Government Shutdown Through The Eyes Of One Congresswoman

U.S. Rep. Kat Cammack (R, FL-3) spent ten-good minutes with Preston with the latest on the shut down.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
If I passed the hour, we're gonna waste no time
because time is fleeting this morning. That's what happens when
you are a member of the United States Congress. Joining
us is US Congresswoman Cat Caemick from Florida's third District.
Good morning, Cat, how are you.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
I'm doing good. Great to be with you in between
diaper changes. And by diaper changes, I don't mean my own,
I mean little baby young.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
I thought you might be talking about some of the
members of Congress, but certainly.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
In the Senate, absolutely, because they won do act like
babies in summer of the age for that to actually
be a thing. But anyway, I digress.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
I have spent a good bit of time this morning
talking about the shutdown, pointing out that this primarily is
about an absurd number of requests that people like AOC
want to put back in and Schumer is basically surrendering
the rest of the party to the extremists, plus illegal
immigrant health care in the form of health insurance subsidies

(00:59):
in the like. How would you characterize the shutdown?

Speaker 2 (01:04):
I would say it's not just a shutdown, but it's
a shakedown. You hit it right on the head there
we're looking at a request from the Democrats of one
point five trillion dollars, and in that one point five
trillion dollars, they are requesting two hundred billion dollars with

(01:25):
a B for illegal non citizen taxpayer funded healthcare. And
I actually have had a few Democrat constituents in my
office here in the last couple of days, because I
always have an open door policy. You know, anyone who
wants to come in and meet, they absolutely can, and
they all try to challenge me on this, and I'm

(01:46):
always happy to point out that on page fifty seven,
section twenty one forty one of the Democrat counter proposal,
it says in black and white exactly what we've been saying.
That they want to give non citizen and illegals healthcare
that is even better than what people on Medicaid effectively kick.

(02:08):
And so yes, that is actually their number one ask.
But as part of that, there's also some other nuggets
in there. In trying to do the subsidy for insurance companies,
they're actually rolling back the historic fifty billion dollars that
we just invested into rural healthcare. And for anybody in
North Florida, you know, you see it. The healthcare system,

(02:31):
it's crumbling as we know it. We don't have healthcare.
We've got sick care, the health all the clinics are
shutting down, we have maternity health desert hospitals shutting down,
and the Democrats want to take that investment and direct
it elsewhere. So we have a huge mess on our hands.
But we're going to hold firm.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
I was just going to ask you, will the Speaker,
will the Senate majority leader.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Hold absolutely there's zero appetite out of the Republican conference
in the House or the Senate to perpetuate a four
hundred billion dollar subsidy to insurance companies. Keep in mind
that insurance companies have logged a two hundred and thirty
seven percent profit margin this year. There's no appetite in

(03:15):
the country. And I don't care if you're a Republican
or Democrat. It's third that an insurance company would get
the subsidy to then turn around and say I'm going
to lower your health insurance. Meanwhile, I'm going to keep
denying because we see denials on the rise and perpetuate
a system that is effectively broken. We're not going to
do that. So the Speaker has been very clear, we

(03:36):
are not going to hold the American people hostage over
a discussion that is entirely separate, and I should add
entirely of the Democrats to do and keep in mind,
they were the ones that made these subsidies temporary and
slated the date for this and everything. Meanwhile they're saying
it's so essential that it needs to be made permanent. Well,

(03:57):
they had nothing but time, space and eye opportunity to
do so, and they opted not to. Makes you wonder.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
Why it's sucking a lot of air out of the room.
The government quote shut down. The fact of the matter
is the overwhelming majority of you feel no impact of this,
which really speaks to the large esse of government. But
kat I thought it was amazing. The Washington Post and
an op ed said, the real problem is that the
Affordable Care Act was never actually affordable. President Barack Obama's

(04:25):
signature achievement allowed people to buy insurance on marketplaces with
subsidies based on their income. The dirty little truth about Obamacare,
which we knew more than a decade ago, is finally
being admitted to by some on the left.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
M H, I mean, that's it right there. I couldn't
have said it better myself. The Affordable Care Act is
never been affordable. And when you talk about people who
are watching as this fight is going on, and they
hear all my premiums are going to increase, keep in
mind that again a broken system that over the entire

(05:03):
course of the ACA or Obamacare as we all know it,
it has gotten worse. Your premiums have doubled, while the
quality of care has been cut in half. The number
of doctors, the number of procedures, you know, accessibility has
actually gotten worse. That is why you see, not only
is it fiscally irresponsible to continue moving forward down this path,

(05:26):
but we have some serious structural reforms that have to
be made in order to really get back to a
place where you and your doctor are making decisions for
yourself and your family rather than some bureaucrat or someone
at the insurance company who's going to either approve or
deny your procedures and your healthcare needs. That's me is absurd.
So again, we're eighty five days out from those those

(05:49):
subsidies expiring. There's absolutely no good reason as to why
they want to tack on a massive and I mean massive.
You heard four hundred billion dollars with a single debate
on it. And so I just think that this is ridiculous.
People are seeing the writing on the wall that Democrats
conveniently omit that they voted for this bill four times. Previously,

(06:11):
this exact bill, every single word exactly the same, they
voted for it four times. But now they're willing to
hold hostage the entire American government. And you see, most
people aren't really impacted by this because people have gotten
smart to the fact that the fearmongering doesn't work. Social
Security checks still going out the door. Where we do

(06:31):
need to actually address things is the military. They should
never be used as political pawns in the Democrats games,
or any game for that matter. They're the ones that
are not getting paid. When you look at TSA, border patrol, ice, etc.
They're showing up doing their jobs and they're not being paid.
That's not okay, that's not right. They should absolutely be paid.

(06:54):
But every time we put the bill on the floor
to pay our essential services in a government shutdown, the Democrats,
they know, tells you everything you need to know about
where they're at. And that's me is really really discouraging
this as an American that's really discouraging.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
Well, you highlight and you brought up ICE, and I
have to point out, boy, if there's not If there's
an issue that highlights the difference better between Democrat run
states and Republican run states, it's what's going on with
trying to enforce immigration laws in this country. You look

(07:29):
at what's happening in states like California, in Illinois, in Oregon,
and you compare it to what's happened, say in Florida,
where nothing's happened, where we're getting it done.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
It's stark, I mean, and my heart just broke. We all.
I hope everyone has heard that that call out where
ICE was getting swarmed by some very agitated protesters. They
were getting violent, and they called for backup, and you

(07:59):
heard rank file officers in Chicago on the radio talking
to dispatch saying, you know, are we going? Are we
being dispatched? And the dispatch operator was basically saying, no
leadership has given us directives, do not respond. My heart
broke for not only the ICE agents on the ground
that must have been absolutely terrifying, but then the aids,

(08:20):
the officers who wanted to be there to back their
fellow brother and sister up as the wife of a
first responder. This is something that it really hits home,
It really really hits home. And that again is the
Democrats political leadership right there saying that they are going
to literally play politics with people's lives by issuing a

(08:43):
directive like that. So I think that the difference couldn't
be more stark. Americans are not stupid. They're seeing how
this is playing out around the country, and overwhelmingly, I
think you're going to see that reflected in midterms next year.

Speaker 1 (08:57):
I hope so. And I hope that members of Congress,
I hope. I don't know if you're on the Appropriate Committee, Cat,
but I hope that the superintendent of police in Chicago
who lied to the media yesterday and said no such
order was given when the evidence is overwhelming, I hope
he's called to testify an answer to that.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
I imagine he probably will. Let's get the government back
up and running and get back to our work of
actually doing our appropriation bills so we can reduce the
size and scope of government, and I'm sure in the
meantime we'll be holding people accountable through the Appropriate Committee.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
Kat, Thanks as always, we'll talk again in a couple
of weeks.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
Be well appreciate it, Preston, have a good one.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
Thank you. US congress Woman Cat Camick with US sixteen
past the hour, and it perfectly tease up our next
segment on the Morning Show with Preston Scott