Before we talk, I just wanted to respond to the last caller about the winery.
This is Bloomberg.
Bloomberg government is reporting the senators holding holiday weekend fundraising trips amid shutdown.
This is from October 7th.
Senate Majority Leader Thune is among the senators from both parties who have weekend fundraising getaways planned as the government shutdown heads toward its second week.
Thune and other GOP senators have planned a fundraising trip this weekend to South Carolina.
Their Democratic counterparts have scheduled one with donors in California wine country, according to fundraising appeals sent to donors and other sources.
And just wanted to get back to that caller.
But you have just been elected to Congress.
You replaced the late Jerry Connolly.
Can you give us a little bit of an idea about your background?
unidentified
Sure.
Well, I'm a lifelong Northern Virginian.
My grandfather grew up on a farm near Dulles Airport and I spent my entire life, with the exception of four years in college in Northern Virginia.
When I was 26 years old, Jerry Connolly asked me to be his chief of staff here in Washington.
And I spent 11 years serving as his chief of staff, advising him on a host of issues.
In 2019, I ran for the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, which is the governing body in Fairfax County.
I flipped a Republican-held seat and for the last five years represented about 130,000 people right in the middle of Fairfax County, including George Mason University.
When Congressman Connolly was diagnosed with cancer and made the decision not to seek reelection, he and I sat down and talked and he encouraged me to consider stepping into the race to succeed him.
I was very fortunate to have been elected on September 9th, sworn into the House the next day on September 10th, and have been doing my best to represent my constituents in Virginia's 11th district since then.
So what's the long-term strategy then for Democrats?
unidentified
Well, I think the long-term strategy is to continue to advocate to cancel the health care cuts to address the expiration of the Affordable Care Act, enhance premium tax credits.
So the families who have now been receiving those notices that their premiums will go up are going to have to go to healthcare.gov or the respective state exchanges and make a decision about the health care coverage for their families next year.
unidentified
So I think that date, November 1st, is critical and could be a forcing function to get our Republican colleagues to the negotiating table to work out a compromise.
They want to see a spending agreement that, yes, reopens the government, addresses the health care cuts, provides some protections for federal agencies and federal workers from the rescissions that we've seen, from the illegal impoundment of federal funds where the Trump administration refuses to spend dollars that Congress actually funds and appropriates if they don't like that particular program.
unidentified
They want to see us accomplish all those things in a bipartisan negotiation.
You know, we've seen with paying the troops an effort, and they haven't really explained it, to use unobligated funds at the Pentagon for which the Appropriations Act have given some transfer authority.
unidentified
So it's possible that there's a legal mechanism to do that.
I haven't seen a similar explanation for paying law enforcement, but I'd be eager to review it.
Let's start with Vicki and Lincoln, Nebraska Democrat.
Good morning, Vicki.
unidentified
Yes, good morning.
I just want to compliment C-SPAN about how when people call in and complain about other the other party, which I don't, I'm not going to do that, how they, you guys let them go on and on.
This is what I love about C-SPAN.
It's my favorite show because you let people be what they are.
And this is a safe place for us to voice our opinions.
And for the Democrat that's on the gentleman, I would just like to thank you for what you're doing.
I do believe the shutdown is something that has been caused by the Republicans and their revenge.
I feel like it's just we have to get back to doing the right thing for the people.
And I want to thank you, sir, for what you do.
And also, you might have somebody look into this.
In Nebraska, it just hit the news recently about 11 people getting left off, left out of a job at the state because they do collections and we're owed like $100 million.
So why would you get rid of people that that's their job?
You might want to look at that and have a Nebraska representative on and explain that to us.
Here's Melissa in Bloomfield, Iowa Independent Line.
unidentified
Hi, thanks for taking my call.
Representative, I know we're all concerned about the shutdown and everything, but I'd like your opinion and to explain to everybody why there are a few Independents and a Democrat in the Senate that is voting for this continuing resolution, which isn't adding any more money.
It's just keeping the lights on and keeping the bills paid.
Why you guys don't think it's important enough to vote for the so-called federal workers that you're worried about when all you're worried about is the illegals getting to stay on medical insurance.
And I think if you look at the situation with respect to the shutdown right now, what has happened in the Senate is you have a Republican spending proposal.
unidentified
And from my perspective and the perspective of most Democrats, that proposal locks in devastating cuts to health care for Americans, especially Americans in rural communities.
That proposal has failed in the Senate because it hasn't received 60 votes.
There's also a Democratic proposal that Democrats have put on the table that would cancel the health care cuts, fund the government, provide some protections for the federal workers that I represent.
I acknowledge that that Democratic proposal also doesn't have 60 votes in the Senate.
I think most Americans out there across the country recognize when you have two competing proposals, neither of which have enough support to move forward, the logical thing to do, what we do in our families and our businesses and in our communities is we sit down at a table like this and we bring those two proposals together and we try to negotiate a compromise and reach a middle ground.
And that's what I and other Democrats here in Washington are trying to do.
unidentified
Unfortunately, our Republican colleagues are not willing to sit down at a table like this or a table in the Capitol to negotiate that kind of compromise.
Not only are they not eligible for the tax credits that we're talking about, they're not eligible to be on the Affordable Care Act exchanges at all.
unidentified
So the folks that we're talking about who are going to have their health care premiums skyrocket, in some cases double or triple, are everyday Americans, just like the caller out there,
like 19,000 folks that I represent in Virginia and tens of thousands of people in every congressional district across the country who are law-abiding taxpaying citizens of the United States of America who starting November 1st are going to log into healthcare.gov or the respective state exchanges and see that their premiums have skyrocketed.
I think the kernel of truth that some Republicans are using to advance this false assertion is that there is a program in Medicaid that allows for somebody who shows up at the emergency room, someone who has a serious injury or a serious illness, and because they don't have health insurance coverage, if they're undocumented in this country, if they show up at the emergency room, in many cases a life-threatening situation, they can get that care at the emergency room.
But my concern is during this shutdown and why they're wanting to stop pay from all the federal employees and they are wanting to cut out the Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, all this stuff.
How are they able to send all this money to other countries?
And why would they cut out medical needs for the United States citizens that have paid all their lives that they have worked into making tax cuts for the billionaires?
unidentified
What they're not saying is how much of a deficit that will add to our debt, our debt.
If you look at how much tax breaks they're wanting to give, that is more cost to our debt than the medical part is.
And one of the things that makes me most angry, and I wasn't here when the Republicans in Congress passed the so-called Big Beautiful bill that gave permanent tax cuts to corporations, 10 years of tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, including billionaires, exploding and driving up the national debt and deficit.
And today, those same Republicans who voted to do that, permanent tax cuts for corporations, long-term tax cuts for billionaires, aren't even willing to provide hardworking, middle-class, working-class Americans even a temporary extension of the enhanced premium tax credits to help them afford their health insurance.
Look, this Republican Congress has been picking the pockets of hardworking Americans and lining the pockets of billionaires and corporations, and that needs to come to an end.
Congresswoman-elect Grijalva will be, and she has said this, the 218th signature, which means we would proceed to a vote.
I think it's quite clear that Speaker Johnson is not bringing the House back in session because he doesn't want to afford her the opportunity to sign that discharge petition and doesn't want to deal with the challenge that he knows a vote on the floor of the House to release those files would create.
Foundationally, you know, the Constitution lays out Congress's role in appropriating your taxpayer dollars and ensuring that those dollars can only be spent if Congress passes legislation, your elected representatives pass legislation.
unidentified
You know, I do think there can be reforms to streamline the budget process.
The process that we're using now in Congress does date from the 70s.
But at the end of the day, the Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse.
From my perspective, some of my Republican colleagues have ceded already, have ceded much of that power to President Trump.