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unidentified
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| 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 Thim 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, 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. | ||
| You're on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| No, I'm just, I totally agree with the fact that the 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 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 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 colour 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 conversation. | ||
| 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 their 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 Medicaid, including imposing work requirements. | ||
| And so that is sort of the nexus of where Trump's Big Beautiful bill meets a 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 we'll 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 re-election. | ||
| 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, my 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. | |
| Thank you for what you do. | ||
| 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 here? | ||
| 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 1990s 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 it 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 guests 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 Khanna 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 Roe Conna 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 was too extreme and that's not what he was focused on. | ||
| And 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 Vogt 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 Bondi is expected to appear. | ||
| What are you expecting to hear and come out of that divin? | ||
| 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 referred 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. | ||
| But I will say to the caller's point about Dick Durbin and Gene Shaheen and some of the other folks who are not running for reelection, we do tend to see people speak out more honestly and break with their party in a more defiant way when they are not running for reelection. | ||
| It is just sort of the way of Washington. | ||
| And If you are an elected official, a politician who is up for reelection, running a campaign, your primary, your primary, I won't say responsibility, but your primary thing that you're thinking about is how do I get re-elected. | ||
| Now, it may be for personal reasons, or it may be thinking about, okay, well, if I get re-elected, then I can help my constituents. | ||
| I can help voters in my district. | ||
| I can help advance policies that I truly believe in. | ||
| But look, if people don't get reelected, then all of that is off the table. | ||
| And so that is really the currency up here in Washington is to influence, to stay in power, to keep winning reelections so that they can carry out their agenda, whether that's a personal agenda or a much more public agenda in respect to their constituencies back home in places like Illinois. | ||
| Shonda is calling from Florida on the line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Shonda. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Yes, I just want to say we saw the president have this pep rally, summon all the generals, and they have this ridiculous, childish pep rallies. | ||
| But then you turn around and you shut down the country in which our lower-ranked military won't get paid. | ||
| How does that set for the morale of those young men and women that have dedicated their lives to protect this country? | ||
| And why, if I'm a young child, would I want to enlist to go into a military like that? | ||
| Or why would I want to re-enlist to stay in a military like that? | ||
| This seems so childish to me. | ||
| A house divided against itself cannot stand. | ||
| And to see my president at a time when your people may be suffering, to think that it's funny to make mustaches and sombreros, this is very childish. | ||
| If you are the president of this country, if your people suffer, you should be grieving and you should be demanding that the House gets back in order and comes to some type of resolution. | ||
| This is absolutely ridiculous. | ||
| Well, I have to say I was a bit speechless when I saw first the memes of the sombrero that has entered this entire fight over the government shutdown. | ||
| I completely agree with the caller. | ||
| It's childish, and especially at a time when we're dealing with, as we've been discussing, thousands and thousands of workers, 750,000 workers in the country have now been furloughed. | ||
| They've been sent home essentially. | ||
| The other set of workers, essential workers, are working. | ||
| They're on the job. | ||
| They're at airports at the TSA. | ||
| They're in air traffic control towers. | ||
| They are on the border protecting the country. | ||
| They are working, but they are working without pay. | ||
| And that is the reality of what this government shutdown has done, is people's livelihoods are at risk. | ||
| And also people's government services are not being accessed as easily as they once were. | ||
| And so we're talking about some serious matters here. | ||
| And it's hard to square that with some of the things that we're seeing on social media at the moment. | ||
| But I'd just like to remind people that people's, you know, October 10th is when millions of federal civilian workers will go without their first paycheck. | ||
| That's Friday. | ||
| And then October 15th is when members of the military who are serving our country, who are protecting our country from people trying to do harm to America, they will be going unpaid as they carry out their duties. | ||
| And though, so those are obviously very important dates that we're keeping an eye on. | ||
| They could provide greater pressure for the Congress to try to come to some sort of agreement in trying to end this impasse. | ||
| Annie is calling from San Rafael, Florida on the line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Annie. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| It's actually California, San Rafael, California, but it's nice to connect with you. | ||
| I think you're doing a great job, by the way. | ||
| And so I would love for him to run down what this is about the sombreros and mustaches because I didn't hear about it. | ||
| I was calling in, though, to comment about what Beth said, the older gal who called in and said, you know, that this man has to be stopped. | ||
| And I just want to comment that out here in California, my stepmom, who's in her 80s, is getting out on the corner with a sign because she also feels like this guy has to be stopped. | ||
| So I think it's interesting the older gals are somehow seeing this guy, the Donald, as a, you know, temper tantrum kind of the other last caller was the other caller was saying he's a narcissist and various things. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| But yeah, if he could say what the sombrero thing was about, where did that occur? | ||
| And then just comment on an older gal population that seems to see this guy maybe for what he really is. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| I don't know how much time you want to spend on the sombreros. | ||
| I think people can go on to social media and probably find those memes for themselves. | ||
| It has sort of proliferated out there on places like X and certainly on the president's social media network. | ||
| And I will just say it's good to hear a caller from my native San Francisco Bay Area in San Rafael and somebody who's joining us so early in the morning. | ||
| Scott Wong is senior congressional reporter for NBC News. | ||
| You can find his work and follow along with Shutdown News at NBCNews.com. | ||
| Scott, thank you as always for your time. | ||
| Tammy, it was great to be here. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
As the government shutdown extended into its sixth day, the Senate again failed to pass a funding measure during two votes on the chamber floor. | |
| Both the Democratic and Republican funding proposals were blocked in the Senate, with the Democratic budget proposal including an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies. | ||
| President Trump has said he's open to a health care deal with Democrats, while House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said during a press conference on Capitol Hill that the White House has, quote, gone radio silent since the Oval Office meeting last Monday. | ||
| And neither leader Schumer or myself have heard a word from the administration about resolving this issue. | ||
| If a funding package were to clear the Senate, it would then be sent back to the House of Representatives, where members would receive a 48-hour notice to return to the Capitol for potential votes. | ||
| Follow the C-SPAN networks for continuing coverage of the government shutdown. | ||
| You can also watch interviews, news briefings, and floor speeches with lawmakers at c-span.org. | ||
| Premiering this Friday at 7 p.m. on C-SPAN, Vice President Mike Pence and Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm 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. |