Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And we are blessed to be joined on our phone
line by a representative in Congress of the first Congressional
District of the state of Nebraska, Mike Flood, joining us
on the phone line today. Congressman Flood, thank you so
much for being back on our show.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Yeah, great to be here if I was in Washington working,
you know, but we're shut down.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Yeah, about to say you're still around the area, which
I'm sure that is not where you want to be.
So what's the latest that you are hearing about your
job right now?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, I spent much of the weekend Washington, just got
back this morning, and I'll tell you I think we're
heading into a new phase of this shutdown. Starting on Saturday,
the snap benefit, basically our food stamp program shuts down.
Air traffic controllers are likely to call in sick TSA
agents much of the same. So there's a lot of
really bad things that happened beginning Saturday, And the internal
(00:56):
conversations we're having is that we expect maybe some movement
next week. You know, remember there's a big election on Tuesday,
like in California to redraw their districts and get rid
of Republican districts and to get the base to the polls,
you know, they've got to keep the anger up. And
so I'm guessing that we have to get through Tuesday
at a minimum. But if this thing keeps going on,
(01:19):
it just compounds the badness. I mean, it's just going
to be super painful. It should never have happened. If
all they can do is just you know, fight, fight, fight,
and that come up with five votes, I mean, it's
gonna be a very long fourteen months the remainder of
this Congress.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
So and we talked about this on this show and
what the strategy is for the Democrats, and it really
feels like every day that the shutdown goes on is
one less day that this Congress can work toward pushing
for the Republican led agenda that Donald Trump is hoping
to achieve before we get to midterm time next fall.
(01:56):
So am I reading that correctly? Because it doesn't feel
like most of the Democrats are coming with any sort
of talking points or ways to you know, get open
with this government again. It's a lot more of well,
I don't really know what I want. We just want
this government to be shut down.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Well, you're exactly right, you know, I know they're feeling it.
I got a phone call from a Democrat earlier in
the week and he said, Hey, how come, why don't
we just sit down and talk this out. And I said, well,
what's happened a visit? He's like, okay, i'll send you
a letter tomorrow. I said, don't send me a letter.
Do you want to sit down, Let's sit down. Next thing,
I know, I get a letter. So this is all performative.
(02:33):
This is them trying to show their constituents that they're
at the table trying to solve things. Hey, if you
want to sit down and work something out, don't send
me a letter. Tell me you'll drop by the office,
or I'll come by yours and we'll sit down and
talk it out. Like it's all performative. It's all for show,
it's all messaging. This is going to get drug out
to Tuesday. You know, I actually thought once we had
those protests on the twentieth that things could get put
(02:55):
back together. But I wasn't thinking, oh, yes, we got
to get through their elections in New Jersey and in
California and keeps the base repped up so the Democrats
show up to vote. I think that's what this is about. Now.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Representative Mike Flood is joining us here. Yeah, do you
get a lot of letters from people in Congress? Still?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yeah, I mean we sign on the letters, you know,
send him to the White House. But I'll tell you what,
if I want to work out a deal with somebody,
I don't talk to him on the phone and say hey,
let's get together in private and then send him a
letter the next day that just happens to get leaked
to MSNBC. How convenient is that?
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Yeah, of course, Yeah, I just I struggle with the
whole thing. But I think most of us that are
in the real world do just trying to understand what
it will take next. I did get an interesting email
here from Tim who said, could you ask Congressman Flood
what's preventing Congress as a whole, or like the House
from working on the full budget while the Senate is
(03:51):
tied up on this CCR.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Well, the challenge with working on the Well, let me
back up, the appropriators are working. I was in our
appropriate Chairman's office yesterday and he and Rosa, the ranking member,
they are having continued conversations. They're hoping to get all
the bills on the floor, so there are appropriators that
are talking about how to navigate this. The challenge is
(04:14):
that if we go back in and start holding hearings,
then the Democrats will obstruct all of the hearings and
they'll make it about their shutdown and not about the
actual underlying subject matter. And quite frankly, we passed the budget,
like we passed a continuing resolution that has the funding.
What else can we do until we get opened back
(04:36):
up again. And by the way, we don't have enough
capital police, we have entrances closed, we have all sorts
of things out there that aren't functioning the way they
normally do because we're in government shutdown.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
It's pretty interesting to hear, you know, all of the
different procedures that do go on while this is taking place.
And when you and I last spoke a couple of
weeks ago, you were outlining what the CCR theoretically is
supposed to do, and the date that was on that
was November twenty first. Now we're only three weeks away
from that, and we don't seem any close to actually
(05:07):
getting to a point of agreement on this. Is this
just kind of a moot point at this point? Should
we be working on a different date on this or
are we trying to get this whole deal done all
together so we don't have to worry about just kicking
the deadline down the road a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, we're going to have I mean the Senate it's
going to have to at some point change the date
on that, because you're right, three weeks isn't going to
cut it, given the complexities of what we have to do.
If I had to pick a date, it would be
at the end of January, give everybody a chance to
get everything set up, and then I do not want
to kick it down the road a full year. Some
members of my conference want to do that. That's just
(05:46):
another year under the Biden Schumer budget, Like, why would
we want to do that. So I would like to
see it if they do change it, and I to
your point, I think they will, probably to the end
of January. It would be my preference, but we'll see
it happens.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
What would be I guess we opened the government, people
would get paid at that point, at least to that
date that whatever it'd be, Let's say it's the end
of January, when people do get paid and everything comes
back are they basically just on watching case there is
still no agreement, or would you have some confidence that
that would get passed. We would open the government back
(06:23):
up and both sides would be serious about making sure
we are signing the documents to get that thing cleaned up, finished,
ready to go, and we don't have to talk about
it again at least until next September the thirtieth.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Well, I would hope that we could figure out a
way to sixty votes in the Senate on the big
budget like we have to. I don't think Americans would
have any patients for either party if this happened again.
I mean, it's so disruptive. I will tell you there's
a silver lining for federal workers, and that's our federal
credit unions. They have stepped up in the Omaha area
(06:58):
with offed employees and all of that. So there's a
lot of folks that are getting zero percent loans that
need them to keep the food on the table. That's
all going to get of course they'll get paid back
for that. But that's where we find ourselves right now.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Congressman Mike Flood is with us here, A congressman, last
thing for you before I let you go, I know
that you're around here while we're waiting on all this
to continue and hopefully some new developments. What are you
kind of hoping to accomplish here the next few days
and who are you hoping to see?
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Well, I'm going to celebrate the opening of the new
Children's Hospital behavioral health unit today and I'm going to
go tour some a seventy five North project in Omaha.
They've invited me over just to see that, even though
it's not necessarily my district. Tomorrow, I'm in Lincoln meeting
with folks all day in the office. I'm speaking to
(07:54):
independent community bankers about the farm situation and what this
deal on Soybreeen means for their borrowers and egg folks
across the states. So I've got a pretty busy day.
I'm planning to go back to Washington on Monday, and
hopefully I'm there to cast vote sometime midweek.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Well, that'd be awesome if we can find a way
to do that. I did get another note here, and
I'm just going to squeeze this last question in for
snap in Wick and for people who are being affected
by this government shut down with pay or you know
anything that they had in mind, or maybe even just
going to an airport and noticing delays or canceled flights.
What would be your message to the American people who
(08:34):
are dealing with this right now while it feels like
there's really no hope to an eminent end, at least
going into the weekend.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Of course, I'd say I'm just sorry. I'm sorry that
your government isn't open, and I would urge you to
reach out to my office if you need access to
whatever resources may be available. And I'd also say, you know,
just so they know, I voted to fund the government.
I've always voted government. I voted to fund the government
when Joe Biden was the president. And we need our
(09:05):
democratic counterparts to do just that and not play games
and just get to the table and get this done,
because this isn't right. It doesn't matter what party you're in,
doesn't matter what your political leanings are. These federal workers
make our country work and they don't deserve this. They
deserve much better than what they're getting.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Representative of Nebraska's first congressional district that includes Lincoln, Nebraska,
among many other areas here in the eastern side of Nebraska,
Mike flood. Congressman is always a pleasure to speak with you,
and I'm sure we'll chat again very soon.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Thanks for having me on. Have a good day.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Nice of him to call in and be a part
of the show. I'm sure it's frustrating for him as well.
It's frustrating for everybody. I don't I'm not going to
sit here and say that it's any fun to do
a show where the one thing that we know is
happening is nothing, you know. I mean, it's so much
more fascinating and exciting as a talk show host that
(10:03):
enjoys talking about the political happenings of the day to
have some sort of legislation, some sort of back and forth,
something that was a debate on the floor, something going on,
and instead, you know, we're talking about the government being
shut down every day now, for whatever it's worth, this
time a week from now, all these elections are going
(10:26):
to be happening and going on. You have that proposition
in California to try to redistrict that state, and it
would be drawn up to help the Democrats, and I
can't imagine that's not going to pass. It'd be a
major upset if it doesn't pass. It's I think it's
prop fifty as what they're calling it, and it really
is just a it's going to add probably about five
(10:47):
ish or more Democrat seats based on the way that
they're drawing. We're the ponds, ladies and gentlemen, we're the pawns.
You can say that that's a completely unfair thing to do. Well,
Texas just did the same thing. I know that we
can blame the other side for drawing these weird lines
and all that stuff. It's just part of the game.
Jerry Mandering has always been a part of the game.
(11:09):
And what's sad about that is we are literally, in
this moment more than any other that I can think of,
pawns in a political game, because the people that are
representing us at large, not every single individual, but in
a general it's all about control. It's all about their team,
it's their side. It's not about the United States, it's
(11:30):
not about even their constituents. It's about, well, how do
we use the people's trends of the way they vote
and hold that against them in some way. That is
the jerry mandering aspect of what we're talking about here,
and that's it's sad honestly, it's really unfortunate, and for
anybody that's got problems with the way California is governed,
(11:51):
if you are a Democrat and you vote on Prop fifty, congratulations,
you've just made it worse for yourself. At the same time,
does Prop fifty happen if the Republicans in Texas don't
go out of their way to redraw their map in
the middle of the two censuses, I don't know. I
don't know. All I can tell you is it is
(12:13):
more performative games by both sides, but especially the Dems
in working around what America voted for in November of
twenty twenty four, that they wanted a conservative agenda to
be put in play, and the Democrats are just doing
whatever they can to try to prevent that from happening.
(12:33):
I don't know if there's enough Republicans willing to stand
up in California to fight back, but we'll tell that
by this time next week.
And we are blessed to be joined on our phone
line by a representative in Congress of the first Congressional
District of the state of Nebraska, Mike Flood, joining us
on the phone line today. Congressman Flood, thank you so
much for being back on our show.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Yeah, great to be here if I was in Washington working,
you know, but we're shut down.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Yeah, about to say you're still around the area, which
I'm sure that is not where you want to be.
So what's the latest that you are hearing about your
job right now?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, I spent much of the weekend Washington, just got
back this morning, and I'll tell you I think we're
heading into a new phase of this shutdown. Starting on Saturday,
the snap benefit, basically our food stamp program shuts down.
Air traffic controllers are likely to call in sick TSA
agents much of the same. So there's a lot of
really bad things that happened beginning Saturday, And the internal
(00:56):
conversations we're having is that we expect maybe some movement
next week. You know, remember there's a big election on Tuesday,
like in California to redraw their districts and get rid
of Republican districts and to get the base to the polls,
you know, they've got to keep the anger up. And
so I'm guessing that we have to get through Tuesday
at a minimum. But if this thing keeps going on,
(01:19):
it just compounds the badness. I mean, it's just going
to be super painful. It should never have happened. If
all they can do is just you know, fight, fight, fight,
and that come up with five votes, I mean, it's
gonna be a very long fourteen months the remainder of
this Congress.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
So and we talked about this on this show and
what the strategy is for the Democrats, and it really
feels like every day that the shutdown goes on is
one less day that this Congress can work toward pushing
for the Republican led agenda that Donald Trump is hoping
to achieve before we get to midterm time next fall.
(01:56):
So am I reading that correctly? Because it doesn't feel
like most of the Democrats are coming with any sort
of talking points or ways to you know, get open
with this government again. It's a lot more of well,
I don't really know what I want. We just want
this government to be shut down.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Well, you're exactly right, you know, I know they're feeling it.
I got a phone call from a Democrat earlier in
the week and he said, Hey, how come, why don't
we just sit down and talk this out. And I said, well,
what's happened a visit? He's like, okay, i'll send you
a letter tomorrow. I said, don't send me a letter.
Do you want to sit down, Let's sit down. Next thing,
I know, I get a letter. So this is all performative.
(02:33):
This is them trying to show their constituents that they're
at the table trying to solve things. Hey, if you
want to sit down and work something out, don't send
me a letter. Tell me you'll drop by the office,
or I'll come by yours and we'll sit down and
talk it out. Like it's all performative. It's all for show,
it's all messaging. This is going to get drug out
to Tuesday. You know, I actually thought once we had
those protests on the twentieth that things could get put
(02:55):
back together. But I wasn't thinking, oh, yes, we got
to get through their elections in New Jersey and in
California and keeps the base repped up so the Democrats
show up to vote. I think that's what this is about. Now.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Representative Mike Flood is joining us here. Yeah, do you
get a lot of letters from people in Congress? Still?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yeah, I mean we sign on the letters, you know,
send him to the White House. But I'll tell you what,
if I want to work out a deal with somebody,
I don't talk to him on the phone and say hey,
let's get together in private and then send him a
letter the next day that just happens to get leaked
to MSNBC. How convenient is that?
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Yeah, of course, Yeah, I just I struggle with the
whole thing. But I think most of us that are
in the real world do just trying to understand what
it will take next. I did get an interesting email
here from Tim who said, could you ask Congressman Flood
what's preventing Congress as a whole, or like the House
from working on the full budget while the Senate is
(03:51):
tied up on this CCR.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Well, the challenge with working on the Well, let me
back up, the appropriators are working. I was in our
appropriate Chairman's office yesterday and he and Rosa, the ranking member,
they are having continued conversations. They're hoping to get all
the bills on the floor, so there are appropriators that
are talking about how to navigate this. The challenge is
(04:14):
that if we go back in and start holding hearings,
then the Democrats will obstruct all of the hearings and
they'll make it about their shutdown and not about the
actual underlying subject matter. And quite frankly, we passed the budget,
like we passed a continuing resolution that has the funding.
What else can we do until we get opened back
(04:36):
up again. And by the way, we don't have enough
capital police, we have entrances closed, we have all sorts
of things out there that aren't functioning the way they
normally do because we're in government shutdown.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
It's pretty interesting to hear, you know, all of the
different procedures that do go on while this is taking place.
And when you and I last spoke a couple of
weeks ago, you were outlining what the CCR theoretically is
supposed to do, and the date that was on that
was November twenty first. Now we're only three weeks away
from that, and we don't seem any close to actually
(05:07):
getting to a point of agreement on this. Is this
just kind of a moot point at this point? Should
we be working on a different date on this or
are we trying to get this whole deal done all
together so we don't have to worry about just kicking
the deadline down the road a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, we're going to have I mean the Senate it's
going to have to at some point change the date
on that, because you're right, three weeks isn't going to
cut it, given the complexities of what we have to do.
If I had to pick a date, it would be
at the end of January, give everybody a chance to
get everything set up, and then I do not want
to kick it down the road a full year. Some
members of my conference want to do that. That's just
(05:46):
another year under the Biden Schumer budget, Like, why would
we want to do that. So I would like to
see it if they do change it, and I to
your point, I think they will, probably to the end
of January. It would be my preference, but we'll see
it happens.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
What would be I guess we opened the government, people
would get paid at that point, at least to that
date that whatever it'd be, Let's say it's the end
of January, when people do get paid and everything comes
back are they basically just on watching case there is
still no agreement, or would you have some confidence that
that would get passed. We would open the government back
(06:23):
up and both sides would be serious about making sure
we are signing the documents to get that thing cleaned up, finished,
ready to go, and we don't have to talk about
it again at least until next September the thirtieth.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Well, I would hope that we could figure out a
way to sixty votes in the Senate on the big
budget like we have to. I don't think Americans would
have any patients for either party if this happened again.
I mean, it's so disruptive. I will tell you there's
a silver lining for federal workers, and that's our federal
credit unions. They have stepped up in the Omaha area
(06:58):
with offed employees and all of that. So there's a
lot of folks that are getting zero percent loans that
need them to keep the food on the table. That's
all going to get of course they'll get paid back
for that. But that's where we find ourselves right now.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Congressman Mike Flood is with us here, A congressman, last
thing for you before I let you go, I know
that you're around here while we're waiting on all this
to continue and hopefully some new developments. What are you
kind of hoping to accomplish here the next few days
and who are you hoping to see?
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Well, I'm going to celebrate the opening of the new
Children's Hospital behavioral health unit today and I'm going to
go tour some a seventy five North project in Omaha.
They've invited me over just to see that, even though
it's not necessarily my district. Tomorrow, I'm in Lincoln meeting
with folks all day in the office. I'm speaking to
(07:54):
independent community bankers about the farm situation and what this
deal on Soybreeen means for their borrowers and egg folks
across the states. So I've got a pretty busy day.
I'm planning to go back to Washington on Monday, and
hopefully I'm there to cast vote sometime midweek.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Well, that'd be awesome if we can find a way
to do that. I did get another note here, and
I'm just going to squeeze this last question in for
snap in Wick and for people who are being affected
by this government shut down with pay or you know
anything that they had in mind, or maybe even just
going to an airport and noticing delays or canceled flights.
What would be your message to the American people who
(08:34):
are dealing with this right now while it feels like
there's really no hope to an eminent end, at least
going into the weekend.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Of course, I'd say I'm just sorry. I'm sorry that
your government isn't open, and I would urge you to
reach out to my office if you need access to
whatever resources may be available. And I'd also say, you know,
just so they know, I voted to fund the government.
I've always voted government. I voted to fund the government
when Joe Biden was the president. And we need our
(09:05):
democratic counterparts to do just that and not play games
and just get to the table and get this done,
because this isn't right. It doesn't matter what party you're in,
doesn't matter what your political leanings are. These federal workers
make our country work and they don't deserve this. They
deserve much better than what they're getting.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Representative of Nebraska's first congressional district that includes Lincoln, Nebraska,
among many other areas here in the eastern side of Nebraska,
Mike flood. Congressman is always a pleasure to speak with you,
and I'm sure we'll chat again very soon.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Thanks for having me on. Have a good day.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Nice of him to call in and be a part
of the show. I'm sure it's frustrating for him as well.
It's frustrating for everybody. I don't I'm not going to
sit here and say that it's any fun to do
a show where the one thing that we know is
happening is nothing, you know. I mean, it's so much
more fascinating and exciting as a talk show host that
(10:03):
enjoys talking about the political happenings of the day to
have some sort of legislation, some sort of back and forth,
something that was a debate on the floor, something going on,
and instead, you know, we're talking about the government being
shut down every day now, for whatever it's worth, this
time a week from now, all these elections are going
(10:26):
to be happening and going on. You have that proposition
in California to try to redistrict that state, and it
would be drawn up to help the Democrats, and I
can't imagine that's not going to pass. It'd be a
major upset if it doesn't pass. It's I think it's
prop fifty as what they're calling it, and it really
is just a it's going to add probably about five
(10:47):
ish or more Democrat seats based on the way that
they're drawing. We're the ponds, ladies and gentlemen, we're the pawns.
You can say that that's a completely unfair thing to do. Well,
Texas just did the same thing. I know that we
can blame the other side for drawing these weird lines
and all that stuff. It's just part of the game.
Jerry Mandering has always been a part of the game.
(11:09):
And what's sad about that is we are literally, in
this moment more than any other that I can think of,
pawns in a political game, because the people that are
representing us at large, not every single individual, but in
a general it's all about control. It's all about their team,
it's their side. It's not about the United States, it's
(11:30):
not about even their constituents. It's about, well, how do
we use the people's trends of the way they vote
and hold that against them in some way. That is
the jerry mandering aspect of what we're talking about here,
and that's it's sad honestly, it's really unfortunate, and for
anybody that's got problems with the way California is governed,
(11:51):
if you are a Democrat and you vote on Prop fifty, congratulations,
you've just made it worse for yourself. At the same time,
does Prop fifty happen if the Republicans in Texas don't
go out of their way to redraw their map in
the middle of the two censuses, I don't know. I
don't know. All I can tell you is it is
(12:13):
more performative games by both sides, but especially the Dems
in working around what America voted for in November of
twenty twenty four, that they wanted a conservative agenda to
be put in play, and the Democrats are just doing
whatever they can to try to prevent that from happening.
(12:33):
I don't know if there's enough Republicans willing to stand
up in California to fight back, but we'll tell that
by this time next week.
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