| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
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unidentified
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U.S. House returns later today at 4 p.m. Eastern on this day 43 of the federal government shutdown, the longest in U.S. history. | |
| Arizona Democratic Congresswoman-elect Autolita Gerhalva will then be sworn in by House Speaker Mike Johnson. | ||
| She won a special election two months ago to replace her late father. | ||
| Later, House members who last voted on September 19th will debate and then vote at about 7 p.m. Eastern on legislation to reopen the federal government and fund it through January 30th. | ||
| The Senate passed the bill with bipartisan support on Monday night. | ||
| The deal also guarantees a Senate vote in December to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies, which expire at the end of the year. | ||
| House Republican leaders said they have no plans to vote on the issue. | ||
| Live coverage of the House is on C-SPAN. | ||
| The House votes later today on the Senate-passed bill to fund agencies and reopen the government. | ||
| Joining us now to discuss that and take your calls is Rhys Gorman, politics reporter at Notice. | ||
| Reese, welcome to the program. | ||
| Thank you for having me on. | ||
| So it's been some seven weeks, over seven weeks, since the House has been in regular session. | ||
| They come back today. | ||
| Can you give us an idea of what the schedule will be today? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| And so they're looking to, first off, they're going to swear in Representative-elect Gorhalva, who is replacing her father, which has been a point of contention amongst those in the House, both Democrats and even some Republicans have called her to be sworn in. | ||
| So they'll be doing that around 4 o'clock. | ||
| And then after that, they're going to get to voting on the rule for this continued resolution. | ||
| The Senate passed continued resolution, passed out at the Rules Committee last night. | ||
| So they'll vote on the rule, which basically starts the kind of parameters for debate, gives the kind of parameters for amendments, et cetera. | ||
| There are not many, not any. | ||
| They're just going to get basically here. | ||
| They're going to come, they're going to debate, and then they will vote later on tonight. | ||
| And this should not have an issue passing. | ||
| This should pass relatively easily off the House floor and get to President Trump's desk later tonight. | ||
| And we will put the provisions of that bill up on the screen, but if you could remind us, Rhys, about what's in it and what's been agreed to on the Senate side. | ||
| Yeah, so originally the House passed the continued resolution to November 21st. | ||
| Obviously, that is not enough time to continue to fund the government and see it as we are a week away from November 21st. | ||
| And so that has been changed in the Senate to January 31st. | ||
| So it just extends the deadline. | ||
| There's a three-part appropriations mini-bus that is attached to it, which is basically three appropriations bills to fund three different sects of government. | ||
| It's MILCON VA and then a couple others that I'm blinking on at the moment, which basically funds the government, which is how appropriators in Congress is supposed to do appropriations. | ||
| They're supposed to fund government in individual portions through appropriations bills, not continued resolutions, as we have seen over the past couple years. | ||
| And so basically this will fund those parts of the government. | ||
| And then it will also reverse those layoffs that Trump's administration did at the onset of the shutdown, if you recall. | ||
| OMB Director Russ Vogt had said that he was going to make this as painful as possible for Democrats if the government were shut down. | ||
| Obviously, the government did shut down, so they did lay off quite a few federal workers at the onset. | ||
| And this was a bargaining tool the Senate used to get some of the Democrats and Independents on board with voting ultimately to fund the government, which will reverse those layoffs that happened since the beginning of the shutdown as a little bit more of an incentive to vote to reopen the government. | ||
| And I'll invite viewers to start calling in now. | ||
| If you'd like to talk to Reese Gorman of Notice, you can call us on our lines by party. | ||
| Democrats are on 202-748-8000. | ||
| Republicans 202-748-8001. | ||
| and Independence 202-748-8002. | ||
| We also have that line for federal workers. | ||
| It's 202-748-8003. | ||
| That's the same number you can use to send us a text. | ||
| And of course, we're on Facebook and on X. You mentioned, DeRees, that there's not a whole lot of time between now and January 30th, especially given the holidays in the middle. | ||
| Are they going to be able to finish all the appropriations bills and get this done? | ||
| Or are we facing possibly another shutdown? | ||
| That's the big question, isn't it? | ||
| I mean, Congress for so long has, they've been saying, well, we're going to do all 12 appropriations bills. | ||
| We're going to do all 12 appropriations. | ||
| But it's been a couple years since they've done that. | ||
| They've been living on this over a year. | ||
| They've been living on this Biden era continuing resolution funding levels at the Biden spending. | ||
| I mean, it's been a while since they have actually passed 12 appropriation bills. | ||
| And I've talked to a handful of appropriators numerous times that are very upset. | ||
| I mean, appropriators don't want to live on these continued resolutions, but they've had to. | ||
| And so basically, this three-quarter mini-bus is a good path and good start to get this government funded. | ||
| But a lot of times Congress, as many as the viewers know, as you know, likes to wait till the last minute to do things. | ||
| They don't like to get things kind of the ball rolling until they're running right up on deadline. | ||
| And I believe that after once these appropriations bills start, they will start trying to work on them. | ||
| But if history is any indication of where we're going to be going, they're going to be waiting to the last minute to actually try to pass some of these bills. | ||
| And it's going to be difficult. | ||
| It's going to be hard. | ||
| And so that's kind of where we are right now. | ||
| I guess we'll just have to wait and see. | ||
| But history is not very favorable to Congress passing all 12 appropriation bills right now. | ||
| Now, there's been a lot of flight delays and flight cancellations as part of the shutdown. | ||
| Have all the Republicans and I guess because the Republicans were not in Washington, have they all gotten back into town? | ||
| And is the Speaker expecting any issues with the members not getting into town? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Yeah, I do not believe everyone is in town as of right now. | ||
| I believe that the Speaker and the leadership team is hopeful that everyone will be in town by the vote. | ||
| They will obviously, they can keep a vote open for as long as possible. | ||
| And I believe that what we'll see happen is they will, if people are in town and they need the members to pass the bill, that they will just continue to hold the vote open for that elongated period of time. | ||
| But right now. | ||
| Yeah, yeah, no, sorry, go ahead. | ||
| Right now? | ||
| But right now, I think that they are confident that they will get their members back. | ||
| It's just a hopeful on the flight delays, but not everyone is currently back as of right now. | ||
| Just wanted to show our viewers a posting on X last night from Greg Stanton. | ||
| He's a Democrat of Arizona. | ||
| He said this, flying to D.C. to vote no on CR that fails to lower health care costs. | ||
| Representative Eli Crane, Representative Andy Biggs, and Representative Gosar are all on this flight. | ||
| We're making emergency stop in Kansas City to remove disruptive passenger. | ||
| None of my colleagues is a disruptor. | ||
| Freedom Caucus losing its mojo. | ||
| He follows up with that on a serious note. | ||
| Thank you, Kansas City Police, for handling the situation professionally and without incident. | ||
| I wonder if you saw that posting on X, Reese. | ||
| I did, yes, ma'am. | ||
| Yeah, it was just a little light Freedom Caucus fun. | ||
| Freedom Caucus is known for causing disruption in the House. | ||
| And it appears that the Congressman was making a Freedom Caucus joke. | ||
| All three of those members are members of the Freedom Caucus and Andy Biggs, former chairman of the Freedom Caucus even. | ||
| And so this is him just making a lighthearted joke at his Arizona colleagues here for not being the one to cause disruption on the plane. | ||
| What are you watching as far as Republican House members voting no on this? | ||
| What are you expecting? | ||
| Yeah, so if we, last, on this last CR that we saw passed, God, some 50 days ago now, only two Republicans voted against it. | ||
| It was Representative Thomas Massey of Kentucky, who will likely, almost 100%, I don't want to give it a certainty, but almost certainty that he will be voting against this one as well. | ||
| Republicans already been trying to get him on board. | ||
| And Victoria Sparks was the other member who voted against it. | ||
| Sparks is known to flip. | ||
| She's known to change her mind. | ||
| She's known to kind of just do, just vote wherever the wood takes her. | ||
| So she is kind of a wild card at the moment. | ||
| We don't really know how she's going to vote. | ||
| Another person to watch, I believe, is Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. | ||
| She's been very critical of Johnson. | ||
| She's been critical of some of Trump's even policy positions since the shutdown began. | ||
| I believe she voted, and the fact that she voted for this most recent CR that passed 50 days ago, but she has become more critical since this. | ||
| So I think she's one to watch. | ||
| I think Representative Kevin Kiley is another person to watch. | ||
| He's been really aggravated with the speaker about redistricting. | ||
| He was in California. | ||
| He was just drawn out of his district due to the California redistricting. | ||
| So he is a little aggrieved at the moment and has a bone to pick. | ||
| So I would be watching those four. | ||
| But if I had to put kind of just make my best guess at the moment, I believe that probably you would just see Victoria Sparks and Massey be the only no's. | ||
| But I do think there's a likelihood that Massey is just the only no. | ||
| But Republicans feel very bullish right now that they have the votes to get this done with Republicans alone. | ||
| But I also believe that if you watch, you'll get a handful of Democrats. | ||
| I think a lot of the Blue Dog Democrats that will be voting for it. | ||
| Representative Jared Golden, former chair of the Blue Dog Coalition, was the only Democrat in the House to vote for this continuing resolution. | ||
| Last time I was on board, Marie Gluzenkamp Perez, who is currently co-chair of the Blue Dog Coalition, tried to vote yes but did not get her vote in on time. | ||
| So there would be two Democrats supporting it right there. | ||
| I think you'll see quite Henry Queyar spoke positively about the resolutions but stopped short of just saying that he's going to vote yes. | ||
| But I think I would not be surprised if some of those more moderate vulnerable Democrats do vote yes on this continuing resolution today. | ||
| But I think Republicans from that piece source that I'm talking to and leadership are bullish that they have the votes amongst Republicans to pass this, especially because the Freedom Caucus, who are usually the main wildcards when it comes to spending bills, released a talking, not release, I obtained and then released it, this talking points memo where they basically are just touting the wins. | ||
| They said this is a huge win for the Freedom Caucus. | ||
| It's a huge win for concerted values. | ||
| So the Freedom Caucus behind it, the chair Andy Harris, I think you saw even Chip Roy are very supportive of this legislation. | ||
| So with them backing it, leadership is very, very confident that they will get this over the finish line regardless of where Democrats fall. | ||
| Let's talk to callers now. | ||
| We'll start with Jim Norwood, New Jersey Democrat. | ||
| Good morning, Jim. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I would really like for somebody to explain to me how health insurance companies are in business for profit. | ||
| Seems to me that the difference between premiums paid in and claims paid out makes the profit for the health insurance companies. | ||
| I would like to know how people cannot understand that paying off CEOs exorbitant and having shareholders making a profit for health insurance. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| All right, let's take that up. | ||
| Go ahead, Reese. | ||
| Hi. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| So I believe his question was about the healthcare industry. | ||
| I'm not a health care expert by any such imagination, but I can touch on kind of how this was a big part of this shutdown fight. | ||
| And a big reason why this shutdown prolonged for so long was because Democrats were adamant there's these enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that are put into one of Joe Biden's COVID relief packages back in 2021. | ||
| And so they were set to expire at the end of the year, which we'll see, we've already seen customers' premiums spike without these subsidies. | ||
| And so this was a huge fight for the Democrats in the Senate, both in the House. | ||
| That's why most Democrats in the House vote against it. | ||
| And then the Senate, why they held out for so long, was because they were trying to get some kind of deal on the Affordable Care Act subsidies. | ||
| Now, ultimately, Democrats folded and they did not get anything that they wanted on Affordable Care Act subsidies. | ||
| They took a deal of Senate Majority Leader John Thune promised them a vote on extending the ACA subsidies, but without, but they, so they promised them a vote, but did not promise them a result. | ||
| So basically, he'd promised that since the beginning of the shutdown. | ||
| Since November 6th, he had been saying this is it, but the Democrats held out hoping to get something else. | ||
| They ended up not getting anything additional besides a promised vote. | ||
| And so ultimately, I think enough of them just had enough, and they voted without getting absolutely any change on health care. | ||
| But if you look at the flip side, Mike Johnson has not promised a vote on ACA subsidies. | ||
| And a lot of the House Republican Conference do not want to see these extended. | ||
| There wasn't a member who really voted for this in the first place. | ||
| And they believe that Republicans believe that they could do the Affordable Care Act subsidies have been a disaster. | ||
| They believe that they, at least there's a majority of them. | ||
| There is a sect of Republicans in the House and members that want to see these extended with some reforms. | ||
| So I wonder, Reese, if there's enough for a discharge petition on that to go around the speaker. | ||
| There's definitely a possibility, but that's just discharge petition takes so much time and that is, well, it's different than voting against leadership. | ||
| Leadership really views a discharge petition as almost kind of a slap in the face because they're going around them, they're circumventing them. | ||
| And so it takes a lot more for members to sign on to a discharge petition than it would for members just if there was a bill on the floor to just to vote against their party. | ||
| So right now I think that they're, I think you'll see maybe two or three Republicans that'd be willing to sign on to a discharge petition. | ||
| I think you'd probably see about 45 who would be willing to vote for extension in some fashion. | ||
| But I think too that that's kind of just where things stand at the moment. | ||
| But right now I don't think a discharge petition is a realistic possibility at the moment. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And here's John Mechanicsville, New York, Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| John, are you there? | ||
| Yes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I'm here. | |
| Can you hear me? | ||
| Yes, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I just got a few thoughts on that. | |
| I wonder what your guest thinks. | ||
| I believe that in the future, the essential services with regard to things like SNAP benefits and PACO air traffic controllers and things should be exempt from any budgetary negotiations. | ||
| They should be held in place. | ||
| And the American people definitely should not be held hostage because the two sides can't reach an agreement. | ||
| And having said that, also, I'm an independent, but I do have to say that the Democrats, as you've seen, really, I think, bear the responsibility for keeping the government closed due to the fact that they finally moved to reopen the government. | ||
| They got to six votes in the Senate. | ||
| And, you know, it's not a good look for people like Schumer and Jeffries to really what it appears to haven't kept the government closed for that length of time. | ||
| You have to, in my opinion, you have to understand something. | ||
| We had serious problems, $37 trillion in debt. | ||
| And we had these problems, and then all of a sudden, the borders opened up. | ||
| We had 15 to 20 million additional people coming across that needed services of the ACA and other services. | ||
| My state here in New York was spending billions of dollars, okay, housing and feeding, clothing, these people coming across from the border. | ||
| So money's fungible. | ||
| Yep, I got it. | ||
| Go ahead, Rhys. | ||
| Yeah, so I think the first part of that question was about stuff like SNAP benefits and air traffic controllers, et cetera, being sent from the shutdown. | ||
| That's kind of hard to do just because of the nature that Congress funds everything. | ||
| Congress is the pocketbook for the government. | ||
| They appropriate funds. | ||
| And the government, kind of like in our personal finances, if we run out of money for something, we can't buy it. | ||
| If I don't have money for groceries one month, I spent it all already and I'm out. | ||
| I have to wait till I get paid to be able to afford my groceries. | ||
| The government's kind of similar in the sense where if they don't have Congress giving them money, there's no money to give out. | ||
| There's no money to pay people like air traffic controllers or TSA agents. | ||
| There's no money to pay into SNAP. | ||
| And there is some money in a reserve fund that the Trump administration had been fighting, saying that they don't have, and a contingency fund rather, saying that they don't have the authority. | ||
| Democrats and some Republicans even have said that they do have the authority. | ||
| But I'm not going to get into that debate necessarily. | ||
| But Reese, for instance, a Social Security check still went out during the shutdown. | ||
| Why couldn't SNAP be the same the same way? | ||
| I think it's just based on the language of the funding mechanism right now. | ||
| I think it's harder to, Social Security is funded much longer in advance. | ||
| It's funded more in that fashion, whereas SNAP is solely funded by Congress. | ||
| It's Congress appropriating funds to a certain thing. | ||
| And if they don't do that, you're going to have to change the whole funding mechanism of it, which I think is more difficult than not because of how it's funded through an agency. | ||
| And if the agency is not getting the funds from Congress, then they can't give it out. | ||
| Here's Paul in England, Republican line. | ||
| Good morning, Paul. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm Mami. | |
| Yeah, my question to Reef is: one day, do we have to stop these shutdowns altogether? | ||
| Do you think does it have to happen? | ||
| Because things get to stay normal as all time, whatever. | ||
| We have to stop these shutdowns. | ||
| Is it possible that we can do that to all definitely negotiate every year, whatever? | ||
| Is it possible, Reese, to shut down, to end shutdowns completely? | ||
| There are some pieces of legislation that have been introduced that if the government were to shut down, then an automatic container resolution would just kick in. | ||
| I don't think those have a lot of legs at the moment because I think it would fund it. | ||
| The legislation is weird, but it just doesn't have a lot of legs at the moment. | ||
| Some people argue if it's even possible to pass such legislation. | ||
| But it's really difficult to shut down. | ||
| I mean, the only way to do it is just to fund the government. | ||
| I mean, they don't happen that often, if you think about it. | ||
| I mean, we had one in 2013. | ||
| We had one in 18. | ||
| We had one in 18 and 19. | ||
| And this is the first one since then. | ||
| So it's about seven, six, seven years since our last shutdown. | ||
| And so it's not like an often occurrence. | ||
| The federal, the Congress does usually appropriate funds. | ||
| They do usually fund the government. | ||
| This is more of just a kind of, I would say they're rare, but I don't think it's a normality. | ||
| I think this one feels very hard because it has been so long. | ||
| So many things have been affected. | ||
| So many people have been affected by it. | ||
| But I think that there is not an appetite because then there's no incentive to actually fund the government. | ||
| There's no incentive to pass appropriations bills and kind of provide more money for things that the government might need. | ||
| Otherwise, because you'll have people, if this is a case, like the Freedom Caucus, who will see this, who don't want to spend any money, who will then try to prohibit a lot of legislation from passing in order as a way to kind of reduce government spending if they know that there's no such thing as a shutdown. | ||
| The government's not going to shut down. | ||
| If we don't pass these appropriations bills that spend more money than what we have previously, then we'll just keep funding it at current levels and even cut some of the money. | ||
| So I think the appetite there is, there's not one. | ||
| On the line for Democrats in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Lester, you're on the air. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Mamie. | |
| Mamie, your biggest problem is the Republican Party. | ||
| The big deal, Michael, he can make all kinds of deals, but he cannot open up the government. | ||
| Each and every day we see Mike Johnson come on national TV and lie to his constituents and to the American people. | ||
| It's about high time Democratic, Republican, Independent understands civic and knows who's running the government. | ||
| This is the first time that we had a shutdown this long. | ||
| This is unacceptable. | ||
| Have a great day, Mamie. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And Roderick in Vancouver, Canada, Independent Outline. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| My condolences again for the traumas that your country is going through. | ||
| The caller from England seems to have touched upon the question that I was hoping to ask. | ||
| So I'd like to ask a related question directly pinned to the and live down to the White House, where Press Secretary Caroline Levitt is updating reporters as the House works to end the government shutdown now on its 43rd day. | ||
| live coverage. | ||
| I do have the FBI director with me here, Kash Patel. | ||
| You all know him well. | ||
| And he's here to provide an update for you all with respect to China. | ||
| As you know, President Trump had a very successful meeting on his trip to Asia with President Xi, where they discussed the need for China to crack down on fentanyl production and distribution, which ultimately makes its way here to the United States of America. | ||
| And the FBI director recently traveled to China following President Trump's meeting to meet with his counterpart in Beijing. | ||
| And he has a really positive announcement for the American people to share. | ||
| So the president wanted me to bring the FBI director out to share that with all of you today. | ||
| So Cash, please, thank you for being here. | ||
| Thanks, Caroline. | ||
| As Caroline mentioned, we have some tremendous news thanks to President Donald J. Trump once again for the American people. | ||
| As soon as the President of the United States took office, he issued a mandate to rid America of the scourge that is fentanyl, a drug that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. | ||
| Thanks to his leadership and direct engagements with China, we set up a framework to execute that mission eight months ago. | ||
| Attorney General Bondi immediately thereafter took steps to engage her counterpart in China at the Ministry of Public Security. | ||
| Pursuant to their direct discussions, as the FBI director designated to run counterpoint on this, along with the Secretary of State Rubio and Ambassador Perdue and the team here at the White House, we set forward a path to implement the policy needed to crush the plague of fentanyl. | ||
| Deputy Attorney General Blanche and our teams have been hard at work ever since, ultimately culminating in my trip to Beijing last week. | ||
| This was only possible due to President Trump's historic engagement with President Xi just a few short weeks ago that set the stage for today's announcement. | ||
| At that meeting, the leaders reached an agreement. | ||
| But just to put this in frame for the American people, a reminder here that nearly 100,000 people died of fentanyl overdoses just last year alone. | ||
| Here, this year, under this president, the FBI has seized 1,900 kilograms of fentanyl so far. | ||
| That is a 31% increase from the same time period last year. | ||
| To put it in perspective, that's enough fentanyl to kill 127 million Americans. | ||
| Fentanyl precursors are what makes up fentanyl. | ||
| While we, the interagency, the Department of Justice, have been fighting hard to seize and stop drug traffickers, we must attack fentanyl precursors, the ingredients necessary to make this lethal drug. | ||
| That was the sole purpose of my trip to China, to eliminate these precursors. | ||
| And if successful, we would suffocate the drug trafficking organization's ability to manufacture fentanyl in places like Mexico. | ||
| This was the first time an FBI director has been to China in over a decade and received the audience with his counterpart to address this matter directly. | ||
| And again, thanks to President Trump's direct engagement with President Xi, the government of China committed fully to my engagement there on the ground in Beijing at a level never seen before. | ||
| While at Ministry of Public Security headquarters, I met with my counterpart at MPS where the Chinese government agreed on a plan to stop fentanyl precursors. | ||
| What does that mean? | ||
| The People's Republic of China has fully designated and listed all 13 precursors utilized to make fentanyl. | ||
| Furthermore, they have agreed to control seven chemical subsidiaries that are also utilized to produce this lethal drug. | ||
| Effective immediately, essentially, President Trump has shut off the pipeline that creates fentanyl that kills tens of thousands of Americans. | ||
| These substances are now banned, and they will no longer be utilized by the Mexican drug trafficking organizations or any other DTOs around the world to make this drug. | ||
| This historic achievement has saved tens of thousands of lives. | ||
| This historic achievement would not have been possible without the tremendous team of President Trump, the Attorney General, the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Ambassador Purdue in China, whose ground-level engagements were imperative to achieving this result. | ||
| This is yet another example of how President Trump defends the American people, provides security for the American people, and puts the American people first. | ||
| This is a historic first in its kind achievement by any president to stop the scourge of fentanyl, and it should be championed by every single American. | ||
| This achievement will save lives. | ||
| We are thankful for President Trump's steadfast leadership, and this FBI will fearlessly follow in his footsteps to ensure that this mission of safeguarding the American public is achieved every single day. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thanks, Caroline. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
| Appreciate it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| Thank you again, Director Patel. | ||
| Before we get going, I do have one quick scheduling announcement. | ||
| Tomorrow, President Trump will be joined by the First Lady in the East Room for an executive order signing aimed at expanding opportunities for education, career development, housing, and other resources for young people transitioning from foster care to adulthood. | ||
| This is part of the First Lady's fostering the future efforts, which are a be best initiative. | ||
| In other news, the Democrats dragged on the government shutdown for 43 days, the longest shutdown in U.S. history. | ||
| But tonight, thanks to Republicans, the White House is very hopeful that this shutdown is going to come to an end. | ||
| The damage caused by the Democrats with this reckless government shutdown cannot be forgotten. | ||
| It is entirely the fault of the Democrat Party. | ||
| Just look at the vote count. | ||
| Hundreds of thousands of federal employees have missed their paychecks. | ||
| Tens of billions in wages and benefits were withheld, impacting vulnerable families. | ||
| Millions of low-income Americans missed their SNAP benefits. | ||
| Nearly 20,000 flights at airports across the country were delayed due to staffing shortages causing Americans to miss family events, vacations, and work obligations. | ||
| According to Airlines for America, an estimated 5.2 million travelers have had their flights disrupted over the course of the Democrat shutdown. | ||
| And our economy has lost billions and billions of dollars in economic activity over the course of this shutdown, hurting consumer sentiment and crushing the travel and hospitality industries. | ||
| According to a CBO estimate, the Democrat shutdown could end up decreasing fourth quarter economic growth by two whole percentage points. | ||
| The Democrat shutdown made it extraordinarily difficult for economists, investors, and policymakers at the Federal Reserve to receive critical government data. | ||
| The Democrats may have permanently damaged the federal statistical system with October CPI and jobs reports likely never being released. | ||
| And all of that economic data released will be permanently impaired, leaving our policymakers at the Fed flying blind at a critical period. | ||
| It's hard to recap all of this without asking a simple question. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Why have the Democrats put the American people through this pain for 43 days in a row? | ||
| And it feels like Groundhog Day being up here again talking about this Democrat shutdown. | ||
| And the answer to that question is pure partisan politics. | ||
| They started this shutdown with a ridiculous demand to force taxpayer-funded health care benefits to illegal aliens who broke into our country. | ||
| Even after it was clear President Trump and Republicans would never force American taxpayers to pay for free health care for illegals, in fact, President Trump's One Big Beautiful bill fixed that problem. | ||
| The Democrats kept dragging this reckless government shutdown on for weeks longer to boost their turnout in an election, perhaps one may guess. | ||
| That's because the Democrats are totally captured by their far left-wing base who only care about attacking President Trump, even if it means hurting innocent Americans in our country. | ||
| The Democrats' weakness and their unwillingness to buck the fringe members of their party dragged this harmful shutdown on for seven weeks and inflicted massive pain onto the American public. | ||
| But let's be clear, the clean CR being voted on today in the House of Representatives that will lead to the reopening of the federal government is what President Trump and Republicans have supported from day one. | ||
| Our troops, air traffic controllers, and federal employees will be back to receiving their regular paychecks. | ||
| Families in need will get back to receiving their food purchasing assistance and the people's government will soon be back open for business. | ||
| President Trump looks forward to finally ending this devastating Democrat shutdown with his signature and we hope that signing will take place later tonight. | ||
| On another matter, I want to address the affordability issue that's received a great deal of media attention this past week, which is ironic because it didn't receive that much attention when Joe Biden was here and inflation was at a record high 9%, the worst inflation crisis in modern American history. | ||
| And President Trump won a landslide election in part to address the affordability issues created by Joe Biden in the Democrats. |