We should not have Border Patrol agents not paid right now because Chuck Schumer wants to pay political games to cover his tail.
I don't know how much more simply to say that, and every single one of you know.
That's exactly what's going on.
I don't like being mad, Mike.
I want to be happy, Mike.
I want to be the happy warrior, but I am so upset about this.
God bless America.
unidentified
We're done.
And past president, why are you doing this?
This is outrageous.
This is an end-the-root quarter.
Fridays, C-SPAN presents a rare moment of unity.
Ceasefire, where the shouting stops and the conversation begins.
Politico Playbook Chief Correspondent and White House Bureau Chief Dasha Burns is host of Ceasefire, bringing two leaders from opposite sides of the aisle into a dialogue.
Ceasefire on the network that doesn't take sides.
Fridays at 7 and 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on C-SPAN.
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'm on calling about the Democrats shutdown.
I'm a Democrat, but I don't understand what the party is doing.
They shut down the government.
From what I understand, is 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 do, 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?
unidentified
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 to 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.
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 Gay Lord.
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.
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 Thune 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.
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 they can't fix a common problem with you, all they can do is fix a certain little thing with you.
Here's Harvey in Independent in Santa Monica, California.
Good morning.
unidentified
Good morning.
Um, 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 EUC.
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 percent 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 Awlat Samas at the old temple, and he tried to kill his son as well.
Ralph On Shutdown And Healthcare00:11:29
unidentified
He said, Yes, because they ripped off the West Bank and Jerusalem.
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.
Ralph.
Ralph in Florida, Republican.
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 here is John, a Republican in Scheiner, Texas.
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.
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.
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.
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 pay.
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?
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 became disabled.
And about that time, Obamacare came 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 are 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.
Do you have an idea of where you might have heard that or where you saw it?
unidentified
Earning 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.
Yeah, I have not seen that, but we'll take a look, see if we can find anything about that.
unidentified
And coming up shortly here on C-SPAN, President Trump will be making an announcement from the White House.
He's expected to face questions from reporters about his earlier phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as his social media post regarding conflicts in Gaza.
Stay tuned here on C-SPAN.
While we wait, we'll show an earlier discussion on our very own Washington Journal.
I 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 are abusing power, things of that nature in local government.
But if they're intervening in these programs to correct them and make them better, yes, I agree with it.
All right, and here is Jim Winter Park, Florida, Republican line.
Good morning.
unidentified
Good morning, Mimi.
You know, let me just say 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.
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 of 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 him keep it and they built a monument for LGBTQ in the city of La Ciolga County, Barton County.
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.
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.
It's 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.
No, the USAID that Doge got rid of all that transgender surgeries in Africa and, well, 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?
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 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, you know, 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.
Nine times the Democrats have voted, counting the House and the Senate Democrats, they have voted to not pay the troops.
They have voted to block their paychecks.
And it's very serious stuff, and they don't seem to care at all.
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.
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.
Looking 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 get nothing but government self-age 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 national health coverage.
And like I say, I'm a veteran.
I go to the worst place in the world for medical care.
I want them to remember one thing when they go in that booth to vote.
Town Hall Debate Highlights00:06:18
unidentified
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?
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 SpanburgerLies.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.
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, rewatotape, 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 this 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 Senate, 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?
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.