| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
Congressional Pay During Shutdown
00:01:57
|
||
| It's toll-felt and we need to do better. | ||
| We have to go forward and get this economy back on a strong stretch and also provide for those issues and concepts that really feed the everyday needs of America's families. | ||
| Congressman, we've also heard from a couple of viewers today saying that members of Congress should be fined while there is a government shutdown. | ||
| And another caller said members of Congress should not be receiving pay. | ||
| How do you respond? | ||
| Well, you know, in responding to that, I have ordered the desk at the House to hold my check until this process is done. | ||
| If we're not paying our federal employees, I should follow suit. | ||
| Paul Tonko, Democrat of New York. | ||
| Thank you, sir, for your time from Capitol Hill. | ||
| My pleasure, Greta. | ||
| More of your calls coming up here in open forum, but first, let's go back up to Capitol Hill. | ||
| Congressman Pat Harrigan, Republican of North Carolina, member of the Armed Services Committee representing the 10th District, joining us this morning. | ||
| Sir, thank you for your time. | ||
| Let's talk about the government shutdown. | ||
| We're in day 30 here, sir. | ||
| What are you hearing from your constituents about both their health care costs? | ||
| What are they seeing? | ||
| And food stamps. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, look, this shutdown has caused real harm to real people. | |
| And I think that there's been a ton of finger pointing over who's responsible for the shutdown. | ||
| Clearly, we understand that Democrats are responsible for the shutdown, but really it's not about who's responsible. | ||
| The reality is that the only thing that's assured during a shutdown is that the American people lose. | ||
| We've got real policy debates that need to happen. | ||
| I think everybody understands that health care is unaffordable in our country. | ||
| The Affordable Care Act is anything but affordable. | ||
| The presence and necessity of subsidies from the Democratic side, I think, admits that by fact, by default. | ||
| And so we've got work to do, but we've got to do that work while the government is open. | ||
| Otherwise, our troops aren't getting paid. | ||