Like wholly owned subsidiaries of the Trump administration.
And all they've done all year, these Republicans here in Capitol Hill, is to rubber stamp Donald Trump's extreme agenda that's raising costs on the American people and ripping health care away from them at the same time.
If we're going to get a resolution here, we need presidential leadership.
That's what Donald Trump himself said 12 years ago in 2013.
If a shutdown happens, the buck stops with the president.
This is now the second time that the government has been shut down under Donald Trump, and he's in the presidential witness protection program.
He's nowhere to be found.
He's got time to be on the golf course, but apparently doesn't have time to sit down with Democrats in the House and the Senate to reopen the government.
House Democratic leaders led by Hakeem Jeffries on day eight of the government shutdown here in Washington, D.C.
The shutdown showdown continues, and we've had dueling news conferences, as we have in previous days as well.
You can follow along with C-SPAN's coverage of the government shutdown right here on C-SPAN 2, C-SPAN, C-SPAN 3, all three networks, and online, on demand at c-span.org or our free video mobile app, C-SPAN Now.
But you heard from Democratic lawmakers.
They say their rank and file, they are in Washington, but the Republicans on the House side are at home.
The Senate has been in session, and today, for the sixth time, a short-term funding bill failed.
Two proposals failed as they have in previous votes.
First, it was the Senate Democratic proposal that would extend funding to October 31st, and it includes the extension of those Affordable Care Act tax credits.
And then they also voted on a House GOP passed bill to extend funding to November 21st.
And that excludes any policy provisions.
Now, on that House GOP bill, 4 to 45 was the vote.
60 votes needed.
Three senators who caucused with the Democrats once again voted with the Republicans.
That was John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Catherine Cortez-Mesto of Nevada, and Angus King, who's an independent of Maine.
They joined Republicans to move forward on the Republican bill, but they did not get the 60 votes that they needed.
Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, continues to vote no on any continuing resolution.
As we said, the House is in at 3 p.m.
There are no votes expected.
Before we go to the House, we want to open up the phone lines and get your reaction to day eight of the government shutdown.
Republicans dial in at 202-748-8921.
Democrats, 202-748-8920.
All others, 202-748-8922.
And if you're a federal worker, we want to hear from you this afternoon at 202-748-8923.
As you heard today from lawmakers, there is a lot of concern about PAC back pay for federal workers.
October 10th is when most federal workers will miss their first payworkers.
October 10th is when most federal workers will miss their first paycheck.
President Trump has threatened to lay off as many as 750,000 civilian employees who are currently furloughed.
That from Punch Bowl News this morning.
And also October 15th, some 1.3 million active duty service members will miss their next scheduled paycheck.
That has been debated a lot today.
Deployed or full-time National Guard members and thousands of Coast Guard personnel face the same threat.
There needs to be a resolution two days before that October 15th on October 13th for military personnel to get paid, and that according to Punch Bull News.
Take a listen to Speaker Mike Johnson earlier this morning.
He held his own news conference with his GOP colleagues.
And here's what he had to say about bringing the House back to vote on a bill to pay troops.
unidentified
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Two questions about federal worker pay.
One, is it your understanding that federal workers will be repaid after this shutdown as part of current law?
And two, would you allow a UC, for example, for the military to ensure that they would be paid in the shutdown?
Federal workers, it's my understanding that the law is that they would be paid.
There is some other legal analysis that's floating around.
I have yet to have time to dig into and read that.
But it has always been the case, that is tradition, and I think it is statutory law that federal employees be paid, and that's my position.
I think they should be.
They should not be subjected to harm and financial dire straits because Chuck Schumer wants to play political games.
With regard to paying the troops, I want everybody to listen to me very carefully.
Hakeem Jeffries and the House Democrats, as Leader Scalise said so well, are clamoring to get back here and have another vote because some of them want to get on record and say they're for paying the troops.
We already had that vote.
It's called the CR.
Every Republican and at least one Democrat had the common sense to say, of course, we want the government to stay in operation.
Of course, we want to pay our troops and our air traffic controllers and our Border Patrol agent, TSA, and everybody else.
We did have that vote.
The House, I keep saying the House did its job.
We did that almost three weeks ago.
And every Democrat in the House except one voted against it.
They voted that they did not want the troops to be paid.
They did not want TSA agents to be paid.
They did not want air traffic controllers, Border Patrol agents, and all the rest.
They live with that vote.
They made that decision.
The House is done.
The ball is now in the Senate's court.
It does us no good to be here dithering on show votes.
We did it.
We sent the product over.
It is clean.
It is 24 pages in length.
It's the most bare minimum that's necessary to keep the lights on for the people.
And Chuck Schumer and 43 of his colleagues, Democrats, continue to do the wrong thing.
Speaker Mike Johnson, earlier today at his news conference talking about the issue over pay for military personnel.
Now our audience will get to ask the speaker questions because tomorrow Mike Johnson will be on the Washington Journal Thursday morning to talk about this ongoing government shutdown.
And take your calls starting at 8.30 a.m. Eastern Time.
We'll get the latest on the funding stalemate and the Republican stance live on C-SPAN, C-SPAN now, our free video mobile app, and online at c-span.org.
Let's go to calls Jennifer in Clearwater, Florida, an Independent.
You're up first here this afternoon.
Your thoughts on the eighth day of the government shutdown.
unidentified
Hi, thank you for taking my call.
Just two quick things.
I'm a federal worker.
I'm a single mom, two full-time jobs.
One of those jobs is a federal worker.
I'm not getting paid.
My problem is yesterday on the press conference where the president said he hasn't decided who's getting paid.
I have to wonder, is there a poll being taken?
Do you support my agenda?
If not, no pay for you.
It's just a lot of children in a playground calling names.
And I've never in life heard a president call the opposition a lunatic or stupid.
First of all, I just want to say that I think he should be reminded that President Trump, I think he should be reminded that all these people voted him in and all the little minions voted them all in.
And he forgot that the people are the ones who voted him in and the people are the ones who he's hurting.
Healthcare is at the center of this back and forth between Republicans and Democrats over the government shutdown.
Democrats demanding that to open the government back up, they want to see a permanent extension of those Affordable Care Act tax credits.
Yesterday, on our unexpected break with Republicans over health care and shutdown fight, the MAGA firebrand sparked criticism from GOP leadership after giving voice to a key Democratic demand, extending expiring Obamacare funding to avoid premium hikes.
And here's what she said in her interview with NBC.
What I am upset over is my party has no solution.
It's not something that we talk about frequently, but it is a reality for Americans, and it's something that I don't think we can ignore.
I really want to fix it, is what she told NBC.
Now, Majority Leader John Thune earlier today said both sides are interested in fixing and addressing health care.
We have a straightforward, simple proposition, a 24-page funding resolution to keep the government open with no partisan policy riders, no gimmicks.
Short-term funds the government through November the 21st to give us an opportunity to continue to do the government funding the way we should do it through the appropriations process where we have the committees meeting and Republicans and Democrats contributing and then bring it to the floor and have an open amendment process here.
That's the way the government should normally be funded.
And so what this does is provides a short-term extension in order for all that to happen.
That's all that we're talking about.
Now they have other issues they want to bring up, which I've said before, we're happy to discuss.
And yes, there are some things that I think there is interest on both sides in trying to address when it comes to health care in this country.
But you can't take the federal government hostage and expect to have a reasonable conversation on those issues.
The government needs to be funded.
Federal employees need to go back to work.
Federal agencies and departments need to be open in providing the services that the American people expect.
It's that resolution that keeps the government open or continue to vote for $1.5 trillion in new spending, free health care for non-citizens, and completely wiping out a $50 billion rural hospital fund that's designed to support rural hospitals in this country.
Something that would get 47 votes here in the Senate and not a majority in the House of Representatives, wouldn't get a single vote, honestly, among Republicans in the House of Representatives, and would not be signed in law by the President, versus something, again, passed by the House here at the Senate.
All we need is five more votes.
There are a majority of United States Senators today who support the short-term funding resolution.
I have a good memory, so good that I wish it wasn't as good as it is in all my personal.
So I think it was maybe 12, 13, 14 years ago the Affordable Care Act was put in, correct?
And it was put in by the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court.
The government was shut down and we're not going to open up again, whatever the words that they used, but they were in session day after day for about four or five days.
And this is 13 years ago, whatever it was, something like that.
And then it was enacted.
It was enacted.
And that's the Supreme Court.
It was not President Obama.
And I also remember at least twice, maybe even three times, the President Obama standing in front of Congress and saying, if anybody here has any kind of a plan that comes close to or better than what we're proposing with this Affordable Care Act, my door is open.
Come in any time.
Present it, and we'll go your way.
Not one, not one did it.
He did it at least two or three times.
They threw stuff at him practically because of, well, because of other things.