| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
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Democracy. | |
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| Welcome back. | ||
| We're joined now by Michael Schnell, a congressional reporter for thehill.com. | ||
| Michael, welcome back. | ||
| Hey, good morning. | ||
| So let's talk about the House GOP plans. | ||
| House Republicans are trying to advance the blueprint to support President Trump's agenda. | ||
| What are the big priority, the policy priorities for the budget? | ||
| Yeah, very sprawling piece of legislation that House Republicans are trying to get this all done in the one big, beautiful bill we've heard so much about. | ||
| And this would advance a number of large parts of President Trump's domestic policy agenda. | ||
| That's including the extension of those tax cuts that were first implemented by Trump in 2017, in addition to additional funding for the situation at the southern border, in addition to energy policy, and then other promises that Trump has made on the campaign trail. | ||
| For example, no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security. | ||
| So all those priorities and more, House Republicans are trying to cram into this big bill. | ||
| Speaker Johnson spoke to reporters yesterday about where negotiations stand. | ||
| Where do they stand right now? | ||
| Well, the plan is to have right now a markup of this piece of legislation on Thursday, but there are a couple problems. | ||
| A, there's no piece of legislation that's actually been released yet. | ||
| House Republicans have been engaged in these negotiations for weeks now for a budget resolution. | ||
| And of course, the budget resolution is the piece of legislation that, if passed by both the House and the Senate, would unlock this budget reconciliation process, which essentially allows Republicans on Capitol Hill to circumvent Democratic opposition in the Senate. | ||
| So the first step is passing. | ||
| But explain that a little bit more. | ||
| The reconciliation process and how that is able to circumvent the Democratic opposition. | ||
| Yeah, sure. | ||
| So this is something that can be used in Washington when one party has a trifecta, controls all levers of power. | ||
| Of course, now right now we have Republicans who have control of the White House, the Senate, and the House. | ||
| So if they want to pass a big bill full of a lot of priorities that they know they're not going to get any support from on the other side of the aisle. | ||
| For example, Democrats are not going to want to support a number of these tax extensions, border funding, some of the energy policy. | ||
| Republicans can use what's called budget reconciliation, which is this bit of an arduous process that, like I mentioned, if you can get everybody on board, allows you to circumvent the Democratic filibuster in the Senate. | ||
| So for most pieces of legislation, 60 votes are needed in the Senate. | ||
| Republicans right now only control 53 of those seats, which means that to get any of these big ticket items done in a normal world, they would have to get at least seven Republicans on board. | ||
| But if you use this budget reconciliation process, which can be used for various spending matters that deal with revenues, you can circumvent that opposition in the Senate. | ||
| So right now we're seeing Republicans try to get going on this budget reconciliation process, the first step of which is passing a budget resolution, which the answer to which has so far eluded House Republicans. | ||
| And if you'd like to join our conversation, ask a question about President Trump's legislative agenda or the plans for the budget, you can give us a call. | ||
| The numbers are Republicans, 202-748-8001, Democrats, 202748, 8,000, and Independents, 202748, 8002. | ||
| We can start taking your calls soon. | ||
| The Washington Examiner has this headline, House Freedom Caucus defies Speaker Johnson and releases own budget resolution. | ||
| What's going on with that? | ||
| Yeah, so for a while, I guess taking a step back, one of the biggest debates about the budget reconciliation process has been do you advance Trump's agenda in one sprawling bill, a single package, or do you split it up into two different priorities, the first of which including border security money and energy policy, try to get wind on the board quickly for President Trump, and the second of which deals with the tax cuts, because that's more of a thornier issue that's going to take longer to negotiate. | ||
| So Senate Republicans have said we want to do one bill and they've moved ahead with that. | ||
| Speaker Johnson and top Republicans in the House have said, well, we want to do, I'm sorry, Senate Republicans have said that they want to do two different bills and they're moving on that plan. | ||
| First, border and energy. | ||
| Second, tax cuts. | ||
| House Republicans have said the best way to do this for our conference is to get it all into one big, beautiful bill. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Why one bill? | ||
| Why not the two bills? | ||
| Yeah, so it's a good question. | ||
| So essentially the idea here that Johnson, the way Johnson sees this, is that he has a very slim majority. | ||
| He's working with very few, very little room for defectors in the conference. | ||
| So he feels that when you were working with a lot of different priorities, some of which some Republicans are going to hate, others some other Republicans are going to hate. | ||
| You know, you're going to turn off conservatives with some things, moderates with other things. | ||
| If you cram all these priorities together, there are sweeteners in there for all these different folks to support. | ||
| So for example, if you're a hardline conservative, you may not love how much this package costs. | ||
| The cost goes up when you talk about those tax cuts and other provisions. | ||
| But conservative Republicans are up in arms about the situation at the southern border, and they would not want to be caught voting against additional funding for immigration and the border. | ||
| So that's sort of Johnson's thought here, is that if we put all these together, we're daring Republicans to vote against this bill. | ||
| They may not like one part, but they love a lot of the other parts. | ||
| Republicans in the House think that that's the best way to do it. | ||
| Senate Republicans, though, say the tax cut part is going to be thornier. | ||
| It's going to take more time to negotiate. | ||
| We're already seeing that dynamic play out. | ||
| So they want to give President Trump a quick win. | ||
| They want to be able to move a border and energy policy, something that Republicans are really largely united on, get that out of the way, and then take more time to deal with the tax cuts. | ||
| Well, speaking of Senate Republicans, let's take a look at a portion from Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham. | ||
| He spoke to reporters yesterday, and I'll have you respond. | ||
| I still want a one big, beautiful bill, but I cannot, after hearing what I heard today, not act. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I talked to President Trump over the weekend. | |
| He wants to get results. | ||
| And after that briefing, if the Republican Party cannot provide the money to the Trump administration to do all the things they need to do to make us safe, we have nobody to blame but ourselves because we have the ability through reconciliation to do this. | ||
|
unidentified
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And I just want to do it sooner rather than later. | |
| Your plan is a non-starter. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So how are you going to pass this when the speaker says it doesn't have a budget? | |
| I'm going to do what I think is best with my colleagues to make America safe. | ||
| If you listen to what I heard today and you're hesitant to act, that would be a problem. | ||
| I heard Tom Holman, pretty tough guy, begging us for money. | ||
| I beg you to give me more resources. | ||
| I heard Russ Vote, the OMB guy, say, ICE is out of money. | ||
| All I can tell my House colleagues, whatever you need to do to get the one beautiful bill, do it. | ||
| Do it now. | ||
| You have my blessing, you have my support. | ||
| But if we can't do it quickly, we need to go to Plan B. Reaction. | ||
| Yeah, so this has been Graham's feeling all along, saying, Johnson and I are united. | ||
| We're united with the president also. | ||
| We know what priorities need to get done. | ||
| We're very aware of what Trump's agenda is. | ||
| He made it very clear. | ||
| But what we differ on is strategy. | ||
| And it's because what Graham said, Republicans feel an urgency to get the president more money on the border. | ||
| They feel an urgency to deal with a lot of these energy policies. | ||
| So they want to get that done quickly. | ||
| And that could probably get done in a quicker fashion because those are the non-controversial aspects of this bill. | ||
| The more controversial aspect is the tax cuts. | ||
| How long do you extend them for? | ||
| How do you deal with no tax on tips? | ||
| How do you pay for those provisions, which could be very expensive and add a lot to the deficit? | ||
| So what are some of those ideas to pay for this? | ||
| Yeah, so there are various tax cuts across the board. | ||
| They're looking at various spending cuts. | ||
| In the latest proposal put forward by House Republicans, it would be a $1.5 trillion floor for tax cuts with a target of $2 trillion. | ||
| Folks haven't really gotten into the details of what those areas of tax cuts would look like. | ||
| There's been some chatter about potential cuts to Medicaid, but that's something that would turn off more moderate Republicans. | ||
| But essentially, each committee has been tasked with looking where they can cut the funds needed to offset this bill. | ||
| But again, it all depends on how much it's going to cost. | ||
| And all these things have to be decided and discussed at least during the budget reconciliation process. | ||
| And that's why we're seeing such hang-ups right now in the House is because you're talking about really, again, really difficult, controversial, thorny issues. | ||
| So Lindsey Graham is saying right there, let's continue to have the discussion about tax cuts. | ||
| But for now, let's get done what we can, border and energy. | ||
| But again, Speaker Johnson feels that the best way to do this is put it all together because he thinks that it'll be easier to get the tax cuts over the finish line if you're also having Republicans vote for border and what's the timeline in the Senate? | ||
| So today, Senate Budget Committee is going to be marking up that budget resolution that Lindsey Graham had unveiled. | ||
| It's going to include $175 billion for the situation at the border, $150 billion for defense. | ||
| Again, this is the energy and border package. | ||
| Later, tax cuts will be dealt with. | ||
| So the budget committee will advance this, and then at some point, the Senate will consider it on the Senate floor, and then it'll move over to the House. | ||
| Johnson has called this a non-starter. | ||
| I asked him about this plan yesterday. | ||
| He told me it's a non-starter. | ||
| He's still plowing ahead with this one big, beautiful bill idea. | ||
| But I will note, Johnson has plowed through a number of self-imposed deadlines. | ||
| The House Budget Committee was supposed to mark up this budget resolution last week. | ||
| That didn't happen. | ||
| Then there was supposed to be a markup yesterday. | ||
| That didn't happen. | ||
| The new plan right now is a markup on Thursday. | ||
| But again, there's a lot of skepticism about that. | ||
| Lawmakers don't even yet have their eyes on the budget resolution. | ||
| There's still debate about the particulars. | ||
| Another detail that I reported yesterday in this tax package is that the Ways and Means Committee would have $4.5 trillion to carve out those tax cuts to figure out those tax cuts, what they look like. | ||
| I then asked Jason Smith, who's the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, the Tax Writing Committee, what do you make of $4.5 trillion for this area? | ||
| He said anything below $4.7 trillion. | ||
| The Congressional Budget Office has said that to extend, just extend Trump's 2017 tax cuts. | ||
| That'll cost $4.7 billion. | ||
| He said anything below that $4.7 trillion. | ||
| Big difference. | ||
| One letter, but big difference. | ||
| He said anything below the $4.7 trillion is not nearly enough. | ||
| And whoever proposes that is saying that President Trump's tax policy is wrong. | ||
| So we're seeing tensions flare right now. | ||
| We're seeing frustrations be aired because, again, Republicans are right now behind the eight ball. | ||
| They've been blowing through these self-imposed deadlines and they're trying to reach a really strong deadline tomorrow. | ||
| But there's a lot of skepticism of that can actually get done. | ||
| So Stephen in Michigan is asking you, how is Trump going to get 60 votes in the Senate to pass his agenda unless they change the filibuster? | ||
| Yeah, so this gets back to what we were talking about with budget reconciliation, right? | ||
| Republicans are trying to use this budget reconciliation process to circumvent that 60-vote threshold in the Senate. | ||
| Now, this arduous process can be used for matters that involve revenues and change revenues and things like that, spending. | ||
| So Republicans are trying to use it. | ||
| So they're going to have to be essentially unanimous Republican support in the GOP conference in the Senate and the House conference in order to get this done. | ||
| And then they'll be able to circumvent the filibuster. | ||
| All right, let's talk to callers now. | ||
| We'll start in Warrington, North Carolina, independent line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Shuron, you're on the air. | |
| Yes. | ||
| They're talking about cutting everything for everybody. | ||
| And on top of that, the old people is going to suffer. | ||
| This is what happened. | ||
| They're going to want to cut the Medicaid, the Medicare, the food staff, the SNAP, or whatever. | ||
| They just cut it. | ||
| Besides, Trump is not the president. | ||
| It's Elon Musk. | ||
| Trump is, Elon Musk is over there with a friend with Putin. | ||
| All he could do is weakening up the United States for Putin. | ||
| And how can a millionaire billion-ass be talking about something about money and know everybody's all about money? | ||
| Trump, Elon Musk, all about money. | ||
| They're not going to do anything. | ||
| And the people that don't know anything about government, I work for DCA and the government. | ||
| So everybody now is voting for them. | ||
| They're going to feel the raptor of Trump, Elon Musk, Putin. | ||
| All right, Sheron. | ||
| So how much fear is there of being primaried with Elon Musk's backing? | ||
| Yeah, I mean, that's a real concern. | ||
| You know, shifting the conversation a little bit to the Senate nomination process, for example. | ||
| The big three that we had heard about throughout this process were Tulsi Gabbard, RFK Jr., and Pete Hegseth, right? | ||
| Those were the three, among the three most controversial nominees. | ||
| Pete Hegseth got through the Senate despite concerns. | ||
| Joni Aarons, somebody who is a stalwart opponent of sexual assault in the military, that's sort of been one of her key issues on Capitol Hill. | ||
| She found a way to support Pete Hegseth, and that was after this pressure campaign from the MAGA wing of the party. | ||
| Right now, we're seeing with Tulsi Gabbard that despite a lot of concerns about her 2017 meeting with former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, previous comments she has made about Section 702, which is a really key part of the U.S.'s spying powers, in addition to comments about the Russia-Ukraine war. | ||
| There were some real concerns behind the scenes among Republicans, but a number of Republican lawmakers have found a way to support her. | ||
| She advanced on the House floor earlier this week in a party line vote, and she's likely going to be confirmed later today. | ||
| Same goes for RFK Jr. | ||
| He advanced through the Senate Finance Committee, including getting support from Senator Bill Cassidy, the chairman of that committee and a physician himself, who had raised concerns. | ||
| So, you know, I talk about this all because the grip of the grip of the Trump White House is just so strong. | ||
| And look, we know that there are still some detractors within the House and the Senate, but particularly the House, when it comes to support for President Trump, Mitch McConnell, Tom Tillis, and some others. | ||
| But we're not seeing Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, but we're not seeing them flex their muscles too much because, again, the potential wrath from the Trump White House. | ||
| And the other thing I'll mention is that this current nominations process shows that elections really do matter. | ||
| In order for Republicans, a small group of Republicans to band with Democrats and tank a Trump nominee, it would take at least four Republicans to oppose. | ||
| That's a huge number when you're talking about the Senate. | ||
| And I talk about why elections matter because there were some really close Senate races in the last cycle. | ||
| For example, in Pennsylvania, if Bob Casey had beat Dave McCormick and that was a race that was determined by 15,000 votes, 0.2%, this would be an entirely different ballgame, very potentially. | ||
| So I think that this is just all showing that the grip on the Trump White House is very strong, but also the margins in these two chambers is really the entire ballgame. | ||
| We talked about the fear of being primaried. | ||
| Is there also, have any lawmakers mentioned a fear, like a fear of physical violence against them or their families? | ||
| I haven't particularly heard that. | ||
| I mean, there's always this concern about violence against lawmakers. | ||
| We have seen, unfortunately, a countless number of examples of folks of lawmakers being the target of some of these violent acts, sometimes violent attempts. | ||
| You know, the main one that comes to mind is that attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi, when the attacker was looking for the former speaker. | ||
| So there's always this concern on Capitol Hill, but I'm not sure that folks are linking it particularly to some of these primary challenge threats and things like that when it has to do with legislation. | ||
| Let's go to Nicole, a Republican, and Byron Center, Michigan. | ||
| Hi, Nicole. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Mine is more just a comment or a suggestion. | ||
| You know, we're talking about all these budget and Trump's budget and the GOP's budget, but we really haven't got to the bottom of what we're finding that we can get rid of, what's being misused, where our funds can be saved, what the disclosure of the audits that are happening. | ||
| And then a Republican just called in recently and said, you know, Washington Journal, do your part and show us what the USADE found in these things. | ||
| And very open-ended, you guys come back with this much for health and this much for humanitarian aid. | ||
| And, well, that's very broad. | ||
| Like, you would be doing very good justice, and everyone keeps talking transparency. | ||
| What is included in that humanitarian aid? | ||
| What exactly are you saying? | ||
| When you say health, what is included? | ||
| What exactly is that budget in health? | ||
| You're just saying health is not really giving us much. | ||
| And it's like me. | ||
| It's like, let's say I have an itemized grocery. | ||
| My husband sees our itemized, and I have $1,000 this month for groceries. | ||
| When you actually go and look at it, I'm spending all my $1,000 a month at the casino for food while I'm gambling. | ||
| Is it food? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Is it grocery money? | ||
| No. | ||
| So I think you guys trying to this much for health and this much for humanitarian aid is exactly what the American people are saying. | ||
| We're onto that. | ||
| We see through that now. | ||
| That tells us nothing. | ||
| We want to see exactly the breakdown of health, exactly the breakdown of humanity, exactly what is entailed in those. | ||
| And Nicole, I'll just mention to you the website called usaspending.gov. | ||
| If you want to take a look at that, that's got some good information as well. | ||
| Go ahead, Michael. | ||
| Yeah, no, I think that when it comes to the budget and where these spending cuts could come from and where Republicans are looking to slash, we haven't exactly gotten fully immersed into that phase of this plan yet and this process yet. | ||
| Republicans are first just trying to figure out what these base numbers are, what the floor is for spending cuts, what the ceiling is for how much the tax cuts could add to the deficit. | ||
| How are they going to offset all of this? | ||
| Republicans are still first dealing with that before they're going to really nail into the details of what cuts are going to be looking like. | ||
| But I will note, I mean, Doge is such a big thing that's being talked about in Washington right now. | ||
| The Department of Government Efficiency, folks trying to cut wasteful spending in the federal government, obviously led by Elon Musk, that's not just in the White House and in the executive branch. | ||
| We're also seeing the Doge effort translate to Capitol Hill. | ||
| For example, there's a Doge subcommittee. | ||
| We're going to see them have their first hearing today. | ||
| That's all talking about fraud in the federal government and rather wasteful spending in the federal government. | ||
| That panel is led by Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. | ||
| Again, the first hearing will be today. | ||
| So there's going to be a lot more discussion about these specifics right now as we sort of get past the numbers and we can start diving into the real details. | ||
| And this is Darrell in Mansfield, Ohio, Democrat. | ||
| Hi, Darrell. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I'd like to say thank you to you and all the professional journalists out there. | ||
| My question this morning is, why are they wanting to increase the national deficit another $4 trillion from, what, $17 to $21 trillion if they're saving so much money? | ||
| Yeah, so it's a good question. | ||
| Republicans don't want to increase the deficit in this package, right? | ||
| They want it to be deficit neutral. | ||
| We've heard from people like Chip Roy, Republican from Texas, say that that is his red line. | ||
| He's not going to support a package if it is not deficit neutral. | ||
| In fact, a lot of Republicans would even want this to be deficit reducing. | ||
| So what the big question is, is going to be how much are these tax cuts? | ||
| Republicans are also saying that because of the tax cuts, there's going to be growth in the U.S. economy, and that growth will help pay for some of these tax cuts and this other deficit spending. | ||
| This is all going to have to do with what's called dynamic scoring. | ||
| It's essentially the way that Republicans are going to score this package, judge this package, determine the numbers in this package and what the bottom line looks like. | ||
| But again, Republicans do not want this bill to add to the federal deficit. | ||
| In fact, that's been one of the red lines that's been thrown out. | ||
| And let's talk to Carlos in Miami, Florida, Republican. | ||
| Hi, Carlos. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, no snow here in Miami, but I think there's four inches up there in Washington. | |
| I wish you all the. | ||
| There is indeed. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Some defend $20 million of American taxpayer funds being spent for Sesame Street in Iraq, and this is nothing new. | |
| We've heard about this for decades, but long term, nothing will change. | ||
| And it will happen again and again until there's accountability. | ||
| And the type of transparency we saw in the Oval Office yesterday, you can see it on C-SPAN for 32 minutes, and it's worthwhile watching. | ||
| But again, until there's more revelations like this and investigations that include prosecution and punishment for wrongdoing and malfeasance, it's just going to continue. | ||
| Some people see Ellen Musk and his son in the Oval Office with Trump and disparage them, while some of us see an honest, transparent, real-world display of one Ellen Musk taking a break as a dad with the President of the United States in his office, | ||
| bringing sunlight to these dark, existential incompetence, fraud, malfeasance, graft, and corruption in the U.S. Treasury. | ||
| The image of Elon Musk in the Oval Office was quite interesting yesterday, especially with his son. | ||
| I think that just underscores the idea that Elon Musk is an unelected official, but he's a very key part of the U.S. government right now. | ||
| He's a close, a very close ally of President Trump, as a very large donor, is put in charge of this Doge committee, this Doge group, which seems to have a lot of leeway within the federal government. | ||
| Whether people like him or not, he's a key power player in this current Trump administration. | ||
| It's going to be interesting to see how this relationship and how his impact continues to play out. | ||
| And he is doing a financial disclosure, but not making it public. | ||
| So how does that work? | ||
| Well, yeah, that will be an interesting dynamic to see play out. | ||
| It could change amid pressure. | ||
| We'll have to see what that is. | ||
| It's sort of, we saw this conversation about the tax returns with Trump during his first administration. | ||
| So it's going to be curious to see how that plays out, especially because he had just talked about this potential conflicts of interest and wanting to work against conflicts of interest when he was in the Oval Office yesterday. | ||
| So it's going to be a fascinating dynamic to follow. | ||
| Let's talk to Judy in Newport, Oregon, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning, Judy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Let's see. | ||
| I have a few questions. | ||
| I wasn't very convinced listening to Elon Musk talk about how he will recluse himself from his own interest. | ||
| I mean, they fired all the IGs who's going to watch out for that. | ||
| And why do the Republicans have to get their tax cuts for the very well-off, for the corporations, for the millionaires and billionaires? | ||
| Why not just give a tax cut to people making under $400,000 and then wait until things straighten out? | ||
| I'm sure there's a lot of waste, fraud, and abuse. | ||
| I mean, there is. | ||
| Any huge amount of money spending like that, there's bound to be. | ||
| But they're only talking about the things that they don't want. | ||
| I mean, I'm sure it costs a lot of money for Melania to go from New York to Washington to wherever. | ||
| I'm sure a lot of these people spend a lot of frivolous money that we don't need to be spending, but they're not going to pick that apart like they're picking apart USAAID and, you know, and then they're making up a lot of stories, like the condoms in Gaza, which wasn't true. | ||
| They're making up stories, and people get on social media and they spread all these rumors and all these lies. | ||
| So why not just give tax breaks to the people making under $400,000 for now, and then come back to the big, huge tax cut that they want to give to their billionaires. | ||
| Okay, Judy. | ||
| So I can't speak to the motivation in terms of why Republicans are choosing one specific tax cut over another, but I can speak to the reason why there's such an urgency right now to extend these 2017 tax cuts. | ||
| A number of the provisions that are in there, which impact a lot of folks across the country, expire at the end of 2025. | ||
| That's why Republicans really feel right now that they are sort of facing the clock and racing the clock. | ||
| And this is why Johnson has laid out such an ambitious timeline. | ||
| Because if Republicans can't unite and extend the Trump tax cuts by the end of the year, a number of those provisions will lapse and there will be a real impact on American people across the country. | ||
| So this is, again, the reason why we have seen such an urgency in both chambers to get started on this process quickly and to try to work out the kinks early so they can make sure they can get something by the end of the year. | ||
| And you mentioned the Doge subcommittee hearing happening today. | ||
| I just wanted to mention to people that we will have that on the C-SPAN networks. | ||
| That's going to be at 10 a.m. | ||
| You're going to be there. | ||
| I will be in the Capitol. | ||
| There are a lot of different stories to cover. | ||
| I'm not sure all the time. | ||
| There's a lot going on. | ||
| There's a lot going on, but I will definitely be keeping an eye on it. | ||
| Look, it's really interesting because, again, this is sort of, we're seeing this Doge initiative make its way onto Capitol Hill. | ||
| I'm also curious to see how Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene handles herself. | ||
| I mean, remember, just about four years ago, she was stripped of her committee assignments when she had just come to Congress because she was such this lightning rod and such a controversial figure. | ||
| Four years later, her close ally, Donald Trump, is in the White House. | ||
| She's in a Republican majority in the House, and she's wielding a subcommittee gavel. | ||
| It is a drastic turn of events for Congresswoman Greene over the past four years. | ||
| So I'm curious to see how she conducts herself today, how she handles the committee. | ||
| And then the other side of the aisle, there are a lot of other, let's say, colorful lawmakers, loud lawmakers on the other side. | ||
| Congressman Robert Garcia, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett. | ||
| These are folks who are not afraid to shy, who never shy away from confronting Congressman Green and becoming a bit combative and loud in these hearings if they hear something that they don't like. | ||
| So it's going to be a fascinating display today. | ||
| And let's talk to Christina in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Republican. | ||
| Good morning, Christina. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| You know, she just said something about it's going to be, you know, an interesting display or something like that. | ||
| I've got a couple questions and then something to say. | ||
| This administration, they plan on upholding the Constitution, right? | ||
| Is that your question, Christina? | ||
|
unidentified
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That's one of them. | |
| Yeah, that's one of them. | ||
| And what's your other question? | ||
| Yeah, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
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Okay, so, well, it depends on our answer because in the Constitution, it doesn't state nothing about a democracy, okay? | |
| We're a republic, and, you know, every person, well, when I grew up, we pledged allegiance every day to, you know, our republic. | ||
| And I hear you guys talk about the budget, and it's amazing to me that we can have a government that can regulate every individual's spending and where they go and what they're doing and all this other stuff. | ||
| But we have elected officials that are supposed to be there to protect and defend the people, okay? | ||
| And you guys can't even act like grown adults. | ||
| You act like a bunch of middle school children that are in there debating and yelling and screaming and this and that. | ||
| And why I asked the first question is because democracy means a small group of people dictate and make all the decisions for all the mass amounts. | ||
| Now, that's what we got going on right now. | ||
| And we need individual transparency and we need to have action now. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| We can spend billions of dollars in Ukraine and over here and over there and on immigrants, but we can't bring that money back to the people. | ||
| I don't care who's in the office. | ||
| What I care about is my children's future and what's going on right now. | ||
| So, Christina, can I ask you a quick question before I let Michael respond? | ||
| When you said that democracy is a small group of people making decisions for everybody else, can you explain that a little bit more? | ||
| Because I guess some people consider democracy being, you know, people vote and whoever gets the highest number of votes, they get to represent the rest of the people. | ||
| Explain that to me a little bit more. | ||
|
unidentified
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I mean, you've got to think about it this way, okay? | |
| I've been studying law and, you know, the Declaration of Independence, it tells us right there that we're all created equal. | ||
| And it doesn't matter if you're in a government position or an organization or whatever. | ||
| We're all created equal. | ||
| Now, when government becomes destructive to the ends where it's harming the well-being and the safety of its people, it's time to either alter it or abolish it. | ||
| And that's the people's choice, okay? | ||
| And isn't that a democracy, Christina? | ||
|
unidentified
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We're raising our voices and we're trying to get our concerns out, but nobody's listening. | |
| You guys are playing this ping-pong game with us dividing us, you know, psychologically out here. | ||
| And so then you guys can continue, not you personally, but they can continue to keep up this ruse and this scheming for the people. | ||
| It's very easy. | ||
| Any person knows that if you're going to go in and clean up a place, you're going to have individual accountability, okay? | ||
| You're going to have transparency where everything goes. | ||
| And if the government's doing their job, we should have no problem being able to have community meetings for the people to figure out where we want our money to go and what we think is important for the American people. | ||
| Because the government's job is to protect and defend us, to make sure no foreigners come in and stuff like that. | ||
| Our job as the people is to work together to create prosperity in futures for our children so humanity lives on. | ||
| All right, Christina. | ||
| Comment, Michael? | ||
| I would say that the president takes an oath of office to uphold the Constitution. | ||
| So that is, of course, the intention of the president. | ||
| And I don't know where else to go from there. | ||
| All right. | ||
| I want to show you House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar talking about the state of funding negotiations and the possibility of a shutdown. | ||
| Here it is. | ||
| Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House. | ||
| If they want to keep government open, they should keep government open. | ||
| We are working with them. | ||
| Chairwoman Rosa DeLora will lead our efforts to negotiate and work through issues just like we have for many years through multiple Congresses. | ||
| That is our plan. | ||
| That has always been our plan. | ||
| If Republicans need votes, they can come to us and we are happy to negotiate. | ||
| There is, and I said this last week, there's very little appetite to help Republicans when we don't trust that Donald Trump is going to spend the resources that we've allocated for education, for health care, or even, we don't know, for our defense. | ||
| With Elon Musk and his unelected friends running through and combing through the federal system, we don't have those assurances. | ||
| These are not advisory bills. | ||
| This is not advisory spending levels. | ||
| This has the full weight of law as described by the Constitution. | ||
| We are standing up for the Constitution and our Article I responsibilities. | ||
| Representative Aguilar, they're saying that there's very little appetite to help Republicans when we don't trust that Donald Trump is going to spend the resources that we've allocated. | ||
| What do you make of that? | ||
| Well, government funding by nature is going to have to be bipartisan because there's a 60-vote threshold in the Senate. | ||
| And for something like government funding, you can't use budget reconciliation for that. | ||
| So Democrats and Republicans, regardless of what it looks like, are going to have to come together and vote on something together to keep the government funded. | ||
| By the way, that deadline is just around the corner. | ||
| It's March 14th. | ||
| It's very quickly approaching. | ||
| So Aguilar, I kind of take it as flirting with the idea that there could be a shutdown come next week, next month, because again, if he's saying that Democrats don't have an appetite to help Republicans with anything, well, they're going to need to help Republicans with government funding because again, by nature, by definition, it's something that's going to require a bipartisan vote. | ||
| But we're hearing a lot of frustrations up on Capitol Hill from Democrats about the types of things that Doge is doing, for example, dismantling the USAID, dismantling CFPB. | ||
| There's real concerns and anger about this. | ||
| So the appetite among Democrats to sort of provide the votes for a pretty standard bill like government funding is low, as we're seeing. | ||
| But I think that when push comes to shove, I'm not sure that I can see Democrats forcing a shutdown. | ||
| It's not really in their nature. | ||
| It's not really in their blood to do something like that. | ||
| Shutdowns also have impacts across the country. | ||
| So I don't know if I see that happening. | ||
| But the fact that Democrats are taking this stance right now and expressing how they feel, it just underscores and displays the true anger and frustration they have with how things are currently going. | ||
| Okay, one more call and then we'll let you go. | ||
| Mike in Stockton, California, Independent. | ||
| Good morning, Mike. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning. | |
| And kudos to both of you who have a bias towards journalism. | ||
| I think you guys are doing a great job. | ||
| Wasn't that just the other day when a journalist got in some kind of trouble with the White House for not saying Gulf of America or something like that? | ||
| I think that's just one question I had. | ||
| And I just can't help but think about when Mike Johnson made his first speech when he became the speaker, and he says, how the Constitution says, all men are created equal. | ||
| And he turns to the left or to the right and he says, but we're not made equal. | ||
| And uh, I'm going. | ||
| We're created equal. | ||
| What do you mean not made equal? | ||
| And why are you trying to divide us like that? | ||
| I mean, there's so many in clandestine groups in America, like what's this new? | ||
| Like the Crowdboys group that just popped up? | ||
| That's against the American Constitution and I think it's completely wrong the way uh, Donald Trump was saying for the South Africans to come over here the white ones because they're being treated bad. | ||
| Well, just the other day, the white South Africans mocked them and they don't want to come over here. | ||
| I mean, that was not true anyway. | ||
| With why? | ||
| Why is that Republican lady saying they're scrutinizing everything? | ||
| Democrats feel our list? | ||
| All he has to do is go in there? | ||
| Oh, I found a hundred million dollars over here with not showing any proof. | ||
| I want the journalists to sit there and let us see where is the proof, what they're talking about. | ||
| From now on, don't let them just say stuff to us. | ||
| I want to see it. | ||
| Somebody need to call them out. | ||
| Show me the proof. | ||
| Anyway, that's all I wanted to say, thank you. | ||
| Last comment, um, I agree. | ||
| I think it would be great if if politicians and lawmakers and people of influence would back up their claims of what they're saying with evidence. | ||
| I'd love to see the proof, also as a reporter, so I endorse that idea and I believe that the the story that he was referring to at first was that the White House had shut down access for an Associated Press reporter because the Associated Press had not abided by the new Gulf Of America name, rather than Gulf Of Mexico. | ||
| Of course, very in favor of press access. | ||
| I think that all journalists should be able to perform their job and do their duties, but the fallout from that will certainly be a story to keep an eye on. | ||
| All right, Michael Schnell, congressional reporter for The Hill. | ||
| You can see her work at thehill.com. | ||
| Thanks so much for getting through the snow and coming in this morning. | ||
| Thanks for having me. | ||
|
unidentified
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C-SPAN's Washington Journal, our live forum involving you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics, and public policy from Washington and across the country. | |
| Coming up Thursday morning, Wyoming Republican Congresswoman Harriet Hageman talks about House GOP strategy to advance President Trump's legislative agenda. | ||
| Then Maryland Democratic Congressman Glenn Ivey discusses recent actions by the Trump administration and the role of Democrats in the 119th Congress. | ||
| C-SPAN's Washington Journal. | ||
| Join in the conversation live at 7 Eastern Thursday morning on C-SPAN. | ||
| C-SPAN Now, our free mobile video app, or online at c-SPAN.org. | ||
| On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee meets to vote on whether to send Kash Patel's nomination for FBI director to the full Senate for consideration. | ||
| This comes after an initial vote was delayed by one week at the request of Democrats on the committee, who continue to call for a second confirmation hearing with Mr. Patel. | ||
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| Starting next week, watch C-SPAN's new Members of Congress series, where we speak with both Republicans and Democrats about their early lives, previous careers, families, and why they decided to run for office. | ||
| On Monday, at 9.30 p.m. Eastern, our interviews include Democratic Congresswoman Janelle Bynum, the first African-American ever elected to Congress from Oregon. | ||
| My mother graduated in 1970 from one of the last segregated high schools in the state, in the country rather, in South Carolina. | ||
| And I think about all of the opportunities that weren't afforded her, you know, coming out of segregation. |