| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
Probably a significant cultural difference here because in China it's extremely difficult to get to control the substance even through doctors, even through doctors' prescriptions because doctors have watched this so closely and by default they're not now supposed to keep people painkillers, especially controlled substance painkillers unless there is absolute need like cancer. | |
| So I think the two societies operate with very different ground rules and very different assumptions, which has created this problem that I think in the United States, doctors are indeed much more prone to giving people controlled substance painkillers compared to doctors in other countries. | ||
| Not to say that this practice is wrong, but it does contribute to the cause. | ||
| Yin Sun is the program director of China Studies and Senior Fellow at the Stimson Center. | ||
| Thank you very much for your insight and conversation this morning. | ||
| We appreciate it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Gratas. | |
| Thank you for having me. | ||
| We'll get to your thoughts here in just a minute. | ||
| Let's begin with the latest. | ||
| Here are some headlines on the government shutdown from Politico. | ||
| The Senate Majority Leader John Thune says he will engage pretty soon with Democrats about ending the shutdown. | ||
| Semaphore, with a similar headline this morning, thaw in shutdown talks raises senators' hopes for a deal next week. | ||
| And then there is also this from the Washington Post. | ||
| According to a new report, the government shutdown will cost the economy up to $14 billion. | ||
| And from the New York Times this morning, Obamacare prices become public, highlighting big increases. | ||
| The headline continues. | ||
| The government website now shows consumers how much their health insurance costs will increase next year as Congress remains at an impasse over the planned subsidies. | ||
| And then from the Hill newspaper, President Trump pitches working with Democrats on Obamacare alternative. | ||
| Listen to the president traveling to South Korea on Air Force One earlier on Wednesday, floating the idea of working with Democrats on the Affordable Care Act. | ||
| The Democrats have caused the problem on food stamps. | ||
| All they have to do is sign. | ||
| And, you know, if they sign, I'll meet with them. | ||
| They're all saying, well, they actually said Trump is doing an amazing job in this trip. | ||
| This trip will bring you back trillions of dollars, so it's hard, but they do want to meet with me when I get back. | ||
| But I say get the economy open and we'll meet. | ||
| I'll meet and we'll solve any difficulties. | ||
| We have to fix health care because Obamacare is a disaster. | ||
| I mean, when you see the increases in Obamacare, it never worked. | ||
| It never will work. | ||
| And we can do something with the Democrats much better than Obamacare. | ||
| Less money and better health care. | ||
| And that's something I think that could come out of this with the Democrats. | ||
| You work with the Democrats. | ||
| Because right now the insurance companies are making too much money. | ||
| And they're making a fortune. | ||
| And the healthcare, Obamacare is poor. | ||
| And the premiums are ridiculous. | ||
| It's going up a lot. | ||
| I don't want to say the number. | ||
| The number is very substantial. | ||
| But when you hear the number, and it's Obamacare, it never worked. | ||
| It never will work. | ||
| It'll never be good. | ||
| And I think it's a great time for the Republicans and Democrats to get together and make something that will work and let the insurance companies make money. | ||
| They're entitled to that, but not the kind of money that they're making. | ||
| Would you bring Democrats in to have that discussion? | ||
| Yeah, I would do that, sure. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But now, sir? | |
| I'd say open up the government and we'll work it out. | ||
| I think a lot of good things could happen from it. | ||
| President Trump aboard Air Force One on his way to South Korea on Wednesday. | ||
| Heard him say he's willing to talk to Democrats, but first they have to open up the government. | ||
| Democrats have said all along, we're not going to agree to open up the government until you sit down and talk to us about these affordable care enhanced tax credits. | ||
| Now, the president right now is on his way back to the United States, finishing up his trip to Asia. | ||
| And the news out of South Korea, out of the last stop of this trip, here's BBC's headline: President Trump lowers tariffs on China and announces an end to rare earth roadblock after a meeting with the prime with the Chinese president in South Korea. | ||
| We're going to be talking about his meeting with the Chinese president coming up on the Washington Journal in the bottom half here of our first hour. | ||
| This morning, though, government shutdown day 30. | ||
| This looks like it's heading into next week and could surpass the longest government shutdown of 35 days. | ||
| We'll continue to get your thoughts here this morning on the Washington Journal and your message to both the president and lawmakers on Capitol Hill. | ||
| What do you want them to do about the government shutdown? | ||
| Let's go to Crystal, who's in North Dakota, Republican Europe. | ||
| First, Crystal, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, good morning. | |
| What an honor to be first with you, Greta. | ||
| I am standing with the president and standing with the Republicans because we're looking at reducing the cost of our government. | ||
| And because of that, I got a question and I don't know where to go for the answer to this. | ||
| All the tariff money that's coming in, billions and billions and billions, where is that going? | ||
| Is that going into the Treasury? | ||
| Is that helping pay some of the other costs for our government? | ||
| Because I know that we're talking about that. | ||
| Plus, here in North Dakota, we've got soybean farmers. | ||
| And they will be so pleased that the agreement, the trade agreement that President Trump made with soybean sales is going to help our economy. | ||
| And then the last thing is: where does this person who wrote, I think it's on Politico, that you just sit over talking about, with the cost to our economy of billions? | ||
| Well, how come? | ||
| Where is that? | ||
| Don't they think that all of us who are waiting are going to be spending once this all gets resolved? | ||
| Don't they think maybe some of us are going to start traveling again? | ||
| I think the economy is going to recover when we get all this settled. | ||
| And it's going to be a plus, plus, plus for our country. | ||
| Our economy is going to thrive. | ||
| We're going to go shopping. | ||
| Christmas is coming. | ||
| Thanksgiving is coming. | ||
| There's going to be trips. | ||
| I don't see all the negativity. | ||
| I really don't. | ||
| Okay. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you for letting me talk. | |
| Yeah, let me read a little bit from the story. | ||
| This is from the Washington Times. | ||
| It was the Washington Post headline I shared with you, but it's also in the Washington Times because it's from the Congressional Budget Office. | ||
| Their analysis shows that it could cost the economy up to $14 billion. | ||
| Not only are federal food benefits set to run out on Saturday, but the U.S. economy could lose up to $14 billion due to the ongoing shutdown. | ||
| The shutdown will have a negative effect on the economy that will mostly, but not entirely, reverse once the shutdown ends. | ||
| This is from the CBO. | ||
| And Crystal, you just said that. | ||
| The analysis looks at three scenarios: a four-week shutdown ending October 29th, a six-week shutdown ending November 12th, and an eight-week shutdown ending November 26th. | ||
| Thursday today marks the day 30 of the shutdown with Democrats and Republicans still at an impasse on how to fund the government. | ||
| So this is in the papers this morning for you, Crystal, and others. | ||
| The CBO analysis saying it could cost the economy $14 billion. | ||
| And they also note this deadline of Saturday when food aid known as SNAP, funding for that is suspended if we're still in a government shutdown. | ||
| Let's go to the Senate floor yesterday when Senator Ben Ray Lujan, Democrat of New Mexico, tried to get passed by unanimous consent a bill that would fund food stamps. | ||
| And the reaction from the Senate Majority Leader, John Thun. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The Trump administration has the authority and the funds to keep SNAP running during this shutdown. | |
| And don't take my word for it. | ||
| Look at the USDA's own guidance that they removed from their website that justifies this. | ||
| Any failure to do so right now falls squarely on the Trump administration and Republicans. | ||
| We could vote on this today, on this bill or one that Senator Hawley's authored as well that has many Republican colleagues that are co-sponsors to prevent a hunger crisis. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This pain does not need to happen. | |
| Reserving the right to object, let me just point out, if I might, that we are 29 days into a Democrat shutdown. | ||
| And the senator from New Mexico was absolutely right. | ||
| SNAP recipients shouldn't go without food. | ||
| People should be getting paid in this country. | ||
| And we've tried to do that 13 times. | ||
| And you voted no 13 times. | ||
| This isn't a political game. | ||
| These are real people's lives that we're talking about. | ||
| And you all have just figured out, 29 days in, that, oh, there might be some consequences. | ||
| There are people who run out of money. | ||
| Yeah, we're 29 days in. | ||
| And they've done their best to make sure that a lot of these programs are funded. | ||
| But at some point, the government runs out of money. | ||
| 13 times, people over here voted to fund SNAP. | ||
| 13 times they voted to fund WIC. | ||
| My Akin back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Finally realized this thing has consequences. | |
| An angry Republican leader, John Thune, on the floor yesterday responding to Democrats' attempts to pass funding for SNAP benefits. | ||
| The food aid runs out of money on Saturday. | ||
| 42 million Americans affected by this lapse in funding for food stamps. | ||
| Your message to Washington on day 30 of the government shutdown, Donald in North Carolina, Independent. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning, everybody, America. | |
| I view the world like a two-sided corn. | ||
| There's two sides to have the issue. | ||
| So I'm not going to be here blaming the Republicans or the Democrats in the House and the Senate. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But they did know Obamacare was ending at the end of this year. | |
| And it was the GOP and the DNC's responsibility. | ||
| They should have started a year ago sending out notices that Obamacare was going to end. | ||
| So that's what's happening, the shock of the world that Obamacare is ending. | ||
| But we could have started reminding people over a year ago. | ||
| I have three other issues that I'd like to bring up. | ||
| Donald, pick one more because we've got folks waiting. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, I'm an independent, and I chose to be an independent because I was unhappy with both the Democratic and Independent Party. | |
| So if you're unhappy with the party you're with, register as an independent voter. | ||
| All right. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you very much. | |
| All right, Donald. | ||
| Following up on Donald's comments about the Affordable Care Act and the cost going up from the New York Times, we shared this headline earlier inside their reporting. | ||
| A rise of 30% in 30 states and 17% in others is what is expected. | ||
| Lisa in Alexandria, Virginia, a Republican. | ||
| Hi, Lisa. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| I just noticed how you used the word Thune, Senator Thune, angrily, and then the words for Senator Lujan. | ||
| You say he passionately fought. | ||
| Well, Senator Thun. | ||
| I didn't say passionately, Lisa. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, well, your words were more positive to him. | |
| But you didn't talk about how Senator Thune passionately fought for the soldiers to be paid. | ||
| And Lujan and the Democrats just walked away. | ||
| Democrats bought themselves, and that is why they are walking away crying because people aren't buying it. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| All right, Lisa. | ||
| Lots of newspapers, political observers noting that the mild-mannered Republican leader John Thune was angry on the floor yesterday. | ||
| The clip that we showed you, you can find it on our website at cspan.org. | ||
| Ron in Indiana, Democratic caller, let's hear from you, Ron. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| We're at the big dog and pony show. | ||
| Everybody's, I don't know if they're selling snake oil or BS. | ||
| We got people out there, the lobbyists writing every bill. | ||
| Maybe not everyone, but we have 15, what, 1,500 lobbyists just for the drug companies alone. | ||
| And Ron, tie this back to the government shutdown. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, the shutdown was a ploy for cutting out the Epstein files, trying to delay matters and look good on both sides, I guess. | |
| I don't know, looking bad. | ||
| We need some help. | ||
| These people have been, they should have solved the immigrant problem 40, 50 years ago. | ||
| They didn't do that. | ||
| Not necessarily socialized medicine. | ||
| We don't have the best medical system in the world. | ||
| It costs us twice as much for everything. | ||
| I just had open heart surgery here. | ||
| All right, Ron, I'm going to leave it there. | ||
| Pasquelli in Arizona, independent. | ||
| Let's turn to you. | ||
| In Arizona. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Hello. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| It's your turn. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I was just a lot of questions. | |
| I don't understand what the Democrats are doing. | ||
| You know, they should be more worried about learning the government instead of having to shut down work on a part-time basis. | ||
| All right, Caller. | ||
| We'll listen to the reporting this morning from Punch Bowl News. | ||
| Today is October 30th. | ||
| That means it's been a month since the fiscal year 2025 ended and federal agencies closed. | ||
| This will become the longest government shutdown in American history by the end of next week, barring some miracle. | ||
| The Senate is heading home this afternoon without doing anything to reopen the government. | ||
| There's been absolutely no movement for weeks now. | ||
| Every potential off-ramp has been closed, with both Republicans and Democrats digging in even deeper. | ||
| Has that definitely changed? | ||
| No. | ||
| But there's been some optimistic talks in the Capitol over the last few days with rank and file senators saying they've started, restarted bipartisan negotiations over fiscal year 2026 spending bills. | ||
| Let's be abundantly clear here. | ||
| A bipartisan appropriations package doesn't solve what's at the heart of the shutdown impasse. | ||
| A fundamental disagreement over the COVID-era enhanced Obamacare premium subsidies. | ||
| Democrats have said they won't vote to reopen the government without a concrete deal on these tax credits. | ||
| And the vast majority of Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, have little to no interest in extending them. | ||
| Thun raised eyebrows Wednesday after saying he would be meeting pretty soon with Democrats who've been involved in informal bipartisan talks over health care and the shutdown. | ||
| But Thune later said he doesn't have anything to report about a potential meeting and said his position remains the same. | ||
| Open up the government, then we'll talk. | ||
| Kathy in Pennsylvania, Republican, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, everyone. | |
| I just have maybe a solution to the shutdown. | ||
| I think what we need to do is start fining these senators. | ||
| Fine them $2,000 a day. | ||
| Let them feel some pain. | ||
| Maybe the shutdown will end. | ||
| Thanks, everyone. | ||
| Have a great day. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Matt in New York and Independent. | ||
| Matt, what do you say? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Yes. | ||
| First off, they keep saying that it's a Democrat shutdown, but it's not. | ||
| It's the Republicans are not changing what they want, so the Democrats aren't agreeing to it. | ||
| So it's not just a Democratic shutdown. | ||
| They say that. | ||
| But don't, please don't cut me off. | ||
| The more important point is, why don't they stop paying both sides of the people that are voting there that are shutting it down, the Democrats and Republicans? | ||
| Other people aren't getting paid in the federal government. | ||
| Why not give these people and not give their paychecks? | ||
| I bet they come back and open up the government very fast if they're not getting their paychecks. | ||
| It seems very weird that everyone else, the federal people, aren't getting their paychecks, but they're still getting their paychecks paid. | ||
| All right. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That seems a little bit weird. | |
| And the other thing is, the other thing is the most recent picture of Donald Trump on the plane. | ||
| He's got like a fake ear. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Michael, Florida, Democratic caller. | ||
| Yes, good morning. | ||
| How are you? | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The reason I'm calling about this shutdown is, first of all, I want to thank the Democrats for finally standing up and getting and doing something because there's too many people on their knees for this president. | |
| They won't stand up and be men and stand up against this guy. | ||
| They won't speak out against this guy because they're scared of him. | ||
| They need to start being men and women and stand up to this gentleman. | ||
| So, Michael, your message to the party is do not cave. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's right. | |
| Do not cave. | ||
| Stand your ground. | ||
| Do not cave. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Michael there, Democratic caller in Florida. | ||
| What's happening today in Washington? | ||
| We will hear from the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, once again. | ||
| He'll hold a news conference at 10 a.m. Eastern Time, along with other Republican leaders on day 30 of the government shutdown. | ||
| President Trump will arrive at the White House around 3 p.m. Eastern Time, and he will join the First Lady for a Halloween celebration at the White House. |