Government Shutdown Talk

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Emery, thanks for having me in. Good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Yeah, how about this, I mean, what are you doing
right now? You have anything that's going on. I know
you are a busybody who likes to, you know, see
people and be around. And I heard from Mike Johnson,
we played his audio from the White House or from
the Capital rather today about you know. Yeah, we have
our people out actually around their constituents while the government's

(00:23):
shut down. But this certainly has to feel pretty odd.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Yeah. Well, and I certainly am still working and I
want to assure my constituents that our office is still
open and we are still serving the people of Iowa's
second district even though this is the Schumer shutdown. We're
not letting that stop us from doing our jobs. And
I think what's important, and it's frustrating to me because
I voted to keep the government open. I hope we
can get to a place where we can negotiate on

(00:49):
all of these twelve stunning bills that we have actually
done our work on the House Appropriations Committee to get
them out and make it to get it to a
point where we could actually negotiate. But in the meantime,
while these agencies are shut down our constituent case workers
can't get answers from the irs, from the Social Security Administration,
from the BA, and that's really frustrating to me that

(01:11):
the Democrats have chosen shut down politics and supporting Chuck
Schumer over actually serving the people of Bio and the
people of this country.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah, it's a really difficult thing to try to explain,
but this isn't really that new of a thing. It's
been six years since our last government shutdown. But this
all goes back to the Congressional the Congressional Budget Act
of nineteen seventy four. Starting in nineteen seventy five, a
deadline was instituted. That's been fifty one times that we've

(01:39):
gotten to September thirtieth, which is the deadline, and twenty
one of those times there's at least been a temporary
shutdown or budget gap, if you will. This time, though,
feels completely different than every other time, maybe except the
one in twenty nineteen, that both sides are so far
apart in not really even interest in talking to each other.

(02:01):
What will it take, do you think, from your perspective,
for the Democrats to actually get to a point where
some of them would be willing to break rank and
join the Republicans to get this thing back up and
running well.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
First of all, they need to come to the table
with a serious offer, because one and a half trillion
dollars of new spending undoing everything we did to put
in work requirements for government programs so that we don't
have a bunch of people free loading, including illegal immigrants,
getting free health care. So that's a non starter for us.
Continuing to fund WOKE and PR a non starter for us.

(02:35):
But I can tell you we want to make sure
that these agencies are funded, that programs like WICK can
continue to serve mothers who are taking care of their
infants and children, that our military men and women are
getting paid, our law enforcement CVP and ICE can continue
to do their jobs. So they need to come to
us with a serious offer, because we do care about
lowering health care costs, We do care about keeping our

(02:57):
country safe. But the government has to be open for
us to be able to do that. I think there
are a number of Democrats who want to vote to
open the government, but this is Chuck Schumer's shut down,
and he is so focused on protecting himself from a
primary from AOC that he can't step up and do
the right thing, so they voted for this. They're playing

(03:17):
political games. I think they own the consequences here, the
irony of which is that they just don't seem to care.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yeah, we're speaking with Ashley Hinson, congresswoman from the second
district here in Iowa. The you mentioned AOC versus Schumer
thing yesterday and Mike Johnson mentioned this. This morning, you
had AOC and Bernie Sanders doing like a town hall
on CNN talking about socialism, I guess, and then you

(03:44):
got zoron Mom donn He's got a debate tonight. Who
you know, he's running for mayor of New York City,
probably is going to win that race. There is this
kind of changing of the guard seemingly within the Democrat
Party right now as it stands of you know, how
far to the left are they going to be? What
is the future of that party and maybe even some
survival for some of the older heads like Chuck Schumer

(04:07):
just trying to maintain relevance here from your vantage points,
somebody who's attempting to get into the Senate in how
different the Senate operates from the House of Representatives. How
could you best explain what the political kind of if
you're willing to kind of go behind the scenes as
to some of maybe the rivalries even amongst some people

(04:29):
in their own political party, and how that affects how
the government operates or in this case doesn't operate because
people are trying to preserve themselves.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
Well, I think, well, let me just put it into
perspective when it comes to Chuck Schumer, right, because he
is the Democrat leader in the Senate and they are
in the minority. But it does take sixty votes to
get bills passed, including these appropriations bills over in the Senate,
so they have to have five or six Democrat votes
in order to get these things across the finish line. Obviously,
the vice president can be the tie breaker. But for

(05:01):
someone like Chuck Schumer, who is worried about a primary
from the progressive left, he's got a posture and look
like he's standing up to them even though or standing
up against Trump, right, And I think that's really what
this entire thing is about. The Democrats in the House
are doing the same thing. We had one loan Democrat
who voted with us, who has voted with Republicans a
number of times. There aren't a whole lot of common

(05:23):
sense Democrats left. They seem to be doubling down on
crazy things again, not paying our troops, not paying our
law enforcement, and again these are the political games that
they are playing. But he's got to look like he's
fighting back against Trump. And I find it really sad
that this wing of their party is holding everybody hostage,
is holding the American people hostage, and the government closed

(05:44):
because of this little political drama between Chuck Schumer, who
is the leader and is worried about losing his leadership position.
So I purposely didn't join leadership in the House because
I knew I wanted to be able to do what
I needed to do for my district. Always that is
the same way I'm going to operate when I get
into the Senate. I am focused on Iowa first all

(06:05):
the time, America first all the time. And I think
that that's even though the Senate operates a little bit
differently than the House, that's at the core of what
these people should be focusing on. There are a lot
of New Yorkers who are hurting right now, and Chuck
Schumer is doing the wrong thing.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
It's a good point when you're in leadership, sometimes you
have to or it feels like you have to do
more than actually represent the constituents that elect you each
and every time. It's an interesting dichotomy there in the
way that people's philosophies are. And I guess Congresswoman Henson,
when we're talking about what the timeline is, I'm sure
there's going to be a vote in the Senate. You're

(06:39):
not in the Senate right now. What would then happen?
Are you going to get called back to Washington? Is
there going to be kind of another vote that you
guys have to make if there's an adjustment to what
they do in the Senate to get to a deal,
what would be in theory if we can get on
the same page, what would it look like? And how
quickly would the government be back up and running.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
Yeah, so we are on right now kind of a
forty eight hour hold. So if we get called back,
we'll know within forty eight hours that we need to
be making our way back to Washington, d C. I
will go back if there's a vote on helping to
make sure we're paying our troops, helping to make sure
we're paying our ice agents, preserving these programs that provide
benefits to hard working people who are just trying to

(07:20):
get by and feed their families. That's what you know.
If we are called back, I will gladly go back
for those votes. But again, this is about Democrats coming
to the table with a serious offer, and I applaud
Leader Soon for his steadfast leadership and making sure that
he is holding them accountable and he's putting these votes
on the floor. Democrats have voted countless numbers of times
against the cr which is the continued funding levels under

(07:45):
the Biden funding levels, So they've voted for this same
piece of legislation. They did it thirteen times when President
Biden was the president, which is again what I made
the point about this being about their hatred for Trump,
their Trump derangement syndrome. That's what this is about. Because
now that he as the president, they won't vote to
just continue that funding level. So we can keep having
that conversation.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
I got to talk about some other stuff that's going on.
The peace in the Middle East. It's fragile right now,
but it's still progress. All of the living hostages released
by Hamas. There's still a lot of uncertainty about what
is going to be taking place over the next several
days and weeks trying to get to a comprehensive and
lasting piece there. What can you tell me about how

(08:27):
your colleagues and how you personally feel about this particular
piece of international legislation, if you will, with the twenty
point plan, and do you expect this to be something
that could actually last in this region?

Speaker 1 (08:42):
Well, I certainly hope it can last memory because we
need peace in that region. We have a lot of
strong American allies in the Middle East now in Europe,
and this is about preserving the culture of the West.
We know Iran and all of their proxies hesbolah Hamas,
they hate America, they hate Israel, and we need to
stand up against that terrorism and that hate. And so

(09:04):
to see an agreement like this with so many partners
in the Arab world come together, it certainly made me
very very happy to see the president and his leadership
in this space. He is the peacetime president and that's
what he cares about. He cares about ending these terrible wars.
He cares about stopping the barbaric loss of life that's happening.

(09:24):
Whether it was what happened with Israel or what's happening
in Ukraine. And that's something that I know I share
as a mom to two boys. I don't want to
see them fighting any foreign wars. And my boys are
fourteen and twelve, and so I'm going to do everything
I can to work with the President to continue to
make sure we have lasting peace in that region. I
think Marco Rubio, our Secretary of State, did just an

(09:46):
amazing job. All the people who've been brokering these deals,
Steve Whitcoff, the entire team. You know, they have just
done the lord's work. And I applaud the President again
forgetting this done. I'm hopeful we can see more deals
like this coming forward in the future as well.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
Last thing for you, Congresswoman, I think the Ukraine thing
has been quite an interesting situation to follow this time
a year ago, as we were preparing for the twenty
twenty four election, I think most Republicans, including Donald Trump
and the people who were running with him, said, we
need to stop giving finances, We need to stop giving

(10:25):
resources to Ukraine. This is not an America first policy.
We need to stop doing all of that. Donald Trump
said he also felt like he would be able to
end that war relatively quickly because of his previous relationship
with Vladimir Putin. And then, of course in February we
had the big blow up between Zelenski and Trump and
Vance and the White House, which was very public didn't

(10:45):
know if that was going to be a repaarable relationship.
And fast forward here, NATO's as strong as it's ever been.
The people in the leaders in NATO, including the Secretary
of NATO himself, saying that Donald Trump is the guy
who deserves the credit for NATO being as strong as
they are. And now Donald Trump has really started to
back the idea of giving Ukraine more and more resources

(11:06):
to try to help them fight that war. What can
you say about kind of the ever changing situation over
the last twelve months and how Donald Trump and his
administration views this war in Ukraine.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
Yeah, well, I think it's very clear the President did
try to end this war by engaging with Vladimir Putin,
who I think as a madman and a thug, and
started this war. They invaded Ukraine. No note, they invaded
Ukraine only under Democrat leadership, right, They did it under
President Biden, and they had done it before under President Obama.
So week leadership on the foreign stage is why we

(11:37):
found ourselves in this position to begin with. But we
need to send bullets, not boys. And again to my
point about saying, I have a fourteen and twelve year old,
I don't want them fighting in a foreign war in Ukraine.
So I am so grateful to the President for trying
to bring an end to this conflict. Our wonderful NATO
ambassador Matt Whitaker is over there having a lot of
these conversations as well. I talked to him a couple

(11:59):
of weeks ago, and he was very busy, right, He's
traveling all over Europe to make sure that these relationships
are solid and sustainable, right, And I think that's the
other part of this conversation. So I'm looking forward to
seeing what the president does. I know Vladimir's Lensky, President Zelenski.
I had a chance to meet with him when I
was over there. He does care about his people. He

(12:19):
cares about making sure that there is an end to
this bloody war. And there are immense natural resources in
that region, and the port of Odessa is critically important
to food security, not just in the European region, but
around the world, in the Black Sea and that area.
So there are strategic implications for the United States in
this conflict. And I know, if there's one thing I know,

(12:42):
it's that President Trump is the peacemaker and the deal
maker in chief, and I think he'll get this done.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
We will keep an eye on that. It certainly is
an ever changing situation in Ukraine, especially Congresswoman Ashley Hinson,
second Congressional District here in Iowa. Thank you so much
for being on our show as always, and hopefully we
get a chance to chat very very soon.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
Thanks and Marine will talk very soon. Thanks.