| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
Students to create a five to six minute documentary that answers one of two questions. | |
| What's the Declaration's influence on a key moment from America's 250-year history? | ||
| Or how have its values touched on a contemporary issue that's impacting you or your community? | ||
| We encourage all students to participate, regardless of prior filmmaking experience. | ||
| Consider interviewing topical experts and explore a variety of viewpoints around your chosen issue. | ||
| Students should also include clips of related C-SPAN footage, which are easy to download on our website, studentcam.org. | ||
| C-SPAN Student Cam Competition awards $100,000 in total cash prizes to students and teachers, and $5,000 for the grand prize winner. | ||
| Entries must be received before January 20th, 2026. | ||
| For competition rules, tips, or just how to get started, visit our website at studentcam.org. | ||
| Yesterday, let's go straight to the phones now to Mike in Youngstown, Ohio. | ||
| Democrat, good morning, Mike. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| The whole thing's ridiculous. | ||
| These people, this cabinet that Trump has, obviously, if they say one thing he doesn't like, he just disregards them, gets rid of them. | ||
| You call this a government? | ||
| This is a joke. | ||
| It's a joke, and I hope we survive. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| So what do you want to see happen, Mike? | ||
|
unidentified
|
What do I want to see happen? | |
| Do you think Democrats should stand firm and not capitulate? | ||
| Or what should they negotiate on? | ||
|
unidentified
|
How can you negotiate? | |
| You don't have any strength there. | ||
| You don't have anything. | ||
| They have the numbers. | ||
| They have everything. | ||
| Let's just hope they don't destroy the country totally. | ||
| You know, obviously, I think that Trump is mentally ill. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Here's John in Ventura, California, Republican. | ||
| Hi, John. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I'll tell you something. | |
| Republicans are not the cause. | ||
| And this is the first time that the House has gone through the appropriations process in order to obtain this big, beautiful bill. | ||
| And it's quite a shame that the Democrats are going out of order to not have this and to block us. | ||
| Imagine if every time a budget comes up, the opposing party pulls a stunt like this and blocks it with some outrageous demand. | ||
| So I got to say that it's quite simple. | ||
| If you vote no, then you are shutting the government down. | ||
| If you vote yes, you are keeping the government open. | ||
| It's that simple. | ||
| And one final comment. | ||
| Oh, yeah, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| No, I was just going to ask you when you said unreasonable demands. | ||
| I wanted to know your thoughts on extending subsidies for Obamacare. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I got to tell you that I'm sure these were all covered in the Appropriations Committee and they didn't get included in the budget. | |
| So these were probably already covered. | ||
| And if the Democrats did this, they probably already covered them. | ||
| So when you say already already covered, so the Republicans did not want to take it up. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Yeah, they've already dealt with it in the Appropriations Committee, so why would they bring it up at the last minute now? | ||
| So you're in favor of those expiring? | ||
|
unidentified
|
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. | ||
| So the sombreros are great. | ||
| Cheryl, Alexandria, Virginia, Aligned for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Cheryl. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I am not calling to be a Democrat. | ||
| I'm not calling to be a Republican. | ||
| I'm not calling to be an independent. | ||
| I'm calling to be a free citizen of the United States of the country. | ||
| And I want to ask you a question. | ||
| Is it okay if I ask you a question? | ||
| Go right ahead, hun. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, would you do a segment of the Nazi history in America? | |
| Is that possible for you to do? | ||
| And ask people questions. | ||
| Do they know about the history of the Nazi regime in America and all over the world? | ||
| Well, Cheryl, we do a lot of coverage of history over on American History TV, and you could certainly watch that C-SPAN 3. | ||
| What are your thoughts on the shutdown, though, Cheryl? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, my thoughts on the shutdown is that this shouldn't be a shutdown. | |
| Everyone should be working collectively together. | ||
| And that means the whole entire Congress. | ||
| That means the Supreme Court. | ||
| That means all the media. | ||
| That means the entertainment. | ||
| We need to fight against this hate. | ||
| And I would love a segment on how do we fight against the hate that's going on in America. | ||
| I think that's what you need to be talking about. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Well, thanks for the input. | ||
| 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. | ||
| He was on the steps of the Capitol yesterday. | ||
| 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. | ||
| And so, Bill, what are your thoughts on the main sticking point, which is the health care, the expiration of the Obamacare subsidies? | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know what? | |
| It's sad. | ||
| How many 20 million people are going to be without health care in the United States of America? | ||
| Let me ask you this: why can Canada, a little small country like they are, have free health care for everyone? | ||
| But we, the richest country in the world, cannot do that. | ||
| Now, I want to ask this too: tariffs, all this stuff that Donald Trump has put in place. | ||
| He talks about all the billions of dollars that are pouring into the country. | ||
| Will you tell me something, ma'am? | ||
| Where's that money at? | ||
| Prove it. | ||
| Show it. | ||
| They don't show anything, they just talk. | ||
| And I'm telling you, if we don't do something, this country is finished. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And here's Haley, a Republican in Birmingham, Alabama. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Come on. | |
| Go ahead, Haley. | ||
| You're on the air. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| My whole thing is, no matter who is right, who is wrong in any of it, they are completely forgetting about the American people, period. | ||
| I mean, it's sad because, yes, we all need health care and all that. | ||
| But what about the people who are barely surviving in the world right now? | ||
| Because you can't go out and find jobs. | ||
| You can't do any of it because all of these other people that are being brought over here are taking our jobs. | ||
| So, what do you want to see happen, Haley? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I would like to see the shutdown, like them, like somehow come to some kind of agreement and work it out for the American people. | |
| They say they're for the American people. | ||
| Well, then be for the American people. | ||
| Worry about our home here. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And here's James in Simpson, North Carolina, Democrat. | ||
| Hi, James. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, how are you doing? | |
| I'm doing great. | ||
| Go right ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| 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. | ||
| It's too much hate, too much racial tension. | ||
| And who spurs all this racial tension? | ||
| Republicans. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And take a look at the website for HUD. | ||
| That's Housing and Urban Development. | ||
| This is a government website. | ||
| It's at HUD.gov. | ||
| And if you go to that website, you'll get this pop-up. | ||
| It says this: the radical left in Congress shut down the government. | ||
| HUD will use available resources to help Americans in need. | ||
| And if you close that, it has the same as a banner on the top of that HUD website. | ||
| And also on USA Today, it says out-of-office emails at Education Department blame Democrats for the shutdown. | ||
| Messages from the official accounts of furloughed staffers were changed on Wednesday to point fingers at Senate Democrats. | ||
| It says this, this is what you'll see if you send an email. | ||
| It says, thank you for contacting me. | ||
| On September 19th, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5371, a clean continuing resolution. | ||
| Unfortunately, Democrat senators are blocking passage of the bill in the Senate, which has led to a lapse in appropriations. | ||
| Some of the two furloughed employees told USA Today they were deeply frustrated to see the outgoing message on their email accounts. | ||
| They felt it likely violated the Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from certain political activities. | ||
| And this is what it says. | ||
| This is what Politico says. | ||
| Top Oversight Dem calls for investigation over White House shutdown messaging. | ||
| It's Representative Robert Garcia. | ||
| Said the White House appears to be in violation of the Hatch Act. | ||
| That's on Politico. | ||
| And this is Andra in Statesboro, Georgia, Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| How are you? | ||
| Good. | ||
|
unidentified
|
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. | ||
| I could only be seen by OBGYN. | ||
| I need to see neurosurgeon doctors. | ||
| So, Andrew, are you not considered disabled then and qualified for Medicaid? | ||
|
unidentified
|
And they denied me several times. | |
| And how are you paying for your health care now? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right now, I have no money to pay for health care. | |
| I've been trying to get a lot of money. | ||
| Do you just not go to the doctor then? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I go to the doctor, and the last doctor I went to, I had to give them $500 of my rent money just to be seen, to get epidurals in my back. | |
| That doesn't work. | ||
| So, have you tried the Affordable Care Act, the exchanges, Obamacare, or no? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I haven't tried Obamacare because they had me on Medicaid, and the Medicaid, only Medicaid part I can do is OBGYN. | |
| Before I had my heart attack in April, I had insurance, and then they cut it right off. | ||
| Here's Frank in Texas, Republican line. | ||
| Hi, Frank. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, ma'am. | |
| I would just like to say, I know that Mike Johnson and Caroline Levitt and them are telling the truth. | ||
| They held up the papers and everything the other day and showed it on camera on Fox News and on Newsmax of exactly what the Democrats are doing. | ||
| Now, Mike Johnson and Caroline Levitt and them are telling you the truth. | ||
| Let's just see what the Democrats do. | ||
|
unidentified
|
There's 2.1 million Democrats that have not registered. | |
| They don't belong to the Democratic Party anymore. | ||
| They have switched and went 2.4 million. | ||
| It's added to the Republicans. | ||
| The Republicans are gaining more votes, millions and millions more votes. | ||
| Democrats are coming over to Republicans because they see how much the Democrats lie. | ||
| Now, let's just look at the line that the Democrats do, not just on this bill on the CR client, but on other things. | ||
| These are the same Democrats that said Biden, he's the most brilliant man, got unbounded energy. | ||
| He can do trigonometry while he's doing backflips. | ||
| So, Frank, let's stick with the shutdown. | ||
| 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. | ||
| Got it, Frank. | ||
| And as we mentioned, the Senate does come back into session later today. | ||
| You can see that on C-SPAN too. | ||
| Take a look at Senate Majority Leader John Thune on the Senate floor yesterday urging Senate Democrats to vote for the House Pass CR. | ||
| Take a look. | ||
| Asking Democrats to swallow a list of new Republican policies or partisan demands. | ||
|
unidentified
|
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. | ||
|
unidentified
|
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. | ||
| All right, Christine, we got that. | ||
| And this is what the Washington Post says. | ||
| 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. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| How are you? | ||
| I'm doing okay. | ||
|
unidentified
|
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. | ||
| They just say, my way or the highway. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Here's Rob in Maryland, Independent Line. | ||
| Hi, Rob. | ||
| What do you think? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, can you hear me? | |
| Yes, go right ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, it's actually a perfect segue or dovetail into what the previous caller was talking about. | |
| Yeah, I think that what, like, I heard Speaker Johnson talk about, you know, hey, we're getting things back into regular order. | ||
| That's great. | ||
| And I'm all for that as a kind of independent independent. | ||
| But I think the bigger issue is: like, forget, you know, I'm a federal worker. | ||
| We're not going to, and I'm accepted, so I'm not, I'm working, I don't get paid. | ||
| That's okay. | ||
| But so the current CR that's on the Senate's desk that they can't pass is until sometime in mid-November, I think. | ||
| And so, how about just like, why is the House on recess or on vacation? | ||
| Like, how about just get all that done? | ||
| Like, sure, the government can be shut down for six weeks till November 17th, right? | ||
| And then if that's the amount of time you think you need, Speaker Johnson, then just come back and on the 17th of November, pass a full budget. | ||
| I think that would be great. | ||
| That's my opinion. | ||
| All right, Rob. | ||
| And that's it for this segment. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Democracy. | |
| It isn't just an idea. |