November 13, 2025 • 41 mins
On this Bonus episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz:
-
Government Shutdown Ending
- The shutdown lasted 44 days, making it the longest in U.S. history.
- The House is voting on an appropriations package and continuing resolution after the Senate passed it.
- President expected to sign the bill immediately, reopening the government.
-
Impact on Federal Employees
- Thousands of federal workers (Capitol Hill staff, TSA agents, air traffic controllers, custodians, etc.) missed paychecks.
- Stress among young employees with little savings.
- Discussion on delays in restoring normal operations, especially air travel.
-
Air Travel & Safety
- TSA and air traffic controllers calling in sick caused flight delays and cancellations.
- Praise for Transportation Secretary and Trump administration for prioritizing safety.
- Proposal for bonuses and legislative changes to ensure essential workers are paid during future shutdowns.
-
Political Dynamics
- Democrats seek “maximum pain” during shutdowns for leverage.
- Mention of internal Democratic conflict—“civil war”—after eight Democratic senators voted to reopen the government.
- Calls for leadership changes (e.g., Chuck Schumer under fire).
- References to Washington Post coverage of Democrats adopting “ruthless tactics.”
-
Future Outlook
- Warning of another potential shutdown on January 30 when the continuing resolution expires.
- Concerns about Obamacare subsidies and rising healthcare premiums.
- Broader critique of Democratic policies and party direction.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome in his verdict with Center, Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
with you and Center, we are in a government shutdown
that is ending, and the official vote on that's going
to take place today. For most Americans, that means things
will get back to normal pretty soon, but it's still
chaos and the skies as well well.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
That's right. The shutdown very likely ends today. The House
of Representatives is going to vote later this afternoon on
the appropriations package and the continuing resolution that the Senate
passed on Monday. Our podcast that we put out, we
predicted that the government would open on Wednesday, and I
think it's very likely to. When the House passes it,
(00:41):
I expect the President to sign it pretty much immediately.
And once it's signed, the funding has returned now and
now it will take a little bit of time. I
don't know how quickly paychecks will process. So for the
federal employees who haven't gotten paychecks now for forty four days,
they would really like their paychecks. And I'll tell you
there are a lot of places like I'll give you
(01:02):
an example, Capitol Hill. There are a lot of people
on Capitol Hill staffers who have not gotten paid. Capitol
Police that have not gotten paid. All of the employees,
the employees who drive the subways have not gotten paid.
Everyone who's an employee of the federal government, the custodians,
the electricians, they have not gotten paid. And look not
(01:22):
to mention the TSA agents and the Air traffic Control
agents and the border patrol agents, and throughout the federal government.
Thousands and thousands of people have not gotten paid, particularly
for some of the younger ones. Like on Capitol Hill,
you've got you know, young men and women that are
twenty two to twenty three years old.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
This is their first job out of college there.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
You know, some of them may have some savings, but
many of them don't have any savings at all. And
I'll tell you they're stressed. I mean, they're very stressed.
So my hope is the paychecks will come very quickly.
I don't know if they will come as quickly as Thursday,
or how long it will take actually the pipes to
do the direct deposit, but my hope is it will
will be quite quick after the government opens sometime Wednesday evening,
(02:05):
when I anticipate the President will sign the legislation. Some
of the other delays will take a little bit more time.
Presumably when the government opens Wednesday, each of the cabinet
agencies will send out emails and notify the non essential personnel,
the personnel who'd been furloughed come back to work, and
so I'm anticipating they'll come back to work Thursday morning
(02:27):
because everyone's knowing this is coming.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
So I think you'll see full staff.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
Now.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
It may take a little bit of time to start
government services flowing at the same speed that they normally
flow at, and something like air travel in particular, my
suspicion is there'll be more of a lag in air travel.
I anticipate that we'll continue to see delays and cancelations
for several days beyond today, because what's driving the delays
(02:54):
and cancelations is that a lot of the air traffic
controllers and TSA agents have been calling in sick. Maybe
that immediately turns around on Thursday, but that depends upon
the decision of fifty thousand TSA agents and fourteen thousand
air traffic controllers, and the FAA is not going to
return to full capacity flights until we have sufficient numbers
(03:17):
of controllers in the air Traffic Control room to ensure
that people are flying safely.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
That's going to be a really important part of the
equation as you described it there, and it's a smart
way that I think what we've really seen is true
leadership from the Transportation Secretary on that issue and the
Trump administration to make sure, hey, yeah there's some delays,
but we're going to make sure you're safe from the skies.
And that is one of the caveats to all of
this is at least you know that someone's kind of
(03:41):
looking out for your well being. And look, there's one
party just playing pure politics trying to hurt people. There's
another that's playing defense and trying to protect you. That
is I think the takeaway from this shutdown.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
I think that's right.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
We also saw that the President called for ten thousand
dollars bonuses the air traffic controllers who work during the shutdown.
I think that's a great policy. I think that that
makes an awful lot of sense. I would like to
see the law change so that air traffic controllers get
paid whether there's a shutdown or not. And as you know,
(04:17):
I voted multiple times for Ron Johnson's legislation that would
pay all essential employees so that you don't have federal
workers forced to come in and work, but not to
get a paycheck, because that's what drives things like the
sickouts and people not showing up. And so I think
it would make perfect sense to to have written as
(04:37):
a matter of law that regardless of whether there's there's
a shutdown, soldiers and sailors and airmen and marines and
FBI agents and border patrol agents and ice agents and
air traffic controllers and TSA agents, and everyone who is
essential who is required to work, they get paid. The
problem has been that Democrats have voted against that over
(04:58):
and over and over again. I don't really see that
changing because look, one of the consequences of this, we
have funded three appropriations bills. We've funded the Agricultural Appropriations
Bill that includes the programs for farmers and ranchers, that
includes snaps, so food stamps is funded. All of that's
funded for a year, so there won't be a shutdown
(05:20):
on that going forward. We have also funded military construction
and the VA so that's really important both for construction
projects at military bases across the country and that's a
job driver and it's important for our military defense. That's
funded for a year. And the VA. Obviously caring for
our veterans is critically important. That's funded for a year,
(05:40):
So that's good news. It means the next shutdown will
have a smaller impact because those three appropriations will continue.
But the continuing resolution we pass expires January thirtieth, and
I got to say, I will be very surprised if
the Democrats don't force another shut down on January thirtieth.
And so these battles have not gone away, but they're
(06:04):
at least delayed till January thirtieth. Then we may be
right back with the same problem with flight delays if
the Democrats do it again.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
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(06:33):
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(07:38):
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Speaker 5 (07:47):
Senator.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
I want to ask you a question that you just
mentioned earlier, and that is how do we take some
of this insanity off the table. You talked about there
being real, you know, conversations about making some of these
work where they would be essential, they would get paid
in future shutdown, so they wouldn't be we wouldn't have
the problems of the airport we have now, but also
(08:09):
safety and people that are forced to show up to work.
They're gonna get paid on time. If this is brought
up after the shutdown. What is the main reason why
Democrats are against it? Is it just pure leverage at
this point?
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Yes, No, that they want to inflict maximum pain. They
want the shutdown to be painful for the American people,
and it's so they don't want that. They were furious
when Trump paid the military and he had enough funds
from the One Big Beautiful Bill that he could shift
money around and pay the military. They wanted the military
not to be paid. They're looking for maximum pain because
(08:48):
and they've said this, they've been very candid. They say
that's where they get leverage. You know, tonight, it's Tuesday night,
it's Veterans Day. So I want to say to everyone
who defended this nation, every veteran, and we have thank you.
We are we are grateful for your your service, your sacrifice.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Our liberties are here because of you. I am rutting
right now. Today. I'm I'm in Miami.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
So this evening I spoke at the Miami Dade County
Lincoln Day Dinner. Uh, it's a huge event, over one
thousand people. You know, Miami Dade County has been a
Democrat stronghold for decades. This last cycle, we flipped Dade
County red. It is a Republican county. Republicans won multiple
(09:30):
elections up and down the up and down the slate.
There was a lot of energy there tonight. But I
got to say ben I started by telling everyone. I said,
last night, I was on the floor of the Senate.
Bernie Sanders was screaming, Elizabeth Warren let out an angry
war hoop, Corey Booker curled up in a ball Adam
(09:54):
Schiff was pounding, and Chuck Schumer was crying. And that's
not exactly right. But I said, you know what all
of that says. It was a great day for America.
The Democrats were consuming each other because there were eight
Democrats that finally, after forty two days, showed the courage
to say, enough is enough, let's reopen the government. And
(10:17):
the Democrats turned on each other with a viciousness that
is truly extraordinary. So here was a major story in
the Washington Post headline, Democrats pushed for a ruthlessly pragmatic
approach to counter Trump. And here's what the Post reported.
The fury at eight Democratic alligned senators who voted with
(10:38):
Republicans to end the longest ever government shutdown highlights the
dramatic shift in the Democratic Party less than a year
into President Trump's second term, as voters and lawmakers argue
that the party needs to adopt a more ruthless tactics
to counter the president and claw its way back to power.
So listen, the Democrats are saying, the longest shut down
(10:58):
in history wasn't ruthless, it needs to be worse. Post continues.
The reaction into the two votes on Sunday and Monday,
which provide a pathway for the government to reopen after
more than forty days, was fierce. Representative Roe Kanna, Democrat
from California, called for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to
be replaced, suggesting he was an ineffective leader. Even though
(11:22):
Schumer opposed the government funding measures. So Schumer voted no,
but it doesn't matter. They want to throw him out anyway.
House Minority Leader at Keem Jeffreys, Democrat New York, blasted
the eight senators and said the House Democrats would not
support a government funding bill that did not include the
healthcare measures the party has demanded. So today the Democrats,
presumably all or virtually all, are going to vote to
(11:44):
keep the shut down going.
Speaker 6 (11:45):
Now.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
I fully expect House Republicans will provide the votes needed
to send this to the president. But here's what the
post continues. Democratic advocacy groups, politically vulnerable lawmakers, potential twenty
twenty eight p residential candidates, and voters all followed suit,
lambasting those in the party they saw as caving. The
(12:07):
desire for Democrats to hold firm despite the pain inflicted
by the shutdown, even though the party's prior posture was
that shutdowns are self destructive, was the latest sign that
the party has decided it must adopt an altogether different playbook.
Given Trump's willingness to resort to unprecedented measures to consolidate
(12:29):
and maintain powers, rather than try to uphold norms as
the president shatters them, they have decided to fight Trump
with tactics they previously disdained, and they have excoriated those
who stood in the way, whether on redistricting or candidates
with problematic pasts and here's one of my colleagues, Chris
(12:49):
van Holland, one of the more liberal Democrats. Quote, early on,
there were not enough members of Congress who recognized the
magnitude of the threat Donald Trump poses to our democracy
and constitution. That has changed. Van Holland said that there
were a few senators and what he has dubbed the
quote no business as usual caucus at the beginning of
Trump's term, but it has since grown dramatically in response
(13:12):
to energy from the party's base.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
The lesson is there is power and unity and in
members of Congress working in partnership with the grassroots community.
This is why so many people are feeling let down
at this moment, because that unity was important. This is
the reaction on the Democrat side. They are Schumer is
besieged from all sides, and he started this shutdown again.
Speaker 5 (13:36):
With a civil war. Let's be clear.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
And that's part of what I got to ask you about,
is there are Democrats now that are basically like off
with his head and leadership.
Speaker 5 (13:45):
They want him gone. They're publicly saying, now, oh, you're saying,
this is the end of him. He has done.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
MSNBC said it multiple times. CNN commentators said the same thing,
like he's done. They got to get rid of him.
His career is over. This goes back to the being
held hostage by the Marxists, social in the communists of
the Democratic Party. Now they didn't police him. Now they're
running the party and they're anarchists. And Chuck Schumer shut
down the government for the longest period in history of
(14:10):
this country, and that wasn't good enough for them.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
And he still voted no on reopening it. So he
shut it down for the longest in history. He voted
no consistently, and yet they're still off with his head.
It really is the crazies are driving the Democrat Party.
And look, if you don't believe me, maybe you will
believe John Fetterman. I want you to listen to this exchange.
Senator John Fetterman, Democrat from Pennsylvania, was on the view
(14:38):
and Sonny, you know, one of the left wing hosts
there comes after him and comes after him hard. Listen
to her unhinged question and then listen to Fetterman's response.
Speaker 7 (14:50):
Well.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
Senator Bernie Sanders said the vote was a horrific mistake.
Governor Gavin Newsom called it pathetic and a surrender. Poll
after poll found more Americans on both sides of the
aisle blaming Republicans. Even Marjorie Taylor Green blamed the GOP.
As you mentioned, Democrats have big wins last week, so
you had momentum.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Why give in?
Speaker 4 (15:12):
Now? Why bring a butter knife to a gunfight. Are
you willing to gamble that the GOLP will negotiate on
healthcare in good faith once the government reopens? Because if
that gamble is wrong, half a million Pennsylvanians that you represent,
their healthcare cost will skyrocket if you are wrong, and
I believe you are wrong.
Speaker 8 (15:34):
Well, first of all, MTG is quite literally the last
person in America that I'm going to take advice or
to get their kinds.
Speaker 9 (15:42):
Of my leadership and values from.
Speaker 8 (15:44):
And now if Democrats are celebrating crazy pants like that,
then that's on them. And now I don't need and
I don't need a lecture. I don't need a lecture
from from whether it's Bernie or the governor in California,
because they are representing very deep blue blue kinds of
populations and a lot of those things, a lot of
those things were part of the extreme. And I'll remember
(16:07):
what really needs to win. To win, the big win
is involving my state and other states and those things.
And why have we arrived here after the election a
year ago. We want to forget, we got to forget.
Some of the things that cost us that election are
now for me. It's like, that's why I'm trying to
(16:27):
remind people that kinds of the extreme newism, we can't
return to those kind of things and realize we need
to find a way forward. And I would like to
rather than cite MTG, I'm going to cite one of
the new governor elects saying that my election is not
a green light to continue this shutdown, because I promise
you this isn't a political game. It is viewed by
(16:49):
that by many of us. But the reality is forty
two million Americans now not sure where their next meal
is going to come from. And because we vote like that,
vote like that, or people that haven't been paid for
five weeks now, and that kinds of chaos. Those workers
are more than half a billion dollars, you know, from
their credit union, just to pay their bills.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Now you with him talking about paying their bills, and
I love that from Fetterman. There they also were very
quiet because I didn't think I don't think they realized
he was going to come back with facts that way
and describe it. I jokingly said to you before the
show started, when's John Fetterman going to join the Republican
Party because he's been speaking an awful lot.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
Of truth about the reality this shutdown.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Well, look, I like John Fetterman, and I will tell
you Republicans actually treated much more nicely than the Democrats do.
The Democrats are mean to him, they're vicious to him.
They that they really have a deep antipathy to him.
And the amazing thing he votes the overwhelming majority of
the time with the Democrats. You know, he's on the
(17:55):
Commerce Committee with me. On virtually every vote he votes
party line with the Democrats. On most votes on the floor,
he votes party line with the Democrats. He has a
few defections. So he did vote to open the government,
and that's viewed as this great heresy because he didn't
want to have a force a government shut down and
hurt millions of Americans and continue the longest government shut
(18:17):
down in history. And the main area that he's been
willing to dissent from virtually every other Congressional Democrat is
in support of Israel. And we've talked about before that
there is a real and cognizable pro Hamas caucus in
the Democrat Party. It rose up about ten years ago.
(18:37):
The Democrats did nothing. They look the other way, and
it's now taken over their party. And Fetterman is a
massive outlier because he is genuinely pro Israel. He is
vocally pro Israel, and the radicals in the Democrat Party
hate him for that. And again, if you don't believe me,
listen to what John Fetterman said on exactly this topic.
Speaker 7 (19:00):
Are not Jewish at least as far as I know,
feel free to feel fear to come out here to
me right now. But you have been one of the
most outspoken. It's beyond Washington, it's beyond politicians. You have
been one of the most outspoken people in American life
on the issue of anti Semitism.
Speaker 5 (19:18):
Why is this issue so important to you?
Speaker 9 (19:23):
Ironically, I did that twenty three and me I'm ninety
seven percent German and three percent Neanderthal, And it's like,
maybe it's ironic that that a big german guy from
Pennsylvania has been very absolutely devoted to Israel and to
experience the kind of anti Semitism and in my life,
(19:43):
I mean, you know what, you know, the Tree of Life,
I mean, that's that's where you're from, too. Absolutely appalling,
and my heart breaks for what the Jewish community's suffered,
especially after ten to seven. I've had the honor of meeting,
you know, members of the is former people that were
kept underground for five hundred days. Five hundred days. I mean,
(20:04):
those are heroes. I've met with widows their husbands were
lost in the Gaza War and they have eight children,
raising eight children by their own. That's a hero for
all of it. So for me, it's heartbreaking, and that's
been what's so difficult for me is like being devotion
to Israel becoming increasingly incompatible with being a proud Democrat
(20:28):
now too, and that's put me at odds. And the
things that put me at odds have all converged at
the same time, you know, the gods of war, the
peace deal, and then we moved right into a shutdown,
you know, like now Democrats might not be allowed to
hold these views, and I'm not changing my party, and
you know, run the numbers, run the numbers, you know,
(20:49):
you would find that I'm a Democrat.
Speaker 5 (20:53):
You know he is a Democrat.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
But you've walked past his Senate office countless times. I've
walked past it probably dozens of times when I'm up
in DC, and he had all the hostage pictures up
in his front office, which I thought was incredible.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Look, he has been genuinely courageous and sincerely courageous on Israel,
and it's earned the absolute ire, hatred, animosity, venom of
the radical left in the Democrat Party. I mean, you
heard what he just said there, that that that being
pro Israel is becoming incompatible with being a proud Democrat.
(21:34):
I mean, that's a that's a tragic statement. I wish
that statement were not true, but it is the biggest
reason why their radicals hate him and much of you know,
when he was first elected and he came into office,
he had had a stroke during the campaign and the
stroke was very debilitating. When when John showed up, the
(21:57):
stroke really limited Like when I first met him, what
the stroke did is it limited his ability to process
auditory input. So you would talk to him and his
brain was not able to process the words he was hearing,
and so he would.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Carry with him an iPad that had a translator because
it just this is one of the consequences that can
be from a stroke is your ability to process words
that you hear. Your brain just can't put them together.
So you would talk and he would read it. But
when he first got there, you would talk to him
and he would literally he was not able to understand
what you were saying. And I mean it hurt your heart.
(22:36):
I mean, this is a is a very bright man.
The man's a Harvard graduate, but he had a medical
issue that he had real consequences. Early on, the Democrats
all circled around him and said, you know, he's perfectly capable.
There are no issues whatsoever. Because they assumed he would
be a left wing Democrat, that's what they expected of him.
(22:57):
That was not a crazy expectation going in. And then
when he started standing up, particularly on Israel, standing up
and defying the Prohamas Caucus, you started seeing the Democrats
leaking and planning stories and really attacking his mental capability.
And the irony is, look you heard in those exchanges.
(23:18):
He's now able to have a conversation, he still is
a little halting in his communication. I think that's some
of the aftermath of the stroke, But the difference is
night and day. You can now have a conversation and
he can hear you in a way that when he
showed up in the Senate he was not able to.
And yet Democrats are running to reporters to plant negative
(23:39):
stories attacking him. Many of his colleagues want to drive
him out of the party, and at least on the
Republican side, I like John and I think consistently all
the Republicans are just trying to be nice to him.
By the way, they did the same thing to Joe Manchin,
they did the same thing to Kirsten Cinemon. They succeeded
in driving both of them out of the Park Party
(24:00):
because they want no descent. You must obey and follow
orders or they'll do everything they can to drive you out.
And to be honest, both Cinema and Mansion, I think
Republicans were much nicer to than Democrats were, and the
consequence was they were both driven out of the party.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
For the last several weeks, you've heard me talk with
Joshua Rhard at Berna and tell stories about people just
like you and I and how they've used their burn
a launcher protect themselves and their families. Now, if you
don't know what a burna is, it is a handheld
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separate you from an attacker.
Speaker 5 (24:37):
And it's truly amazing. Now Josh is back today.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
To share a story about a store owner and how
a Berner launcher could have really come in handy.
Speaker 6 (24:45):
Yes, so in Seattle, the owner of local small business
decided to have a sidewalk sale to engage more directly
with her community. Well, today was going great when a
male walking down the middle of the street could be
seen yelling, streaming, and huting passing cars. This man was
clearly suffering from an acute mental episode when he then
approached the store owner began threatening her. After several failed
(25:07):
attempts at de escalating the situation, the woman ultimately tried
to go back into the store to try to get
to safety, and it was then that the deranged man
yelled that he was going to gouge out her eyes
and then grabbed her, slammed her to the ground, and
began choking her. It was only due to several good
Samaritans that jumped in to pull him off of her
that probably saved her life.
Speaker 5 (25:28):
You know, this is a growing trend.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Unfortunately, mental health is a serious issue, and in areas
with larger homeless populations, these individuals affected by this can
really get violent.
Speaker 5 (25:39):
Could BERNA still be effective in this case?
Speaker 6 (25:42):
Absolutely? You know, mental health is striking populations all over America,
and those with mental health issues that also have substance
of abuse issues are over eleven hundred times more likely
to commit violent crime. And the problem is you never
know when that may happen. Berna, especially used with our
chemical agent project, will incapacitate even those suffering from those
(26:03):
acute mental episodes. So Burne is a great tool to
use when you absolutely have no idea that you may
need it.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
If you want to find out more about BERNA can
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Speaker 5 (26:25):
Final question on this as we move forward, what does
your gut say about another government shut down early next year?
Speaker 2 (26:33):
I think it is very likely when the CR expires
on January thirtieth. I don't see a fundamental dynamic that
changes now maybe maybe maybe maybe the eight Democrats who
cut the deal. Now, maybe on January thirtieth, they cut
the deal at the front end. That's possible, I can
tell you. As we were sitting there on Monday, and
(26:57):
they had cast the initial vote on Sunday and were
getting savaged on the Republican side, we felt a real
urgency a vote now now now, because look, we were
very afraid one of them would flip.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
I mean, I mean it.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
There is typically a limit to how much abuse an
elected official can take, and and and the left wing
base was savaging those eight. Now we actually had a
delay because John Kennedy, who's a good friend of mine,
was put in fact, he's been on the podcast just
a week ago. Yeah, John was pressing for a resolution
(27:36):
that says, if there's a shutdown, senators will not be
paid so long as federal workers are not being paid.
And as you know, I voluntarily did that, so I
have not taken a paycheck for the entire length of
this this shutdown. I sent a written letter to the
Secretary of the Senate saying, hold my paycheck. I'm not
going to be paid as long as their federal workers
(27:57):
who are not being paid. So so whenever the at
some point, I'll get my paychecks from the last forty
days in the next presumably few days, whenever the other
federal workers do. I don't know when that will come.
But many, and I think most of the Democrats did
not do that. They continued taking their paychecks throughout, which
was an incredible hypocrisy. And so Kennedy was pushing really
(28:21):
hard for saying, look, no senator should get paid while
there's a shutdown. He wanted a vote when we were
taking this up and voting on it. He wanted a
separate amendment vote on that. And it was a challenge
because the Democrats were refusing to give that amendment vote
and saying, if you get that amendment vote, then we
(28:43):
want a bunch of amendment votes, And so everything was paralyzed,
and it could have delayed. Instead of the Senate voting
Monday night, it could have delayed till Tuesday or Wednesday
or Thursday, And I and many others were really concerned
if it delayed till Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday for
the Senate to vote, one or more of the eight
Democrats would get cold feet and flip. And so actually
(29:05):
the way it got resolved as I went to John
Kennedy's office, and he and I are good friends, and
I said, look, can we work something out? Because he
was really mad, he was frustrated that he couldn't get
his vote. I said, can we work something out that
lets us vote to reopen the government and get you
what you want? And so we cut an agreement that
(29:26):
next week the Rules Committee on which I serve, is
going to vote on John Kennedy's resolution, and I think
we're going to vote it out of the Rules Committee
and put it on the Senate floor and we'll vote
on the Senate floor right after Thanksgiving on Kennedy's provision.
And I asked him, look, would you be willing to
accept a vote on this that's separate, that doesn't delay
the overall funding bill? Because if we delay it, if
(29:50):
one of these Democrats get cold feet, we could have
another week, two, three, four weeks of shutdown and none
of us want that. And Kennedy he was angry, but
he said yes, he he would agree to that. I'm
really glad John did that. That was the right thing.
But he's fighting for something he really believes in. So
I was able to go to leadership and say, look,
you guys need to commit to have the vote in
(30:11):
the rules committee and the vote on the floor, and
leadership did make that commitment, and that was the pivotal
piece that got us to a vote Monday night to
reopen the government.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Thirty days from now. What do you think the fallout's
going to actually be? I think people are so fast
to get back to normal. The holidays are coming. I
think that's going to be something where peopter just like,
all right, everything's fine, my normal chaos as long as
we don't have chaos and the sky's outside of the
normal chaos with it when it comes to Thanksgiving or
Christmas travel, I'm good. We're pretty selfish as a people. Now,
(30:43):
let's just be honest about it. So it's a lot
of it is Hey, if it doesn't affect me, is
it really happening? This happens now? And is there going
to be fallout or accountability on either side?
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Look, people will remember what impacted themselves and their families.
So if your food stamps got you'll remember that that
will have made a real difference. If your paycheck got delayed,
that will impact you. I was having a conversation with
the Capitol Police officer yesterday, and this was a Capitol
Police officer who was a veteran, had been around a while,
and he was talking about how they were giving grief
(31:16):
to like some of the rookies who were brand new.
He said, there was a class straight out of the
academy who started like two days before the shutdown, and
you know, these are all really you know, young men
and women twenty two to twenty three years old and
this is like their first job and suddenly they're not
getting paid. And he did say that the veteran Capitol
(31:36):
Police officers were basically giving grief to the young rookies
and being like, oh, you're new to this game, and
you know, shutdowns are part of working for the federal government.
But you know a lot of these young guys don't
have much savings, so they were a little bit shell
shocked from it. Those folks will remember, but most Americans,
(31:57):
if it didn't impact you, The biggest way that a
lot of Americans were impacted was flight delays and flight
delays and cancelations. The people who had their trip to
visit their mom canceled the trip to go to a
funeral in the family, the trip to go on family vacation,
the trip to go on a work trip.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
People will be annoyed at that.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Now, look, it's November, we'll move into Thanksgiving. I think
by Thanksgiving the air traffic we'll be back to normal,
so it won't be an additional burden. And then we'll
get into Christmas and the holidays, and do I think
by December one the shutdown is going to be front
and center in anyone's mind. Not really, but then we're
(32:39):
going to get to January thirtieth. And I mentioned in
the last podcast it was really important that we had
the continuing Resolution. There was a big push to get
it to expire on December twenty first. Yeah, that was
a terrible idea because often if government funding expires right
before Christmas. Look, obviously, every member of Congress wants to
(32:59):
get home to be with their fans only for Christmas.
That's natural. You know, most of us have kids. You
want to be with your kids for Christmas. That leads
frequently to really bad deals. There's an old phrase that
jet fumes get in the air, that people are really
anxious to get out of town, so they'll agree to
horrible deals. So the conservatives, I was pressing hard, do
not end it right before Christmas. We need to go
(33:20):
into January so we don't have that pressure pushing people
to make a bad deal. And thankfully, and I'll give
John Thune credit, John Thune leaned in and said, we're
going till January thirtieth. That's what's in there. We will
have this same fight at the end of January. But
that at least gives us some more time and some
(33:41):
more time to deal with it.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
One of the things that's coming out of this shutdown
that I do think is interesting and I did not
see this coming. Maybe you did, but this was not
on my bingo card for government shutdown conversations after the fact,
and that is the outrageous sub cities of Obamacare. It
was called the Affordable Care Act. We now know that
(34:06):
it's anything but affordable. Even yesterday on TV on Navarro said, well,
you know, we know that premiums have gone up one
two hundred, three hundred percent, and that's why we need
the government open, as she described it, and why we
need to fix this. She just said the problem and
I'm like, you guys told us this was going to
be affordable it is not affordable. Not only that, I
(34:29):
think at some point it's pretty clear it's not sustainable.
And so this is like for me, so security two
point zero issue, right, sustainability and solvency. This is now,
I think, given a gift to fiscal responsibility that people
are talking about just how crazy these substies are. We're
talking about trillions we've spent.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Look, you go back to when I fillibustered on the
Senate floor against Obamacare, and I spoke for twenty one
hours straight. And you know, you may recall red red
green eggs and ham, which a lot of people forget
why I read green eggs and Ham. The reason is
at the time, my daughters were three and five years old,
and whenever I was at home, I would read them
(35:11):
bedtime stories, and so it was their bedtime. I was
talking for twenty one hours. It was their bedtime. So
we called home and told them turn on the TV
and I read them green eggs and Ham on TV.
And my favorite picture you've seen it, Ben, Oh, yeah,
I love that hangs in my Senate office in DC
is the two girls. They're both in matching pajamas, which
at three and five they could do at fifteen and
(35:31):
seventeen were well past the stage of matching pajamas, but
that they're in matching pajamas. And Catherine, the three year old,
she has her hand on the TV and she's looking
at it in wonderment as her daddy's reading her Doctor
Seuss on television. And Caroline, and you know my girls
really well. Caroline is the eldest that I love her,
but she she's a cynical kid. Not not much her
(35:53):
dad does impresses her. And in that picture she that
was very accurate, by the way, very accurate. Oh no, no,
it's there are a few things better for humility than
being a parent, because your kids, really, if you're starting
to get a big head, your kids are really good
for bringing you down to earth. But this picture Caroline
(36:15):
at age five, she's cracking up, laughing, and it's why
I love this picture because there's just joy in her face.
And when I came home after the filibuster at age five,
she had her arms crossed and she said, okay, Dad,
that was cool, And it was like, yes, finally those trees.
Speaker 5 (36:33):
It took it.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
It took me talking for twenty one hours to get
it cool.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
So in that filibuster, I laid out exactly what has
happened that premiums are going to skyrocket. Remember Barack Obama
promised that Obamacare would cut the average famili's premiums by
twenty five hundred dollars. It has massively increased the average
families premiums instead. And and there's a reason for that.
What Obamacare did is drastically reduce the choices people had
(37:01):
and forced people into more expensive plans. It basically outlawed
less expensive plans. And economics one oh one supply and demand.
When you shrink supply and you also mandate demand, which
Obamacare initially had the individual mandate that forced people to buy.
(37:22):
The combination of that drives prices through the roof. Now,
we repealed the individual mandate, and I was the one
who led the fight to do that. So we successfully
repealed the individual madnate. Under the original Obamacare, if you
lacked the income to be able to afford healthcare, the
consequence of that is the IRS would find you, So
you'd have an insult to injury. You didn't have the
(37:44):
money to pay for health insurance and then the IRS
came and find you. It was idiotic policy. Thankfully, we
repealed that and that was in twenty seventeen, a fight
I led in won. So that aspect of Obamacare has
gone away, but the limiting the choices has not. And
what Obamacare does, it's basically built on an invisible cross
(38:06):
subsidy where listen, if you're young and healthy, it's not
very expensive to ensure you, because insurance is all about
actuary risk and young healthy people. You know, some young
healthy people get cancer getting a nasty car accident, but
it's statistically speaking, quite unlikely, and so it's pretty cheap
to ensure a young healthy person. If you're older and sicker,
(38:30):
it's more expensive to ensure you. And what Obamacare did
is it mandated that essentially the young healthy people pay
higher premiums to subsidize the older, sicker people. Now, one
of the weird things that's backwards about this, if you
look during the course of a person's life, typically they
earn more and accumulate more in savings as they get older.
(38:53):
So it's literally reverse robinhood. They were robbing from the
poor to give to the rich, is what Obamacare did.
And it was based and when you look at the
architects of Obamacare they thought young people were too stupid
to know that their premiums were being doubled and tripled
and being used to subsidize older and sicker people. I
think the whole thing is cynical as hell, And so
(39:14):
what I've argued for for thirteen years is let people
buy the insurance they want, Let young, healthy people buy
low cost, inexpensive insurance. And then for people that are really,
really old or really sick, we can subsidize them directly,
but don't do it through an individual invisible cross subsidy,
where you're basically screwing people who aren't aware they're getting screwed.
(39:38):
All of which is to say, why are in insurance
premium skyrocketing because Obamacare? That was the predictable outcome of Obamacare.
It wasn't just predictable, it was predicted. And I stood
on the Senate floor and predicted it thirteen years ago.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
You know, it's interesting if you look at the takeaway here,
it took forty days, longest shut down in government history,
and it seems that Democrats are just saying, we'll kick
the can down the road a couple months, we may
have another government shut down.
Speaker 5 (40:06):
We're gonna keep holding the American people hostage.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
We're not learning from any of this, and this is
a scary way that the government's being run right now.
But this is what happens when you have the extreme
left who is hell bent on hurting Americans to get
their way when they don't win an election. And that's
what this is really all about for them. We'll keep
you updated on all of it.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
Rage is not Rage is not an agenda. Anger is
not an agenda. Hate is not an agenda. And unfortunately
on the far left in the Democrat Party, that is
what they are for is rage, hate and anger, and
we're gonna see more chaos. We're gonna see more more
holding the American people hostage because it's a direct outgrowth
(40:50):
of that rage and hate and anger.
Speaker 5 (40:52):
Yeah, amen to that. Don't forget. We do the show Monday,
Wednesday and Friday.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
So hit that subscribe or auto download button so you
can get this show and not miss any of the episodes.
We've been talking a lot about the government shutdown. We're
gonna geto some other big issues as well moving forward,
that I can promise you. So make sure you download
Verdict with Ted Cruz and grab my podcast The Ben
Ferguson podcasts. On those in between days, I'll keep you
update on what's going on as well there, and we'll
(41:15):
see you back here Friday morning.
Welcome in his verdict with Center, Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
with you and Center, we are in a government shutdown
that is ending, and the official vote on that's going
to take place today. For most Americans, that means things
will get back to normal pretty soon, but it's still
chaos and the skies as well well.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
That's right. The shutdown very likely ends today. The House
of Representatives is going to vote later this afternoon on
the appropriations package and the continuing resolution that the Senate
passed on Monday. Our podcast that we put out, we
predicted that the government would open on Wednesday, and I
think it's very likely to. When the House passes it,
(00:41):
I expect the President to sign it pretty much immediately.
And once it's signed, the funding has returned now and
now it will take a little bit of time. I
don't know how quickly paychecks will process. So for the
federal employees who haven't gotten paychecks now for forty four days,
they would really like their paychecks. And I'll tell you
there are a lot of places like I'll give you
(01:02):
an example, Capitol Hill. There are a lot of people
on Capitol Hill staffers who have not gotten paid. Capitol
Police that have not gotten paid. All of the employees,
the employees who drive the subways have not gotten paid.
Everyone who's an employee of the federal government, the custodians,
the electricians, they have not gotten paid. And look not
(01:22):
to mention the TSA agents and the Air traffic Control
agents and the border patrol agents, and throughout the federal government.
Thousands and thousands of people have not gotten paid, particularly
for some of the younger ones. Like on Capitol Hill,
you've got you know, young men and women that are
twenty two to twenty three years old.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
This is their first job out of college there.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
You know, some of them may have some savings, but
many of them don't have any savings at all. And
I'll tell you they're stressed. I mean, they're very stressed.
So my hope is the paychecks will come very quickly.
I don't know if they will come as quickly as Thursday,
or how long it will take actually the pipes to
do the direct deposit, but my hope is it will
will be quite quick after the government opens sometime Wednesday evening,
(02:05):
when I anticipate the President will sign the legislation. Some
of the other delays will take a little bit more time.
Presumably when the government opens Wednesday, each of the cabinet
agencies will send out emails and notify the non essential personnel,
the personnel who'd been furloughed come back to work, and
so I'm anticipating they'll come back to work Thursday morning
(02:27):
because everyone's knowing this is coming.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
So I think you'll see full staff.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
Now.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
It may take a little bit of time to start
government services flowing at the same speed that they normally
flow at, and something like air travel in particular, my
suspicion is there'll be more of a lag in air travel.
I anticipate that we'll continue to see delays and cancelations
for several days beyond today, because what's driving the delays
(02:54):
and cancelations is that a lot of the air traffic
controllers and TSA agents have been calling in sick. Maybe
that immediately turns around on Thursday, but that depends upon
the decision of fifty thousand TSA agents and fourteen thousand
air traffic controllers, and the FAA is not going to
return to full capacity flights until we have sufficient numbers
(03:17):
of controllers in the air Traffic Control room to ensure
that people are flying safely.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
That's going to be a really important part of the
equation as you described it there, and it's a smart
way that I think what we've really seen is true
leadership from the Transportation Secretary on that issue and the
Trump administration to make sure, hey, yeah there's some delays,
but we're going to make sure you're safe from the skies.
And that is one of the caveats to all of
this is at least you know that someone's kind of
(03:41):
looking out for your well being. And look, there's one
party just playing pure politics trying to hurt people. There's
another that's playing defense and trying to protect you. That
is I think the takeaway from this shutdown.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
I think that's right.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
We also saw that the President called for ten thousand
dollars bonuses the air traffic controllers who work during the shutdown.
I think that's a great policy. I think that that
makes an awful lot of sense. I would like to
see the law change so that air traffic controllers get
paid whether there's a shutdown or not. And as you know,
(04:17):
I voted multiple times for Ron Johnson's legislation that would
pay all essential employees so that you don't have federal
workers forced to come in and work, but not to
get a paycheck, because that's what drives things like the
sickouts and people not showing up. And so I think
it would make perfect sense to to have written as
(04:37):
a matter of law that regardless of whether there's there's
a shutdown, soldiers and sailors and airmen and marines and
FBI agents and border patrol agents and ice agents and
air traffic controllers and TSA agents, and everyone who is
essential who is required to work, they get paid. The
problem has been that Democrats have voted against that over
(04:58):
and over and over again. I don't really see that
changing because look, one of the consequences of this, we
have funded three appropriations bills. We've funded the Agricultural Appropriations
Bill that includes the programs for farmers and ranchers, that
includes snaps, so food stamps is funded. All of that's
funded for a year, so there won't be a shutdown
(05:20):
on that going forward. We have also funded military construction
and the VA so that's really important both for construction
projects at military bases across the country and that's a
job driver and it's important for our military defense. That's
funded for a year. And the VA. Obviously caring for
our veterans is critically important. That's funded for a year,
(05:40):
So that's good news. It means the next shutdown will
have a smaller impact because those three appropriations will continue.
But the continuing resolution we pass expires January thirtieth, and
I got to say, I will be very surprised if
the Democrats don't force another shut down on January thirtieth.
And so these battles have not gone away, but they're
(06:04):
at least delayed till January thirtieth. Then we may be
right back with the same problem with flight delays if
the Democrats do it again.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
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(06:33):
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(06:56):
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Speaker 5 (07:47):
Senator.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
I want to ask you a question that you just
mentioned earlier, and that is how do we take some
of this insanity off the table. You talked about there
being real, you know, conversations about making some of these
work where they would be essential, they would get paid
in future shutdown, so they wouldn't be we wouldn't have
the problems of the airport we have now, but also
(08:09):
safety and people that are forced to show up to work.
They're gonna get paid on time. If this is brought
up after the shutdown. What is the main reason why
Democrats are against it? Is it just pure leverage at
this point?
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Yes, No, that they want to inflict maximum pain. They
want the shutdown to be painful for the American people,
and it's so they don't want that. They were furious
when Trump paid the military and he had enough funds
from the One Big Beautiful Bill that he could shift
money around and pay the military. They wanted the military
not to be paid. They're looking for maximum pain because
(08:48):
and they've said this, they've been very candid. They say
that's where they get leverage. You know, tonight, it's Tuesday night,
it's Veterans Day. So I want to say to everyone
who defended this nation, every veteran, and we have thank you.
We are we are grateful for your your service, your sacrifice.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Our liberties are here because of you. I am rutting
right now. Today. I'm I'm in Miami.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
So this evening I spoke at the Miami Dade County
Lincoln Day Dinner. Uh, it's a huge event, over one
thousand people. You know, Miami Dade County has been a
Democrat stronghold for decades. This last cycle, we flipped Dade
County red. It is a Republican county. Republicans won multiple
(09:30):
elections up and down the up and down the slate.
There was a lot of energy there tonight. But I
got to say ben I started by telling everyone. I said,
last night, I was on the floor of the Senate.
Bernie Sanders was screaming, Elizabeth Warren let out an angry
war hoop, Corey Booker curled up in a ball Adam
(09:54):
Schiff was pounding, and Chuck Schumer was crying. And that's
not exactly right. But I said, you know what all
of that says. It was a great day for America.
The Democrats were consuming each other because there were eight
Democrats that finally, after forty two days, showed the courage
to say, enough is enough, let's reopen the government. And
(10:17):
the Democrats turned on each other with a viciousness that
is truly extraordinary. So here was a major story in
the Washington Post headline, Democrats pushed for a ruthlessly pragmatic
approach to counter Trump. And here's what the Post reported.
The fury at eight Democratic alligned senators who voted with
(10:38):
Republicans to end the longest ever government shutdown highlights the
dramatic shift in the Democratic Party less than a year
into President Trump's second term, as voters and lawmakers argue
that the party needs to adopt a more ruthless tactics
to counter the president and claw its way back to power.
So listen, the Democrats are saying, the longest shut down
(10:58):
in history wasn't ruthless, it needs to be worse. Post continues.
The reaction into the two votes on Sunday and Monday,
which provide a pathway for the government to reopen after
more than forty days, was fierce. Representative Roe Kanna, Democrat
from California, called for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to
be replaced, suggesting he was an ineffective leader. Even though
(11:22):
Schumer opposed the government funding measures. So Schumer voted no,
but it doesn't matter. They want to throw him out anyway.
House Minority Leader at Keem Jeffreys, Democrat New York, blasted
the eight senators and said the House Democrats would not
support a government funding bill that did not include the
healthcare measures the party has demanded. So today the Democrats,
presumably all or virtually all, are going to vote to
(11:44):
keep the shut down going.
Speaker 6 (11:45):
Now.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
I fully expect House Republicans will provide the votes needed
to send this to the president. But here's what the
post continues. Democratic advocacy groups, politically vulnerable lawmakers, potential twenty
twenty eight p residential candidates, and voters all followed suit,
lambasting those in the party they saw as caving. The
(12:07):
desire for Democrats to hold firm despite the pain inflicted
by the shutdown, even though the party's prior posture was
that shutdowns are self destructive, was the latest sign that
the party has decided it must adopt an altogether different playbook.
Given Trump's willingness to resort to unprecedented measures to consolidate
(12:29):
and maintain powers, rather than try to uphold norms as
the president shatters them, they have decided to fight Trump
with tactics they previously disdained, and they have excoriated those
who stood in the way, whether on redistricting or candidates
with problematic pasts and here's one of my colleagues, Chris
(12:49):
van Holland, one of the more liberal Democrats. Quote, early on,
there were not enough members of Congress who recognized the
magnitude of the threat Donald Trump poses to our democracy
and constitution. That has changed. Van Holland said that there
were a few senators and what he has dubbed the
quote no business as usual caucus at the beginning of
Trump's term, but it has since grown dramatically in response
(13:12):
to energy from the party's base.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
The lesson is there is power and unity and in
members of Congress working in partnership with the grassroots community.
This is why so many people are feeling let down
at this moment, because that unity was important. This is
the reaction on the Democrat side. They are Schumer is
besieged from all sides, and he started this shutdown again.
Speaker 5 (13:36):
With a civil war. Let's be clear.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
And that's part of what I got to ask you about,
is there are Democrats now that are basically like off
with his head and leadership.
Speaker 5 (13:45):
They want him gone. They're publicly saying, now, oh, you're saying,
this is the end of him. He has done.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
MSNBC said it multiple times. CNN commentators said the same thing,
like he's done. They got to get rid of him.
His career is over. This goes back to the being
held hostage by the Marxists, social in the communists of
the Democratic Party. Now they didn't police him. Now they're
running the party and they're anarchists. And Chuck Schumer shut
down the government for the longest period in history of
(14:10):
this country, and that wasn't good enough for them.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
And he still voted no on reopening it. So he
shut it down for the longest in history. He voted
no consistently, and yet they're still off with his head.
It really is the crazies are driving the Democrat Party.
And look, if you don't believe me, maybe you will
believe John Fetterman. I want you to listen to this exchange.
Senator John Fetterman, Democrat from Pennsylvania, was on the view
(14:38):
and Sonny, you know, one of the left wing hosts
there comes after him and comes after him hard. Listen
to her unhinged question and then listen to Fetterman's response.
Speaker 7 (14:50):
Well.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
Senator Bernie Sanders said the vote was a horrific mistake.
Governor Gavin Newsom called it pathetic and a surrender. Poll
after poll found more Americans on both sides of the
aisle blaming Republicans. Even Marjorie Taylor Green blamed the GOP.
As you mentioned, Democrats have big wins last week, so
you had momentum.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Why give in?
Speaker 4 (15:12):
Now? Why bring a butter knife to a gunfight. Are
you willing to gamble that the GOLP will negotiate on
healthcare in good faith once the government reopens? Because if
that gamble is wrong, half a million Pennsylvanians that you represent,
their healthcare cost will skyrocket if you are wrong, and
I believe you are wrong.
Speaker 8 (15:34):
Well, first of all, MTG is quite literally the last
person in America that I'm going to take advice or
to get their kinds.
Speaker 9 (15:42):
Of my leadership and values from.
Speaker 8 (15:44):
And now if Democrats are celebrating crazy pants like that,
then that's on them. And now I don't need and
I don't need a lecture. I don't need a lecture
from from whether it's Bernie or the governor in California,
because they are representing very deep blue blue kinds of
populations and a lot of those things, a lot of
those things were part of the extreme. And I'll remember
(16:07):
what really needs to win. To win, the big win
is involving my state and other states and those things.
And why have we arrived here after the election a
year ago. We want to forget, we got to forget.
Some of the things that cost us that election are
now for me. It's like, that's why I'm trying to
(16:27):
remind people that kinds of the extreme newism, we can't
return to those kind of things and realize we need
to find a way forward. And I would like to
rather than cite MTG, I'm going to cite one of
the new governor elects saying that my election is not
a green light to continue this shutdown, because I promise
you this isn't a political game. It is viewed by
(16:49):
that by many of us. But the reality is forty
two million Americans now not sure where their next meal
is going to come from. And because we vote like that,
vote like that, or people that haven't been paid for
five weeks now, and that kinds of chaos. Those workers
are more than half a billion dollars, you know, from
their credit union, just to pay their bills.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Now you with him talking about paying their bills, and
I love that from Fetterman. There they also were very
quiet because I didn't think I don't think they realized
he was going to come back with facts that way
and describe it. I jokingly said to you before the
show started, when's John Fetterman going to join the Republican
Party because he's been speaking an awful lot.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
Of truth about the reality this shutdown.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Well, look, I like John Fetterman, and I will tell
you Republicans actually treated much more nicely than the Democrats do.
The Democrats are mean to him, they're vicious to him.
They that they really have a deep antipathy to him.
And the amazing thing he votes the overwhelming majority of
the time with the Democrats. You know, he's on the
(17:55):
Commerce Committee with me. On virtually every vote he votes
party line with the Democrats. On most votes on the floor,
he votes party line with the Democrats. He has a
few defections. So he did vote to open the government,
and that's viewed as this great heresy because he didn't
want to have a force a government shut down and
hurt millions of Americans and continue the longest government shut
(18:17):
down in history. And the main area that he's been
willing to dissent from virtually every other Congressional Democrat is
in support of Israel. And we've talked about before that
there is a real and cognizable pro Hamas caucus in
the Democrat Party. It rose up about ten years ago.
(18:37):
The Democrats did nothing. They look the other way, and
it's now taken over their party. And Fetterman is a
massive outlier because he is genuinely pro Israel. He is
vocally pro Israel, and the radicals in the Democrat Party
hate him for that. And again, if you don't believe me,
listen to what John Fetterman said on exactly this topic.
Speaker 7 (19:00):
Are not Jewish at least as far as I know,
feel free to feel fear to come out here to
me right now. But you have been one of the
most outspoken. It's beyond Washington, it's beyond politicians. You have
been one of the most outspoken people in American life
on the issue of anti Semitism.
Speaker 5 (19:18):
Why is this issue so important to you?
Speaker 9 (19:23):
Ironically, I did that twenty three and me I'm ninety
seven percent German and three percent Neanderthal, And it's like,
maybe it's ironic that that a big german guy from
Pennsylvania has been very absolutely devoted to Israel and to
experience the kind of anti Semitism and in my life,
(19:43):
I mean, you know what, you know, the Tree of Life,
I mean, that's that's where you're from, too. Absolutely appalling,
and my heart breaks for what the Jewish community's suffered,
especially after ten to seven. I've had the honor of meeting,
you know, members of the is former people that were
kept underground for five hundred days. Five hundred days. I mean,
(20:04):
those are heroes. I've met with widows their husbands were
lost in the Gaza War and they have eight children,
raising eight children by their own. That's a hero for
all of it. So for me, it's heartbreaking, and that's
been what's so difficult for me is like being devotion
to Israel becoming increasingly incompatible with being a proud Democrat
(20:28):
now too, and that's put me at odds. And the
things that put me at odds have all converged at
the same time, you know, the gods of war, the
peace deal, and then we moved right into a shutdown,
you know, like now Democrats might not be allowed to
hold these views, and I'm not changing my party, and
you know, run the numbers, run the numbers, you know,
(20:49):
you would find that I'm a Democrat.
Speaker 5 (20:53):
You know he is a Democrat.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
But you've walked past his Senate office countless times. I've
walked past it probably dozens of times when I'm up
in DC, and he had all the hostage pictures up
in his front office, which I thought was incredible.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Look, he has been genuinely courageous and sincerely courageous on Israel,
and it's earned the absolute ire, hatred, animosity, venom of
the radical left in the Democrat Party. I mean, you
heard what he just said there, that that that being
pro Israel is becoming incompatible with being a proud Democrat.
(21:34):
I mean, that's a that's a tragic statement. I wish
that statement were not true, but it is the biggest
reason why their radicals hate him and much of you know,
when he was first elected and he came into office,
he had had a stroke during the campaign and the
stroke was very debilitating. When when John showed up, the
(21:57):
stroke really limited Like when I first met him, what
the stroke did is it limited his ability to process
auditory input. So you would talk to him and his
brain was not able to process the words he was hearing,
and so he would.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Carry with him an iPad that had a translator because
it just this is one of the consequences that can
be from a stroke is your ability to process words
that you hear. Your brain just can't put them together.
So you would talk and he would read it. But
when he first got there, you would talk to him
and he would literally he was not able to understand
what you were saying. And I mean it hurt your heart.
(22:36):
I mean, this is a is a very bright man.
The man's a Harvard graduate, but he had a medical
issue that he had real consequences. Early on, the Democrats
all circled around him and said, you know, he's perfectly capable.
There are no issues whatsoever. Because they assumed he would
be a left wing Democrat, that's what they expected of him.
(22:57):
That was not a crazy expectation going in. And then
when he started standing up, particularly on Israel, standing up
and defying the Prohamas Caucus, you started seeing the Democrats
leaking and planning stories and really attacking his mental capability.
And the irony is, look you heard in those exchanges.
(23:18):
He's now able to have a conversation, he still is
a little halting in his communication. I think that's some
of the aftermath of the stroke, But the difference is
night and day. You can now have a conversation and
he can hear you in a way that when he
showed up in the Senate he was not able to.
And yet Democrats are running to reporters to plant negative
(23:39):
stories attacking him. Many of his colleagues want to drive
him out of the party, and at least on the
Republican side, I like John and I think consistently all
the Republicans are just trying to be nice to him.
By the way, they did the same thing to Joe Manchin,
they did the same thing to Kirsten Cinemon. They succeeded
in driving both of them out of the Park Party
(24:00):
because they want no descent. You must obey and follow
orders or they'll do everything they can to drive you out.
And to be honest, both Cinema and Mansion, I think
Republicans were much nicer to than Democrats were, and the
consequence was they were both driven out of the party.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
For the last several weeks, you've heard me talk with
Joshua Rhard at Berna and tell stories about people just
like you and I and how they've used their burn
a launcher protect themselves and their families. Now, if you
don't know what a burna is, it is a handheld
pistol that fires both kinetic rounds and chemical irritants to
separate you from an attacker.
Speaker 5 (24:37):
And it's truly amazing. Now Josh is back today.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
To share a story about a store owner and how
a Berner launcher could have really come in handy.
Speaker 6 (24:45):
Yes, so in Seattle, the owner of local small business
decided to have a sidewalk sale to engage more directly
with her community. Well, today was going great when a
male walking down the middle of the street could be
seen yelling, streaming, and huting passing cars. This man was
clearly suffering from an acute mental episode when he then
approached the store owner began threatening her. After several failed
(25:07):
attempts at de escalating the situation, the woman ultimately tried
to go back into the store to try to get
to safety, and it was then that the deranged man
yelled that he was going to gouge out her eyes
and then grabbed her, slammed her to the ground, and
began choking her. It was only due to several good
Samaritans that jumped in to pull him off of her
that probably saved her life.
Speaker 5 (25:28):
You know, this is a growing trend.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Unfortunately, mental health is a serious issue, and in areas
with larger homeless populations, these individuals affected by this can
really get violent.
Speaker 5 (25:39):
Could BERNA still be effective in this case?
Speaker 6 (25:42):
Absolutely? You know, mental health is striking populations all over America,
and those with mental health issues that also have substance
of abuse issues are over eleven hundred times more likely
to commit violent crime. And the problem is you never
know when that may happen. Berna, especially used with our
chemical agent project, will incapacitate even those suffering from those
(26:03):
acute mental episodes. So Burne is a great tool to
use when you absolutely have no idea that you may
need it.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
If you want to find out more about BERNA can
help you or your family members. It's a great gift
for the holidays coming for someone you want to help protect.
Go to burner by RNA dot com. That's Burna b
y RNA dot com Burna dot Com.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
Final question on this as we move forward, what does
your gut say about another government shut down early next year?
Speaker 2 (26:33):
I think it is very likely when the CR expires
on January thirtieth. I don't see a fundamental dynamic that
changes now maybe maybe maybe maybe the eight Democrats who
cut the deal. Now, maybe on January thirtieth, they cut
the deal at the front end. That's possible, I can
tell you. As we were sitting there on Monday, and
(26:57):
they had cast the initial vote on Sunday and were
getting savaged on the Republican side, we felt a real
urgency a vote now now now, because look, we were
very afraid one of them would flip.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
I mean, I mean it.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
There is typically a limit to how much abuse an
elected official can take, and and and the left wing
base was savaging those eight. Now we actually had a
delay because John Kennedy, who's a good friend of mine,
was put in fact, he's been on the podcast just
a week ago. Yeah, John was pressing for a resolution
(27:36):
that says, if there's a shutdown, senators will not be
paid so long as federal workers are not being paid.
And as you know, I voluntarily did that, so I
have not taken a paycheck for the entire length of
this this shutdown. I sent a written letter to the
Secretary of the Senate saying, hold my paycheck. I'm not
going to be paid as long as their federal workers
(27:57):
who are not being paid. So so whenever the at
some point, I'll get my paychecks from the last forty
days in the next presumably few days, whenever the other
federal workers do. I don't know when that will come.
But many, and I think most of the Democrats did
not do that. They continued taking their paychecks throughout, which
was an incredible hypocrisy. And so Kennedy was pushing really
(28:21):
hard for saying, look, no senator should get paid while
there's a shutdown. He wanted a vote when we were
taking this up and voting on it. He wanted a
separate amendment vote on that. And it was a challenge
because the Democrats were refusing to give that amendment vote
and saying, if you get that amendment vote, then we
(28:43):
want a bunch of amendment votes, And so everything was paralyzed,
and it could have delayed. Instead of the Senate voting
Monday night, it could have delayed till Tuesday or Wednesday
or Thursday, And I and many others were really concerned
if it delayed till Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday for
the Senate to vote, one or more of the eight
Democrats would get cold feet and flip. And so actually
(29:05):
the way it got resolved as I went to John
Kennedy's office, and he and I are good friends, and
I said, look, can we work something out? Because he
was really mad, he was frustrated that he couldn't get
his vote. I said, can we work something out that
lets us vote to reopen the government and get you
what you want? And so we cut an agreement that
(29:26):
next week the Rules Committee on which I serve, is
going to vote on John Kennedy's resolution, and I think
we're going to vote it out of the Rules Committee
and put it on the Senate floor and we'll vote
on the Senate floor right after Thanksgiving on Kennedy's provision.
And I asked him, look, would you be willing to
accept a vote on this that's separate, that doesn't delay
the overall funding bill? Because if we delay it, if
(29:50):
one of these Democrats get cold feet, we could have
another week, two, three, four weeks of shutdown and none
of us want that. And Kennedy he was angry, but
he said yes, he he would agree to that. I'm
really glad John did that. That was the right thing.
But he's fighting for something he really believes in. So
I was able to go to leadership and say, look,
you guys need to commit to have the vote in
(30:11):
the rules committee and the vote on the floor, and
leadership did make that commitment, and that was the pivotal
piece that got us to a vote Monday night to
reopen the government.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Thirty days from now. What do you think the fallout's
going to actually be? I think people are so fast
to get back to normal. The holidays are coming. I
think that's going to be something where peopter just like,
all right, everything's fine, my normal chaos as long as
we don't have chaos and the sky's outside of the
normal chaos with it when it comes to Thanksgiving or
Christmas travel, I'm good. We're pretty selfish as a people. Now,
(30:43):
let's just be honest about it. So it's a lot
of it is Hey, if it doesn't affect me, is
it really happening? This happens now? And is there going
to be fallout or accountability on either side?
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Look, people will remember what impacted themselves and their families.
So if your food stamps got you'll remember that that
will have made a real difference. If your paycheck got delayed,
that will impact you. I was having a conversation with
the Capitol Police officer yesterday, and this was a Capitol
Police officer who was a veteran, had been around a while,
and he was talking about how they were giving grief
(31:16):
to like some of the rookies who were brand new.
He said, there was a class straight out of the
academy who started like two days before the shutdown, and
you know, these are all really you know, young men
and women twenty two to twenty three years old and
this is like their first job and suddenly they're not
getting paid. And he did say that the veteran Capitol
(31:36):
Police officers were basically giving grief to the young rookies
and being like, oh, you're new to this game, and
you know, shutdowns are part of working for the federal government.
But you know a lot of these young guys don't
have much savings, so they were a little bit shell
shocked from it. Those folks will remember, but most Americans,
(31:57):
if it didn't impact you, The biggest way that a
lot of Americans were impacted was flight delays and flight
delays and cancelations. The people who had their trip to
visit their mom canceled the trip to go to a
funeral in the family, the trip to go on family vacation,
the trip to go on a work trip.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
People will be annoyed at that.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Now, look, it's November, we'll move into Thanksgiving. I think
by Thanksgiving the air traffic we'll be back to normal,
so it won't be an additional burden. And then we'll
get into Christmas and the holidays, and do I think
by December one the shutdown is going to be front
and center in anyone's mind. Not really, but then we're
(32:39):
going to get to January thirtieth. And I mentioned in
the last podcast it was really important that we had
the continuing Resolution. There was a big push to get
it to expire on December twenty first. Yeah, that was
a terrible idea because often if government funding expires right
before Christmas. Look, obviously, every member of Congress wants to
(32:59):
get home to be with their fans only for Christmas.
That's natural. You know, most of us have kids. You
want to be with your kids for Christmas. That leads
frequently to really bad deals. There's an old phrase that
jet fumes get in the air, that people are really
anxious to get out of town, so they'll agree to
horrible deals. So the conservatives, I was pressing hard, do
not end it right before Christmas. We need to go
(33:20):
into January so we don't have that pressure pushing people
to make a bad deal. And thankfully, and I'll give
John Thune credit, John Thune leaned in and said, we're
going till January thirtieth. That's what's in there. We will
have this same fight at the end of January. But
that at least gives us some more time and some
(33:41):
more time to deal with it.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
One of the things that's coming out of this shutdown
that I do think is interesting and I did not
see this coming. Maybe you did, but this was not
on my bingo card for government shutdown conversations after the fact,
and that is the outrageous sub cities of Obamacare. It
was called the Affordable Care Act. We now know that
(34:06):
it's anything but affordable. Even yesterday on TV on Navarro said, well,
you know, we know that premiums have gone up one
two hundred, three hundred percent, and that's why we need
the government open, as she described it, and why we
need to fix this. She just said the problem and
I'm like, you guys told us this was going to
be affordable it is not affordable. Not only that, I
(34:29):
think at some point it's pretty clear it's not sustainable.
And so this is like for me, so security two
point zero issue, right, sustainability and solvency. This is now,
I think, given a gift to fiscal responsibility that people
are talking about just how crazy these substies are. We're
talking about trillions we've spent.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Look, you go back to when I fillibustered on the
Senate floor against Obamacare, and I spoke for twenty one
hours straight. And you know, you may recall red red
green eggs and ham, which a lot of people forget
why I read green eggs and Ham. The reason is
at the time, my daughters were three and five years old,
and whenever I was at home, I would read them
(35:11):
bedtime stories, and so it was their bedtime. I was
talking for twenty one hours. It was their bedtime. So
we called home and told them turn on the TV
and I read them green eggs and Ham on TV.
And my favorite picture you've seen it, Ben, Oh, yeah,
I love that hangs in my Senate office in DC
is the two girls. They're both in matching pajamas, which
at three and five they could do at fifteen and
(35:31):
seventeen were well past the stage of matching pajamas, but
that they're in matching pajamas. And Catherine, the three year old,
she has her hand on the TV and she's looking
at it in wonderment as her daddy's reading her Doctor
Seuss on television. And Caroline, and you know my girls
really well. Caroline is the eldest that I love her,
but she she's a cynical kid. Not not much her
(35:53):
dad does impresses her. And in that picture she that
was very accurate, by the way, very accurate. Oh no, no,
it's there are a few things better for humility than
being a parent, because your kids, really, if you're starting
to get a big head, your kids are really good
for bringing you down to earth. But this picture Caroline
(36:15):
at age five, she's cracking up, laughing, and it's why
I love this picture because there's just joy in her face.
And when I came home after the filibuster at age five,
she had her arms crossed and she said, okay, Dad,
that was cool, And it was like, yes, finally those trees.
Speaker 5 (36:33):
It took it.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
It took me talking for twenty one hours to get
it cool.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
So in that filibuster, I laid out exactly what has
happened that premiums are going to skyrocket. Remember Barack Obama
promised that Obamacare would cut the average famili's premiums by
twenty five hundred dollars. It has massively increased the average
families premiums instead. And and there's a reason for that.
What Obamacare did is drastically reduce the choices people had
(37:01):
and forced people into more expensive plans. It basically outlawed
less expensive plans. And economics one oh one supply and demand.
When you shrink supply and you also mandate demand, which
Obamacare initially had the individual mandate that forced people to buy.
(37:22):
The combination of that drives prices through the roof. Now,
we repealed the individual mandate, and I was the one
who led the fight to do that. So we successfully
repealed the individual madnate. Under the original Obamacare, if you
lacked the income to be able to afford healthcare, the
consequence of that is the IRS would find you, So
you'd have an insult to injury. You didn't have the
(37:44):
money to pay for health insurance and then the IRS
came and find you. It was idiotic policy. Thankfully, we
repealed that and that was in twenty seventeen, a fight
I led in won. So that aspect of Obamacare has
gone away, but the limiting the choices has not. And
what Obamacare does, it's basically built on an invisible cross
(38:06):
subsidy where listen, if you're young and healthy, it's not
very expensive to ensure you, because insurance is all about
actuary risk and young healthy people. You know, some young
healthy people get cancer getting a nasty car accident, but
it's statistically speaking, quite unlikely, and so it's pretty cheap
to ensure a young healthy person. If you're older and sicker,
(38:30):
it's more expensive to ensure you. And what Obamacare did
is it mandated that essentially the young healthy people pay
higher premiums to subsidize the older, sicker people. Now, one
of the weird things that's backwards about this, if you
look during the course of a person's life, typically they
earn more and accumulate more in savings as they get older.
(38:53):
So it's literally reverse robinhood. They were robbing from the
poor to give to the rich, is what Obamacare did.
And it was based and when you look at the
architects of Obamacare they thought young people were too stupid
to know that their premiums were being doubled and tripled
and being used to subsidize older and sicker people. I
think the whole thing is cynical as hell, And so
(39:14):
what I've argued for for thirteen years is let people
buy the insurance they want, Let young, healthy people buy
low cost, inexpensive insurance. And then for people that are really,
really old or really sick, we can subsidize them directly,
but don't do it through an individual invisible cross subsidy,
where you're basically screwing people who aren't aware they're getting screwed.
(39:38):
All of which is to say, why are in insurance
premium skyrocketing because Obamacare? That was the predictable outcome of Obamacare.
It wasn't just predictable, it was predicted. And I stood
on the Senate floor and predicted it thirteen years ago.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
You know, it's interesting if you look at the takeaway here,
it took forty days, longest shut down in government history,
and it seems that Democrats are just saying, we'll kick
the can down the road a couple months, we may
have another government shut down.
Speaker 5 (40:06):
We're gonna keep holding the American people hostage.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
We're not learning from any of this, and this is
a scary way that the government's being run right now.
But this is what happens when you have the extreme
left who is hell bent on hurting Americans to get
their way when they don't win an election. And that's
what this is really all about for them. We'll keep
you updated on all of it.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
Rage is not Rage is not an agenda. Anger is
not an agenda. Hate is not an agenda. And unfortunately
on the far left in the Democrat Party, that is
what they are for is rage, hate and anger, and
we're gonna see more chaos. We're gonna see more more
holding the American people hostage because it's a direct outgrowth
(40:50):
of that rage and hate and anger.
Speaker 5 (40:52):
Yeah, amen to that. Don't forget. We do the show Monday,
Wednesday and Friday.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
So hit that subscribe or auto download button so you
can get this show and not miss any of the episodes.
We've been talking a lot about the government shutdown. We're
gonna geto some other big issues as well moving forward,
that I can promise you. So make sure you download
Verdict with Ted Cruz and grab my podcast The Ben
Ferguson podcasts. On those in between days, I'll keep you
update on what's going on as well there, and we'll
(41:15):
see you back here Friday morning.
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