130 ,000 because this bill was passed in 1983 by Ronald Reagan.
And I'm telling you, they have so much budgetary spending and so forth.
That this country is not going to survive, and they keep kicking the can down the road.
It's to the point now, the government is going to shut down, which they thought was going to survive, but it's not going to survive unless the congressmen and the Senate work together and try to iron this thing out, what they have done.
They've kept the can down the road so many years.
We got to get this budget and balance and so forth, and...
Yes, thank you for taking my call.
I feel that it's been going on too long.
I agree with the last call you had.
I can't believe The money we're going to lose.
I mean, the pork belly, you know, you say everything, you know, they don't list anything that's out in the pork belly.
Look at the pork belly and what they're going to waste their money on.
That's just the tip of the iceberg.
Look at what they steal.
They sold the steel for five cents on the dollar.
How about cutting half of the workforce in Washington or have the senators and congressmen take a big cut in their paycheck?
And Richard, you're going in and out, but we got your point.
After the break, we'll talk to two lawmakers about these chaotic final hours of the 118th Congress, with tomorrow's government funding deadline fast approaching.
First up is Republican Mark Alford of Missouri, and then later we'll talk to Democrat Al Green of Texas.
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Washington Journal continues.
Welcome back.
We're joined now by Representative Mark Alford.
He is a Republican of Missouri, and he's on the Armed Services Committee and also the Agriculture Committee.
Representative, welcome to the program.
Thank you.
Good to be here.
Can you tell us what's the latest on this CR and tomorrow night's federal spending deadline?
Well, I'm sorry that we got to this point to begin with.
Have we gotten the 12 appropriation bills out of...
We're good to go.
I think?
We're good.
We're good to go.
And because of the high input costs, I think directly attributable to this president, President Biden and his administration, the war on fossil fuels, the high input costs have driven a lot of farmers out of business and the low commodity prices.
We have suffered through droughts in many parts of our farming communities.
In my district in particular, we've been at a D4, which is the most severe level of drought for three years in a row.
And with farmers going out of business, we needed this money for our farmers so that they could get the insurance that they need and they could get the loans from the banks.
The banks, the farm credit institutions, are very skittish about loaning to people who can't pay them back, as they should be.
So right now, those farmers are not going to get that extra money.
The people that are waiting for disaster relief from the hurricanes are not going to get the money.
But that was what was put into this bill.
No, I was for this.
The deal.
To have this in the package on the continuing resolution and a one -year extension of the farm bill in total.
But the problem is when Mike Johnson went to negotiate this deal, the Democrats wanted something in exchange because they did not want to just help the farmers.
I don't know why.
They don't see...
Food security is national security.
They don't see the issue in losing 1 ,000 farms a month in America.
What were some of the things that the Democrats wanted to put in that you were against?
They wanted this pay raise, which I think is stupid.
Why in the world, and I've heard some of your callers today, very intelligent callers.
Why do we deserve a pay raise?
We haven't had a cost of living adjustment in 16 years, and I know that there are some people who are upset about that, but we've got to do our job first.
We have got to show the American people that we are on their side.
What is it that's stopping you from doing your job?
Like, why weren't those bills taken care of a long time ago?
You have a whole year.
We have people within our own conference who have put up roadblocks to passing them.
They passed out of committee in a bipartisan manner.
And we got five done on the House floor.
For instance, the Ag Appropriations Bill.
I'm hoping to get on the Ag Appropriations Subcommittee and we'll be working on this next year.
There are some in our conference who don't believe in what they call subsidies.
We call them safety nets for our farmers.
The crop insurance and the other programs.
And without those, they can't get the loans that they need to operate.
And so there are some in our conference who believe that farmers should just act like any independent business, that they should not have any help from the federal government, and so they would not vote for the Ag Appropriations Bill.
That's just one example.
Elon Musk had been tweeting furiously yesterday against the deal even before President Trump commented on it and saying that essentially there should not be any voting in Congress until January 20th.
How do you react to that?
I think that's troublesome because if we wait until January 20th to get anything done, we have not cleared the deck for President Trump to do his job.
There are things we have to do now.
The reconciliation process, which is very technical for some people at home, but basically under the Byrd Rule in the Senate, we're able to pass things related directly to a budgetary matter and send it over to the Senate, and we only need a simple majority rather than 60 votes.
A few of our callers were talking about the enormous power that Elon Musk has and how he has said very clearly that he will put his resources, which are considerable, against any lawmaker and primary them if they go against President -elect Trump's policies.
How do you react to that?
Does that concern you?
Well, it does a little bit.
Look, I respect what Elon Musk is doing and Vivek Ramaswamy and the Doge.
I'm part of the Doge Caucus.
We are looking at every avenue of cut that we can make.
I can give you example after example if we have more time, especially in the SNAP program, Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, Food Stamp Program.
$34 million a day in waste, abuse, and fraud.
But we've got to make sure that we...
As elected representatives are voting for our district and our conscience.
And we also want to follow with President Trump.
He is the leader of this MAGA movement.
He is the leader of America First.
And when I talk about America First, I mean, let's make us strong first so we can help others be strong.
So, Congressman, you would vote your conscience even if it's against future President Trump?
Even if that means you get primaried by Elon Musk's considerable resources?
With very few things attached, President Trump feels like we've got to have aid for the people who are suffering, who are living in tents right now in Asheville, North Carolina, in the mountains there, who have been adversely affected by this hurricane.
And I was just there last month, and I have seen the devastation there.
We need disaster aid.
We need economic security aid for our farmers.
And if you'd like to join our conversation with Representative Mark Alford, you can.
The lines are by party.
So Republicans are on 202 -748 -8001, Democrats 202 -748 -8000, and Independents 202 -748 -8002.
An article on The Hill says the House Republican, which is you, eyes Medicare and Social Security for Doge cuts.
Are you willing to cut Social Security and Medicare?
No.
Well, define cuts.
Anyone who is currently on Social Security right now or is paying into the system, actively working in the United States of America, paying into Social Security, we should not touch that at all.
I did an interview earlier last week talking about long -term and on the front end.
If people are living longer...
Should we talk about moving the retirement age back?
Because Social Security is going to be insolvent within 10 years if we do nothing.
I think it needs to be scored differently instead of a 10 -year, maybe a 30 -year outlook for Social Security by the CBO.
But we've got to make some adjustments if people are living longer and retiring later.
I think that makes sense to the average common...
Good morning.
First thing I'd like to say is that Your representative said about the war on fossil fuel.
Well, I believe that we are currently producing more fuel in the United States now under Biden than we ever did under Trump.
And I believe that CSAN has read articles to that point.
I also believe that we have done really well under President Biden.
And that from what President Biden was left, you know, you can't really compare what President Biden was left to what President Trump was left,
or former President Trump and now incoming President Trump.
Because, you know, President Biden is the only president that I am aware of that was elected into his office, into his term of office during a pandemic.
All right, Joel.
It was very clear that even before President Biden took the oath of office, he signaled to the fossil fuel industry that he was going to shut down the pipelines, shut down drilling in some parts of America,
shut down the federal leases on some lands, and that oil is a commodity.
When President Trump left office four years ago, the price of gas in my neighborhood was $1 .78 a gallon.
It shot up during the Biden administration to well over $5 and $6 a gallon in some parts of our nation.
And let me tell you what happens to our farmers in my district and in my state.
Fertilizer is made from petroleum products.
That increases the cost of that fertilizer, increases the input cost.
For our farmers.
And that is why a lot of them are not able to do business and not able to make a reasonable profit to stay in business.
And so, yes, this president, President Biden, pretty much declared a war on fossil fuels because of the climate change concerns that he has.
I believe a lot of that is a hoax.
We could get into that later.
That's a much larger topic.
But as far as I'm concerned, I cannot wait for us to, you know, Trump says, drill, baby, drill.
Yeah, we're going to open up pipelines.
We're going to start fracking again.
We're going to start drilling in places where we should be drilling responsibly for our environment, but also responsibly for the American people.
Here's Ron in Round Lake, Illinois.
Republican.
Ron, good morning.
Yeah, how you doing?
Good.
One of the problems our government has, it's just common sense.
If we did, if they would just pass a resolution that Was nothing but clean bills.
It's the garbage that's added on the backside, and then you guys title it something else so they could use...
I mean, it's both sides.
I'm not saying it's either or.
I mean, I'm a Republican.
I think we're in a great position.
Don't know where President Biden's at right now and why he's hiding in his basement again.
But if we just had clean bills, the title, the bill, that's it.
Ron, thank you for that comment.
You're absolutely right and that's why we In return to regular order two years ago under the leadership of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker, made it a point that we would go to single subject bills.
Every bill has to go through the Rules Committee before it hits the House floor.
And they make sure that the subjects are germane.
So you can't attach...
I think so.
Thank you, Ron, for that comment.
We have a text for you from Riker in Carpentersville, Illinois.
So the House intended to shut down, just not during the election, because it would have affected Trump's campaign.
Sounds like Trump first, not America.
I appreciate that.
And if I misspoke, that's on me.
We don't want to shut down.
And here's why.
I don't care if it's before an election or after an election or before Christmas or after Christmas.
It's not good.
For our troops, number one, we have Fort Leonard Wood in our district, in the southeastern quadrant of our district.
80 ,000 personnel go through there each year.
They would not get paid until after the shutdown is over.
And typically what happens in the past is immediately the national parks put up signs around Washington.
It becomes front page news and on C -SPAN and other places.
And Republicans get blamed for the shutdown.
It's never the Schumer shutdown when actually a lot of the fault lies at his feet for the intransigence in the Senate and their lack of action.
That's what happened to the Farm Bill this year.
Debbie Stabenow, the leader of the Ag Committee in the Senate, didn't come back with any serious Farm Bill text until well late in the game, late this fall.
And so we passed it in May.
Our chairman, GT Thompson, was trying to get a deal done, and here we are with no farm bill.
You've said several times that you don't want the government to shut down.
Are you confident that in the day and a half that you've got left, that you'll be able to get a deal and get it past the Senate and to the president?
Look, I'm not in leadership.
I'm not in these top -level discussions.
I know Mike Johnson, our speaker, does not want a government shutdown.
But he also wanted that deal that got killed.
He wanted the deal.
So now you've got to start over.
And here's the problem.
Had we gone with just a clean CR without these added things for agriculture, which we need, and disaster relief, which we need, I wish the Democrats would see that.
Do you think President -elect Trump would agree to that?
This is without the debt limit increase that he's asking for.
You know, the debt limit is a whole other issue.
We could handle that before he gets in office, and that's why I was saying that we are going to be working day one.
They've already told us to stay over the weekends.
Our schedule has come out between January 3rd and January 20th.
We can handle the debt limit before he gets in office.
That's what he's saying, I believe.
But there's time to do that.
But first and foremost, we have got to make sure that our farmers are taken care of Disaster victims are taken care of.
That's what America's all about.
And let's talk to Bill.
He's in Riceville, Tennessee, independent.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Good.
Okay, we'll get a response on a lottery.
Bill, I assume he lives in Tennessee.
Chuck Fleischman's a friend of mine.
He's in appropriations as well.
I will give him that message on the House floor today and see if his staff...
Hey, good morning.
I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah.
And I have an issue with the Congressman here.
He is all about the Farm Bill.
And the fact is, I lived in North Carolina for 45 years.
And I saw two families become multi -millionaires off of subsidies.
So, you know, I don't get that.
And then out of his mouth comes, let's help the farmers, but then let's cut SNAP.
So which is it?
You want to help the farmers?
I understand.
You want people to eat?
Explain it to me.
And one question.
Did you sign Grover Norquist's promise?
Yes, I did.
Early on.
I do not believe in raising taxes.
We don't have an income problem, a revenue problem in America.
We have a spending problem.
As far as families go that are farming, they're all levels of family farms in America.
Yes, some are wealthy.
Some have...
I think so.
Have million -dollar farms.
The average price for an acre of land in our district is about $20 ,000 now.
And so when you have a 300 -acre farm, that's a lot of money.
When it comes to the SNAP program, we need to provide, under the 12 titles of the Farm Bill, the aid for our farmers, the conservation programs, but...
We are adding $295 million to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program.
The Democrats will say there's cuts.
We are tightening up the work requirements for SNAP, but we've also got to go after the waste, abuse, and fraud in this system.
$34 million a day.
And I asked the Secretary of Ag, Mr. Vilsack, He was before our committee this last year.
I said, if we go after waste, abuse, and fraud, is that a cut to SNAP?
And it's on the record.
He said this on video.
No, it is not.
Because that's going to mean more aid for families who are truly in need.
Look, we live in the greatest nation known to man, and I truly believe that as blessed as we are by God Almighty, we should be helping those out who truly cannot work.
But SNAP should not be a lifestyle.
It should be a life vest.
It's temporary.
Supplemental, and it should be nutritious.
Let me tell you one more thing about SNAP.
You know the number two ingredient, the number two thing bought with SNAP right now?
Sugary drinks.
$4 billion a year.
Our obesity rate in America right now is 40%, and it's much higher with SNAP families.
American taxpayers are subsidizing the obesity crisis in America, which is then putting pressure on Medicare and Medicaid.
So we've got to get nutrition back in the program.
We've got to make sure that people who are truly hungry and can't work, we are helping them out.
Thank you.
This is Rod in Tuckahoe, New York, Independent Line.
Good morning.
Good morning.
I have a question about the pay raise.
I'm wondering why they want a pay raise when half of Congress are millionaires and when they leave after a... 10 -year career, let's say, in the House or the Senate, they're 25 % richer.
They're 20 times more wealthy than the people they represent.
I can't see a pay raise when all they do is yell and scream at each other and don't perform for us.
Very good point.
And I tend to agree with you, sir.
Let me just walk you back a little through history on this.
I make $174 ,000 a year.
I believe the senators make the same.
It's the most money from a paycheck that I've ever made in my life.
And there are two types of people up here in Washington.
People like me, that this is the most money they've ever made.
And then millionaires who have more or less contributed their own campaigns to get here.
I did not do that.
I went to the people of whom I'm going to represent to help me get here.
And so when we get here, there is a lot of intransigence in our system.
And so it's hard to justify, even though we haven't had a cost of living adjustment in 16 years.
It is set up in the appropriations process that we should be making the same as federal judges, which is somewhere between $235 ,000 and $245 ,000.
I don't think we deserve that right now.
What this was doing, and it's not a 40 % pay raise, they're not going back and reclaiming all that money and bumping the salary up to $245 ,000.
It was, for one year, a cost of living adjustment of 3 .8%, which is about...
You know, Congressman, Elon Musk did tweet out How can this be called a continuing resolution if it includes a 40 % pay increase for Congress?
As you just explained, that is not true.
Well, I don't know where he was getting this information.
We did research on this.
Our staff and I, we looked at this, and this is for one year, cost of living adjustment 3 .8%.
Now, if you went back to all those years, yes, it would be 40%, and maybe that's what he's talking about.
He's got over 200 million followers on X, as you know.
Something like this going out...
Yes, we got many calls in our office, and some good friends of mine called and said, what in the heck are you doing?
They didn't use the word heck.
Giving yourself a 40 % pay raise.
I said, where did you get that?
And they said, we got it off X.
I said, let me do some research.
You know, sometimes we get things mixed up in the passion of the moment, and people are very passionate about this.
But I'm big on facts, and I want to get it right.
Frank in Hellandale, California.
Democrat.
Good morning.
Morning, Frank.
Hi, Frank.
Hey, thank you for your service, sir.
I appreciate it.
Thank you.
I just want to get back to the basics of government funding.
I'm a former government employee.
I'm a law enforcement.
I live in California.
And I know what government shutdown does because it affected my family.
I did 28 years as federal law enforcement.
It does affect people, and sometimes people don't understand that.
And I understand both sides of the aisle have to negotiate.
Everyone wants a little bit of something.
But the bottom line is, you know, the people that serve you as government employees, they get affected really bad because they don't get a paycheck.
You know, and this is something that's ongoing all the time because both sides of the aisle can get along where they...
They can't come to a reasonable thing.
You said something earlier about they didn't want to pass the government funding because it might affect President Trump.
Well, that's the reason why I didn't vote this year, either for president at all, because we need to get down to the basics.
Let's take care of business and just pay our employees.
If we have to do a separate bill, let's do it.
But we got to keep that government going because people depend on their paychecks.
I know you're in a tough situation sometimes, but let's go across the aisle.
Thank you, Frank, and I appreciate your service through your federal employment here.
One of the issues that we have...
And Elon and Ramaswamy have pointed this out.
I pointed it out two years ago when I first got here and wanted to go inside the two bureaus that we have oversight on, the Ag Committee and Small Business Committee.
I wanted to go to the SBA and visit people, and I wanted to go to the USDA and visit people.
They would not let us in the building.
A sitting member of Congress, we introduced the Cabo Act, the Congressional Access to Bureaucratic Offices.
We're good to go.
I think?
The United States Department of Agriculture, which has 2 million square feet of office space, I've heard it's a beautiful building, I can't get inside, only 6 % of the people are working there at any given time.
Now, there are people who work successfully from home, but there are others who are not doing their jobs, and that's why our congressional offices are being flooded daily with constituents, taxpayers, Republicans, Democrats,
Independents, and politically agnostic.
We're good to go.
More like clients instead of second -class citizens.
Congressman, we're almost out of time, but I want to ask you real quick about your GOP colleague, Congressman Loudermilk, has said that he is in favor of the FBI investigating former Representative Liz Cheney over her involvement in the January 6th committee.
What do you think?
I think Representative Loudermilk is on to something there.
I've met with him.
He released a report out of his committee.
About the whole January 6th debacle that the National Guard was not called in, although Trump wanted them in.
They stayed two miles away.
They did not come in.
It's all on record.
It's all through testimony.
I think we need a...
Look, we need to get this right on January 6th, and the committee that was held before I even got here was not the right way to do it.
Nancy Pelosi kept people off the committee, which would have helped bring about the facts.
Do we not want the facts and the truth in America?
Nancy Pelosi kept Democrats off...
Kept Republicans like Jim Jordan off the committee, and hand -selected the two Republicans that were on that committee to make it...
Representative Mark Alford, a Republican of Missouri on the Committees of Armed Services and Agriculture.
Thanks so much for joining us.
My pleasure.
And coming up, it's Open Forum.
We'll take your calls right after this break.
The numbers are on your screen.
Republicans, 202 -748 -8001.
Democrats, 202 -748 -8000.
And Independents, 202 -748 -8002.
Later, we're joined by Democrat Al Green of Texas, and we'll talk about the debate over federal spending and where the Democratic Party went wrong in this year's elections.
We'll be right back.
I believe that those countries...
And President Dwight Eisenhower.
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Washington Journal continues.
Welcome back.
It is Open Forum.
A couple of things to update you with.
This news happened yesterday from the New York Times House panel.
It's said to have voted to release the Gates report.
Lawmakers agreed the report would come out after the House has completed legislative business for the year and once they have left Washington to return to their districts.
Former Representative Gates did put out a statement.
I'll read you a portion of that.
It says this.
In my single days, I often sent funds to women.
I dated.
Even some I never dated.
But who asked?
I dated several of these women for years.
I never had sexual contact with someone under 18.
Any claim that I have would be destroyed in court, which is why no such claim has ever made in court.
My 30s were an era of working hard and playing hard, too.
But at least I didn't vote for CRs that effed over the country.
That's former Representative Gates.
And we are taking your calls and starting with Samuel in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, Independent Line.
Good morning, Samuel.
Good morning.
I was wondering, with these continuing resolutions, if Speaker Johnson would commit to the new Congress to go back to, as Dick Armey said, regular order.
All right.
And this is Al in Fitzgerald, Georgia.
Republican.
Good morning.
Rick in Hayward, Wisconsin, Independent Line.
Hi, Rick.
I don't know how they can...
It's like they're always trying to sneak in something under the radar.
As far as Matt Gaetz goes, I used to think he was a mean SOB, but I will say this.
He would have been perfect for the Attorney General job because that's the type of person we need in there.
That's all I have, but thank you very much.
Jill in New York, New York.
Republican.
Hi, Jill.
Jill, are you...
Yes.
Okay, hi.
Hi.
I would like to ask that Senator from Missouri, if he's aware of the fact that petroleum products are carcinogenic, and if that's what they're using for fertilizer, they should look into that,
especially in the light of the fact that we have so many problems with children in school.
That's all I have to say.
Thank you.
And David in Clinton Township, Michigan.
Democrat.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Yeah, I got a lot of exceptions with Representative Allred.
First of all, he said that Biden shut down every pipeline or something to the effect that he shut down a bunch of pipelines when he only shut down the Keystone pipeline.
That's the only one that got shut down.
There's 147 other pipelines transporting oil all over this country.
So that is completely incorrect.
And then he was talking about the price of gas being under $2.
I think he said something, $1 .97 or something like that.
Well, that was because we had a shutdown.
There was a lockdown in this country.
There was no one driving cars.
And if he understood the simple mechanics of supply and demand, there was no demand for oil.
So the cost went down a lot.
And then it went back up when we started driving again and when the economy picked back up.
And here's Tim in New York, Independent.
Hi, Tim.
Hi, how you doing?
Good morning.
Morning.
The fellow that just talked took all my thunder.
But I would like to add that I wish one of your congressmen there would talk about Social Security.
Like your previous guest, he started saying that it was part of the budget and they'd have to cut Social Security.
And Ronald Reagan himself said that Social Security has nothing to do with the budget.
That's money taken from workers.
It's money employers pay into it.
And if they want to raise it, they should just take the cap off it.
Instead of it being $175 ,000, let people pay Social Security up to $250 ,000 a year.
And that should make Social Security fine for years and years.
Okay, I'll ask Tim.
Our next congressman, Al Green, will be with us in about 20 minutes.
So I'll ask him as well.
Thank you, Mimi.
Jerry in Lindsay, California.
Republican.
Good morning.
Hello, how are you?
This is Terry.
Oh, Terry, not Jerry.
Terry with a T.
Okay.
Go ahead, Terry.
I want to say a couple of important things.
I believe we as a country, we need to stay united and not divided.
That's first and foremost.
I just really wish there would be help for people who genuinely need help, because there really are.
And I really hope that the media in general would get things correct when they use the word "immigrants" and they have a conflict.
Not exactly what they are when they should be calling them illegal immigrants.
There's a big difference between the two.
There's people who come here the right way and the wrong way.
Anyhow, I just hope we all can come together as a nation and look past our differences and be more united.
Okay, thank you very much.
You all have a good night.
And this is Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell announcing a rate cut yesterday.
The Fed has cut interest rates by 0 .25%.
Take a look.
Longer -term inflation expectations appear to remain well anchored, as reflected in a broad range of surveys of households, businesses and forecasters, as well as measures from financial markets.
The median projection in the SEP for total PCE inflation is 2 .4 % this year and 2 .5 % next year.
Thank you.
At today's meeting, the committee decided to lower the target range for the federal funds rate by a quarter percentage point to four and a quarter to four and a half percent.
We've been moving policy toward a more neutral setting in order to maintain the strength of the economy and the labor market while establishing further progress, and sorry, enabling further progress on inflation.
With today's action, we have lowered our policy rate by a full percentage point from its peak, and our policy stance is now significantly less restrictive.
Thank you.
The committee will assess incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks.
We're not on any preset course.
And Eugene in Grantville, Georgia, Democrat.
Good morning, Eugene.
Good morning.
Thank you for taking my call.
My goodness, I thought Georgia had the worst congressperson with Marjorie Taylor Greene, but that catch, he's looking for the trophy there.
For January 6th, he brought up...
We already seen what happened on January the 6th.
I watched it on C -SPAN, the station that he was on, which gives credibility to C -SPAN, so I take C -SPAN did a good job, and I don't need an investigation.
We should have been having an investigation, should have been a criminal investigation, and we all know who should have been, who was charged with it, and our system that we have for it.
Grand jury, when we quit...
Holding our leaders to the same standards that we hold one another to.
We no longer have a country.
Thank you.
Have a good day.
When you have unelected officials, and not even officials, unelected individuals like Elon Musk having any say in our budget, it makes no sense to me.
No one elected him, no one voted for him, and if I'm understanding, from the order of events, he had a text chain conversation with Mike Johnson.
He tweeted about a hundred -some times about he didn't like the bill.
Then a couple hours later, Donald Trump says, I don't like the bill either, and the bill is dead.
Now, all the Republicans out there that voted for Donald Trump understand what just happened.
A bipartisan bill to fund our government that had funding for a hurricane relief fund for the survivors of hurricanes, also had additional funding for farmers,
bipartisan, written by the House Speaker Mike Johnson.
So, Isaac, let me ask you about the part of that deal, which is now dead, that included Cost of living increase for lawmakers.
Were you in favor of that?
On the surface, no.
If they have not had a cost of living increase in the last 16 years, which is what the congressman said earlier, then yes.
Just like everyone else, I got a cost of living increase this year, which will start in January, for my son with disability.
And so a cost of living increase should go to everyone, and they should get it.
Although I do think Congress has not done their job, period.
Stan in Grants Pass, Oregon, Republican.
Hi, Stan.
Good morning, Mimi.
I was wanting to bring up a little bit of climate change.
I want to talk about perpetual.
I'm out on the West Coast, and every year they knew the fires were coming.
The clouds were going to be hot.
And I'd like the new administration coming in to dig into the ONC land.
And it's bylaws because they're not on the ground.
They don't know what's going on.
People come from other areas to fight it.
That's where they make their money.
And they threw $300 million or something at reforestation or something.
They got to plant some trees and protect them.
And the burnout areas need to be planted for the animals.
God bless.
Everyone have a happy new year and have a safe Christmas.
Debbie in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania.
Democrat.
Hi, Debbie.
Hi.
I agree with the last two callers.
I don't agree with the representative from Missouri who said there's no such thing as climate change, because there is, and about the gas prices, too.
Yes, they all fell, the gas prices, because all the restaurants closed up, all the shoe stores.
The only thing that was open was big box stores.
All right.
And here is Speaker Mike Johnson was on Fox News yesterday morning.
So this is...
You know who also does not like this?
Elon Musk, the world's richest man, just tweeted, this bill should not pass.
The only way you're going to be able to pass it now, Mr. Speaker, is with Democrats.
If you could, What's your message to Elon Musk?
Well, I was...
I communicated with Elon last night.
Elon and Vivek and I are on a text chain together.
And I was explaining to them the background of this.
And Vivek and I talked last night about almost midnight.
And he said, look, I get it.
He said, we understand.
You're in an impossible position.
Everybody knows that.
Remember, guys, we still have just a razor -thin margin of Republicans.
So any bill has to have Democrat votes.
They understand the situation.
They said, it's not directed to you, Mr. Speaker, but we don't like the spending.
I said, guess what, fellas?
I don't either.
We've got to get this done because here's the key.
By doing this, we are clearing the decks and we are setting up for Trump to come in roaring back with the America First agenda.
That's what we're going to run with gusto beginning january 3rd when we start the new Congress, when Republicans again bring control and all of our fiscal conservative friends i'm one of them will be able to finally do the things that we've been wanting to do for the last couple years.
Right now, Democrats still control depends, and that's the problem.
So we got to get this thing done so we don't have the shutdown, so we get the How you doing.
It's funny, Democrats come on your show, which you are, you do lean Democrat.
Usually when Republicans are talking and you don't like what they say, Always your arms go towards the shut off button.
It's funny.
Yeah, I'm about to shut you off too, Glenn.
So do you have something that you want to say besides your comments on me?
On Open Forum, the Democrat that was talking, how come he didn't mention the football stadium?
How come he didn't mention that they got in this bill that the emails, that they'll never be able to pull up the emails of the representatives?
The emails?
Glenn, you're going in and out.
You think it's all right that in this bill that they would never be able to read the emails of the Congress people anymore?
Okay.
Kevin, San Antonio, Texas.
Democrat.
Good morning.
Hey, good morning.
I want to say America is different, right?
There are rules to everything.
It's not ruled by money.
We see Elon Musk, he don't want no rules.
You know what I'm saying?
And the people that, you know, government tells just about money, it would not benefit, you know, next generations.
I got grandbabies.
I got people that's going to be left in society when I'm gone.
And Trump, and you know, they don't want to pay by no rules.
You know what I'm saying?
And it's like, I don't know, we in trouble.
Paul, in Grosbeck, Texas, Republican.
Is it Grosbeck?
I hear a lot of people calling in, Democrats saying that Donald Trump is going to take away Social Security.
He has said repeatedly, time and time again, he is never going to touch and do only good things for Social Security.
He's said that several times.
That's a Democrat thing anyway.
It goes back 40, 50 years.
They say it to scare people.
Republican presidents have been in several times and they've never touched Social Security.
That's another just lying.
And a couple other little things.
Everybody calls Trump Hitler.
Democrats do.
Well, I got news for you.
The real Hitler killed 11 million people.
Israeli people.
Israel people over in Israel, they have built a city.
And named it after Trump.
They call it Trump Heights.
It's in the Golden Heights.
They love Donald Trump.
Now, that's another lying, liberal, Democrat thing.
They go around calling Trump Hitler when he is right the opposite.
And the people of Israel love Donald Trump.
And as far as the debt ceiling and all this...
All right, Paul.
Regina in Hyattsville, Maryland.
Democrat.
Good morning, Regina.
And I'm very surprised to learn that he doesn't understand that for the last two years, the House has been controlled by the Republican Party.
And nothing has been done.
For two years, we've been continuing resolution, continuing resolution, continuing resolution.
We don't have a fix for this approaching shutdown as a Democrat.
I have contacted my representatives.
I'm a Social Security recipient, and at this point, let the rubber meet the road.
You all don't want to agree with it?
Shut it down.
I would rather shut it down for you all to stop asking the Democratic Party to save yourselves when you all come to work every day making thousands of dollars and doing nothing.
You all don't, the Congress doesn't work half the year.
And yet we're supposed to work, pay our taxes, and you all aren't doing anything for us.
So let the rubber meet the road.
John in Cleveland, Ohio, Independent Line.
Hi, John.
Hi.
Yes, I think all of these issues have been tainted and poisoned by the influence and domination of the CIA over the media.
And I think if you looked up A search word, CIA Operation Mockingbird.
CIA Operation Mockingbird controls the media to demonize countries for U .S. attacks against those countries.
What we're hearing was the overthrow of the decent elected Syrian government by a gang of CIA Sponsored terrorists.
You're talking about the Assad government being overthrown recently?
Yes.
Being overthrown by what the media has been calling for years in this dirty war against Syria.
Moderate freedom fighters.
They're scumbag terrorists who have been bleeding that country white as they've been used by the United States around the world ever since Afghanistan.
Especially during the Reagan administration and the last year of the Carter administration, where Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter's national security advisor,
bragged about sending billions of dollars of CIA money to a gang of terrorists called Freedom Fighters by the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the rest of the CIA media.
I think it's a really dirty...
All right, got it, John.
And a couple of items for your schedule later today.
It is the 50th anniversary of the 1974 Freedom of Information Act, and consumer advocate Ralph Nader will be part of a conference commemorating that anniversary, which provide transparency,
help regulate government control of federal documents.
It's hosted by the Center for Study of Responsive Law.
We have live coverage starting right after this program.
At 9 a .m. Eastern over on C -SPAN 2.
Also today, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is leading the UN Security Council for two meetings.
At 9 .30 a .m. Eastern, he'll focus on the implications of artificial intelligence.
For maintaining international peace and security, then at 1 .30, he'll consider the humanitarian crisis in Sudan.
We'll have both those sessions live on C -SPAN 3, and you can also watch both those programs on C -SPAN Now, our app, and c -span .org.
Up next, Democrat Al Green of Texas joins us to talk about tomorrow's government funding deadline and how Democrats will deal with the coming GOP trifecta next month.
We'll be right back.
In an earlier conversation in this series, Evan Thomas discussed his 1986 book, The Wise Men.
There were six of them.
Messrs. Acheson, Bolin, Harriman, McCloy, Lovett, and Kennan.
Now in this episode, we ask Edward Ted Aldridge.
To discuss his book titled The Partnership, George Marshall, Henry Stimson, and the extraordinary collaboration that won World War II.
Mr. Aldrich writes, FDR paired Stimson as Secretary of War with General George Marshall, Chief of Staff of the Army, in the summer of 1940 in anticipation of the global war into which all these men knew the United States could shortly be drawn.
Edward Aldrich with his book, The Partnership, George Marshall, Henry Stimson, and the extraordinary collaboration that won World War II, on this episode of Book Notes Plus with our host, Brian Lamb.
BookNotes Plus is available on the C -SPAN Now free mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Welcome back.
We are joined now by Democratic Representative Al Green of Texas.
He's a member of the Financial Services Committee.
Congressman, welcome back.
Thank you.
I'm honored to be with you.
Well, let's start with the CR.
The government funding deadline is in about a day and a half.
What's happening right now?
Well, right now, we're trying to get a better understanding of why the Republican Party has chosen to abandon an agreement.
This is something that was agreed to, and I fully anticipated, I don't speak for anybody but myself, but I fully anticipated that we would have voted on it yesterday, and this would be behind us.
Do you think that the government will shut down?
I don't want to say yes to that.
I hope not, okay?
But we're living in a different era now where...
People are willing to go to the extreme of extremes.
And so I can't really say, but I hope not.
We've not done that.
That would take us to a new place where we've not been.
So let's hope that that never happens.
When do you expect to vote?
Has leadership told you anything about anything that you could vote on?
No, we haven't had any additional information accorded me.
There'll be a meeting this morning.
When I leave here, I'll go straight to that meeting.
And perhaps at that time we'll get some additional information.
But currently, I know pretty much what you know, and that is that we had an agreement and that that agreement was not honored.
So late yesterday, as you know, President -elect Trump rejected that CR deal.
Then he made the proposal to combine it with a debt ceiling increase.
What are your thoughts on that?
I think that the debt ceiling is something that requires special attention, just as the CR does.
And the amount of attention necessary to come to an agreement, hopefully we'll continue to try to reach agreements.
I think people appreciate bipartisanship, even though it's difficult to achieve.
And that debt ceiling could be quite a challenge.
My hope is that we can pass it.
I'd love to pass it right now if I could, but I don't think that it works quite that way when you get into the nuts and bolts of doing it.
It's easy to say do something when you don't have to do it.
When you're putting it in the hands of others, my hope is that we'll be able to pass it, but I don't think that it's going to be a part of this CR.
I think that we have a deal.
We ought to honor that.
We're not honoring it, so we need to now work our way back to the CR first.
So do you, I mean, some Republicans are upset with how Speaker Johnson has handled the situation with the CR.
Are Democrats going to have to vote to pass?
Well, if Republicans can agree among themselves, they have a majority in the House, then we would be forced to do that if they can agree among themselves.
Unfortunately, well, as the case may be, they haven't been able to do this.
And let me just say this, Mimi.
I really feel sorry for the Speaker.
I know there's some people who would say, Al, why would you say that?
Because he can't get an agreement among his people, meaning the Republicans, and when he can't, they then condemn him for reaching an agreement after much deliberation with the Democrats.
They won't agree, and they won't agree to any other agreement.
So the Republicans are really putting themselves in a position such that the American people will be very much concerned as to why they've chosen this path.
Part of this deal was a 3 .8 % cost of living increase for lawmakers.
Are you in support of that?
Do you think lawmakers should get that increase?
I think this.
I live in Washington, D .C.
I live in Houston, Texas.
I know what it costs to live here, and I have my home in Houston.
While I can probably be okay as I am, there are a good many people in Congress.
I don't know the exact number, who sleep in their offices.
I don't have children in college, but many of my colleagues do.
And I'm talking about Republicans and Democrats.
And I think that given that it's been now more than a decade, I believe, since there has been any increase in the salary, I think that under the law as it is written,
this would be an appropriate thing to happen.
I don't say that we should get something that's out of the ordinary, but I think that this is within reason for people who do what we do.
I know that that is something that a good many people don't favor, but here's something that I marvel at.
We will accept giving millions in tax breaks to billionaires, but we now would not want to see The people who are trying their very best to make things work for us receive this raise.
I do support it, although I will tell you it's not a deal breaker for me.
It's not.
I don't want to eulogize a dead bill, but the things in there that are important that would be a deal breaker or potential deal breaker for me would be the $100 billion that is going to go to those people who are victims of these natural disasters.
But for the grace of God, it could be me.
I live along the Gulf Coast.
I remember what happened when Katrina hit New Orleans, which is where I was born.
And I remember how it impacted us.
So I'm saying to you, I would want that to be in any bill.
That's important.
I also think that the $20 billion for health care.
Health care is important.
We cannot allow...
Health care to become wealth care in the richest country in the world where those who have money will get good health care and those who don't, they won't get it.
So those are the things that could be potential deal breakers for me.
But beyond that, it's not a deal breaker for me, although I think that it would be the right thing to do.
If you'd like to join our conversation with Representative Al Green, Democrat of Texas, you can do so.
Our lines are by party, so 202 -748 -8001 for Republicans, 202 -748 -8000 for Democrats, and 202 -748 -8002 for Independents.
There is an article in The Hill saying that the approach for Democrats for countering or opposing President -elect Trump in his second term
As I've said on this program multiple times before, I speak for myself and everyone who agrees with me.
So, here's my position on this.
I think that we have to realize that This last election was one that caused us to come up short.
By the way, it wasn't a landslide by most definitions.
We didn't get the majority of the votes, but it wasn't a landslide.
Don't want to go into the details of it, but here's what did happen.
There were people that were depending on us when we had unitary government, when we had the House, the Senate, and the presidency.
When Democrats did.
Yes, we, meaning I'm a Democrat, a liberated Democrat.
So they were depending on us to do certain things.
They wanted us, these are our constituents, to pass the PRO Act, the Protecting the Right to Work Act for People to Organize, Protecting the Right to Organize Act.
This was a labor issue.
We had the House, the Senate, and the Presidency, and we did not pass that.
I'm going to get to the reason why in just a moment.
We also were expected to pass
We're good to go.
To do things that were going to impact their lives, like immigration reform.
Comprehensive immigration reform is something that we've been talking about since I've been in Congress.
And when we didn't do that, and we didn't pass these other things, these people, some of them, became disenchanted.
And I don't think that we should blame them and say, well, they were not loyal.
Here's what I think.
There were two senators.
I'm not going to call their names.
But there were two senators.
Who were roadblocks, prevented us from moving forward with significant portions of our agenda.
Had those two senators come on board, we could have passed these things.
And when Vice President Harris was running, she could have talked about how we passed comprehensive immigration reform, how we passed the PRO Act, how we passed John Lewis Voting Rights Act, and also George Floyd justice in policing.
That was a big deal for a lot of my constituents, especially black men who are taking some of the blame for our not succeeding in this last election.
I think that those things were important to people.
And when you don't do those things, then you're going to lose some of your enthusiasm.
And I think that we have to stick with those things.
I don't think we abandoned them.
I'm for What's a liberated Democrat?
Like who?
I sit on the Financial Services Committee.
I won't take money from them.
Now, I'm not condemning anybody who does, but this is how I believe that I can best serve people, by not allowing the appearance of that impropriety to be in place.
Unbought.
Unbossed.
Meaning, when I come on your program, you're going to hear my candid opinions.
I don't bring you a canned message that somebody else has scripted for me.
I don't think so.
Let's talk to callers and start with the Republican line in Bessemer City, North Carolina.
Mike, good morning.
Good morning.
Yes, Manchin and Sinema did save democracy by not allowing the Democrats to do away with the filibuster.
I'll say their names, and they both got redemption against the Democrats.
But this bill, there's so much pork in this bill.
I mean, it's wanting to hide emails and texts from congressmen and women.
That shouldn't be.
I mean, American people can have their emails and texts confiscated.
And it's just this bill needs to be passed with the CR with $100 billion for disaster and the farmers.
Because if we don't have farmers, we don't eat.
Yes, sir, I do.
Well, let me start by saying I do regret the loss of any life.
And there are many lives that I have not had.
Let's talk to Brenda in Indiana, Pennsylvania.
Democrat.
Good morning, Brenda.
Yet it is my understanding that Republican Senator Rick Scott was convicted of running one of the largest Medicare fraud schemes in the state of Florida.
And if that's true, then his fraud got rewarded with a Senate seat.
So that's my statement.
My question is, Republicans are always deficit hawks when Democrats are in.
Well, thank you very much.
I don't know how...
The richest country in the world can become a deadbeat nation.
I will be voting to pay the bills that we've already made, and that's what it is all about, the bills that you've already promised to pay.
And we have to honor our commitments.
We're the United States of America.
Now, regarding bringing down government spending concerning Social Security, so some people have proposed removing the cap.
Well, let's examine where we are, if I may.
Social Security is more than just a monthly stipend for some people.
This is a necessity for them.
For many people, it's the only income they have.
We do have to make sure that we secure social security.
That's an absolute necessity.
And to do that, we have to do it in such a way as to not cause some people to, at some point, not live long enough to benefit from it.
For example, black men have a shorter lifespan than white men.
And if we just decided that, well, what we'll do is we'll not raise the cap.
We'll just simply decide that we'll not tax people and allow those who are not living as long.
Unfortunately, they just won't benefit from it.
We'll find other clever ways to do something about it.
I don't agree with that.
I think, yes, we can raise the cap.
If we raise the cap, we're requiring people who are making large amounts of money to put more into social security, to secure the social order in this country.
I think that's the better way to go.
And in doing that, black men will, and I'm not speaking for myself, I've already reached the age, I've celebrated my 25th birthday three times, and I'm now two years into my third 25th.
So, fourth 25th, excuse me.
And I'll invite you to the fourth 25th party when it takes place.
But the point is...
I think that we have to consider all of the constituents and raising the cap is the best way to make sure that everybody can benefit from Social Security.
Merrill, in far Rockaway, New York, Independent Line.
Yes, Representative.
I first have to say that you're one of my greatest champions as far as letting people know about slaves and what they contributed to this country.
And please stay with the laws you're trying to pass in that regard.
And one more thing, on January 20th, I will be watching the tribute to Dr. King, Martin Luther King Jr., and I then maybe go to Donald Trump's campaign, but I will be watching Dr. King,
who said, my children, I hope that one day they will be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin.
In this election, with Kamala Harris, I don't think that was realized.
I know it wasn't realized because the content of her character compared to the winner of the election, Kamala Harris way, way had more content in her character.
And someone said, I heard a couple of weeks ago, they said, Kamala Harris could never win an election in this country, but if Hillary Clinton had been nominated, she might have won.
And I'm saying, well, Hillary Clinton, she went...
Alright Merle, let's get our response.
Well, I supported Vice President Harris.
It's no secret.
I think she was the best candidate.
The best candidate doesn't always win, in my opinion.
But we still have to go on.
But he did mention something that's important.
He mentioned the enslaved.
We have not been fair to the enslaved.
Their lives were sacrificed for some 246 years.
They are the economic foundation of mothers and fathers of this country.
They built the roads and the bridges.
They planted the seas.
They harvested the crops.
They fed the nation.
The Capitol, they had a hand in constructing it.
The White House, a hand in constructing it.
Yet we will not give them the honor that we gave Confederate soldiers in 1956.
A Congressional Gold Medal was given to Confederate soldiers, but not, but not to the enslaved.
I think it's time to do this.
To honor them.
And by the way, there are Democrats and Republicans who will not sign on to according a Congressional Gold Medal to the enslaved.
I'm just going to tell the truth.
And the record speaks for itself.
It's right there.
1956.
We did it for Confederate soldiers.
But we can't do it for the enslaved?
We want them to always be less than human beings?
These people...
Will you be attending the Trump inauguration?
If C -SPAN will allow, come back and make it right here.
All right.
Kurt Livingston, Tennessee, Republican.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Yeah, Mr. Green, you are the sheep in wolf's clothing.
You came down on Trump the very first day.
He was walking down and talking about what he was going to do to the nation, turn it around.
What did you do?
You divided the nation by trying to impeach them.
You were the first one to come to that side of the fence and say, we need to impeach them.
But for what reason that you speak, speaking as a Christian, you seem, but you're not.
You hide behind that.
You talk sweet words, but you're not.
It's very obvious that you tell people you're the biggest racist on the hill.
Alright, let's get a response.
Kurt.
Well, Kurt, let me first thank you for your call because quite frankly, there are many people who would not have what you said about my being the first to be a part of history.
A good many people who have, excuse me, who've written books about this.
They don't mention Maxine Waters and Al Green.
Black history is just erased from the process.
And these are prominent people, members of Congress.
They just absolutely have made it appear as though we had no hand in the impeachment process.
I am very proud of what I did, and I did not do it on his first day in office.
I did it after he displayed impeachable behavior.
And because of that behavior, I filed Multiple motions to impeach him.
Over 100 members of the House signed on to our efforts to impeach him.
We laid the foundation for the impeachment that took place.
I will never back off of that because in my opinion at that time, and I still stand on it, the President did some things that were worthy of his impeachment.
I just trust that history will do what you have done and acknowledge that there were African Americans who laid the foundation.
For the impeachment of President Trump at the time.
Bill in Depew, New York, Independent Line.
Good morning, Bill.
Good morning.
Good morning, Mr. Congressman.
You know, facts are facts.
The first decade of the century under George Bush and the Republican conservatives led by Larry Kudlow was the worst economy in this country since the Great Depression.
The second decade of the century under Barack Obama and the Democrats was the best financial.
We're good to go.
I think so.
Because he allowed all the illegals to come in.
And the whole South, I've been down there a number of times for years.
They hired those illegals, and then they say we were going to build a wall.
Build a wall, get around the wall, and they're still going to hire the illegals.
People who hire the illegals should be arrested for crime because it's against this country's society.
These people don't pay.
The employers do not pay disability.
They don't pay other insurances to provide a society.
Okay, Bill, we'll take your point.
Go ahead.
Just briefly, I think that comprehensive immigration reform is the way to resolve our immigration issues.
We have people in this country who have been here, they've been law -abiding persons, they have families that are here, and many of them came not of their own volition, they came as children.
My hope is that we'll do something to normalize things and allow them to become a part of this country as citizens.
I believe that if we have comprehensive immigration reform, we can deal with issues associated with the border and make sure that we know who's coming in and out of the country.
I think we need to know who's coming in and out of our country.
So I'm not a person who believes that we should not have anybody coming to the country.
I do think lawful entry is appropriate.
And I look forward to the day that we will have comprehensive immigration reform, take care of the millions who are here already.
Make sure that we have a means by which people can get in and out to work who would like to come to work and still have a pathway for persons who are being persecuted in other countries.