Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Shutdown Breakdown: Ferguson & Cruz on What’s Really Happening

Transcript

Shutdown Breakdown: Ferguson & Cruz on What’s Really Happening · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:02
Speaker 1: Welcome.
0:02
Speaker 2: It is Verdic with Center, Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with
0:05
Speaker 2: you in This episode will be a dual episode my
0:07
Speaker 2: show in Center Cruise as well here, because we're trying
0:11
Speaker 2: to figure out what the hell's going on, just like
0:12
Speaker 2: every other American when it comes to is the government open?
0:16
Speaker 1: Is it closed? Center?
0:18
Speaker 2: As we are doing this ten o'clock Eastern, we're recording
0:21
Speaker 2: on Sunday night. You've just left the Senate for so
0:25
Speaker 2: where the hell are we now? Because there were some
0:27
Speaker 2: reports like the government's reopened, then it's not reopen. We're
0:30
Speaker 2: heading towards reopening.
0:32
Speaker 1: What is right? What's wrong?
0:34
Speaker 3: Well, we have really good news, which is the government
0:36
Speaker 3: is in the process of reopening. It's not going to
0:39
Speaker 3: be reopened on Monday, but we got the votes tonight
0:42
Speaker 3: that will start the process of reopening it. We're going
0:44
Speaker 3: to explain exactly what that means, what the deal, what
0:47
Speaker 3: the deal was, and what the timing is going to
0:50
Speaker 3: be and how that's likely to impact you, whether it
0:54
Speaker 3: is going to a national park or going to the
0:56
Speaker 3: Smithsonian or flying on an airplane, what the timing is
0:59
Speaker 3: like to likely to be. We're also going to talk
1:01
Speaker 3: to you about a bill that I introduced this past week,
1:04
Speaker 3: the Deporting Fraudster's Bill, that is going after illegal immigrants
1:09
Speaker 3: who are fraudulently getting welfare benefits, and right now, fraudulently
1:14
Speaker 3: taking welfare benefits is not a statutory ground for deportation.
1:18
Speaker 3: I'm introducing legislation to change that. We'll explain that all
1:21
Speaker 3: to you.
1:21
Speaker 2: All right, So center, there was a lot of excitement
1:24
Speaker 2: earlier Sunday evening. My phone blew up. I'm assuming you
1:28
Speaker 2: were getting the text. It's like, oh great, the government's
1:30
Speaker 2: wide open again. It's going to go back to normal.
1:34
Speaker 2: I wish that was true. You just described it as
1:37
Speaker 2: we've got the votes to move forward. Explain the process,
1:42
Speaker 2: because I mean even on social media it was like
1:44
Speaker 2: the Government's reopen.
1:45
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm not so fast. That's not how this
1:48
Speaker 1: can work.
1:48
Speaker 2: In fact, they could take almost another week and totally
1:51
Speaker 2: get this thing back to where it needs to be.
1:54
Speaker 3: So look, the good news is we finally have a
1:56
Speaker 3: deal and we got the votes that are necessary to
2:00
Speaker 3: open the government. So we've had a shutdown, the Schumer
2:03
Speaker 3: shutdown for forty days, fourteen different times. Fourteen times Republicans
2:08
Speaker 3: have voted to open the government. Fourteen times Democrats have
2:12
Speaker 3: voted no, have voted to keep the government shut down. Now,
2:15
Speaker 3: remember the entire reason that we have a shutdown is
2:19
Speaker 3: because under the Senate rules, you need sixty votes to
2:22
Speaker 3: move to proceed to legislation funding the government. We only
2:26
Speaker 3: have fifty three Republicans. That means we need at least
2:30
Speaker 3: seven Democrats, and unfortunately ran votes no on all of these,
2:34
Speaker 3: so we have fifty two Republicans to fund the government.
2:38
Speaker 4: So we need eight Democrats.
2:41
Speaker 3: The fourteen times we've voted over the last forty days,
2:44
Speaker 3: over and over and over again, we've gotten at most
2:47
Speaker 3: two or three Democrats. Tonight Sunday, it's just a few
2:51
Speaker 3: minutes after ten pm Sunday night, we finally got the
2:54
Speaker 3: eight Democrats we needed. So the Democrats who voted to
2:57
Speaker 3: reopen the government are Durban, Hassen, King, Cortes, Masto, Cain, Shaheen, Rosen,
3:03
Speaker 3: and Fetterman. Those are the eight We got exactly what
3:07
Speaker 3: we needed. We ended up with sixty votes, not sixty one,
3:10
Speaker 3: so that not in a sinct every other Democrat voted no.
3:14
Speaker 3: Keep it shut down. But getting eight is important, and
3:17
Speaker 3: there was a substantive deal. But the substantive deal has
3:21
Speaker 3: several pieces. Number one, there's a continuing Resolution that runs
3:25
Speaker 3: through January thirtieth. So one thing that was really important
3:29
Speaker 3: to me and to a lot of conservatives was that
3:31
Speaker 3: we not have government funding expire right before Christmas. Often
3:37
Speaker 3: government fundings expires right before Christmas, and they use the
3:40
Speaker 3: desire everyone has to go home to their families for
3:43
Speaker 3: the holidays to twist their arms into passing a really
3:48
Speaker 3: bad bill. So this does not end right before Christmas.
3:51
Speaker 3: The CR, instead, the Continuing Resolution continues until the end
3:55
Speaker 3: of January. That was significant. We also included three appropriations
4:00
Speaker 3: bills in the deals. Now these are appropriation bills. There
4:02
Speaker 3: are two ways you can fund the government. You can
4:05
Speaker 3: fund the government through an appropriation bill. There are thirteen
4:08
Speaker 3: different appropriation bills that fund different cabinet agencies and different
4:11
Speaker 3: major programs. Yep, those take sixty votes. That's what's called
4:16
Speaker 3: regular order. That's the way the system is supposed to work.
4:20
Speaker 3: And then you could also fund the government through a
4:23
Speaker 3: continuing resolution also called a CR, that just keeps everything
4:27
Speaker 3: the way it was before and maintains the status quo.
4:31
Speaker 3: We ended up doing a combination of both, so in
4:34
Speaker 3: this deal, we have number one, the ag approach, So
4:38
Speaker 3: that's the agriculture appropriation that includes the funds that farmers
4:42
Speaker 3: rely on, but it also importantly includes SNAP. It includes
4:46
Speaker 3: food stamps. So one of the consequences of the shutdown
4:49
Speaker 3: was the funding for food stamps went away. With this
4:54
Speaker 3: appropriation bill, we will fund the food stamps for an
4:56
Speaker 3: entire year, so that will be taken off the table.
4:59
Speaker 1: And by the way, let's be very clear about that.
5:01
Speaker 2: Republicans tried to make sure that even with the government
5:05
Speaker 2: shut down, that SNAP benefits were continuing and were not stopped.
5:11
Speaker 2: Democrats made damn sure that people did not get their
5:15
Speaker 2: food stamp benefits during the forty day the longest shut
5:18
Speaker 2: down in American history. They did that because they thought
5:20
Speaker 2: it was leveraged to hurt the poorest among us in
5:23
Speaker 2: America and that would then give them leverage to get
5:26
Speaker 2: more of the port rail things they wanted for the
5:28
Speaker 2: Democratic programs and initiatives. And they didn't care if you
5:31
Speaker 2: couldn't feed your kids over the last forty days.
5:34
Speaker 3: So understand that was the entire Democrat strategy is maximize
5:38
Speaker 3: the pain on the American people, because the more pain
5:42
Speaker 3: that they could inflict they were counting on the media
5:44
Speaker 3: to be dishonest and blame it all on Trump, and
5:47
Speaker 3: so repeatedly this past week, I went back and forth
5:49
Speaker 3: with Democrats repeatedly, and their talking points were very simple.
5:52
Speaker 3: They would say, well, you have a Republican president, Republican Senate,
5:56
Speaker 3: Republican House. The shutdown is their fault, and that was it.
5:59
Speaker 3: And they counting on the dishonest corporate media to tell
6:03
Speaker 3: that lie what they omitted. And actually I talked about
6:08
Speaker 3: this just this weekend. I spoke on the Senate Florida.
6:10
Speaker 3: I said, look, whenever anyone takes an oath to testify
6:15
Speaker 3: in court, that they put their hand on the Bible
6:17
Speaker 3: and they pledge to tell the truth, the whole truth,
6:19
Speaker 3: and nothing but the truth. Well, the Democrats saying that
6:22
Speaker 3: they're failing part number two, the whole truth, because it
6:24
Speaker 3: is true we have a Republican president, House and Senate.
6:27
Speaker 3: What they're ignoring is the fact that it requires sixty
6:30
Speaker 3: votes and it is the Democrats who force the shut
6:32
Speaker 3: down because they're the ones that are not voting to
6:35
Speaker 3: keep the government open. This package, we took three appropriations bills.
6:40
Speaker 3: The ag Appropriation Bill, which is Farmers ranchers and food stamps,
6:45
Speaker 3: the Military Construction and the VA Bill, so that funds
6:48
Speaker 3: funds our veterans and also gives funds for military construction
6:52
Speaker 3: projects across the country. And then the Legislature Bill, which,
6:56
Speaker 3: among other things, we increase the funding for security for
7:00
Speaker 3: members of Congress. Given the political violence we see, I
7:03
Speaker 3: think that's very important to have more funds to increase
7:06
Speaker 3: security on both.
7:07
Speaker 4: Sides of the aisle. So that package.
7:10
Speaker 3: Those are three appropriation bills that were bipartisan. The Democrats
7:14
Speaker 3: had a party in that were passed along with the
7:18
Speaker 3: thirty day CR or not thirty day, the CR to
7:22
Speaker 3: January thirtieth.
7:23
Speaker 1: Right, Henry thirtieth.
7:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, So all of that is what we got
7:28
Speaker 3: sixty votes for tonight. Now what does that mean tomorrow morning?
7:31
Speaker 3: Does that mean the government is opened Monday morning? Unfortunately No.
7:35
Speaker 2: And by the way, people are frustrated because they think, well,
7:38
Speaker 2: you guys shut it down quickly, then why can't you
7:41
Speaker 2: just reopen it quickly?
7:42
Speaker 1: And this is how the sausage is made.
7:45
Speaker 2: And that's why I think there's some miscommunication on Sunday
7:47
Speaker 2: night about.
7:48
Speaker 1: Oh, the government's like open up.
7:50
Speaker 2: I mean there was major news out it's like government
7:52
Speaker 2: opening up the votes to have it, and they're thinking,
7:54
Speaker 2: all right, well, if I'm flying out Monday or Monday
7:57
Speaker 2: afternoon or Tuesday, yeah, there should be no problems with
7:59
Speaker 2: it at the airport.
8:01
Speaker 1: That's also not true. I want to be very clear
8:03
Speaker 1: about that.
8:04
Speaker 3: Look, if the Democrats want to be full obstructionist, they
8:08
Speaker 3: could delay opening the government as late as Friday of
8:12
Speaker 3: this week because there are a series of votes we
8:15
Speaker 3: have to take in. Under the Senate rules, they can
8:18
Speaker 3: delay thing. They have a right to an intervening day
8:20
Speaker 3: between one voter and another. They can delay things for
8:23
Speaker 3: thirty hours, and so they could drag it out. Even
8:27
Speaker 3: though we have the sixty votes. They could drag it
8:30
Speaker 3: out as late as Friday. My guess is they'll drag
8:34
Speaker 3: it out till Monday or Tuesday. My best guess is
8:38
Speaker 3: the government will open up Tuesday or Wednesday. But we
8:41
Speaker 3: really are dealing with Look the Bernie Sanders Is of
8:44
Speaker 3: the world. By the way, Chuck Schumer voted no because
8:47
Speaker 3: the whole point of this was for him to tell
8:50
Speaker 3: the crazy left he still hates Donald Trump. Now, I
8:53
Speaker 3: don't think these eight Democrats would have voted yes without
8:57
Speaker 3: Schumer blessing their voting yes.
8:59
Speaker 4: So this was all always going to end this one.
9:01
Speaker 2: I was going to ask you, so getting to the
9:03
Speaker 2: perfect number of eight, and again, this is how the
9:06
Speaker 2: sausage is made. So let's talk about behind the scenes.
9:09
Speaker 2: You guys, the Republicans have been meeting right behind the scenes.
9:13
Speaker 2: You have your normal lunches that you have in your
9:14
Speaker 2: other meetings. And I see you guys on the four
9:16
Speaker 2: of the Senate talking and you're outside of the Senate.
9:18
Speaker 2: I mean Democrats are doing the same thing when they
9:22
Speaker 2: decide who is in the eight to vote yes? Is
9:26
Speaker 2: that strategic based on who needs cover when they're running
9:29
Speaker 2: for office?
9:30
Speaker 4: Is that?
9:30
Speaker 2: I mean there's some like Fetterman that clearly were leaders
9:33
Speaker 2: on this, just saying I think it's wrong to hold
9:35
Speaker 2: the American be a hostage.
9:36
Speaker 1: I'm voting to open this thing up.
9:38
Speaker 2: How do they decide on the exact eight And is
9:41
Speaker 2: it literally to the point where they're like, all right,
9:43
Speaker 2: we're gonna only give eight, and you got to make
9:46
Speaker 2: your argument to us why you should be in the
9:48
Speaker 2: in the eight and we'll give you that blessing.
9:50
Speaker 1: How does that work?
9:52
Speaker 4: So I don't know for sure.
9:54
Speaker 3: I will say there were a number of Republicans who
9:57
Speaker 3: were surprised we did not get more than eight. So
10:00
Speaker 3: there were other Democrats who were telling Republicans privately they
10:03
Speaker 3: were going to vote yes to open the government. People
10:06
Speaker 3: like John Ossoff, who's got he's the most vulnerable Democrat
10:09
Speaker 3: running for reelection in Georgia. He just voted the fifteenth
10:12
Speaker 3: time to keep the government shut down, you know, George.
10:17
Speaker 3: By the way, Raphael Warnock, the other Georgia senator, did
10:20
Speaker 3: as well. We actually thought there was a real possibility
10:23
Speaker 3: they would both vote tonight to open the government. I
10:26
Speaker 3: don't know what Osoff's calculus was. Warnock will often vote
10:29
Speaker 3: with Osoff to give him some political coverage, So we
10:33
Speaker 3: figured that they would go. They would go either both
10:35
Speaker 3: yes or both no. They both voted to keep the
10:38
Speaker 3: government shut down.
10:39
Speaker 2: What is the chances to guys like that on Tuesday
10:42
Speaker 2: Wednesday vote yes? After they say all right, well fine,
10:46
Speaker 2: we're already going to be there. Does that change you
10:48
Speaker 2: think that eight number? Could that change at tenth or
10:50
Speaker 2: is it pretty much ate eight?
10:52
Speaker 3: No? I could easily see on a subsequent vote. Some
10:55
Speaker 3: additional Democrats, Patty Murray, who is the senior Democrat on
10:59
Speaker 3: the Appropriations Committee. A number of Republicans believe she was
11:03
Speaker 3: going to vote yes. I mentioned we just were going
11:05
Speaker 3: to pass three appropriation bills. She played a major hand
11:09
Speaker 3: in drafting those three appropriation bills. And so for appropriators. Look,
11:14
Speaker 3: when Chuck Schumer and the Democrats had the majority, do
11:17
Speaker 3: you know how many appropriation bills they passed into law?
11:20
Speaker 1: How many?
11:21
Speaker 4: Zero?
11:22
Speaker 3: Like the process was broken, they didn't do appropriations. It's
11:26
Speaker 3: our hope to actually go through the process, to have amendments,
11:30
Speaker 3: to negotiate it. And that's what these three bills are doing.
11:34
Speaker 3: And yet the senior Democrat on the Appropriations Committee voted no,
11:38
Speaker 3: Chris Coons, who is widely seen as one of the
11:42
Speaker 3: more moderate Democrats. He voted to keep the government shut down.
11:47
Speaker 3: Alissa Slotkin from Michigan. Look, Michigan's a purple state. She
11:50
Speaker 3: voted to keep the government shut down. Gary Peters, also
11:54
Speaker 3: from Michigan retiring, he voted to keep the government to
11:57
Speaker 3: shut down. So there were there were another half dozen
11:59
Speaker 3: or so that a lot of folks thought we would
12:02
Speaker 3: have a chance at getting their votes, and we did not.
12:06
Speaker 2: So when you don't get those votes, we move forward.
12:08
Speaker 2: You said this thing could end up to Friday. You're
12:11
Speaker 2: guessing probably Tuesday, Wednesday the government reopens.
12:14
Speaker 1: How many more votes after tonight?
12:17
Speaker 2: Again, for people that are listening, we're doing this Sunday
12:20
Speaker 2: night at ten fifteen right now in DC. How many
12:24
Speaker 2: people are How many votes will it take starting now
12:29
Speaker 2: to get the government actually reopen.
12:31
Speaker 3: We need to continue to hold sixty, but we're going
12:34
Speaker 3: to the underlying terms of the deal have been cut.
12:37
Speaker 3: So I don't expect any of the eight who just
12:39
Speaker 3: voted yes to flip. So I think we've got our sixty.
12:43
Speaker 3: But the remaining Democrats can just drag things out and
12:47
Speaker 3: make it painful. I hope they don't. I actually pulled
12:50
Speaker 3: Dick Durbin aside. Durbin is retiring, and I mentioned I
12:54
Speaker 3: always thought this was going to end with retiring Democrats
12:57
Speaker 3: voting to open the government. Durbin did so. Now, look
13:00
Speaker 3: he's the number two in leadership among the Democrats. He's
13:03
Speaker 3: Chuck Schumer's right hand buddy's retiring. I told Dick tonight,
13:08
Speaker 3: I said, look, we've got sixty.
13:10
Speaker 4: Now.
13:10
Speaker 3: It sure would be nice if, like you guys didn't
13:13
Speaker 3: drag this out unnecessarily till Friday and just the identical
13:17
Speaker 3: outcome will happen, and it just is more painful for everybody.
13:21
Speaker 3: I think there are a lot of Democrats who feel
13:23
Speaker 3: that way. It's why I think we'll end Tuesday or Wednesday.
13:27
Speaker 3: But who the heck knows. Now, there's another element to
13:30
Speaker 3: this deal that's getting some attention online, which is a
13:34
Speaker 3: commitment to reverse the riffs, the reductions and forces that
13:38
Speaker 3: happened during the shutdown. Yeah, and there's some folks online saying, oh,
13:42
Speaker 3: you guys cave, this is terrible. That was an offer
13:46
Speaker 3: that President Trump made, i think like two weeks ago
13:49
Speaker 3: to the Democrats. That has been on the table for
13:51
Speaker 3: them a long long time, and the White House made
13:54
Speaker 3: the decision, Okay, if you guys open the government, we agree,
13:58
Speaker 3: we'll offer you that will reverse those rifts. So that
14:01
Speaker 3: was in the deal, but it was a deal that
14:03
Speaker 3: came from the White House that we just agreed. Okay,
14:05
Speaker 3: if that's if those are the terms that the President
14:08
Speaker 3: wants to cut, well we'll back up the president.
14:10
Speaker 2: So you go into Monday, you're gonna have more meetings
14:13
Speaker 2: throughout the day, or explain to me Monday what that
14:16
Speaker 2: looks like.
14:17
Speaker 3: We're anticipating the first vote probably around noon. And as
14:21
Speaker 3: I said that, there could be we could have done
14:23
Speaker 3: it all tonight if the Democrats had agreed to In
14:27
Speaker 3: the Senate, you can do anything by unanimous consent, and
14:30
Speaker 3: so if they wanted to open the government tonight, they
14:32
Speaker 3: could have just consented to do one vote and then
14:34
Speaker 3: do the other one next to the other one next,
14:35
Speaker 3: the other one next, and we'd be done.
14:37
Speaker 4: Like you can do that.
14:38
Speaker 2: You know, literally, instead of us recording right now, you
14:42
Speaker 2: guys could actually be voting and this could have all
14:45
Speaker 2: been Monday morning. The government is open for business, all
14:49
Speaker 2: the fa guys are back to normal, everybody's getting paid,
14:52
Speaker 2: and they're like, now, screwt, We'll just wait a few
14:53
Speaker 2: more days. So no one's the flying home, right, I mean,
14:56
Speaker 2: you're not flying home tonight, are you.
14:58
Speaker 4: Nope?
14:58
Speaker 3: Nope, I'm in DC. I I didn't see my family
15:01
Speaker 3: this weekend. I would have loved to have seen my kids.
15:04
Speaker 3: I didn't. I spent most of the time just sitting
15:07
Speaker 3: here waiting for Democrats to finally agree to cut a deal.
15:12
Speaker 4: But it was striking.
15:15
Speaker 3: We could have done it tonight, but to do that
15:18
Speaker 3: you need unanimous consent. That means you don't need sixty,
15:22
Speaker 3: you need one hundred. That means one person can object
15:26
Speaker 3: and say, no, drag it out.
15:27
Speaker 4: I want to burn more time. I want to burn
15:29
Speaker 4: more time.
15:30
Speaker 3: And you have people like Bernie Sanders, you have all
15:34
Speaker 3: the Democrats who are running for president that want to
15:37
Speaker 3: want a spectacle, and so that if they really decide
15:42
Speaker 3: to be just just fully obstructionist, they could drag it
15:47
Speaker 3: as late as Friday.
15:48
Speaker 4: All right.
15:48
Speaker 2: So one other question is this is unfolding when the
15:52
Speaker 2: government opens back up, and let's just use a hypothetical
15:55
Speaker 2: of Wednesday, all right, Wednesday the government opens up, does
15:59
Speaker 2: that mean that instantly the system is going to go
16:03
Speaker 2: back to normal. I'm saying this to people traveling. You
16:06
Speaker 2: and I have traveled a lot. We've started to see
16:08
Speaker 2: the breakdown of a air traffic control and of having
16:12
Speaker 2: to cancel flights. I've witnessed it traveling internationally and domestically
16:17
Speaker 2: over the last couple of days.
16:18
Speaker 1: You've done it as well.
16:20
Speaker 2: And so when it opens back up, is that like
16:22
Speaker 2: an instant fix or is that going to take a
16:25
Speaker 2: couple of days to cycle through the system as well?
16:27
Speaker 2: What does travel look like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
16:31
Speaker 3: Look at least travel Monday and Monday and Tuesday, I
16:34
Speaker 3: would expect still really significant delays and really significant cancelations.
16:39
Speaker 3: The reason for those delays and those cancelations. We have
16:44
Speaker 3: roughly fifty thousand TSA agents all across the country.
16:48
Speaker 4: Many of them are going into work. None of them
16:51
Speaker 4: are being paid.
16:52
Speaker 3: They all missed their last paycheck, didn't get their last paycheck.
16:55
Speaker 3: We have roughly fourteen thousand air traffic controllers. Many of
16:59
Speaker 3: them are going into work. None of them are getting paid,
17:02
Speaker 3: they all missed their last paycheck. Listen, if you're a
17:05
Speaker 3: TSA agent, if you're an air traffic controller, typical TSA
17:09
Speaker 3: agent or air traffic controller doesn't have a deep reservoir
17:12
Speaker 3: of savings. I mean they're under real stress right now.
17:15
Speaker 3: How do I pay my mortgage, how do I pay
17:17
Speaker 3: my rent? How do I pay my bills? And so
17:20
Speaker 3: what is happening with both TSA agents and controllers. They're
17:24
Speaker 3: calling in sick, They're just not showing up, say summer,
17:27
Speaker 3: coming into work. The problem is in New York City
17:30
Speaker 3: on Halloween Day, roughly eighty percent of the controllers called
17:34
Speaker 3: in sick and didn't show up to work. That's chuck
17:36
Speaker 3: Schumer's hometown by the way, And so we're seeing with
17:40
Speaker 3: TSA you had Monday a week ago, the lines in
17:44
Speaker 3: the Houston Bush Airport were two and a half to
17:46
Speaker 3: three hours lined long to get through security because they
17:50
Speaker 3: were so short staffed on TSA agents they didn't have
17:53
Speaker 3: enough to move people through security. So even if the
17:57
Speaker 3: government opens up tomorrow, you're dealing with the independent decisions
18:01
Speaker 3: of fifty thousand TSA agents and fourteen thousand controllers when
18:05
Speaker 3: they come back to work. And the reason that the
18:08
Speaker 3: FAA has mandated ten percent of flights be canceled is
18:12
Speaker 3: they're looking at the data and seeing that these short
18:15
Speaker 3: staffed air traffic controllers there's an increased risk to safety.
18:18
Speaker 3: So they're saying, all right, if we don't have full staffing,
18:21
Speaker 3: we got to reduce the number of flights. So in
18:25
Speaker 3: a week, do I expect things to go back to normal? Yes,
18:28
Speaker 3: a week after things open up, but it could easily
18:32
Speaker 3: take several days for people to say, Okay, I'm going
18:34
Speaker 3: to come back into work now. That doesn't happen automatically
18:38
Speaker 3: just by flipping a switch.
18:40
Speaker 2: So what you're basically telling me is this week when
18:42
Speaker 2: I'm flying and when you're flying, and so many others
18:45
Speaker 2: that listen to this show are flying. We're going to
18:47
Speaker 2: be dealing with this type of chaos because the Democrats
18:50
Speaker 2: decided not to do their job, even while doing their
18:53
Speaker 2: job on Sunday night right now.
18:56
Speaker 3: Yes, and by the way, they could have agreed to
18:59
Speaker 3: open it all up to that, They could have given consent,
19:03
Speaker 3: said okay, you've got a deal, let's move ahead, and
19:06
Speaker 3: it's now just the obstructionist who you know. If your
19:09
Speaker 3: flight is canceled tomorrow, you can thank Chuck Schumer and
19:12
Speaker 3: every Democrat senator running for president who's trying to show
19:15
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19:18
Speaker 3: open now, but it will take It'll take a few
19:22
Speaker 3: more days at a minimum.
19:24
Speaker 2: Every so often something happens that reminds us just how
19:27
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19:31
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21:11
Speaker 1: All right, So let's.
21:12
Speaker 2: Move to another issue in this shutdown, and there's been
21:14
Speaker 2: some confusion over it. There's been a lot of fighting
21:17
Speaker 2: over it. It deals with Obamacare. Also knows the Affordable
21:20
Speaker 2: Care Act Democrats decided and this is some of the
21:24
Speaker 2: history that I do think we need to now explain
21:26
Speaker 2: because there's been so much of a political football on
21:29
Speaker 2: this one. That they purposely designed for the subsidies which
21:35
Speaker 2: make Obamacare seem cheaper than it is, even though your
21:38
Speaker 2: tax dollars are paying for the subsidies to subsidize people's
21:42
Speaker 2: health insurance. They designed it purposely to expire now and
21:48
Speaker 2: that was something that was done by design. I'm assuming
21:51
Speaker 2: for this type of fight, is am I wrong? And
21:53
Speaker 2: explain what's happening with Obamacare now and moving forward?
21:58
Speaker 3: Well, look, the other thing Democrats talked about and they
22:01
Speaker 3: claimed they were fighting the shutdown for, was to extend Obamacare,
22:05
Speaker 3: and in particular during COVID, when the Democrats had control
22:09
Speaker 3: of the House and the Senate. In the White House,
22:11
Speaker 3: they passed massive subsidies that went straight to giant insurance
22:16
Speaker 3: companies went to the didn't go to the people, didn't
22:18
Speaker 3: go to you, but went to insurance companies, roughly fifty
22:22
Speaker 3: billion dollars worth of subsidies, just huge corporate welfare. And
22:26
Speaker 3: that corporate welfare to the insurance companies expires the end
22:30
Speaker 3: of December. And so part of this deal is Republicans
22:35
Speaker 3: agreed we will have a vote on those those subsidies
22:39
Speaker 3: the first week of December. Now, by the way, Republicans
22:42
Speaker 3: offered them that we would schedule that vote forty days ago,
22:45
Speaker 3: so they've had that on the table for forty days.
22:48
Speaker 3: But we said at the beginning, sure, we'll give you
22:51
Speaker 3: a vote. They're going to lose that vote. They know
22:52
Speaker 3: they're going to lose that vote, but we said, we'll
22:54
Speaker 3: give you that vote. And so we agreed to have
22:58
Speaker 3: that vote. Now, what's the answer. And this is where
23:01
Speaker 3: I want to take folks a little bit behind the
23:02
Speaker 3: scenes to some of the sausage making. So most of
23:07
Speaker 3: the Senate was in DC all weekend. We'd all planned
23:10
Speaker 3: to be back home and had many people had fundraisers
23:12
Speaker 3: at political events or family events, and we missed most
23:16
Speaker 3: of them just staying here. So Friday night I invited
23:21
Speaker 3: a dozen senators out to dinner. And so we went
23:23
Speaker 3: to a local restaurant and got a room together and
23:26
Speaker 3: had had a great dinner, and we're laughing and talking
23:29
Speaker 3: and strategizing and saying, look, are are the Democrats going
23:31
Speaker 3: to move? So in that dinner, we decided to call
23:36
Speaker 3: President Trump. So we called President Trump, got him on
23:39
Speaker 3: the cell phone, and the President he was in a
23:42
Speaker 3: good mood, but he was he was expressing his views
23:46
Speaker 3: emphatically as he always does.
23:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, and by the.
23:49
Speaker 2: Way, for people I've ever done a phone call, like
23:51
Speaker 2: if you've never gotten to do this, he does not
23:53
Speaker 2: ever hold back when you're talking about the phone.
23:55
Speaker 1: I not a single phone call. You've had a lot
23:58
Speaker 1: more than I have.
23:59
Speaker 2: But when I've had phone phone calls with him, whether
24:01
Speaker 2: it was in sixteen to twenty or now forward, like,
24:04
Speaker 2: he does not hold back at all. When you're on
24:07
Speaker 2: the cell phone on speakerphone as well.
24:09
Speaker 4: He does not.
24:10
Speaker 3: So one of the things we asked of him Friday night,
24:13
Speaker 3: we said, listen, in this battle with the Democrats over Obamacare,
24:16
Speaker 3: Obamacare's failing.
24:17
Speaker 4: It's a bad program.
24:18
Speaker 3: And if you go back, go back to twenty thirteen,
24:20
Speaker 3: twenty thirteen, when I did a filibuster against Obamacare. I
24:25
Speaker 3: said at the time, if you remember, Barack Obama promised
24:27
Speaker 3: the American people Obamacare would would cut the average families
24:32
Speaker 3: premiums by twenty five hundred a year.
24:34
Speaker 4: Yep, that was a lie.
24:35
Speaker 3: And in fact, they skyrocketed at the time five thousand
24:39
Speaker 3: a year. They've skyrocketed a lot more than that. Even
24:42
Speaker 3: the Washington Post has now admitted the editorial page the
24:45
Speaker 3: Affordable Care Act, which is the misleading name of Obamacare,
24:49
Speaker 3: did not make health care more affordable. It caused premiums
24:52
Speaker 3: to skyrocket. So when we had Trump on the phone,
24:55
Speaker 3: we said, look, it would really help if you made
24:58
Speaker 3: the case that what Democrats are fighting for is these
25:02
Speaker 3: massive multi billion dollar corporate welfare payoffs to the health
25:05
Speaker 3: insurance companies instead of empowering consumers. And look, we want
25:11
Speaker 3: a lower prices. And so we said, in particular, it
25:15
Speaker 3: would really help if you would send a truth and
25:18
Speaker 3: Trump said, great, come up with something. And so I
25:21
Speaker 3: will tell you what the president sent. I had a
25:24
Speaker 3: lot of input in this, and here's what he put out.
25:28
Speaker 3: President Trump said, Democrats claim to be working for quote
25:31
Speaker 3: the little guy, and driving down your health insurance but
25:36
Speaker 3: the and the rest of this is in all caps,
25:38
Speaker 3: Obamacare scam goes straight to their best friends in the
25:42
Speaker 3: insurance industry. They are making a killing while health coverage
25:47
Speaker 3: only gets worse. If Democrats get their way again, they're
25:53
Speaker 3: in for another huge payday at the expense of the
25:57
Speaker 3: American people. No deal in all caps, Republicans should give
26:02
Speaker 3: money directly to your personal health savings accounts all in
26:08
Speaker 3: caps that I expanded in our great, big, beautiful bill.
26:12
Speaker 3: Thank you for your attention to this matter. Now, this
26:14
Speaker 3: is really important because if you want a really strong,
26:18
Speaker 3: principled conservative reform to health insurance, expanding health savings accounts
26:25
Speaker 3: so that you give you the consumer, you the patient,
26:28
Speaker 3: more control and instead of sending money to the insurance companies,
26:32
Speaker 3: send it straight to people's health savings accounts, so you
26:35
Speaker 3: can spend it on premiums, you can spend it on deductibles,
26:38
Speaker 3: you can spend it on healthcare that expands competition and
26:41
Speaker 3: empowers patients and at lowers prices. The President leaning in
26:46
Speaker 3: with this tweet really helps in this political battle we'll
26:50
Speaker 3: have over the next six weeks because the outcome he's
26:54
Speaker 3: advocating for is something I've advocated for a long time,
26:57
Speaker 3: and that was a direct result of that dinner on
27:01
Speaker 3: Friday night where we got them on the phone.
27:03
Speaker 2: You know, there's one interesting thing that's coming out of
27:05
Speaker 2: this first year of Trump being back in office. It
27:09
Speaker 2: is really empowering the American people, whether it is the
27:13
Speaker 2: accounts you's talked about, whether it's the Trump accounts that
27:17
Speaker 2: are going to be coming in this next year that
27:18
Speaker 2: you guys pass to give kids the opportunity to save
27:21
Speaker 2: money and to be able to grow accounts and to
27:24
Speaker 2: build wealth over their lifetime. Like, there is a lot
27:28
Speaker 2: of personal growth and personal excitement that it's Trump is
27:33
Speaker 2: get the government out of your life.
27:35
Speaker 1: You can do better without it. We want to help
27:37
Speaker 1: you do that.
27:38
Speaker 2: And then the Democrats like no, no, no, no, no, Mandani's
27:41
Speaker 2: and others usually have no control of your life. We
27:44
Speaker 2: want to run the whole damn show from from from
27:46
Speaker 2: birth to death. Just trust the US government to be
27:50
Speaker 2: your daddy or your mommy are both. And that's exactly
27:54
Speaker 2: the difference between the Republicans and Democrats right now.
27:57
Speaker 3: Look at it's a fundamental divide. As you know, did
28:00
Speaker 3: we passed the Trump accounts? As you know, well, I
28:02
Speaker 3: wrote that legislation. This has been a major theme that
28:07
Speaker 3: I've been fighting for since the first day I got
28:09
Speaker 3: elected to the Senate. And whether you're talking about health
28:12
Speaker 3: savings accounts, whether you're talking about Trump accounts that are
28:16
Speaker 3: that are essentially four A one K savings accounts for kids,
28:19
Speaker 3: or whether you're talking about school choice and getting tax credits,
28:23
Speaker 3: the unifying theme of all of those is individual choice,
28:27
Speaker 3: empowering you the individual rather than government competition and giving
28:34
Speaker 3: you control. That is the fundamental difference between left and right.
28:39
Speaker 3: And President Trump has been a great partner in this,
28:41
Speaker 3: and I'll tell you as a part of his tweet,
28:44
Speaker 3: he sent out a chart, a chart which which which
28:47
Speaker 3: I had sent him, but I want you to see
28:49
Speaker 3: the chart. We're gonna put it up on on on
28:51
Speaker 3: YouTube for anyone that's watching on YouTube. But it goes
28:55
Speaker 3: through the major UH healthcare companies their stock performance since
29:02
Speaker 3: Obamacare passed. I'm going to walk through them. Etna Obamacare
29:07
Speaker 3: March twenty ten is when it passed. Etna's stock stock
29:11
Speaker 3: price was thirty dollars and fifty cents. Today it's two
29:14
Speaker 3: hundred and twelve dollars, so it's increased five hundred and
29:16
Speaker 3: ninety five percent. Since Obamacare passed, senteen its stock has
29:22
Speaker 3: increased six hundred and four percent, Molina its stock has
29:26
Speaker 3: increased eight hundred and fifty nine percent, Humana its stock
29:31
Speaker 3: has increased four hundred and ninety percent, Anthem Elevans Health
29:35
Speaker 3: Its stock has increased four hundred and fourteen percent, Signa
29:41
Speaker 3: its stock has increased eight eight hundred and twenty two percent,
29:46
Speaker 3: and United Health Group. When Obamacare passed, United Health stock
29:51
Speaker 3: was twenty five dollars and sixty six cents. Today November
29:54
Speaker 3: twenty twenty five, it is three hundred and twenty seven
29:58
Speaker 3: dollars and seventy four cents. That is a one and
30:01
Speaker 3: seventy seven percent increase.
30:04
Speaker 4: That's what Obamacare did.
30:05
Speaker 3: It massively increased the profits of the health insurance companies.
30:09
Speaker 3: By the way, those health insurance companies overwhelmingly give to Democrats.
30:12
Speaker 3: They give to Chuck Schumer, they give to Keem Jefferies
30:15
Speaker 3: and the Democrats because they recognize when Democrats are in power,
30:19
Speaker 3: their profits go through the roof and the American people's
30:22
Speaker 3: premium skyrocket. What are the Democrats say they wanted to
30:26
Speaker 3: do in this shutdown? Give fifty billion dollars to those
30:29
Speaker 3: same health insurance companies who profits have skyrocket, and it's
30:32
Speaker 3: why what the presidents said is so important. No, we're
30:35
Speaker 3: not going to give money to health insurance companies. Instead,
30:38
Speaker 3: we're going to expand health savings accounts so you, the individual,
30:42
Speaker 3: has control over your own healthcare center.
30:44
Speaker 2: I also want to get a little preview of something
30:46
Speaker 2: that you're working on. We're going to do a more
30:48
Speaker 2: expansive show on this, but it's important that people know
30:52
Speaker 2: that even while the government has been shut down, you
30:55
Speaker 2: have been working very hard on other things. One of
30:58
Speaker 2: those things is you've now introduced the quote Deporting Fraudster's
31:01
Speaker 2: Act of twenty twenty five, and it deals with snap
31:05
Speaker 2: and public benefits abuses that is costing the American people
31:10
Speaker 2: millions and millions of dollars. Give us a little preview
31:14
Speaker 2: of this so people know what's been going on.
31:16
Speaker 4: Look, this is a very simple bill.
31:18
Speaker 3: It is an astonishing fact that right now welfare fraud
31:22
Speaker 3: fraudulently taking government assistance benefits is not a deportable offense
31:26
Speaker 3: under the immigration laws. This law will change that and
31:30
Speaker 3: make it a deportable offense. Let me give you some
31:31
Speaker 3: basic statistics. Forty eight percent of households headed by illegal
31:37
Speaker 3: immigrants received food related welfare benefits forty eight percent, nearly
31:42
Speaker 3: half specifically SNAP. A CIS analysis found that thirty one
31:47
Speaker 3: percent of illegal alien households with children draw SNAP benefits,
31:52
Speaker 3: One in five households getting WICIC Women's infants and Children
31:58
Speaker 3: or SNAP is headed by an on citizen, and ninety
32:01
Speaker 3: six percent of the children in those households are US
32:05
Speaker 3: but born, showing how illegal aliens exploit child based eligibility
32:09
Speaker 3: to access benefits indirectly. The US Department of Agriculture reports
32:15
Speaker 3: one point seven six million non citizens on SNAP in
32:20
Speaker 3: twenty twenty three. That is roughly three hundred and twelve
32:25
Speaker 3: million dollars in taxpayer funds. In twenty twelve or not
32:29
Speaker 3: twenty twelve, rather twenty twenty two, it was one point
32:32
Speaker 3: five million recipients that cost two hundred and twenty two million.
32:36
Speaker 3: Fraud is rampant. For example, in twenty twenty four, one
32:41
Speaker 3: hundred and twenty six point eight million dollars was stolen
32:44
Speaker 3: from EBT cards. In Texas, three point seven million people,
32:49
Speaker 3: about eleven percent of the state, relies on SNAP. Every
32:53
Speaker 3: stolen or unlawfully claimed dollar robs a citizen family in
32:57
Speaker 3: genuine need. And according to the c about two hundred
33:02
Speaker 3: thousand illegal aliens from the surge of alien asylum seekers
33:06
Speaker 3: from twenty twenty three to twenty twenty four already received snap,
33:10
Speaker 3: growing to eight hundred thousand by twenty thirty four, assuming
33:14
Speaker 3: no deportations. A ten year cost. You said this cost millions. Yeah,
33:20
Speaker 3: the ten year cost is fifteen billion dollars. And so
33:25
Speaker 3: this bill is to target that and say, if you're
33:27
Speaker 3: here illegally, you do not have any entitlement to public welfare,
33:30
Speaker 3: and if you access fraudulently access public welfare, that is
33:35
Speaker 3: yet another ground to deport you.
33:37
Speaker 1: Now, Chuck Schummer's a co sponsor this bill, right.
33:40
Speaker 3: No, And I feel confident that Schumer is not just
33:44
Speaker 3: a no, he's a hell no. Because today's Democrat party,
33:48
Speaker 3: it is all for giant health insurance corporations. It is
33:51
Speaker 3: all for illegal immigrants, it is all for violent criminals,
33:55
Speaker 3: it is all for men and women's sports, it's all
33:59
Speaker 3: for everyone the average American citizen trying to work hard
34:03
Speaker 3: and provide for his or her family.
34:04
Speaker 4: And that's exactly backwards.
34:06
Speaker 1: It's incredible.
34:08
Speaker 2: Well, as we're doing the show right now at ten
34:10
Speaker 2: forty at night on Sunday evening. The government's still shut down.
34:12
Speaker 2: You're still being held hostage. We're moving in the right direction.
34:16
Speaker 2: Democrats could drag this out even till Friday just to
34:19
Speaker 2: hurt you. If you're traveling this week, you're not alone,
34:22
Speaker 2: Senator Cruz and I are traveling with you. It's gonna suck.
34:25
Speaker 2: That's just the best way I can describe it. But
34:27
Speaker 2: at least hope we will be safe while doing it.
34:29
Speaker 2: Senator and I will see you back here when the
34:31
Speaker 2: government hopefully reopens. So we'll be doing a show on Wednesday,
34:35
Speaker 2: So hit that subscriber auto download button and grab my podcast,
34:39
Speaker 2: the Ben Ferguson Podcasts on those in between days. I
34:41
Speaker 2: will keep you up to date with whatever is happening.
34:44
Speaker 2: I can promise you that, and we'll see you back
34:46
Speaker 2: here in a couple of days.