| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
Democracy. | |
| It isn't just an idea. | ||
| It's a process. | ||
| A process shaped by leaders elected to the highest offices and entrusted to a select few with guarding its basic principles. | ||
| It's where debates unfold, decisions are made, and the nation's course is charted. | ||
| Democracy in real time. | ||
| This is your government at work. | ||
| This is C-SPAN, giving you your democracy unfiltered. | ||
| This is from Fox News. | ||
| It was published last Friday. | ||
| It says, Speaker Mike Johnson has once again instructed House lawmakers to remain in their home districts next week, keeping attention and heat. | ||
| In Washington on Senate, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for over a month. | ||
| A clerk in the House of Representatives announced on Friday that Johnson has designated October 20th through 23rd as a district work period, meaning no votes or House hearings are expected to be held for that time. | ||
| It goes on to say that the House GOP passed its federal funding package on September 19th, a seven-week extension of the fiscal year 2025 government spending levels called a continuing resolution. | ||
| It goes on to say that Johnson told reporters earlier on Friday that he would give House members 48 hours notice before they had to return for any votes. | ||
| Something he stated both publicly privately for weeks. | ||
| It was yesterday on ABC this week that House Speaker Mike Johnson explained his reasoning for continuing to have the House out of session. | ||
| The Democrats did not vote for the clean funding bill. | ||
| They have chosen to shut the government down to fight for the health care and the other items you mentioned. | ||
| But let me ask you, why, as this is going on, why is the House not in session? | ||
| Well, first of all, we're fighting for health care as well, not just in word, but in deed. | ||
| We put it in the one big, beautiful bill, the Working Families Tax Cut, real reforms to Medicaid to make it work better to preserve the program because we had illegal aliens receiving benefits. | ||
| We had young, able-bodied men who were not working. | ||
| They don't have dependents. | ||
| They were riding the wagon. | ||
| We cleaned that up in our bill. | ||
| In their counterproposal, what Chuck Schumer was arguing for is he wants to reverse those reforms, which would be a terrible policy decision for the people. | ||
| But I'm actually asking a different question. | ||
| So why is the House not in session? | ||
| I mean, I covered day to day those previous shutdowns, including the one you mentioned in 2013. | ||
| I recall there were House hearings during that shutdown about how President Obama was handling the shutdown. | ||
| Why is the House not in session? | ||
| The House did its job. | ||
| It's exactly a month ago today, on September 19th, we passed the clean resolution. | ||
| The continuing resolution would keep the lights on, keep the government working for the people. | ||
| By the way, keep Border Patrol agents paid, our troops paid, you know, air traffic controllers, all the rest, all the services that go to veterans and young women who need nutrition assistance for their infants. | ||
| The Democrats, every single one of them, have now voted 11 times, except for three Democrats in the Senate. | ||
| They voted 11 times to shut down the government and cease and halt all of those services and programs. | ||
| But I'm still understanding why is the House not in session? | ||
| You passed a seven-week temporary funding bill. | ||
| Is that the entirety of the Republican agenda? | ||
| No, it is. | ||
| No, it is not. | ||
| But I refuse to allow us to come back and engage in anything until the government's reopened when the Democrats do the right thing for the people. | ||
| They're playing politics, and we have to use every ounce of leverage we have to make sure they do the right thing. | ||
| It was House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, also on ABC this week yesterday, explaining the Democrats' position and saying that Republicans have gone radio silent since the negotiations started. | ||
| Here is a clip from that. | ||
| The president said he would make a deal, you know, reopening the government for something on the Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act subsidies. | ||
| Have you tried to call President Trump directly on this? | ||
| I do know he picks up that phone pretty regularly. | ||
| Have you tried to call him directly? | ||
| We have repeatedly and publicly and privately made clear to our colleagues on the other side of the aisle that we will sit down with them anytime, any place, with anyone, either at the Capitol or back at the Oval Office, to reopen the government, find a bipartisan path toward enacting a spending agreement that actually improves the quality of life of the American people, while at the same time, | ||
| decisively addressing the Republican health care crisis that's devastating people throughout the country, working class America, rural America, urban America, small town America, the heartland of America, and of course, black and brown communities throughout America. | ||
| But we haven't heard anything from Donald Trump or the Republicans over the last few weeks. | ||
| They have gone radio silent since the Oval Office meeting. | ||
| In fact, we know Donald Trump has spent more time on the golf course over the last few weeks during this painful government shutdown than he has speaking to Democrats on Capitol Hill to try to find a bipartisan resolution. | ||
| And as you pointed out earlier with Speaker Johnson, House Republicans are now heading into their fourth week of vacation. | ||
| They continue to cancel votes. | ||
| They have no interest in doing the business of the American people, and that's unfortunate. | ||
| We are starting today's Washington Journal with your calls on this day 20 of the government shut down the lines there in your screen. | ||
| Republicans 202-748-8001. | ||
| Democrats 202-748-8000. | ||
| And Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| If you are a federal worker, there's a line for you. | ||
| That number is 202-748-8003. | ||
| We will start with Sip, who's calling from Houston on the line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Sip. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| All right. | ||
| I'm going to speak from 20,000 feet above. | ||
| If everybody can remember back when President Obama come out with health care, everybody knows that the Republicans don't want health care. | ||
| They don't care about health care. | ||
| I mean, there it is right there. | ||
| All right. | ||
| One other thing. | ||
| Donald Trump, the Republicans jumped on Bill Quinton for just meeting his Attorney General at an airport. | ||
| President Biden went, aborted the DOJ by appointing a special prosecutor. | ||
| And I mean, just that the Republicans have demonized the Mexican immigrant and got people thinking that they are the cause of all our problems when they are not. | ||
| They need to, I wish you would get somebody on there to set how much revenue tax that the immigrants pay in versus what they get. | ||
| That was Sip in Houston. | ||
| Eugene is calling from Tucson, Arizona on the line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Eugene. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I blame both parties for the government shutdown. | ||
| I'm so disappointed with the state of America in July. | ||
| I did something very desperate. | ||
| On July 3rd, I went to the country of Belize and I applied for asylum there against the United States. | ||
| I had my hearing the same day they denied my asylum and I was placed in the Belize Central Prison where I was tortured there every single day. | ||
| And then I was deported back to Tucson, Arizona on August 20th. | ||
| So I'm just sharing my story about how desperate I am and how disappointed I am with the United States government. | ||
| Eugene, clarify for me why were you seeking asylum? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I was seeking asylum in Belize because I'm disappointed with the state of the United States right now. | |
| And I also wanted to become Prime Minister of Belize so I could find a friend. | ||
| That was Eugene in Arizona. | ||
| Micah calling from Dallas, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Micah. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I just have a simple question to pose to Mr. Mike Johnson. | ||
| So you said that the people who participated in the march on Saturday were Antifa members. | ||
| Can we fairly say that the people that you freed and you and Trump freed for January 6th were Klantifa? | ||
| Think about it. | ||
| That's food for thought. | ||
| They've been following a Jefferson-Davidsonian agenda and needs to be looked at because there's much more to this. | ||
| God bless America. | ||
| That was Micah in Texas. | ||
| Selena is calling from Rochester, New York. | ||
| Line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Selena. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Someone is crazy. | ||
| The Republicans get everything that they wanted in the one big, beautiful bill. | ||
| And now they expect Democrats to support and vote for getting nothing. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was Selena in New York. | ||
| David's calling from San Francisco. | ||
| Line for Independence. | ||
| Good morning, David. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, morning, America. | |
| Yeah, I'm glad she reminded us about the big bad bill. | ||
| That's the Doge cuts included in this. | ||
| So although I don't want to blame the government shutdown on Democrats, I'm glad that they're standing firm that this budget is including those horrible Doge cuts. | ||
| Now, the other thing I was going to raise, since Donald Trump and his father were slumlords, the management of America under them or under him is the management of a slumlord. | ||
| He doesn't want to fix America. | ||
| He doesn't want to fix our property. | ||
| He just wants to weasel around and pretend that he's the grand vizier over the property, except he's supposed to be a public servant. | ||
| He's not supposed to be a grand vizier. | ||
| He's supposed to be a public servant that's making sure that the potholes are fixed, the libraries are working, the schools are working. | ||
| But he's a slumlord, a slumlord by nature. | ||
| And then the slum lord hung around with organized crime for 40 years and created the opportunity to cash in, put cronies all over America. | ||
| And when he invades these cities, he's creating new territories for his organized crime buddies. | ||
| When he creates these tariffs, he's creating smuggling, and he's creating opportunities for his organized crime buddies. | ||
| So this is not political. | ||
| It's organized crime, and it's organized crime run by a slumlord. | ||
| That was David in San Francisco. | ||
| Let's hear from Steve in Massachusetts, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Steve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| Thanks for taking the call. | ||
| I'd just like to thank the president or slumlord president for not taking a paycheck and everything that he's doing for the country. | ||
| I'd also make a point that is the government actually shut down the people that voted to shut it down are still taking a paycheck. | ||
| And as far as the Affordable Care Act goes and subsidies for Medicare or whatever you want to call it, I thought Obama fixed all of that. | ||
| Isn't that what the Affordable Care Act was all about? | ||
| That their health care products weren't going to go up, but yet now we're playing this game of, how do you say it, politics, where people are trying to do their jobs while other people are standing on street corners yelling, no kings, no kings. | ||
| That was Steve in Massachusetts. | ||
| Barbara is calling from Lexington, Kentucky. | ||
| Good morning, Barbara. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I'm calling about our representatives. | |
| If they cannot work together to work out a budget in time, and then they can't agree to things for the people, they're the ones who shouldn't get a paycheck. | ||
| I'm not a speaker, a public speaker, but I am listening to what's going on in Washington, and it is just a terrible mess. | ||
| And I think our president has forgotten that he is our employee. | ||
| He doesn't look at it that way. | ||
| And I am very disappointed in him. | ||
| I may not be a Republican, but I am an American, and I expect him to be the president of all Americans. | ||
| I thank you for the time. | ||
| That was Barbara in Kentucky. | ||
| The Senate expected to take their 11th vote this evening about 5:30 on that House past Republican short-term funding plan. | ||
| It was Senate Majority Leader John Thune who tweeted this on Friday, saying, I'm not sure how much clearer I can be, but let me give it a try. | ||
| I am willing to sit down with Democrats to discuss the growing unaffordability and unsustainability of Obamacare. | ||
| It's a system they created, but I'm happy to hear them out. | ||
| Heck, I'm even willing to give them a vote today, tomorrow, next week, you name it. | ||
| But there's one condition, end the Schumer shutdown. | ||
| I will not negotiate under hostage conditions, nor will I pay a ransom. | ||
| Period. | ||
| It was Senator Arizona, Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, who responded to that post by John Thrune yesterday on CBS Space The Nation. | ||
| Here's that clip. | ||
| Can you bank this as a win and agree to start negotiations? | ||
| That's what we want. | ||
| We want negotiations on how to fix how to, I didn't look at his tweet, but what we need is to fix this skyrocketing premium. | ||
| They're going to go up on November 1st for people. | ||
| They can't afford it. | ||
| People in my state. | ||
| I've talked to so many people. | ||
| This woman, Emily, whose husband's a pastor, who has three kids, says without the Affordable Care Act, she cannot have insurance for her children. | ||
| They don't get it through his work. | ||
| So, what we need to do is fix this health care premium issue and open the government. | ||
| But don't you need to do that before November 1st when premiums go up? | ||
| Are you going to end the shutdown before November 1st? | ||
| I would like to. | ||
| I'd like to. | ||
| We should be able to wrap this up this week if they will sit down and have a negotiation with us. | ||
| The president has spent one hour negotiating this issue with leadership in Congress. | ||
| That's it, one hour. | ||
| They need to get in the room and stay in the room until we can hash this out. | ||
| The president has said he wants to fix this premium thing, and he wants the government open. | ||
| That's what we want. | ||
| Wayne is calling from Bluefield, West Virginia, Line for Independence. | ||
| Good morning, Wayne. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thanks for taking my call. | ||
| I just, I'm a Vietnam era veteran. | ||
| Sad to see the government not work together. | ||
| They seem to be really cowardly in their approach. | ||
| No one wants to talk. | ||
| I remember back when Chip O'Neill was in the speaker, they could work together, regardless who's in the House. | ||
| Yet Congress has no sacrifices. | ||
| They continue to get paid again to travel at the taxpayers' time, and yet they don't want to pay federal employees who are doing their job. | ||
| I just hope that Congress will come to their senses and at least discuss things, not try to hold each other hostage over one single issue. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was Wayne in West Virginia. | ||
| This is Thomas calling from Fresno, California, on the line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Thomas. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| You know, yesterday I participated in the No Kings protest here in Fresno, California. | ||
| And what I observed was thousands of American citizens that are voters. | ||
| Mike Johnson, Hakeem Jeffries. | ||
| You know, the game is cool when they sit and they're getting paid on taxpayer dollars. | ||
| They have health care on taxpayer dollars. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But then those individuals that pay taxes are denied services because we vote for individuals to have what we can't have. | |
| I thought I voted for them to go to Washington to make sure that my needs were met, not to basically seek power for themselves, wealth for themselves, the insider trading. | ||
| It's starting to get a little ridiculous here in America, where we, the taxpayers, the voters, send these individuals to Washington to do nothing for us. | ||
| But the corporations seem to glean from their power, not the people of the United States of America. | ||
| When are we going to wake up as voters, as citizens of this great nation, and put an end to this? | ||
| Thank you very much, and everyone have a nice day. | ||
| That was Thomas in California. | ||
| It is day 20 of the government shutdown. | ||
| That is our topic for this first hour of Washington Journal. | ||
| You can give us a call if you'd like to weigh in on the discussion. | ||
| The lines: Republicans 202-748-8001. | ||
| Democrats 202-748-8000. | ||
| And Independents 202-748-8002 or 8002. | ||
| And a reminder: if you are a federal worker, you can call in at 202-748-8003. | ||
| It is the 20th day of the shutdown. | ||
| As a reminder, the funding expired on September 30th at midnight. | ||
| It's the 21st lapse of federal Funding and shutdowns since the 1980s, the fourth during a Trump administration. | ||
| The longest shutdown lasted 35 days. | ||
| It went from December 22nd of 2008 to January 25th of 2019. | ||
| This morning, Punch Bowl News noting that it is the third longest shutdown in U.S. history. | ||
| It's already the longest full government shutdown ever. | ||
| That 2018-2019 was a partial shutdown. | ||
| And the 1995-90s spit 96, which was the second longest and lasted 21 days, that was also a partial shutdown. | ||
| Back to your calls. | ||
| James, calling from Alexandria, Virginia, who is a federal worker. | ||
| Good morning, James. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, yes, ma'am. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Go ahead, James. | ||
| You're on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, so there's a number of concerns here I think that are longer term that we're not really accounting for here. | |
| Yes, there's short-term impacts to federal employees, to the functions of the government that deliver to the people day in, day out. | ||
| It's also longer-term impacts. | ||
| If you have everybody out of work for a month, programs can be delayed two, three, four, five months just because of that trickle-down effect. | ||
| So you're delaying services from the government to the people longer term as well. | ||
| And then, third, every day that the government is shut down, you're also impacting the perception of U.S. markets, whether that's climate to invest in or it's the willingness of a company to take a risk. | ||
| You're impacting that slightly by not having reliability in the federal government in that way. | ||
| So there's a number of longer-term impacts there from these shutdowns that are cyclical, right? | ||
| This may be headed towards being one of the longer ones, but this has happened frequently. | ||
| So what I would like to see, who I think a lot of folks would be supportive of, is what measures can Congress or the government put in place to prevent these in the future or to at least mitigate these in the future. | ||
| Maybe that's a tool of negotiation for the majority here, but it's sorely needed because there's a lot of downstream impacts that are hurting the country. | ||
| James, what's your status right now? | ||
| Are you furloughed or are you going to work still? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, ma'am. | |
| I'm working currently. | ||
| Again, I'm calling in here as a private citizen. | ||
| That was James in Alexandria, Virginia. | ||
| Carol is calling from Massachusetts on the line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Carol. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I'm saying this, making a statement for the American people. | ||
| American people, this is on you. | ||
| You did this because you voted this congressman in. | ||
| All these congressmen have been in power and have been voted in for years and years and years. | ||
| What you need to do is start voting them out and vote for more independents or people who are more moderate in their thinking and not far right or far left. | ||
| So people like Schumer, I'm so tired of listening to him. | ||
| He's what, 44 years in Congress or something? | ||
| And what does he do? | ||
| Nothing but cause trouble. | ||
| You need to vote these people out and vote for younger, more knowledgeable, younger people who know what's going on and have more business sense. | ||
| So you did this to yourself, American people. | ||
| And I do agree with one thing. | ||
| I do not think we should be paying health care for illegal immigrants. | ||
| And I know you don't have the time, but I have two or three incidents that have happened where American people taxpayer have had to be set aside and wait in emergency rooms so the staff could take care of people who are illegal and not even here for, you know, have a job or doing everything else, but just using our tax and tax money. | ||
| So vote these people out. | ||
| Get rid of them next time. | ||
| You did it to yourself, American people. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was Carol. | ||
| And this is from Fox News. | ||
| It says, President Donald Trump blasted Democrats for prolonging the government's shutdown in an interview on Sunday, vowing to permanently eliminate what he called Democratic, quote, welfare programs. | ||
| He went on to say that Trump argued that Democrats lack strong leadership and viable candidates for an upcoming election. | ||
| He said that the shutdown stalemate gives him leverage to cut billions of programs in programs Republicans have long wanted to eliminate. | ||
| That is from an interview yesterday on Sunday Morning Futures. | ||
| Here is a clip from that interview. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Do you think that the government shutdown is all about this rally that's happening this weekend, the No Kings Rally? | |
| No, I mean, some people say they want to delay it for that. | ||
| King, this is one of the things. | ||
| You know, they're saying they're referring to me as a king. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm not a king. | |
| Right. | ||
| No, but just so that Chuck Schumer could go and say, I'm fighting Trump. | ||
| Well, Chuck is, you know, at the end of the line. | ||
| He's being beaten by everybody that they poll against him. | ||
| And, you know, what he did is he did the right thing a couple of years ago on something like this. | ||
| And he got hurt by his party. | ||
| And it doesn't, I don't think it matters to him. | ||
| I think he's just so dead that he'll do anything. | ||
| I think they could just stay out forever. | ||
| I mean, to be honest with you, now, what we're doing is we're cutting Democrat programs that we didn't want because, I mean, they made one mistake. | ||
| They didn't realize that that gives me the right to cut programs that Republicans never wanted. | ||
| You know, giveaways, welfare programs, et cetera. | ||
| And we're doing that, and we're cutting them permanently. | ||
| We're cutting a $20 billion project that Schumer fought for 15 years to get. | ||
| And I'm cutting the project. | ||
| The project is going to be dead. | ||
| It is pretty much dead right now. | ||
| Barbara is calling from Columbus, Ohio on the Line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Barbara. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I'm calling about what the Democrats should be talking about, and so should the media. | ||
| Fox News is nothing but propaganda. | ||
| And what we need to be talking about is the reason for the shutdown. | ||
| And it had to do with the fact that they did not want the Epstein files made public. | ||
| And that's also the reason that the Republicans will not swear in the new Democratic candidate from out west because she has the last vote who would cause these files to be made public. | ||
| And SCOTUS is the biggest problem because they're the ones who are giving Trump all the power that he needs. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was Barbara in Ohio. | ||
| Robert is calling from Illinois, Line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Robert. | ||
|
unidentified
|
McCall. | |
| Hello. | ||
| Can you hear me? | ||
| Yes, go ahead, Robert. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, thank you. | |
| Well, I hate to say this, but Donald Trump, he may not actually be a king, but he's acting like a gangster, which pretty much has the same connotations. | ||
| I mean, just look at the people that he's pardoned already. | ||
| They're all criminals. | ||
| And George Santos, the GN6 combatants, Rob Lagorovich, Prabhupada's Old Keith. | ||
| And the list goes on. | ||
| And he's turned the government into his own personal Group of criminals, also talking about he doesn't take a salary, Donald Trump. | ||
| Who needs a salary when you can embezzle money from the American people in other ways? | ||
| So, as far as I'm concerned, the country would be better off without Donald Trump ever since he came down that escalator. | ||
| Actually, even before he was a criminal. | ||
| And that's why there's so much attention. | ||
| Or, I mean, if it was the same thing with Al Capone, you know, they went after him too because they knew he was a criminal doing criminal activities. | ||
| That was Robert in Illinois. | ||
| Robert mentioning George Santos, who President Trump pardoned last week. | ||
| Former Congressman Santos was on Fox News yesterday talking about the commutation. | ||
| Here is a clip from that interview. | ||
| So, you were convicted of identity theft and wire fraud, basically misusing the funds that donors campaign funds for personal reasons. | ||
| Why shouldn't you have served out your full term? | ||
| Look, Charlie, I understand people want to make this into a he's getting away with it, right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm not getting away with it. | |
| I was the first person to ever go to federal prison for this type of civil FEC violation. | ||
| These are usually solved in penalties, and I don't want to focus on trying to rehash the past. | ||
| I want to take this experience and do good and move on with the future. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Repentance is an understatement. | |
| It's like I have been dealt a second chance. | ||
| I have a lot to prove to a lot of people, and I have to make sure President Trump understands that I am not going to disappoint him. | ||
| C-SPAN's Washington Journal, our live forum inviting you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics, and public policy from Washington and across the country. | ||
| Coming up Tuesday morning, we'll talk about the government shutdown, President Trump's economic policies, and the upcoming November elections with the Club for Growth's David McIntosh. |