| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
What needs to be done? | |
| All right. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Carol, thank you. | |
| I really, I literally said that this morning, actually. | ||
| I didn't say panties, I said pants, but I think we're on the same page here. | ||
| I also serve on the Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee, so going after monopolies. | ||
| And what you say is true. | ||
| People continue to see their health care premiums go up. | ||
| You have for-profit health care monopolies that are controlling not just your access, but how much you have to cost for a procedure and also your pharmaceutical prices are going up. | ||
| So part of this is, yes, we got to get in the room and be real about getting to a solution. | ||
| And also, we got to go after the health care industry. | ||
| Rebecca Ballant, or Representative Becca Ballant, Democrat of Vermont, thanks so much for joining us. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| My pleasure. | ||
| Welcome to today's Washington Journal. | ||
| Let's start with Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson. | ||
| He made these comments yesterday at his press conference. | ||
| It's the profound fear in the Democratic Party that drives this shutdown. | ||
| It is not principle. | ||
| It is not policy. | ||
| It is certainly not concerned for the constituents that they say that they want to represent. | ||
| We know that because even their own constituents now are begging Democrats to stop the political games and reopen the government. | ||
| Just yesterday, the largest union of federal workers, the very people that the Democrats claim that they fight for, came out publicly and urged the Democrats to join the Republicans in passing the House's very simple short-term funding bill. | ||
| Also, yesterday, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association began to put up flyers in airports to explain the real danger that is being imposed for air travel, air safety in this country, highlighting what the Democrats are doing. | ||
| So I just want to say this simply to our Democrat colleagues. | ||
| You have an off-ramp now. | ||
| You painted yourself into a corner, but here's your off-ramp. | ||
| The unions, the largest unions, are saying, please do this. | ||
| You can claim that as cover and say that you had to do it. | ||
| Reopen the government. | ||
| Get it working for the people. | ||
| It's our number one priority and responsibility as members of Congress. | ||
| But Senate Democrats have refused to do it for almost a month now. | ||
| And that's the Speaker of the House. | ||
| And this is a politico article with the headline, troops will get their paychecks this week, Vance says. | ||
| The vice president spoke after a Senate GOP lunch where he got an earful about the administration's plan to import Argentinian beef. | ||
| It says that he was suggesting to reporters yesterday that President Donald Trump has identified a new funding to identify new funding to avoid a first ever lapse in troop pay. | ||
| Here's his quote. | ||
| We believe that we can continue to pay the troops on Friday. | ||
| Unfortunately, we're not going to be able to pay everybody because we've been handed a very bad hand by the Democrats. | ||
| Let's take a look at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. | ||
| He was obviously at the Capitol yesterday and he was asked about that government employees union. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Did AFGE President Everet Kelly speak to you before he put out a statement Monday? | |
| And how do you respond to his statement that both parties have made their points? | ||
| Now it's time to reopen the government with a clean, continuous state. | ||
| Very simple, same thing. | ||
| I told him we can do both and we need to do both. | ||
| Both. | ||
| Have federal workers get paid in every way and negotiate a way to resolve the Americans' pain in the health care crisis. | ||
| Yes, yes, yes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Putting blame aside here, what is your strategy to end the shutdown? | |
| Look, on November 1st, more than people in people in more than 30 states are going to be aghast, aghast, when they see their bills, and they're going to cry out. | ||
| And I believe there will be increased pressure on Republicans to negotiate with us. | ||
| Senator Chuck Schumer, and we are going to your phones now to talk about the government shutdown with you. | ||
| This is Mark in Poughkeepsie, New York, Independent. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I just don't understand why Mike Johnson is shown every day on TV, but it says the same stuff over and over and over. | ||
| Like, I just don't know why you guys keep showing them, but I guess you have to or whatever. | ||
| As far as voting, I never voted before in my life until this election. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Because I always believe in doing something. | ||
| I joined the Marine Corps to protect people. | ||
| I help people all the time. | ||
| I always think about help, help, help. | ||
| How can I help somebody? | ||
| Okay, so now I decided to vote. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| And I'm not voting for anybody. | ||
| I am voting against the current administration. | ||
| So I was a non-voter. | ||
| There's about 70 million of us. | ||
| And I encourage all non-voters to get out there and actually do something by voting. | ||
| And it doesn't mean you have to vote. | ||
| You have to agree with everybody. | ||
| Just vote your conscience like that, what you believe. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| And let's see if we can change this, turn this around from a rich, poor country, right? | ||
| Everybody's richer against poor, poor against rich, okay? | ||
| And turn it into a helping country where everybody just goes out and just helps somebody. | ||
| That's all God wants us to do. | ||
| So one person on Mark, what was it about this past election that made you finally start voting? | ||
| And I'm assuming you're going to start voting and this wasn't just a one-off. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, no, no. | |
| I started voting yesterday. | ||
| I did vote. | ||
| And no, it's not a one-off because you have to stand up for something. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| What made me do it? | ||
| Well, when the no-kings come around, right, the protests, and those are the only group that have a spine, right, that will get out there and actually say something and do something. | ||
| And each person can talk. | ||
| I was offered to talk, all right? | ||
| But I'm not a talker. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| I'm a doer. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| All we have in Congress and the Senate and the presidency is talkers. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| I'm not one of them. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| But you have to take a stand somewhere in life. | ||
| You have to take a stand. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| And this is a time that both sides are taking a hard stand. | ||
| It's almost like childish. | ||
| You know, it's not even an adult stand. | ||
| It's just people wanting their own way. | ||
| Stop wanting your own way and just help people. | ||
| That's all. | ||
| Just help people, regardless whether they're Republican, Democrat, Independent, whatever they are, whatever you label people as. | ||
| Okay, like they've labeled illegal aliens as illegal. | ||
| They're not illegal aliens. | ||
| In that case, we are all illegal aliens if you believe that this is God's planet because we are legally on his planet. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| All right, Mark. | ||
| We got your point. | ||
| And we are taking your calls on the government shutdown. | ||
| We've got the phone lines on your screen. | ||
| It's 202748-8001 for Republicans. | ||
| It's 202-748-8000 for Democrats. | ||
| And 202-748-8002 for Independents. | ||
| If you are a federal worker, that line for you is 202-748-8003. | ||
| And Betty is on the line for Democrats in Jackson, Tennessee. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| I have three things to say. | ||
| I'm pretty near 90 years old. | ||
| The gentleman that was just on there, the reason Mr. Johnson lies because you tell a lie once and it's a lie. | ||
| You tell a lie a million times and for some reason it becomes the truth. | ||
| I don't understand our president has this romance with the fountain pen. | ||
| Why he can't just sign one of them executive orders and open the government. | ||
| That's what he does for everything else, and nobody ever stops him from doing anything. | ||
| And my last thing I got to say is: I hope Mr. Johnson and the president live a lot longer than I do. | ||
| I hope they have a long life. | ||
| Because when I get up there at them pearly gates, I don't want to be standing behind them because you've got to answer for every lie and every sin you've ever committed. | ||
| And Lord have mercy, I'll be standing there from now on. | ||
| That's all I got to say. | ||
| Here's Woodrow in Georgia, Republican. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| How are you? | ||
| Good. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I feel sorry for that lady. | |
| She doesn't know the difference. | ||
| She thinks President Trump can just sign a pen and open up the government, boy. | ||
| You've been living this country all your life, but when you suffer for lack of knowledge, it's a powerful thing. | ||
| People don't understand. | ||
| President Trump can't go there and open up the government. | ||
| They think they can hold the whole world hostage about an insurance plan. | ||
| Hell, I don't get Obamacare when I try to get it. | ||
| They said I didn't qualify for it. | ||
| And so for Chuck Truman and them to not want to go vote to shut the whole world down, we're retired military, but to shut the whole world down because of some insurance, that's crazy. | ||
| And if he thinks that he's hurting anybody other than the poor people who he saved fuck, he's lying to himself. | ||
| But what they need to do is cut all of them people's checks off. | ||
| If they wasn't getting no money, they'll go sit down and do what's right. | ||
| But Chuck Truman, them, they're getting paid until somebody vote to do that. | ||
| And I heard a man call the other day and ask a question, but it was like, see, the guy that takes your place, he was scared to ask him. | ||
| He was asking, is Congress getting paid? | ||
| Yeah, they get their money. | ||
| Are they on Obamacare? | ||
| Hell no, they ain't on Obamacare. | ||
| They're getting the best of everything. | ||
| So until they feel what the average Joe feels, I don't care what party you are, they ain't going to never change their mind. | ||
| But to think you're going to hold somebody, the whole government hostage to be able to force somebody to go for insurance, that's ludicrous. | ||
| All right, let's talk to Corliss in Suffolk, Virginia, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Are you a federal worker, Corliss? | |
| No, my family are federal workers. | ||
| I'm sorry. | ||
| Yep. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Go right ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I have a host of government, family, and military individuals that are extremely disappointed in the government, | |
| the shutdown that affects our own American citizens and have decided just to insult us by saying to the military, I'm a veteran, my husband's a veteran also, by saying to the military veterans also, thank you for your service, but we don't have anything for you. | ||
| But we're so discouraged by the foreigners that are in this country, and we don't even take care of our own American people. | ||
| The biggest insult in the world. | ||
| I don't understand it. | ||
| We should be ashamed of ourselves getting this divided in this unUnited States of America. | ||
| What a shame. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And this is Senate Majority Leader John Thune was on Capitol Hill yesterday, and he was asked about the potential for the Senate to consider standalone bills to fund certain programs or pay federal workers. | ||
| Take a look. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Are you inclined to continue to put up these standalone bills that perhaps pay the military to pay federal workers to provide SNAP assistance? | |
| Or do you think it has to be done all in one fell swoop? | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| I mean, this piecemeal approach where you do one off here, one off there to make it seem more politically palatable to somebody or less painful. | ||
| That's just a wrong way to do this. | ||
| There's just a simple way to do it, is to pick up the bill on the desk of the Senate and give us five more Democrat votes to pass it so that the president can sign into law and end the shutdown. | ||
| I get the rationale. | ||
| People think about these issues in terms of, well, this one, let's do this one, this one, or this one. | ||
| But that's not the way to approach this. | ||
| The way to approach this is just to reopen the government. | ||
| I think the White House, obviously, is faced with a tough decision. | ||
| They have to figure out how do they reallocate, reprioritize funding, where it goes, where it doesn't go. | ||
| And they're doing everything they can legally and with the capacity that they have available to them to try and make this, I think, as painless as possible. | ||
| But there is a point at which they don't have that capacity anymore. | ||
| And I think we've reached that point. | ||
| I think they're at a point now where the government either has to open up, the White House can try and reallocate, move money around. | ||
| But I think we're at a point now where it's simply a question of whether or not the Democrats are, you know, they're enough Democrats with enough backbone and enough courage to take on their left-wing groups out there. | ||
| And back to the calls now, Harold, Tennessee, Line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, ma'am. | |
| Yes, ma'am. | ||
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| Make no mistake. | ||
| This is Donald Trump's shutdown. | ||
| All he's got to do is just go up there and pay these, give these people these substances. | ||
| We've got $40 million to give to another country. | ||
| Now, we're talking about taking health care away from old people. | ||
| I mean, if you're young, healthy, and stuff, you're not near as big a risk. | ||
| But now, you go to these nursing homes and look at these old people and stuff. | ||
| You look at these little kids out here, they ain't going to get no snap benefits. | ||
| Just go up there and negotiate and put that in and take part of the wealthy people's tax breaks away and take that $40 million back that we gave them over there. | ||
| I mean, this is just, it's just wrong. | ||
| I mean, this is not biblical. | ||
| This is not nothing else besides wrong. | ||
| And all they got to do is just sit down. | ||
| They've spent enough time in this shutdown. | ||
| They can sit down and negotiate a deal on this health care plan easily. | ||
| But now, you know, Trump and them, I think they kind of like what they got. | ||
| They're just doing what they want to do now. | ||
| And yes, they can carve out a partial bill, you know, to feed the snap kids and stuff. | ||
| But this is little children we're talking about here. | ||
| This is just not the United States. | ||
| We've always took care of them, and we can take care of them again just by simply doing the tax breaks. | ||
| Take them back part of them. | ||
| The churches can kick in and fund this if they will. | ||
| There's just a lot of things that they could do, but decide to do this. | ||
| I mean, this is the worst option they could take. | ||
| And the Democrats know, and people do too, that if they go ahead and sign off on this and open this government back up, they're not going to bring us here back up. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Like I said, people are going to start to get their notices in their mail here about their insurance. | |
| It's going to be something that people can't afford. | ||
| And people will have to die for it. | ||
| We're going to go back where it was at one time. | ||
| People are going to choose medicine, but they're going to have to choose food or rent. | ||
| Now, you know, housing is high as a catchback now, and these old people can't afford it. | ||
| I mean, taxes are going up everywhere, property taxes, everywhere you look at, just to generate revenue. | ||
| All right, Harold. | ||
| And this is what John sent us on Facebook. | ||
| Democrats would rather shut down the government and watch American. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We'll leave this here, but you can finish watching it online at cspam.org. | |
| Now to the University of Mississippi, where Vice President JD Vance will be speaking at a Turning Point USA event. | ||
| When you make that covenant with the Lord on that altar, don't let that fire burn out from the altar. |