CSPAN - Washington Journal 10/16/2025

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Oct. 16, 2025 07:00-10:03 - CSPAN

03:02:57

Washington Journal 10/16/2025

Participants

Main

mimi geerges

cspan 31:38

Appearances

donald j trump

admin 02:01

patty murray

sen/d 02:03

russ vought

01:47

scott bessent

admin 00:57

Clips

alexandria ocasio-cortez

rep/d 00:23

andrew colvett

00:07

barack obama

d 00:02

bill clinton

d 00:05

david rubenstein

00:04

donald j trump [ai]

admin 00:01

george h w bush

r 00:02

george w bush

r 00:04

jimmy carter

d 00:11

john grisham

00:08

kaitlan collins

cnn 00:17

mike johnson

rep/r 00:13

ronald reagan

r 00:01

tim kaine

sen/d 00:10

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Speaker	Time	Text
unidentified		We'll talk about day 16 of the government shutdown.
		First, with Pennsylvania Democratic Congresswoman Chrissy Houlihan on its impact on defense and national security.
		Then with Nebraska Republican Congressman Mike Flood on the GOP strategy dealing with the shutdown.
		And with Reuters correspondent David Shepardson on the shutdown's impact on air travel.
		Washington Journal starts now.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
		It's Thursday, October 16th.
		It's day 16 of the government shutdown.
		Yesterday, a federal judge temporarily halted the administration's firing of federal workers siding with the unions.
		And while Social Security checks will continue, the 2026 cost of living adjustment announcement has been delayed due to the shutdown.
		This first half hour of the program, we're getting your thoughts.
unidentified		Has the shutdown affected you or your community?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here's how to reach us.
		Republicans, 202748, 8001.
		Democrats, 202748, 8000.
unidentified		And Independents, 202748, 8002.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		We have our line for federal workers.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		It's 202-748-8003.
unidentified		That's the same number you can use to text us.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		If you do, include your first name in your city-state.
		And you can post to social media, facebook.com/slash C-SPAN and X at C-SPANWJ.
		Welcome to today's Washington Journal.
		Let's get started with a look at what White House Budget Director Russ Vogt said on the Charlie Kirk show about the federal worker firings.
		He said this before the court ruling came out.
russ vought ▲ ● ▼		You know, one of the things we want to do is if there are policy opportunities to downsize the scope of the federal government, we want to use those opportunities.
		And if I can't do things, because you can't do everything you would normally do in a shutdown, right?
		It has to be generally related to life and protecting property.
		And if I can only work on saving money, then I'm going to do everything I can to look for opportunities to downsize in areas where this administration has thought this is our way towards a balanced budget.
		And I think you've seen some of that in the president's messaging.
andrew colvett ▲ ● ▼		So are we talking 10 people?
unidentified		Are we talking 1,000 people?
russ vought ▲ ● ▼		We're talking about the people.
		We're definitely talking thousands of people.
		Much of the reporting has been based on kind of court snapshots, which they've articulated is in the 4,000 number of people.
		But that's just a snapshot, and I think it'll get much higher.
		And we're going to keep those riffs rolling throughout this shutdown because we think it's important to stay on offense for the American taxpayer and the American people in getting a government that if there's an opportunity to have less bureaucracy and think of Green New Deal programs at the Department of Energy.
		Think the Minority Business Development Agency at Commerce that divvies up business grants on the basis of race.
		Think environmental justice at EPA.
		Think about CISA.
		CISA was an area that we riffed, which was participating in censorship to the American people.
		We want to be very aggressive where we can be in shuttering the bureaucracy, not just the funding, but the bureaucracy, that we now have an opportunity to do that.
		And that's where we're going to be looking for our opportunities.
andrew colvett ▲ ● ▼		So you're saying there's been a snapshot of 4,000 jobs cut.
russ vought ▲ ● ▼		Correct.
		Is there a special, but it could grow higher?
		I think we'll probably end up being north of 10,000.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		That was OMB Director Russ Vogt talking about the federal layoffs during the shutdown.
		This is what happened after he made those comments.
		Here's the AP.
		It says, judge temporarily blocks the Trump administration from firing workers during the government shutdown.
		It says that the administration for now must stop firing workers.
		A federal judge in San Francisco ordered yesterday.
		It said that the judge issued the emergency order after federal agencies on Friday started issuing layoff notices aimed at reducing the size of the federal government.
		Layoff notices are part of the effort by Trump's Republican administration to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown continues.
		We'll take a look at Democratic Senator Patty Murray on the Senate floor yesterday criticizing those mass firings.
patty murray ▲ ● ▼		Let me be clear.
		Shutdowns do not require presidents to fire people en masse.
		They actually do not require presidents to cancel projects and raise energy prices, nor do they give presidents new magical powers to destroy programs they don't like or to target political opposition.
		You don't have to take my word for it because this is not our first government shutdown.
		It is just the first time that a president has blatantly and gleefully tried to use a shutdown against the American people.
		So when President Trump fires hundreds of public health workers at CDC without thinking twice about if it would put lives in jeopardy, that is a choice he is making.
		When President Trump puts at risk special education programs through mass layoffs, that is a choice he is making to abandon students with disabilities and their families and weaken their access to rights under our special education laws.
		When Trump outright shutters a key community development fund, which has strong bipartisan support and finances housing and health care and other community projects in our country, that is a choice he is making.
		President Trump is choosing to fire as many people as he thinks he can get away with, to break as much of the government as is possible, to hurt the American people as much as he can because he thinks he can use regular people as leverage.
		That's the cold, hard reality, and it is plain as day.
		That is why Trump is governing by a principle of maximum pain.
		It's not because he had to, it is because he wanted to.
		It is not because he's following any law.
		It is because he is ignoring countless laws.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And here's Politico that says the Senate fails for ninth time to advance the government funding plan.
		Negotiations to break the partisan impasse remain virtually non-existent.
		It says that the GOP funding, lead funding bill failed for the ninth time on Wednesday, all but guaranteeing the shutdown will stretch into next week at least.
		Senators voted 51 to 44 on the stopgap, which would fund the government through November 21.
		It says the Senate is expected to vote again Thursday.
		That's today on the House passed stopgap spending bill without any reasonable expectation there will be a different outcome.
		Let's go to calls now.
		Kathy Potoski, Michigan Democrat.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, Mimi.
		My concern is I have a USDA rural development loan, and I've also helped a couple other females get that several years back.
		But this is when you go on the website, it says it's in this kind of orange-ish-brown big rectangular black.
		Due to the radical left Democratic shutdown, this government website will not be updated during the funding lapse.
		President Trump has made it clear he wants to keep the government open and support those who feed, fuel, and clothe the American people.
		Well, I don't know.
		That blows my mind.
		Is that what my tax dollars are paying for?
		I made my payment, but it wasn't easy, the last one.
		And I always pay early.
		It's due, I think, of the 14th.
		I paid within the first five days.
		A friend of mine, they closed hers down.
		She had something, a snafu, several months ago with a check.
		They canceled her loan.
		She has to refinance with a private lender.
		I'm not going to live my life in fear, but this makes the whole scene is making me my blood boil.
		I was born in 1957, born and raised in Flint, went through a lot of hard times.
		And I see my children's life as being much more difficult.
		Even though I've helped them economically, I was able to.
		I do have a grandson, another grandchild on the way.
		And I'm not feeling hopeful like I used to about the future.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Kathy.
		And here's Herb in High Point, North Carolina, Independent.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Thank you for letting me speak a few minutes.
		Well, not a few minutes.
		But anyway, I just want to say to the American people, don't be gophers.
		If we got $20 billion for Argentina, but we're laying off American workers, is that the America first agenda?
		Donald Trump has got you guys running around in circles while he's enjoying himself at the golf course.
		Thank you very much.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And we are taking your calls this morning just for the first half hour on the government shutdown.
		We'll go into open forum after that.
		The lines are bipartisan.
		So Republicans are on 202-748-8001.
		Democrats 202-748-8000.
		And Independents 202-748-8002.
		And our line for federal workers, that is 202-748-8003.
		Here's Jason, Cypress, California.
		Democrat, good morning, Jason.
unidentified		Hey, good morning.
		I want to call about the Democrat shutdown.
		I'm a Democrat, but I don't understand what the party is doing.
		They shut down the government.
		From what I understand, they're holding out because they don't like the orange man in office.
		So why are they blaming the other side when they're the ones that they have to come to the table and do the votes?
		They have to vote, vote the right way to open the government and make sure that everybody has their checks and is getting paid.
		And I think it's kind of cruel to actually sit back and not participate because you don't feel like the other party is doing what you want them to do.
		You mean not doing what you're doing regarding health care?
		Regarding health care, regarding all of it, really, they want to give the there's a trans section in there as well.
		They want to give money to afford trans surgeries for young kids and all this stuff that the Democrats have now gone into, which I am nowhere near.
		In fact, I think I'm going to be leaving the Democrat Party because This happens too often where they're blaming the opposite party when they know they can do the right thing.
		They need to do the right thing and reopen this government instead of keeping it shut down like they're hijacking the American people.
		I've seen it before.
		We've seen them vote the right way when they're in power.
		So why the hell can't they vote the right way when they're not in power?
		So get this government back open, get the American people what they deserve.
		And this is basically a Schumer shutdown from what I've seen, from what I've been watching on C-SPAN, what they show and what they show the Democrats whining and crying and blaming.
		That's what I see.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Jason.
		Here's Debbie in Williamsburg, Ohio, Independent Line.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I was actually flitting back and forth in the bed in the middle of the night last night.
		And neither party really cares truly about the American people.
		The Republicans have, as someone man said, hijacked basically our government so that they have full control and they will have full control down the road.
		Neither party really, neither Congress is just, it's a mockery of our values and our founding fathers' wishes for the Constitution and what this country really should be and not what it's turned into.
		The people, I think we realize that, and our hands are tied because we've got two parties that are fighting against each other for control, not of the people, but of the government.
		I think it's time that we get together and really turn this over and pray.
		I'd like to ask everyone if they would say the Pledge of Allegiance.
		Congress is mocking our pledges and our oaths to the government and the people of the country and the world.
		We were based on values of God and that we would all say to our father, Gaylord, this is going to be in God's hands to take care of because there's so much evil going around right now that it's going to be hard to stop.
		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Let's take a look at what Treasury Secretary Scott Besant said at a news conference yesterday talking about the economic impact of the shutdown.
scott bessent ▲ ● ▼		We call on the moderate Democrats in the Senate to be heroes.
		Be heroes.
		Break away from the hive of radicalism and do something for the American people because we are starting to cut into muscle here.
		We believe that the shutdown may start costing the U.S. economy up to $15 billion a day.
		And this is a decision the Democrats are making.
		And one of the reasons that they are not being held to task is because the mainstream media is not coming at them the way they would have if the Republicans were willing to keep the government closed.
		It is a very simple decision.
		Mike Johnson passed a clean CR.
		Leader Thun has the clean CR.
		Three Democrats have voted for it.
		And right here, right now, I am calling for the moderate Democrats to be heroes, be heroes, and reopen the government for the American people.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Frank, in New London, Ohio, Republican line, you're on the air, Frank.
unidentified		Yeah, good morning.
		The government shut down supposedly over the medical.
		Okay, it's really easy.
		For years, the insurance companies have set the prices on all medical, all medical.
		When you go to, if you have no insurance, you walk into a doctor's office and you ask them, Okay, how much to get that toenail removed?
		They'll say, Oh, well, I'll have to look and see what the insurance company pays me.
		They will charge you whatever the insurance company pays you.
		The insurance companies are what's running everything.
		If you're an insurance company, a middleman, they're the ones that can decide or debate prices with the people that they owe.
		You cannot.
		Okay, so if the insurance company, the middleman, wants a raise, how does he get a raise?
		Well, gee, he just raises the price, he gives the price, raises the prices of everything of what they will give.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So, Frank, what do you see as the solution here?
unidentified		Just tell the insurance companies to pay less that's right.
		What they got to lose, they make a profit.
		No company makes is in business unless they make a profit.
		Your middleman is making the profit, the middleman is the one driving the money.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So, here's my question, Frank.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		How do you force a private company to do that?
unidentified		Oh, well, why do you give the private company the power to do that?
		I mean, seriously, you're talking about medical.
		And as far as to fix the medical problem, the doctors deserve all this money because they paid hundreds of thousands for colleges.
		All right.
		Well, fix the problem.
		The government wants to throw money away like it's toilet paper.
		So, what you do with it is instead of throwing it all away on the stupid stuff, fix your American.
		If you want to go to college for anything to do with medical, the taxpayers pay for it.
		Gee whiz.
		Now they can't yell and scream, hey, I paid million or half a million dollars to get my degrees.
		And then, when they do get their degrees, it's about one little issue.
		They're called specialists.
		So, they don't fix a common problem with you.
		All they can do is fix a certain little thing with you.
		It's ridiculous.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Frank.
		Here's Harvey in Independent in Santa Monica, California.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		With all this stuff going on in the Middle East, I want to point out Israel, 90% of their hot water comes from solar.
		I've worked in solar for 50 years.
		I was the first environmental studies student in the UC.
		They have solar power plants.
		I'm in Santa Monica, California, within 100 miles of here by Victor Ville and Daggett.
		They built solar power plants 40, 45 years ago that have been operating for that time and cost-effective.
		This technology is being ignored, okay?
		And it's extremely important that we convert and live on our solar income versus our dirty solar savings with air pollution and all this problems and do it now.
		Okay?
		Now, also, Fareed Zakaria, three, four years ago, interviewed the king of Jordan, and there was a coup attempt by his brother working with the Saudis.
		They put it down.
		He said, Isn't it true that 60, 70% of Palestinians live in Jordan?
		And Jordan was created two years and 46 before Israel.
		He said, Yes, that's true.
		And isn't it true that 50 years ago in 1970, the king of Jordan was murdered by a Palestinian at the Awat Samas at the old temple.
		And he tried to kill his son as well.
		He said, yes, because they ripped off the West Bank and Jerusalem.
		He said, yes.
		Okay.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So, Harvey, Harvey, we're just focused on the government shutdown now for the next 10 minutes.
		We can certainly get to the Middle East in our next half hour.
		Here's Renee Darby, Pennsylvania, Democrat.
		Good morning, Renee.
unidentified		Good morning.
		First of all, I'd just like to say I support the Democrats and the shutdown.
		First of all, you should never make a bill if you can't get it across the finish line yourself.
		That's the main problem.
		If you couldn't have done it by yourself, since you wrote it by yourself, you didn't need us.
		But since you need us, you need to compromise.
		People not having medical care helps all of us get sicker.
		Right now, it's a measles outbreak.
		I'm 71.
		Measles have been gone for so freaking long, it's ridiculous.
		But people are getting measles again.
		Next, we'll have polio out again.
		You know, America better come together or they're going to tear the whole damn thing down.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Alan, a Democrat in Minnesota, good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, Mimi.
		I'm just saying that my take on this is the Republicans' talking point right now is Democrats are holding the government hostage.
		I think it's the Republicans holding American people hostage on this health care problem, price spike.
		The Republicans, as always for a long time, has been chipping away at any health care that seems to be that Democrats put forward.
		But right now, the name of the game is profits for insurance companies, CEOs who make $30 million a year.
		Their price hikes on these medications.
		They keep saying they're going to bring them down, but they don't.
		And one more thing: they had AOC on CNN last night, and she gave a good response to a lot of those questions.
		And there were Republicans asking some of those questions.
		So I wish, you know, if you guys can show a little clip of that.
		We do.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Yes, we do have that.
		Let me see if we can't get that up for you right now, actually.
		If we can get a portion of yesterday's CNN town hall that was with Senator Sanders and AOC, I think I can, I don't know if I'm the one that's supposed to do that, but let me take a call and we'll figure that out for you, Alan.
unidentified		Ralph?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Ralph in Florida, Republican.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Ralph.
unidentified		Yes, good morning.
		This resolution there is a Democratic budget resolution that they have passed three or four times before.
		Now, all of a sudden, it's not good enough.
		And they shut the government down mainly because they want to fund health care for illegal migrants.
		And that is not a good thing.
		Plus, it's going to add another $1.5 trillion to our national debt that's already been voted.
		And other than that, I have nothing else to say.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Ralph.
		Well, okay, so now let's take a look at that portion of the town hall with Senator Sanders, Congresswoman Alexandria Elcasio-Cortez.
		This was on CNN.
unidentified		They were asked about health care subsidies.
kaitlan collins ▲ ● ▼		But let's say that the White House and Republican leaders say that they will extend these subsidies.
		It's not clear how long because you say one year is not enough.
		They haven't even really put that forward yet.
		I think the question is, does that need to be enshrined into law?
alexandria ocasio-cortez ▲ ● ▼		What does that need to look like before you would vote to reopen the government?
unidentified		Oh, or is that commitment from the White House and Republicans?
unidentified		Oh, yeah.
alexandria ocasio-cortez ▲ ● ▼		No doubt.
bill clinton ▲ ● ▼		The president was a very honest man.
unidentified		And if he said something, man, you could take it to the bank.
unidentified		So you're saying his word is not enough.
alexandria ocasio-cortez ▲ ● ▼		Bankruptcy court.
unidentified		His words?
		No.
		So what would what do you need to see?
		What commitments from?
alexandria ocasio-cortez ▲ ● ▼		I think we need to see ink on paper.
		I think we need to see legislation.
		I think we need to see votes.
		And I think we need to see these things pass on the floor of the House and the Senate and signed by President Trump.
		I don't accept IOUs.
unidentified		I don't accept pinky promises.
alexandria ocasio-cortez ▲ ● ▼		That's not the business that I'm in.
kaitlan collins ▲ ● ▼		Okay, so you need a signature from President in order to vote to reopen the government.
alexandria ocasio-cortez ▲ ● ▼		Correct.
unidentified		Okay, Senator Sanders, we've got another question.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And here is John, a Republican in Scheiner, Texas.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, John.
unidentified		Yeah, good morning.
		I really appreciate playing that clip beforehand because this is absolutely insane.
		We're already bankrupt.
		The Affordable Care Act is anything, but we all know it was designed.
		If you go back and look at the history, it was designed to fail from the very beginning because Obama's plan was to do nationalized, socialized health care.
		So it was designed to be expensive.
		So the fact that we're not seeing the force for the truth is, why are we throwing good money after bad?
		Why don't we fix the system?
		For her to say, we're going to keep the government shut down until we get what we want is absolutely the most irresponsible thing in the world.
		So basically, the country is gone.
		You know, we're going to have a civil war.
		The left is way, way out there.
		And to say that we're not going to open the government until we get what we want, and this is what it's going to be is insane.
		And these people want to be leaders, so it's really bad.
		Let's fix Obamacare.
		Let's make it where we can buy regular insurance instead of having to pay for being pregnant when I'm 65 years old and fix it because otherwise we're going to have a civil war and we're going to go bankrupt and it's not going to end up very pretty for anybody.
		That's all I got to say.
		Thanks.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		On the independent line in Anniston, Alabama, Jay, you're on the air.
unidentified		Thanks for taking my call.
		I agree with the last caller.
		Country is gone.
		I think we've kind of lost our mind in a few fundamental areas.
		With this government shutdown kind of makes me wonder why pornography is legal.
		It used to be illegal when I was a kid.
		It's very harmful.
		It's dangerous.
		And it's ruining the country.
		And it's a sign of the country being hostage and taken over.
		And why is gambling legal?
		Gambling was also illegal.
		We have lost our minds.
		These are dangerous.
		These are rotten.
		These are destroying the children's minds.
		And let's go back to informed consent between doctor and patient and get this insurance industry gone and this political nightmare that we're under because the country doesn't have too many years left like this.
		And porn and gambling.
		How about that?
		Thanks a lot.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Line for Democrats, Selena, Kansas.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Roger, good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I was calling about the health care.
		I've heard that Mark Cuban has a health plan that he put together for his people.
		This refers me back 20 years ago.
		We had a small company here in Abilene that would the people that worked for it employed probably 80, 90 people.
		They said their health insurance at that time was like 380 to 400 a month.
		And they said they got bought out by a company named Coke Industries.
		Coke Industries, self-insured.
		And they said their premium went down to $25.
		He said it was just stupid low.
		Now, these are the kind of people that they need to get a hold of and figure out how they work their plan.
		Another one other quick the other day you said the agencies that are most being affected are the other day you had a person on and he said which was the worst affected and they claimed the IRS was the agency that was hit the hardest on these layoffs.
		And, you know, I thought to myself, well, why do we need the IRS?
		You know, if you ask a thousand people, do you cheat on your taxes?
		Every one of them will say no.
		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		And Roger mentioned Mark Cuban.
		Yahoo Finance has an article about that.
		It says, Mark Cuban floats bold health care plan, zero premiums to insurance companies with a cash pay revolution.
		And that's at Yahoo Finance if you'd like to read about that plan or that proposal.
		Iris Uriah, Alabama, Independent.
		Good morning, Iris.
unidentified		Good morning, everybody.
		I'd just like to talk about the shutdown and it being over, seems like some of it being over health care.
		I'm on ACA and it saved my life.
		Obamacare saved my life.
		I would have died had I not had that.
		I'm low income.
		I'm disabled now.
		I worked till I was disabled, worked all my life till I become disabled.
		And about that time, Obamacare come out.
		Then you had to wait two years to get your Medicare.
		Within them two years, I was sick.
		I occurred a lot of medical costs that I had to pay out of pocket.
		But let me give y'all a instance of what the insurance companies is doing.
		I have to drive 162 miles round trip to see a specialist.
		I live in a rural area.
		Well, then I have to go back for a follow-up, which if I'm doing okay, I asked my doctor, I said, you making a kid for me to have to come down here to pay you again to tell you I'm okay.
		He said, I'm not doing that.
		The insurance company makes you come back down here to tell me you're doing okay.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Can you do, Iris, can you do telehealth for those kinds of visits?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Can you just?
unidentified		Yeah, you would think.
		You would think, well, they do away with telehealth for stuff like that.
		I was doing it, and then they stopped doing it after the COVID.
		They stopped it.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, let's talk to Rory, a Republican in California.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Hello.
		My name's Rory, and I heard some things, and maybe you can confirm it or not.
		Basically, some of the amber grants are now being offered a deal since nobody is going to get any money or housing or food outside the government.
		When they get deported, they can elect to work on the wall for minimum wages, pick rapes, but stay in a federal facility tents.
		Their family, they'll be fed.
		And when they're deported, they will get a debit card rather than cash, so it won't be stolen.
		And then they may then, at the last minute, have a chance to come back to America.
		Do you know anything about that?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		I have not heard that, Rory.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Do you have an idea of where you might have heard that or where you saw it?
unidentified		Heard in California, I hear they want crops picked and they need to complete the wall and they're not paying.
		However, they are deporting and now they're using some funds to do feed deportations, maybe some medical, maybe a little bit of English reading because everything will be in English and that.
		And this, how long is this shutdown going to last?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, I have not seen that, but we'll take a look, see if we can find anything about that.
		So we're going to take a quick break right now and then come back to Open Forum.
		We can certainly talk about the continue talking about the government shutdown day 16, or you can bring in other news stories that you'd like to talk about.
		The numbers are on your screen.
		Republicans 202-748-8,000.
		Democrats 202-748-8 Sorry.
		Republicans are 8,001.
		Democrats 8,000.
		And Independents 202-748-8,002.
		We'll be right back.
unidentified		Sit down with host Dasha Burns.
		Welcome to Ceasefire, where we seek to bridge the divide in American politics.
		For a conversation, not a confrontation.
		Red meets blue.
		Great Plains meets Mid-Atlantic Friday, October 17th at 7 p.m. Eastern and Pacific.
		Ceasefire, only on C-SPAN.
		Washington Journal continues.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Welcome back to Washington Journal.
		We're in open forum.
		Just want to show you this from reporter Michael Schnell, who says this on X. Leader Thun told NBC in an interview, MSNBC in an interview that he's privately guaranteed Dems a vote on ACA subsidies to open the government.
		Quote, I can't guarantee it's going to pass.
		I can guarantee you that there will be a process and you will get a vote.
		That is on X. Here is Shaquan, Petersburg, Virginia.
		Democrat, good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		How are you?
		Good.
		Well, I'd first like to say that from what I see on the media and the news, it pretty much looks like, you know, third graders fighting back and forth.
		You know, five, six, seven, eight-year-olds bigger and back and forth between the parties.
		He said, she said, this one did, that one didn't do.
		But when at the end of the day, this government is supposed to be of the people, by the people, and for the people.
		For the people, meaning that the government actions and laws are intended to benefit and serve the general welfare of all citizens, all citizens.
		And I'm not seeing it.
		I can understand Republicans' views of programs not meeting needs, because they're not, especially in the area I live in.
		You know, they're not meeting the needs because either funds are being misappropriated, people abusing power, things of that nature, and local government.
		But if they're intervening in these programs to correct them and make them better, yes, I agree with it.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, and here is Jim Winter Park, Florida, Republican Line.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, Mimi.
		You know, let me just say that the Affordable Care Act really should have been named the Unaffordable Care Act.
		And my position is they put the subsidies in place during the pandemic because people were told they had to go home and they couldn't work if they weren't essential.
		Are we still in the pandemic?
		Is the pandemic really still happening to the United States?
		If it is, then we should have the things extended.
		But it's not.
		It's over.
		The pandemic has finished.
		People are back at work.
		And the reason why they want to continue these subsidies is because they know it was never affordable.
		It just never made it to be affordable for people.
		So I am totally against it.
		And I'll tell you the other thing.
		When the pandemic started, I'm 74 years old now.
		When the pandemic started, I was considered the person that was going to be the most threatened by the pandemic.
		I had thyroid cancer, had my thyroid removed, I had diabetes, and the, so I went on unemployment for a while.
		And after I was off of unemployment, because they said you can only go to a certain amount of money, they stopped the unemployment.
		About six months later, I get a letter from the IRS, and they went, oh, oh, we're sorry.
		We overpaid you for unemployment.
		So you owe us $1,700 back.
		Well, that should happen to people that are on the ACA.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		The IRS?
unidentified		If we're paying these people.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		The IRS doesn't pay unemployment, isn't it?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		The state?
unidentified		Well, the federal government put up the money.
		They put up an extra $250 a month, or $250 every two weeks.
		And that was the money that was clawed back.
		It wasn't the state money.
		It was the federal money.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And did you end up paying it back, Jim?
unidentified		Of course I did.
		You know, what am I going to do?
		I'm going to fight the government.
		The government doesn't care about me.
		I'm white.
		I'm 74.
		And I'm one of the bad guys.
		So they just clawed back that money.
		And then on top of it, really thing that frustrated me was they gave millions of dollars to states.
		And one of the things that happened here was they had over a million dollars in Osceola County, which is a county a couple counties away from where I live.
		Over a million dollars.
		Did the government tell them, hey, send that money back to us?
		No.
		They let them keep it, and they built a monument for LGBTQ in the city of Osceola County, Barton County.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Jim, got to move on.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Stephen, Texas, Independent Line, good morning.
unidentified		Oh, hi.
unidentified		Are you talking to me?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Yes, I am.
unidentified		Yes.
		Oh, wow.
		Okay.
		Hi.
		Yes, I have two things I just want to quickly bring up.
		There's a lot of confusion over politics, and people need to understand democracy is voting for what we want.
		Republic is voting for someone else for whatever they want.
		And that's trying to align with what matches with us.
		But in all reality, anyone voting for anyone is a Republican voting for a Republican.
		We, the people, are the government.
		We don't need representatives.
		We need freely, equal, open voting for everything, everywhere.
		Like maybe online, however we decide to do it.
		It's 2025 AD.
		We all must work together.
		We need to vote for things, not for anyone else as a dictator to dictate all of our choices for us.
		And the other main thing is I'm a shaman and victim of medical and religious persecution in the United States of America.
		Sharmanism is my religion, and I have permanent brain receptor damage from being laced with neurotoxins.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here's Sandra, a Democrat in Cullowee, North Carolina.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Is that how you say it?
unidentified		Yes.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Is that how you pronounce it?
unidentified		Yes, it is.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Go ahead, Sandra.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You're on the air.
unidentified		Okay, I just wanted to tell all your listeners: do not believe a word that the Republicans tell you.
		They will never go against Trump.
		And in his term, this term has proven we don't need all the Republicans and Democrats in the Congress and Senate.
		We have become a one-person ruler, and Congress and the Senate have no say-so.
		Think about that, people.
		Show up at your No Kings rally this weekend.
		That's all I have to say.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Sandra, and here is House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on the steps of the Capitol yesterday reiterating the commitment to protecting health care.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here he is.
unidentified		House Democrats are fighting to lower the high cost of living.
		House Democrats are fighting to fix our broken health care system, and House Democrats are fighting to clean up corruption, to deliver a country that actually works for the American people.
		Donald Trump promised to love and cherish Medicaid.
		Instead, Republicans enacted the largest cut to Medicaid in American history.
		That's unacceptable.
		Republicans falsely claim now to be the party of health care, but their policies are closing hospitals, nursing homes, and community-based health centers all throughout the country.
		That's unacceptable.
		The Trump administration is giving $20 billion to bail out a right-wing wannabe dictator in Argentina.
		But Republicans are unwilling to spend a dime to provide affordable health care to working-class Americans.
		That's unacceptable.
		The American people deserve better.
		You deserve better.
		Time to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits.
		It's time to prevent tens of millions of Americans from experiencing dramatically increased health care premiums.
		It's time to make sure that every single American can afford to go see a doctor when they need one.
		It's time to reopen the government and stand by our hardworking, patriotic federal workers.
		And it's time to do all of that right now.
		No further delay.
		House Republicans need to get back to work.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Anthony is on X, who answering the question if the shutdown has affected his life.
		He says nope.
		And life goes on.
		Keep it closed.
		And Brent says this on Facebook.
		Okay, I'll play.
		So they pass a CR and reopen the government until November 21.
		So when are you going to sit down and discuss the Medicaid Medicare cuts, the ACA subsidies?
		Kicking the can doesn't come up with a solution.
		And here's Jerry in Broadway, Virginia, Republican line.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I have a message for you, C-SPAN.
		Why don't you read to your viewers just what the Democrats and the Senate added to that continuing resolution?
		And not just Obamacare sub today.
		All that USAID junk that Doge got rid of, they added back into this continuing resolution.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Not USAID.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You're talking about public broadcasting.
unidentified		Huh?
		No, the USAID that Doge got rid of all that transgender surgeries in African, well, and Drag Queen's story, our own PBS, and all that other junk over in them foreign countries that Doge got rid of.
		The Senate Democrats added that back to the continuing resolution.
		Why don't you read it to your viewers?
		I'll bet you $1,000.
		How came Jeffrey's has not read what the Senate Democrats put into this bill?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Jerry.
		And here's Edward, Jersey City, New Jersey, Independent Line.
		Hi, Edward.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Good morning, Miss Mimi.
		Thank you so much.
		You had a guest on from the Heritage, a young black man who was talking about a couple weeks ago the black family, you know, and black makeup and divorce and marriage raids and survival of the black family.
		And I was trying to call in.
		I couldn't get through, but I did share a sentiment on X and you shared it with him.
		He answered the question, I love C-SPAN.
		Thank you so much.
		But there's so much, Miss Mimi.
		As far as Israel and Palestine goes, I'm just looking forward to whatever the party platform, the presidential candidates are going to say as far as international affairs go and this issue with Israel.
		Because if they're just going to walk over the genocide there and just think they're going to rebuild and displace Palestinians, kill who we've killed, and there'll be no repercussions for it.
		Like Americans aren't concerned or we don't care.
		We'll wait and see about that.
		I love what I'm hearing this morning from Americans about the health insurance industry and why do we even have middlemen in the middle to provide care to us that's too costly.
		I love that.
		My main reason for calling, though, was during the last segment during the government, Shundale, you shared some sentiments from Republicans about tens of thousands of people maybe laid off or even fired.
		And my first thing was, okay, presidents have their prerogative.
		They have the space to do what they will.
		But when a person is fired, they have to go to the system to depend on the system until they're able to get another job.
		The government, there should be another job available for any one person or any one American to survive.
		So I'm here in New Jersey.
		I'm excited.
		There's an election in a couple of weeks.
		The governor is running.
		We're on the ground, Miss Mimi.
		The last day was two days ago to register to vote.
		So we're still trying to encourage people to vote in the community.
		People are very upset.
		People are saying, I'm not even going to vote.
		You know what?
		I'm not going to vote.
		And we're trying to encourage people and educate them.
		That is the worst thing you can do is not vote.
		Because regardless if you do or not, policy is going to be built and you're going to have to follow the law or deal with the consequences.
		So there's so much on our plate.
		Thank you so much.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Edward.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And here's House Speaker Mike Johnson at a news conference yesterday about pay for the military being a temporary fix.
mike johnson ▲ ● ▼		Nine times the Democrats have voted, counting the House and the Senate Democrats, they have voted to not pay the troops.
mike johnson ▲ ● ▼		They have voted to block their paychecks.
unidentified		And it's very serious stuff.
mike johnson ▲ ● ▼		And they don't seem to care at all.
unidentified		The problem we have right now is that in spite of President Trump's heroic efforts to make sure they get paid, that is a temporary fix because the executive branch's help is not permanent.
		It can't be.
		And if the Democrats continue to vote to keep the government closed, as they have done now so many times, then we know that U.S. troops are going to risk missing a full paycheck at the end of this month.
		And that means service members on deployment who've left their young families back home relying upon these checks.
		It means service members who are thousands of miles away from home.
		It means service members trying to make their rent and those who have ailing relatives that need to be taken care of.
		None of those people will be paid if the Democrat obstruction continues.
		And it should outrage every American because it does us.
		Democrats in Congress, again, have voted nine times.
		Here's the tally.
		Every single time the Republicans have voted to pay the troops.
		And by the way, all other federal employees, federal workers, and the Democrats have voted over and over to stop it.
		And the depressing irony of this, on this particular subject, among all others, is that the most pro-shutdown Democrats actually represent the most active duty service members back home whom they have taken hostage in this insidious political game.
		And I want to give you a couple of examples.
		And this is the actual statistic.
		Of the 10 states with the largest military populations, six are represented each by two Democrats in the Senate who are withholding the paychecks.
		Here's the list.
		In California, it's home to 157,000 active duty personnel, the most in the country.
		Those stationed at Fort Hunter Liggett and Camp Pendleton and Edwards Air Force Base and Vandenberg Space Force Base and others will all miss a paycheck at the end of the month if Democrat obstruction continues.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		That was the Speaker of the House, and this is CBS News with this reporting.
		FBI agents will get paid despite government shutdown.
		According to Director Patel, it says the Trump administration will continue paying FBI agents despite the ongoing government shutdown that has frozen paychecks for nearly all federal workers.
		Patel did not specify the source of the funds that would be used to pay the agents.
		That's in CBS News.
		Here's Larry in Texas, Line for Democrats.
unidentified		Good morning, Mimi.
		Morning, beautiful, as always.
		Thanks for taking my call.
		This is sad, man.
		I mean, as a veteran, combat veteran of two wars, and you're not going to pay the soldiers that put their life on the line, but yet you send $20 billion to Argentina.
		Israel gets nothing but government self-existing money and weapons from America.
		Millions and billions of dollars work.
		Aren't we supposed to be in the richest, the wealthiest country in the world?
		Because how we live in the wealthiest country in the world, but we don't have maximum health coverage.
		And like I say, I'm a veteran.
		I go to the worst place in the world for medical care.
		I hate it.
		I hate it.
		People on Medicaid get better care than we do.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Why is it so bad, Larry?
unidentified		Just the time, the time they take is the time for your appointments.
		The doctors, I mean, they don't care.
		The service is trash.
		And like I said, with Medicaid, then you can't go get Medicaid on Medicare, which I would get.
		I even get the ACA rather than deal, I'd rather pay for my Medicare than do that.
		And these people are talking about, oh, the ACA, the ACA is not good.
		It costs people.
		Start waking up.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Larry.
		Here's Jeff, Republican, Hidden Night, North Carolina.
		Hi, Jeff.
unidentified		Hi, good morning.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Morning.
unidentified		I'd like to talk to the voters of America.
		I want them to remember one thing when they go in that booth to vote.
		What administration let over 20 plus million illegals over here, knowing that our Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare was in trouble?
		And another thing, if C-SPAN could, Is there any way possible to show how many American citizens have died to the hands of illegals the Biden administration let in over here?
		I'd kind of like to know.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And here's Kendra, Richmond, Virginia, Independent Line.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Kendra.
unidentified		Hi, good morning, Mimi.
		A couple of things I wanted to say.
		The last thing I want to mention, though, is about a town hall meeting that I watched last night.
		So I'll mention that at the end.
		But in November, Virginia is about to make history by having the first woman governor.
		I'm just hoping that the right one is elected.
		Now, I'm tired of the constant commercial ads from the Abigail Spanberger campaign.
		And I hope that people recognize the lies and nonsense mentioned in these ads.
		There was a recent debate with the two candidates.
		And during that debate, Winsom Earl Sears mentioned a website set up by her campaign called SpanburgerLies.com.
		I suggest that Virginians look up that website.
		It's called spanbergerlies.com.
		Speaking as a black person that happens to be conservative, I do not believe in boys playing sports against girls, and I don't believe that boys going through gender confusion should be allowed to go into girls' bathrooms or walk into girls' locker rooms.
		Now, as of last night, on the News Nation channel, they hosted a town hall meeting at the Kennedy Center, and it was hosted by Chris Cuomo, and he invited on Bill O'Reilly and Stephen A. Smith.
		And they invited congressmen from both sides of the aisle to come together and discuss issues.
		Now, on the Democrat side, there was like John Fetterman, Madeline Dean, and a couple of others.
		On the Republican side was Tim Burchett, Jim Jordan, and a couple of others.
		Independent was John Manchin.
		And also, they invited the Borders R Tom Holman, and they all sat on stage among each other to discuss issues.
		So that was very refreshing to see.
		Again, spanbergerlives.com.
		Have a great day, Mimi.
		Bye.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		And the caller from Virginia was talking about the Senate bill that the Democrats are requesting.
		So these are the Democrats' key requests.
		We got this from the Washington Times.
		They are extend pandemic era expansions of Obamacare premium subsidies, guardrails to prevent Trump administration from ignoring congressional spending directives and clawing back funds through impoundments and rescissions.
		There is also the, like we mentioned, the public broadcasting funding as well.
		And this is from Politico that says, Democrats float a new shutdown demand, reversing Trump's mass firings.
		Even as the courts step in, some lawmakers want workers protected in any standoff ending deal.
		Here's Greg, Berea, Ohio.
		Democrat, good morning.
unidentified		I absolutely love C-SPAN.
		I hear, love to hear both sides.
		But let me just state, since January 20th, no Republican has called on this show and complained about prices.
		But for 852 days straight, we want to tape.
		That's all y'all did was call this show and complain about prices.
		Now, all of a sudden, that argument has evaporated.
		And I just absolutely love when people parrot their favorite politician, just as a previous caller, just mention something about illegals.
		That gets people's attention.
		It sounds catchy and pivoting to Joe Biden when it has been debuffed on his show through various primary sources that illegals do not receive federal benefits.
		I don't care if a legal come here or a legal immigrant is here.
		They are not taking away anything from me that I already have.
		It's a mute point to me.
		So us Democrats are three votes away from regaining the House and one from the Sen one vote away from releasing the F-State files.
		Vote, America.
		And I'm going to leave it with my very famous Star Wars quote.
		Who is worse, the fool or the fool who follows them?
		Have a nice day, America.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Marvin's a Republican in Texas.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Marvin.
unidentified		I would like to talk about two things.
		First of all, I would like to see that the U.S. Congress would not be allowed to lie.
		The truth would set you free.
		There are lies on both sides, and it has gotten to the point where you can't believe half of the stuff that they say.
		And I would say probably 95% of the people in the United States do not read these bills that are put out.
		The continuing resolution should be passed, not because I'm Republican, but because they can get back together and start discussing what needs to be done instead of standing there yelling back and forth at each other.
		This is now 15 days that they haven't talked with each other.
		This is something that the Democrats are doing.
		Then going to health care, there is a Republican, I mean, a Christian organization that has something they call MetaShare, which costs a lot less money.
		And that should be looked at more closely because if our Obamacare was aimed at something near that, the costs would go down drastically.
		And we need to quit giving major amounts of money to people for their help and their premium when they're making immense amounts of money.
		There are families.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Shout out it, Marvin.
		Here's Matt, New York Democrat.
		Hi, Matt.
unidentified		Yeah, hi.
		First of all, I'd like to say the United States of America is great.
		It's always been great.
		It will always be great.
		There's more nice people than mean people.
		Nice and goodness will always win over corruption.
		First, and next, I would like to say only the federal government is shut down, not the state government.
		They put fear into people.
		Please don't cut me off.
		They put fear in the people.
		The state governments still are running.
		It's fine.
		Right now, The government, since the federal government is shut down, that technically Donald Trump isn't president, it would be a great time for our state to arrest him for all his crimes and criminal activity that he's done.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here's Buddy, the Republican in South Carolina.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Yes, I think the American people stand up to all these lies like Jeffers and Chuck Schuber, Oli and everything they say.
		I know it's a lie because I know it is.
		Because they talk about insurance.
		And that's a lie because I went to this doctor.
		I ain't heard things about my insurance like I'll pay.
		I didn't pay nothing.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What kind of insurance do you have, buddy?
unidentified		I have Humana and Medicare.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		For Medicare.
unidentified		Okay.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		That's it for this segment of Washington Journal.
		But we've got two members of Congress coming on this morning to talk about the government shutdown.
		In about half an hour, we'll have a conversation with Representative Mike Flood, a Republican of Nebraska and a member of the Financial Services Committee, chair of the Republican Main Street Caucus.
		But next, after the break, we're joined by Representative Chrissy Houlihan, a Democrat of Pennsylvania and an Air Force veteran and member of the Armed Services and Intelligence Committees.
		We'll be right back.
unidentified		On the premiere of C-SPAN Ceasefire, Republican Mike Pence and Democrat Rahm Emanuel reflected on their unexpected friendship and found common ground on one of the world's most pressing issues, Israel and Hamas.
jimmy carter ▲ ● ▼		And I have no problem saying President Trump deserves credit here.
jimmy carter ▲ ● ▼		Some of them I probably won't say that.
tim kaine ▲ ● ▼		I'm grateful for Rob speaking plainly about giving President Trump credit here.
unidentified		Friday, governors from opposite ends of the political map come together from Deep Red Oklahoma to Solid Blue, Maryland.
		Democratic Governor Wes Moore and Republican Governor Kevin Stitt sit down with host Dasha Burns.
		Welcome to Ceasefire, where we seek to bridge the divide in American politics.
		For a conversation, not a confrontation.
		Red meets blue.
		Great Plains meets Mid-Atlantic Friday, October 17th at 7 p.m. Eastern and Pacific.
		Ceasefire, only on C-SPAN.
		All in high school students, join C-SPAN as we celebrate America's 250th anniversary during our 2026 C-SPAN Student Cam Video Documentary Competition.
		This year's theme is Exploring the American Story through the Declaration of Independence.
		We're asking students to create a five to six minute documentary that answers one of two questions.
		What's the Declaration's influence on a key moment from America's 250-year history?
		Or how have its values touched on a contemporary issue that's impacting you or your community?
		We encourage all students to participate, regardless of prior filmmaking experience.
		Consider interviewing topical experts and explore a variety of viewpoints around your chosen issue.
		Students should also include clips of related C-SPAN footage, which are easy to download on our website, studentcam.org.
		C-SPAN Student Cam Competition awards $100,000 in total cash prizes to students and teachers and $5,000 for the grand prize winner.
		Entries must be received before January 20th, 2026.
		For competition rules, tips, or just how to get started, visit our website at studentcam.org.
		Washington Journal continues.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Joined now by Representative Chrissy Houlihan, a Democrat of Pennsylvania.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Congresswoman, welcome to the program.
unidentified		Good morning.
unidentified		Thanks for having me.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Can you update us on the latest on the government shutdown and what, if any, negotiations are happening among the Democrats?
unidentified		So I have spent the last several weeks in D.C. hoping that I will be met by the other side and in conversation and negotiation to reopen the government.
		And unfortunately, that has not yet been the case.
		I'm really hopeful that we have the opportunity to kind of get down to brass tacks and make sure that we do the right thing for the American public, which means that they need to be able to afford their health care.
		To be honest, I'm one of the most bipartisan members of Congress year in and year out.
		And it's really frustrating to me that I haven't been met and we haven't been met at all in terms of any sort of negotiations.
		And we're now, I think, 15 days in.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What's the long-term strategy for Democrats?
unidentified		You know, I don't know that it's necessarily fair to call anything a strategy.
		It's just to do the right thing.
		This issue here is that this is not a clean CR, as people have said.
		This is a continuation of a very long and slow and painful shutdown that has started in the January timeframe and has been ongoing.
		I think that people are starting to understand, the American people are starting to understand what is at stake in terms of their cost of health care.
		But also, I heard another caller call in as well.
		That's the beginning of the problem.
		The problem is that people will shortly experience their health care premiums going up considerably, that people will shortly experience having Medicare and Medicaid unavailable to them.
		This will hit red and blue states and red and blue people.
		It doesn't discriminate.
		But also, this is just one of the indicators of how expensive it is to exist right now as an American.
		And so I think Democrats are not strategizing.
		This is just the truth.
		We need to make sure that we are taking care of the American people, regardless of who you are and where you live and what political affiliation you have.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You're the top Democrat on the Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel.
		The troops were paid yesterday.
		Can you give us an update or an understanding on if National Guard, Reserve, civilian defense employees, contractors, any of those would be paid?
unidentified		So you're right.
		I do serve on the Armed Services Committee and specifically on the military personnel subcommittee.
		So I've spent a lot of time in Congress now, seven years, focusing on the lives and livelihood of people who wear uniform, the uniform.
		I myself wore the uniform, as well as my dad and my grandfather and many of my family members.
		There couldn't be anything more important than honoring and valuing our American troops.
		It is my understanding that the administration has used what I have decried as a slush fund, $150 billion extra dollars that they put into the big beautiful bill that had no purpose.
		Well, the good news, I guess, if you can say it that way, is that a slush fund has allowed them to continue to pay our troops.
		My understanding is our troops are being paid.
		I don't believe or don't know yet whether the civilian sector and contractors, as an example, are being paid.
		But it's astounding to me, and this is an indicator of what's going on, that we can just find money.
		That is indeed not what's supposed to happen with our Constitution.
		The Congress is supposed to be the one that allocates and appropriates money for specific purposes.
		So we're responsible to the American taxpayer.
		And part of what I'm fighting against right now is the fact that we're eroding the power of the purse.
		We're eroding Article I of the Constitution.
		And Congress needs to do our job.
		And we need to make sure that we are the ones who decide what happens with the taxpayers' resources and money.
		And there's a bill called the Pay Our Troops Act.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You are not a co-sponsor of that, but that would ensure, we'll put it on the screen, military, defense, department civilians, contractors, U.S. Coast Guard would receive their pay on a normal schedule.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What's the status of that bill?
unidentified		So the very first thing that people have to kind of understand about the House of Representatives is that we don't get to choose what we vote on unless we are in the majority.
		And so the majority right now is the Republican Party led by Representative Mike Johnson.
		Mike Johnson decides whether we are there or not, literally in session or not.
		And he and he alone and the rules committee that is under him decide what we vote on.
		And so until such time as we are called back to Washington and until such time as he and the rules committee decide that we can vote on something like that, we cannot vote on that.
		And that's one of the things that's most frustrating.
		And you've seen that with the Epstein files.
		There's really only one exception to that rule.
		And that is if you sign a discharge petition and get 218 signatures to force a vote.
		But even then, that doesn't force a vote if we're not in session.
		And so I am enormously supportive of paying our troops.
		Clearly, that has been my history over and over again.
		In fact, I led a committee with Representative Don Bacon that gave junior enlisted more than 14% pay raise last Congress.
		So I couldn't be more enthusiastic about making sure we honor our men and women in uniform.
		But I don't get to decide what I vote on.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Chrissy Julihan is on the program with us, and she will take your call so you can start to call in now.
		Republicans are on 202-748-8001, Democrats 202-748-8000, and Independents 202-748-8002.
		And there are roughly 15,000 of the VAs, more than 460,000 employees have been furloughed during the shutdown.
		Can you give us an idea of how service at the VA might be affected by the shutdown?
unidentified		And again, this began before the formal shutdown of 15 days ago.
		I have a VA in my community in Coatesville, and our VA, of course, services people from around the western suburbs of Pennsylvania.
		In the January timeframe, the government led by this administration began furloughs and layoffs of more than 30,000 people in the VA.
		And then, of course, they've continued now into this shutdown.
		It can't not affect service for our veterans.
		And of course, that's a real problem.
		In addition, many of the people who work at the VA are veterans themselves as well.
		And so this is, again, part of what I believe to be a pretty insidious undermining of the VA itself with an intent, I believe, from the Republican Party to privatize it.
		So if you weaken and weaken and further suffocate the VA, then it's easy to say, look, it's not working for our veterans.
		And instead, rather, I think we should be supportive of the VA, and I think that we should be funding the VA.
		And I think we should particularly be focused on mental health issues, as well as the largest growing population of veterans, which are women and women's health issues as well.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You and fellow vet Representative Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire are calling for Defense Secretary Hegseth to roll back his plans to dismantle the Pentagon Women's Advisory Group.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Can you explain what that group was and why Secretary Hegseth would like to do away with it?
unidentified		So this was a group, hopefully will continue to be a group into the future, that was started 75 years ago in recognition that a population, a growing population of people serving in uniform were women.
		This group was bipartisan, apartisan indeed, made recommendations that 90-something percent of were adopted.
		And it's hard to find groups in Washington that actually work, but this was one.
		And many of those things that were adopted did not necessarily directly have to do with women in service, but rather had to do with the quality of life of people in service.
		As an example, paid leave, paid family leave was one of the things that they advocated for, and we were able to accomplish that a couple of Congresses ago.
		I really do believe that there's an effort to literally control F, to control find any time that women or anybody else is mentioned in our armed services and just eliminate that organization.
		And I think that that's at the peril of our readiness.
		I think that's at the peril of our lethality as a force.
		And I think that Maggie and I, Representative Goodlander and I both having served, are really offended by the efforts of this Secretary of Defense, and it is still the Secretary of Defense, to undermine those who serve in the military who are women, which is more than 20% of the people in uniform now.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Let's go to calls now.
		Let's go to Chris Grand Rapids, Michigan, Democrat.
		Good morning, Chris.
unidentified		Yes, I just heard on the news that the Congresswoman from, she's a Democrat, for the Agricultural Agriculture, that Trump is now going to give Argentina a $40 billion payout from the taxpayers.
		And also, would they have a sign up for the ICE $50,000?
		And where is the $17 trillion going to?
		Why can't it fund people on Medicare and Medicaid?
		And I thank the caller for calling in.
		And I think you're speaking of Representative Angie Craig, who's the ranking member of the Agriculture Committee, who spoke to us in caucus yesterday while we were in Washington.
		And what she was saying, and I believe what you're saying is true, billions and billions of dollars have been being found.
		And again, I don't know from where because I certainly haven't been involved in it.
		I haven't even been allowed to do my job in Washington.
		But that money is going to Argentina as a bailout.
		And what's interesting is that our farmers, and some of them are in my district, are losing their livelihoods because of row crops that are no longer being able to be grown and sold into places like China.
		And so they need to make sure that they are being helped.
		And in the meantime, China is buying row crops from places like Argentina.
		And so it's a double whammy and a double insult for our folks who are farmers to do that.
		I guess what you're kind of unearthing is one of my deeper concerns, which is where does all of this money seem to be coming from when we can't seem to pass a budget and we can't pass any of our 12 appropriations bills.
		It feels like money is just flowing irregularly from random places.
		And that's, of course, not how this is supposed to work.
		And again, regardless of your political party, you should be worried when the Congress is not doing their job.
		This is my job.
		Please give every effort that you can to call your representative and ask them to come back to Washington.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And NBC News is reporting headline, U.S. support for Argentina could hit $40 billion.
		Treasury Secretary Scott Besant said an additional $20 billion in private sector loans for Argentina could effectively double the value of a U.S. rescue plan.
		Here's Anton St. Cloud, Florida, Independent Line.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
unidentified		How are you doing today?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good.
unidentified		Good.
		I just want to say that I feel that our politicians seem to have forgotten the foundation of our nation with debate, negotiation, and compromise.
		Instead of willing to debate the issues that we are currently dealing with, they want to point fingers.
		And that's not how this nation was created is by pointing fingers.
		It was by debating, by negotiating, and compromising.
		And that's what needs to start happening.
		So I really couldn't agree with the caller more.
		As I've mentioned, I work really hard to be bipartisan.
		I'm a member of the Problem Solvers Caucus.
		I'm one of the founding people of a group called With Honor, which is a really diverse group of people who've worn the uniform.
		I am one of the chairs of the Bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus.
		I am the founder of the Biotech Bipartisan Caucus, as well as the Women in Service Caucus, which is bipartisan, and the STEM and STEAM caucus, which is bipartisan.
		I do everything I can to meet people in the middle and to bargain and negotiate because I think you're right, the caller is right, that we are here to serve the American people.
		And I'm just as frustrated as you are that nobody is meeting me or any of our leadership halfway.
		This is, you cannot ask for my vote on behalf of my community without allowing me to have an input or any sort of insight into how you're thinking or why you're thinking that.
		And that's effectively what I'm being asked to do right now.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Gary's a Republican in Kentucky.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Gary, you're on with Representative Chrissy Houlihan of Pennsylvania.
unidentified		Oh, thank you.
		I'd like to know where the representative has been the last four, five, six, ten, whatever.
		Insurance prices have been going up way, and that doesn't matter who this president, who's in charge, or whatever.
		And by the way, what does Congress think they're going to do?
		They think they're going to force an insurance company to lower their prices or stop raising the prices.
		It's just that, you know, I always said, if you want to get a Democrat to do something, tell them it's an election year.
		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Congresswoman.
unidentified		Sure.
		And I would obviously respectfully disagree with the caller.
		I think that we, I know I personally know that health care, health care is the biggest issue and in some cases, one of the largest items of people's budget.
		And you're absolutely right that the health care cost is something that is untenable.
		What's happening right now is that a tax credit is expiring.
		This is not because prices are going up per se.
		This is because the price to you, the person who pays the bill, is going up because of the expiration of these benefits, this tax credit.
		This tax credit has created the opportunity for millions and millions of more Americans to have health care.
		And that not only benefits the people who get the health care and can now afford to pay for it, but it also benefits those of us who have private insurance, as the caller was talking about, because it allows for all of us to have kind of regular and normal insurance rather than to have no insurance and to be seen only in the emergency room or only when we're very, very, very ill, which causes the cost of insurance to go up for all of us.
		And so this is where I believe the Democrats are on the right side of justice.
		And to be honest, I obviously believe that they are in most places, which is health care is something that we need to be addressing.
		And I have been for the last seven years that I've been in office.
		It is issue number one, issue number two, and issue number three.
		And I think the American people recognize that Democrats stand for your health care.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Terry Dixon, Illinois, Democrat, good morning, Terry.
unidentified		Yes, good morning.
		Hey, I'm calling about this shutdown and stuff like that.
		Okay, so the Congress, they passed three bills out of the House.
		The House of Representatives, what, they've been out of, they've been in session, what, 12 days out of the last three months.
		There's these other nine bills.
		Why aren't they working on that?
		You know, here we are with the shutdown, and they talk about, oh, it's so important.
		Well, why aren't they in here working on those other nine bills and trying to get this done?
		They want to extend it to December to do just that.
		Why aren't they in there right now?
		You should ask the Republican when he comes in this question.
		Why aren't they doing their job?
		Thank you.
		A thousand percent agree.
		There is no reason why, even if the government is so-called shut down, that we are not at work on those appropriations bills.
		The appropriations committee ought to be nose to the grindstone, bipartisanally together, working for the day when we do reopen the government so that we can ease the opportunity to make those votes happen.
		The caller brings up a really, really good point.
		As of right now, as of this conversation that we are all having, Mike Johnson has not canceled votes next week.
		So theoretically, that means that next week we will all show up to Washington, D.C.
		And as near as I can still stare at each other, because even if he reopens the government, we haven't primed the pump for any committee work, any committee hearings, any sort of markups, any sort of votes.
		And I think that that's something that in the very first shutdown that I was involved in seven or so years ago, we still did.
		We still met.
		We still did markups.
		We did all of those things, but we just needed to work through what was going on across the aisle on shutdown.
		Again, one of the things that I remember from that last shutdown is we can't get anything done if we're not talking to each other.
		And the only way that we can talk to each other, to be honest, is to be physically in the same space.
		And I don't necessarily even mean that that needs to be the same room, you know, lock us in a room and make us get along.
		But we need to be in Washington to be able to get this done because nothing is more pressureful or pressure cooker than being in Washington and having the need to get something done.
		So I would totally agree with the caller that at a minimum we should be working on our committees.
		I will end by saying I'm on the intelligence committee, one of, in my opinion, the most important committees in Washington, D.C., because we hear the things that you all should don't need to know and shouldn't have to know about what's going on in many of our intelligence communities.
		We haven't had a hearing or a meeting or a markup or what's called a hotspots meeting in weeks.
		The idea that Congress is supposed to be overseeing one of the most dangerous parts of our government without having any meetings at all should frighten the American public because our job is to oversee the intelligence community and to understand what's going on in the interest of our own national security.
		Congresswoman, I want to ask you about the NOPE Act.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		It's the No Political Enemies Act that you and a group of Democratic House and Senate members have introduced.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Can you explain what that is and why you introduced it?
unidentified		Well, I think that this is a piece of legislation that's trying to make sure that we understand that there is no place for political violence.
		And I think that this is one of the places where we have the opportunity to emphatically declare that.
		And I do worry that we are, as many of the callers have said, we are in a place where we can't seem to find the kind word to say to one another.
		And we can't seem to recognize that we are all Americans.
		We are all patriots and we all care for this country.
		And I think that this is one of those efforts to try to make sure that people understand that, again, we will never get a vote on this.
		And that's one of the things that's most frustrating to me, but that we all have the opportunity to say something against political extremism and political violence.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		John in Indiana on the independent line, you're on the air.
unidentified		Yeah, I was wondering why we're giving all this money to all these billionaires, taxpayers' dollars, and they're laying off people.
		I appreciate the call and I agree emphatically.
		I think one of the things that's most disingenuous about the piece of legislation that was passed in July on July 4th, unironically, was that it was a really big tax benefit to the most wealthy people and also to the for-profit sector.
		In exchange, there were cuts made to the people, Medicaid cuts as an example, SNAP benefits as an example.
		Those kinds of things that we're seeing eroded in our government, like our national health organizations, our CDC, are all because we're aiming that money and those resources at the most wealthy amongst us.
		And I think that's a really bad way of running our government and benefits only the people who are already in fine positions.
		You're also seeing that with this administration where people are making money hand over fist on the opportunities that they themselves are created in the for-profit sector.
		And you've seen this with Bitcoin announcements and a variety of other really harmful insider trading opportunities.
		That also should be decried and stopped.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Brian and Houston, on the line for Republicans.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, and good morning, Congressman.
		And thank you, first of all, for your service to the country.
		While we can always disagree politically, I agree with you.
		It should never be violent.
		But thank you for your work to your constituents and to our country.
		I do appreciate it.
		A couple of points.
		One, I do, even as a Republican, believe Representative Aleg Grahalvis should be seated during this time.
		She is a now duly elected member of Congress or should be.
		So she should be seated, even though we're in a pro forma session.
		But I do have a question just when it comes to you guys passed the clean CR in the House to keep the government open, keep it funded.
		But I'm curious to hear your opinion.
		I know you don't normally get involved in the matters of the Senate, but should, you know, if Republicans do have full control of the House, Senate, and the White House, which I agree they do, however, in the Senate, you do need 60 votes.
		So are you advocating for them to blow up the filibuster so they can pass it with 50, permanently eroding minority rights, or should the Democrats just give seven more votes, get it, but also then at that point, you can filibuster to get your increase or keep the health care provisions in place for the end of the year and at least force votes on that moving forward.
		So all right, Brian.
		Let me know if you think.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Yep, let's get an answer.
unidentified		Brian, you sound like a really reasonable guy.
		I'd love to have a cup of coffee with you.
		And thank you as well for your really interesting and kind questions and thoughtful questions.
		You're absolutely right.
		You know, the way that this can move forward, one way that this can move forward is if some Democratic senators decide that they're going to vote with the Republicans.
		But again, we have to expect and demand that our government work by compromise.
		And so I don't think that we can expect that those seven Democratic, or I think it's five at this point in time, members of the Senate should become Republicans and just vote to get along and move along because there's a reason why they're withholding their vote, and that is health care, access to health care.
		And it's also procedural, to your point.
		We can't continue to just blow up the government because we can find ways to undermine it and how it works.
		That's not how this is all supposed to work.
		Things like breaking the filibuster, you're right, will be a permanent change to the way our government works that will be bad for everyone anytime that anybody's in the minority party.
		And so that's why it's important that our senators hold tight and hold firm, but also are willing to negotiate.
		And my understanding from my conversations with many of my colleagues who are in the Senate now, who came from the House, is that there is that willingness and that openness to talk about it.
		But there isn't a willingness to just hope that things will happen that they have agreed to.
		So for instance, they will vote for the government to open in exchange for a promise of a vote next week or three weeks from now on health care.
		The last nine months has proven to us as Democrats that you can't believe any of those promises.
		They don't happen.
		And in cases, even when they do happen, they are then undone by the administrative branch, by the executive branch itself.
		And so at this point in time, it's not even a trust but verify.
		It reminds me of Wimpy in Popeye, you know, kindly give me a hamburger today that I'll pay for you for on Tuesday.
		I just don't believe that.
		And so I think we're in a really difficult place where I think people need to negotiate and meet one another.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And Margie is a Republican in Meadville, Pennsylvania.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Margie.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I'm glad the representative just was discussing cooperation and compromise because whenever Mike Johnson appears before a microphone, he's saying that the health care can't be discussed until some of the,
		shall we say, silly things that USAID was funding millions, but silly for programs.
		And all the serious issues have been transferred to the State Department.
		So in the matter of cooperation, why wouldn't the Democrats say, okay, we'll remove those requests from the health care bills and so we can move on?
		That would be my question.
		Thank you very much for the question.
		And interestingly enough, I would argue or say that those things have happened, right?
		I don't agree with the fact that USAID has been destroyed.
		I believe in soft power as well as in the military, the power of our might.
		I think that those were big mistakes, but those are things that have been done.
		And now I think Mike Johnson is down to the serious stuff.
		There isn't anything more serious than whether or not you have access to health care so that you can stay healthy, be healthy, remain healthy, and so that you don't end up being ill.
		And make no mistake, people will die when they don't have access to health care.
		And also make no mistake again, it will cost us more when people don't have health care.
		So I sort of reject the premise that we need to kind of get serious so that we can get serious.
		This couldn't be more serious, and the timing couldn't be more important.
		Here in another couple of weeks, November 1st, people will begin getting, if they haven't already, notices that their premiums will be going up.
		And this is because of the expiration of these tax credits.
		Additionally, in that big, beautiful bill, there were pretty significant cuts to Medicaid as well.
		And so, again, lots and lots of people from red and blue places are going to be losing their health care.
		So, I really do think that the time is now to have this conversation and to have this negotiation.
		It is not later.
		This is, in my opinion, a ploy to sort of push this down the road, and there couldn't be anything more important than our health care.
		We cannot push this down the road any further.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		In addition to the extension of the ACA subsidies, what else are Democrats asking for?
		Because this caller mentioned the reinstatement of USAID funding.
		Previous callers said that the Democrats wanted to bring back funding for transgender surgeries overseas.
		Can you tell us exactly what the Democrats are asking for beyond the health care subsidies?
unidentified		That's emphatically untrue.
		I have been in Congress now for seven years, and I have never seen Democrats more singularly aligned and unified than now.
		We're looking for health care, health care, health care, health care relief.
		And I don't think that there's a laundry list, and it's bananas to say that that laundry list would include surgery, overseas surgery, for trans folks.
		This is the argument right now: open the government, work with Democrats, give relief to the American people on health care, and also be good to your word.
		You know, let the system work the way it's supposed to work.
		Stop undermining our democracy.
		And I unfortunately don't know how we assure the American people that that will happen because it seems as though there are no guardrails and there are no exceptions to how we can, in the name of fraud, waste, and abuse, abuse the heck out of the American public.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		That's Representative Chrissy Houlihan, Democrat of Pennsylvania, and member of the Armed Services and the Select Intelligence Committees.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Thanks so much for joining us today.
unidentified		Thank you for having me.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Later this morning on the Washington Journal, we'll talk to Reuters correspondent David Shepardson about the impact of the government shutdown on air travel.
		But coming up next, Representative Mike Flood, a Republican of Nebraska, member of the Financial Services Committee, and chair of the Republican Main Street Caucus.
		We'll be right back.
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jimmy carter ▲ ● ▼		Democracy is always an unfinished creation.
ronald reagan ▲ ● ▼		Democracy is worth dying for.
george h w bush ▲ ● ▼		Democracy belongs to us all.
bill clinton ▲ ● ▼		We are here in the sanctuary of democracy.
george w bush ▲ ● ▼		Great responsibilities fall once again to the great democracies.
barack obama ▲ ● ▼		American democracy is bigger than any one person.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		Freedom and democracy must be constantly guarded and protected.
unidentified		We are still at our core, a democracy.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		This is also a massive victory for democracy and for freedom.
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		Washington Journal continues.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Welcome back to Washington Journal.
		We're joined now by Representative Mike Flood, a Republican of Nebraska and member of the Financial Services Committee.
		Representative Flood, welcome to the program.
unidentified		Thank you for having me.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So tell us about where the shutdown stands as far as negotiations with your fellow Republicans.
unidentified		Well, in the House, we did our job.
		We passed an extension of the same budget that Joe Biden signed, that Chuck Schumer supported, that House Republicans in the 118th Congress supported.
		There's no poison pills.
		There's nothing nefarious in this.
		We passed it.
		And, you know, your previous guest, she had a lot of opportunities to say that she could have voted for funding the government, but they failed to do that.
		And now it sits in the Senate.
		We're hopeful that we can get it passed over there.
		I don't think Americans have any patience for this obstinence we're seeing from our opposing party here.
		Like, this is more about a protest on Saturday than it is about funding the government.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Are you and your fellow Republicans talking at all about any possible room for negotiation?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Anything that you could do that you could take to the Democrats and you can come to a deal?
unidentified		Well, the last time the Democrats offered us anything, it was $1.5 trillion in additional spending, getting rid of the $50 billion for rural health care hospitals.
		You know, we're in the House, so we did our job.
		We sent it over to the Senate.
		It's sitting in their lap right now.
		I'm in Washington because, yes, I want the government open.
		I want people working.
		I want TSA agents paid.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Will the Speaker bring the House back anytime soon?
unidentified		Well, I think from where he sits, same question I have is: what would we do different?
		I mean, we voted to fund the government.
		House Democrats, except for one, voted not to fund the government.
		It was a black or white issue.
		And we find ourselves in a situation where the Senate's now dealing with it.
		Hopefully they find something.
		The challenge, I think, the bigger issue is, you know, we put a November 21 deadline to get a bipartisan budget that gets 60 votes in the Senate.
		You know, we've eaten two weeks away from that.
		So it's possible, I think, that when they do deal with that, they're going to have to maybe even extend the date.
		I don't know what they're going to do because we've lost a lot of time here.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		A caller in our last segment was complaining that the House is not working at all, not working on anything.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And here is Representative Houlihan from our last segment talking about committees not meeting, and then I'll get your response.
unidentified		There is no reason why, even if the government is so-called shut down, that we are not at work on those appropriations bills.
		The Appropriations Committee ought to be nose to the grindstone, bipartisanally together, working for the day when we do reopen the government so that we can ease the opportunity to make those votes happen.
		The caller brings up a really, really good point.
		As of right now, as of this conversation that we are all having, Mike Johnson has not canceled votes next week.
		So, theoretically, that means that next week we will all show up to Washington, D.C., and as near as I can still stare at each other, because even if he reopens the government, we haven't primed the pump for any committee work, any committee hearings, any sort of markups, any sort of votes.
		And I think that that's something that in the very first shutdown that I was involved in seven or so years ago, we still did.
		We still met.
		We still did markups.
		We did all of those things, but we just needed to work through what was going on across the aisle on shutdown.
		Again, one of the things that I remember from that last shutdown is we can't get anything done if we're not talking to each other.
		And the only way that we can talk to each other, to be honest, is to be physically in the same space.
		And I don't necessarily even mean that that needs to be the same room, you know, lock us in a room and make us get along.
		But we need to be in Washington to be able to get this done because nothing is more pressureful or pressure cooker than being in Washington and having the need to get something done.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What do you think, Congressman Flood?
unidentified		Well, with all due deference to Congresswoman Houlihan, I'm in Washington.
unidentified		She's in Pennsylvania.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		How many Republicans are in Washington now?
unidentified		Oh, more than you think.
		Like I was in the office yesterday, 30 or 40.
		I would also say this.
		She had an opportunity to fund the government.
		She had an opportunity to do what we did back in March to extend the budget that she voted for in the 118th Congress.
		And she took a vote, like the rest of the Democrats did, and the vote was no.
		And to sit in Pennsylvania and complain that things aren't working right when you didn't vote to fund the government without a poison pill, without anything nefarious, that's hard for me to swallow.
		I do know this.
		The Appropriations Committee is working.
		Republicans and Democrats are working.
		We are focused on a regular order budget.
		And that is a good thing.
		Like, here's the thing.
		Like, even when my party didn't all vote to fund the government under Joe Biden, I did.
		I've always voted to fund government spending so that we could keep the government open.
		When people in my own party didn't do it, I was always there.
		I took the heat.
		I took the barbs.
		You know, people said, oh, you're not doing this.
		I'm here today to tell you it's irresponsible to vote the way Congresswoman Houlihan did.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		If a vote were to come up for extending ACA subsidies, would you vote yes?
unidentified		I'm very open-minded on that.
		There's 100,000 Nebraskans that participate in that program.
		Now, there is some fraud.
		The Biden White House acknowledged it, that there's fraud in that ACA program, but there's also really good people that need that.
		So I'm very open-minded on that.
		And I'm the chair of the Main Street Caucus, where 13 of my colleagues have already signed on a bill that would extend that.
		Here's what I don't like.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Extend ACA subsidies permanently?
unidentified		Well, yes.
		I have to look at the bill actually, but one thing I will say is I don't like this idea that we take it off the table with less than 30 days' notice, right?
		Like, I don't want it just to get ripped away from people without any planning.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And I think so, then why not negotiate with Democrats?
		Tell them.
		Tell them we'll give you the ACA subsidies, and then we'll reopen the government, and then we'll work on fixing health care, fixing Obamacare, as we've been talking about for years now.
unidentified		Well, ACA is as important to me as making sure that our soybean farmers are taken care of.
		All of that should happen in the same conversation.
		It's called the U.S. budget.
		November 21 is the date we're extending this to.
		Every single day we're in a shutdown.
		We're not having those conversations.
		We sent over a clean CR.
		By the way, the ACA stuff, that's going to take, I mean, that's like brain surgery because we have to go in, we have to look at a very complex, complicated program.
		We have to make sure we address the fraud, look at who's getting it, how it works.
		And there are a lot of different ideas there.
		We can't do that with a gun to our head during the middle of a shutdown.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		But can you not do it before it runs out, which is December 31st, and open enrollment starts November 1st?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So that's what Democrats are saying is we've run out of time.
unidentified		Well, this is like one of 10 of their objections.
		Like they want $1.5 trillion in new spending.
		They want hundreds of millions of dollars for illegal immigrants to get free health care.
		They want to repeal the $50 billion that we assigned to rural hospitals.
		Listen, fund the government, sit down at the table, and let's work this out.
		We can do that.
		That's what we proposed.
		Like, when you look at what we did in the House, we basically said, we're going to extend the Biden-Schumer budget to November 21 so that we can work on all this other stuff.
		Nothing nefarious.
		And because they have Trump derangement syndrome, they said no.
		And now they're living in it.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So how do you define Trump derangement syndrome?
unidentified		This whole conversation is not about funding the government.
		It's about Chuck Schumer protecting himself from his base.
		He did the right thing in March when he extended government funding to the end of September.
		What happened?
		He unfairly paid a very high price from the left-wing part of his Democratic Party.
		He's not going to make that mistake again.
		So we find ourselves in a situation where we're here to protect Chuck Schumer's political future instead of doing what's right for Americans.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		If you'd like to join the conversation with Congressman Mike Flood, a Republican of Nebraska, you can do so.
		Our lines are biparty.
		Republicans are on 202-748-8001.
		Democrats 202-748-8000.
		And Independents 202748-8002.
		You said that the Democrats are looking to give hundreds of millions, I believe, in free health care for illegal immigrants.
		Can you explain how that would work and how illegal immigrants could access government-funded health care?
unidentified		Well, let's remember, states like California and New York operate much differently than states like Nebraska, where in Nebraska, since 2008, we've had a state law that prohibits giving illegal immigrants free health care.
		States like California and New York don't do that.
		And the speaker, actually, and I don't have the page in the site number, I think it's on page 52 of the Democrats bill, and I can't remember the exact section.
		But if you look at page 52, it clearly states that this free health care is available to non-American citizens.
		And I think we have to just be honest about what they want.
		They want free health care for all, regardless of your citizenship.
		And that is not where a great majority of Democrats and Republicans are.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Let's talk to callers now.
		We'll start with Alfred, Charlotte, North Carolina, Independent Line.
		Good morning, Alfred.
unidentified		Good morning.
		How you doing?
		Good morning.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Go right ahead.
unidentified		Oh, yes.
		I was listening to the congressman talk about Chuck Schumer's base problem with his faith.
		But I think that's the problem with all the elected officials.
		All of them are scared of their base.
		In North Carolina, we have Tom Tillis, and he went against this, went against Trump, and he pretty much had to not run for re-election.
		But at the end of the day, a lot of these politicians are scared of their base.
		They will not get re-elected, even if they think about negotiations.
		I listened to the Congress.
		He was talking, the Congressman was talking pretty good, but all of a sudden it dawned on him he may be going a little too far.
		And then he went to talk about Trump, Trump syndrome, and everything else.
		So I just think if all of them stop worrying about getting re-election, they'll be able to get something done.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What do you think of that, Congressman?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Is there room for negotiation if everybody's worried about their base?
unidentified		Well, take me as an example.
		I have always voted to fund the government, even when my base under Joe Biden did not want somebody like me to vote to keep the government open when they objected to what Joe Biden was doing.
		I did the right thing.
		Like, I voted to fund the government.
		I was one of like 70 Republicans that joined Democrats to fund the government.
		Like, I like to think that I do what I think is right, even when it's difficult.
		And that's what I think Americans expect.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Rachel Westminster, Maryland, Republican.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Rachel.
unidentified		Yeah, hi.
		All right, appreciate you taking my call.
		I am just wondering how you feel about elected officials like Mike Johnson outright lying to the American people.
		When you guys continue to say that the Democratic CR wants to fund health care for illegal immigrants, but it's not anywhere in the CR, for example, that is a lie.
		Do you think that politicians should be held accountable when they outright lie to the American people?
		Thank you.
		Well, first of all, appreciate the call.
		Refer you to page 52 of the Democrats' counterproposal.
		By the way, none of that is in what we voted for.
		That was in the Democrats' counterproposal that came over from Chuck Schumer.
		And so I would refer you to page 52 on that.
		And go to my social media.
		You'll see where I specifically highlighted that.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Luan in Jessup, Georgia, Democrat.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		How y'all doing?
		Can you hear me?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Yes, go ahead.
unidentified		Representative, you got your talking points down good.
		I remember, I'm 77 years ago.
		I remember when the ACL first started up, y'all tried to repeal it over 58 times.
		You even went to court to try to get it out long.
		But this is the easiest question you're going to have for the day, for this session.
		Ms. Mimi, please get him to tell you what HR bill that the Republicans have put on the floor to advance health care.
		Please get him to tell you what HR bill he put on the floor to advance health care.
		Well, like we talked earlier, I'm very open-minded on the ACA extension.
		I think it's something we need to understand, and it's also something we need to make sure the fraud's not there.
		There's been some fraud, but there are literally in my home state of Nebraska, a state of 2 million people, there's 100,000 Nebraskans that are participating in this program.
		So I want to be very mindful of that, and I want to do a good job with it.
		And my sense is that there's a majority in Congress that want to deal with this.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		This is a Republican line in Rincon, Georgia.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Yonaris, is it?
unidentified		Yes, Yonaris.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Yonaris, go ahead.
unidentified		Yes, just had a question for the Congressman.
		Being that the government is shut down and federal workers are not being paid, why are Congress members being paid through this shutdown?
		There should be an act or something that should pass to show that we're in support or we're in denial of what's going on.
		I sent the clerk of the house a letter saying, hold my pay.
		So I agree with him.
		Like, this doesn't make any sense that members of Congress get paid when so many employees of the federal government are not.
		And I'm hopeful that we can end this and move on.
		And I'm hopeful that we can get to a bipartisan deal on our budget.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So you're currently deferring your pay?
unidentified		Yes.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		This is Steve in Niagara Falls, New York.
		Democrat.
		Hi, Steve.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I was hoping to be able to talk to Ms. Fuhan, but evidently I'm going to be talking to this Mr. Flood here.
		My question for you is the big beautiful bill that was passed by the Republicans have affected my health insurance.
		I met yesterday with my union health committee, and my Blue Cross and Blue Shield premiums that I pay this year, about $400 per month, are going to be going up to $600 per month next year.
		And what really upsets me is that with this, we have money, what is it, $20 or $40 billion to be sending to Argentina.
		None of those people in Argentina pay taxes.
		We pay taxes.
		But evidently, we're not important to help.
		But we want to help these other countries.
		And the other thing I would like to say is when he was talking about that he passed, he voted for bills in the past during the Biden administration to keep the government open, whatever, when the difference between that and now is that Biden was president and we have Trump as president.
		And when Biden and the Democrats made agreements with the Republicans, they followed through on those agreements.
		Mr. Trump and the Republicans nowadays, they may say something today and then tomorrow may be an entirely different story.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Steve.
unidentified		Well, first of all, I don't know of anything in the One Big Beautiful bill that would have impacted Steve's health care private insurance.
		So I'm having trouble understanding what he was concerned about.
		But I can tell you this, if I didn't vote for the One Big Beautiful bill, we would have seen the largest tax increase in American history.
		We would have seen reductions in child tax care credit.
		We would have seen increases in the federal income tax.
		It would have been a real problem.
		And so when you look at the One Big Beautiful bill, that was historic for a lot of reasons.
		And I can't imagine what happened to his private health insurance that would have changed anything.
		The only thing we changed was if you are able-bodied and you choose not to work and you can work, you don't get free health care.
		And if you're here illegally, you don't get free health care.
		That was the big change to Medicaid.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		He asked about rescissions.
		So once Congress allocates the money, appropriates money, and it's signed into law, that that kind of that is clawed back.
		What are your thoughts on that?
unidentified		We did vote on some rescissions two months ago as it related to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and a couple other agencies, and it received a majority vote in both the House and the Senate.
unidentified		And that money was clawed back.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		By the way, we're still looking for page 52 of the Senate proposal.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Can you give me an idea of what website I can go to?
unidentified		probably last week on my Twitter, so you have to go back a little ways.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Okay, we'll ask our producer to do that.
		So we're still looking for it so we can show it to people.
		Michael Delray, Florida, Republican.
		Go ahead, Michael.
unidentified		How are you doing today, Mr. Mike Flood?
		Good.
		How are you?
		I'm doing fine.
		I just want to thank you and the rest of your colleagues for holding strong and firm and not giving in.
		And I don't know what they're thinking, the Democrats wanting to give all this money to illegal immigrants, while us hardworking Americans deserve that.
		I just don't get it.
		But, you know, that's why their news stations are going down and their ratings are plummishing.
		Just let them keep burying themselves.
		You guys are doing a great job, and I appreciate everything that you're doing for this country.
		Okay, Mike?
		And that's all I have to say.
		Keep up the good work, brother.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And I want to ask you about this Associated Press article about the Trump administration deporting family members of U.S. troops.
		You may know that under the Biden administration, the family members of U.S. service members were, it was considered a, quote, significant mitigating factor when considering removal from the country and immigration decisions.
		That they are now no longer exempt by the Trump administration, and there are deportations of family members of U.S. service members.
		What do you think of that?
		Do you agree with that policy?
unidentified		Well, let's remind ourselves, Congress writes the laws.
		The executive branch enforces the laws.
		We're at a place in our country where, for the first time in decades, our border is secure.
		And there's a growing conversation in Congress about let's make sure our immigration system works for those that want to follow its follow the law.
		And so I hope that now that the border is secure, we can have a greater conversation about how we move forward.
		But the president is enforcing the laws that Congress has written.
		That is the way it's supposed to work.
		That's what's happening here.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here's Julie in Charlotte, North Carolina, Independent Line.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, and thank you for taking my call.
		I just need a little bit better understanding of the fact that it is the U.S. taxpayer that pays the salaries of Congress and Senate.
		It is not paid by your speaker.
		It is not paid by your political party.
		Why are you not showing up in Washington to work to resolve the government shutdown?
		Thank you very much.
		Well, ma'am, I'm in Washington.
		I'm here.
		I'm present.
		I am talking to the Speaker.
		I'm talking to Democrats.
		I'm working behind the scenes on housing legislation and figuring out how we can move forward on the Financial Services Committee.
		I am present, I'm accounted for, and I'm wanting to get this government back open.
		But I've already voted to fund the government.
		Like, that's the question we have to ask people.
		How did you vote to fund the government?
		Did you vote yes or did you vote no?
		I voted yes, and I'm waiting for the Senate to do the same.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Okay, we have found your posting on ex-Representative Flood.
unidentified		Was I right?
unidentified		It's on page 52.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So you don't cite the location, unfortunately.
		We'll continue to look for the actual original text, but this is under Section 71-109, Alien Medicaid eligibility.
		It says, in no event shall payment be made to a state under this section of medical assistance furnished to an individual unless such individual is a resident of the United States, either a U.S. citizen or an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence.
		So this would, the big beautiful bill does take away Medicaid from those that are in the country legally but do not yet have a green card.
unidentified		So under Joe Biden, everybody was processed into the United States without the authority to be a U.S. citizen.
		They didn't have the authority to work.
		They didn't have the authority to receive any health care, but they do get health care under what the Democrats proposed.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So these are people, for instance, not that are in the country completely illegally, but who have been granted admission as far as they have, for instance, a refugee claim or an asylum claim that has been accepted by a judge, but they have not been processed for legal residence.
unidentified		Well, no.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		They would lose their Medicaid.
unidentified		There were a lot of people that came in under Joe Biden that were admitted to the United States and can't work.
		Think about that.
		You're admitting people into the United States that are crossing the border.
		They're processed through one of our centers down in El Paso or wherever else, and they are let into the United States without the authority to work.
		Like, that's bad.
		Like, that's what Americans are responding to.
		That's not right.
		That's not how the system is supposed to work.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		In Syracuse, New York, line for Democrats.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Jay, you're on with Congressman Mike Flood.
unidentified		Hi.
		Good morning, Congressman.
		Good morning, Mimi.
		I just really wanted to comment that all of America, no matter what race, creed, color, legal status, knows what negotiation is.
		And we are all seeing that that is not happening at any level.
		Immediately sending everyone home after failing at the CR is not a good optic for you or any of you at all.
		So the talking needs to start.
		Please, come on.
		And if it's about the Epstein files, I'm sorry, but that's just truth and it needs to come out.
		It's going to be both sides.
		I'm sorry for all that.
		But my question today is, earlier you said, Representative, Nebraska does not treat people in hospital settings that present without any proper IDs or proper legality or whatever it is.
		And New York and California do follow the mandate set out by Reagan that you must treat all people that present in a hospital ER.
		So how does Nebraska get around that?
		Thank you.
		I'll list it offline.
		Well, first of all, Nebraska hospitals comply with MTALA, which if you present in an emergency room, you're going to receive immediate care for an emergency.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And that will be paid for by the government.
unidentified		Well, yes, that's a federal law.
		If you present yourself in an emergency room, that happens.
		But in 2008, when I was in the legislature of Nebraska, we passed a bill under Governor Dave Heinemann, and I was the speaker then that said if you're an illegal immigrant, you're not entitled to any government-paid services, notwithstanding state-funded, yes.
		But if you present yourself in an emergency room, I mean, there's a federal law on that, and so you're going to be taken care of.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		DeAndre in Baltimore, Maryland, Republican, good morning.
unidentified		Thank you.
		Good to see you, Mimi.
		Always good talking to you.
		Good morning, C-SPAN.
		Good morning, America.
		So, Representative Mike, what's the progress on LB 414?
		It's the legislation bill that was introduced about a month ago by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
		And I think that's something that should be shed more light on, especially in Nebraska.
		The suicide rate for veterans is going to be 34%.
		And in the times that's going on right now, how do you reconcile while you're an elected representative and you have like, you've received about $46,000 from the AIPAC Israel lobby?
		How do you reconcile that and, you know, and also try to, you know, go into the issue of the veteran suicide rate in Nebraska because that's something that's very, very important.
		I think you should prioritize.
		Thank you.
		I'm not familiar with that specific bill that he referenced, LB414, but I will tell you, I work with somebody who served in the National Guard and was a first sergeant, and it is alarming to me.
		He was in Iraq basically 2004, 2005.
		The number of people from his unit that have taken their lives, sometimes 20 years later, something is going on.
		Like, it is a problem.
		And I just, I have more questions than I have answers, but we need to do better when it comes to health care and mental health care for people who have served this country in the combat zone.
		And so his comment does resonate with me because this is something that has come up to me just in my circle of friends in Nebraska.
		And it's just alarming the number of people who served 20 years ago and they're now taking their lives.
		And it's not a coincidence.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		And that is Representative Mike Flood, a Republican of Florida.
		Thank you so much.
		Sorry, Nebraska.
		Where did I even get Florida?
unidentified		In the middle of the winter, Florida's nice, you know?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Nebraska.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Thank you so much for joining us.
unidentified		Thank you for having me.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Next up on the Washington Journal, we'll talk with Reuters correspondent David Shepardson about delays in air traffic and the impact from the government shutdown.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		We'll be right back.
unidentified		This weekend, as the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding, join American History TV for our series, America 250, and discover the ideas and defining moments of the American story.
		This week at 11 a.m. Eastern, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps mark their 250th anniversary with celebrations throughout the city of Philadelphia.
		Then at 8 p.m. Eastern on lectures in history, Gettysburg College professor Timothy Shannon chronicles the colonists who settled on Roanoke Island off the coast of North Carolina in 1587, only to mysteriously disappear soon after.
		And at 9.30 p.m. Eastern on the presidency, on the 35th anniversaries of Desert Shield and Desert Storm, the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum looks at the 1990 diplomatic efforts in the Persian Gulf and the successful war coalition led the following year by President George H.W. Bush.
		Exploring the American story, watch American History TV Saturdays on C-SPAN 2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at c-span.org slash history.
		Book TV, every Sunday on C-SPAN 2, features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books.
		Here's a look at what's coming up this Sunday.
		Live beginning at 11 a.m. Eastern, authors meet in Nashville for the Southern Festival of Books to talk about topics ranging from literary biographies to social justice movements to post-Civil War black communities and Great Depression documentary photographs.
		Then at 5.45 p.m. Eastern, environmental journalist Sam Block argues that cities fail to consider the importance of shade to protect against overheating.
		And at 8 p.m. Eastern, former professional American heavyweight boxer Ed Lattimore discusses what boxing taught him about life and manhood.
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		Washington Journal continues.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Welcome back to Washington Journal, talking now about the air traffic controllers, the impact on air travel of the government shutdown with David Shepardson, correspondent for Reuters.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Welcome to the program.
unidentified		Thanks for having me.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So it's day 16 now.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What impact, if any, have there been on air travel?
unidentified		So we've certainly seen an increase in sick calls by air traffic controllers.
		Last week we saw some occasional spikes.
		The Burbank California tower went down to ATC zero where planes had to be controlled through another tower.
		But by and large, we are seeing some level of slowdown, right?
		So what the FAA does when there are not enough controllers is they slow airplanes, right?
		They have more separation between planes to ensure it's safe.
		But we are seeing what they're called staffing triggers at different air traffic control centers across the country at different times.
		But by and large, we're not seeing a huge meltdown in the system.
		I mean, the system is generally working pretty well, but we are seeing sporadic increases in delays, I'd say.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What do you mean by the Burbank Tower went down?
unidentified		Right.
unidentified		So because they didn't have enough staff, it went to something called ATC0.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So they had to shut it down.
unidentified		Right, which meant in the evening, I think it was like from 5 to midnight or something, they stopped handling air traffic.
		So that was deemed an uncontrolled tower, and that traffic was handled by another tower.
		So that does happen at times.
		It's rare.
		There are plenty of smaller airports in the country that are uncontrolled, that don't have air traffic control towers.
		So it's not, it is something that pilots are familiar with.
		It's certainly not ideal.
		And, you know, Burbank's not a huge airport.
		And certainly that time of night, we didn't have the level of traffic, say, at LAX or Chicago or something where it would have been more significant.
		But look, the controllers are under stress.
		The system is already 3,000, 3,500 controllers short of targeted staffing.
		And most controllers are working mandatory six-day work weeks and sometimes 10-hour days, just given the pre-existing stress and the staffing shortages.
		So, you know, why are there such significant staffing shortages to begin with?
		This has gone on more than a decade, right?
		Hiring is not kept up.
		And in fact, one of the issues that happened was during the last government shut, the last major government shutdown in 2019 when it went 35 days, the Air Traffic Control Training Academy in Oklahoma City had to shut down.
		And so when that happened, it basically significantly delayed the pipeline of new controllers.
		And so many controllers said, hey, I'm not going to go back.
		It's a long, difficult process to be a controller.
		It takes three to four years to get to become a fully certified controller.
		It takes a long time.
		And people just said, I'm not going to do it.
		It's a hard, difficult job where if you lose focus for a minute, something tragic can happen.
		Let's minute and say five seconds.
		So it's a very difficult job.
		And we just don't have enough.
		And across multiple administrations, we have not hired enough people and addressed the washout rate, right?
		People are leaving.
		Too many controllers are not, are entering the pipeline, but not finishing and becoming fully certified controllers.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Is that because it's too stressful or the pay is too low?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Why is that?
unidentified		I think it's a combination of things.
		I mean, certainly the air traffic controllers union would say the pay should be better.
		I mean, it is worth noting that by the time you get to be fully certified, controllers do get paid pretty well, you know, somewhere around $160,000.
		Plus with overtime, you know, you can make well in excess of $200,000.
		Some might make more than that, depending on where they work.
		But I think it's a combination of things.
		It is very stressful, and the whole system has been under a lot of scrutiny really for the last several years, even before the January 29th mid-air collision near Reagan Airport here in D.C. that killed 67 people.
		So there are a lot of factors.
		Congress is dedicated $12.5 billion to trying to fix the technology as well as trying to improve the hiring and the pipeline, but it's still a long way from being fixed.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		If you'd like to join our conversation with David Shepardson of Reuters, if you've got a question about travel, the impact of travel from the government shutdown, you can give us a call.
		Our lines are by region this time.
		So if you're in the eastern or central time zones, it's going to be 202-748-8000.
		If you're in Mountain or Pacific, 202748-8001.
		And we have a line for frequent flyers.
		So if you're a frequent flyer, give us a call on 202748-8002.
		The air traffic controllers are federal employees.
		They are legally barred from walking off the job.
		Explain that because Secretary Duffy has said anybody that doesn't show up to work will be fired.
unidentified		Well, I think he was saying without proper cause, right?
		So you are allowed to call and stick as a controller.
		I mean, if you take certain medications, even a Benadryl, you might not be allowed to go back to work for a day.
		So there are certainly plenty of reasons controllers can call and stick.
		But any sort of coordinated effort, right, hey, we're all going to call and sick at the same time to try to shut down a tower or impact the shutdown, that's an illegal action that you certainly could be fired.
		And certainly, you know, President Ronald Reagan in the early 80s dismissed a number of controllers over a work stoppage.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, remind us about what happened under the Reagan administration.
unidentified		Right, so the controllers didn't show up for work.
		There was a work stoppage, and Ronald Reagan fired thousands of controllers, and it became a huge, basically a huge sticking point between sort of organized labor, the administration, sort of the rights of workers.
		But because controllers are so essential, they have to work without getting paid.
		They have to show up because the system obviously can't function without them.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		He fired thousands of controllers.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Did he bring them back?
unidentified		So I don't remember the exact number.
unidentified		I mean, it was a long process, but I just don't recall exactly how many got brought back.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So there's also the issue when it comes to travel of TSA.
		They are also not being paid as of right now.
		So have we seen any delays or as far as people missing flights because security lines are too long?
		What's going on with that?
unidentified		That's a great question.
		In fact, back in that shutdown I referred to in 2018, 2019, those security lines did become a big issue.
		In fact, in airports like Miami, as that shutdown went on, they didn't have enough TSA agents to staff certain security checkpoints.
		So you saw airports consolidating checkpoints.
		You might have to walk to a different terminal.
		And that was a big pressure point, too, in addition to air traffic controllers.
		And remember, TSA agent officers get paid far less.
		A lot of TSA workers are working paycheck to paycheck.
		And as the shutdown went on, some of them were struggling to pay for child care and other bills.
		And so they stopped going to work.
		And so between those two pressure points, there's a lot of concern.
		So far, if you look at the TSA numbers, the average weight to get through checkpoints is still very low.
		People are going to work.
		So the TSA and the controllers have gotten a partial paycheck as a result of shutdowns.
		I think the controllers lost two days of pay.
		But the next paycheck, that'll be a zero paycheck, the one that comes in roughly two weeks.
		So for the controllers, I think it's two weeks from yesterday for a similar timeframe for the TSA.
		And that's what really starts to hurt, I think, when those people are not getting any paycheck and now have been living for more than two weeks without getting paid.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Christy Noam, had released a video about to be played at TSA checkpoints, blaming Democrats for the shutdown.
		And a lot of airports were refusing to air that.
		Tell us about that.
unidentified		And it's really across the board, like small airports, large, Indianapolis, New York, Las Vegas, really across the board Wichita, I think.
		And this video blames Democrats specifically.
		And so, first of all, Congress, remember Democrats and Congress thinks it violates the Hatch Act, which is you can't use general government services to advance partisan ends.
		And so they want an investigation.
		I think a lot of the airports say we don't want to take sides, right?
		This video clearly blames the Democrats.
		So there are people who make the argument that Republicans are to blame, right?
		And so by only naming Democrats in a video that's supposed to be in a nonpartisan area, I think that's really raised a lot of hackles on the part of airports and some lawmakers.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Do you know if there are any airports that are airing the video?
unidentified		That's a good question.
		I know the Detroit airport said it was airing, but in an area they didn't control, and they posted a sign that said, we don't support this video, but we're not able to control the videos airing.
		So if there's a small area within the airport, you go through the checkpoint that the TSA actually controls.
		And in that area, if there was a monitor, I suppose the TSA could air the video regardless of whether the airport supported it or not.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Let's talk to callers and start with James in Virginia.
		He's a frequent flyer.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, Mimi.
		I'm also a retired military Air Force air traffic controller.
		So I've done this job.
		The thing that I get frustrated with is when I hear guests or just people in general talk about, you know, the towers are unmanned or, you know, they didn't have enough manning.
		There are systems set up for air traffic control.
		At night, you don't have as many planes in the sky as you do during the day.
		So of course they call it minimum manning.
		They go to minimum manning schedules because you don't need 500 controllers in the tower when you're only controlling maybe 30 planes throughout the course of the night.
		The sad part is, is again, the story comes out and it makes the public afraid to fly.
		Air traffic control is still the safest traveling in the world, bar none.
		And again, as a former controller, I just would like people to tell the truth in terms of, again, towers being shut down or not enough manning.
		Air traffic control doesn't operate like that.
		If that were the case, we'd probably see planes falling out of the sky every 15 minutes.
		But the controllers do their jobs and they do get paid.
		I was in the Air Force when Reagan fired all those controllers.
		I tried to get in the FAA at that time, but the military had me.
		So I was glad I did my 22 years.
		But the thing is, as I said then, because they took military controllers to staff the towers in the radar facilities when he fired all those controllers.
		It was the military that jumped in and made the system continue for it to be safe.
		So I'm just saying, put the truth out there.
		Stop scaring the people.
		Air traffic is the safest mode of travel there is.
		And God bless America.
		God bless the controllers.
		And let's keep this thing going.
		Thank you, Mimi.
		Well, look, I agree, agree with you, Caller, that certainly we don't want to scare people.
		And when Burbank went to ATC0, that didn't mean it was unsafe.
		And you're right.
		People, there are plenty of places at times where airports are uncontrolled.
		In this case, that traffic was handled by another tower.
		That's not to say that resulted in average delays about two and a half hours at Burbank.
		And this was not at a normal time where that tower should have been unstaffed.
		But to your broader point, air traffic is still very, very safe.
		I mean, your chances of dying are far higher in the Uber or driving to the airport than they are on an airplane.
		The fact that over the last 20 plus years, we've only had a single fatal passenger U.S. airline crash or accident, though, collision over at DCA is pretty remarkable.
		I mean, before that, it had been since 2009.
		So it's an unbelievable safety record, but the system is under a lot of stress and even more stress now due to the shutdown.
		And, you know, you can't take aviation safety for granted because every day, to your point, there's 50,000 flights and all those controllers are out there and everybody has to be on their game.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And what you're seeing on your screen is the security lines at Reagan National Airport here in Washington, D.C. We've got our cameras there taking a look at those TSA lines.
		And this is John in Florida.
		Welcome, John.
unidentified		Thank you, ma'am.
unidentified		Are you still taking calls about the shutdown?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		About travel, air travel.
unidentified		Oh, okay.
unidentified		No, I had a comment on the shutdown, ma'am.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
		Call us later then.
		Al in Pennsylvania, you're on the air.
unidentified		Thanks for taking my call, Mamie.
		I think you're a terrific monitor, number one.
		But number two, I feel that the air traffic controllers should never be able to be fired or laid off because of the safety.
		It would be just like if police officers would be off work or call off with blue flu, that they would be fired.
		That would be a complete danger to the public.
		And I feel that would be the same way with air traffic controllers.
		The reason people are more afraid with that, because yes, that it may be the safest way to travel.
		But when there is a catastrophe, it seems like more people seem to die when there's a major problem with air traffic control.
		But I appreciate the comment that you're making on it being a safe means of travel.
		There's no question that air accidents get tremendous amounts of attention, and the media scrutinizes it, and the National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA, and they absolutely want to get to the bottom of what happened and sure it never happens again.
		And still, though, there's a lot of lessons learned still going on from the American Airlines Army helicopter collision at DCA.
		It is worth noting, however, that there are about 40,000 U.S. deaths on roads, roughly over 100 a day, and those just don't get much attention.
		Again, that is not to take away from the fact that we in the media cover aviation going to aggressively investigate and report on every accident to try to shine a light and ensure that this doesn't happen again.
		And certainly there are a lot of questions that are still unanswered from the American Airlines regional collision.
		And as a result, there have been a lot of reforms already.
		The FAA has taken steps to reduce and remove a lot of military helicopter traffic around DCA, has installed buffer zones at Dulles and Baltimore, Washington airports, has taken steps to reduce helicopter traffic at Las Vegas airports.
		And so, you know, and Congress is on the set next week, Senate to vote on new aviation safety reform legislation to require ADSB, which is an advanced aviation tracking system on aircraft, and ensure that there's a vigorous Army investigation into what happened because there were clearly a lot of mistakes that were made, as the NTSB has said.
		And we need to address that and sure it doesn't happen again.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Donald is in Indiana.
		You're on with David Shepardson.
		Go ahead.
		Sorry.
		Now you're on the air, Donald.
unidentified		Okay.
		I just want to go back to the Reagan situation.
		I remember that.
		I don't think I was like 18, 19 years old when that happened.
		And also, I remember my father being upset because my father was labor.
		I'm labor.
		And I was just so upset that he didn't.
		Now, maybe I'm wrong.
		I don't know.
		Did Reagan even try to negotiate with the air traffic controllers or did he just try to be one of those macho presidents and just say, well, I'm just going to fire him?
		I mean, it was just really the way it was done, it was shoddy.
		That's all I have to say.
		Thank you.
		Well, I think it is worth noting that this overhangs the entire situation today, right?
		I mean, we still have had this shortage for a number of years, and the controllers are very cognizant of the fact that the government could take action if they were in some sort of illegal work action.
		On the other hand, people have to be able to call in sick.
		And what we did see in 2019 was that there was a spike in absences.
		And when there was a significant outage, a significant disruption in air travel in New York in 2019, it put a lot of pressure on both sides to finally resolve the government shutdown.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Charlie in Massachusetts.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Charlie.
unidentified		Hey, Mimi.
		Long time.
		Hey, David.
		Serious question.
		I understand the air traffic controllers, and I'm not sure about the TSA people if they're getting paid, but they should be.
		But the traffic controllers are forced to work.
		And I don't understand a living paycheck to paycheck.
		That doesn't ring a bell to me.
		Come on.
		Are you making $180,000 and you're going to lose your house next week?
		But my point is, David, please, why are they calling out?
		And do you think that there actually could be dedicated to their jobs?
		Or, I mean, it used to be you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Let's get a response.
unidentified		No, that's a good question.
		But look, I think you talked to the Secretary of Transportation.
		He says 90 to 95% are dedicated.
		And I think, you know, this is a very stressful job.
		And if you're worried about your next paycheck, and sure, controllers are well paid relative to the national average, but that doesn't mean they don't have bills and college tuition payments and mortgages and everything else.
		And it doesn't mean they might not face financial hardships if they miss a paycheck.
		And it's also the stress.
		How long is this going to last?
		You don't know you can only miss one paycheck.
		Maybe it goes on into November.
		And I think if you're in the tower and your job is to have absolute operational focus and to ensure that every plane gets there safely, if you're in the back of your mind thinking, do I have enough money to pay for my kids' Little League bills or the college tuition or whatever?
		And that's one of the concerns the controllers union and the members of both parties have.
		Not to mention, hey, what if I'm going to take that Uber job?
		Am I going to work 60 hours a week and then go to work at Uber or DoorDash or find some way to make a little extra money?
		I mean, so there's a lot of stress on the system as it is, and people are working six-day a week, 60 hours, mandatory overtime.
		This is not an easy job at any time, let alone in normal circumstances.
		So I think the concern is you add that stress to an already difficult situation.
		Could you have an unsafe situation?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		David, there's also things like if somebody needs their passport renewed or a new passport issued or their TSA pre-renewed.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		None of that is happening right now, right?
unidentified		I mean, certainly everything's being slowed down.
unidentified		I think there are some passport services being offered, but the government, but in general, the government is running for anything that's non-essential is being slowed down dramatically.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Catherine's calling from New York.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Catherine.
unidentified		Hi there.
		I was curious, and I have a question.
		I was curious about the part about the recordings that are being played at airports blaming Democrats.
		And my question is: how are Democrats responsible when Republicans are in control of all branches, all branches of government right now?
		How are Democrats responsible?
		Can you tell me?
		Thank you.
		I'll take.
		So I think the argument you would hear from the Republicans is that in the Senate, you need 60 votes to pass the continuing resolution.
		And Democrats have enough votes to block Republicans from getting that 60-vote threshold.
		Obviously, Democrats would say, you didn't negotiate at all, right?
		You just basically dropped this in our lap.
		You're not willing to do anything.
		It's either take it or leave it.
		And under prior continuing resolutions, you've been more willing to negotiate over the priorities of the party that's not in power.
		So certainly both sides have a case to make about why the other is responsible or partially responsible.
		But it goes back to the airport saying, hey, we don't want to get in the middle of this.
		We're not here to referee.
		Is it Democrats, Republicans, whatever?
		We're here to get you where you want to go, but you shouldn't be, they think you shouldn't be thrust to a political message when you're just trying to get to Florida, to Disney World.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here's Willard in Wyoming.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		How are you?
		Good.
		My question is: Are air marshals active right now due to the shutdown?
		Are they active or not active?
		Yes, they're a part of DHS.
		They are considered essential employees.
		They are certainly on board airplanes like they always are as a public safety measure.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		But they're not getting paid.
unidentified		They're not getting paid.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Right.
unidentified		So go ahead.
		If I made sure.
		Yeah.
		With flight controllers, do they not have to sign a contract when they become a flight controller that if there's a shutdown that they have to go without pay?
		So there's a union contract, and I don't know if it's in the contract itself or is it just the fact they're working under federal law, but you're absolutely right that every controller knows that they have to work without pay during a shutdown.
		But again, the union would argue, but that doesn't mean if they under stress, there are legitimate reasons they can call and sick.
		But you're right, it's not permissible under the law for there to be a coordinated stickout or an effort to intentionally disrupt the operations of the tower.
		Okay, one more call for you, a frequent flyer in Georgia.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Dee Dee, you're on with David Shepardson.
unidentified		Yes, I'm past all that.
		I'm just an observer now, but I used to live near the Boulder area, and I hung out in the local watering holes with some of the air traffic controllers, and I learned a lot about what goes on behind the scenes.
		Those people are under so much stress all the time.
		And they ought to be given medals for their efforts.
		But now, understand this.
		With the dangers that we're in, I think a lot of this stuff with the air traffic and all the crashes, I think it's sabotage.
		I think the terrorists have infiltrated every level of this country's government.
		And now they're causing all these accidents.
		And I think they're causing the, we're using those drones to cause all these fires.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Dee Dee.
unidentified		Well, I mean, to be fair, to be clear, there's only been one U.S. passenger plane crash since 2009, and that was the American Airlines crash in January that involved the collision with a helicopter.
		There's no evidence that there's been any sabotage or, you know, any sort of conspiracy.
		You know, you have a lot of investigators, whether it's the FAA or the NTSB or others that are focused on getting to the bottom of what happened, ensuring it never happens again.
		And if there were any sort of evidence, and because it's right in the nation's capital's backyard, the FBI would have taken over the investigation, as they have in other air disasters where an intentional act, whether it was a pilot action or some other nefarious action, was thought to be responsible.
		This would be a criminal investigation that was being led by the FBI.
		There's no evidence of that.
		That's why all signs point to a catastrophic series of human mistakes.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, that's David Shepardson.
		He's a correspondent for Reuters.
		You can find his work at Reuters.com.
		Thanks so much for joining us.
unidentified		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And we're wrapping up today's Washington Journal with another round of open forum.
		You can start calling in now.
		The numbers, Republicans, 202-748-8001, Democrats, 202-748-8000.
unidentified		And Independents, 202-748-8002.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Stay with us.
unidentified		On the premiere of C-SPAN Ceasefire, Republican Mike Pence and Democrat Rahm Emanuel reflected on their unexpected friendship and found common ground on one of the world's most pressing issues, Israel and Hamas.
unidentified		And I have no problem with that.
jimmy carter ▲ ● ▼		President Trump deserves credit here.
jimmy carter ▲ ● ▼		Some of my party won't say that.
tim kaine ▲ ● ▼		I'm grateful for Rob speaking plainly about giving President Trump credit here.
unidentified		Friday, governors from opposite ends of the political map come together from Deep Red, Oklahoma to Solid Blue, Maryland.
		Democratic Governor Wes Moore and Republican Governor Kevin Stitt sit down with host Dasha Burns.
		Welcome to Ceasefire, where we seek to bridge the divide in American politics.
		For a conversation, not a confrontation.
		Red meets blue.
		Great Plains meets Mid-Atlantic Friday, October 17th at 7 p.m. Eastern and Pacific.
		Ceasefire, only on C-SPAN.
		Book TV, every Sunday on C-SPAN 2, features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books.
		Here's a look at what's coming up this Sunday.
		Live, beginning at 11 a.m. Eastern, authors meet in Nashville for the Southern Festival of Books to talk about topics ranging from literary biographies to social justice movements to post-Civil War black communities and Great Depression documentary photographs.
		Then at 5.45 p.m. Eastern, environmental journalist Sam Block argues that cities fail to consider the importance of shade to protect against overheating.
		And at 8 p.m. Eastern, former professional American heavyweight boxer Ed Lattimore discusses what boxing taught him about life and manhood.
		Watch Book TV every Sunday on C-SPAN 2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at booktv.org.
		Washington Journal continues.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Welcome back.
		It is an open forum until the end of the program, where we will take you over to a press conference by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.
		He will be holding a press conference right at about 10 o'clock and we'll take you there.
		But I wanted to show you this article.
		This is CNN.com with the headline, Trump Details Decision to Authorize CIA to Operate in Venezuela.
		It says that the president said yesterday he authorized the CIA to operate inside Venezuela to clamp down on illegal flows of migrants and drugs from the South American nation.
		He stopped short of saying he would have authority to remove President Nicolas Maduro.
		It is his most expansive comments on his decision to expand the CIA's authority to conduct legal targeting and carrying out covert action in the region, which CNN first reported on last week.
		Take a look.
		He was asked about that, and here's a portion of that.
unidentified		What's the next step in this war on cartels?
unidentified		And are you considering options, are you considering strikes on land?
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		Well, I don't want to tell you exactly, but we are certainly looking at land now because we've got the sea very well under control.
		We've had a couple of days where there isn't a boat to be found.
		And I view that as a good thing, not a bad thing.
		But we had tremendous amounts coming in by boats, by very expensive boats.
		You know, they have a lot of money, very fast, very expensive boats that were pretty big.
		And the way you look at it is every boat that we knock out, we save 25,000 American lives.
		So every time you see a boat and you feel badly, you say, wow, that's rough.
		It is rough.
		But if you lose three people and save 25,000 people, these are people that are killing our population.
		Every boat is saving 25,000 lives.
		And you can see it.
		The boats get hit.
		And you see that fentanyl all over the ocean.
		It's like floating in bags.
		It's all over the place.
unidentified		Why did you authorize the CIA to go into Venezuela?
unidentified		And is there more information you can share about these strikes on the alleged state?
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		Well, I can't do that.
		I authorized for two reasons, really.
		Number one, they have emptied their prisons into the United States of America.
		They came in through the border.
		They came in because we had an open border policy.
		And as soon as I heard that, I said a lot of these countries, they're not the only country, but they're the worst abuser.
		And they've entered their, they've allowed thousands and thousands of prisoners, mental institutions, people from mental institutions, insane asylums, emptied out into the United States.
		We're bringing them back.
		But that's a really bad thing.
		And they did it at a level that probably not many, many countries have done it, but not like Venezuela.
donald j trump [ai] ▲ ● ▼		They were down and dirty.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		And the other thing of drugs, we have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela.
		And a lot of the Venezuelan drugs come in through the sea, so you get to see that.
		But we're going to stop them by land also.
unidentified		Does the CIA have authority to take out Maduro?
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		Oh, I don't want to answer a question like that.
		That's a ridiculous question for me to be given.
		Not really a ridiculous question, but wouldn't it be a ridiculous question for me to answer?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Well, this is President Maduro, who has responded to that.
		It says, Maduro, this is on the AP, lashes out at CIA's record and appeals to American people for peace.
		It says, without directly addressing Trump's comments about authorizing the CIA to carry out covert operations in Venezuela, Maduro on Wednesday lashed out at the record of the U.S. spy agency in various conflicts around the world.
		And then he says, quote, how long will the CIA continue to carry on with its coups?
		Latin America doesn't want them, doesn't need them, and repudiates them.
		Let's get to your calls now.
		Joe, Washington, D.C., Line for Democrats.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Hi, good morning.
		Can you hear me okay?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Yes, we can.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Go right ahead.
unidentified		Good, okay.
		I just want to say, you know, I align mostly, you know, of the two parties with the Democrats.
		And I'm very conflicted about the shutdown because, on one hand, you know, I am an independent contractor and I pay for my own insurance.
		I would hate to see my premiums double or triple or go up in any way because I'm barely making it, you know, as it is.
		I'm a speech language pathologist.
		I work as an independent contractor.
		You know, and I would not be able to, I wouldn't be able to afford to live, you know, if my premiums went up.
		But at the same time, you know, a lot of my friends in the city, I live here in Washington, D.C., you know, well over half my friends are federal employees that have been furloughed or working without pay.
		And, you know, it's really hurting.
		It's hurting people.
		The cost of living here is astronomical in this area.
		You know, you really can't go too far outside the beltway, you know, without when the rent starts to go down.
		So I'm just very conflicted.
		It just seems that this option to shut down the government in order to make a point, which is basically what the Democrats are doing, right?
		I mean, like, I'm clear-eyed about it.
		You know, they need the 10 Democrat votes in order to pass a bill, and the Democrats aren't giving them the votes.
		And so, you know, it's not a Republican shutdown.
		It's not a Democrat shutdown.
		It's the Congress is shutting it down, right?
		So I just want to say that, you know, not every Democrat is just kind of living by the talking points.
		You know, we all know what's kind of going on if you're paying attention.
		And, you know, I see what they're doing, and I agree because I wouldn't be able to afford to live if my health insurance went up.
		But at the same time, a lot of people are hurting.
		So I just want to.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here's Jacob in Colorado Independent.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Jacob.
unidentified		Hi.
		I'm calling to talk about the impact that layoffs have on families, like actual families.
		I just wanted to say that my partner used to work for the Department of Justice here in Denver.
		She was laid off earlier this year because she had been on the job for less than one year and didn't have the legal protections that some other workers have.
		Because of that, she didn't have health insurance for most of this year.
		You know, we've gone broke paying for rent and food.
		It's been one of the worst years of my life, to be honest.
		And I just want to know if these people that are happy about this understand that real people are being affected by this.
		And that's all I have to say.
		Thank you so much.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Dave in Baltimore, Maryland, Republican.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You're on the air, Dave.
unidentified		Great.
		Thanks.
		I guess my thoughts are with regards to the shutdown.
		And I think to the country, as someone who has worked in the Washington space, the Baltimore Corridor, the Beltway bandits, call it what you will.
		The fact of the matter is, everyone knows the agreement.
		As a federal employee, there have been numerous shutdowns.
		You accept that job with the risk of having the government shut down and not being paid for a period of time.
		And that period of time is unspecified.
		That's the risk that you take, but the federal employment is a very lucrative job.
		The benefits are wonderful.
		So when you take the job, yes.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Steve, when you say it's a very lucrative job, I understand the benefits.
		The benefits are quite good for federal employees.
		But as far as the pay goes, they're really typically people will say they're lower than the equivalent job in the private sector.
		Would you agree with that?
unidentified		No, not that may have been true a few decades ago, but if you really take a close look, I would say this: the only pay grade in the federal employment space that is probably underpaid compared to the private sector would that be of senior executive service.
		When you get into senior executive service, that is when you really start to essentially see pay gaps with your private sector brethren.
		But that's scale.
		Higher than pay grade 15.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Got it.
unidentified		GS15 is typically your highest paid management.
unidentified		That position, your 14s, your 13s, your 12s, you are minting money compared to your private sector brethren.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Dave.
		And let's a couple of things for your schedule later today.
		I mentioned before at 10 a.m. right after this program, we'll take you to the speaker's press conference with Republican leadership.
		It'll also include House Homeland Committee Chairman Andrew Garberino.
		That is at 10 a.m. live after this program.
		4 p.m., the president, so this week, President Trump plans to meet with Ukrainian President Zelensky at the White House.
		This afternoon, it's a discussion on the next steps toward Ukraine's reconstruction in the aftermath of Russia's invasion.
		We'll get a preview of the White House meeting hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations live at 4 p.m.
		That's also on here on C-SPAN.
		And then at 9 p.m. tonight, we'll have the first debate in the New York City mayor's race.
		Less than three weeks to go before Election Day, Democrat Zorhan Mamdani, Independent candidate Andrew Cuomo, and Republican Curtis Sliwa are all expected to participate.
		Again, that's at 9 p.m. on C-SPAN.
		You can watch that on the app, C-SPANNO, and online at c-span.org.
		Also, the president is expected to make an announcement from the White House at 3 p.m. today.
		Please stay tuned on C-SPAN for live coverage of that here on our C-SPAN network.
		Robert in Missouri, Independent Line.
		Good morning, Robert.
unidentified		Yeah, you mentioned at the start of the open phone conversation about the American military going after drug cartels and drug boats in Venezuela.
		Here's the thing: just two sharp comments.
		The American government never seems to arrest anybody on the American side when it comes to these drugs coming into the country because nobody like El Chapel or no cartel gets drugs into America without having an American counterpart to sell those drugs to or to get them into.
		But nobody on our side ever gets arrested.
		And here's the last point, I know you have other callers.
		For every $1,000 some American counterpart gifts El Chapo or any drug cartel, they make $10,000 profit off of every thousand.
		So they're buying the drugs for pennies on the dollar.
		But nobody on our side ever gets arrested.
		That's my point.
		You want to comment on it?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Eric in Pennsylvania, Align for Democrats.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Hello.
		Hello.
		Yes.
		Oh, I'm on now.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Yes, you are.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Go right ahead.
unidentified		Okay.
		Yeah, I wanted to talk about the shutdown as far as Mike Johnson.
		They say it's the Democrats that's shutting down this country and everything.
		But they won't open the country up unless the Democrats sign off for a little extension so that they can talk about it later instead of just making a deal that the Democrats and the Republicans can work on together and come to an agreement.
		Because bottom line, they make six figures and they're not doing nothing but going back and forth with each other and they both blaming each other.
		And I know they have a job to do, but the thing is, they all work for the people.
		And the people pay taxes, and we ain't getting nothing out of this but job layoffs.
		And while they're sending $50 billion to Argentinans, but they talk about they don't want to pay immigrants for health care.
		They don't want immigrants to have no kind of health care if they got to pay for it.
		But you can send $50 billion.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		$40 billion, Eric.
		Yep, we got that.
		$40 billion.
		Ralph in Englewood, Florida, Republican.
unidentified		Good morning, Ralph.
		Good morning.
		I have a couple of comments.
		The first one is more of a proposal.
		If somebody in Congress would propose to cut pay for all of the senators and congressmen during a shutdown, I think it would be really refreshing and it would really lead to somebody getting a lot of notoriety, which a lot of folks are up there to gain.
		So that would be, you know, I would love to see somebody come forward and put a bill in to make that, you know, something to put in place.
		And the other thing I wanted to talk about was, as a Republican, I do oppose the fact that we want to continue with the health care subsidies because, you know, it was done during a special time, and now that time is done, and it should be cut back.
		I support that.
		But then I also have a problem with the hypocrisy when it comes to the Big Beautiful bill because we continued the tax cuts or the corporate tax cuts and all the things that happened in 2017.
		And we should go back to the way it was before.
		But we want to continue that.
		And your guest, Mr. Flood, didn't mention that when he was calling that out.
		So thanks for the time to express my point.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Thanks, Ralph.
		And this is on the front page of today's Wall Street Journal.
		Trump team to overhaul IRS to probe left-leaning groups said effort would install Ally at Criminal Unit, who has made list of targets to investigate.
		It says that a senior IRS official involved in the effort has drawn up a list of potential targets that includes major Democratic donors.
		Some of the people said the undertaking aims to install allies of President Trump at the IRS Criminal Investigative Division, or IRSCI, to exert firmer control over the unit and weaken the involvement of IRS lawyers in criminal probes.
		The proposed changes could open the door to politically motivated probes and are being driven by Gary Shapley, an advisor to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant.
		Shapley has told people he is going to replace Guy Fico, the chief of the investigative unit.
		And Shapley has been putting together a list of donors and groups he believes IRS investigators should probe.
		Among those on the list are billionaire Democratic donor George Soros and his affiliated groups.
		A senior IRS official and another person said.
		Stephanie in New Jersey, Line for Democrats.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I guess I lost my thought, trying to thought.
		But anyway, the bombing of the boats that are coming into national waters, I don't understand, you know, like he said, fentanyl and bags and whatnot.
		Are there body parts floating in the ocean?
		I mean, you know, wouldn't it have burned up?
		But anyway, I want to talk about the shutdown.
		Senator Schumer indicated that he voted for the bill before because he was promised that they would talk about the health care.
		Well, it never happened.
		So that's why.
		You know, he said, you know, you got to give us something.
		So they agreed that they would talk about it after.
		Well, it didn't happen.
		And that's basically why he shut the government down.
		Because it wouldn't, and they still haven't talked about it.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Stephanie, here's Richard in Chicago, Illinois, Independent Line.
unidentified		Hi, Richard.
		Yes, the Democrats need to reverse the big beautiful bill provisions that eliminated food stamps for people that don't work or go to school, just like they exempted this provision for the state of Alaska.
		People that have a right to eat.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Is it food stamps or I think it's Medicaid, right?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Wasn't that what was that issue?
unidentified		No, no, they're trying to reverse Medicaid, but I think they need to reverse the food stamp cuts.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
unidentified		And my point is they need to reverse the food stamp cuts that were implemented on states other than Alaska.
		Alaska was exempt, and this needs to be held out by the Democrats if they have the spine to do it and reverse the food stamp cuts.
		And that's my comment.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		And this is Paul in Washington State, Democrat.
		Good morning, Paul.
unidentified		Yeah, good morning.
		I wanted to set something straight there on Ronald Reagan there during the air traffic control shutdown.
		Ronald Reagan was a big union buster.
		He did the same thing to I'm a construction worker, and he did the same thing to the construction workers.
		We worked for 80% of scale during his term there.
		He was just as bad as Donald Trump.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Paul.
		And this is from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
		Many low-income people will soon begin to lose food assistance under Republican mega bill.
		It says USDA's delayed guidance risks deeper cuts to eligible people.
		This is from September 10th, 2025.
		And this is Frenzell in Los Angeles, Independent Line.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, Mimi.
		Thank you so much for having me on.
		And I just want to say God bless C-SPAN because you guys do the most important work for everyone in this country.
		And I just thank you guys so much for it.
		I want to touch on a few things, but I'll be real brief.
		First, I do want to say prayers to the people there in Alaska who went through that devastating typhoon that happened that hasn't been covered that much on the news as it should, but it's terrible.
		And I haven't heard a word from our government about it.
		I don't care if it is shut down.
		Next, talking about the shutdown.
		I firmly agree with what the Democrats are doing here because it's about time.
		They should have did it the last time, but Schumer listened to the Republicans and trusted that they would take up this subject during all of those months.
		But what did they do?
		They had to push through the big, beautiful BS so they could pass those huge tax cuts.
		They didn't have a problem with that.
		They didn't have a problem with sending all those billions to Argentina as well.
		But they have a problem with giving people subsidies, which I myself get as a small business owner because it helps me out during these times as we're still trying to recover from COVID.
		People are saying that, oh, it's over, but no, people are still recovering from that.
		And it's so sad that we have a party right now in office in control of all branches that doesn't want to look out for the American people at all, who are still struggling at the bottom trying to come up, while those corporations made billions and billions of dollars during COVID.
		Please look it up.
		God bless you guys and God bless America.
		Thank you again.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And just regarding that typhoon in Alaska, this is the AP that Alaska is airlifting hundreds from storm-devastated coastal villages.
		It says it's one of the most significant airlifts in Alaska history.
		It was underway Wednesday, that's yesterday, to move hundreds of people from coastal villages ravaged by high surf and strong winds from the remnants of a typhoon last weekend.
		David in McKinleyville, California, Republican?
unidentified		Good morning.
		Morning.
		I wanted to make a comment about the government shutdown because I hear a lot of gaslighting going on, like from the last caller.
		Back when these Obamacare subsidies were established, the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress and they had a Democratic president.
		And they voted that the subsidies would expire this year because at the time, they were regarded as too costly to make permanent.
		And now that those subsidies are about to expire, the Democrats are blaming the Republicans.
		My question to the Democrats would be: why not agree with the Republicans to keep the government operating at current levels while you negotiate your differences?
		And the only explanation I can come up with is that the Democrats believe that the government shutdown is benefiting them politically.
		Because historically, when there's been a government shutdown, the voters have tended to blame the Republicans.
		And the Democrats are counting on history repeating itself that the voters will, almost by reflex action, blame the Republicans.
		And that's why Schumer about a week ago said things are getting better for the Democrats every day.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So, David, regarding who's getting blamed, this is the latest AP poll.
		This just came out this morning with the headline, who's winning the blame game over the government shutdown?
		Everyone and no one.
		So, take a look at the numbers here.
		Who is the percent of U.S. adults who say the following has a great deal or quite a bit of responsibility for the shutdown?
		Donald Trump comes in at 58%, Republicans in Congress at 58%, and Democrats in Congress at 54%.
		So, it's roughly the same.
		The margin of error is 3.8%.
		So, slightly more for Donald Trump and Republicans, but still very, very close on who the American public sees as is to blame.
		Let's talk to Joe, Oklahoma City, Democrat.
		Hi, Joe.
unidentified		Hi, thank you for having me on.
		I do want everybody to focus on one, two, three points.
		The first is when we talk about the federal debt, we have to realize it's not just spending.
		We also have to have a tax policy that's fair.
		So, when people think about the big, beautiful bill and the current shutdown, the Republicans gave such an overwhelming and permanent tax cut to the biggest corporations and the richest people.
		And to that point, I want them to also focus on one example.
		Donald Trump Jr., Donald Trump's son, when he entered the White House this time with Daddy, he was worth $50 million.
		Now, that sounds like a lot of money to us.
		He was worth $50 million.
		Today, he's worth $650 million.
		Trump, everyone in the Trump family's net worth has climbed between 300 and 900%.
		I don't think your pocketbook's doing that great.
		Lastly, the source of real, there's no real radical left.
		There's only a radical right.
		And it's so open, you can tune into any right-wing talk radio station any day of the week in America and hear the most vile, hate-filled name-calling, calling Democrats evil.
		And here's the deal: they're now trying to call the No Kings rallies some kind of big political violence that they hate America.
		It's absolutely.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So, Joe, when you say they, who are you listening to?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Who are these people that are saying these things?
unidentified		Okay, if you go to your AM radio, the talk right-wing radio, and listen in the late afternoon, early morning, evening, there are some really vicious people.
		It's a non-stop laundry list of enemies.
		It's a non-stop.
		I'm telling you, I did this the other day just by accident.
		I was doing a project and I couldn't get to the, I was painted away from the radio.
		I couldn't believe it.
		And the talking points that they're using, you can actually mirror them right to what's coming out of Speaker Johnson and Trump.
		They're all saying that the people trying to get the country to wake up a little bit about this overreach, they're saying we're Marxists or with George Soros is funding us or Randa and Tifa.
		It's all fiction.
		But to their base, their base may listen to that and believe it.
		They're saying the same thing on AM right-wing talk radio.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Joe, let's go to James in Nevada, Line for Republicans.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, James.
unidentified		Hey, how y'all doing today?
		Look, I want to talk about how Donald Trump, our president, which I really do respect him so much, but why are you announcing that we're putting people into a situation where they're supposed to be covert and we're letting someone know that we're sending our CIA somewhere?
		You don't announce that until like 30 years later that you sent them.
		So I hope every senator representative that's listening right now, this man is putting our people in danger right now by even making that announcement.
		I hope that y'all can come together because honestly, red, white, and blue means all together, not red, not blue, not blue and white, not red and white, but red, white, and blue means all together, one unit, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
		These are the things that we need to be taking into account.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, James.
		And we are standing by right now to take you over to the Capitol where Speaker Johnson will be holding a press conference with House Republican leadership.
		We are standing by for that.
		And while we're waiting, we are going to continue with your calls.
		Here's Frank in Florida, Independent Line.
unidentified		Yes.

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