| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
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unidentified
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| Coming up this morning on Washington Journal, along with your calls and comments live, we'll talk with Paragon Health Institute President Brian Blaise about efforts to revive expired ACA-enhanced subsidies, concerns he's had about fraud within the subsidy program, and what alternative the Republicans should offer to replace it. | ||
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| Good morning, everyone. | ||
| This Friday, January 9th, we'll begin with the Washington Post headline, Republicans increasingly buck Trump on key legislation. | ||
| Significant numbers of Republicans join with Democrats in voting against President Donald Trump's interests on high-profile pieces of legislation Thursday, suggesting his party's unyielding loyalty to this point in his term has started to splinter. | ||
| Your reaction this morning. | ||
| Here's how you can join the conversation. | ||
| Democrats, 202-748-8000. | ||
| Republicans, 202-748-8001. | ||
| Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| You can text if you don't want to call at 202-748-8003 or join us on facebook.com slash C-SPAN and on X with the handle at C-SPANWJ. | ||
| The Republican defections occurred on two votes. | ||
| First in the Senate, they voted yesterday to advance a war powers resolution on Venezuela that would block the president from any further action without congressional approval. | ||
| Five Senate Republicans joined Democrats in advancing the legislation. | ||
| The vote on it and debate will take place next week. | ||
| Over on the House side, 17 Republicans voted for Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in the House, measure to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies for three years. | ||
| Those two votes taking place yesterday in Congress, and we want to get your reaction to it this morning here on the Washington Journal. | ||
| Let's begin with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York yesterday, after that war powers measure was advanced, was asked about Republican defections against the president. | ||
| Look, look, again, to quote the great Abe Lincoln, public sentiment is everything. | ||
| Public sentiment in terms of how Trump is behaving as president, what he's doing as president, keeps sinking and sinking and sinking. | ||
| And our Republican colleagues realize that. | ||
| So I think on this issue and other issues, you're going to find our Republican colleagues saying, you know, maybe following Trump is like Thelman Louise right over the cliff. | ||
| That was the Democratic leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, yesterday after on a vote of 52 to 47, five Republicans joining Democrats to move forward on a measure that would restrict his military ability against Venezuela. | ||
| Now, he said public sentiment is everything. | ||
| Axios is out with a new poll. | ||
| In dramatic shift, Republicans embrace Trump's Venezuela mission. | ||
| According to a poll, Republicans, the red line here, strongly somewhat support surveys conducted irregularly show that support by Republicans for the president's actions in Venezuela has actually increased. | ||
| Now, on those five Republicans that defied the president, Senator Ram Paul, who has voted for these war powers resolutions in the past, he was one of them. | ||
| Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who's up for re-election. | ||
| Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, she too has joined with Rand Paul in voting for these war powers resolutions in the past. | ||
| And they were also joined by Senator Todd Young of Indiana and Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri. | ||
| Those five joining with Democrats to vote against the president. | ||
| The president posting on Truth Social, Republicans should be ashamed of the senators that just voted with Democrats in attempting to take away our powers to fight and defend the United States of America. | ||
| Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Ram Paul, Josh Hawley, and Todd Young should never be elected to office again. | ||
| This vote greatly hampers Americans' self-defense and national security, impeding the president's authority as commander-in-chief in any event. | ||
| And despite their stupidity, the War Powers Act is unconstitutional, totally violating Article II of the Constitution, as all presidents and their departments of justice have determined before me. | ||
| Nevertheless, a more important Senate vote will be taking place next week on this very subject. | ||
| The president noting that the Senate will vote next week on this war powers resolution, blocking the president from any further action in Venezuela without congressional approval. | ||
| The vote yesterday was just to allow it to come to the floor. | ||
| Vice President JD Vance was in the briefing room at the White House yesterday, joining the White House press secretary. | ||
| And here's what he had to say about those senators that voted with Democrats on the war powers resolution. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Vice President, even beyond the war powers resolution today, Congress has bucked President Trump on issues like tariffs. | |
| Are you concerned that President Trump is losing his grip on Republicans and the Congress? | ||
| And what are you going to do about it? | ||
| No, I'm not concerned at all. | ||
| First of all, you know, we talked to some of the senators who are going to vote the wrong way in my view on this resolution today. | ||
| Much of their argument was based more on a legal technicality than any disagreement in policy. | ||
| If you look at the people who actually voted, every single one of them have supported the administration's plan. | ||
| Second of all, as the president, I believe himself has already said, every president, Democrat or Republican, believes the War Powers Act is fundamentally a fake and unconstitutional law. | ||
| It's not going to change anything about how we conduct foreign policy over the next couple of weeks, the next couple of months, and that'll continue to be how we approach things. | ||
| The vice president in the briefing room at the White House yesterday, this is what Brendan Petterson, who writes for Punch Bowl, reported yesterday. | ||
| Just asked Susan Collins about the post, Collins, about the president's Truth Social post criticizing her. | ||
| Collins says, quote, the president obviously is unhappy with the vote. | ||
| I guess this means that he would prefer to have Democratic Governor Mills or somebody else with whom he's not had a great relationship. | ||
| Noting that Senator Collins is running against Janet Mills, the governor of New Hampshire Democrat, in this next election. | ||
| Josh Hawley posting on X. With regard to Venezuela, my read of the Constitution is that if the president feels the need to put boots on the ground there in the future, Congress would need to vote on it. | ||
| That's why I voted yes on this morning's Senate resolution. | ||
| That's Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri posting on X. Manu Raju of CNN caught up with Todd Young, just asked him about Trump saying that he should, quote, never be elected to office again. | ||
| Quote, I don't have any comments. | ||
| I don't have any concerns, Todd Young said. | ||
| Rand Paul also told me, no, he's not worried about Trump's threats. | ||
| That's on the Senate vote. | ||
| Over in the House, 17 Republicans joined Democrats to approve Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in that chamber's extension of the ACA subsidies for three years. | ||
| Washington Times, House Democrats on Thursday scored an unlikely win with their passage of the bill to re-up their COVID-era expansion of Obama care subsidies for three years. | ||
| The 230,196 House vote is more of a symbolic and political victory than a substantive one, as the Senate has already rejected a nearly identical bill, nine votes short of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster. | ||
| House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called Thursday vote a meaningful step. | ||
| Listen to the Democratic leader after the vote in the House. | ||
| The Senate said it was impossible to do. | ||
| But where I'm from, difficult takes a day, impossible takes a week. | ||
| And in this first full week of the new year, House Democrats, every single one of us, joined by 17 Republicans, have partnered in a bipartisan way to protect the health care of the American people. | ||
| House Democrats said from the very beginning that we would pour every ounce of heart, soul, spirit, and strength that we had to stand up for the health care of the American people and to address the affordability crisis that exists in the United States of America. | ||
| I'm thankful for the resolve of the House Democratic Caucus and our partnership with Senate Democrats, who made clear for months, beginning in September, that our commitment was to fix our broken health care system and address the Republican health care crisis, beginning with the extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credits. | ||
| Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democrats believe now that it's passed in the House, this clean three-year extension of the health care subsidies, extended enhanced subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, that that puts pressure on the Senate to move forward on extending the ACA subsidies. | ||
| More on that coming up here on the Washington Journal. | ||
| We'll go to calls next. | ||
| Your thoughts on Republican defections on war powers and ACA subsidies. | ||
| There are the lines on your screen. | ||
| While we listen to our first call, I want to show you an ex-post from Craig Kaplan, who is our producer up on Capitol here. | ||
| Hill, here are the 17 House Republicans who voted yes to extend the expired Obamacare health care subsidies. | ||
| Those are the names. | ||
| Sharon in Gwen Oak, Maryland, Democratic caller. | ||
| We'll listen to you, Sharon, first. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| And I want to say speak about the defections of the Republican Party men that are defecting away from Trump. | ||
| People don't realize that God blessed America. | ||
| He chose this nation out of all nations. | ||
| And we have a man, this president, that is a criminal. | ||
| A lot of people don't want to own up to it. | ||
| And he raped a woman, and that don't fly. | ||
| And these Republicans keep on, you know, doing what Trump wanted them to do. | ||
| That's not real strong men. | ||
| Real men have backbone and they're going to stand up. | ||
| And they should stand up for this country, even if they weren't in the military. | ||
| Sharon, has your party done enough to stand up to the president? | ||
|
unidentified
|
The Democrats need to speak up too. | |
| A strong man stands up and speaks up. | ||
| Sharon, where are you on the party's response to the president's decisions to strike Venezuela and capture its leaders? | ||
|
unidentified
|
He shouldn't do that because to me, he seems like he's trying to impress Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, and Chi. | |
| President Chi, he's trying to impress them to show them that he could take America down. | ||
| And that's not right for the American people and people who have children and everything. | ||
| We got to think about our future generation because the way he's going, it may not, our future generation won't be the same like it was before and it's not right. | ||
| And I just say that's why I stay in prayer and pray for my family and ask God to guide me. | ||
| And I tell you one thing: all my grandchildren are doing good. | ||
| All my adult children are doing good. | ||
| And me and my husband is doing good because we stay in prayer. | ||
| And people of America need to look up to God, not to Donald Trump. | ||
| All right. | ||
| All right. | ||
| All right, Sharon. | ||
| Now, on Venezuela, the president today, 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time, is meeting in the cabinet room with oil and gas executives. | ||
| Here's the headline from the Washington Times. | ||
| This is closed press right now. | ||
| We'll see if that opens up to cameras. | ||
| C-SPAN will be there if it does. | ||
| Oil and company executives are scheduled to meet with the president at the White House today to discuss plans for stabilizing and boosting Venezuela's oil production after the ouster of President Nicolas Maduro. | ||
| The White House has not yet announced a list of the companies, but multiple reports said executives from Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Exxon are expected to attend. | ||
| Eric, Port Tobacco, Maryland Independent. | ||
| Eric, let's hear from you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, good morning. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Please, allow me today to speak about two things. | ||
| I will speak about Venezuela, but I will bear off topic and speak a little bit about ICE. | ||
| So when it comes to Venezuela... | ||
| We're going to stick to the topic today. | ||
| So what is your reaction to the Republican defections on war powers and ACA subsidies? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm glad to see that they finally giving some check, right? | |
| Providing some check on Trump's power because every power needs some checks. | ||
| I think that he cannot just be that super president who has all the powers. | ||
| He had to be checked. | ||
| But on Venezuela particularly, I think that he was justified. | ||
| It wasn't a war that was declared on Venezuela. | ||
| We had presidents who have done that too. | ||
| Obama went to Libya, Bush. | ||
| All the other presidents before Trump have used somehow some of their power to do some targeted intervention. | ||
| But I think that that power has to be checked. | ||
| And I do think that, yes, before he declared any war, Congress has to give their approval. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Eric there, an independent in Port Tobacco, Maryland, saying that he agrees with these defections by Republicans to check power, the role of Congress. | ||
| He's noting. | ||
| Front page of the New York Times this morning, Trump asserts his global power has one limit. | ||
| Himself, in a sit-down interview with the New York Times, President Trump declared on Wednesday evening that his power as commander-in-chief is constrained only by his own morality, brushing aside international law and other checks on his ability to use military might to strike, invade, or coerce nations around the world. | ||
| Asked in a wide-ranging interview by the New York Times if there were any limits on his global powers, Mr. Trump said, Yeah, there is one thing, my own morality, my own mind. | ||
| It's the only thing that can stop me. | ||
| I don't need international law, he added. | ||
| I'm not looking to hurt people. | ||
| When pressed further about whether his administration needed to abide by international law, Mr. Trump said, I do. | ||
| But he made clear he would be the arbiter when such constraints applied to the United States. | ||
| It depends what your definition of international law is, he said. | ||
| John, District Heights Maryland Democratic caller. | ||
| John, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, and I'm so thin. | |
| I am really, really thankful that these Republicans are beginning to understand. | ||
| We are a nation of laws, not of men. | ||
| And it's about time they're daylight and a dollar short to come to the Constitution that protects this nation from people just like Donald Trump. | ||
| Anyone else? | ||
| I mean, they've always been those who skate over it. | ||
| But this man is unbelievable. | ||
| The $4 billion he and his family have made since he's been in the White House. | ||
| That's unbelievable. | ||
| Nobody talks about that. | ||
| Now, Venezuela, no. | ||
| He killed over 100 people in that nation. | ||
| That was an invasion of a sovereign nation that he should not have done that. | ||
| And then the thing about it, he did it for oil. | ||
| I mean, can you imagine our sons and daughters going to war over oil? | ||
| Now, they forgot about the Vietnam War, which was a jungle war. | ||
| This is what he's going to take America back into also. | ||
| And the people just, I'm so thankful that those Republicans, it was not about Republicans against Democrats. | ||
| That's not it. | ||
| That's the lie he has told. | ||
| That's the bait the American people have absorbed. | ||
| This is about Republicans coming to understand we have a law called the Constitution that he is bound by, put his hand on the Bible, took an oath. | ||
| They all put their hand on the Bible, took an oath to defend and protect the Constitution. | ||
| And this is what they should have been doing ever since they've been in there. | ||
| But they were so intimidated by this man to follow whatever he said, do. | ||
| Now he went over the line. | ||
| All right. | ||
| So on the war powers measure that was agreed to yesterday, it wasn't agreed to. | ||
| Let me clarify. | ||
| What they did in the Senate was they voted to bring it right to the floor and bypass the committee. | ||
| So they advanced the war powers measure. | ||
| As the president noted in his Truth Social, the vote next week, and we're expecting that it comes up next week in the Senate. | ||
| You can watch our gabble-to-gabble coverage on C-SPAN 2. | ||
| The vote next week is the vote to debate, move forward to debate. | ||
| And then if it can pass that hurdle, then there would be a vote to approve the war powers resolution restricting the president's abilities in Venezuela. | ||
| This also has to pass in the House. | ||
| Yesterday, over on the House, House Democrats introduced their own Venezuela war powers resolution. | ||
| Here's Representative Jim McGovern, who a Democrat from Massachusetts, who said it's bipartisan. | ||
| Listen to what he had to say. | ||
| We would call on Speaker Johnson to bring that bill to the floor so we can have a debate and a vote, and the House could be on record expressing its views on this topic. | ||
| I'm not under any illusion that the Speaker will do that. | ||
| He has demonstrated that he is reluctant to bring anything to the floor that is not blessed by the White House. | ||
| But again, we would ask on behalf of not just Democrats, but also Republicans for him to do that. | ||
| Look, I'm going to keep my remarks very brief here, but I'll begin by saying that in all my years in watching U.S. foreign policy, the one thing I've come to appreciate is that it's easy to get into wars. | ||
| It's hard as hell to get out of them. | ||
| And that is exactly why the United States Constitution gives Congress, not the President, not the courts, but Congress the sole and exclusive power on matters of war and peace. | ||
| Because the founders wanted the first branch of our government, the people's branch, to have a direct say in whether or not American troops are put in harm's way. | ||
| This weekend, it's my view that the president launched an illegal and unauthorized attack on Venezuela. | ||
| We now know that American troops were shot and injured in that attack. | ||
| We didn't find out until days later. | ||
| Nobody in Congress was notified before the strike happened or even in the immediate aftermath. | ||
| Now we know that oil executives were briefed before the gang of eight. | ||
| I've been to two classified briefings since then. | ||
| Quite frankly, those briefings have not been reassuring at all or particularly informative. | ||
| That was Congressman McGovern of Massachusetts yesterday talking about a reintroducing resolution in the House, a war powers resolution on Venezuela and action he says is needed in the House side after the Senate advanced their own war powers resolution on Venezuela yesterday. | ||
| The Washington Post editorial this morning, America doesn't need Venezuelan oil. | ||
| And they say it's because of shale production. | ||
| The leader of the shale revolution has been the United States, which went from being the world's biggest net importer of oil, 11 million barrels per day in March 2003, to one of its leading exporters. | ||
| America now produces more oil domestically than any other country. | ||
| While the U.S. consumes might, consumers might benefit from greater supply on the global market, American producers would not. | ||
| Moreover, extracting Venezuela's oil will be no easy task. | ||
| The country's crude is heavy and sulfurous, difficult to refine. | ||
| The security situation remains unpredictable. | ||
| Meanwhile, socialism has left infrastructure in shambles. | ||
| That's the Washington Post. | ||
| And related to that last sentence there, here's the world section of the Washington Post. | ||
| Venezuelan economy nears collapse under the U.S. blockade. | ||
| Trump officials and analysts say the country's government may have only weeks before its cash reserves run out and is unable to make critical payments. | ||
| This morning, in our first hour of the Washington Journal, Republican defections on war powers in the Senate and over on the House, 17 Republicans joining Democrats on extending those enhanced ACA subsidies. | ||
| Let's go to Gordon in Kansas City, Kansas, a Republican. | ||
| Morning, Gordon. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Happy New Year. | ||
| And I'm here. | ||
| Congress makes me sick. | ||
| My president can do anything he wants to. | ||
| You look back on every president before him. | ||
| They've all done it. | ||
| They've all bombed other countries. | ||
| They've all killed other people. | ||
| Clinton was voted the same way, and he went over their vote and bombed Kosovo or wherever he was bombing right then. | ||
| It's so ignorant. | ||
| There is no COVID going on. | ||
| All it is is a giveaway to the Democrats in spending every cent they can. | ||
| It's awful. | ||
| 600,000 people that make $600,000 are getting those subsidies. | ||
| We old people get nothing. | ||
| We get nothing. | ||
| So, Gordon, you're in Kansas. | ||
| The Missouri Senator, Josh Hawley, was one of those five Senate Republicans who voted on the Advancing the War Powers Resolution in Venezuela. | ||
| What's your message to him? | ||
|
unidentified
|
He's an idiot. | |
| Why? | ||
| Because he is. | ||
| There's no COVID going on. | ||
| We're not talking about COVID. | ||
| We're talking about the war powers resolution in Venezuela. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Every president has defied Congress and done it on their own. | |
| Obama did it. | ||
| Bush did it. | ||
| Clinton did it. | ||
| Everybody did it. | ||
| My president, Donald Trump, can do what he wants to, and he's going to. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Will you hang on the line? | ||
| Let me show you what Josh Hawley, the Republican senator from Missouri, told reporters yesterday when they caught up with him. | ||
| Explain his decision to advance the war powers resolution. | ||
| Listen to what he told reporters, and I'll come back to you. | ||
| The president has said boots on the ground, sure. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Maybe. | |
| Yeah, well, that's why I voted the way I did today, is because I think they are saying, hey, we don't know what might happen. | ||
| And then sorry, we don't know what might happen in Venezuela. | ||
| We may want to commit troops. | ||
| That is totally their prerogative to do. | ||
| I just think that in that eventuality, Congress would need to then be on the hook for it. | ||
| We would need to debate it. | ||
| We need to authorize it. | ||
| Senator Josh Hawley, let's go back to Gordon, a Republican in Kansas. | ||
| Gordon, he says that if they are considering boots on the ground, they need to come back to Congress. | ||
| Congress needs to be involved there. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I don't think it'll pass in the Senate because they have to have 60 votes, but Josh Hawley is trying to get reelected. | |
| That's all. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Gordon, a Republican in Kansas. | ||
| Steve, an independent in York. | ||
| Let's hear from you. | ||
| York, Pennsylvania. | ||
| Go ahead, Steve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
A couple of things that need to be brought up dealing with this thing over here. | |
| I cut this guy out. | ||
| I remember years back under President Biden, he said this guy was a bad dude. | ||
| He said that he was not elected by the people. | ||
| He forced himself into it and made that country so bad. | ||
| They gave a $25 million thing to knock him out of there. | ||
| Biden didn't care how to do it. | ||
| Anybody would kill him or knock him out. | ||
| So Jeba was right. | ||
| Every president has done something down the road here. | ||
| And you've got to remember that this festival, this is in our atmosphere, in our area here. | ||
| But this guy was a bad individual. | ||
| He took people there in his own country. | ||
| And it was very rich at one time. | ||
| He's now very poor. | ||
| And Biden, and other presidents, but Biden had a $25 million tag on him to get him out one way or the other. | ||
| Now, the other situation is dealing with the subsidies. | ||
| What I did not like about those subsidies was the fact that some of that money was going to be spent on minors to have sex operations. | ||
| And I said, that's a no-no. | ||
| And also the fact that some of the illegals were going to get some of that money too. | ||
| You have people like me who I'll be 79 in a couple weeks. | ||
| And we have trouble with our health care and stuff like that. | ||
| What happens to Medicare and Social Security down the road? | ||
| And this is what I'm saying. | ||
| So I thank you for your time. | ||
| But this guy is dangerous. | ||
| And he should have been taken out a long time ago. | ||
| And where's the UN at? | ||
| When he came into power, Why didn't they gang together like they do against Israel and say, this guy's got to be done, taken out of here because he's a threat to his own country. | ||
| Okay, Steve, if you're interested in what the United Nations has said about U.S. action in Venezuela, go to our website, c-span.org. | ||
| There you'll find our coverage of their recent Security Council meeting on the actions that the president took over the last weekend. | ||
| On ACA subsidies, after the House has passed Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffery's clean extension of these enhanced subsidies, Democrats now say that puts pressure on the Senate to act. | ||
| The Senate has rejected a clean extension. | ||
| They couldn't get the 60 votes that they needed to overcome a filibuster. | ||
| However, over in the Senate, this is from the Washington Times reporting, Mr. Schumer is calling for Republicans who he said are in total pretzel knot on how to help Americans struggling to afford health care to take up the bill as is. | ||
| That will not happen. | ||
| But Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican, is willing to use the House passed bill as a legislative vehicle for a potential bipartisan bill, which senators are currently negotiating. | ||
| We think we have a skeleton of a deal, said Representative Senator Bernie Marino, Ohio Republican, who has been leading the bipartisan Senate talks. | ||
| That skeleton still needs meat on its bones. | ||
| But the group of 12 senators, six Republicans and six Democrats, is hoping to solidify a deal and introduce legislation next week, then sell it to their broader party caucuses. | ||
| This group of senators who are working on a bipartisan deal in the Senate on enhanced ACA subsidies includes Senator Bernie Marino of Ohio, Susan Collins of Maine, Tim Kaine of Virginia, Senator Hassan, Democrat of New Hampshire, and Senator Angus King, Independent of Vermont. | ||
| These senators, a group of 12, those are some of them, who are working on a bipartisan approach to the ACA subsidies after it was approved in the House. | ||
| Yesterday, a clean was approved in the House. | ||
| That wouldn't pass in the Senate, but 17 Republicans joined Democrats yesterday in the House to pass it in that chamber. | ||
| Your reaction to Republican defections on ACA subsidies and war powers. | ||
| Greg in Montana, Democratic caller, we'll hear from you, Greg. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, hello. | |
| Thank you for calling. | ||
| I wanted to just say I think I'm happy with both votes. | ||
| I think that might be a sign that they're starting to cooperate a little better together. | ||
| And I have good hopes for that on both votes. | ||
| I believe that the vote on the health care is going to help millions of people as long as that goes through the Senate next. | ||
| And I'm in agreement with what they've determined to have Congress involved in any future war situations on both votes, if that makes sense. | ||
| Yeah, Greg in Montana, we'll hear from Deborah, who's a Republican, South Bend, Indiana. | ||
| Hi, Deborah. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Yeah, happy new year to you. | ||
| My concerns, can you hear me? | ||
| Yes, we can hear you. | ||
| We're listening. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| In my world, we're having political fatigue. | ||
| Our discussion is this. | ||
| We understand that we all cannot speak at once. | ||
| We all cannot make policies at once. | ||
| But over 80 million people voted for President Trump as one voice to speak for all of us. | ||
| He is not in there for himself. | ||
| He's not trying to grip. | ||
| He's not trying to do this. | ||
| He's trying to do what we voted him to do. | ||
| Now this reflection that these Republicans or whatever they're doing, it has a great impact on 80-some voters who put President in office to speak, make policy decisions for us. | ||
| We're about presidential constitutional powers. | ||
| that we gave him for some kind of reason. | ||
| You all seem to think he's the ones paying check. | ||
| He's not, and y'all need to stop that. | ||
| So what we need you to do when you speak about President Trump in there for this, think about us. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Deborah in South Bend, Indiana, a Republican and supporter of President Trump. | ||
| Where are Republicans on the Affordable Care Act enhanced tax subsidies? | ||
| Listen to Jason Smith, who is the chair of the Ways and Means Committee on the floor yesterday speaking against extending these ACA enhanced subsidies. | ||
| I'd like to remind the body that the reason why these enhanced subsidies are expiring is because the Democrats are the only ones in this chamber that voted for them to expire on December 31st. | ||
| Apparently, they regret that vote because they focused most of their dollars to make permanent environmental tax policy in the Green New Deal. | ||
| And so they are the only ones that have voted to take away these subsidies. | ||
| It is laughable, Mr. Speaker, when you hear members on the other side say the Republicans created this health care crisis. | ||
| Guess what? | ||
| It was the Democrats who wrote the Affordable Care Act, which is being debated on the floor right now. | ||
| And they are upset because as of December 31st, it reverted back to the Affordable Care Act, which they have championed, what they passed. | ||
| Not Republicans, it's Democrats. | ||
| So the health care crisis is clearly created by the Democrats. | ||
| We have highlighted the fraud and the waste within the exchanges. | ||
| More than half of the people on the exchanges did not even file one medical claim last year. | ||
| But those insurance companies, they were being subsidized. | ||
| And want to remind the American people that not one dollar goes to them. | ||
| It all goes to the big health insurance companies that have been doing very, very well, while premiums for every single American has been rising for the last decade and a half. | ||
| Republican Jason Smith of Missouri yesterday on the floor during debate in the House over extending for three years those enhanced ACA tax subsidies. | ||
| It was approved after 17 Republicans divide the president and join Democrats in voting for the measure. | ||
| It's dead on arrival in the Senate. | ||
| They already tried a clean extension over there and couldn't get the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. | ||
| There is a bipartisan group of senators working on some sort of deal on the ACA enhanced subsidies that could get through the Senate. | ||
| The president at the Kennedy Center earlier this week, addressing the Republicans at their annual retreat, had this to say about being flexible when it comes to abortion language and any health care deal. | ||
| Let the money go in the health care account or however you do it. | ||
| Let the money go directly to the people. | ||
| Now, you have to be a little flexible on Hyde. | ||
| You know that. | ||
| You got to be a little flexible. | ||
| You got to work something. | ||
| You got to use ingenuity. | ||
| You got to work. | ||
| We're all big fans of everything, but you got to be flexible. | ||
| You have to have flexibility. | ||
| I came out with a statement, let the money go not to the big fat cats and the insurance companies that made 1,700% over the last short period of time. | ||
| Let the money go directly to the people where they can buy their own health care. | ||
| And I don't think, I'm not sure that I've ever said anything that was more impactful. | ||
| You know, I say a lot of things and have a lot of good ideas. | ||
| And this was an idea that, I mean, the whole world went crazy. | ||
| The whole country went crazy. | ||
| The world went crazy with envy. | ||
| If you can somehow do that, Mr. Speaker, Tom, all of you, Steve, if you can do that, you're going to have, this is going to be your issue. | ||
| President Trump on Tuesday talking to Republicans about making a deal on health care. | ||
| This is the response to President Trump from Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris on Hyde amendment language. | ||
| Here's what he told reporters. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Can I ask you on Hyde? | |
| The Trump president said yesterday to be flexible on Hyde. | ||
| Well, there's no flexibility. | ||
| You're either using public funds to pay for abortion or you're not. | ||
| We're not sure there's a compromise available on that. | ||
| A brief statement there from Andy Harris saying he doesn't seek compromise on the Hyde Amendment. | ||
| From the Hill newspaper, while the long-standing Hyde Amendment and other similar laws prevent federal funds from being used to cover abortions, they do not prohibit ACA marketplace plans from covering abortions. | ||
| So as long as they are funded by state or private dollars, some states allow or require ACA marketplace plans to include abortion coverage. | ||
| The abortion issue and a Republican desire for expanded Hyde Amendment protections have been a major impediment to getting a deal to extend or reform the Obamacare subsidies since Democrats do not want to impose new abortion restrictions and argue current law sufficiently prevents federal funds from going directly to abortion services. | ||
| This is the latest on negotiations on Capitol Hill on Affordable Care Act subsidies. | ||
| This morning, your thoughts on Republican defections on war powers and ACA subsidies. | ||
| Bill in Buffalo, New York, and Independent. | ||
| Bill, your turn. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| I just had one thing as kind of a question, comment. | ||
| I was listening to the vice president yesterday. | ||
| He was talking about the vice agent who shot that woman. | ||
| He was going, he was dragged by a car in June. | ||
| And he said, wouldn't you be jumpy? | ||
| And I'm wondering why he was on the front line working that. | ||
| Who are supervisors? | ||
| They had any mental health training. | ||
| And what I saw was wrong. | ||
| That's all. | ||
| So what did you make of the vice president talking about that bill in the briefing room yesterday? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It was terrible. | |
| I mean, everything he said was opposite what I've seen on TV. | ||
| In what way? | ||
|
unidentified
|
The angle, like he said, she was aiming the car at her at him and everything. | |
| I just, I watched it. | ||
| She backed up, and then you know, the guy had his hand in there, and this the guy who shot her was in front of the car, and he put one through the windshield. | ||
| And when she was on the side, he put two more. | ||
| Okay, I'm gonna leave it there, Bill, because I just asked you that question because we're coming up later on in the Washington Journal, and we'll do open forum. | ||
| And of course, the debate over what happened in Minnesota with that fatal shooting by an ICE federal agent is on the table for discussion during open forum. | ||
| In case you missed it, and before we get to that, here is the vice president in the briefing room on that shooting. | ||
| The Department of Justice is going to investigate this. | ||
| The Department of Homeland Security is already investigating this. | ||
| But the simple fact is, what you see is what you get in this case. | ||
| You have a woman who was trying to obstruct a legitimate law enforcement operation. | ||
| Nobody debates that. | ||
| You have a woman who aimed her car at a law enforcement officer and pressed on the accelerator. | ||
| Nobody debates that. | ||
| I can believe that her death is a tragedy while also recognizing that it's a tragedy of her own making and a tragedy of the far left who has marshaled an entire movement, a lunatic fringe, against our law enforcement officers. | ||
| I think what is clearly happening here, and it's going to keep on happening unless the Democrats wake up and say, you know what, you don't have to agree with our immigration policies. | ||
| You don't have to agree with what the president or the vice president believe about immigration enforcement, but why don't you take this to the ballot box? | ||
| Why don't you vote? | ||
| Why don't you organize? | ||
| Instead, what some of them are doing, what some of them are doing is encouraging people to get violent with our law enforcement officials. | ||
| It's disgraceful and it's got to stop. | ||
| Obviously, we're not going to get the chance to ask this woman what was going on. | ||
| What I am certain of is that she violated the law. | ||
| What I'm certain of is that that officer had every reason to think that he was under very serious threat for injury or in fact his life. | ||
| What I'm certain of is that she accelerated in a way where she ran into the guy. | ||
| I don't know what was in her heart and what was in her head, but I know that she violated the law and I know that officer was acting in self-defense. | ||
| It raised an interesting point though. | ||
| Look, if people want to say that we should have a legitimate debate about, you know, what was she really doing, right? | ||
| Was she panicking when she drove into this officer or was she actually trying to ram him? | ||
| That's a reasonable conversation. | ||
| What's not reasonable is for so many of you to plaster all over the media that this was an innocent woman and that the ICE agent committed murder, which is what many of you have said explicitly and some of you have said implicitly. | ||
| That's what I have an objection to. | ||
| The idea that this was not justified is absurd and I think everybody knows it in their heart. | ||
| The vice president in the White House briefing room yesterday, we covered that briefing with Mr. Vance and you can find it on our website at c-span.org. | ||
| We also covered a news conference with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and you can find that on our website or our free video mobile app C-SPANNOW. | ||
| We'll show you Governor Walls' news conference, a bit of it coming up in our last hour of today's Washington Journal, which will be 8 to 9 a.m. Eastern Time because the House is gabbling in early today. | ||
| Back to our conversation this morning in our first hour, this is the Washington Post headline: Republicans increasingly buck Trump on key legislation. | ||
| There were GOP defections on advancing a war powers resolution on Venezuela, as well as approval of a clean extension of enhanced ACA subsidies in the House. | ||
| Your thoughts on that this morning. | ||
| Ward in Indiana, Democratic caller. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I hope you can hear me okay. | ||
| We can. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I'm glad to see there's some positive movement among Republican legislators to support what is right. | |
| Beyond that, I think we are in grave trouble because Donald Trump and his minions or supporters in Congress and in his administration are continuing with an insurrection. | ||
| And there was a caller on your show that made known of a clear plan that is citing Article 1 of the Constitution, which gives Congress the right to organize a militia and remove him and his administration from office. | ||
| Because I believe Trump, in all of the action he's taken with Venezuela and all of the turmoil he's calling internal to our country, is in service of primarily the following: to set forth a predicate by which he can call martial law and eliminate the elections this year and then continue on with implementing a dictatorship. | ||
| And I believe, my own personal opinion, that he is in cohosion, collusion with Putin and with Chi to formulate a global triad power scheme where there are three dictators. | ||
| Trump runs Americas, Putin runs Russia and Europe, and Chi runs all of Asia. | ||
| I mean, and we're not grasping that. | ||
| We're looking at all these little things he's doing. | ||
| It's all in service of him looking to stop the elections and institute martial law and continue this triad power scheme. | ||
| And we're just not following that. | ||
| So thank you for letting me make a comment. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Warden, Indiana, Democratic caller with his opinion. | ||
| Mo in Maryland, an independent. | ||
| Mo, let's hear from you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| As far as the War Powers Act, I mean, they use terms like bucking and defective. | ||
| You know, I think it's good to have Republicans and Democrats come together. | ||
| I like what Josh Hawley said. | ||
| I mean, I don't think that that's going to go too far in terms of the War Act and overturning the president's decisions. | ||
| Because, like we said, it's been done with every other president. | ||
| But as far as the Affordable Care Act, there's no way I would extend it for three years. | ||
| I would do it two ways, maybe a year or contingent upon coming up with another plan. | ||
| But why extend it three years? | ||
| That just doesn't make sense. | ||
| I mean, you played the senator on the floor, and he mentioned, you know, how this was put forth by the Democrats, and it's expired. | ||
| You know what I mean? | ||
| So everything he was saying about half the people being, you know, didn't even file a claim and that money going through to this to the straight to the insurance companies, that would continue to happen. | ||
| So it needs to be done as quickly as possible. | ||
| It would be great if they would leave it in place and make it contingent upon coming up with another plan. | ||
| That way, you can't just sit back because three years is just going to allow you to kick it down and kick the can down the road. | ||
| That's ridiculous. | ||
| So are you hopeful that this bipartisan group, 12 senators, six Democrats, six Republicans, that they can come up with some sort of deal that satisfies what you're talking about, an extension, but possibly a replacement or tweaks to the ACA? | ||
|
unidentified
|
But see, I don't hear Democrats saying that, and the Republicans haven't come up with a plan yet. | |
| They're really them coming together is strictly based on extension. | ||
| They're not saying, I mean, what I just said about, okay, we can move forward with extending it if it's contingent upon coming up with a plan. | ||
| Well, here. | ||
| There's no way you would do three years. | ||
| Well, here, here, let's share some details with you from the Washington Times reporting. | ||
| The senators, this is this bipartisan group. | ||
| The senators are proposing a two-year extension of the COVID-era bonus subsidies, which cap Obamacare consumers' out-of-pocket premium costs at 8.5% of household income with several modifications, including an income cap and fraud guardrails. | ||
| The House voted on a clean three-year extension of the enhanced subsidies stemmed from a Democrat-led discharge petition, which, with signatures from 218 House members, a majority, forced the vote yesterday over the GOP leaders' objections. | ||
| So, Mo, just on the first part of what I read there, what they're proposing. | ||
| There's more and the Washington Times notes, there is more meat that needs to be put on the bones. | ||
| Those are their words in their reporting today. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I agree. | |
| I mean, that's a beginning. | ||
| That's a discussion. | ||
| But in the meantime, you still have to come up with the main focus is coming up with a plan that allows you to totally revamp it, you know, and start something new. | ||
| I agree. | ||
| I mean, that's a start, what you read. | ||
| I mean, that's, you know, but extending it. | ||
| I mean, you just read that, but when you hear Hakeem and you hear other people, it's just, you know, I think what they're, it sounds like they're just focusing on trying to get the extension for three years. | ||
| And I'm like, that doesn't, you don't do that because that allows people to lay back and kick the can down the road. | ||
| Understood, Mo. | ||
| Heard that point. | ||
| From the New York Times reporting this morning, Congress tries to stand up for its powers, but falls short. | ||
| This is another instant yesterday on the Hill where Republicans, some of them, tried to stand up to the president. | ||
| Republicans on Capitol Hill on Thursday did something they have done little of in recent years. | ||
| They tried pushing back against President Trump and standing up for their own co-equal branch of government. | ||
| In the House, dozens of Republicans voted with Democrats on Thursday afternoon in an attempt to override Mr. Trump's first two vetoes of his second term. | ||
| But with most of the GLP siding with the president, they ultimately did not have enough votes to clear the two-thirds threshold necessary for either override to succeed. | ||
| The move was described by one senator, referring to what happened in the Senate on the war powers resolution. | ||
| He said the move is described by one of the president's allies, Senator Jim Risch, Republican of Idaho, as designed to slap the president in the face. | ||
| So while Senate, you had Republican defections on the war powers measure, as well as on ACA subsidies, there wasn't enough defections to overcome the president's vetoes. | ||
| Lauren Bobert spoke to reporters and C-SPAN cameras were there out on the Capitol steps yesterday about her colleagues who voted not to overturn the veto by President Trump on a bill dealing with water infrastructure in Colorado, where she's from. | ||
| The veto override did not reach the two-thirds majority threshold needed and was one of two veto override votes. | ||
| The other dealt with a Florida flood control project. | ||
| Here's Lauren Boebert. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I was appointed by President Trump. | |
| Are you disappointed in your Republican colleagues who voted against it? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm disappointed in so many who promised to hundreds of thousands of voters that they are leaders and come here and hold and don't take a stand and don't fight and don't do the principled correct thing. | |
| No one was against this on policy. | ||
| And my response to this is really short and sweet. | ||
| Promises made, need to be promises kept. | ||
| This was a promise under President Trump. | ||
| Secretary Bernhardt broke ground in 2020 on this project after President Trump and Boeh invested more than double what had been invested in the past, prompting Colorado governments to invest over $100 million. | ||
| And where those promises were made, they need to be kept. | ||
| I'm going to continue to fight and stay tuned. | ||
| So did President Trump break his promise? | ||
| I'm going to make sure that he doesn't own the method. | ||
| But he did utilize it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I'm going to make sure that that promise is upheld, whether he wants it to be or not. | |
| Representative Lauren Boebert outside of the Capitol on the steps there yesterday. | ||
| C-SPAN cameras caught up with her there. | ||
| Tom in Ohio, Republican. | ||
| Republican defections on war powers and ACA subsidies. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Your thoughts. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| My thoughts are: thank God, it's finally time for our Congress people, our elected Congress people, to stand up to the three o'clock wins of our president. | ||
| 3 a.m. wins of our president. | ||
| We really need more to get on board. | ||
| And I don't know exactly where they're going to come from, but it's time our congresspeople started making their pay. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| All right, Tom in Ohio from Facebook, Sean Riley. | ||
| I'm all for it. | ||
| The House and Senate must take a stand and must take back their authority to restore the balance of power. | ||
| Now, if we can get the Supreme Court to reverse that decision on blanket immunity for presidents, we could really make some progress in becoming a nation of laws again. | ||
| There's also this on Facebook from Tony: checks and balances are part of our system. | ||
| When a president goes too far, I'm glad to see that our system still functions. | ||
| And then you have Mary. | ||
| Well, that took long enough to happen. | ||
| Please do it again because we, the people, voted you into power. | ||
| Joe in Indiana, an independent. | ||
| Joe, what do you say? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I think the governor got it right. | |
| The ACA should go forward. | ||
| We should have health care. | ||
| We're not a third world country. | ||
| Now, as for the War Power Act, yes, go with the Constitution. | ||
| First Amendment still stands. | ||
| Let's take our country back. | ||
| Trump is nothing but a loser. | ||
| Okay? | ||
| He never went to service. | ||
| Claimed he had flat feet, got him out. | ||
| On top of all that, he sits there and tries to change the laws so that all his rich buddies, including his family, are getting money. | ||
| And people are showing a blind eye to it. | ||
| We have to stop this. | ||
| Okay. | ||
|
unidentified
|
There's no more of this. | |
| We can't do it. | ||
| Joe there. | ||
| William, Arizona. | ||
| Joe, excuse me. | ||
| Robin in Maryland, a Republican. | ||
| Robin, let's hear from you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So I disagree with the way they voted, but I am 100% behind the fact that we finally have some people in Congress voting their conscience. | |
| If all the Republicans only vote Republican, all the Democrats only vote Democrat, what's the sense of having Congress? | ||
| We want to elect people that we respect their opinions, and they've got to vote their conscience. | ||
| So even though I disagree with how they are voted, I think they did the right thing. | ||
| I am praying that this is the beginning of both sides finally saying, wait a minute, what's best for the country and voting the way they feel is best for the country? | ||
| And we've got to think back. | ||
| If we didn't have some Democrats last month vote to open the government, the government would still be closed today. | ||
| So I think it was a very powerful, very good thing that they did it, even though I don't like the way they voted. | ||
| And why don't you like the way they voted, Robin? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Because I think that from the very beginning of the ACA, it's been a horrible plan. | |
| It's never been affordable. | ||
| We need to revise it. | ||
| It should have been revised months ago, years ago. | ||
| So I don't want to see three more years of a horrible plan. | ||
| I mean, if we have to supplement it so much, how can you call it affordable? | ||
| And I think if the president says we need to put boots on the ground, he doesn't have time to have people who hate him say you can't do it. | ||
| Not because it's not the right thing to do, but simply because people hate Trump so much they'd rather see the country fail than have Trump succeed. | ||
| All right, Robin and Maryland, a Republican caller, with her thoughts. | ||
| And just to be clear, the vote in the House yesterday was on those enhanced ACA tax subsidies to extend them, that part of the ACA program, for three years. | ||
| The House is in at 9 a.m. today during our open forum segment. | ||
| Later this morning, we'll talk with New Hampshire Democrat Maggie Goodlander about U.S. action in Venezuela and the House vote on extending ACA enhanced subsidies. |