I'm in favor of keeping the government open, and I'm against the Democrats voting no at the last minute and putting up a lot of roadblocks that are, you know, unreasonable.
And I got to say my final thought that is that, you know, Jimmy Kimmel, you think he's funny, but I tell you the sombreros on all the people that are voting, no sombreros and mustaches, I think is the funniest thing.
It really puts the humor back onto the people that need to be laughed at.
And this is the Washington Post did a poll of 1,000 people asking the question, who do you think is mainly responsible for the federal government partially shutting down?
And here's the response that they got.
30% said Democrats in Congress.
47% said Trump and Republicans in Congress.
And 23% said not sure.
Let's take a look at House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Republicans have shut the government down because they don't want to provide health care to working class Americans.
House Democrats continue to be here, on duty.
House Republicans are on vacation.
We are ready, we are willing, we are able to sit down with anyone, anytime, any place, including the president and the vice president, to try to find a path forward to reopen the government, enact a spending agreement that actually meets the needs of the American people while at the same time addressing the Republican health care crisis.
Unfortunately, Republicans have shown zero interest in even having a conversation.
After the White House meeting, on Monday, we've seen behavior by the president that is unserious and unhinged.
And Leader Schumer and myself haven't gotten a single phone call as it relates to a follow-up conversation.
We're ready to have that conversation, but we need credible partners on the other side of the aisle.
And Donald Trump and Republicans have made clear they wanted to shut down the government.
They want to inflict pain on the American people.
They continue to engage in their retribution efforts, and they have zero interest, zero, in providing high-quality, affordable, and accessible care to everyday Americans.
We're getting your thoughts on the government shutdown.
It's day three.
The numbers are on your screen.
We do have a line set aside for federal workers.
You can call that number 202-748-8003 if you're a federal employee.
Otherwise, lines are bipartisan.
Republicans are on 202-748-8001.
Democrats, 202748-8000.
And Independents, 202748-8002.
And Bill is an independent in Wheelersburg, Ohio.
Good morning, Bill.
unidentified
Good morning, ma'am.
Thank you for taking my call.
Hey, listen, I need someone to explain to me how when the Republicans are in control of the White House, the Senate, and the House, how it can be the Democrats' fault that we have a government shutdown.
It's mind-boggling to me that people absolutely will say Democrats caused this.
Ma'am, that is so ridiculous.
Donald J. Trump shut down the government because that's what he wants, because he wants to be a dictator.
And if he can get rid of all the guardrails, he's working his way to get there.
I'm sorry.
I don't understand.
Maybe somebody needs to give me a history lesson, but I don't understand how you can blame anyone if the Republicans are in control of everything.
Who I blame for this shutdown is the American people.
And the reason why I blame the American people.
In 2016, we went through, I mean, literally hell in this country under Donald Trump from 16 to 20.
He has not been a leader of this country.
The Republican Party have never.
All right.
First of January, Congress come in.
What were the very first thing they worked on in Congress?
Tax breaks for the wealthy.
Besides, eliminating government jobs, eliminating benefits in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid.
Why is it that the Republican leadership in this country never proposed any legislation that really helped the American people?
First thing Biden did when he was elected was put in a infrastructure bill in this ragged country, supposed to be the most richest country in the world.
Still seeing railroad tracks around here, you can't even, a train can't even go 20 miles an hour because the infrastructure of the train track is ruined.
We have a problem in this country, and it's not the government right now.
If the people not paying attention to what's going on in our government and who to choose that they lead.
I'm calling in because I have a lot of health issues.
Sickle cell.
I just had a heart attack in April.
I have the degenerative disc disease where I'm constantly in pain.
I try working several times and I can't.
I can't get any social security when I've been working since I've been 15 years old and I'm 43 now.
I have five children.
I have my oldest son in the Navy.
At this time, with the government shutdown, I think it's ridiculous because not only do I have kids in the home and also try to work, they cut off Medicaid for me.
What do you see as the lies from the Democrats when it comes to this specific issue?
unidentified
I mean, it goes back to that.
I mean, just like they said, you know, they wanted illegals to come into the country where they could vote, just like they're trying to do in California.
They're trying to flood it over into California, a lot of it, because it ups your census in your electoral thing.
They want to let illegals vote, and then they want to give them free medical.
So, Frank, on the shutdown, what do you think should happen?
Do you think that would you be okay with the Republicans negotiating and agreeing to extend the Obamacare subsidies in order to reopen the government?
unidentified
Mike Johnson and them have done an excellent job.
They've already negotiated.
They've already done everything they can possibly do.
Schumer is desperate.
He knows he's going to be challenged by AOC.
He's just desperate.
Him and the kingdom.
Look at their approval ratings.
They're being drove out.
You know, so he's letting the radical left tell him exactly what to do.
And the radical, just like in the White House, they've run the White House during Biden, the radical left said, you know, and just lied to the American people.
Asking Democrats to swallow a list of new Republican policies or partisan demands.
Not in there.
We are asking Democrats to do nothing more than pass a clean, nonpartisan bill to fund the government for a few more weeks so that we can get back to bipartisan appropriations work.
And I said, Mr. President, bipartisan appropriations work.
The kind of bipartisan work that has seen the Senate pass three appropriations bills so far by robust bipartisan margins.
The kind of work that we want to continue once Democrats have stopped holding government funding hostage to a long list of partisan demands.
Mr. President, so far, three of our Democrat colleagues have joined Republicans to attempt to reopen the government.
If we can just find a few more Democrats to join us, we can end this shutdown and get back to bipartisan appropriations work and the business of the American people.
Democrats voted for clean CRs like the one before us 13 times, 13 times during the Biden administration.
I hope they'll join us to pass this clean CR and reopen the government for hardworking Americans.
Senator Thun mentioned three senators that voted with Republicans.
Those are Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat of Pennsylvania, Senator Catherine Cortez-Masto, Democrat of Nevada, and Senator Angus King, an independent of Maine.
And this is, take a look at the Democrats, Senate Democrats' key request.
That is extension of pandemic era expansions of Obamacare premium subsidies and spending guardrails to prevent the Trump administration from ignoring congressional spending directives and clawing back funds through impoundments and rescissions.
That's according to the Washington Times.
Christine, Atlanta, Georgia, Democrat.
Hi, Christine, you're on the air.
unidentified
Good morning, Mimi.
First of all, I do fault the Republicans.
From day one, they have been trying to destroy the affordable health care.
They never wanted it in play.
They never had anything.
They wanted to destroy because a black man put it into law.
That's the bottom line.
It's the top line.
All this other stuff, if they want to really work with the Democrat, extend the affordable health care.
And remind a lot of people.
Some people, they think it's two different things.
Think it's Obamacare is one thing, and America, the affordable health care is two things.
Call it like it is affordable health care.
Stop calling it Obamacare because most Republicans think that's one insurance, and then they think affordable health care is another insurance.
That's all I have to say.
And for the shutdown, it is the Republican fault because they never wanted the affordable health care and they never had anything to put in place.
They only doing this because they want to get it out of the way because of black man.
They said this: quote, with the expiration of enhanced tax credits, ACA, that's the Affordable Care Act, marketplace consumers' out-of-pocket premiums will increase more than 75% on average.
An analysis by health policy group KFF found.
Separately, KFF found that insurers' median proposed premium increase for 2026 to be about 18%, more than double last year's median proposed increase of 7%.
Here's Lonnie in El Cajon, California, Republican.
Yeah, what I'm calling about the Affordable Care Act.
Right now, there is no Republican Party.
There's no, because when I was started able to vote, I started when Reagan was coming into office.
But right now, there is no Republican Party.
What I'm talking about, like in March, when Federman and Schumer shut the government down, but they decided to keep it open.
They didn't shut it down.
Now they're shut down now.
The Republican Party, the House, they had seven months between March and October 1st.
They knew this day was coming, that they had to do something.
But they didn't work with the Democrats.
They didn't do nothing for seven months.
Now they want to kick the can down the road.
And that's seven weeks down the road.
And November 21st, six days later, you got Thanksgiving.
You know what the House Speaker's going to do?
Send him a vacation.
Then you got Christmas break, civil vacation.
By that time, you know, all the things will expire, and they won't have to do nothing.
It'd be January.
So I believe, in my opinion, even though I'm a Republican, that the Republicans should come to the table and do something because it's going to fall back on them because they keep blaming, well, the Democrats didn't go.
No, they had seven months to come and negotiate.
They just passed a clean CR.
They could have passed something that had Affordable Care Act in it and then worked with them.
But it's, I'm sorry, it's Republicans.
It's Republicans shut down.
And Ronald Reagan is probably turning over in his grave because they don't, to me, America is lost because they don't want to work with nobody.