Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
Source
Participants
Main
m
mimi geerges
cspan09:15
Appearances
hakeem jeffries
rep/d01:25
mike johnson
rep/r01:46
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Speaker
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Government Funding Extension Debate00:14:21
unidentified
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All right, so let's outline what the two positions are and explain the Affordable Care Act subsidies that are going to expire and win.
unidentified
Okay, so the position of the Republicans is let's extend government funding through November 21st, about seven weeks, to buy us a little bit of time to finalize work on our appropriations bills.
There are three that have already cleared both chambers that are ready for a conference.
You're getting roughly a dozen or so that they think they might be able to get done.
And they say we can talk later about these ACA subsidies.
This will find us a little time to work that through.
The Democrats say, number one, we don't trust you.
Your word is not good on the ACA subsidies.
And number two, here is what we would like.
Our demand is to reverse the Medicaid cuts.
Our demand is to permanently extend these enhanced ACA subsidies.
And furthermore, we would like you to undo these rescissions we've seen coming out of the White House.
Now, that carries a price tag of well over a trillion dollars.
And Republicans say that's simply an unreasonable ask and is not going to happen.
So why do the Democrats not trust the Republicans on the ACA subsidy extension?
unidentified
Because nothing has happened so far, because it's very, very easy to say you're going to do an extension, but the devil is in the details.
There are a lot of curbs and limits Republicans would like to put on the subsidies in terms of maybe setting things like income limits, other technicalities.
And there is a history in this Congress of having deals blow up on the particulars, on the details.
And so it is sort of understandable that Democrats would say we don't trust you.
There was some talk about a one-week extension just to keep the government open and then let's keep talking.
What happened with that?
unidentified
Well, whatever happened with it, it's pretty clear that a lot of progressives would not like that.
And Chuck Schumer pretty clearly snuffed that idea out yesterday when he stood up at the mics, was asked about this one-week extension, and said, nope, we're not doing it.
Who, I mean, who do you think is going to get blamed for this?
unidentified
So that is the big question, and each party would like the other side to get blamed.
The history here is that the political party that is demanding, is trying to set a condition on government funding is the one that loses.
So for example, in 2013, when Ted Cruz said we want to block the Affordable Care Act as a condition of funding, he was pretty much blamed for that.
Back in 2018, when President Trump said we want border wall money as a condition of reopening portions of the government, he ended up taking the blame for that.
So the history is you do not emerge a winner if you place a demand on government funding.
I mean, assuming that the government does shut down, how do we get it reopened?
unidentified
Well, so that is the big discussion right now.
What is the exit from all of this?
There are two primary ones.
One is that Democrats fold, you know, again, the history of the way these things work and accepts the seven-week CR.
Another is that Republicans offer some type of credible meet-in-the-middle.
For example, a one-year extension of these ACA subsidies, possibly combined with some reforms.
There is this thought out there, and this is not something I've heard on the table, but we do need to be aware of the history.
President Trump in the past has gotten very frustrated when some of his legislative priorities can't get through, and he has pressured Republican leaders to nuke the filibuster, nuke the legislative filibuster, and just pass bills on a party line.
And there is this latent conversation about, ooh, is he going to ask for that again?
There's the Rust Vote memo from OMB about we're going to lay off everybody that doesn't go to work starting tomorrow from the federal workforce.
What are you hearing about that?
And is there support for that from President Trump?
unidentified
So, yes, we are hearing that that is Rust Vote's plan.
You are hearing Donald Trump talk very tough and basically say jobs are going to be lost.
But what you're hearing Democrats say is, you know, it's not really clear that that would stand up in a court of law.
And don't forget, many federal workers who have been riffed, as they say, subject to these reductions in force and who've challenged that in court, are still on the government payroll.
They're not going to work, but they are still getting paid.
And so there's a real question mark about what would happen.
There was that first, the fork in the road thing where you could resign or whatever it's called and get paid through September 30th.
unidentified
That's today.
That is today.
And so now there are a whole lot of federal workers, soon to be former federal workers, who really have a lot of angst and anxiety about their decision to accept that offer when they watch colleagues who maybe filed legal challenges and are now still getting paid.
And there's always a lot of talk about, you know, Congress shouldn't get paid if there's a government shutdown and Congress shouldn't get their salary if they don't do their job of passing a budget.
unidentified
And somebody always tries to introduce a bill to say we will go without our pay if the rest of the government is shut down.
The only issue with Social Security is if you need help or if you need to call into customer service, that might get delayed or that you might not find help on that.
I think what the people have to realize here is you got three actual voting blocks.
The way last time it was spoken about, it was 30% Republican, 30% Democrat, and then 40% in the middle.
The middle is going to drive this.
And as far as the lady was worried about her VA pension, it probably will be funded by management of Office of Management and Budget, but because the pensions come out of what they call mill strip, not mill strip.
Comes out of a residual fund of off of when people go off active duty or go off civil service, there's always that money.
So I think it was yesterday the Office of Management and Budget Director said that there should be enough money to cover 30 days.
But after the 30 days, then it would probably be the worst case scenario.
That was Speaker Mike Johnson yesterday outside the White House after his meeting.
We're taking your calls this morning on a potential government shutdown that happens just after midnight tonight if there is no deal between Congress, Congress, the White House.
Thun, sorry, we're just one Senate roll call away from keeping the government's lights on.
If Democrats would only agree, we can pass the bill at any time and spare the American people all the problems that come with a government shutdown.
This is Senator Marcia Blackburn.
Last year, Senator Schumer said the American people want to see, quote, both sides working together and for no chaos, no spectacle, no shutdown.
Now that he's no longer in power, his tune has conveniently changed.
And this is Sheldon Whitehouse who says, Thune says Republicans are ready to reach a bipartisan funding agreement right now.
We'll see today, won't we?
Trump and Vogt are slavering for a shutdown and spines of foam Republicans do as told, so we'll see.
Here's Representative Ken Calvert.
If Chuck Schumer continues to oppose the clean short-term funding bill approved by the House, our government will shut down on October 1st and our troops will not be paid.
That's inexcusable.
Our troops deserve better.
Let's keep the government open.
And this is Senator Patty Murray has a quote from Donald Trump in 2011 where he says, I actually think the president would be blamed.
If there is a shutdown, he's the one that has to get people together.
And she says, this, Trump is absolutely right.
He will own a Republican shutdown.
Right now, Republicans are willing to shut down the government rather than solve the health care crisis they created.
They want families to go bankrupt paying for health care.
And then she says, Republican shutdown.
Here's Michael in Florida, line for Democrats.
Good morning.
unidentified
I think the Democrats should hold the ground and let's have the shutdown.
It's time someone got off their knees and stood on their feet in Washington.
There's too many people on their knees in Washington.
We also made clear in the meeting that any bipartisan agreement by necessity has to have something in the legislation that makes clear to the American people that what we agree upon actually takes place.
If there's a bipartisan agreement to meet the needs of the American people, it can't be subject to Republicans then undermining that agreement in ways that actually hurt everyday Americans.
We pointed out that as a result of the Republican one big ugly bill, hospitals are closing, nursing homes are closing, community-based health clinics are closing right now, all across the country, including in rural America.
And there's an urgency to dealing with that issue right now.
And so it was a frank discussion.
It's important that it occurred, and Democrats remain ready, willing, and able to find a bipartisan path forward, address the Republican health care crisis, and avoid a Republican-caused government shutdown.
So, Brian, about the affordable care subsidies, what Democrats are saying is a lot of Americans are going to see their health care bills, their premiums go way up.
A lot of them are not going to be able to afford it anymore.