| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
Coming up on C-SPAN's Washington Journal, we'll preview the new Supreme Court term and key upcoming cases with SCODIS blog co-founder and reporter Amy Howe. | |
| Then a discussion about the government shutdown, first with Newsweek White House correspondent Daniel Bush, then with NBC News senior congressional reporter Scott Wong. | ||
| Washington Journal starts now. | ||
| This is Washington Journal for Monday, October 6th. | ||
| It is the sixth day of the government shutdown with both sides showing no sign of budging. | ||
| Democrats say they won't open the government without an agreement on extending Affordable Care Act subsidies, and Republicans say they aren't willing to negotiate until the government is open. | ||
| The Senate is expected to vote this evening for the fifth time on a House-passed funding stopgap, with most federal workers scheduled to miss their first paycheck Friday if the shutdown isn't resolved. | ||
| We're starting today's program with your thoughts on this, the sixth day of the government shutdown. | ||
| Here are the lines: Republicans 202-748-8001. | ||
| Democrats 202-748-8000. | ||
| And Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| If you are a federal worker, you can call in at 202-748-8003. | ||
| You can also text your comments to that number, 202-748-8003. | ||
| Be sure to include your name and city. | ||
| You can also post a question or comment on Facebook at facebook.com slash C-SPAN or on X at C-SPANWJ. | ||
| Good morning, and thank you for being with us today. | ||
| We will get to your calls and comments in just a few moments, but we want to get the latest on the shutdown. | ||
| Joining us for that is Samantha Handler, a policy reporter with Punch Bowl News. | ||
| Samantha, thank you for being with us. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you for having me. | |
| We'll start with the congressional leaders, top congressional leaders. | ||
| They were on the Sunday shows yesterday talking about the shutdown. | ||
| Is anyone talking to each other? | ||
|
unidentified
|
That doesn't seem clear at this point. | |
| We saw last week Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Chuck Schumer briefly spoke on the floor, but there have not been big meetings between the leaders since they all went to see President Donald Trump, which is not a good sign for this ending anytime soon. | ||
| And what congressional leaders were saying yesterday, what did you hear? | ||
| Is there anything new from the messaging that they have used the previous week? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Now, I'm really hearing both sides digging into their current positions. | |
| So Senate Republicans and House Speaker Mike Johnson are not looking likely to give in to Democrats' demands on ACA subsidies. | ||
| Democrats, of course, are continuing to say that they will not move forward, as you said, without a deal on that. | ||
| Patty Murray, the Senate Appropriations top Democrat, even told me last week they needed something in writing to move forward. | ||
| They needed some kind of commitment from Republican leadership that they will put a bill on the floor on health care, which is not something Republican leadership is prepared to do. | ||
| And of course, we've been hearing a lot from that congressional leadership. | ||
| What are you hearing from the rank and file members? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right, rank-and-file members. | |
| I mean, the House, of course, is still out, which is making for this sort of odd feeling in the Capitol, right? | ||
| It's really quiet without House members. | ||
| And we reported over the weekend that leadership was telling House members to House Republicans to start holding town halls and, you know, talking about the Democratic impacts of the shutdown, how basically doubling down on blaming Democrats. | ||
| And rank-and-file, you know, senators are, of course, trying to figure out a way out of this. | ||
| We have Senator Mike Rounds, Lisa Murkowski, Gene Shaheen are all kind of trying to working to find some sort of way forward on the ACA subsidies. | ||
| But of course, the Senate is only one part of this, and the House would have to accept anything that they come up with. | ||
| In staying with the House, Speaker Johnson canceled the scheduled in-session. | ||
| The House members being in session this week, they're expected to be in their districts. | ||
| What discussions are happening among members when it comes to meeting and having talks as this week goes on? | ||
|
unidentified
|
We'll see. | |
| I mean, I think as people come back today, that will become more clear. | ||
| It seems like there's no plans for leadership to meet again. | ||
| We will have a press conference with Speaker Mike Johnson earlier this morning. | ||
| There will be a Democratic press call or Democratic call with members rather tonight. | ||
| Press obviously hopes to get the details of that. | ||
| So, I mean, it's Monday. | ||
| We'll see how people get back to it. | ||
| And, you know, as federal workers, you know, miss their first paycheck on Friday, I think that's going to up the pressure and that's going to be the telltale sign that spurs a meeting. | ||
| It'll be the fifth time that the Senate has taken up this legislation. | ||
| Do we know anything about where the Senate stands? | ||
| Anyone looking to change their vote from what it previously has been? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, I mean, it's really more of the same. | |
| And John Thuna said he will keep having this vote. | ||
| And, you know, they think they can get more Democrats. | ||
| We've only seen three defects so far. | ||
| Jean Shaheen. | ||
| Oh, sorry, not Jean Shaheen. | ||
| She's one we're watching to eventually maybe, you know, she's a key member to watch if that's starting to fold. | ||
| But we've seen Cortez Masto, Angus King, John Fennerman. | ||
| We don't expect any more than those three tonight. | ||
| If the unexpected happens, if the Senate were to pass this, the House has said that they won't be in session. | ||
| What happens then? | ||
|
unidentified
|
The House has said that they will give members 48 hours' notice to come back to Washington to vote on that measure. | |
| So then we would have at least that amount of time. | ||
| But I think the House could come back pretty quickly to reopen the government. | ||
| And both sides have been pointing their fingers at each, at the other party throughout this new poll, CBS, shows that the kind of blame across the board, it's pretty much all negative when it comes to the shutdown. | ||
| Does that change the political calculus for either side? | ||
| Does public opinion matter? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Public opinion absolutely matters. | |
| I think it will matter more as this goes on. | ||
| I think once that first paycheck is missed, that's really when members will start feeling more of the heat at home. | ||
| And I mean, they're feeling it already. | ||
| And they, you know, going into even right before the shutdown happened, lawmakers were talking about, you know, their concern about how this is going to impact their districts. | ||
| Of course, we'll see, you know, members and senators with higher percentages of federal workers start to feel that heat even more. | ||
| You know, Senator Swas there, of course, Tim Kaine, Mark Warner, Chris Van Holland. | ||
| So we'll see. | ||
| I mean, I think that's going to be a really key aspect of this. | ||
| And it could turn either way on Republicans or Democrats. | ||
| Samantha Handler is a policy reporter with Punch Bowl News. | ||
| You can follow her reporting and other reporting at punchbowl.news. | ||
| Samantha, thank you so much for being with us today. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you for having me. | |
| For this first hour, we are taking your calls and hearing your thoughts on this, the sixth day of the government shutdown. | ||
| You can go ahead and give us a call. | ||
| Republicans, 202-748-8001. | ||
| Democrats, 202-748-8000. | ||
| And Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| If you are a federal worker, we want to hear from you. | ||
| There's a special line that is 202-748-8003. | ||
| And of course, you can also reach us on social media and via text. | ||
| We will start with Daryl, who's calling from Columbus, Ohio on the line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Daryl. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| How are you doing? | ||
| Doing well, Daryl. | ||
| Daryl? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good, good. | |
| Yes. | ||
| Yeah, I wanted to keep it just like it is right now. | ||
| Keep it shut down. | ||
| Democrats do not give in. | ||
| Republicans always get what they want. | ||
| And then when they get what they want, they won't do nothing to help the people out. | ||
| So they want to keep lying about this health care for illegal people, which we all know they're telling a lie because the illegals cannot get federal funding for none of that type of stuff. | ||
| They get some funding from certain states, but not from the federal. | ||
| So we all know they're lying about the illegals. | ||
| So my thing is to keep it shut down. | ||
| And I got one more thing for you, Tammy. | ||
| How often can we call in? | ||
| Every 30 days, Daryl. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, so we, okay, I hate to be the town snitch, but you got a guy that calls in from Prairie, Texas, Perry, Texas. | |
| He uses several agencies, Frank, John, Mark. | ||
| He calls in every other day. | ||
| It all depends on which one of you guys are working. | ||
| So he knows how to pick and choose. | ||
| So that's why a lot of us can't get in. | ||
| But Tammy, I appreciate you. | ||
| And Democrats, keep it shut down. | ||
| I love it. | ||
| Shut it down. | ||
| That was Daryl. | ||
| And we do our best to make sure that people are abiding by that 30-day rule. | ||
| It's an honor policy, and we do ask that people follow that. | ||
| We try to catch them when we can, but some people are just tricky. | ||
| David in Clinton, Maryland, line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, David. | ||
|
unidentified
|
How are you doing? | |
| Here's the bottom line. | ||
| This shutdown is all Republicans' fault. | ||
| If the shoe was on the other foot, they'd be screaming Democrats' fault. | ||
| Another thing, if the government is shut down, Congress should not get paid till government's reopening. | ||
| That's all I have to say. | ||
| Wade is calling from Ohio on the line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Wade. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Tammy. | |
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| Tammy, just wanted to make a comment. | ||
| I can't believe that the American people are having to go through this. | ||
| All they've done is give Donald Trump an open checkbook. | ||
| Are they so stupid to know that they haven't done that? | ||
| This is pitiful that the federal workers have to do without aid because of all these Democrats' stupid thoughts. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
| That's all I've got to say. | ||
| What would you like to see your party Republican leadership do? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I would like to see them do anything. | |
| I think I've read the CR. | ||
| It's a straightforward CR. | ||
| This CR is all about just opening up the government. | ||
| And their Democrats are wanting to push to get all that ridiculous stuff added to it. | ||
| So I wouldn't give it a bit. | ||
| That was Wade in Ohio. | ||
| Thomas calling from Bethany, Louisiana, on the line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Thomas. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I was just sitting here listening, and most of the time, that's all I do is listen to C-SPAN in the morning. | ||
| But I just wonder what most of the listeners think about when a lot of them, parents and stuff like that, in nursing homes and those nursing homes when this insurance goes up. | ||
| The nursing homes are going to have to dump a lot of those people back out, and you're going to have a new house guest because your parents, you're not going to be able to pay it. | ||
| The only thing you're going to be able to do is to take back some of that money and take care of those parents. | ||
| I just turned 80 years old. | ||
| Thank God I'm still in pretty good condition. | ||
| But, you know, you never know what's going to happen the next day. | ||
| That's just something for the Republicans to think about. | ||
| Because they can do this and then just see our, and then all of a sudden, Trump goes in and says, we're not going to do this. | ||
| What are you going to do? | ||
| Thomas, what would you do? | ||
| You said you were in good shape. | ||
| What would you do if you weren't? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I really don't know because my kids are spread all over the country. | |
| And I just go from day to day. | ||
| I'm still living out here in the country and taking care of this two and a half acre yard. | ||
| But then I bought this when it was financially feasible to take care of. | ||
| That was Thomas in Louisiana. | ||
| Joe is calling from Cattonsville, Maryland, on the line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Joe. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I've got a few questions. | ||
| Did a judge's house get burned down last night, right after Trump criticized her? | ||
| Is the house refusing to go back in session because there's a representative who would have to be voted in, who would give the number of votes necessary to release the Epstein files? | ||
| If I said that I was a member of Antifa and intended to burn flags on my property in accordance with the existing fire law and that I don't respect Charlie Kirk, is C-SPAN going to get a call from the government? | ||
| If C-SPAN gets a call from the government about me, and this is the big one, if C-SPAN gets a call from the government asking about me being an Antifa or flag burning or not respecting Charlie Kirk's death, is C-SPAN going to tell the American people that they are getting calls from the government about their callers? | ||
| Joe, we're talking about the government shutdown right now. | ||
| What are your thoughts on that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, my big thoughts on the government shutdown are that the House, as far as I'm aware, is not reconvening. | |
| I saw a message from Thomas Massey. | ||
| It says, that's a Republican senator who's been pushing for these files. | ||
| He says the government, sorry, not Senator, House member. | ||
| The government is in shutdown, but the House refuses to go back in session. | ||
| Why are we in recess? | ||
| Because the day we go back into session, I have 218 votes for the discharge petition to force a vote on releasing the Epstein files. | ||
| Speaker Johnson doesn't want that to be the news. | ||
| So is the House preventing the release of the Epstein files? | ||
| Is that the real reason that they won't come back? | ||
| That was Joe in Maryland. | ||
| The House is scheduled to be out this week with the regular session canceled. | ||
| These are a few of the headlines talking in today's newspapers looking at the shutdown. | ||
| This from the Wall Street Journal. | ||
| Parties dig in. | ||
| Await pain from shutdown. | ||
| This on the front page of the New York Times as shutdown grips U.S., parties mostly shrug. | ||
| And this is the front page of today's Washington Times. | ||
| Their headline, shutdown enters sixth day with no end to partisan gridlock on Obamacare. | ||
| It was yesterday that House Speaker Mike Johnson spoke about negotiating ACA subsidies on a Sunday show. | ||
| Here is that clip. | ||
| We need a little more time on the clock to finish the appropriations process. | ||
| We have plenty of time to debate that very complicated issue. | ||
| It's not a simple one. | ||
| There has to be reforms to that subsidy because there's a lot of fraud, waste, and abuse involved in it. | ||
| There's 535 members of Congress in the House and Senate. | ||
| There's probably 400 different ideas on how to fix that. | ||
| But we need a little time to do it. | ||
| We're not saying that we won't negotiate it. | ||
| We're saying turn the lights back on in Congress, get troops paid, TSA agents and Border Patrol agents paid who are trying to protect us. | ||
| Restore the health care programs that are being stalled for veterans and Medicare recipients who are getting home health. | ||
| It's all stalled now. | ||
| Restore FEMA flood insurance programs in the middle of our program and WIC programs for young women. | ||
| We've got to get this fixed now. | ||
| But just to clarify what you were just saying, do I hear you correctly that you, as Speaker of the House, want to see the tax credit extended at a future date? | ||
| Is that what you are saying? | ||
| No, I haven't staked out any position on it yet because that's not how this process works. | ||
| We're in a deliberative body. | ||
| Right, I'm asking a lot of position because you said we were about women. | ||
| I'm telling you my position. | ||
| I'm the Speaker of the House. | ||
| What I have to do is draw consensus among 435 members of my body. | ||
| I don't get out and project what the final conclusion is going to be. | ||
| And I've told Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries most recently in the Oval Office with the president just five, six days ago, keep the government open so that we can do that job. | ||
| We were always planning to do that. | ||
| Again, that funding runs out December 31st. | ||
| The month of October is a critical time for us to get to this. | ||
| But we can't when Chuck Schumer keeps voting to shut the government down for political reasons. | ||
| That's purely and simply what's happening here. | ||
| And Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer was also on CBS's Face the Nation yesterday. | ||
| He appeared after Speaker Johnson and responded to his comments. | ||
| Here's that clip. | ||
| Democrats, as I understand it, are looking for an extension of those Obamacare tax credit. | ||
| I believe you'd like them permanently. | ||
| You heard the speaker say we can talk about that after the government is reopened, perhaps not permanently. | ||
| But do you hear any kind of opening here for a negotiation whatsoever? | ||
| Well, right now, not. | ||
| Look, Johnson's not serious about this. | ||
| He sent all his congressmen home last week and home this week. | ||
| How are you going to negotiate? | ||
| Because the job is in the Senate. | ||
| Would you and Leader Thunder? | ||
| Well, no, you need no. | ||
| You actually need Johnson if you're going to negotiate any agreement. | ||
| You need Johnson, Thune, Trump, Schumer, and Jeffries. | ||
| And the reason he sent them home is because he's more interested in protecting the Epstein files than protecting the American people from the health care crisis. | ||
| We've been trying for months and months to sit down with them and have a serious conversation addressing America's health care needs. | ||
| And they've refused and refused and refused. | ||
| And just on your show and on other shows, when they ask him, well, will you do it in January? | ||
| He says it's starting in January. | ||
| He says no. | ||
| We'll have a conversation. | ||
| Well, you know what? | ||
| Later means never. | ||
| Other members of Congress talking about the shutdown, posting on social media. | ||
| This from Congressman Ken Calvert, a Republican of California, saying every California Democrat in Congress voted against paying our troops and voted against funding food assistance programs. | ||
| It's time to put people before our politics and the shutdown. | ||
| And Representative Framila Jayapal, Democrat of Washington, posting Project 2025 was always Trump's plan. | ||
| Now he's using the Republican shutdown to implement it even faster. | ||
| He wants to become king. | ||
| We won't stand for it. | ||
| And one more, this from Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat of Arizona, saying, I'm ready to sit down with my Republican colleagues to keep premiums from spiking and end this shutdown. | ||
| They're not even here. | ||
| Back to your calls here and your thoughts. | ||
| On this day six of the government shutdown, let's talk with Joseph, who's calling from Georgia on the line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Joseph. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Basically, I do the last caller. | ||
| I do think this is Trump just making sure that the FC stuff doesn't come out and it's probably less politically harmful to deal with the shutdown. | ||
| But what I'll disagree with Democrats is like, I think they should just reopen, like, let the Republicans own the cost rises of the medical stuff. | ||
| I mean, we did our best, but we want these people to go back to work. | ||
| So we're like, get the government back going, get the FC stuff brought out, find out what is going on with that. | ||
| And I'm just like, why don't the Republicans just own the rising cost of health care? | ||
| So I just don't like texting her at all anyway. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Well, thank you so much. | ||
| That was Joseph in Georgia. | ||
| Greg is calling from Clearwater, Florida, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Greg. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thank you for taking the call. | ||
| I was just watching the Today show with Live Jeffries, and his major concern was the American cost of health care. | ||
| Well, the topic of Americans is the important thing. | ||
| And it seems that they're hiding the aspect of the illegal aliens being taken care of their health care, which is one of the major blocks of this being signed and reopening the government. | ||
| I'd like your response on that. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| That was Greg in Florida. | ||
| Tim, calling from Rochester, New York, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Tim. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, the Democrats need to keep it shut down. | |
| For me, it's over the Epstein files. | ||
| They don't want to bring it out. | ||
| So that's why they don't have the people there in Congress. | ||
| He sent them home. | ||
| And it's a shame. | ||
| I thought Republicans was better than this, but they know better. | ||
| But they want the rich to get all the money, send the legals back, which he's sending them back. | ||
| So what do they have? | ||
| They have nothing else to run on, but keep it shut down forever. | ||
| Bye. | ||
| That was Tim in New York. | ||
| David, calling from Massachusetts on the line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, David. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| First off, I'm an independent, but I'm basically a log cabin Republican. | ||
| I think you know what that means, a gay Republican. | ||
| I don't want to see our money put towards killing unborn children. | ||
| You know, the Democrats talk about health care and taking care of people and this and that, and yet they don't respect the most vulnerable of us. | ||
| And the Democrats also seem to forget that. | ||
| It was the Republican president who freed the slaves. | ||
| It was the Democrats who voted in the 60s against the equal rights law. | ||
| You know, so there are things, and I don't want to pay also for transgender surgeries in other countries. | ||
| And I also don't want to pay for all these illegals getting stuff. | ||
| And I personally had to deal with an illegal person from Nigeria who's doing that for years. | ||
| What makes them think, Democrats, and not just Democrats, I guess a lot of people, that we should give everything free to people, everything free to people. | ||
| Where does that come from? | ||
| And then they go into this stuff about, oh, it's all about money with the Republicans. | ||
| They're billionaires. | ||
| I think somebody like Oprah Winfrey and a few other Democrats who are billionaires might want to think about that statement. | ||
| I just think it's good to keep the shutdown until we start cutting in places that we have to cut. | ||
| I don't care if they close the national parks. | ||
| I don't care if they close a tour of the White House. | ||
| That is not important. | ||
| What is important for me is that we stop spending money on ridiculous things. | ||
| That was David in Massachusetts. | ||
| Benjamin is calling from Denver, Colorado, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Benjamin. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Line for Republicans, actually, because I really consider myself an actual Republican, but like our previous log cabin Republican, I tend to be a little bit more socially biased because I understand how seeing traumatic things in the world can cause trauma to everyone who is witness to it. | |
| And so Democrats have a good point about trying to bring our humanity back into line with what a great nation should be. | ||
| But at the same time, the Republicans, hey, you know, like I'm a Republican. | ||
| I think that multiple groups of people getting together and discussing how we make things work is how we end up the great nation. | ||
| The only thing is that, man, we've been riding off of the value that we got from rebuilding the world after World War II and then inventing semiconductors. | ||
| And since then, people have just been such jerks to each other about trying to gain enough of that value for themselves that now we have the country that we're at. | ||
| Nobody has wanted to make anything new because they feel they'll never get any value from it. | ||
| So the government shutdown, you know, I think it's just a little bit of stress for everyone to understand that we're in this together and that if we aren't, we're not going to be in this. | ||
| That's my comment on today, and I really hope that people start to be honest with each other and talk things out because truth is the only way we can get bored and evil grows in ignorance. | ||
| So thank you very much. | ||
| That was Benjamin in Colorado. | ||
| Let's hear from Ronald calling from Oyster Bay, New York, on the line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Ronald. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I think that unfortunately, my senator, Schumer, is largely at fault for causing this shutdown. | ||
| He ought to do the intelligent thing that he did the last time and just agree not to have a shutdown while this matter could be dealt with and the people would not lose their jobs temporarily. | ||
| I met Schumer way back before he ran for Congress. | ||
| He was much less harmful at that time. | ||
| By the way, finally, I would like to ask you this. | ||
| The picture of the Supreme Court on the screen right now, could you please tell me what's the construction that's going on there at the present time? | ||
| Do you know? | ||
| Well, we'll see if we can find out. | ||
| I know that they're scaffolding up, and I'm not exactly sure what they're doing. | ||
| But we'll see if we can find out. | ||
| We'll be talking about the Supreme Court later today. | ||
| They are opening their new term today. | ||
| Let's hear from Cindy in Lexington, Kentucky, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Cindy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, and thank you for taking my call. | |
| I moved out of Florida because of the Florida open border that has been invaded by the Republicans. | ||
| I was an independent and I became a Democrat to fight what is going on, what they have done to my native land of Florida. | ||
| But that's not why I'm calling. | ||
| I'm calling about what I went through in Florida with my father. | ||
| I took him in at 93 years old and helped them to live to 100 and a half. | ||
| I lived in Pinellas County, Florida. | ||
| And when I took him to the emergency room, because somebody called the other day about the emergency room, he had to take his daughter in for a broken leg or something and then was saying something about the illegal. | ||
| He had to stand behind the illegal immigrants. | ||
| Well, let me tell you what I had to stand behind in Clearwater, Florida. | ||
| Spring breakers, baseball spring breakers, tourists, snowbirds, locals, and transplants. | ||
| And it was packed. | ||
| And there wasn't a single Florida native in there. | ||
| And it was pure white skin in there. | ||
| There were no immigrants. | ||
| And my father had a terrible cold that turned into pneumonia. | ||
| And I was sitting there, and I had to wait behind all those people, not one immigrant. | ||
| And we were the only Florida natives in that room. | ||
| And we had to wait behind everybody. | ||
| And my poor father was sick and on the verge of dying. | ||
| When he finally got in there, they took his vitals and immediately admitted him into the hospital. | ||
| So you all think you have it, bad. | ||
| You have slaughtered Florida natives live. | ||
| And when I went to put him into assisted living, oh, they're all crowded with transplants. | ||
| And so I finally got them into assisted living and then found out assisted living doesn't even do their job. | ||
| So then I went to put them into. | ||
| We'll leave it there. | ||
| That was Cindy in Kentucky sharing her story. | ||
| It was yesterday on the Sunday shows that Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, was speaking on the shows about President Trump's potential layoffs. | ||
| This is the headline from the Hill. | ||
| White House layoffs will start if Trump sees government shutdown talks are, quote, going nowhere. | ||
| The article saying that Kevin Hassett, director of the White House Economic Council, on Sunday said on Sunday that the federal layoffs will take place if President Trump decides that negotiations are going nowhere in an interview on CNN's State of the Union. | ||
| The NEC director signaled Republicans were far from willing to negotiate their position to end the government shutdown, but suggested he was hopeful Democrats would compromise this coming week. | ||
| From CNN's State of the Union yesterday, here is a clip of that interview. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Are these layoffs definitely happening? | |
| Because Russ's vote said on Wednesday it would happen within one to two days and still nothing. | ||
| Well, again, I think that if the president decides that the negotiations are absolutely going nowhere, that there will start to be layoffs. | ||
| But I think that everybody's still hopeful that when we get a fresh start at the beginning of the week, that we can get the Democrats to see that it's just common sense to avoid layoffs like that, to avoid the $15 billion a week that the Kaltov Economic Advisor says will harm GDP if we have a shutdown. | ||
| And also just all the payments for rent payments and so on that people won't be able to make because they're not getting paid. | ||
| And so I think that we think the Democrats, there's a chance that they'll be reasonable once they get back into town on Monday. | ||
| And if they are, then I think there's no reason for those layoffs. | ||
| President Trump said on True Social that he had a meeting with Russ Vote to, quote, determine which of the many Democrat agencies he recommends to be cut. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What exactly is the president referred to when he refers to Democrats? | |
| Sure what that means. | ||
| Yeah, I guess that's shorthand for the agencies that generally are the favorites of the Democrats. | ||
| And, you know, I think we've all got our favorite agencies. | ||
| Like for me, it's the Council of Economic Advisors. | ||
| And I think that President Trump and Russ Vogt are lining things up and getting ready to act if they have to, but hoping that they don't. | ||
| We are about halfway through this first hour of today's Washington Journal. | ||
| We're hearing your thoughts on this, the sixth day of the government shutdown. | ||
| If you'd like to join the conversation, you can give us a call. | ||
| The lines, Republicans, 202-748-8001. | ||
| Democrats, 202-748-8000. | ||
| And Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| If you are a federal worker, there's a line for you. | ||
| That is 202-748-8003. | ||
| You can also reach us via text and on social media. | ||
| Let's hear from Vivian, who's calling from Conway, South Carolina, on the line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Vivian. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| The American people, the American workers, are sick and tired of shutting down, shutting down, shutting down. | ||
| All you congressmen, all you senators, you ask us to vote for you to do a job. | ||
| It appears that your job of getting on TV and making a speech and blaming somebody else is more important. | ||
| If you people, if our leaders truly want to shut down, the American workers can help you. | ||
| We can go into work and we can change our dependent status and we cannot pay any taxes. | ||
| You'll have to shut down when you don't get paid, when your staff doesn't get paid, when there's no money for gas in your car, and when there's no money to pay your health insurance. | ||
| We expect results, and we are sick and tired of hearing you bicker. | ||
| Vivian, who's your member of Congress? | ||
| Vivian, do you know who your member of Congress is and how they voted? | ||
| I don't think Vivia can hear me. | ||
| We'll go on to Tony, who's calling from Brooklyn, New York, on the line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Tony. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, hello. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| There's an African saying that when the elephants fight, the ants suffer. | ||
| And the ants are getting tired because these two elephants, these political parties, have been fighting over our hopes, dreams, and futures over and over again. | ||
| And it has to end. | ||
| I recommend everybody become an independent and let the two political parties pay attention to only their extremists if that's what they want to do. | ||
| And we all will vote for somebody else. | ||
| This is crazy. | ||
| It has to end. | ||
| George Washington did not want political parties, and it's becoming clear why. | ||
| This is crazy. | ||
| Tony, you're an independent. | ||
| What would you like to see the two parties do? | ||
| How do you want to see this result? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I would like to see the two parties go away. | |
| That's what I would like to see. | ||
| I would like to see them go away and their media outlets that work with them to have nothing to say except the news and stop reporting lies. | ||
| Everybody's lying. | ||
| You know, things are being half-truths, things that you can say, well, this is true because of this one case here, but it doesn't really fit the reality that most people will listen. | ||
| And these political parties are tearing the country in half. | ||
| That was Tony in New York, Tim calling from Alabama on the line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Tim. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| How are you doing today? | ||
| Doing well, Tim. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I remember the big beautiful bill when Mike Johnson and John Kuhn promised that they would not cut Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP. | |
| And so Chuck Tumer, he voted to keep the government open. | ||
| And a couple of weeks afterwards, what did the Republicans do? | ||
| They said that we didn't cut Medicare, Medicaid, we just changed it. | ||
| So now you got work requirements, you got people losing SNAP benefits. | ||
| You got it. | ||
| So Chuck Tumer is not going to fall for this again, even though Mike Johnson said, keep the lights on, have a clean CR. | ||
| Well, if the Democrats vote to keep the government open, you're going to have more hospitals closing. | ||
| They're going to start messing with your Social Security. | ||
| They're going to finish cutting Medicare, Medicaid. | ||
| So I don't see how we can trust what they're saying. | ||
| So he wants to vote to open the government up so he can go back in and do just like he did last time. | ||
| Cut everything out concerning your health care and Obamacare and everything else will go sky high. | ||
| You can't, you can't won't be able to find a co-payment to go up, everything. | ||
| So I don't blame the Democrats for keeping the government shut down. | ||
| That was Tim in Alabama. | ||
| And Tim talking about the ACA and subsidies. | ||
| This is the opinion page of today's Washington Post, the headline, the shutdown conversation, no one wants. | ||
| And it is talking just about that, the fight over the ACA subsidies. | ||
| And it says in part, the real problem is that the Affordable Care Act was never actually affordable. | ||
| President Barack Obama's signature achievement allowed people to buy insurance on a marketplace with subsidies based on their income. | ||
| The architects of the program assumed that risk pools would be bigger than they turned out to be as a result. | ||
| Policies cost more than expected. | ||
| To salvage the program, Democrats expanded subsidies to entice more people to buy plans. | ||
| But poor families wound up getting insurance for free, and the rolls grew. | ||
| 24 million people now have coverage through the ACA exchange. | ||
| It goes on to say this is how entitlement programs work. | ||
| Once you habitude people to some generous government handouts, they grow dependent on it and it becomes politically perilous, if not impossible, to fully claw it back. | ||
| Conservatives fought so hard to stop Obamacare 15 years ago because they anticipated fights like this one. | ||
| That's why Capitol Hill insiders expect a compromise on subsidies to eventually get hammered out. | ||
| Republican leaders have tried to keep health care distangled from their support for reopening the government at Biden-era spending levels into the holidays. | ||
| Democrats have refused. | ||
| In a CBS YouGov poll released Sunday, only 9% identified government spending as the most important issue facing the countries. | ||
| Country, why would anyone be worried given that both parties have effectively disassociated spending from revenue? | ||
| The likeliest outcome of the shutdown is that both sides agree to spend more money without paying for it, let alone being honest with voters about the trade-offs too many have ignored for too long. | ||
| That's an opinion piece in today's Washington Post. | ||
| Back to your calls. | ||
| Lenny, calling from New York on the line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Lenny. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| In my mind, I mean, the shutdown plays into Trump's hand. | ||
| I mean, he's going to have Russ vote, void, whatever, go in there, and he's going to clean house. | ||
| He's going to have the ability to remove people. | ||
| And, you know, it looks like nothing's going to be able to stop that fact that they're going to go in there, they're going to gut it. | ||
| And they handed them, you know, handed it on a plate. | ||
| So I don't know what they think they're accomplishing by shutting down the government, but it's going to play against them where a lot of their supporters, I believe, are going to lose their job, you know. | ||
| And there's really nothing. | ||
| I don't think there's anything that's going to be able to stop that. | ||
| Lenny, you're from New York. | ||
| That is where Senator Schumer is from, as well as Representative Hakeem Jeffrey, both leaders of Congress. | ||
| What do you want to see them do? | ||
| How do you want to see the shutdown end? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I mean, you know, it's playing into the Republicans' hand. | |
| They want to cut waste. | ||
| I mean, Elon, with all that doge, I mean, he uncovered so much. | ||
| I mean, there was money just going everywhere, and it wasn't really going to good causes. | ||
| And I would like to see Democrat supporters, you know, acknowledge that fact. | ||
| I mean, they come out and, you know, guns blazing, but why would we want our money? | ||
| I mean, we're all paying that Obamacare, too. | ||
| I mean, I remember that. | ||
| I mean, all our premiums went up in the middle class. | ||
| You know, the amount you have to pay before they pick up coverage went up. | ||
| I mean, maybe, you know, people who didn't have insurance liked that, but a lot of the people didn't. | ||
| I mean, people that were working really took a hit. | ||
| I remember when I first started. | ||
| I mean, I had $2 prescriptions and $5 copays. | ||
| After that, everything shot up to $30, $50 on a specialist. | ||
| You know, it really, people who were working, Obamacare didn't really help. | ||
| That was Lenny in New York. | ||
| John, calling from Maryland on the line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, John. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Yes, I just want to point out something. | ||
| Remember when Marjorie Taylor Greene got a lot of flack for talking about national divorce? | ||
| But it's when you see what's going on right now, I mean, it reflects a failing marriage so appropriately. | ||
| I remember basically the first major shutdown going back to the Clinton Newt Gingrich era. | ||
| And if you're using that divorce analogy, you can see that's kind of like where you see a major fracture in the marriage and something's not right. | ||
| And then a shutdown, which is supposed to be a very uncommon thing, a major point of failure, is becoming an increasingly more frequent and frequent event. | ||
| You remember the last one in 2013 under Obama? | ||
| And if everyone can recall, during that time, we had the Boston Marathon bombing. | ||
| And during the manhunt, during the event, the government was still shut down. | ||
| We had a major terrorist event on U.S. soil, and the government continued to be shut down. | ||
| And that's an indicative that something is very wrong. | ||
| And then we had like the longest one under Trump's first administration five years ago. | ||
| And I believe this one might be even trying to surpass that record. | ||
| And we're getting to the point where I think we're beyond irreconcilable differences. | ||
| And I know Phoebus Collin was talking about, you know, being an independent, and maybe it's time for another party. | ||
| And maybe it is because the way things are structured right now, it's just not working. | ||
| It's just not functioning. | ||
| Just like a failed marriage that has no viability whatsoever. | ||
| I think we've gotten to this point where the two-party system has caused this kind of rupture. | ||
| And maybe it's time to look at other options right now because this is not going to work in the long run. | ||
| And we're just going to see more and more shutdowns and more and more events like this where the American people are going to be the ones that are the most hurt. | ||
| That was John and Marilyn. | ||
| Angela calling from Florida, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Angela. | ||
| Angela, I apologize. | ||
| I can never say the name of your city. | ||
| Pronounce it for me. | ||
|
unidentified
|
O'Calla? | |
| O'Calla. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Easier than it looks. | ||
| Go ahead, Angela. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| First of all, the Trump and the Republicans that are actually dealing with the budget process and the negotiations process and so forth that we are dealing with now need to understand that the Democrats, they're not dealing with a foreign country with tariffs. | ||
| That's exactly how I feel. | ||
| I feel like I personally am being attacked as if I'm a foreign country negotiating like he does with the tariffs with foreign countries. | ||
| We're a party. | ||
| We're supposed to be working together to settle our problems, and both parties have got us into this mess because of years and years and years of the continuing resolutions. | ||
| And I'd like to remind the Republicans that when McCarthy was kicked out and Johnson came in, Johnson came in right at the end. | ||
| And we actually agreed to extend negotiations in order to allow him the additional time. | ||
| But at any rate, one thing that I find, even though I'm a Democrat, I always do my due diligence because I don't always agree with what my Democrats are doing, and I don't always agree with the Republicans. | ||
| And quite frankly, many times I don't believe either one of them. | ||
| So I do my own due diligence and I research and find out what really are the facts. | ||
| I don't go to the factor checkers. | ||
| I go to the facts. | ||
| I've been doing that and following it. | ||
| I'm retired, so I have lots of time to do whatever I want to do. | ||
| So I don't what I have found is I've tried to find the actual documents. | ||
| Now, Johnson, very clearly, every time, every time he puts on his presentation, he refers you to Speaker.gov to see the Democrat submission for the uh reconciliation and or the continuing resolution, whichever you care to call it, um. | ||
| And and you go to that and it's a submission on september 17th that the Democrats put, but he never refers you to theirs. | ||
| And I have looked high and low and i've found lots of, lots of different uh things that have been filed, uh paperwork and so forth, but nothing addressing specifically what we are doing right now. | ||
| That was Angela in Florida Florida, uh Politico noting this that most federal workers will miss their first paycheck friday if the shutdown isn't resolved. | ||
| Another big date to watch, october 15th, the day active duty military may also miss a check. | ||
| It says that House majority leader Steve Scalise told members to hammer Democrats on the military pay deadline during a GOP call saturday after the House canceled votes this week. | ||
| President Trump also commenting on the possibility of military pay. | ||
| He spoke about it yesterday at an event. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Here is a clip, the U.S NAVY always stands for America's. | |
| Your commander in chief. | ||
| I will always stand for you. | ||
| I promise you that. | ||
| You know that. | ||
| That's why you voted for me in numbers that nobody's ever seen before, and I want you to know that, despite the current Democrat Induced shutdown, we will get our service members every last penny. | ||
| Don't worry about it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Don't worry about that. | |
| Those remarks president Trump made yesterday at an event to celebrate the Navy's 250th anniversary. | ||
| It is part of America 250 coverage. | ||
| You can find that event, as well as other America 250 coverage, on our website at C-span.org. | ||
| Back to your calls. | ||
| Carl is calling from Maryland, on the line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Carl. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Uh, good morning uh. | |
| I'd like to say that, first of all, my representative is uh, Jamie Raskin. | ||
| My senators are Chris Van Hollen and uh, can't remember her first name but also Brooke um, and it's occurred to me that, as a citizen of the United States, I have a right to request or I don't want to use the word demand that um, my congressmen and my senators introduce bills and legislation that I want, done they're? | ||
| They're there to represent me. | ||
| So I would like to introduce the following act I like to refer to it as keep the Federal Congress engaged act, or the Kfc Act and under this Kfc Act, the first uh provision of that is that you would eliminate continuing resolutions. | ||
| We either we either get an annual budget or we get a shutdown, And then the second aspect of the law would be that when we are in a shutdown status, Congress is not allowed to adjourn. | ||
|
unidentified
|
In fact, they must remain in the congressional complex until an annual budget is passed. | |
| I can remember reading about the Catholic Church during maybe a little bit before the Middle Ages, and they were having trouble electing a Pope. | ||
| And, you know, it would take them months to elect a Pope. | ||
| And they finally came up with the idea of what's called the Conclave or with the Key. | ||
| And they locked the Cardinals in the Vatican until they made a decision. | ||
| And I would like to lock the congressmen and the senators in the Capitol complex until they reach a full annual budget. | ||
| There would be no holidays, no recesses, nobody going outside that complex until they pass a full annual budget. | ||
| So that would be what I would like to have done. | ||
| That was Carl and Marilyn. | ||
| Also, Marilyn, Stephanie calling on the line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Stephanie. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I'm a Fed, so I've literally been through every single shutdown, furlough, at least since 1995, since Bill Clinton's time as president. | ||
| And I think one of the things that most of the, you know, generally speaking, especially now, most federal government workers, we are aware that we're always, we end up being, I guess, the casualties of all of this outside of the American people. | ||
| But we already know they don't really, especially on the Republican side, they don't really particularly care too much for the federal government workers. | ||
| We don't get the respect that we deserve. | ||
| So we already, you know, kind of knew, especially with all of the individuals that, you know, since January, since this new administration came in, and the amount of federal government workers that have lost their jobs, that this is, they don't particularly, I don't think this bothers them as much. | ||
| So, you know, this is, it's just kind of like it's almost becoming normal and it shouldn't. | ||
| But unfortunately, this is where we are again, and I'm not shocked. | ||
| I think cooler heads will prevail, and probably next week, something will, they'll come up with something. | ||
| But at the end of the day, whether Republicans like it or not, they will get blamed for this because we all know the reality is we all know that they really don't care. | ||
| They don't have our best interests at heart. | ||
| They would be just as happy if thousands upon thousands more federal workers were laid off or fired. | ||
| That would eliminate them having to. | ||
| They're literally allowing Trump to do it anyway. | ||
| So we're just kind of just going to wait it out like we always do and then just kind of see what's going to happen. | ||
| You said that you've been through this before. | ||
| How long have you been a federal employee? | ||
|
unidentified
|
35 years. | |
| And what do you do? | ||
| Do you want to save the department or agency? | ||
| No, you don't. | ||
| I prefer not to. | ||
| Are you furloughed right now, or are you exempt or accepted? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm furloughed right now, yes. | |
| So it is what it is. | ||
| Like I said, you kind of get, I don't want to say you get used to it, but it's almost like a formality and we cross our fingers and we kind of hope that something will get passed before once the end of the fiscal year comes. | ||
| But it's almost like we all kind of, I think most of us, we kind of expect it to happen, but we definitely expect it to happen when Republicans kind of get involved because we already know they don't particularly have that level of respect for the federal government workforce. | ||
| So we're kind of expendable in their eyes. | ||
| You also mentioned the layoffs that have already taken place. | ||
| How was your agency or department impacted by that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, it was bad. | |
| We're still, you know, there were a lot of people who left either through that risk. | ||
| They took the voluntary separation or they just retired early. | ||
| So we have a deficit as well. | ||
| And we're just shuffling, you know, individuals, you know, trying to shuffle around and put people in places because of, you know, when you lose those resources and those people, you lose those skills as well. | ||
| So it's just, we're just kind of shuffling resources. | ||
| You know, my agency was kind of going through some restructuring anyway, but this didn't help. | ||
| So it's, you know, you just kind of adapt and then you just work through it. | ||
| And we're going to get it done because at the end of the day, whether people understand it, we're working on behalf of the American people and we want to make sure that we're doing what we're supposed to be doing outside of what everybody else believes. | ||
| That was Stephanie in Maryland, a federal employee sharing her thoughts on the shutdown. | ||
| Let's hear from Rec in Georgia calling on the line for Republicans. | ||
| Reck, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thank goodness for C-SPAN. | ||
| Can you hear me okay? | ||
| Yes, I can. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Great. | |
| Okay, it's a beautiful day in Ackward, Georgia, by the way. | ||
| I have a couple of points. | ||
| First of all, for all of the people who are saying that hospitals will shut down and things like that, well, they're going to shut down whether the government's open or not. | ||
| And my point is they're going to shut down with the government closed. | ||
| Also, the Democrats seem to be having a deadline because the Affordable Care Act open enrollment is their big deadline. | ||
| So if the government stays shut until past that, I don't know really know what their next deadline is. | ||
| And if I can make one more point quickly, the Democrats also seem to choose the wrong ball because I recall when all those state legislators left Texas saying the sky is falling. | ||
| Can you tell me, and you can tell me or not, but you know, how did that work out for the Democrats? | ||
| Thank you very much and have a great day. | ||
| I was a Rec in Georgia. | ||
| And there is a blame game going on when it comes to the shutdown. | ||
| New polling has come out on how Americans feel about it. | ||
| And it says, this from CBS, it says, for many Americans across party lines, concerns over the government shutdown means concerns about its potential impact on the economy, among other things. | ||
| Therefore, many don't think either party's position is worth having a government shutdown over. | ||
| It shows a breakdown of how people feel about it, broken down by the president, that's Mr. Trump, congressional Republicans, and congressional Democrats. | ||
| When it comes to approve, 32% approve of how he is handling the government shutdown. | ||
| Looking at other numbers, when it comes to disapprove, 52% feel disapprove with how they are handling the shutdown compared with 49%. | ||
| And it was House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries who spoke about this yesterday on NBC's Meet the Press. | ||
| Here is that clip. | ||
| Unfortunately, Republicans are lying because they're losing in the court of public opinion as it relates to what's going on right now. | ||
| We are standing up for the health care of hardworking American taxpayers, of working class Americans, of middle-class Americans, and everyday Americans who have seen over the last several months Republicans pass their one big ugly bill, largest cut to Medicaid in American history. | ||
| Hospitals and nursing homes and community-based health clinics are closing all throughout the country, including in rural America. | ||
| If Republicans continue to refuse to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, tens of millions of American taxpayers are going to experience dramatically increased premiums, co-pays, and deductibles. | ||
| And that information from their insurance companies is going out right now. | ||
| Now, federal law clearly prohibits the expenditure of taxpayer dollars to provide health care to undocumented immigrants, period, full stop. | ||
| And no Democrat on Capitol Hill is trying to change that law. | ||
| Time for just a few more calls. | ||
| Mo is calling from Washington, D.C., on the line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Mo. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Hi. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thank you for C-SPAN. | ||
| Two quick points. | ||
| I wanted to address the young man from New York when he stated that his insurance went up under Obama, under when Obama was in and he passed Obamacare. | ||
| I don't know what state you guys are living in, but my insurance, my premium actually went down. | ||
| I was paying $213 every two weeks for a family. | ||
| When the Obamacare went into effect, my premium dropped down to $173. | ||
| We were always paying $25 to go see the doctor as a co-payment. | ||
| When President Trump came in, my premium went up to $213. | ||
| That's when your specialist bill went up. | ||
| That's when your specialist co-payment went up during the Trump administration. | ||
| So I think a lot of times people are getting confused who was the president and who wasn't the president, what the premiums was like and what the premiums wasn't like. | ||
| My insurance went down under Obamacare. | ||
| And I don't think health care is, I think health care should be for everybody. | ||
| And also, what I also wanted to say was, I think we're at a point where we just need to split. | ||
| I think the Republicans need to live like they want to live. | ||
| The Democrats need to live like they want to live. | ||
| We need a two split. | ||
| Red cards, blue cards. | ||
| The people with the blue cards, any benefit that you want from the federal government and you're paying taxes, you should get it. | ||
| Anything that the red states want as far as when it comes to nationalists and abortion rights, enjoy that within your state. | ||
| But because right now we are not being, this isn't the United States of America. | ||
| President Trump is not a president for everybody. | ||
| He's only the president for red states, Republicans. | ||
| So anytime I'm hearing all these callers being so split, and it's like the Republicans are so hooked on their agenda that they're not understanding that Democrat states, we also pay taxes. | ||
| We also deserve to be served. | ||
| So it's really confusing to me when only one small group of people are getting the things that they need. | ||
| Sorry, Mo, we have to leave it there. | ||
| We are out of time for this first hour. | ||
| Later this morning on Washington Journal, we'll continue our discussion about The current shutdown as we check in with NBC News senior congressional reporter Scott Wong and get a feel for what he's watching in Capitol Hill as the shutdown moves into its second week. | ||
| But next, after the break, SCODIS Blog co-founder and reporter Amy Howe joins us to preview the new Supreme Court term that begins today as well as key cases. | ||
| And also, before we go to break, a quick programming note this Friday at 7 p.m. Eastern, tune in for the premiere of Ceasefire, C-SPAN's new weekly series hosted by Politico's Dasha Burns, that seeks to bridge the divide in American politics. | ||
| Our first guests are former Vice President Mike Pence and former Chicago Mayor Rah Emmanuel. | ||
| And it'll be followed by a conversation with former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer and Fez Shakir, Senior Advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders. | ||
| That's Ceasefire premiering this Friday at 7 p.m. Eastern. | ||
| We'll be right back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Premiering this Friday at 7 p.m. on C-SPAN, Vice President Mike Pence and Obama White House Chief of Staff Rah Emanuel, once colleagues in Congress sit down together for this episode of Ceasefire, hosted by Politico's White House Bureau Chief Dasha Burns, Ceasefire, Bridging the Divide in American Politics, where the shouting stops and the conversation begins. | |
| Two leaders, one goal, to find common ground, only on C-SPAN. | ||
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| Join us for remarkable coast-to-coast coverage, celebrating our nation's journey like no other network can. | ||
| America 250. | ||
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| C-SPAN, Democracy Unfiltered. | ||
| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| The Supreme Court begins its new term today. | ||
| Joining us now to preview some of the key cases ahead is Amy Howe. | ||
| She is the co-founder and reporter for SCODIS Blog. | ||
| Amy, welcome back to the program. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks for having me. | |
| We'll start with one of something that's been in the headlines, and that's the government shutdown. | ||
| Is the Supreme Court impacted at all, its operations by what we're seeing with the shutdown? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It is business as usual right now at the Supreme Court. | |
| In the past, with government shutdowns, the Supreme Court has not been affected, and we expect that to be the case for this shutdown as well. | ||
| The Supreme Court has its own set of income, so it's not entirely dependent on Congress from the fees that litigants pay, from the fees that lawyers to pay to practice before the court. | ||
| And then the justices have life tenure, which means not only that they can't be fired unless they're impeached, but their salaries cannot be cut, including during a government shutdown. | ||
| So they're going to be working regardless of what happens. | ||
| It comes at a time, this new term, starting with some recent polling. | ||
| Both Pew and Gallup have done polling, and one of them, 43% in a Gallup poll, found that they believe the Supreme Court leans to a conservative. | ||
| That's a new record for that particular number. | ||
| And half in a recent Pew poll found that they have an unfavorable general opinion of the Supreme Court. | ||
| What's going on? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I mean, it's hard to know exactly what's going on. | |
| Those are certainly historic lows, as the pollsters said. | ||
| I think part of what is probably going on is certainly just that our electorate is very polarized. | ||
| And I believe it was the Pew Research Center poll that was entirely divided along partisan lines, that it was Democrats who viewed the court so unfavorably. | ||
| And we're right now looking at a court that has been issuing rulings for the Trump administration on its emergency docket. | ||
| It has issued 23 rulings in a row for the Trump administration. | ||
| And I think that probably carries over into Democrats' perception of the court as too conservative. | ||
| Let's talk about some of the cases coming up. | ||
| This is going to be a really interesting term to watch. | ||
| There's a lot going on here. | ||
| Some of them are related to the legality of President Trump's actions that he's taken in the first nine months of this new administration, including tariffs. | ||
| What can you tell us about these two cases? | ||
|
unidentified
|
So these are cases. | |
| One of them comes from, originally was filed in the Court of International Trade and made its way to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. | ||
| And then the other one comes from a federal district court in Washington, D.C. | ||
| And both of them are challenging the president's authority to issue these, impose these sweeping tariffs on virtually all goods from any country with which the United States has a trading relationship under what's known as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. | ||
| And it's a law that's about 50 years old, and no president has ever relied on this law before to impose tariffs. | ||
| And so the challengers say that is part of what demonstrates that this law was not intended to allow the president to impose tariffs. | ||
| It allows the president to regulate importation in times of a national emergency. | ||
| And so they say, A, it doesn't refer to tariffs. | ||
| I'm simplifying dramatically here, but A, it doesn't refer to tariffs. | ||
| And B, there's not a national emergency just because there is a trade deficit. | ||
| And then they also rely on something called the major questions doctrine, which is something that the Supreme Court has used during the Biden administration, for example, to invalidate some of the president's programs during the Biden administration. | ||
| And the idea is that if Congress wanted to give the president in a statute power that would have such vast economic and political significance, it would have said so explicitly. | ||
| So this is something in which the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in November. | ||
| It's not clear exactly how long it will take to get a ruling defending the president's authority. | ||
| The Trump administration has said, among other things, that this major questions doctrine doesn't apply because this whole idea of international emergency economic powers is a major question. | ||
| The president has vast powers when it comes to foreign affairs, and that the president's ability to impose these tariffs and then the tariff negotiations that have followed really have been important in his ability to, he says, bring the country back from a precipice. | ||
| I think we all appreciate you trying to explain this in the easiest terms. | ||
| It can't be difficult to understand. | ||
| It's not just economic powers that the Supreme Court will be looking at cases related this week, this year in their new term. | ||
| It also has to do with oversight of federal agencies and his ability to fire the heads of these independent agencies. | ||
| Tell us about this case and who, remind us who Rebecca Slaughter is. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So, Rebecca Slaughter is a commissioner, was a commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission. | |
| She was originally appointed by President Trump and then reappointed by then President Joe Biden. | ||
| And the president, President Trump, fired her through an email earlier this year. | ||
| And under federal law, commissioners on the FTC can only be terminated for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office. | ||
| And Rebecca Slaughter went to court to challenge her firing. | ||
| She said the president's email firing me didn't give any of these reasons for firing her. | ||
| It just fired her. | ||
| And so her argument is that her firing was contrary to this law. | ||
| There were other firings of members of other independent federal agencies, the National Labor Relations Board, the Merit Systems Protection Board, which have similar, if not identical, statutes. | ||
| And the case came up to the Supreme Court on what the so-called emergency docket because lower courts pointed to a 1935 case called Humphrey's Executor, in which the Supreme Court upheld this law for the FTC. | ||
| And the lower court said, you know, unless you overturn Humphrey's executor, you know, Trump can't fire her because of this law. | ||
| And so the case came to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court allowed Trump to fire her, but said it will hear oral arguments, I believe, in December, on the constitutionality of this law and whether it violates the separation of powers on the idea that the president should have power over the entire executive branch, whether this case, this 1935 case called Humphrey's Executor, should still be good law. | ||
| And then a third question, which is even if she was removed unconstitutionally or in violation of federal law, whether or not a federal judge can order the president to reinstate her to her job or whether or not she can simply get back pay. | ||
| Amy Howe is co-founder and reporter for SCOTIS Blog. | ||
| She joins us for a discussion previewing the new Supreme Court term that starts today. | ||
| If you have a question or comment for her, you can start calling in now the lines, Republicans 202-748-8001, Democrats 202-748-8000. | ||
| And Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| That is a live look right now on your screen of the Supreme Court. | ||
| They're going to have a lot on their docket this term, a very busy term as usual. | ||
| They are going to be hearing three cases related to election law. | ||
| Those have to do with the Voting Rights Act, the legality of limits on political party coordination, and what constitutes Election Day. | ||
| Tell us about those. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sure. | |
| So one of the cases is a case out of Louisiana in which they had already heard arguments in March of this year. | ||
| And when the came down to the very last day before their summer recess, they said, well, we're actually going to hear arguments again in the 2025-2026 term. | ||
| And it's a little bit of a complicated history of the case, but what it boils down to is a challenge to the congressional map that Louisiana enacted in 2024 that included two majority black districts. | ||
| And a group of voters who called themselves non-African American plaintiffs went to court and said, you know, you drew this second majority black district because you needed to draw a second majority black district. | ||
| And defending the district and the map, Louisiana said, well, you know, we'd had this court, another court in another earlier proceeding tell us that we needed to draw a second majority black district, but we drew this district because we wanted to protect powerful incumbents in Louisiana. | ||
| Representative Mike Johnson, who's the Speaker of the House, Julia Lettlow, who's another powerful Republican in Congress. | ||
| She's a member, sits on the House Appropriations Committee. | ||
| And so we actually drew it because of politics, not because of race. | ||
| So the Supreme Court heard these oral arguments in March. | ||
| They didn't decide the case. | ||
| And now they're asking the litigants to address another question, which is whether the intentional creation of the second majority black district violates the Constitution. | ||
| And legal experts say that the court's ruling could weaken or strike down a key provision of the Federal Voting Rights Act that deals with redistricting. | ||
| So it's one that voting rights experts are watching very closely. | ||
| The second case is a case called National Republican Senatorial Committee versus Federal Election Committee. | ||
| And it is about, as a challenge to a federal campaign finance law, and there aren't a lot of campaign finance restrictions left that prohibits what's called coordinated party expenditures, coordinations between a political party and a candidate for office on expenditures in support of the candidate. | ||
| And so this is another one where the lower courts said, you know, there was a 2001 decision upholding this law, and our hands are tied. | ||
| You know, we think that some decisions by the Supreme Court may have undermined that ruling, but it's not our place to overrule it. | ||
| So the case came to the Supreme Court. | ||
| One of the litigants, interestingly, who originally challenged this law is now Vice President JD Vance. | ||
| The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments and decide whether or not to overrule this 2001 decision. | ||
| And then the final case that you mentioned is a case called the plaintiff is a congressman, sitting congressman named Bost versus Illinois. | ||
| And it's a challenge to a practice by Illinois where if your mail-in ballot is postmarked by Election Day, Illinois will count it within 14 days as long as it's received. | ||
| And the argument is that Congress says Election Day is Election Day and therefore the ballots that come in after that shouldn't be counted. | ||
| And so the question is not actually what's Election Day, but whether or not the sitting congressman has a legal right to sue, known as standing, to challenge this law. | ||
| A lot to look at. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So much to look at. | |
| We will let our callers weigh in on this new term. | ||
| We'll start with Richard, who's calling from Augusta, Georgia, on the line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Richard. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thank you, Ms. Howe, for your commentary so far. | ||
| And what I noticed, what I said last year, April, we have a dictator, Supreme Court, as well as a dictator in the White House. | ||
| The voting rights bill, they gutted section five. | ||
| They gutted section two. | ||
| And now, why is it that they don't want to adhere to the Constitution on people having the right to vote? | ||
| And also, on the tariff case, that Congress is the ones who propose to authorize the use of tariffs on countries. | ||
| And that here we are, the Supreme Court, they're acting like a oligarch dictator court like they have in Russia. | ||
| And we constantly go through this now with who's in the White House, and it's hurting the American people, and it's hurting the American image around the world as supposedly fighting for what's called democracy. | ||
| Thanks so much, Richard. | ||
| Yeah, you make a couple of interesting points. | ||
| You know, as to the tariffs case, you make a good point that I didn't raise when I was summarizing one of the arguments that the challengers make, which is that the Constitution does give Congress the power to, quote, lay taxes. | ||
| So that is another argument that the challengers make, that this is something for Congress to do rather than the president. | ||
| And this is, I was doing a panel, moderating a panel this past week. | ||
| One of the panelists was someone who works at a global law firm, and he said that the tariffs case is something that everyone around the world is watching very, very closely because it is something that literally does affect the whole world. | ||
| And then as to the voting rights case, again, I was trying to be concise. | ||
| And so one of the arguments that the challengers make, or actually there's what's known as a friend of the court brief filed by a group of voters who had a voting rights case before the Supreme Court out of Alabama just three years ago. | ||
| And the argument that they make is you just decided this very question, Supreme Court, three years ago in a case called Allen versus Milligan. | ||
| So I don't understand, we don't understand why you're looking at it again. | ||
| Elaine is calling from Washington, D.C. on the line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Elaine. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| My concern is a majority of the justices are partisan. | ||
| How will this lead to their legacy? | ||
| That's a really good question. | ||
| And we're certainly in the sort of thick of it right now. | ||
| So it's hard to know exactly what a justice's legacy will be right now. | ||
| But this is, as I mentioned at the outset, right now, we've got the Supreme Court, at least on the emergency docket, ruling for the Trump administration 23 times in a row. | ||
| And I do believe that that is affecting the polls that Tammy mentioned in her question at the beginning of the half hour. | ||
| And we'll see what happens. | ||
| I think that the justices would say that the emergency docket is not a final ruling on the merits. | ||
| And so when some of these questions about the executive power and the president come to the court, I think we'll all be watching very closely to see how they decide them. | ||
| Remind our audience what the emergency docket is, why they take them up, and what happens when they issue a ruling. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, so the cases that we had been talking about so far this morning are cases that come through what we think of as the traditional route. | |
| You go to the lower court, they issue a final ruling, you go to a court of appeals, they hear oral arguments and issue a final ruling, and then you go to the Supreme Court, you ask it to take up your case. | ||
| There's a series of briefs. | ||
| The Supreme Court takes up these days somewhere around 65 to 70 cases a year in which there's then a second set of briefs filed. | ||
| The Supreme Court hears oral arguments, sometimes for two or three hours in open court, and then they deliberate behind closed doors, they draft opinions, and then they release an opinion, which can be sometimes hundreds of pages long with majority opinions, dissenting opinions, concurring opinions. | ||
| They read that out loud in open court, and that is sort of the life cycle of what we call the merits docket, for lack of a better term. | ||
| Sometimes things move more quickly. | ||
| And judges, and I'll use, for example, the case of birthright citizenship. | ||
| Actually, that's probably not a particularly good case. | ||
| I'll use the case of the transgender, the ban on transgender service members as an example. | ||
| And things will move quickly, and people will obtain what they call interim relief or preliminary relief, which puts a policy or a law on hold while the litigation continues on the theory that the harm to one side or the other would be significant if the policy were allowed to go into effect while the litigation continues. | ||
| So in the case of, for example, transgender military service members, the Trump administration issued an order that would remove them from the service. | ||
| They would be removed. | ||
| And so a lower court judge issued an order that said you can't remove them while their challenge to their removal goes on. | ||
| So the Trump administration went first to a court of appeals, which said, you know, we're going to leave that lower court's order prohibiting you from removing them while the litigation continues. | ||
| Because sometimes the litigation can take months or even years in place. | ||
| And so then the Trump administration went to the Supreme Court and said, while the litigation continues, we believe for national security and defense reasons that we should be able to remove transgender members of the military. | ||
| And this is all something that doesn't happen with hundreds of pages of briefing, oral arguments in open court, and long written opinions. | ||
| It's something that happens on what we call sometimes the emergency docket, the preliminary docket. | ||
| It has sometimes been colloquially called the shadow docket because it can happen. | ||
| It doesn't always happen quickly, but it can happen quickly. | ||
| The justices don't always issue long decisions that explain their reasoning. | ||
| And then theoretically and generally, the case will go back into the lower courts and the litigation will go on. | ||
| And so the Trump administration, a lot of these executive orders that the president was issuing on immigration, on rifts in the government, on birthright citizenship, on transgender members of the military, on prohibiting passports for transgender and non-binary people, these challenges came up to the Supreme Court very quickly. | ||
| And the Supreme Court was issuing these orders on this emergency docket. | ||
| And they're not final, but the Supreme Court has repeatedly issued these orders favoring the Trump administration. | ||
| And you mentioned a number 23 that they have in a row that they, how common is these emergency dockets taken up by the Supreme Court at all? | ||
|
unidentified
|
So before, when I started covering the Supreme Court, they were quite rare. | |
| They were normally, you think of them in the terms of like death penalty cases. | ||
| Someone's execution is scheduled for Wednesday and they want to try and block it and so things move very quickly. | ||
| And during the first Trump administration, the Trump administration had these same difficulties trying to implement its policies. | ||
| And so it started coming to the Supreme Court, asking the Supreme Court to intervene and let it implement its policies while the challenges continued in the lower court. | ||
| And it enjoyed success, and so it kept on coming. | ||
| And so the statistic that people often point to is that the Trump administration in four years came to the Supreme Court on the emergency docket more than the George W. Bush administrations and the Barack Obama administrations in 16 years combined. | ||
| So, you know, having seen that, the Biden administration also came to the Supreme Court quite a bit during its four years. | ||
| You know, the Supreme Court doesn't grant other emergency applications from the parties that are not the federal government at the same rate, certainly, but the Trump administration has enjoyed considerable success, and so it keeps trying. | ||
| You know, people will also tell you, and there's quite a lot of, I think it's a very fair point, that the Trump administration is very careful about which cases it decides to seek emergency relief from the Supreme Court in, that, you know, it has not, for example, ever sought emergency relief from the Supreme Court on the question of whether or not President Trump's order ending the guarantee of citizenship to everyone who was born in the United States is constitutional. | ||
| It came up and asked the justices to intervene on the question of remedy, whether or not a federal judge can issue an order that blocks a policy everywhere in the country. | ||
| But it hasn't come up on the question of birthright citizenship, even though it has lost consistently all around the country. | ||
| Vincent is on the line from Tulsa, Oklahoma, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Vincent. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| My question is, is the FBI considered a federal agency? | ||
| And I read in the Tulsa World that they blame the Democrats for shutting them down. | ||
| Is that true, Amy? | ||
| You know, that is not a question to which I know the answer. | ||
| I apologize. | ||
| You know, I know that there are some, you know, that certainly essential workers can keep working. | ||
| And I don't know the answer about the FBI specifically. | ||
| I apologize, but I imagine that one of the next guests can answer that question. | ||
| Let's hear from Emmy, who's calling from Georgia on the line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Emmy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I have a question. | ||
| You know, when the Supreme Court, and maybe you can explain this to me, decided that it was okay for the Trump administration to use your ethnicity in order to be able to deport you or to even pick you up. | ||
| That really bothers me. | ||
| I'm not exactly sure how they came up with that decision because now it appears that they're picking up people that are even, even before that, they were picking up people that were legal citizens here, but they were targeted based on their skin color and maybe where they worked. | ||
| And to me, that sounds like a real violation of our rights. | ||
| And that shouldn't be, but obviously they came up with that for a reason, especially nowadays when they're seeing how even ICE is detaining children, too, Hispanic children. | ||
| So this should be a real concern to a lot of people. | ||
| Thanks for your call. | ||
| This is one of these cases. | ||
| It's a case called GNOME versus Perdomo challenge to these immigration stops. | ||
| And it's a case that came to the Supreme Court on this emergency docket. | ||
| And so we know that there were at least five votes to let this policy of these immigration stops go forward. | ||
| We don't know exactly what the majority's reasoning was because there was not the kind of full-fledged opinion that we'd had if they'd heard oral argument in a courtroom and had briefing and then issued a lengthy opinion. | ||
| Justice Kavanaugh wrote an opinion in which he explained his reasoning, but that's not necessarily the reasoning of the whole court. | ||
| And we'll see what happens if the case returns to the court on the merits and whether the court again upholds it and if they provide an explanation. | ||
| Damien is calling from Maryland on the line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Damien. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Have you ever been in a Supreme Court justice office? | ||
| How do they compare? | ||
| Are they different? | ||
| Like, what does Kavanaugh's office look like? | ||
| Does it look like a man cake with sports stuff all over it? | ||
| Or what about Alito? | ||
| Does it have freaky statues in it? | ||
| And what about when they come out on the bench and to listen to a case? | ||
| What do they meet in a room all together? | ||
| They just walk around and how do they walk out there? | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Sure, I have not been in Justice Kavanaugh or Justice Alita's chambers. | ||
| I know that one perk of being the Supreme Court Justice is that you can borrow art from the National Gallery. | ||
| So I imagine they may have good art and maybe they have sports memorabilia, but I don't know the answer to that. | ||
| In terms of when they come out, everyone is gathered in the courtroom waiting for them. | ||
| And my understanding is that there is a room somewhere behind a curtain in which they gather and put on their robes. | ||
| And then there's a buzzer, and everyone in the courtroom has to stand up. | ||
| And they come out from behind the curtain all together and go to their seats on the bench, which are a little bit above everyone else in the courtroom. | ||
| And then they sit down and the oral arguments start. | ||
| So it's a, you know, I wish everyone in America could see the oral arguments at least once or that they would have them on cameras. | ||
| I'm certain that C-SPAN would be delighted to show them. | ||
| It's something that we have been pushing for for a long time. | ||
| I agree with you. | ||
| Maybe someday. | ||
| The Supreme Court has several cases already on their docket. | ||
| They will continue to add as the term goes on. | ||
| One that they took up on Friday is a Second Amendment case out of Hawaii. | ||
| What can you tell us about this case? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, so it's a really interesting case. | |
| It is a case about whether or not someone in Hawaii who has a permit to carry a concealed handgun can carry that handgun onto private property. | ||
| The Hawaii law says that you have to have express permission from the private property owner before you can take your gun onto private property. | ||
| And so this is a law that several other states, several other what we would call blue states, have states with large populations. | ||
| So it's something that other states are watching closely. | ||
| And then the other thing that I'm watching is that, you know, the Supreme Court's Second Amendment jurisprudence, it's not like First Amendment is relatively young. | ||
| And so with each of these Second Amendment cases, the Supreme Court is really fleshing out how they are going to review these gun rights cases. | ||
| The Supreme Court has said that when you're looking at a challenge to a gun restriction, you need to look at whether or not there is a history and tradition of such regulations in sort of early American history. | ||
| And one of the questions that's at issue with this law is like, what part of history should you look at? | ||
| So lots of questions still left to be answered on the Second Amendment. | ||
| Patrick is calling from Virginia on the line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Patrick. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| Question is, what is the Trump administration's argument for saying that removing transgender individuals from the military will improve national security? | ||
| Their argument is that they have come to the decision that it will is essential for the functioning of the military. | ||
| There is a lot of deference to the determination of the executive branch and the secretary of the defense. | ||
| And the Supreme Court back in the spring or early summer allowed the separation of the transgender service members from the military. | ||
| This is one of these cases in which the emergency docket is theoretically temporary, but also can have essentially permanent effects because these transgender military members have been separated and will go on to find other jobs. | ||
| And we don't know whether they would return even if they had the opportunity to. | ||
| Greg is calling from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, Line for Independence. | ||
| Good morning, Greg. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I have several questions. | ||
| First, something about C-SPAN. | ||
| I have noticed recently that the first caller is almost always Democrat. | ||
| And there are many people of color calling in. | ||
| And I wonder if C-SPAN is concerned about the fact that you have got crowds on demand. | ||
| And in my opinion, I'm 77 years old. | ||
| I've been watching C-SPAN forever. | ||
| I think you're being flooded by people like Crowd on Demand. | ||
| That's a comment, and hopefully somebody there will look into it. | ||
| As to the Supreme Court, I'm a lawyer. | ||
| I've been one for 46 years. | ||
| I graduated from West Point, so I went Airborne Ranger, Vietnam. | ||
| I think the whole question of what the media is doing with the Supreme Court is ridiculous. | ||
| Judges should be asked, there should be no reference to whether somebody was appointed by a Democrat or a Republican. | ||
| The question is, what are the issues? | ||
| The mainstream media, and I include C-SPAN in that, hate Donald Trump. | ||
| And the Supreme Court's decisions are important for people to read. | ||
| They're very difficult to read because they're very complex issues. | ||
| It's not all black or all white. | ||
| There's nuances to every issue. | ||
| It is an extremely difficult job for what they have to do. | ||
| And to denigrate them because they're all conservatives and therefore agree with Donald Trump is stupid. | ||
| And it's wrong because it's not correct. | ||
| So what do you suggest, guest, as to what should be done about that issue? | ||
| Well, first of all, thank you. | ||
| Thank you for your service. | ||
| Second, I think that the Supreme Court, the justices sometimes will say that people should read their opinions. | ||
| And I agree with you that their opinions certainly are more nuanced than we are able to reflect. | ||
| Sometimes their opinions, with all of the different assents and concurring opinions, can be 100 pages long, and I've got 1,500 words to summarize it. | ||
| One thing that we have suggested, and the Supreme Court has not done, has been for the justices themselves to release the audio of their opinion announcements, which are sometimes 10 or 15 minutes long, that summarize their opinions as they are released, but they won't provide the live audio. | ||
| But I think that would go a long way towards giving their side of the story straight to the American people in real time. | ||
| Wanted to ask you about, going back to something you commented, that is a 90-year-old decision is at the root of one of the cases the court will be hearing this term. | ||
| This is a headline from ABC News. | ||
| Justice Clarence Thomas says, legal precedents are not, quote, the gospel. | ||
| Explain the concept of starry decisis and your thoughts on Justice Thomas's comments as the cases go on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So starry decisis is the idea that, as a general rule, courts should adhere to their prior precedent for reasons of reliance and institutional accountability, respect for the people that the courts that have gone before you. | |
| You shouldn't just come in and say, well, we didn't like that decision that someone reached a couple of years ago, so we're going to go the other way. | ||
| It also makes courts look more partisan if the only thing that has changed is the change in the court's makeup. | ||
| And so I was actually at this appearance at Catholic University with Justice Thomas when he said that. | ||
| And, you know, it's an interesting comment to make because the Supreme Court has several cases this term in which they are deciding whether to overrule long-standing precedent, not just Humphrey's executor, but also the 2001 decision on campaign finance. | ||
| And I'm sure there will be others. | ||
| This was not a big surprise. | ||
| Justice Thomas has said something similar before. | ||
| But he's, of course, only one of nine justices. | ||
| But we'll see how it plays out. | ||
| Steve is calling from Ridgway, Pennsylvania, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Steve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, good morning. | |
| Quick, just a real quick clarification. | ||
| Did that previous caller question about the rulings or the case come up before the Supreme Court about transgenders in the military? | ||
| I was a little bit distracted when that segment was playing. | ||
| I think he's just looking for clarification, what you said earlier about the transgender troop decision. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, so the transgender troops, that case is still being litigated. | |
| The Supreme Court granted the Trump administration's request for a temporary order that would allow it to go ahead with the policy of removing transgender service members while the litigation continues. | ||
| Nicole is calling from Maryland on the line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Nicole. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Over the last, since the start of the shutdown, a little bit before, there's been a lot of the term of fraud, waste, and abuse. | ||
| My question is basically, why isn't the government being charged with fraud, waste, and abuse as a whole? | ||
| It is the fraud and waste that they're doing, taking away from taxpayers by not doing their jobs currently to get a resolution for the shutdown. | ||
| And amongst other laws, I'd like to have an understanding of why they aren't being charged. | ||
| Yeah, this is a little bit out of my legal expertise to the extent that I have any legal expertise. | ||
| I mean, I know that from a legal expertise, one of the questions would be, that goes back to the comments that I made about the Illinois congressman who's challenging the Illinois election laws. | ||
| Sometimes the question is like whether or not anyone actually has a legal right to bring that challenge because theoretically, this Justice Scalia, the late Justice Antonin Scalia, used to say, like sort of summarizing the law of standing, the legal right to sue, like, what's it to you? | ||
| And sometimes there are things that are sort of so generalized that no one may have standing. | ||
| We have one last call for you. | ||
| It's James in Las Vegas, Nevada, online for independence. | ||
| Good morning, James. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, ladies. | |
| How y'all doing today? | ||
| Good, thanks. | ||
| Go ahead, James. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good. | |
| Okay, so I had a question regarding okay, so we're at an era where this is the shift. | ||
| The shift is millennials are finally getting their voice and power. | ||
| I'm a millennial, 41, be 42 in March. | ||
| Boomers are dying out. | ||
| Gen X didn't do anything. | ||
| Gen X just completely dropped the ball. | ||
| Gen Z, they're Gen X's kids. | ||
| We know what they're going to do. | ||
| So my big question is: what is the outlook for the legal landscape going forward in your eye based on what you know about millennials, Gen X, and Gen Z? | ||
| And also, what do you think the current justices are going to have to face in regards to the type of challenges that we'll bring to the court, the type of like just the political landscape, how it's going to change? | ||
| I mean, just life in general, how it is going to change as millennials start to take the lead. | ||
| That's a great question. | ||
| As a Gen Xer, I'm a little offended. | ||
| No, just kidding. | ||
| I mean, I think one of the things is that, you know, I think maybe millennials more than Gen X or some of the folks who are a little bit older than I am see the importance, no matter how you feel about what's going on at the Supreme Court, see the sort of the correlation between voting and the Supreme Court. | ||
| And, you know, we'll put people in office, whether that is, you know, whether Senate or the White House, who reflect the way that you want the Supreme Court to look. | ||
| Amy Howe is co-founder and reporter for SCODIS blog. | ||
| You can find her work online and follow along with the court decisions as they come out at SCODUSBlog.com. | ||
| Amy, as always, thank you for being with us. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks for having me. | |
| Good to be here. | ||
| Later this morning on Washington Journal, the Senate will reconvene later today, but the House is expected to remain out of session this week as the government shutdown continues into week two. | ||
| We'll check in with NBC News senior congressional reporter Scott Wong about what he's watching. | ||
| But next, after the break, we'll take more of your calls on day six of the government shutdown. | ||
| You can start calling in now. | ||
| The lines there on your screen: Republicans 202-748-8001. | ||
| Democrats 202-748-8000. | ||
| And Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| We'll be right back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
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| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| Welcome back. | ||
| We are in day six of a government shutdown, and we are hearing more of your thoughts on that. | ||
| We will start with Edward, who's calling from Chicago, Illinois, on the line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Edward. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, yes. | |
| How are you? | ||
| Doing well, Edward. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, what I was saying, these people in Washington, Washington is the most isolated region of the country. | |
| Everything that they get, all the information they get, they sit in these beautiful buildings and they get the information from people who are like the most incompetent people ever, you know. | ||
| And they get this information. | ||
| They don't know how to make the correct decisions, you know? | ||
| They failed our nation. | ||
| Our nation is completely like everything is in disarray. | ||
| You can look at the public roads. | ||
| Look at how they look at the infrastructure of the cities. | ||
| Everything is, you know, all these politicians are corrupt. | ||
| You know? | ||
| That was Edward in Illinois. | ||
| Susan, calling from Virginia, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Susan. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| How are you? | ||
| Doing well, Susan. | ||
|
unidentified
|
My question is this. | |
| When I see the amount of money that is spent literally in each state's budget, it shows numbers for how much was spent on housing illegal immigrants, doing their laundry, getting them Uber rights to and from appointments. | ||
| Why is not every news outlet publishing the state published budget? | ||
| I can go to any state website and see the budget, money that is spent on illegal immigration. | ||
| Why is the news media not putting that out there so everyone can see this is not Republicans making up stories? | ||
| This is true fact of the amount of taxpayer dollars that is spent on illegal immigration. | ||
| Susan, you're calling from Virginia. | ||
| Have you looked at the numbers for the Virginia budget for what you're talking about? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, Virginia is a little difficult. | |
| Virginia wraps it into social services. | ||
| So there's nothing specific as far as immigration, housing, asylum seeker is how it's termed in most states. | ||
| I was able to find Massachusetts. | ||
| I was able to find Texas. | ||
| I was able to find California. | ||
| And then, of course, I looked up Virginia. | ||
| But again, Virginia, it's kind of wrapped into that social services budget. | ||
| So you don't know if the money's being spent on U.S. citizens with children, Medicaid for children of U.S. citizens, or immigrants. | ||
| So it's kind of that one's kind of a skewed number. | ||
| But there are reports under each state's budget from prior years that the media reported. | ||
| I've got your point, Susan. | ||
| We'll go to Janet in Arizona, Line for Independence. | ||
| Good morning, Janet. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| I'm so upset that our government, both Democratic and Republican, have made a quagmire out of America. | ||
| We've lost our memory about all of the assassinations and issues with our history and government, and it's come to a point where you just don't know who or what to trust. | ||
| I feel very upset because back in the day when Ronald Reagan was in position, our rate for interest and things was up to 17% for a mortgage. | ||
| Has everyone forgotten about how he fired all the air controllers and we've never gotten over it? | ||
| What is wrong with our government? | ||
| Is it the human being that's flawed? | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was Janet. | ||
| Nathan is calling from Maryland on the line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Nathan. | ||
| What are your thoughts on the government shutdown? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I just think that it's very difficult to pay these subsidies. | ||
| I think being $38 trillion in debt, that the subsidies in general are difficult, and just the cost of health insurance just being so high that I think it's just unavoidable. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Nathan, what do you want to see Congress do then? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm thinking I want to see the continuing resolution pass to continue, but I would ideally love to come up with a different way to see more competition in health care instead of relying on taxpayer subsidies to keep the premiums down. | |
| That was Nathan. | ||
| Let's hear from Deborah, who's calling from also Maryland on the line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Deborah. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| My comment is that it just seemed like it is an in-house fight, and people like me have to just sit and wait for other people to make a decision on your livelihood. | ||
| They make a decision if you're black, you're female, you're male, all that has to do with keep. | ||
| I'm trying to keep a job. | ||
| That's the only thing I'm trying to make sure that my bills is paid, my taxes is paid, and it just looks like it's just we're looking at an in-house fight that we really don't can't don't have anything to really make a change other than when we vote. | ||
| And then on that, everybody that is fighting our congressmen and women and all that stuff, they're still getting paid. | ||
| And then we're still sitting up, we're waiting up here, waiting for them to make a decision about, you know, government should just keep going on whatever their difference is. | ||
| Let them figure it out as long as we get our paychecks and, you know, just to have a simple life. | ||
| We're not trying to be millionaires or billionaires. | ||
| They don't need to see a paycheck coming in all the time. | ||
| And it's just that sometimes you get tired of looking at two groups of people making decisions as if the common person, well, I mean, everyday people can't make a decision on their own. | ||
| That was Deborah in Maryland. | ||
| We are discussing the government shutdown, day six, and some other news. | ||
| Wanted to note, this is from the New York Times. | ||
| Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that the United States was hoping for a quick deal to bring home all hostages in Gaza as Israel and Hamas head into a new round of negotiations fraught with potential stumbling blocks. | ||
| Says Mr. Rubio acknowledged to NBC's Meet the Press that the next phase of negotiations on President Trump's plan to end the Gaza war would be tougher, touching on fraught issues such as disarming Hamas and setting up a new government for Gaza that excludes the Palestinian militant group. | ||
| It was yesterday that Mr. Rubio made those comments on NBC's Meet the Press. | ||
| Here's a clip. | ||
| Well, not yet. | ||
| There's some work remains to be done. | ||
| And I would view it in two phases in terms of understanding how to break this out. | ||
| The first piece of it, which was very clear from the letter and Hamas's response, is they have agreed to the president's hostage release framework. | ||
| And what needs to happen now, and they acknowledge in the letter in their response is there now needs to be meetings which are occurring even as I speak to you now and hopefully will be finalized very quickly on the logistics of that. | ||
| What that means is, you know, who goes in to get them? | ||
| Is it Red Cross? | ||
| You know, when do they show up, et cetera? | ||
| You know, what place are they going to be? | ||
| And the conditions have to be created for that to happen. | ||
| You know, you can't have bombs going off and fighting going on in the middle of this exchange. | ||
| So that's piece one. | ||
| The second part, and we want to see that happen as soon as possible. | ||
| All 48 hostages, both living and deceased, and there's some need to be released. | ||
| And there's some logistical challenges to that that we'll have to work through. | ||
| But that work is happening even as I speak to you this very moment. | ||
| The second part of it, it's even harder, and that is the long-term peace. | ||
| What happens after Israel pulls back to the yellow line and potentially beyond that as this thing develops? | ||
| How do you create this Palestinian technocratic leadership that's not Hamas, that's not terrorists, and with the help of the international community? | ||
| How do you disarm any sort of terrorist groups that are going to be building tunnels and conducting attacks against Israel? | ||
| How do you get them to demobilize? | ||
| All that work. | ||
| That's going to be hard, but that's critical because without that, you're not going to have lasting peace. | ||
| You may get the hostages back. | ||
| You may get a cessation of hostilities, but in the long term, it's going to happen all over again. | ||
| So both are going on at the same time. | ||
| But priority number one, the one that we think we can achieve something very quickly on, hopefully, is the release of all of the hostages in exchange for Israel moving back to that yellow line, which is basically where they stood at the middle part of last month of August. | ||
| And that's the one we're focused on. | ||
| Even as I speak to you now, there are people meeting on that. | ||
| Maurice is calling from Montgomery, Alabama, on the line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Maurice. | ||
| What are your thoughts on the shutdown? | ||
|
unidentified
|
My thoughts on shutdown is this country is going to be one of the main five countries that God's going to judge the hardest because this country has been a lot of wrong and people of color in this country and the courts, especially those judges, they're going to get it too when God strikes down the judges because they have done wrong. | |
| They don't abide by the Constitution. | ||
| They show more favor to them. | ||
| And I wanted to ask that lady that worked in the Supreme Court is that on the civil issue, they show more favor to them on civil society. | ||
| Court procedures go through the procedures. | ||
| They'll rule against that person on summer judgment and get their case throwed out. | ||
| And then when they get appealed to the next level, I don't know what's going on. | ||
| They're agreeing with the other judges. | ||
| And then when you're trying to take it to the Supreme Court, you got the clerk office don't even want to hear the case. | ||
| That was Maurice in Alabama. | ||
| Mary's calling from Massachusetts on the line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Mary. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| I'm calling to talk to you a little bit about my father, who was a World War II vet and was a government from the 1950s all the way until he retired. | ||
| He was often complaining about government waste. | ||
| He was a comptroller for the Army. | ||
| He lost that job when he pointed out the government waste. | ||
| And then he ended up being sent to Micronesia, where he was also managing their budgets. | ||
| Then he went to the Metropolitan Police Department managing their budgets and retired out of the Navy as a government worker. | ||
| But in every single case, when he brought up government waste, he got pretty much removed from his job. | ||
| And as a child who grew up in Washington, D.C., I could see the government waste just when I would go to federal buildings and see people hanging around, especially in the library of Congress. | ||
| And then lastly, and the amount of waste in the patent office is ridiculous. | ||
| So that's all I have to say. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was Mary in Massachusetts. | ||
| We will get back to your calls in just a few moments. | ||
| But first, we want to talk with White House, with Newsweek White House correspondent Daniel Bush about the shutdown from the angle of the White House. | ||
| Daniel, thank you so much for joining us this morning. | ||
| Thanks for having me, Tammy. | ||
| It's now day six of the government shutdown. | ||
| Senate will be in later today. | ||
| The House is no longer expected to come back this week. | ||
| What are you hearing from White House officials about the strategy going forward? | ||
| You know, it's day six, as you said. | ||
| We're only one week into this, but here at the White House, there's a lot of confidence that the White House Republicans are on the right side of this politically. | ||
| They feel that they have given Democrats a clean CR, which they have a clean continuing resolution to fund the government. | ||
| They feel that they're in the driver's seat here and that they can basically sit back and wait for Democrats to cave. | ||
| As you said, the Senate is in this week. | ||
| We do expect him to hold another vote to reopen the government later today. | ||
| The House is out. | ||
| Speaker Johnson said over the weekend, Tammy, that he will call the House back, give them a 48-hour notice if there is a vote. | ||
| But we don't expect that in the next day or two. | ||
| And again, the White House, President Trump and his team feel right now that they can afford to wait this out for a while longer. | ||
| They've been out messaging over the weekend and we'll hear more from them this week about how this is a quote Democrat shutdown, as they put it. | ||
| They feel comfortable letting Democrats take the blame and Democrats for their part have continued to say that Republicans can come to the negotiating table. | ||
| They can offer what Democrats want, which is an extension of health care subsidies. | ||
| But right now, Tammy, on day six, these two sides are very, very far apart. | ||
| And with the White House where it is and Congress trying to work this out amongst themselves, are there any more planned meeting with congressional leaders there at the White House? | ||
| That's the big question. | ||
| Not right now. | ||
| There is an expectation that perhaps by midweek, if the two sides are still not negotiating, that is, if the leaders in the House and Senate from both parties are not getting together and talking, that perhaps President Trump will ask them to come to the White House, which he did recently to try and meet again. | ||
| But that first meeting did not go very well. | ||
| Leaders came out of that nowhere closer to a deal that was before the shutdown technically started. | ||
| There was not a lot of communication in the Oval Office between the leaders in terms of how they were going to work it out. | ||
| President Trump himself did not take a firm position on the health care subsidies, which is what Democrats are most interested in. | ||
| So we may see a meeting later on this week. | ||
| The pressure will build both on leaders in the House and Senate to start negotiating. | ||
| Sources are telling me right now that that is not even happening. | ||
| So if it's Wednesday, if it's Thursday, if there still isn't a real negotiation going on, we may see Trump call them back to the White House to try and jumpstart the process. | ||
| The idea of laying off federal workers as this shutdown continue, that idea has been floated. | ||
| What are you hearing from OMB about potential timing for these workers, these federal workers? | ||
| When could that happen? | ||
| They're working on that right now. | ||
| OMB is putting together those plans. | ||
| That work was going on over the weekend and last week. | ||
| Federal agencies are still waiting to see exactly when those plans are going to drop. | ||
| But President Trump has hinted for several days now and even signaled very clearly, I should say, that if this continues, Russ Vaughat at OMB is going to start laying off more federal workers. | ||
| We don't know exactly when that's going to start. | ||
| There are a couple milestones to watch. | ||
| Next week, the 15th, I believe, is the first day that members of the military will miss a portion of their first paycheck. | ||
| That's something to watch to see whether they can come to a deal before that. | ||
| If that doesn't happen, we could expect those increased layoffs to happen really any day now. | ||
| And I can tell you from speaking to sources and in agencies here in Washington, there's a lot of concern among federal workers about getting laid off any moment. | ||
| There are text messages chains going around that I've seen where federal workers are just sort of on pins and needles waiting to get that riff, that layoff or furlough notice from their bosses. | ||
| Other news going on in addition to the shutdown, President Trump has ordered National Guard to several cities across the country, Memphis, Chicago, and Portland. | ||
| A judge has issued a ruling blocking, temporary blocking President Trump's plan to send any state's National Guard troops to Portland itself. | ||
| Has the Trump administration responded at all to that? | ||
| So this is a developing story. | ||
| As you said, that judge ruled that the Trump administration could not federalize the National Guard, that it did not meet the legal threshold. | ||
| The Trump administration is arguing that it has, that protesters in Portland are not allowing the federal government to carry out its immigration enforcement duties, which is the legal threshold to federalize the National Guard. | ||
| A judge threw that out and said, no, that's not the case. | ||
| You know, President Trump's claims of a war-torn, a war-ravaged Portland are vastly exaggerated, and that in fact, law enforcement in that city can go about doing its job, that these protests are pretty small. | ||
| Over the weekend, we saw President Trump announce that he was now going to send the California National Guard to Oregon. | ||
| Governor Newsom in California has announced that he will sue to block that. | ||
| So there's a lot of moving pieces here, but what we're seeing is not just in Portland, already in New York, in Los Angeles, the Trump administration is doing everything it can to send National Guard troops to these cities to argue that they're being overrun with crime, that they're out of control, that it's the fault of the Democratic Party. | ||
| And at every turn, they've been stopped, but they've continued to do that. | ||
| So we're waiting to see exactly how the Trump administration responds in Portland itself. | ||
| But this is going to continue to happen, this debate over how to use these troops and how the Trump administration can respond. | ||
| It's going to continue to play out for the rest of the year in other cities as well as Portland. | ||
| And another story we are following is the Gaza peace talks. | ||
| What are you hearing in terms of timing for a potential hostage release? | ||
| Could it be this week? | ||
| All sides want it to be this week, Tammy. | ||
| President, excuse me, Prime Minister Netanyahu over the weekend says that he does not want these negotiations to last more than a couple of days, in his words. | ||
| The White House is very eager to get this done. | ||
| President Trump views this as an important part of his legacy, this sort of peacemaking image that he's been casting about himself and his administration since taking office again, trying to end wars. | ||
| He's made it no secret that he wants a Nobel Peace Prize for that work. | ||
| So the White House, I can tell you, they really want to get this done. | ||
| Steve Wickoff, the peace envoy who's in charge of this process for the Trump administration, is en route to Egypt right now. | ||
| That's where these indirect talks between Hamas and Israel are going to take place with the U.S. playing an intermediary role. | ||
| Qatar, other allies as well are stepping in to get this done. | ||
| Those negotiations are going to begin today in earnest. | ||
| And again, what all sides want here is a release of what we believe to be 48 remaining hostages, some of them deceased, some of them still alive, perhaps by Wednesday, by Thursday. | ||
| That's the goal. | ||
| But there's a lot of stumbling blocks here at Tammy still, including whether Hamas agrees to demilitarize. | ||
| That was a core condition in the Trump peace plan that the president laid out last week. | ||
| It's a core condition for Israel. | ||
| It's unclear yet whether the group will agree to that in the end. | ||
| But right now, these host negotiations are underway. | ||
| Ron Dermer, the top negotiator on the Israeli side, is also in Egypt. | ||
| So we're waiting to see now what comes out of that today and tomorrow. | ||
| And one last question for you. | ||
| It's another issue on President Trump's calendar. | ||
| That is, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is visiting the White House this week. | ||
| What are they expected to discuss? | ||
| So Kearney is under intense pressure to alleviate tariff pressure on Canadian steel and aluminum in addition to other goods. | ||
| This has been an ongoing discussion. | ||
| The White House is eager to get a deal done with Canada because Canada is one of our most important trading partners. | ||
| So Kearney will come here under political domestic pressure to get a deal done. | ||
| Trump is in the driver's seat, if you will. | ||
| Can afford to sit back and wait to get the best possible conditions. | ||
| But there is mounting pressure on the Trump administration as well. | ||
| Remember, earlier this year, Trump rolled out global tariffs on virtually all countries, as well as specific targeted tariffs on a lot of close trading partners. | ||
| He said those deals would come quickly. | ||
| There have been behind-the-scenes negotiations, but so far, the administration has not gotten the amount of deals done that it said it would at the pace that it would. | ||
| So, whether or not a deal is announced during Carney's visit, that's unlikely, but both sides do want to move on this pretty quickly. | ||
| Daniel Bush is a White House correspondent for Newsweek. | ||
| You can find his work online at newsweek.com. | ||
| Daniel, thank you for your time this morning. | ||
| Thanks for having me. | ||
| Back to your calls, getting your thoughts on this day sixth of the government shutdown. | ||
| Let's hear from Billy's calling from New York, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Billy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| How are you? | ||
| Doing well, Billy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The only question I have is: the government shut down, but yet they're still getting paid, and I'm still paying taxes. | |
| So, if the government is shut down, why am I still paying taxes? | ||
| Who am I paying it to? | ||
| People are out of work, politicians aren't out of work, and yet they're adults and they can't figure out how to run a country without shutting it down. | ||
| It's disgraceful. | ||
| So, I would suggest nobody pay taxes until it's over. | ||
| Is that something that might happen? | ||
| That was Billy in New York. | ||
| Gene calling from South Carolina, line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Gene. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, young lady. | |
| I am a former federal worker. | ||
| I was in two shutdowns when I worked for the government. | ||
| But my question is: the House and the Senate and the employees of the White House are all still getting paid, if I'm not mistaken. | ||
| I think that if they were not paid along with the rest of us federal workers, I think the shutdown would last a whole lot less. | ||
| So, hopefully, I'm correct in that. | ||
| You can have a good day. | ||
| Gene, you said that you were a federal employee and you went through two shutdowns during that time. | ||
| Do you remember how long they were? | ||
|
unidentified
|
One was a little over a week, and the other one was, I think, 20 days, something like that. | |
| I can't remember. | ||
| I worked for 34 years at Paris Island, South Carolina, as a civil service employee, and I was considered essential. | ||
| So I had to work. | ||
| Now, I did get paid after the shutdown was shutdowns were done because Congress retropaid all of the federal employees for their time that they were furloughed. | ||
| That was Gene in South Carolina. | ||
| Anthony is calling from Ashland, Kentucky, lined for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Anthony. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| We lived through four years of auto-peeing with Joe Biden, so we really didn't have a president. | ||
| And now, for five or six days, we really haven't had a government. | ||
| There must be a whole lot of this government we don't really need. | ||
| So maybe this is not as bad a thing as we think it is. | ||
| I mean, I don't understand. | ||
| And on the thing about deporting people, they didn't say a word when Obama got rid of everybody. | ||
| Nobody said anything. | ||
| I mean, it wasn't a big deal, but now they're making big deals out of nothing. | ||
| And my last comment is we need to have C-SPAN do the debates for the political debates of the president and vice president and all that. | ||
| And how do we, the Republican, Democrats, and independents, call people, or how do we get that done before you guys do the debates? | ||
| That was Anthony in Kentucky. | ||
| Jules is calling from, I believe it's Missouri. | ||
| Can't really see my screen, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Jules. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| You know, what I see going on here is a distraction. | ||
| Some years ago, I read an article by the Cato Institute that said that the government spends almost twice as much on corporate welfare as it does on regular welfare. | ||
| And I'm going to say that they're saying that Social Security and all this stuff. | ||
| But let me remind you that the Constitution says we the people. | ||
| It does not say we the corporations, but I've heard very few people mention that the corporate part of this is not being touched, which is a few trillion dollars. | ||
| So if they would put corporate welfare in the mix, they could balance the budget and they could get rid of the deficit, period. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was Jules. | ||
| Let's hear from Sheila, who's in Virginia, line for Independence. | ||
| Good morning, Sheila. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thanks for having me. | ||
| I believe that this shutdown is all a part of the plan of the 2025 project that Trump lied about and said he didn't know anything about. | ||
| And it surprises me that the Republicans still think that this is okay, what he's doing to this country. | ||
| It's a disgrace. | ||
| Sheila, what do you want to see Congress do? | ||
| What actions do you want to see them take in terms of the shutdown? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| The Republicans own the House, the Senate, and the executive. | ||
| They can do what they need to do. | ||
| This is their shutdown. | ||
| That was Sheila in Virginia. | ||
| And our last call for this portion of today's program is Dennis. | ||
| He's calling from Casper, Wyoming, on the line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Dennis. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, good morning, America. | |
| This shutdown, you know, there's more to it than what everybody's reporting about. | ||
| You know, they're saying it's all over the health care. | ||
| But here's one of the things that's happening. | ||
| In Arizona, they had a special election to replace their representative that passed away. | ||
| And the woman that was elected is a Democrat. | ||
| And she said after she was elected, the first thing she was going to do was sign that Epstein discharge petition to get all the Epstein files. | ||
| So now they're shutting down the government, and they're shutting down everything. | ||
| So Mike Johnson, I'm very disappointed in him, is not going to be going to swear her in. | ||
| And they're just going and going and going with the shutdown until everybody forgets about Epstein. | ||
| And I'm really disappointed in my Republican Party for not going after these people and getting it all out in the open. | ||
| Because I do not support pedophiles. | ||
| And that is one of the things I am just living over. | ||
| That was Dennis in Wyoming in our last call for this portion of today's Washington Journal. | ||
| Up next, NBC News senior congressional reporter Scott Wong joins us with the latest on his reporting about how congressional leaders are viewing day six of the government shutdown and if a deal to reopen is anywhere in sight. | ||
| We'll be right back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
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| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| Joining us now to discuss the latest on the government shutdown in the week ahead for Congress is Scott Wong. | ||
| He is a senior congressional reporter with NBC News. | ||
| Scott, welcome back to the program. | ||
| Thanks for having me, Tammy. | ||
| We'll start with what everyone's talking about, and that is the government shutdown. | ||
| Now in day six, the Senate is expected back today, the House no longer coming back this week. | ||
| Are there any talks, formally or informally, going on that could lead to an end to the shutdown? | ||
| Well, as you mentioned, this is day six of the government shutdown. | ||
| It feels a little bit like Groundhog Day. | ||
| The two sides are very dug into their positions. | ||
| There are not a whole lot of talks happening at the leadership level. | ||
| Certainly, there are some talks happening at the rank and file level, but there is a little bit of a sense of hopelessness that those are going to produce any sort of breakthrough at the moment. | ||
| What we're seeing is the Senate later today will continue to have another vote on both these dueling Democratic and Republican proposals to try to reopen the government. | ||
| These are the same proposals that have been on the floor almost every day for the past last week and have not yielded any sort of breakthrough. | ||
| And so we are expecting more of the same today. | ||
| Those votes are expected to fail. | ||
| then senators will have to go back to the drawing board and try to come up with something else. | ||
| But for the time being, it really looks like things are at an impasse as they have been for the past few days. | ||
| So when it comes to the potential of, you know, they'll be voting on the same legislation, expecting the same outcome. | ||
| Again, what are you hearing about strategy once they get past that? | ||
| Well, I think what you're seeing is the reason why these two sides are so dug in and there doesn't seem to be any sort of movement is because both parties believe that they're winning the argument, right? | ||
| Democrats are saying that, look, there's a health care crisis around the corner. | ||
| These Obamacare subsidies that we've been talking about for many days now are expiring at the end of the year, December 31st. | ||
| Republicans are saying, look in the House, we've already passed a clean CR continuing resolution to fund the government and in this case, reopen the government. | ||
| We have done our jobs. | ||
| All we need are five more Democratic senators. | ||
| And so both parties feel like they are winning the argument and that's why nobody is coming to the negotiating table. | ||
| We don't know what's going to happen after these votes are expected to fail. | ||
| They could keep, Leader Thun could keep bringing the same bills up over and over again later this week. | ||
| That's one possibility. | ||
| Or there's a possibility he brings up no votes and we just continue to be on an impasse. | ||
| The Senate is in the House no longer expected in this week. | ||
| That changed on Friday. | ||
| What are House GOP leaders saying about the House session being canceled this week and how have House members responded? | ||
| Speaker Johnson held a conference call with his rank and file members over the weekend. | ||
| He said, stay the course. | ||
| We're winning the argument. | ||
| We need to hammer home that it's Democrats that have shut down the government, that Democrats have the ability to reopen the government with these five additional votes. | ||
| Three Democrats supported it in the Senate in recent votes, and so they just need five more to break a filibuster to reach that 60-vote threshold. | ||
| That's why we're in this situation is because it takes both parties when you're dealing outside of the reconciliation process to move legislation forward. | ||
| So you need both Democrats and Republicans. | ||
| In this case, Republicans just don't have enough Democrats. | ||
| For the House Democrats, they will be holding a conference call, a virtual conference call later tonight to discuss strategy, discuss the path forward, discuss what's happening back in their districts. | ||
| And both leadership of the House, of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party are saying to their House members, keep talking about the impacts of a shutdown in your districts where you are. | ||
| Even though you're not here in Washington, you can keep messaging the points that we're trying to make on the shutdown back to your constituents and back to voters back home. | ||
| When it comes to those constituents and members trying to explain their position on why a government shutdown is still taking place, are you seeing any cracks emerging in the rank and file who have to answer to those constituents? | ||
| Well, certainly there are federal workers throughout the country. | ||
| There is a huge concentration where we are, Tammy, in the DMV area, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, certainly. | ||
| The lawmakers who represent this region Are impacted in a severe way because there are so many thousands and thousands of federal workers that could be without a paycheck come for civilian workers, October 10th, for members of the military, October 15th. | ||
| So, those are some key dates that we are certainly looking at. | ||
| But again, you know, this is a shutdown. | ||
| This type of shutdown impacts every region of the country. | ||
| We're starting to see small impacts already being felt at things like national parks, you know, or when it comes to, you know, trying to apply for small business loans or things like that. | ||
| But when you talk about millions and millions of federal workers who could be without a paycheck starting this week, that's where the rubber hits the road. | ||
| That's where the pressure really starts to intensify on the decision makers here in Washington. | ||
| You're talking about people not being able to pay their bills, not being able to pay mortgages, as well as the impact to government services. | ||
| And so those are some really key dates that we're looking at just coming right around the corner. | ||
| Our guest is Scott Wong, Senior Congressional Correspondent for NBC News. | ||
| If you have a question or comment for him, you can start calling in now the lines: Republicans 202-748-8001, Democrats 202-748-8000. | ||
| And Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| If you are a federal worker, also a line for you. | ||
| That is 202-748-8003. | ||
| We've heard a lot about the shutdown, a lot about what's behind that, the ACA subsidies. | ||
| Explain the politics that are at play on both sides when it comes down to this. | ||
| Yeah, so the big battle has been over the ACA subsidies, Obamacare subsidies. | ||
| As I mentioned before, they are set to expire December 31st. | ||
| Now, you know, to take a step back, these are subsidies, enhanced subsidies that were implemented during the Biden administration in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. | ||
| This was a way to try to attract new people to enroll in Obamacare to strengthen that program. | ||
| And it was successful. | ||
| There were millions of new people that signed up for Obamacare with these tax credits to help them pay for it. | ||
| And so Democrats were able to renew these subsidies in 2022 under the Inflation Reduction Act. | ||
| They expire now three years later in December 31st, 2025. | ||
| Republicans have said, we are happy to have that conversation, but let's do that after you vote to reopen the government. | ||
| We want to see reforms. | ||
| Many Republicans do want to extend those subsidies, but they think significant changes need to happen in terms of eligibility. | ||
| Democrats, of course, are saying we want to have that conversation right now. | ||
| We will supply the votes for the government to reopen, but we need a firm commitment. | ||
| We need something in writing. | ||
| We need to sit down at the table and have these talks now. | ||
| And so that's where the standoff lies in terms of it's really about strategic tactics about which should come first, the talks or the vote to reopen the government. | ||
| We have callers waiting to talk with you. | ||
| We'll start with Mike, who's calling from Maryland on the line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Mike. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Hi, Mike. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You're on. | |
| Okay. | ||
| No, I'm just, I totally agree with the fact that the Democrats are withholding votes on the CR because the Republicans will definitely not do anything on the subsidies and help for American people if they give it away. | ||
| It's the only leverage they have. | ||
| And, you know, they had the opportunity all summer to talk about it. | ||
| And the Republicans pushed through a bill that just made it worse. | ||
| So, I mean, I don't understand why more Democrats aren't talking about the fact that you can't trust the Republicans. | ||
| And it does come down to trust for the Democrats, Tammy. | ||
| You know, what we're seeing is Democrats time and again throughout this year have tried to stand up to Trump and Trump has sort of just barreled over the Democrats when it comes to the Doge cuts, when it comes to ICE, the ICE raids, when it comes to sending in National Guards to Democratic cities. | ||
| And so Democrats have decided, okay, this is our chance to make a stand. | ||
| This is one place where we do have some leverage. | ||
| And, you know, because we don't have majorities in the House or the Senate, there's been very few places where we can provide checks and balances on the executive branch. | ||
| But shutting down the government and withholding these handful of votes in the Senate is one place where we do have leverage and where we could make a stand. | ||
| And that's precisely what Democrats have done in this case. | ||
| And many people, including this caller, are rooting on the Democrats. | ||
| We were hearing that I was driving in this morning listening to your show, and I heard several callers rooting on the Democrats, shutting down the government, and people saying, hey, keep it shut down. | ||
| Lee is calling from Charleston, West Virginia, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Lee. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I really think we need to hold our representatives more accountable for what's going on with this. | ||
| Passing a budget, I think, is probably the number one priority and should be their focus. | ||
| And continually operating off of continuing resolutions and this government shutdown precipice and threatening to file federal workers, et cetera, is just really unacceptable. | ||
| I really wish we could pass a law that says if you can't pass a budget, legislators and their staff don't get paid. | ||
| I would also like to reform Congress where they cannot vote themselves raises. | ||
| I mean, there's a lot of things that we need to kind of look at and scrutinize with how Congress operates. | ||
| Thanks very much for taking my call. | ||
| The senator from Florida, Rick Scott, Republican, has a bill to suggest just that, the no budget, no pay act. | ||
| If you don't pass a budget, if you don't, you know, go through the normal appropriation process, then lawmakers don't get paid. | ||
| The Constitution, I looked into this, the Constitution dictates that lawmakers shall be paid, and there's no exception to that. | ||
| It's a very simple clause. | ||
| And so while millions of federal workers could go without a paycheck, one group that certainly will be paid through a shutdown will be members of Congress, which is angering quite a few voters out there and this color as well. | ||
| Gary is calling from New Rochelle, New York, line for independence. | ||
| Hi, Gary. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Mr. Scott, I want to ask you in regards to the fact in March, they did pass a reconciliation to have conversations. | ||
| And then they, of course, blew through the big, ugly bill. | ||
| And I am an independent since 72, so I'm not a new independent. | ||
| And there were absolutely no negotiations at all, except with Alaskan senator getting all kinds of stuff because they couldn't even pass that bill with all the Republicans. | ||
| They had to actually, you know, negotiate and bribe the Alaskan governor who finally said yes. | ||
| And in her little meeting with the press afterwards, she had hoped that the House would not agree with it and not pass it so they'd have to go back and talk to it again. | ||
| Now, what I want to know from you is why didn't the Republicans do any negotiations at all, at all, with the Democrats throughout the summer, like the Maryland man said. | ||
| They haven't had any discussions with the Democrats, and they continue to not want to talk to them. | ||
| So how do you feel about that, Mr. Wong? | ||
| Thank you very much for taking my call, sir. | ||
| Well, I think the caller is referring to Trump's big beautiful bill, which they have now rebranded as the Working Families Tax Cuts Act. | ||
| And yeah, that passed on a partisan basis, strictly party-line votes. | ||
| No Democrats supported that. | ||
| And the way that that has factored into this shutdown conversation is that that is one of the demands of the Democrats. | ||
| In addition to extending Obamacare ACA subsidies, Democrats want to restore the $1 trillion in cuts that was made to the Medicaid program. | ||
| And that was made through more stringent requirements in order to qualify for a Medicaid, including imposing work requirements. | ||
| And so that is sort of the nexus of where Trump's Big Beautiful bill meets government shutdown. | ||
| We are expecting to hear from House Speaker Mike Johnson at 10 a.m. this morning. | ||
| We've been hearing from him throughout the Senate also, as you mentioned, taking up the votes or will be voting again today on this same legislation for now the fifth time. | ||
| Remind our viewers, how many more votes are needed to break the filibuster. | ||
| Any idea if anybody could be changing sides, changing their vote one way or the other? | ||
| Right now, it doesn't appear that anybody is on the cusp of changing their votes. | ||
| There's a handful of Democrats who Republicans have been targeting. | ||
| We can look back to the March funding, the March funding vote where you saw 10 Democrats vote yes. | ||
| And so that is a good indication of where Republicans are looking for people that are interested in funding the government, who might be interested in working out a deal with Republicans. | ||
| Some of those include Jean Shaheen, who is retiring, who's not going to face a reelection. | ||
| And so she has supported government funding in this last iteration in March and could be somebody who could be working on a deal with Republicans. | ||
| Others who are retiring include Dick Durbin of Illinois. | ||
| And then there's, of course, moderates like Raphael Warnock and John Osoff down in Georgia, who could be central to any sort of deal to reopening the government. | ||
| Jonathan is calling from Maryland on the line for Democrats. | ||
| Hi, Jonathan. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, hello. | |
| So I just wanted to say that I think that the Democrats should vote to open the government now because they have made their point. | ||
| They've made their point. | ||
| They've drawn attention to a very important matter. | ||
| And, you know, eventually let the American people feel the effect of the policies that the Republicans are doing because the Democrats don't have much power right now. | ||
| The American people do. | ||
| So that was my point. | ||
| Well, we have some indication early on here about who voters are blaming for the shutdown. | ||
| And as you've previously mentioned on this program, there was a recent CBS YouGov poll that came out just yesterday that polled people right at the start of the shutdown, October 1st. | ||
| And it found that 39% say that Republicans are to blame, 30% say Democrats are to blame. | ||
| And then nearly a third of people polled haven't made up their minds yet. | ||
| And so while Democrats certainly are winning in the polls, and you'll hear Chuck Schumer say that, and we've seen consistently, yes, Democrats are favored in this shutdown fight when it comes to who voters are siding with. | ||
| There's still a huge chunk of the electorate that maybe has not been paying attention. | ||
| Maybe they haven't made up their minds. | ||
| Maybe they're still listening to the arguments. | ||
| And so that's a lot of people. | ||
| And the other point I would say is that just because you have voters either blaming one party or the other, 2013 comes to mind where voters were very upset with Ted Cruz and the Republicans for shutting down the government over trying to repeal Obamacare. | ||
| The very following year of the 2014 midterm elections, Republicans picked up nine seats in the Senate and took back the majority. | ||
| They added seats in the House of Representatives. | ||
| So we are a long ways from the point is we are a long way from the 2026 midterm elections. | ||
| And there are going to be a hundred different stories that happen between now, this government shutdown, and Election Day 2026. | ||
| And it's a real question about whether voters are going to be talking or thinking about this government shutdown when they head to the polls in 2026. | ||
| Barry is calling from Toms River, New Jersey, line for Independence. | ||
| Hi, Barry. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, C-SPAN, and thank you for what you do. | |
| Republicans, I'm sorry, independents as well as Democrats simply don't trust the Republicans. | ||
| And the reason being is in this big, beautiful bill that they passed, which required 60 votes in the Senate to overcome a filibuster, contained items that the Democrats were in favor of. | ||
| However, the Republicans came back with a reconciliation bill to remove those items, which only required 51 votes. | ||
| And I'm not, up until today, unless I was, you know, I have not heard it anywhere except on C-SPAN, where they're discussing the, where it's coming to light rather, the use of this reconciliation act to remove everything that the Republicans agree to with Democrats and eliminate the Democrat interests in the bill. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I'm not sure I'm following the caller's question, but the caller is correct that in Trump's big beautiful bill, it did require, because they went through this special reconciliation process, and you can only do reconciliation once, you know, once a fiscal year, they were able to push this through on a purely partisan vote, both in the House and the Senate. | ||
| It included all of Trump's major priorities. | ||
| It included tax cuts for most Americans, but specifically for wealthy Americans as well. | ||
| And what they did is they paid for it with some of these cuts to Medicaid, as I was talking about earlier, which is now part of this conversation to try to reopen the government. | ||
| This government shutdown bill is much different. | ||
| Outside of this reconciliation process, which you can really only use once a fiscal year, it requires 60 votes, and that's why we are at this impasse, because they will need both parties to work out some kind of agreement or have one of the parties cave to the other party. | ||
| We don't know which is going to happen, but one of those scenarios has to happen in order for the government to reopen. | ||
| Dee is calling from Virginia, Line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Dee. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, there. | |
| Morning. | ||
| I don't know why American people forget a lot, but I can take you back when the Democrats had control of all three houses. | ||
| They had nothing to do with the Republicans. | ||
| They wouldn't even talk to them. | ||
| So why is it a big difference now? | ||
| And don't you think that shutting down the government is becoming a common thing? | ||
| I expected it long before it even happened. | ||
| Well, they're going to shut down the government again. | ||
| And when it comes to health care, nobody's helping me with my premiums to make my insurance cheaper, which is way up there. | ||
| So my feelings when it comes to the government, keep it shut down. | ||
| I think we need to tear it all down and start over again. | ||
| The President of the United States might agree with the caller there in terms of tearing it all down. | ||
| He has threatened and his budget director, Russell Vogt, and his spokesperson have threatened mass layoffs of federal workers because of this shutdown. | ||
| They are saying that in order to manage the fallout from the shutdown, they're going to have to make permanent cuts to people. | ||
| That has never happened in the past. | ||
| The caller mentioned that, yes, there have been past shutdowns. | ||
| This shutdown today at six days would be the 10th longest shutdown in U.S. history. | ||
| If it goes on through the rest of the week, it could be the ninth and the eighth longest shutdown in history. | ||
| But the caller is right that the president has made these threats. | ||
| We haven't seen the details of or the follow-through of the threats of mass layoffs. | ||
| But I can tell you in just chatting with friends who work in the federal government, they are very worried about these permanent, they're calling them rifts or reduction in forces that would result in mass layoffs of federal workers during this time of real uncertainty for federal workers. | ||
| We want to show our audience some of the previous government shutdowns. | ||
| The most recent one was 2018-2019. | ||
| That's the longest one in history. | ||
| That was 35 days under President Trump during his first term. | ||
| 2018, three days, again, under President Trump. | ||
| Back in 2013, it was 16 days. | ||
| That was under President Obama. | ||
| And then 1995 to 96, that was 21 days under Clinton. | ||
| Also under President Clinton, 1995, that was five days. | ||
| And 1990, that was three days, and that was under President Bush, second President George Bush. | ||
| Scott, you covered some of those previous shutdowns. | ||
| Do you notice any similarities or differences from what we're seeing right now? | ||
| I think every shutdown is different in its own unique way. | ||
| I have covered certainly the 2013 shutdown over Obamacare led by Ted Cruz. | ||
| I covered the 2018-19 shutdown in a standoff between Nancy Pelosi and President Trump during his first term. | ||
| Both, and then thinking back to the 1990 shutdown between Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich, that one, as well as the 2018 shutdown between Trump and Pelosi, happened over the holidays. | ||
| So it was actually a quiet time in Washington already as things really start to wind down towards the end of the year. | ||
| Here we are in a much different situation at the start of the fiscal year, the start of the school year. | ||
| People are in the middle of their lives. | ||
| They are not winding down. | ||
| They're ramping things up for the coming year. | ||
| And that is a big difference here when you're thinking about how do you plan for the future? | ||
| How do you plan for this upcoming fiscal year? | ||
| To have a government interruption like this is quite a blow and really has set the tone, I think, for this brand new fiscal year. | ||
| Uriah is calling from Houston, Texas on the line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Uriah. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| I have something to pose to the gentleman. | ||
| In my mind, the rule that allows us to shut down the government because of a budget is arbitrary and doesn't even need to be there. | ||
| And doesn't help anything. | ||
| And obviously, look at all the destruction. | ||
| So why not just have the Senate and the Congress change the law so that they have to fix it? | ||
| You know, they have to fix the budget and agree or don't agree. | ||
| But eliminate the issue that there's a shutdown. | ||
| It doesn't serve anything. | ||
| And since everyone can't agree, you know, obviously they're not agreeing on purpose. | ||
| They're just using it as a tool to divide. | ||
| So make them agree by saying we're not shutting anything down. | ||
| If you can't agree on a budget, just keep going until you can agree. | ||
| And this would end this time after time because we're using it the wrong way on purpose. | ||
| So get rid of the law. | ||
| It is a law that is forcing us to do it. | ||
| It's not like wind or rain. | ||
| We made the law and we should get rid of it because they're not acting right. | ||
| It's a fascinating point that the caller makes to change the law so that if lawmakers can't come to any sort of agreement on their annual 12 appropriation bills, that the government just keeps on trudging along and gets funded regardless of whether the Congress intervenes or not. | ||
| It's certainly a fascinating idea. | ||
| I think it's one that I'll probably ask some lawmakers on Capitol Hill about today. | ||
| Richard is calling from Iowa on the line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Richard. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I'd like to draw the attention to an editorial by Michael Solon in the Wall Street Journal this morning. | ||
| And it says what's at stake in the government shutdown. | ||
| And it said, if Democrats get their way, pandemic spending will become permanent and bankruptcy will get closer. | ||
| And I think a lot of us are missing the point about what the Democrats want is to make pandemic spending permanent. | ||
| The pandemic spending was meant to be temporary to get us through the pandemic portion of what we were enduring and helping those with the Medicare coverage. | ||
| And that's costing billions and billions of dollars. | ||
| And I wish our guest would address that. | ||
| That is really the point of the order here, our book. | ||
| I think people need to understand about the cost of that, what the Democrats want to make this thing permanent. | ||
| I did try to address that at the top of the show in talking about the pandemic spending. | ||
| We are talking about enhanced Obamacare ACA subsidies that were enhanced in the middle of the pandemic, 2021, thinking back to those days where people were stuck in their homes, where COVID was running rampant, where there was a lot of fear in terms of our health and our health care. | ||
| And Democrats who controlled all the levers of government at that time did push through the American Rescue Plan, which enhanced these Obamacare tax credits. | ||
| And it did grow enrollment in Obamacare, and more people were able to get health coverage through the Obamacare exchange. | ||
| A year later, 2022, they decided to renew those tax credits to make health care more affordable for really millions of Americans. | ||
| I think it pretty much doubled the amount of people that were able to enroll in Obamacare. | ||
| And in fact, a lot of those people came from red states. | ||
| There's an analysis by the Kaiser KFF, and they showed that most of the people that enrolled through those new, you know, taking advantage of those new subsidies were hailing from red states. | ||
| And so now you have a situation where people are receiving, October 1st, people are receiving letters in the mail if you are enrolled in Obamacare that your health care premiums could start to go up in the coming year unless Congress acts to do something about renewing these existing subsidies, these expiring subsidies. | ||
| That's going to be a big blow. | ||
| If nothing happens, that will be a big blow for people's pocketbooks if you are one of these millions of families that rely on Obamacare to get their health care coverage. | ||
| The House not being in this week further delays the swearing in of Democrat Adeleta Grijalva, who won a special election to replace her late father. | ||
| Why is this significant? | ||
| Yeah, you're hearing this argument from Democrats that the whole reason why Speaker Johnson is keeping the House out of Washington is to delay the swearing in of Adelita Grijalva, who is, as we know, the daughter of Raul Grijalva, longtime Progressive power broker in Washington who passed away sadly earlier this year. | ||
| I've covered him for a number of years. | ||
| Well, she represents the 218th signature on the bipartisan discharge petition led by Thomas Massey and Roe Conna of California. | ||
| They are pushing this discharge petition to circumvent leadership to force a vote on the release of the Epstein files. | ||
| And once they get her signature on that document, they will be able to call a vote within seven days and force a vote. | ||
| But if the House is out of session, the speaker said he won't swear her in. | ||
| There can be no 218th signature on that discharge petition. | ||
| There will be no vote to force the release of those Epstein files. | ||
| Speaker Johnson and the Republicans have denied that that's what this is all about. | ||
| They have said, no, this is simply about the fact that the House did its job. | ||
| We passed the funding bill. | ||
| And we're trying to put more pressure on Senate Democrats to take up our funding bill. | ||
| But I was chatting with Ro Khanna just the other day. | ||
| He and Massey want to have, we're planning to have a press conference on Capitol Hill this week with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghelane Maxwell and something that they had done several weeks ago at the return from the summer recess. | ||
| And that press conference with survivors has been postponed until lawmakers get back into town. | ||
| So everything is in sort of a holding pattern at the moment and everything is sort of frozen in the House of Representatives. | ||
| Beth is calling from Wisconsin on the line for Republicans. | ||
| Hi, Beth. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| I just like to say that President Trump has really and their group have really reversed the image of the Republican Party. | ||
| It used to be conservative, it used to be moderate, and now it's totally right-winged radical. | ||
| President Trump needs to be stopped. | ||
| Do everything you can to stop him. | ||
| Absolutely advance the vote on the Epstein bill. | ||
| I think a lot of this is smoke and mirrors trying to prevent that whole truth coming out. | ||
| Even the negotiation for release of the Israeli hostages, I'm afraid he's using that. | ||
| And as soon as a decision is made on opening the government, that whole negotiation is going to fall through because I think he's just talking smart. | ||
| I think you've got to stop this man. | ||
| He's ruining our country. | ||
| Well, we are coming up on the two-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel. | ||
| Obviously, that's going to be a big day that will be remembered throughout the world. | ||
| The president says he is on the cusp of a peace deal in the Middle East, which would be, by all accounts, very significant. | ||
| At the same time, he's dealing with a major crisis here on domestic soil with this government shutdown. | ||
| And what's interesting is the person that has sort of become the face of the government shutdown is Russell Vogt, his OMB director, his budget director in the White House. | ||
| Somebody who was one of the authors of the so-called Project 2025 that we had heard about on the campaign trail in the 2024 election, really a conservative blueprint about how a second Trump administration should operate. | ||
| And what's interesting is Trump himself had distanced himself from that 2025 project blueprint, saying it was, you know, it's too extreme and that's not what he was focused on. | ||
| And then now, in the midst of this shutdown, he is heralding Russell Vogt, one of the most staunchest conservatives in Washington, D.C., somebody who is of the mold of really thinking we should break Washington in order to reform it. | ||
| And the president himself has been heralding Russell Vogue and even pointing out that he was the author of Project 2025. | ||
| So really a complete reversal on that whole conservative blueprint from the President of the United States. | ||
| And something else happening this week. | ||
| The Senate will be gabbling and the Judiciary Committee has a hearing where Attorney General Pam Bonnie is expected to appear. | ||
| What are you expecting to hear and come out of that event? | ||
| Yeah, so this is Pam Bondi's annual opportunity to present to the Senate Judiciary Committee to take their questions. | ||
| This is really an oversight hearing, and one was supposed to happen in the House of Representatives as well, but since they're not in town, she will not be appearing before the House. | ||
| Senate Democrats certainly have a lot of questions for Pam Bondi. | ||
| This is a critical moment. | ||
| Obviously, they're going to ask her about the government shutdown. | ||
| They're going to ask her what's the status of the Epstein files. | ||
| Why has DOJ not released more of those documents? | ||
| There have been thousands and thousands of files released, but many of those were already public. | ||
| And so there will be Democrats pressing her to release more of those files, or in fact, all of those files. | ||
| And I think there's a real question about whether the DOJ is focused on prosecuting or targeting some of President Trump's political enemies. | ||
| We saw the indictment recently of James Comey, the former FBI director, somebody who Trump has specifically been speaking publicly about and saying that he should be indicted and targeted. | ||
| And then days later, the DOJ doing just that. | ||
| And so I anticipate those are some of the topics that are going to come out in this oversight hearing in the Senate. | ||
| Brian is calling from Yorkville, Illinois, aligned for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Brian. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, good morning. | |
| I want to run something by you real quick, Scott, and then please tell me what you think of it. | ||
| In my view, Trump's a brain narcissist that has his own agenda, and he's so material in his thoughts, maybe peaky or fragmented thoughts that it changes day to day. | ||
| I don't know that there's intent on his part, but I just don't see the man as any sort of competent leader in the position he's in. | ||
| I voted for him this time around, but I don't see it. | ||
| And I know for a fact that Congress is filled with people that we elect as leaders, but show no leadership qualities whatsoever. | ||
| And it's my contention that that's because they've got enough connections to get elected, and that's their goal, is to make this a career. | ||
| And that is their reason for being there. | ||
| And you yourself even refer to culpable Democrats in the Senate that Republicans are targeting for compromise, a couple of them because they're not going to run again, including Durbin from Illinois. | ||
| That tells me that that's the only time that those guys would be willing to do what's right for the country. | ||
| Otherwise, they're primarily interested in getting reelected. | ||
| What do you think? | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| A lot of interesting points there. | ||
| I will not attempt to get inside the president's brain or try to assess the president's thinking at all. |