| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
| American people. | ||
| If House Republicans were serious, they'd be here right now. | ||
| And there was no explanation in that meeting from the Speaker of the House of Representatives as to how possibly votes could be canceled. | ||
| And at the same time, people are supposed to believe that Republicans are serious about addressing the health care crisis that they've caused, but simply want to kick the can down the road and expect us to take a Hail Mary promise. | ||
| That's unreasonable. | ||
| That's unacceptable. | ||
| And it's divorced from reality. | ||
| If you ever wanted proof that Republicans want to shut down because they're afraid of this vote, look at when the Speaker scheduled the House to come back in after a shutdown. | ||
| And we welcome Neera Tanden back to our desk, a current Center for American Progress president and CEO for Biden domestic policy advisor. | ||
| Neera Tandon, we are about 40 hours away now from a government shutdown. | ||
| Do you see a way out of this? | ||
| And if not, how long do you expect this to go on? | ||
| I think there's a very easy way out of this, actually, which is the government, our leaders can do what they usually do, which is try to find a compromise. | ||
| When I was in the Biden White House and we needed to get Republican votes for something, we talked with the Republicans weeks ahead of the deadline, understood what they needed, tried to find some compromise. | ||
| The real problem then was that Mike Johnson couldn't muster a majority of Republicans to vote for government funding. | ||
| So he basically turned over power to the minority. | ||
| But we engage in conversations, you know, for, you know, behind the scenes for weeks and weeks and weeks. | ||
| So, you know, I think it's a reasonable request to say if you want Democrats to vote for a piece of legislation, that you should have a discussion about what they need or what they want. | ||
| And I think the fact that premium tax credits are expiring, and just to say what that means is, is there's around 24 million Americans who are in the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. | ||
| And there was, there's basically there's the prospect of their premiums shooting up by on average 75%. | ||
| That means some people will get 100%, some people will get 50%. | ||
| And that's going to happen this November. | ||
| So I think Democrats basically are saying we should avoid that. | ||
| And that's what we would like to vote for this bill. | ||
| Why is the potential for a government shutdown a legitimate way of having that negotiation? | ||
| When shutdowns have come up in the past under Joe Biden, Democrats have said shutting down the government is irresponsible. | ||
| Democrats need to, or members of Congress need to do their job, keep the government open, and then we can have these negotiations. | ||
| But the threat of a shutdown is irresponsible. | ||
| Why is that okay now? | ||
| Or is that what Democrats are saying? | ||
| Well, we wouldn't, there's no need to shut down the government. | ||
| They could have, I mean, President Trump offered to have a meeting last week. | ||
| He pulled that back. | ||
| They had that meeting last week. | ||
| They could have talked about the premium tax credits. | ||
| A few Republicans will like to do this. | ||
| And I think, you know, what's very different about this shutdown, this debate over a continuing resolution, is that the way Washington was working now is just very different from any previous era, right? | ||
| So the whole idea of what the CR is about is basically the government is deciding what it's going to pay for. | ||
| And usually that's Congress is deciding what is appropriated, what is funded. | ||
| But what's very different about this situation is that Democrats and Republicans can pass CRs or budget deals however they like. | ||
| But then President Trump comes around and will ask for rescissions. | ||
| That only needs Republican votes. | ||
| Or even kind of more starkly, he just won't spend the money. | ||
| So it's like my analogy of what's happening is, you know, let's say you, you know, you want to get your house fixed and you pay a contractor a certain amount of money. | ||
| You make a deal with a contractor. | ||
| I'll give you this money. | ||
| You fix my house. | ||
| You give that contractor the money and then that contractor's partner decides he's just going to fix half the house. | ||
| And so I think that's like the whole idea of a deal here is just odd, right? | ||
| You basically need a negotiation with the president to understand what's going to happen. | ||
| And that should have happened weeks ago. | ||
| I mean, I don't really understand why the president chose to ask for a meeting and then cancel the meeting. | ||
| And what's interesting about this situation, there are plenty of Republicans who would like a deal on the premium tax credits. | ||
| And I think that's why John Thune has said, Senate leader John Thun has said, you know, we'll discuss that or we'll have a negotiation of that like three months from now. | ||
| Why not just have it now? | ||
| I mean, we've all known these deadlines are coming. | ||
| We all know the premium tax credits are expanding or expiring. | ||
| Just, I don't know, do your job. | ||
| Why haven't you been planning this for months about this moment? | ||
| And it's not like Democrats just said yesterday, we're concerned about this. | ||
| They've been talking about it for months. | ||
| And so I just think it's kind of highly irresponsible that these leaders don't sit down, talk it out. | ||
| And if they want Democratic votes for something, just make some compromises. | ||
| That meeting with Democratic and Republican leaders of the House and Senate set to take place today at 3 p.m. Eastern, that's according to Punch Bowl News. | ||
| We'll see what comes from that meeting. | ||
| But if the government does shut down come very early on Wednesday morning, does that simply hand the keys of the federal government to Rust Vote and the Office of Management and Budget to fire, not furlough, federal employees to cut more from the federal government? | ||
| It actually does not. | ||
| And here's the truth is, the Center for American Progress just put out an analysis of this yesterday. | ||
| The law is that actually workers at agencies cannot be fired. | ||
| In fact, the law is that they can be furloughed, in which they get back pay, but the law specifies that you cannot make employment decisions to fire people in a shutdown period. | ||
| Now, I appreciate that we are not, the Trump administration perhaps does not strictly follow the existing law. | ||
| But the reality is, and we should acknowledge this, that the president has been shutting down various agencies for months now. | ||
| So it actually is that people have greater legal protection. | ||
| Federal workers have greater legal protection in a shutdown. | ||
| And just other side facts, people who would terminate people, like HR offices, are usually shut down. | ||
| So it's like a little bit harder to implement. | ||
| So if that happens and people are fired under a government shutdown that happens, you are confident that the federal courts would step in here and federal employees would get their jobs back. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| I mean, in fact, many federal workers, as you know, have gotten their jobs back from litigation. | ||
| And we actually think the precedent is much stronger in a government shutdown. | ||
| So I think this is basically, honestly, kind of an extortion tactic, which is we are going to go fire all these people. | ||
| Think about what's happening here. | ||
| The president does not want to negotiate with Democrats. | ||
| So, Russ Vaughan, you know, over stopping people's health care premiums from going up 75%. | ||
| He would prefer that those premiums go up 75%, I guess. | ||
| And instead of having just a negotiation on that, their decision is to threaten that they'll just fire people willy-nilly, innocent victims and all of this, right? | ||
| I guess I just think that's, if you just think about what's happening, that seems kind of horrifying that basically they're using the federal workers as like an extortion tactic against Democrats who are really just trying to protect people's health care. | ||
| Near Tannen with us from the Center for American Progress taking your phone calls, as usual, phone line split by political party. | ||
| Democrats 202-748-8000. | ||
| Republicans 202-748-8001. | ||
| Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| As folks are calling in, let me come back to the March potential shutdown that didn't happen and Senator Schumer and Senate Democrats agreeing to a continuing resolution then to keep the government open. | ||
| Did you agree with that decision at the time, Senator Chuck Schumer's decision then? | ||
| And if so, why was it the right decision then and not now? | ||
| I did not agree with that decision. | ||
| I thought at the time that if the president wanted Democratic votes, that he should, you know, make decisions. | ||
| He should have an actual negotiation with Democrats, as every other president has done with the opposing party. | ||
| And again, I was in the Biden administration. | ||
| There's plenty of discussions back and forth with Senate and House Republicans about what they needed and what could be accomplished, et cetera. | ||
| And what were some examples of that where you came to an agreement and came to a negotiation? | ||
| Well, the big challenge, honestly, in the Biden administration was that Mike Johnson could not produce Republicans to vote for government funding. | ||
| No matter what the deal was. | ||
| No matter what the deal was. | ||
| So, you know, like he basically would ask for various, you know, social issues. | ||
| And, you know, at the end of the day, they passed government funding with some, you know, there was some limitations on Pentagon funding, on some issues related to LGBTQ rights and other things. | ||
| But fundamentally, the big challenge back then is that he couldn't produce enough votes to pass the bill. | ||
| So he relied on Democratic votes. | ||
| But that didn't stop us from engaging and having conversations back and forth. | ||
| And there were like compromises, compromises that we didn't like. | ||
| There were compromises on LGBTQ rights and other things that we didn't love. | ||
| But at the end of the day, you have to kind of even get something here because Democrats couldn't pass the bill on their own. | ||
| So they needed some Republican votes. | ||
| So there's like a good back and forth on those issues. | ||
| I guess I just, and my overall take is we should also understand that we've had a lot of learning since the CR. | ||
| I mean, things have happened, right? | ||
| So when that CR happened, you know, everyone was going around thinking that if you like, if Congress appropriates funding for an agency, then that will actually get spent. | ||
| But in the intervening months, we've learned that even when the federal government passes a CR or funds an agency, Rusva, on his own, decides just not to fund it, right? | ||
| We've seen massive impoundments, and that's just another way of saying decisions not to spend money that has been appropriated by Congress. | ||
| And just to say, the Constitution specifies that Congress has the decision of appropriating funds, of funding agencies. | ||
| It is not Rusva's. | ||
| So where have the courts been on that? | ||
| The courts that you're confident will rehire federal workers on a different issue, but where have the courts been on that issue? | ||
| Well, the courts have given President Trump pretty expansive powers on these issues. | ||
| The courts have also made the federal government, made the Trump administration rehire agents, rehire federal workers. | ||
| That's happened multiple times. | ||
| So we don't know where the courts will be, but I guess I would just say for the people who believe in constitutional principles and even original intent of the Constitution, it is pretty clear right in Article 1. | ||
| And again, it's Article 1. | ||
| You know, it's not Article 2 or Article 3. | ||
| It's Article 1. | ||
| Congress is supposed to have supremacy over appropriations. | ||
| That has been ignored by this administration. | ||
| I find that, and I think the reason why that affects all of this is that you actually, you know, Democrats who vote for a clean CR, they were not voting for a clean CR because they don't know what will ultimately happen. | ||
| So I think that's why it's important to have a conversation. | ||
| Plenty of callers for you already. | ||
| Sandy is up first out of Alabama Independent. | ||
| Sandy, you are on with Near Attandon. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| I just want to say how just astonished I am at the hypocrisy of the Democrats as far as shutdowns. | ||
| Number two, I want to say founding fathers never intended for government employees to not be fired. | ||
| The worst thing that ever happened to the federal government was for federal employees to get protection from being fired. | ||
| We always know where that has gone. | ||
| And number three, I want to know why they are telling the lie that the insurance premiums that the Congress wants to take away are for just law-abiding taxpaying citizens. | ||
| The money that they want to remove is money for insurance for illegal aliens, people that are not qualified for insurance. | ||
| And it's also pre-COVID paying. | ||
| They approved, the Biden administration approved all this money during COVID, and that's what they're trying to take away. | ||
| Sandy, let me bring up those issues. | ||
| You bring up a lot of issues. | ||
| Maybe start on that third issue first. | ||
| Yes, I'm so glad this has been raised because this is ultimately, it is totally false. | ||
| In fact, in the Affordable Care Act, and people should go back to the debate, it was heavily litigated. | ||
| It is literally specified that illegal aliens, undocumented people, whatever you'd like to call them, cannot get health insurance. | ||
| This is literally just a lie that people are repeating. | ||
| And I feel so badly that Sandy has been misled by this total lie because it was a very famous issue in 2018. | ||
| It was a famous debate back and forth about illegal aliens getting health care. | ||
| And it is specified in the law that these premium tax credits, particularly, cannot go to anyone who is undocumented. | ||
| What happened, and you know, and just let's, I'd love to just go through a bunch of these things because they are, it's good to just clarify what the truth is. | ||
| We live in a world with a lot of lies, so it's important to say, number one, no undocumented legal aliens get access to the Affordable Care Act tax credits specified in law. | ||
| And no one's giving any evidence. | ||
| There's no examples anywhere of someone who's gotten it illegally. | ||
| So I think that's number one. | ||
| Number two, this argument about COVID. | ||
| I will say the premium tax credits were expanded in 2022, 2023, actually after we were going. | ||
| They started in 2020, 2021, but they were actually expanded again or continued, not expanded again, but continued as we're coming out of COVID. | ||
| So that's a second point that's really important. | ||
| Federal workers. | ||
| The Trump administration is firing federal workers. | ||
| I think the truth is, you can argue that federal workers should be able to be fired if they do a bad job, sure, but the willy-nilly firing of veterans, 80,000 veterans being fired, I think most Americans disagree with that. | ||
| But that's really not the issue in the shutdown. | ||
| The issue in a shutdown is people get furloughed, and that's how shutdowns have been operated. | ||
| It is a new issue for the president, for a Republican or Democratic administration to say, as an extortion tactic, we're going to just start firing workers because we just believe that you care about those workers more than I do. | ||
| I think that's kind of a little bit of an odd notion, and I think most Americans think it's kind of abhorrent. | ||
| What about her first point on hypocrisy? | ||
| Who people who watch these and think when they change sides here, they just change the songbooks, that shutdowns can never happen, and that shutdowns is a legitimate negotiating tactic. | ||
| And then it just matters who's in power, who's the president, who's leading the Senate, and who's not. | ||
| I guess my view of this is that we've had, like, there is one consistent in all these debates, which is shutdowns have always happened when you've had House Republicans. | ||
| The issue here is just a negotiation. | ||
| I guess my take on this is the idea that we are going to talk about shutdowns as if this budget negotiation is the same as any other budget negotiation strikes me as just really weird. | ||
| I'll say why, okay? | ||
| I served in three administrations. | ||
| I served in the Clinton White House. | ||
| I served in the Obama administration. | ||
| I served in the Biden White House. | ||
| There were obviously negotiations back and forth. | ||
| We had never experienced, we've never experienced in my time, in the history of this country, a situation where the administration in power is already shutting down various elements of the government. | ||
| George Bush didn't just say unilaterally, I would like to close the Department of Ed. | ||
| Or George Bush didn't say unilaterally, I would just like to eliminate USAID without any discussion with Congress. | ||
| So that, and, you know, nobody ever said before, you know, we refuse to negotiate because we're just going to fire everybody, you know, in my view, and I think a lot of lawyers view, illegally. | ||
| So I just think this is like an odd universe to say what really matters is precedent, because as I pointed out earlier, it is not even clear what Congress is negotiating over, since the fact is that the president goes around Congress completely and just starts cutting agencies and people. | ||
| So I think that's why Democrats are a little bit like, what are we even agreeing to? | ||
| We need to have a negotiation. | ||
| To our line for Democrats, Carl is in Vermont. | ||
| You're on with Nirotanda. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, guys. | |
| How are you doing today? | ||
| Doing well. | ||
| Hi. | ||
|
unidentified
|
My question is, if we were to win both the House and the Senate in 2026, what could we do better than we did last year or two years ago to prevent the extremists, | |
| the Republicans and Trump's buddies from getting rid of our health care, getting rid of our insurance, Medicaid? | ||
| You name it. | ||
| What could we do differently to prevent the extremists on the left? | ||
| I mean, the right. | ||
| Sorry, the right. | ||
| Carl, I think we got your question. | ||
| Nirotandon. | ||
| So thank you for the question. | ||
| First and foremost, If Democrats were in charge of the House and Senate, they would not have passed legislation this summer that takes away health care from 16 million people. | ||
| So just in addition to the ACA premium tax credits, there are millions of people who are going to lose their health care because of the Medicaid cuts. | ||
| Those Medicaid cuts were in the legislation, and the funding from those Medicaid cuts are being used to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. | ||
| Billionaires, in fact, are getting significant tax cuts through OBBBA. | ||
| So I think there is a very stark difference. | ||
| Of course, Democrats would say, let's not pass legislation like that. | ||
| And I think that's part of the reason why President Trump sped that process along, because he's very much worried about Democrats retaking the House. | ||
| And I will also say, you know, it's deeply concerning that the president is demanding mid-decade redistricting, very unprecedented and very unprecedented redistricting in order to avoid accountability because I think he is worried about having a Democratic House. | ||
| But I also think we will, if there's a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate, that you will have real accountability. | ||
| So, you know, if the agencies aren't spending money, you know, there'll be consequences to perhaps White House funding. | ||
| You know, there's a lot of tools and techniques that Congress has. | ||
| If the president were to, say, Russ Vought were to decide that he did not want to fund agencies, and the Congress could decide, well, we're not going to fund OMB and Russ Vaught. | ||
| So, you know, I think you just have a lot more power to kind of stop the extremeness that we are seeing in the administration. | ||
| And I think Democrats have to be very strong on those issues. | ||
| And also, you can put ideas forward to really address a whole range of problems in the country. | ||
| If you get a Democratic House and Democratic Senate after the 2026 elections, do you support a Speaker Hakeem Jeffries and a Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer, in January of 2027? | ||
| I think, I mean, you know, this is a decision up to members, but, you know, I think if you actually win those, win back the Senate and win back the House, people should strongly consider re-electing those people. | ||
| It's really up to candidates, though, to decide. | ||
| Or up to members to decide. | ||
| Do you think Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer should endorse Zorhan Mamdani in the New York City mayor's race? | ||
| You know, the greatest part of my job is that I am not in New York City every day, so it's not my place to really relitigate, litigate what they are doing. | ||
| I guess I would say about Zorhan Mamdani, you know, I'm here in D.C., so I'm not like super focused on everything he's saying. | ||
| I think there's a lot of pluses to his understanding of cost of living as a real concern to Americans. | ||
| We are seeing that cost of living is as high today as ever. | ||
| I also think, you know, he's moved on some issues like police funding and others, but I also recognize people there are people out there who have legitimate concerns about his experience and also some of his concerns, some of his attitudes in the past about various communities in New York. | ||
| So I think, you know, it'll be a robust primary. | ||
| Let's see what happens. | ||
| The Wall Street Journal editorial board today on that lack of endorsement so far from Jeffries and Schumer saying that they know that if Mr. Momdani takes City Hall, the Republicans will make him the symbol of the Democratic Party in the 2026 midterm elections. | ||
| Do you think that's likely? | ||
| I mean, I think that's kind of absurd, right? | ||
| I mean, how effective has it been for Democrats to use Marjorie Taylor Green against all Republicans? | ||
| It hasn't been effective because people see that people are very different people. | ||
| So my take on this is I think if Zoran Mandani wins, he has to govern effectively. | ||
| He has a lot of onus on him. | ||
| He has not had that much experience governing. | ||
| So there will be a lot of onus on him. | ||
| He does seem to recognize that in some of his interviews. | ||
| On the other side, I just think like, I'm sorry if you have Sherrod Brown running in Ohio. | ||
| It's very easy for Sherrod Brown to say, not really a big fan of Zoran Mandani if he wants to. | ||
| So I just think that doesn't work as, I think that's a scare tactic and not a legitimate, it will not have a legitimate impact. | ||
| To the Peace Garden State, this is Lenny in North Dakota, Independent. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thanks for having me on. | ||
| You're on with the penalty. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Neera, I'm just wondering. | |
| Hi. | ||
| For a lot of us, you know, you were saying that the illegals don't receive health care, and it's hard to believe that there's, you know, 10, 20, 30 million people who are in the country illegally and none of them are going to the emergency rooms or getting health care. | ||
| And another thing I would like to hit on is I think a lot of people don't understand why it's so expensive at the hospital. | ||
| You go to the hospital and a lot of times there's no doctors there. | ||
| RNs are acting as doctors, delivering babies, doing things. | ||
| And it's the price of health care that bothers people. | ||
| Surgeries, hundreds of thousands of dollars. | ||
| A buddy of mine had a splinter out of his palm of his hand. | ||
| It was $10,000 to take the splinter out. | ||
| The cost of health care and what people are paid for being there is one of the biggest issues I feel are not being discussed. | ||
| Lenny, we'll discuss it now. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Thank you so much for that, for saying that. | ||
| And, you know, I really hear you. | ||
| And I think this is a really broad frustration for a lot of Americans. | ||
| The truth is that the American healthcare system is a lot more expensive than other countries. | ||
| You have a surgery. | ||
| It's more expensive here. | ||
| You get a shot. | ||
| It's more expensive here. | ||
| And I think it's very complicated, but we have a lot of concentration in the healthcare system in the United States. | ||
| You have pharmaceutical companies that have basic monopolies. | ||
| You have hospital systems that fundamentally operate as kind of monopolies in their community. | ||
| You know, there's a lot of concentration even amongst doctors groups. | ||
| So I think that it's really vital that we have ideas out of reform the system so that consumers are not like the bat last person. | ||
| And I completely hear your anxiety about that. | ||
| I actually think it's a problem with the system that, you know, we haven't gotten lower health care costs overall. | ||
| I was really proud to work on Medicare drug negotiation in the Biden administration. | ||
| That was legislation that was delivering 50, 60% less costs for drugs because for the first time, the power of the government was being used, the power of Medicare was being used to finally actually negotiate drug prices down. | ||
| And we saw that it had impact. | ||
| You know, the top 10 drugs were going down, as I said, 50, 60, 70%. | ||
| Now it's up to the Trump administration to implement that. | ||
| And we have some signs that they are more favorable to the drug companies. | ||
| I hope that doesn't meet out. | ||
| On the issue of illegal aliens, it is the case that in the United States, people who come to the emergency room get care. | ||
| You know, That's true actually around the world because doctors take a Hippocratic oath and they basically, if someone is dying or needs urgent care, they get covered. | ||
| They get covered by, you know, they will get that treatment. | ||
| But I just want to say the whole question of whether it's insured is another question. | ||
| And the Affordable Care Act provides insurance to people. | ||
| It doesn't specify what hospitals do in emergency rooms. | ||
| And in the Affordable Care Act, it was very clear that we are not paying for the insurance of people who are undocumented or illegally in the country. | ||
| So, you know, I totally understand the frustration that costs have gone up. | ||
| Those costs are rising. | ||
| I just want to say, like, we should acknowledge those costs are rising when we have large swaths of illegal aliens in the country, when we have low swaths of legal aliens in the country. | ||
| That insurance cost has been going up and up and up, and it is a real problem. | ||
| And I think Democrats have to offer ideas of how to reduce those costs. | ||
| But the first thing we need to do is ensure that they don't go up by 75% this November. | ||
| So that's step one. | ||
| And I hope Republicans join Democrats in saying they want to put an end to that. | ||
| It's 8:30 on the East Coast, about 15 minutes left with Neera Tandon of the Center for American Progress. | ||
| President Trump is set to meet with Benjamin Netanyahu this morning, seeking a ceasefire in Gaza. | ||
| What should he tell him? | ||
| What should President Trump tell Prime Minister Netanyahu? | ||
| I'm hoping he tells him that the world is concerned about what's happening in Gaza, that it is absolutely the case that we need to free the hostages. | ||
| At the same time, the deaths of children, of women and children, of families that are not Hamas soldiers, you know, we're talking about tens of thousands of people, is wrong and needs to stop. | ||
| And I would say that for President Trump, who has talked incessantly about the various wars he's ended, I think this is a war that needs to end. | ||
| So I hope he is strong and affirm. | ||
| And I'd say the fact that we are in a place in our relations with Israel where they are deciding to go and bomb another country like Qatar without even giving us real notice or collaboration on the decision is, you know, is, I think, honestly, just basically an affront to the Trump administration. | ||
| So I'm hoping that out of his want of more respect in the relationship, he will be pretty tough with the prime minister. | ||
| Felicia in Texas, Republican, good morning. | ||
| You are next. | ||
| Hi, Felicia. | ||
| Felicia, you with us? | ||
| Got to stick by your phone, Felicia. | ||
| Then we go to Jack in Grayson, Kentucky. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Democrat, go ahead. | |
| I just want to know: is a shutdown in the U.S. Constitution? | ||
| Is the WS shutdown? | ||
| It does affect Social Security and VA benefits. | ||
| Yes, those are great questions about a shutdown. | ||
| You know, a shutdown isn't in the Constitution or really not in the Constitution. | ||
| I mean, what's mentioned is, as I said in Article 1, Congress is in charge of appropriating the funds. | ||
| So, really, a shutdown happens because the appropriations have run out and they have not further appropriated, or they've not further funded. | ||
| So, that's really what's happening. | ||
| And a great question: Social Security checks are not affected. | ||
| Veterans work workers in the VA will be affected, but benefits themselves are not broadly affected. | ||
| So, I mean, there is some impact on hospital systems, but the veterans, like your actual ability to get a benefit at a community hospital, are not really affected. | ||
| So, the truth is, in a shutdown, that emergency services and services directly to people are often considered emergency services are not stopped by a government shutdown. | ||
| So, outside of this city, per se, where will people feel a shutdown first? | ||
| Well, I mean, this is like a fascinating question, right? | ||
| So, you would feel it in the park services, right? | ||
| Now, park services, maybe if you need to get a passport, things like that, you may feel it. | ||
| But this is like an interesting issue to me because, you know, over the weekend, the administration said, well, you know, law enforcement will be affected and people at DOJ will be affected. | ||
| But, you know, they didn't say that the president has already kind of unilaterally cut lots of people in law enforcement in the Department of Justice. | ||
| And there's been, there have been famous firings, but a lot of people have been sort of moved out of the department. | ||
| So it's not even clear to me that you would have more people. | ||
| I don't even know the answer to this. | ||
| So that you'd have more people who would be affected in a shutdown than have already been fired. | ||
| Tony's next in Michigan Independent. | ||
| You're on with Near Tandon. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I have a question on the undocumented alien health care. | |
| So how many documented aliens do we have? | ||
| Do you mean I don't know what you mean by a documented alien? | ||
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unidentified
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Well, I mean, you said that their health care doesn't have that money that's going to go towards undocumented aliens. | |
| Well, are there documented aliens in this country? | ||
| I guess the way to think about this is there are people who are here illegally, right? | ||
| They cross the border illegally. | ||
| And then there are people who like are, you know, the immigration system, they wait in line for a long time. | ||
| They have a green card or they've been, you know, they've become citizens. | ||
| They used to not be citizens. | ||
| They've gone through the system. | ||
| They become citizens. | ||
| Those people, you know, that's the distinction. |