| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
| D.C., October 3rd, 2025. | ||
| I hereby designate the period from Tuesday, October 7th, 2025 through Monday, October 13th, 2025, as a district work period under clause 13 of Rule 1. | ||
| Signed sincerely, Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Pursuant to Clause 13 of Rule 1, the House stands adjourned until 3 p.m. on Monday, October 6, 2025. | |
| I'm Dasha Burns, host of Ceasefire, bridging the divide in American politics. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Ceasefire, Premieres October 10th. | |
| Welcome back to Washington Journal. | ||
| We're joined by Representative Chuck Fleischman. | ||
| He's a Republican of Tennessee's 3rd District and also a member of the Appropriations and the Science, Space, and Technology Committees. | ||
| Representative, thanks for joining us. | ||
| Welcome to the program. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| It's a pleasure to be here. | ||
| I wanted to get your thoughts on the government shutdown. | ||
| It's the third day now and bring to your attention the poll that the Washington Post did of asking who they think is most to blame. | ||
| And it came out 47% blaming President Trump and Republicans in Congress as compared to 30% Democrats in Congress. | ||
| What are your thoughts on that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I've been in Congress now 15 years. | |
| This is my eighth term. | ||
| I'm a chairman on the Appropriations Committee, as you properly allude to. | ||
| I chair the Energy and Water Subcommittee. | ||
| But I never lie to the American people and I never lie to my constituents. | ||
| So I'm going to be abundantly clear to Republicans, to Democrats, to Independents, to the people of this country. | ||
| I am outraged at the Democratic Party for the farce, the lies that they have done in this government shutdown. | ||
| And there's something when you serve. | ||
| The truth about what is going on and the process to me is so critically, critically important. | ||
| This is why we have such an erosion in public confidence. | ||
| People get out and literally spread myth-screws. | ||
| I've listened to some of the calls that you've gotten this morning. | ||
| So today, I'm going to be absolutely straightforward, lay out the process with you, take any phone calls, but I will not lie about this. | ||
| So we've got the truth. | ||
| You've got policy. | ||
| There's a time to be partisan. | ||
| But let me be clear. | ||
| The Democrats shut the government down. | ||
| It's clear. | ||
| It is factual. | ||
| The House of Representatives passed a relatively clean continuing resolution. | ||
| I'm glad to go into that. | ||
| The fiscal year ended on September 30th. | ||
| Long before that, we passed a continuing resolution to November 20th, which in effect allows us to continue to negotiate on appropriation bills. | ||
| Some of your earlier callers are talking about Obamacare, this and that. | ||
| This is appropriations. | ||
| Most of the Affordable Care Act, 85% of it, is on the mandatory side. | ||
| It's not even affected by appropriations. | ||
| Well, Congressman, let's focus on the truth. | ||
| Sure. | ||
| Let's talk about Obamacare and talk specifically about the extensions of those subsidies. | ||
| And as you know, KFF is estimating that premiums, out-of-pocket premiums will go up by 75% if those subsidies aren't extended. | ||
| Where do you stand on that point specifically? | ||
|
unidentified
|
The way I stand on that point is extraneous, has nothing to do with this. | |
| This is the farce put on by the Democratic Party to the American people. | ||
| These are appropriation bills. | ||
| These are the 12 bills that we pass every year or not if we fail and get into a shutdown or a continuing resolution. | ||
| Any other extraneous things are irrelevant to this. | ||
| The Democrats went out, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries. | ||
| They've hurt their credibility, not only with the American people. | ||
| This is going to linger on. | ||
| I have to stress this after this, because even though I'm a very forgiving person, I cannot sit back and lie. | ||
| When the Republicans shut the government down, please listen to me. | ||
| In 2013, we were wrong. | ||
| We should have never done that. | ||
| We should have never shut the government down. | ||
| What was that about? | ||
| You said Obamacare, 85% of it was under mandatory spending. | ||
| I remember sitting with my hands in my head saying, why did we do this? | ||
| It hurt the country then. | ||
| It was wrong then. | ||
| Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries had a clean, continuing resolution that Democrats, three Democrats in the Senate have joined. | ||
| They will have to cave. | ||
| You talk about polls and you talk about these other subsidies. | ||
| We can sit down and talk through these things, negotiate through these things, but they are extraneous, completely outside the appropriations process. | ||
| And Congressman Orange. | ||
| You say it's extraneous, but the Democrats are saying that they have tried to get these extended. | ||
| Republicans have refused, that this is the only chance they have to get them extended before open enrollment starts November 1st. | ||
| What do you think of that? | ||
| And if this came to a vote, would you vote to extend Obamacare subsidies? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I will vote for a clean, continuing resolution. | |
| I'm an appropriator. | ||
| That is my job. | ||
| I chair the Energy and Water Subcommittee. | ||
| I'm America's Energy Member of Congress. | ||
| I work with Republicans, Democrats, Independents, members of the House, members of all administrations. | ||
| I've worked with the Obama, Trump, Biden, and now Trump administrations on energy. | ||
| That's what I do on appropriations. | ||
| The saddest thing about all this, if I can impart something to your listeners, whether they're Democrats, Republicans, or Independents, I'm going to stand on the truth. | ||
| You've got to keep it clean and simple and on point. | ||
| We've got to keep the government open. | ||
| It's never a good idea to shut the government down. | ||
| This is costing the American taxpayer hundreds of millions of dollars a day. | ||
| It put federal workers, it puts our troops in a very difficult position. | ||
| By the way, guess who gets paid under the Constitution? | ||
| Members of Congress. | ||
| That's outrageous. | ||
| That's why I stopped my pay. | ||
| But in reality, we go through this farce. | ||
| So, Congressman, I guess we should take that as a no, that you would be against extending subsidies on Obamacare if you had to vote on that right now. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I will take a look at what is proposed at that time. | |
| But once again, the Democrats needed an issue to bring into the argument that was extraneous and it's farcial. | ||
| One thing I respect, I respect partisan politics. | ||
| I respect debates over policy, where you stand, but I do not respect lying to the American people. | ||
| That's what the Democrats have done, plain and simple on this. | ||
| And Mimi, I've got to say this. | ||
| You never play fast and loose with the American Republic. | ||
| You keep the government open. | ||
| Think about it this way. | ||
| All across America, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, partisans, and nonpartisans go to work every day. | ||
| They pay their taxes. | ||
| They get around the water cooler. | ||
| They may argue about their favorite sports teams or their favorite or not favorite president, but they get their job done. | ||
| They don't shut down the business and then say, let's reopen it and let's hurt it. | ||
| That's what the Democrats have done. | ||
| They're proud of this shutdown. | ||
| This is Chuck Schumer, who basically has been on record, time untold, he was right the last time. | ||
| He kept it open. | ||
| You keep it open and you talk. | ||
| Doesn't mean that I'm right all the time or my party's right all the time, but you keep talking and working through these things. | ||
| And we look at the big beautiful bill. | ||
| I've got to talk about this one last thing. | ||
| Two things you never want to do is shut the government down or, God forbid, default on the national debt. | ||
| Now, in the big beautiful bill, we raised the national debt. | ||
| The Democrats voted against that, so it could be difficult and say, well, they voted to default on our national debt. | ||
| But candidly, I'm going to be honest, I get as many calls from Republicans that say, well, just shut it down. | ||
| That is irresponsible to the American people. | ||
| We've got to keep the full faith and credit of the United States strong, and we owe it to the American people, to the American Republic. | ||
| It's a higher calling. | ||
| It's beyond just being partisan or being a representative of your district. | ||
| You've got to keep Mimi, the government open. |