November 10, 2025 • 37 mins
In this bonus episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz:
- 🏛️ Government Shutdown Status
- The government had been shut down for 40 days, the longest in U.S. history.
- A Senate vote secured 60 votes (including 8 Democrats) to begin the reopening process.
- The continuing resolution (CR) will fund the government through January 30, avoiding a holiday-season funding crisis.
2. ⚙️ Reopening Process
- Despite the vote, procedural delays (e.g., Senate rules requiring 60 votes and time gaps between votes) mean the government may not fully reopen until Tuesday or Wednesday.
- Unanimous consent could have expedited the process, but some Democrats (e.g., Bernie Sanders) were accused of obstructing.
3. ✈️ Impact on Travel and Public Services
- TSA agents and air traffic controllers were working without pay, leading to sick-outs and flight delays.
- Even after reopening, normal operations may take several days to resume.
4. 📜 Legislation Introduced
-
Deporting Fraudsters Act of 2025:
- Would make welfare fraud by illegal immigrants a deportable offense.
- Cites statistics on non-citizens receiving SNAP and WIC benefits.
- Claims a 10-year cost of $15 billion due to illegal immigrant access to benefits.
-
Obamacare Subsidies Debate:
- Discussion on expiring subsidies for health insurance companies.
- Republicans agreed to a vote in early December on whether to extend these subsidies.
- Cruz and Trump oppose the subsidies, calling them corporate welfare, and advocate for Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) instead.
Please Hit Subscribe to this podcast Right Now. Also Please Subscribe to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson and The Ben Ferguson Show Podcast Wherever You get You're Podcasts. And don't forget to follow the show on Social Media so you never miss a moment! Thanks for Listening
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VerdictwithTedCruz/
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
It is Verdic with Center, Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with
you in this episode will be a dual episode. Nice
show in Center Cruise as well here because we're trying
to figure out what the hell's going on, just like
every other American when it comes to is the government open?
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Is it closed? Center?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
As we are doing this ten o'clock Eastern, we're recording
on Sunday night. You've just left the Senate for so
where the hell are we now? Because there were some
reports like the government's reopened, then it's not reopen. We're
heading towards reopening.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
What is right? What's wrong?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Well, we have really good news, which is the government
is in the process of reopening. It's not going to
be reopened on Monday, but we got the votes tonight
that will start the process of reopening it. We're going
to explain exactly what that means, what the deal, what
the deal was, and what the timing is going to
be and how that's likely to impact you, whether it
is going to a national park or going to the
(00:55):
Smithsonian or flying on an airplane, what the timing is
likely to be. We're also going to talk to you
about a bill that I introduced this past week, the
Deporting Fraudster's Bill that is going after illegal immigrants who
are fraudulently getting welfare benefits. And right now, fraudulently taking
welfare benefits is not a statutory ground for deportation. I'm
(01:17):
introducing legislation to change that. We'll explain that all to you.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Yeah, it's really incredible.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
I want to take a moment and talk to you
about Hillsdale College and saying, amazing that's happening right now.
I am taking a class. I wanted to say it
was a refresher course. It's really been so much more
than that. And it is about the constitution. Constitution one
oh one, and Hillsdale College has done an amazing job
of allowing people to continue to learn about this country
(01:45):
at their own pace online. Now in a brand new
six part documentary series, Hillsdale College professors are now teaching
you the religious, political, cultural, and economic ideas that shape
a uniquely American cultured during the colonial period. You're gonna
learn why the idea of liberty, especially religious liberty, inspired
(02:06):
the settlers of America to cross the Atlantic. You're gonna
learn how Americans organize local governments to rule and protect themselves,
and why America has always been a land where virtue
can lead to peace and prosperity.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Most of us know that the Declaration of.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Independence marks the beginning of America as an independent nation,
but this Hillsdale course focuses on the forging of the
American character that made the Revolution possible and why it's
more important than ever to remember and reclaim that character today.
So here's the part that I love the most. Hillsdale
College is doing something amazing. They are offering these courses
(02:46):
to you guys listening, completely free and it's easy to access.
Hillsdale is now offering more than forty other free online courses,
just like the Constitution one oh one class I'm taking
right now.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
They of course on C. S.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Lewis, the stories of the Book of Genesis, the Rise
in the Fall of the Roman Republic, and you can
even go deeper on the American founding and the Constitution,
all for free. How do you get take the classes
for free right now? Go to Hillsdale dot edu slash
verdict enroll right now.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
There's no costs, it's easy to get started.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
That's Hillsdale dot edu slash verdict to enroll for free
Hillsdale dot edu slash verdict and see all the classes,
the forty plus classes you can take right.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Now for free.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
All right, So center, there was a lot of excitement
earlier Sunday evening. My phone blew up. I'm assuming you
were getting the text me. It's like, oh great, the
government's wide open again. It's gonna go back to normal.
I wish that was true. You just described it as
we've got the votes to move forward. Explain the process,
(03:55):
because I mean, even on social media it was like
the government's reopen.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I'm like, not so so fast. That's not how this
can work.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
In fact, they could take almost another week and totally
get this thing back to where it needs to be.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
So look, the good news is we finally have a
deal and we got the votes that are necessary to
reopen the government. So we've had a shutdown, the Schumer shutdown.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
For forty days. Yeah, fourteen different times.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Fourteen times Republicans have voted to open the government, fourteen
times Democrats have voted no, have voted to keep the
government shut down. Now, remember, the entire reason that we
have a shutdown is because under the Senate rules, you
need sixty votes to move to proceed to legislation funding
the government. We only have fifty three Republicans. That means
(04:42):
we need at least seven Democrats, and unfortunately ran votes
no on all of these, So we have fifty two
Republicans to fund the government.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
So we need eight Democrats.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
The fourteen times we've voted over the last forty days,
over and over and over again, we've gotten at most
two or three Democrats. Tonight Sunday, it's just a few
minutes after ten pm Sunday night, we finally got the
eight Democrats we needed. So the Democrats who voted to
reopen the government are Durbin, Hassen, King, Cortes, Masto, Cain, Shaheen, Rosen,
(05:17):
and Fetterman. Those are the eight we got exactly what
we needed. We ended up with sixty votes, not sixty one,
so that not in a sink. Every other Democrat voted no.
Keep it shut down. But getting eight is important, and
there was a substantive deal. But the substantive deal has
several pieces. Number one, there's a continuing resolution that runs
(05:38):
through January thirtieth. So one thing that was really important
to me and to a lot of conservatives was that
we not have government funding expire right before Christmas. Often
government fundings expires right before Christmas, and they use the
desire everyone has to go home to their families for
the holidays to twist our arms into passing a really
(06:01):
bad bill. So this does not end right before Christmas.
The CR instead, the continuing Resolution continues until the end
of January. That was significant. We also included three appropriation
bills in the deals. Now, these are appropriation bills. There
are two ways you can fund the government. You can
fund the government through an appropriation bill. There are thirteen
(06:21):
different appropriation bills that fund different cabinet agencies in different
major programs. Those take sixty votes. That's what's called regular order.
That's the way the system is supposed to work. And
then you can also fund the government through a continuing
resolution also called a CR, that just keeps everything the
way it was before and maintains the status quo. We
(06:45):
ended up doing a combination of both. So in this
deal we have number one the ag approach, So that's
the agriculture appropriation that includes the funds that farmers rely on,
but it also importantly includes snap It includes food food stamps.
So yeah, one of the consequences of the shutdown was
the funding for food stamps went away. With this appropriation bill,
(07:08):
we will fund the food stamps for an entire year,
so that will be taken off the table.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
And by the way, let's be very clear about that,
Republicans tried to make sure that even with the government shutdown,
that snap benefits were continuing and were not stopped. Democrats
made damn sure that people did not get their food
stamp benefits during the forty day the longest shut down
in American history. They did that because they thought it
(07:34):
was leveraged to hurt the poorest among us in America,
and that would then give them leverage to get more
of the port rail things they wanted for the Democratic
programs and initiatives, and they didn't care if you couldn't
feed your kids over the last forty days.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
So understand that was the entire Democrat strategy is maximize
the pain on the American people, because the more pain
that they could inflict, they were counting on the media
to be dishonest and blame it all on Trump. And
so repeatedly this past week, I went back and forth
with Democrats repeatedly, and their talking points were very simple.
They would say, well, you have a Republican president, Republican Senate,
(08:09):
Republican House. The shutdown is their fault, and that was it.
And they were counting on the dishonest corporate media to
tell that lie what they omitted. And actually I talked
about this just this weekend. I spoke on the Senate Florida.
I said, look, whenever anyone takes an oath to testify
in court, that they put their hand on the Bible
(08:31):
and they pledged to tell the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth. Well, the Democrats saying that
they're failing part number two, the whole truth, because it
is true we have a Republican president, House and Senate.
What they're ignoring is the fact that it requires sixty
votes and it is the Democrats who forced the shut
down because they're the ones that are not voting to
keep the government open. This package, we took three appropriations bills,
(08:53):
the AG Appropriation Bill which is farmers, ranchers and food stamps,
the Military Construction and the VA Bill so that funds
funds our veterans and also gives funds for military construction
projects across the country. And then the Legislature Bill, which,
among other things, we increase the funding for security for
members of Congress. Given the political violence we see, I
(09:16):
think that's very important to have more funds to increase
security on both sides of the aisle.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
So that package.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Those are three appropriation bills that were bipartisan. The Democrats
had a party in that were passed along with the
thirty day CR or not thirty day the CR to
January thirtieth.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Three, Henry thirtieth.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Yeah, so all of that is what we got sixty
votes for tonight. Now what does that mean tomorrow morning?
Does that mean the government is opened Monday morning? Unfortunately no.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
FINT people are frustrated because they think, well, you guys
shut it down quickly, then why can't you just reopen
it quickly?
Speaker 1 (09:56):
And this is how the sausage is made.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
And that's why I think there's some misc communication on
Sunday night about oh, the government's like open up. I
mean there was major news out it's like government opening up,
the votes to have it, and they're thinking, all right, well,
if I'm flying out Monday or Monday afternoon or Tuesday, yeah,
there should be no problems at the airport. That's also
not true. I want to be very clear about that.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Look, if the Democrats want to be full obstructionist, they
could delay opening the government as late as Friday of
this week. Because there are a series of votes we
have to take in. Under the Senate rules, they can
delay thing. They have a right to an intervening day
between one voter and another. They can delay things for
thirty hours, and so they could drag it out even
(10:41):
though we have the sixty votes. They could drag it
out as late as Friday. My guess is they'll drag
it out till Monday or Tuesday. My best guess is
the government will open up Tuesday or Wednesday. But we
really are dealing with Look the Bernie Sanders is of
the world. By the way, Chuck Schumer voted no, because
the whole point of this was for him to tell
(11:03):
the crazy left he still hates Donald Trump. Now, I
don't think these eight Democrats would have voted yes without
Schumer blessing their voting yes. So this was always going
to end this one.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
I was going to ask you, so getting to the
perfect number of eight, and again, this is how the
sausage is made. So let's talk about behind the scenes.
You guys, the Republicans have been meeting right behind the scenes.
You have your normal lunches that you have in your
other meetings, And I see you guys on the four
of the Senate talking and you're outside the Senate. I
mean Democrats are doing the same thing when they decide
(11:36):
who is in the eight to vote yes? Is that
strategic based on who needs cover when they're running for office?
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Is that? I mean?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
There's some like Fetterman that clearly were leaders on this,
just saying I think it's wrong to hold the American
be a hostage.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
I'm voting to open this thing up.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
How do they decide on the exact eight And is
it literally to the point where they're like, all right,
we're gonna only give eight, and you got to make
your arm to us why you should be in the
eight and we'll give you that blessing.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
How does that work?
Speaker 4 (12:06):
So I don't know for sure.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
I will say there were a number of Republicans who
were surprised we did not get more than eight. So
there were other Democrats who were telling Republicans privately they
were going to vote yes to open the government. People
like John Ossoff who's got He's the most vulnerable Democrat
running for reelection in Georgia. He just voted the fifteenth
time to keep the government shut down, you know Georgia.
(12:30):
By the way, Raphael Warnock, the other Georgia senator, did
as well. We actually thought there was a real possibility
they would both vote tonight to open the government. I
don't know what Osof's calculus was. Warnock will often vote
with Osof to give him some political coverage, so we
figured that they would go They would go either both
yes or both no. They both voted to keep the
(12:51):
government shut down.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
What is the chances to guys like that on Tuesday
Wednesday vote yes? After they say all right, well fine,
we're already going to be there. Does that change you
think that eight number? Could that change attends over or
is it pretty much as eight no?
Speaker 3 (13:06):
I could easily see on a subsequent vote some additional Democrats,
Patty Murray, who is the senior Democrat on the Appropriations Committee,
a number of Republicans believe she was going to vote yes.
I mentioned we just were going to pass three appropriation bills.
She played a major hand in drafting those three appropriation bills,
and so for appropriators. Look, when Chuck Schumer and the
(13:29):
Democrats had the majority, do you know how many appropriation
bills they passed into law?
Speaker 1 (13:33):
How many?
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Zero?
Speaker 3 (13:35):
The process was broken, They didn't do appropriations. It's our
hope to actually go through the process, to have amendments,
to negotiate it. And that's what these three bills are doing.
And yet the senior Democrat on the Appropriations Committee voted no.
Chris Coons, who is widely seen as one of the
more moderate Democrats, he voted to keep the government shut down.
(14:00):
Alyssa Slotkin from Michigan. Look, Michigan's a purple state. She
voted to keep the government shut down. Gary Peters, also
from Michigan, retiring, he voted to keep the government to
shut down. So there were another half dozen or so
that a lot of folks thought we would have a
chance at getting their votes, and we did not.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
So when you don't get those votes, we move forward.
You said this thing could end up to Friday. You're
guessing probably Tuesday, Wednesday the government reopens.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
How many more votes after tonight?
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Again, for people that are listening, we're doing this Sunday
night at ten to fifteen right now in DC. How
many people are how many votes will it take starting
now to get the government actually reopened.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
We need to continue to hold sixty, but we're going
to the underlying terms of the deal have been cut.
So I don't expect any of the eight who just
voted yes to flip. So I think we've got our sixty.
But the remaining Democrats can just drag things out and
make it painful. I hope they don't. I actually pulled
Dick Durbin aside. Durbin is retiring, and I mentioned I
(15:08):
always thought this was going to end with retiring Democrats
voting to open the government. Durbin did so. Now, look
he's the number two in leadership among the Democrats. He's
Chuck Schumer's right hand buddy's retiring. I told Dick tonight,
I said, look, we've got sixty now. It sure would
be nice if like you guys, didn't drag this out
unnecessarily till Friday, and just the identical outcome will happen,
(15:31):
and it just is more painful for everybody. I think
there are a lot of Democrats who feel that way.
It's why I think we'll end Tuesday or Wednesday.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
But who the heck knows.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Now, there's another element of this deal that's getting some
attention online, which is a commitment to reverse the riffs,
the reductions and forces that happened during the shutdown. And
there's some folks online saying, you guys, cave, this is terrible.
That was was an off that President Trump made, I
think like two weeks ago to the Democrats. That has
(16:04):
been on the table for them a long long time,
and the White House made the decision, Okay, if you
guys open the government, we agree, we'll offer you that
will reverse those rifts. So that was in the deal,
but it was a deal that came from the White
House that we just agreed. Okay, if that's if those
are the terms that the President wants to cut, we'll
we'll back up the president.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
So you go into Monday, you're going to have more
meetings throughout the day, or explain to me Monday what
that looks like.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
We're anticipating the first vote probably around noon. And as
I said that, there could be we could have done
it all tonight if the Democrats had agreed to In
the Senate, you can do anything by unanimous consent, and
so if they wanted to open the government tonight. They
could have just consented to do one vote and then
do the other one next to the other one next,
the other one next, and we'd be done.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Like you can do that, you know, literally, instead of
us recording right now, you guys could actually be voting
and this could have all been Monday morning. The government
is open for business. All the fa guys are back
to normal, everybody's getting paid, and they're like, now, SCREWT,
will just wait a few more days. So there's the
flying home, right, I mean, you're not flying home tonight,
are you.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
Nope?
Speaker 3 (17:11):
No, I'm in DC. I didn't see my family this weekend.
I would have loved to have seen my kids. I didn't.
I've spent most of the time just sitting here waiting
for Democrats to finally agree to cut a deal. But
it was striking. We could have done it tonight. But
to do that you need unanimous consent. That means you
(17:34):
don't need sixty you need one hundred. That means one
person can object and say no, drag it out. I
want to burn more time. I want to burn more time.
And you have people like Bernie Sanders, you have all
the Democrats who are running for president that want to
want a spectacle, and so that if they really decide
(17:55):
to be just just fully obstructionist, they could drag it
as late as Friday.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
All right.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
So one other question is this is unfolding when the
government opens back up, and let's just use a hypothetical
of Wednesday, all right, Wednesday the government opens up, does
that mean that instantly the system is going to go
back to normal. I'm saying this to people traveling. Yeah,
you and I've traveled a lot. We've started to see
the breakdown of of air traffic control and of having
(18:26):
to cancel flights. I've witnessed it traveling internationally and domestically
over the last couple of days. You've done it as well.
And so when it opens back up, is that like
an instant fix or is that going to take a
couple of days to cycle through the system as well?
What does travel look like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Look at least travel Monday and Monday and Tuesday, I
would expect still really significant delays and really significant cancelations.
The reason for those delays and those cancelations. We have
roughly fifty thousand TSA agents all across the country.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
Many of them are going into work. None of them
are being paid.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
They all missed their last paycheck, didn't get their last paycheck.
We have roughly fourteen thousand air traffic controllers. Many of
them are going into work, none of them are getting paid.
They all missed their last paycheck. Listen if you're a
TSA agent, if you're an air traffic controller, typical TSA
agent or air traffic controller doesn't have a deep reservoir
(19:26):
of savings. I mean, they're under real stress right now.
How do I pay my mortgage, how do I pay
my rent? How do I pay my bills? And so
what is happening with both TSA agents and controllers. They're
calling in sick, they're just not showing up, say summer,
coming into work. The problem is in New York City
on Halloween Day, roughly eighty percent of the controllers called
(19:48):
in sick and didn't show up to work. That's Chuck
Schumer's hometown, by the way. And so we're seeing with TSA.
You had Monday a week ago, the lines in the
Houston Bush Airport were two and a half to three
hours line long to get through security because they were
so short staffed on TSA agents, they didn't have enough
to move people through security. So even if the government
(20:11):
opens up tomorrow, you're dealing with the independent decisions of
fifty thousand TSA agents and fourteen thousand controllers when they
come back to work. And the reason that the FAA
has mandated ten percent of flights be canceled is they're
looking at the data and seeing that these short staffed
air traffic controllers there's an increased risk to safety. So
(20:32):
they're saying, all right, if we don't have full staffing,
we got to reduce the number of flights. So in
a week, do I expect things to go back to normal? Yes,
a week after things open up, but it could easily
take several days for people to say, Okay, I'm going
to come back into work now. That doesn't happen automatically
(20:52):
just by flipping a switch.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
So what you're basically telling me is this week, when
I'm flying, and when you're flying, and so many others
that listen to this show flying, we're gonna be dealing
with this type of chaos because the Democrats decided not
to do their job, even while doing their job on
Sunday night, Right now, yes.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
And by the way, they could have agreed to open
it all up tonight, that they could have given consent,
said okay, you've got a deal, let's move ahead. And
it's now just the obstructionist who you know, if your
flight is canceled tomorrow, you can thank Chuck Schumer and
every Democrat senator running for president who's trying to show
off to the crazy left. But we will get it
(21:32):
open now, but it will take It'll take a few
more days at a minimum.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
All right.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
So let's move to another issue in this shutdown, and
there's been some confusion over it. There's been a lot
of fighting over it. It deals with Obamacare. Also knows
the Affordable Care Act. Democrats decided, and this is some
of the history that I do think we need to
now explain because there's been so much of a political
football on this one. That they purposely designed for the
(22:00):
subsidies which make Obamacare seem cheaper than it is, even
though your tax dollars are paying for the subsidies to
subsidize people's health insurance. They designed it purposely to expire now,
and that was something that was done by design. I'm
assuming for this type of fight is am I wrong
and explain what's happening with Obamacare now and moving forward.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Well, look, the other thing Democrats talked about and they
claimed they were fighting the shutdown for, was to extend Obamacare.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
And in particular during.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
COVID, when the Democrats had control of the House and
the Senate. In the White House, they passed massive subsidies
that went straight to giant insurance companies, went to the
didn't go to the people, didn't go to you, but
went to insurance companies, roughly fifty billion dollars worth of subsidies,
just huge corporate welfare. And that corporate welfare to the
(22:54):
insurance companies expires the end of December. And so part
of this deal is Republicans agreed we will have a
vote on those subsidies the first week of December. Now,
by the way, Republicans offered them that we would schedule
that vote forty days ago, so they've had that on
the table for forty days. But we said at the beginning, sure,
(23:17):
we'll give you a vote. They're going to lose that vote.
They know they're going to lose that vote, but we said,
we'll give you that vote.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
And so we agreed to have that vote. Now what's
the answer?
Speaker 3 (23:27):
And this is where I want to take folks a
little bit behind the scenes to some of the sausage making.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
So most of the Senate was in DC all weekend.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
We'd all planned to be back home and had many
people had fundraisers at political events or family events, and
we missed most of them just staying here. So Friday
night I invited a dozen senators out to dinner, and
so we went to a local restaurant and got a
room together and had a great dinner. And we're laughing
and talking and strategizing and saying, look are the Democrats
(23:58):
going to move? So in that dinner, we decided to
call President Trump. So we called President Trump, got him
on the cell phone, and the president he was in
a good mood, but he was he was expressing his
views emphatically as he always does.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
And by the way, for people I've ever done a
phone call, like if you've never gotten to do this,
he does not ever hold back when you're talking about
the phone. I'm not a single phone call. You've had
a lot more than I have. But when I've had
phone calls with him, whether it was in sixteen to
twenty or now forward like he does not hold back
at all. When you're on the cell phone on speakerphone as.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
Well, he does not.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
So one of the things we asked of him Friday night,
we said, listen, in this battle with the Democrats over Obamacare,
Obamacare's failing. It's a bad program. And if you go back,
go back to twenty thirteen. Twenty thirteen, when I did
a filibuster against Obamacare, I said, at the time, if
you remember, you remember, Barack Obama promised the American people
Obamacare would would cut the average families premiums by twenty
(24:59):
five year.
Speaker 4 (25:00):
Ye, that was a lie, And in.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Fact they skyrocketed at the time, five thousand a year.
They've skyrocketed a lot more than that. Even the Washington
Post has now admitted the editorial page the Affordable Care Act,
which is the misleading name of Obamacare, did not make
healthcare more affordable. It caused premiums to skyrocket. So when
we had Trump on the phone, we said, look, it
(25:23):
would really help if you made the case that what
Democrats are fighting for is these massive multi billion dollar
corporate welfare payoffs to the health insurance companies. Instead of
empowering consumers, and look, we want a lower prices. And
so we said, in particular, it would really help if
you would send a truth and Trump said, great, come
(25:47):
up with something. And so I will tell you what
the President sent. I had a lot of input in this,
and here's what he put out. President Trump said, Democrats
claimed to be working for quote the little guy driving
down your health insurance. But the and the rest of
this is in all caps. Obamacare scam goes straight to
(26:08):
their best friends in the insurance industry. They are making
a killing while health coverage only gets worse. If Democrats
get their way again, they're in for another huge payday
at the expense of the American people.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
No deal. In all caps.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Republicans should give money directly to your personal health savings
accounts all in caps that I expanded in our great, big,
beautiful bill. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Now,
this is really important because if you want a really strong,
principled conservative reform to health insurance, expanding health savings accounts
(26:52):
so that you give you the consumer, you the patient,
more control and instead of sending money to the insurance companies,
send it straight to people's health savings accounts, so you
can spend it on premiums.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
You can spend it on deductibles.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
You can spend it on healthcare that expands competition and
empowers patients that at lowers prices. The President leaning in
with this tweet really helps in this political battle we'll
have over the next six weeks because the outcome he's
advocating for is something I've advocated for a long time,
and that was a direct result of that dinner on
(27:28):
Friday night where we got him on the phone.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
You know, there's one interesting thing that's coming out this
first year of Trump being back in office. It is
really empowering the American people, whether it is the accounts
you've talked about, whether it's the Trump accounts that are
going to be coming in this next year that you
guys pass to give kids the opportunity to save money
and to be able to grow accounts and to build
(27:51):
wealth over their lifetime. Like, there is a lot of
personal growth and personal excitement that it's Trump is get
the government out of your life.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
You can do better without it. We want to help
you do that. And then the.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Democrats like no, no, no, no, no, Mandani's and others usually
have no control of your life. We want to run
the whole damn show from birth to death. Just trust
the US government to be your daddy or your mommy,
are both. And that's exactly the difference between the Republicans
and Democrats right now.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Look at it's a fundamental divide. As you noted, we
passed the Trump accounts. As you know well, I wrote
that legislation. This has been a major theme that I've
been fighting for since the first day I got elected
to the Senate. And whether you're talking about hell savings accounts,
whether you're talking about Trump accounts that are essentially four
A one CA savings accounts for kids, or whether you're
(28:46):
talking about school choice and getting tax credits, the unifying
theme of all of those is individual choice, empowering you
the individual rather than government competition and and giving you control.
That is the fundamental difference between left and right. And
President Trump has been a great partner in this, and
(29:07):
I'll tell you as a part of his tweet, he
sent out a chart, a chart which which I had
sent him, but I want you to see the chart.
We're going to put it up on YouTube for anyone
that's watching on YouTube. But it goes through the major
healthcare companies their stock performance since Obamacare pass I'm going
(29:30):
to walk through them.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
Etna.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Obamacare March twenty ten is when it passed. Etna's stock
stock price was thirty dollars and fifty cents. Today it's
two hundred and twelve dollars, so it's increased five hundred
and ninety five percent. Since Obamacare passed. Senteen Its stock
has increased six hundred and four percent, Molina its stock
has increased eight hundred and fifty nine percent, Humana Its
(29:57):
stock has increased four hundred and ninety percent. Ends Anthem
Elevance Health Its stock has increased four hundred and fourteen percent,
Signa Its stock has increased eight eight hundred and twenty
two percent, and United Health Group. When Obamacare passed, United
health stock was twenty five dollars and sixty six cents.
(30:20):
Today November twenty twenty five, it is three hundred and
twenty seven dollars and seventy four cents. That is at
one thousand, one hundred and seventy seven percent increase.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
That's what Obamacare did.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
It massively increased the profits of the health insurance companies.
By the way, those health insurance companies overwhelmingly give to Democrats.
They give to Chuck Schumer, they give to Keing, Jeffries
and the Democrats because they recognize when Democrats are in power,
their profits go through the roof and the American people's
premium skyrocket. What are the Democrats say they wanted to
(30:52):
do in this shutdown? Give fifty billion dollars to those
same health insurance companies who profits have skyrocket. And it's
why with the pre residents said is so important. No,
we're not going to give money to health insurance companies. Instead,
we're going to expand health savings accounts so you, the
individual has control over your own healthcare.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
For the last several weeks, you've heard me talk with
Josherrard 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 1 (31:29):
And it's truly amazing. Now Josh is back today to.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Share a story about a store owner and how a
Berner launcher could have really come in handy.
Speaker 5 (31:37):
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 hitting 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
(31:59):
attempts at 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 begin choking her.
It was only due to several good Samaritans that jumped
in to pull him off of her that probably saved
(32:19):
your life.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
You know, this is a growing trend. Unfortunately, mental health
is a serious issue and in areas where the larger
homeless populations, these individuals affected by this can really get violent.
Could BURNI still be effective in this case?
Speaker 5 (32:34):
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 projectiles, will incapacitate even those suffering from those
(32:55):
acute mental episodes. So Burne is a great tool to
use when you absolutely have no idea that you may
need it.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
If you want to find out more about burna 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 Burna by RNA dot com. That's Burnaby RNA
dot com, burna dot com. Senator, I also want to
get a little preview of something that you're working on.
We're going to do a more expansive show on this,
(33:23):
but it's important that people know that even while the
government has been shut down, you have been working very
hard on other things. One of those things is you've
now introduced the Quote Deporting Fraudsters Act of twenty twenty five,
and it deals with snap and public benefits abuses that
is costing the American people millions and millions of dollars.
(33:46):
Give us a little preview of this so people know
what's been going on.
Speaker 4 (33:50):
Look, this is a very simple bill.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
It is an astonishing fact that right now welfare fraud,
fraudulently taking government assistance benefits is not a deportable effe
events under the immigration laws. This law will change that
and make it a deportable offense. Let me give you
some basic statistics. Forty eight percent of households headed by
illegal immigrants received food related welfare benefits forty eight percent
(34:15):
nearly half specifically SNAP. A CIS analysis found that thirty
one percent of illegal alien households with children draw SNAP benefits.
One in five households getting WICIC Women's Infants and Children
or SNAP is headed by a non citizen, and ninety
six percent of the children in those households are US
(34:38):
but born, showing how illegal aliens exploit child based eligibility
to access benefits indirectly.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
The US Department of Agriculture reports.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
One point seventy six million non citizens on SNAP in
twenty twenty three. That is roughly three hundred and twelve
million dollars in ten pair funds. In twenty twelve or
not twenty twelve, rather twenty twenty two, it was one
point five million recipients that cost two hundred and twenty
(35:08):
two million.
Speaker 4 (35:10):
Fraud is rampant.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
For example, in twenty twenty four, one hundred and twenty
six point eight million dollars was stolen from EBT cards.
In Texas, three point seven million people, about eleven percent
of the state relies on SNAP. Every stolen or unlawfully
claimed dollar robs a citizen family in genuine need. And
(35:32):
according to the CBO, about two hundred thousand illegal aliens
from the surge of alien asylum seekers from twenty twenty
three to twenty twenty four already received SNAP, growing to
eight hundred thousand by twenty thirty four, assuming no deportations.
A ten year cost. You said this cost millions. Yeah,
(35:53):
the ten year cost is fifteen billion dollars. And so
this bill is to target that and say, if you're
here illegally, you do not have any entitlement to public welfare.
And if you access fraudulently access public welfare, that is
yet another ground to deport you.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Now, Chuck Schumer is a co sponsor this bill.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
Right, no, And I feel confident that Schumer is not
just to know he's a hell no, because today's Democrat party,
it is all for giant health insurance corporations. It is
all for illegal immigrants, it is all for violent criminals,
it is all for men and women's sports. It's all
for everyone except the average American citizen trying to work
(36:35):
hard and provide for his or her family.
Speaker 4 (36:38):
And that's exactly backwards.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
It's incredible.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Well, as we're doing the show right now at ten
forty at night on Sunday evening, the government's still shut down,
you're still being held hostage. We're moving in the right direction.
Democrats could drag this out even till Friday, just to
hurt you. If you're traveling this week, you're not alone,
Sender Kruz and I are traveling with you.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
It's gonna suck. That's just the best way I can
describe it.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
But at least hopefully will be safe while doing it
Center and I will see you back here when the
government hopefully reopens. So we'll be doing a show on Wednesday,
So hit that subscriber auto download button and grab my podcast,
the Ben Ferguson Podcasts on those in between days. I
will keep you up to date with whatever is happening.
I can promise you that, and we'll see you back here.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
In a couple of days
Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
It is Verdic with Center, Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with
you in this episode will be a dual episode. Nice
show in Center Cruise as well here because we're trying
to figure out what the hell's going on, just like
every other American when it comes to is the government open?
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Is it closed? Center?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
As we are doing this ten o'clock Eastern, we're recording
on Sunday night. You've just left the Senate for so
where the hell are we now? Because there were some
reports like the government's reopened, then it's not reopen. We're
heading towards reopening.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
What is right? What's wrong?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Well, we have really good news, which is the government
is in the process of reopening. It's not going to
be reopened on Monday, but we got the votes tonight
that will start the process of reopening it. We're going
to explain exactly what that means, what the deal, what
the deal was, and what the timing is going to
be and how that's likely to impact you, whether it
is going to a national park or going to the
(00:55):
Smithsonian or flying on an airplane, what the timing is
likely to be. We're also going to talk to you
about a bill that I introduced this past week, the
Deporting Fraudster's Bill that is going after illegal immigrants who
are fraudulently getting welfare benefits. And right now, fraudulently taking
welfare benefits is not a statutory ground for deportation. I'm
(01:17):
introducing legislation to change that. We'll explain that all to you.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Yeah, it's really incredible.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
I want to take a moment and talk to you
about Hillsdale College and saying, amazing that's happening right now.
I am taking a class. I wanted to say it
was a refresher course. It's really been so much more
than that. And it is about the constitution. Constitution one
oh one, and Hillsdale College has done an amazing job
of allowing people to continue to learn about this country
(01:45):
at their own pace online. Now in a brand new
six part documentary series, Hillsdale College professors are now teaching
you the religious, political, cultural, and economic ideas that shape
a uniquely American cultured during the colonial period. You're gonna
learn why the idea of liberty, especially religious liberty, inspired
(02:06):
the settlers of America to cross the Atlantic. You're gonna
learn how Americans organize local governments to rule and protect themselves,
and why America has always been a land where virtue
can lead to peace and prosperity.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Most of us know that the Declaration of.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Independence marks the beginning of America as an independent nation,
but this Hillsdale course focuses on the forging of the
American character that made the Revolution possible and why it's
more important than ever to remember and reclaim that character today.
So here's the part that I love the most. Hillsdale
College is doing something amazing. They are offering these courses
(02:46):
to you guys listening, completely free and it's easy to access.
Hillsdale is now offering more than forty other free online courses,
just like the Constitution one oh one class I'm taking
right now.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
They of course on C. S.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Lewis, the stories of the Book of Genesis, the Rise
in the Fall of the Roman Republic, and you can
even go deeper on the American founding and the Constitution,
all for free. How do you get take the classes
for free right now? Go to Hillsdale dot edu slash
verdict enroll right now.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
There's no costs, it's easy to get started.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
That's Hillsdale dot edu slash verdict to enroll for free
Hillsdale dot edu slash verdict and see all the classes,
the forty plus classes you can take right.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Now for free.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
All right, So center, there was a lot of excitement
earlier Sunday evening. My phone blew up. I'm assuming you
were getting the text me. It's like, oh great, the
government's wide open again. It's gonna go back to normal.
I wish that was true. You just described it as
we've got the votes to move forward. Explain the process,
(03:55):
because I mean, even on social media it was like
the government's reopen.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I'm like, not so so fast. That's not how this
can work.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
In fact, they could take almost another week and totally
get this thing back to where it needs to be.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
So look, the good news is we finally have a
deal and we got the votes that are necessary to
reopen the government. So we've had a shutdown, the Schumer shutdown.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
For forty days. Yeah, fourteen different times.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Fourteen times Republicans have voted to open the government, fourteen
times Democrats have voted no, have voted to keep the
government shut down. Now, remember, the entire reason that we
have a shutdown is because under the Senate rules, you
need sixty votes to move to proceed to legislation funding
the government. We only have fifty three Republicans. That means
(04:42):
we need at least seven Democrats, and unfortunately ran votes
no on all of these, So we have fifty two
Republicans to fund the government.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
So we need eight Democrats.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
The fourteen times we've voted over the last forty days,
over and over and over again, we've gotten at most
two or three Democrats. Tonight Sunday, it's just a few
minutes after ten pm Sunday night, we finally got the
eight Democrats we needed. So the Democrats who voted to
reopen the government are Durbin, Hassen, King, Cortes, Masto, Cain, Shaheen, Rosen,
(05:17):
and Fetterman. Those are the eight we got exactly what
we needed. We ended up with sixty votes, not sixty one,
so that not in a sink. Every other Democrat voted no.
Keep it shut down. But getting eight is important, and
there was a substantive deal. But the substantive deal has
several pieces. Number one, there's a continuing resolution that runs
(05:38):
through January thirtieth. So one thing that was really important
to me and to a lot of conservatives was that
we not have government funding expire right before Christmas. Often
government fundings expires right before Christmas, and they use the
desire everyone has to go home to their families for
the holidays to twist our arms into passing a really
(06:01):
bad bill. So this does not end right before Christmas.
The CR instead, the continuing Resolution continues until the end
of January. That was significant. We also included three appropriation
bills in the deals. Now, these are appropriation bills. There
are two ways you can fund the government. You can
fund the government through an appropriation bill. There are thirteen
(06:21):
different appropriation bills that fund different cabinet agencies in different
major programs. Those take sixty votes. That's what's called regular order.
That's the way the system is supposed to work. And
then you can also fund the government through a continuing
resolution also called a CR, that just keeps everything the
way it was before and maintains the status quo. We
(06:45):
ended up doing a combination of both. So in this
deal we have number one the ag approach, So that's
the agriculture appropriation that includes the funds that farmers rely on,
but it also importantly includes snap It includes food food stamps.
So yeah, one of the consequences of the shutdown was
the funding for food stamps went away. With this appropriation bill,
(07:08):
we will fund the food stamps for an entire year,
so that will be taken off the table.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
And by the way, let's be very clear about that,
Republicans tried to make sure that even with the government shutdown,
that snap benefits were continuing and were not stopped. Democrats
made damn sure that people did not get their food
stamp benefits during the forty day the longest shut down
in American history. They did that because they thought it
(07:34):
was leveraged to hurt the poorest among us in America,
and that would then give them leverage to get more
of the port rail things they wanted for the Democratic
programs and initiatives, and they didn't care if you couldn't
feed your kids over the last forty days.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
So understand that was the entire Democrat strategy is maximize
the pain on the American people, because the more pain
that they could inflict, they were counting on the media
to be dishonest and blame it all on Trump. And
so repeatedly this past week, I went back and forth
with Democrats repeatedly, and their talking points were very simple.
They would say, well, you have a Republican president, Republican Senate,
(08:09):
Republican House. The shutdown is their fault, and that was it.
And they were counting on the dishonest corporate media to
tell that lie what they omitted. And actually I talked
about this just this weekend. I spoke on the Senate Florida.
I said, look, whenever anyone takes an oath to testify
in court, that they put their hand on the Bible
(08:31):
and they pledged to tell the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth. Well, the Democrats saying that
they're failing part number two, the whole truth, because it
is true we have a Republican president, House and Senate.
What they're ignoring is the fact that it requires sixty
votes and it is the Democrats who forced the shut
down because they're the ones that are not voting to
keep the government open. This package, we took three appropriations bills,
(08:53):
the AG Appropriation Bill which is farmers, ranchers and food stamps,
the Military Construction and the VA Bill so that funds
funds our veterans and also gives funds for military construction
projects across the country. And then the Legislature Bill, which,
among other things, we increase the funding for security for
members of Congress. Given the political violence we see, I
(09:16):
think that's very important to have more funds to increase
security on both sides of the aisle.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
So that package.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Those are three appropriation bills that were bipartisan. The Democrats
had a party in that were passed along with the
thirty day CR or not thirty day the CR to
January thirtieth.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Three, Henry thirtieth.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Yeah, so all of that is what we got sixty
votes for tonight. Now what does that mean tomorrow morning?
Does that mean the government is opened Monday morning? Unfortunately no.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
FINT people are frustrated because they think, well, you guys
shut it down quickly, then why can't you just reopen
it quickly?
Speaker 1 (09:56):
And this is how the sausage is made.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
And that's why I think there's some misc communication on
Sunday night about oh, the government's like open up. I
mean there was major news out it's like government opening up,
the votes to have it, and they're thinking, all right, well,
if I'm flying out Monday or Monday afternoon or Tuesday, yeah,
there should be no problems at the airport. That's also
not true. I want to be very clear about that.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Look, if the Democrats want to be full obstructionist, they
could delay opening the government as late as Friday of
this week. Because there are a series of votes we
have to take in. Under the Senate rules, they can
delay thing. They have a right to an intervening day
between one voter and another. They can delay things for
thirty hours, and so they could drag it out even
(10:41):
though we have the sixty votes. They could drag it
out as late as Friday. My guess is they'll drag
it out till Monday or Tuesday. My best guess is
the government will open up Tuesday or Wednesday. But we
really are dealing with Look the Bernie Sanders is of
the world. By the way, Chuck Schumer voted no, because
the whole point of this was for him to tell
(11:03):
the crazy left he still hates Donald Trump. Now, I
don't think these eight Democrats would have voted yes without
Schumer blessing their voting yes. So this was always going
to end this one.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
I was going to ask you, so getting to the
perfect number of eight, and again, this is how the
sausage is made. So let's talk about behind the scenes.
You guys, the Republicans have been meeting right behind the scenes.
You have your normal lunches that you have in your
other meetings, And I see you guys on the four
of the Senate talking and you're outside the Senate. I
mean Democrats are doing the same thing when they decide
(11:36):
who is in the eight to vote yes? Is that
strategic based on who needs cover when they're running for office?
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Is that? I mean?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
There's some like Fetterman that clearly were leaders on this,
just saying I think it's wrong to hold the American
be a hostage.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
I'm voting to open this thing up.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
How do they decide on the exact eight And is
it literally to the point where they're like, all right,
we're gonna only give eight, and you got to make
your arm to us why you should be in the
eight and we'll give you that blessing.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
How does that work?
Speaker 4 (12:06):
So I don't know for sure.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
I will say there were a number of Republicans who
were surprised we did not get more than eight. So
there were other Democrats who were telling Republicans privately they
were going to vote yes to open the government. People
like John Ossoff who's got He's the most vulnerable Democrat
running for reelection in Georgia. He just voted the fifteenth
time to keep the government shut down, you know Georgia.
(12:30):
By the way, Raphael Warnock, the other Georgia senator, did
as well. We actually thought there was a real possibility
they would both vote tonight to open the government. I
don't know what Osof's calculus was. Warnock will often vote
with Osof to give him some political coverage, so we
figured that they would go They would go either both
yes or both no. They both voted to keep the
(12:51):
government shut down.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
What is the chances to guys like that on Tuesday
Wednesday vote yes? After they say all right, well fine,
we're already going to be there. Does that change you
think that eight number? Could that change attends over or
is it pretty much as eight no?
Speaker 3 (13:06):
I could easily see on a subsequent vote some additional Democrats,
Patty Murray, who is the senior Democrat on the Appropriations Committee,
a number of Republicans believe she was going to vote yes.
I mentioned we just were going to pass three appropriation bills.
She played a major hand in drafting those three appropriation bills,
and so for appropriators. Look, when Chuck Schumer and the
(13:29):
Democrats had the majority, do you know how many appropriation
bills they passed into law?
Speaker 1 (13:33):
How many?
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Zero?
Speaker 3 (13:35):
The process was broken, They didn't do appropriations. It's our
hope to actually go through the process, to have amendments,
to negotiate it. And that's what these three bills are doing.
And yet the senior Democrat on the Appropriations Committee voted no.
Chris Coons, who is widely seen as one of the
more moderate Democrats, he voted to keep the government shut down.
(14:00):
Alyssa Slotkin from Michigan. Look, Michigan's a purple state. She
voted to keep the government shut down. Gary Peters, also
from Michigan, retiring, he voted to keep the government to
shut down. So there were another half dozen or so
that a lot of folks thought we would have a
chance at getting their votes, and we did not.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
So when you don't get those votes, we move forward.
You said this thing could end up to Friday. You're
guessing probably Tuesday, Wednesday the government reopens.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
How many more votes after tonight?
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Again, for people that are listening, we're doing this Sunday
night at ten to fifteen right now in DC. How
many people are how many votes will it take starting
now to get the government actually reopened.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
We need to continue to hold sixty, but we're going
to the underlying terms of the deal have been cut.
So I don't expect any of the eight who just
voted yes to flip. So I think we've got our sixty.
But the remaining Democrats can just drag things out and
make it painful. I hope they don't. I actually pulled
Dick Durbin aside. Durbin is retiring, and I mentioned I
(15:08):
always thought this was going to end with retiring Democrats
voting to open the government. Durbin did so. Now, look
he's the number two in leadership among the Democrats. He's
Chuck Schumer's right hand buddy's retiring. I told Dick tonight,
I said, look, we've got sixty now. It sure would
be nice if like you guys, didn't drag this out
unnecessarily till Friday, and just the identical outcome will happen,
(15:31):
and it just is more painful for everybody. I think
there are a lot of Democrats who feel that way.
It's why I think we'll end Tuesday or Wednesday.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
But who the heck knows.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Now, there's another element of this deal that's getting some
attention online, which is a commitment to reverse the riffs,
the reductions and forces that happened during the shutdown. And
there's some folks online saying, you guys, cave, this is terrible.
That was was an off that President Trump made, I
think like two weeks ago to the Democrats. That has
(16:04):
been on the table for them a long long time,
and the White House made the decision, Okay, if you
guys open the government, we agree, we'll offer you that
will reverse those rifts. So that was in the deal,
but it was a deal that came from the White
House that we just agreed. Okay, if that's if those
are the terms that the President wants to cut, we'll
we'll back up the president.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
So you go into Monday, you're going to have more
meetings throughout the day, or explain to me Monday what
that looks like.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
We're anticipating the first vote probably around noon. And as
I said that, there could be we could have done
it all tonight if the Democrats had agreed to In
the Senate, you can do anything by unanimous consent, and
so if they wanted to open the government tonight. They
could have just consented to do one vote and then
do the other one next to the other one next,
the other one next, and we'd be done.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Like you can do that, you know, literally, instead of
us recording right now, you guys could actually be voting
and this could have all been Monday morning. The government
is open for business. All the fa guys are back
to normal, everybody's getting paid, and they're like, now, SCREWT,
will just wait a few more days. So there's the
flying home, right, I mean, you're not flying home tonight,
are you.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
Nope?
Speaker 3 (17:11):
No, I'm in DC. I didn't see my family this weekend.
I would have loved to have seen my kids. I didn't.
I've spent most of the time just sitting here waiting
for Democrats to finally agree to cut a deal. But
it was striking. We could have done it tonight. But
to do that you need unanimous consent. That means you
(17:34):
don't need sixty you need one hundred. That means one
person can object and say no, drag it out. I
want to burn more time. I want to burn more time.
And you have people like Bernie Sanders, you have all
the Democrats who are running for president that want to
want a spectacle, and so that if they really decide
(17:55):
to be just just fully obstructionist, they could drag it
as late as Friday.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
All right.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
So one other question is this is unfolding when the
government opens back up, and let's just use a hypothetical
of Wednesday, all right, Wednesday the government opens up, does
that mean that instantly the system is going to go
back to normal. I'm saying this to people traveling. Yeah,
you and I've traveled a lot. We've started to see
the breakdown of of air traffic control and of having
(18:26):
to cancel flights. I've witnessed it traveling internationally and domestically
over the last couple of days. You've done it as well.
And so when it opens back up, is that like
an instant fix or is that going to take a
couple of days to cycle through the system as well?
What does travel look like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Look at least travel Monday and Monday and Tuesday, I
would expect still really significant delays and really significant cancelations.
The reason for those delays and those cancelations. We have
roughly fifty thousand TSA agents all across the country.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
Many of them are going into work. None of them
are being paid.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
They all missed their last paycheck, didn't get their last paycheck.
We have roughly fourteen thousand air traffic controllers. Many of
them are going into work, none of them are getting paid.
They all missed their last paycheck. Listen if you're a
TSA agent, if you're an air traffic controller, typical TSA
agent or air traffic controller doesn't have a deep reservoir
(19:26):
of savings. I mean, they're under real stress right now.
How do I pay my mortgage, how do I pay
my rent? How do I pay my bills? And so
what is happening with both TSA agents and controllers. They're
calling in sick, they're just not showing up, say summer,
coming into work. The problem is in New York City
on Halloween Day, roughly eighty percent of the controllers called
(19:48):
in sick and didn't show up to work. That's Chuck
Schumer's hometown, by the way. And so we're seeing with TSA.
You had Monday a week ago, the lines in the
Houston Bush Airport were two and a half to three
hours line long to get through security because they were
so short staffed on TSA agents, they didn't have enough
to move people through security. So even if the government
(20:11):
opens up tomorrow, you're dealing with the independent decisions of
fifty thousand TSA agents and fourteen thousand controllers when they
come back to work. And the reason that the FAA
has mandated ten percent of flights be canceled is they're
looking at the data and seeing that these short staffed
air traffic controllers there's an increased risk to safety. So
(20:32):
they're saying, all right, if we don't have full staffing,
we got to reduce the number of flights. So in
a week, do I expect things to go back to normal? Yes,
a week after things open up, but it could easily
take several days for people to say, Okay, I'm going
to come back into work now. That doesn't happen automatically
(20:52):
just by flipping a switch.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
So what you're basically telling me is this week, when
I'm flying, and when you're flying, and so many others
that listen to this show flying, we're gonna be dealing
with this type of chaos because the Democrats decided not
to do their job, even while doing their job on
Sunday night, Right now, yes.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
And by the way, they could have agreed to open
it all up tonight, that they could have given consent,
said okay, you've got a deal, let's move ahead. And
it's now just the obstructionist who you know, if your
flight is canceled tomorrow, you can thank Chuck Schumer and
every Democrat senator running for president who's trying to show
off to the crazy left. But we will get it
(21:32):
open now, but it will take It'll take a few
more days at a minimum.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
All right.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
So let's move to another issue in this shutdown, and
there's been some confusion over it. There's been a lot
of fighting over it. It deals with Obamacare. Also knows
the Affordable Care Act. Democrats decided, and this is some
of the history that I do think we need to
now explain because there's been so much of a political
football on this one. That they purposely designed for the
(22:00):
subsidies which make Obamacare seem cheaper than it is, even
though your tax dollars are paying for the subsidies to
subsidize people's health insurance. They designed it purposely to expire now,
and that was something that was done by design. I'm
assuming for this type of fight is am I wrong
and explain what's happening with Obamacare now and moving forward.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Well, look, the other thing Democrats talked about and they
claimed they were fighting the shutdown for, was to extend Obamacare.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
And in particular during.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
COVID, when the Democrats had control of the House and
the Senate. In the White House, they passed massive subsidies
that went straight to giant insurance companies, went to the
didn't go to the people, didn't go to you, but
went to insurance companies, roughly fifty billion dollars worth of subsidies,
just huge corporate welfare. And that corporate welfare to the
(22:54):
insurance companies expires the end of December. And so part
of this deal is Republicans agreed we will have a
vote on those subsidies the first week of December. Now,
by the way, Republicans offered them that we would schedule
that vote forty days ago, so they've had that on
the table for forty days. But we said at the beginning, sure,
(23:17):
we'll give you a vote. They're going to lose that vote.
They know they're going to lose that vote, but we said,
we'll give you that vote.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
And so we agreed to have that vote. Now what's
the answer?
Speaker 3 (23:27):
And this is where I want to take folks a
little bit behind the scenes to some of the sausage making.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
So most of the Senate was in DC all weekend.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
We'd all planned to be back home and had many
people had fundraisers at political events or family events, and
we missed most of them just staying here. So Friday
night I invited a dozen senators out to dinner, and
so we went to a local restaurant and got a
room together and had a great dinner. And we're laughing
and talking and strategizing and saying, look are the Democrats
(23:58):
going to move? So in that dinner, we decided to
call President Trump. So we called President Trump, got him
on the cell phone, and the president he was in
a good mood, but he was he was expressing his
views emphatically as he always does.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
And by the way, for people I've ever done a
phone call, like if you've never gotten to do this,
he does not ever hold back when you're talking about
the phone. I'm not a single phone call. You've had
a lot more than I have. But when I've had
phone calls with him, whether it was in sixteen to
twenty or now forward like he does not hold back
at all. When you're on the cell phone on speakerphone as.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
Well, he does not.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
So one of the things we asked of him Friday night,
we said, listen, in this battle with the Democrats over Obamacare,
Obamacare's failing. It's a bad program. And if you go back,
go back to twenty thirteen. Twenty thirteen, when I did
a filibuster against Obamacare, I said, at the time, if
you remember, you remember, Barack Obama promised the American people
Obamacare would would cut the average families premiums by twenty
(24:59):
five year.
Speaker 4 (25:00):
Ye, that was a lie, And in.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Fact they skyrocketed at the time, five thousand a year.
They've skyrocketed a lot more than that. Even the Washington
Post has now admitted the editorial page the Affordable Care Act,
which is the misleading name of Obamacare, did not make
healthcare more affordable. It caused premiums to skyrocket. So when
we had Trump on the phone, we said, look, it
(25:23):
would really help if you made the case that what
Democrats are fighting for is these massive multi billion dollar
corporate welfare payoffs to the health insurance companies. Instead of
empowering consumers, and look, we want a lower prices. And
so we said, in particular, it would really help if
you would send a truth and Trump said, great, come
(25:47):
up with something. And so I will tell you what
the President sent. I had a lot of input in this,
and here's what he put out. President Trump said, Democrats
claimed to be working for quote the little guy driving
down your health insurance. But the and the rest of
this is in all caps. Obamacare scam goes straight to
(26:08):
their best friends in the insurance industry. They are making
a killing while health coverage only gets worse. If Democrats
get their way again, they're in for another huge payday
at the expense of the American people.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
No deal. In all caps.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Republicans should give money directly to your personal health savings
accounts all in caps that I expanded in our great, big,
beautiful bill. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Now,
this is really important because if you want a really strong,
principled conservative reform to health insurance, expanding health savings accounts
(26:52):
so that you give you the consumer, you the patient,
more control and instead of sending money to the insurance companies,
send it straight to people's health savings accounts, so you
can spend it on premiums.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
You can spend it on deductibles.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
You can spend it on healthcare that expands competition and
empowers patients that at lowers prices. The President leaning in
with this tweet really helps in this political battle we'll
have over the next six weeks because the outcome he's
advocating for is something I've advocated for a long time,
and that was a direct result of that dinner on
(27:28):
Friday night where we got him on the phone.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
You know, there's one interesting thing that's coming out this
first year of Trump being back in office. It is
really empowering the American people, whether it is the accounts
you've talked about, whether it's the Trump accounts that are
going to be coming in this next year that you
guys pass to give kids the opportunity to save money
and to be able to grow accounts and to build
(27:51):
wealth over their lifetime. Like, there is a lot of
personal growth and personal excitement that it's Trump is get
the government out of your life.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
You can do better without it. We want to help
you do that. And then the.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Democrats like no, no, no, no, no, Mandani's and others usually
have no control of your life. We want to run
the whole damn show from birth to death. Just trust
the US government to be your daddy or your mommy,
are both. And that's exactly the difference between the Republicans
and Democrats right now.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Look at it's a fundamental divide. As you noted, we
passed the Trump accounts. As you know well, I wrote
that legislation. This has been a major theme that I've
been fighting for since the first day I got elected
to the Senate. And whether you're talking about hell savings accounts,
whether you're talking about Trump accounts that are essentially four
A one CA savings accounts for kids, or whether you're
(28:46):
talking about school choice and getting tax credits, the unifying
theme of all of those is individual choice, empowering you
the individual rather than government competition and and giving you control.
That is the fundamental difference between left and right. And
President Trump has been a great partner in this, and
(29:07):
I'll tell you as a part of his tweet, he
sent out a chart, a chart which which I had
sent him, but I want you to see the chart.
We're going to put it up on YouTube for anyone
that's watching on YouTube. But it goes through the major
healthcare companies their stock performance since Obamacare pass I'm going
(29:30):
to walk through them.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
Etna.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Obamacare March twenty ten is when it passed. Etna's stock
stock price was thirty dollars and fifty cents. Today it's
two hundred and twelve dollars, so it's increased five hundred
and ninety five percent. Since Obamacare passed. Senteen Its stock
has increased six hundred and four percent, Molina its stock
has increased eight hundred and fifty nine percent, Humana Its
(29:57):
stock has increased four hundred and ninety percent. Ends Anthem
Elevance Health Its stock has increased four hundred and fourteen percent,
Signa Its stock has increased eight eight hundred and twenty
two percent, and United Health Group. When Obamacare passed, United
health stock was twenty five dollars and sixty six cents.
(30:20):
Today November twenty twenty five, it is three hundred and
twenty seven dollars and seventy four cents. That is at
one thousand, one hundred and seventy seven percent increase.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
That's what Obamacare did.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
It massively increased the profits of the health insurance companies.
By the way, those health insurance companies overwhelmingly give to Democrats.
They give to Chuck Schumer, they give to Keing, Jeffries
and the Democrats because they recognize when Democrats are in power,
their profits go through the roof and the American people's
premium skyrocket. What are the Democrats say they wanted to
(30:52):
do in this shutdown? Give fifty billion dollars to those
same health insurance companies who profits have skyrocket. And it's
why with the pre residents said is so important. No,
we're not going to give money to health insurance companies. Instead,
we're going to expand health savings accounts so you, the
individual has control over your own healthcare.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
For the last several weeks, you've heard me talk with
Josherrard 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 1 (31:29):
And it's truly amazing. Now Josh is back today to.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Share a story about a store owner and how a
Berner launcher could have really come in handy.
Speaker 5 (31:37):
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 hitting 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
(31:59):
attempts at 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 begin choking her.
It was only due to several good Samaritans that jumped
in to pull him off of her that probably saved
(32:19):
your life.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
You know, this is a growing trend. Unfortunately, mental health
is a serious issue and in areas where the larger
homeless populations, these individuals affected by this can really get violent.
Could BURNI still be effective in this case?
Speaker 5 (32:34):
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 projectiles, will incapacitate even those suffering from those
(32:55):
acute mental episodes. So Burne is a great tool to
use when you absolutely have no idea that you may
need it.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
If you want to find out more about burna 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 Burna by RNA dot com. That's Burnaby RNA
dot com, burna dot com. Senator, I also want to
get a little preview of something that you're working on.
We're going to do a more expansive show on this,
(33:23):
but it's important that people know that even while the
government has been shut down, you have been working very
hard on other things. One of those things is you've
now introduced the Quote Deporting Fraudsters Act of twenty twenty five,
and it deals with snap and public benefits abuses that
is costing the American people millions and millions of dollars.
(33:46):
Give us a little preview of this so people know
what's been going on.
Speaker 4 (33:50):
Look, this is a very simple bill.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
It is an astonishing fact that right now welfare fraud,
fraudulently taking government assistance benefits is not a deportable effe
events under the immigration laws. This law will change that
and make it a deportable offense. Let me give you
some basic statistics. Forty eight percent of households headed by
illegal immigrants received food related welfare benefits forty eight percent
(34:15):
nearly half specifically SNAP. A CIS analysis found that thirty
one percent of illegal alien households with children draw SNAP benefits.
One in five households getting WICIC Women's Infants and Children
or SNAP is headed by a non citizen, and ninety
six percent of the children in those households are US
(34:38):
but born, showing how illegal aliens exploit child based eligibility
to access benefits indirectly.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
The US Department of Agriculture reports.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
One point seventy six million non citizens on SNAP in
twenty twenty three. That is roughly three hundred and twelve
million dollars in ten pair funds. In twenty twelve or
not twenty twelve, rather twenty twenty two, it was one
point five million recipients that cost two hundred and twenty
(35:08):
two million.
Speaker 4 (35:10):
Fraud is rampant.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
For example, in twenty twenty four, one hundred and twenty
six point eight million dollars was stolen from EBT cards.
In Texas, three point seven million people, about eleven percent
of the state relies on SNAP. Every stolen or unlawfully
claimed dollar robs a citizen family in genuine need. And
(35:32):
according to the CBO, about two hundred thousand illegal aliens
from the surge of alien asylum seekers from twenty twenty
three to twenty twenty four already received SNAP, growing to
eight hundred thousand by twenty thirty four, assuming no deportations.
A ten year cost. You said this cost millions. Yeah,
(35:53):
the ten year cost is fifteen billion dollars. And so
this bill is to target that and say, if you're
here illegally, you do not have any entitlement to public welfare.
And if you access fraudulently access public welfare, that is
yet another ground to deport you.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Now, Chuck Schumer is a co sponsor this bill.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
Right, no, And I feel confident that Schumer is not
just to know he's a hell no, because today's Democrat party,
it is all for giant health insurance corporations. It is
all for illegal immigrants, it is all for violent criminals,
it is all for men and women's sports. It's all
for everyone except the average American citizen trying to work
(36:35):
hard and provide for his or her family.
Speaker 4 (36:38):
And that's exactly backwards.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
It's incredible.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Well, as we're doing the show right now at ten
forty at night on Sunday evening, the government's still shut down,
you're still being held hostage. We're moving in the right direction.
Democrats could drag this out even till Friday, just to
hurt you. If you're traveling this week, you're not alone,
Sender Kruz and I are traveling with you.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
It's gonna suck. That's just the best way I can
describe it.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
But at least hopefully will be safe while doing it
Center and I will see you back here when the
government hopefully reopens. So we'll be doing a show on Wednesday,
So hit that subscriber auto download button and grab my podcast,
the Ben Ferguson Podcasts on those in between days. I
will keep you up to date with whatever is happening.
I can promise you that, and we'll see you back here.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
In a couple of days
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show News
Hosts And Creators
Clay Travis
Buck Sexton
Show Links
WebsiteNewsletterPopular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com