October 8, 2025 • 10 mins
Bo and Beth welcome North Carolina Congressman Addison McDowell from District 6 as they talk about the Government shutdown.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Good Morning get with both Thompson and Beth
trout Man. Hello, senator boy.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
You know, all Beth has to do is say my
name and I magically appeared.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
It's like he's like beetlejuice. If I say his name,
I just say it three times, he pops out.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
So that's the trick. Now she just says your name
three times. I don't have to worry going through your
press people. I just tell about to say your name
three times on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, we're gonna get Addison's face on a milk carton
poor guys. He's a great guy, but he's young. I
got a pair of sweatpants older than him end to day.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Well, it's like I said, we'll get him on eventually.
We've never talked to him before, and he reached out
to us and said, yeah, we talked to you know,
we talked to senators all the time on this show
case in point. But so you're about to go into
a meeting. What's going on there on Capitol Hill? So
that was Tom Tillis about to go in and ask
(00:55):
questions of the Attorney General yesterday, and he was reacting
to us having some fun with the fact that we
got our signals crossed with our next guest who is
here with us today, and we're very happy for the
first time on Good Morning BT to welcome Congressman Addison
McDowell to the WBT Hotline. I was basically told you
you would be okay if we had a little fun
(01:15):
with this. So we have to do this because this
is what we do, Addison.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
No one know, and I'm grateful that you did. I
do have to say, and this is gonna sound like
my dog ate my homework. My wife and I my
wife and I were volunteering at church together and I
left my phone in the car and I get I
have a text from Mark Harris and then from Senator Tilla's.
Senator Tillo's just said his text to me, And if
you didn't hear that on the radio, it would have
(01:40):
been very confusing. But he just said, I really do
have a pair of sweatpants older than I'm like, what
the heck? What was he talking about? But all I
heard on the cliff you just played was the Senator
Tom till has called me a great guy. And that's
the only thing that I heard. And so if this
all happened so that he would say something nice about
me public I'll take it.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Well, he did, and he even doubled down on it later,
so he's a big fan. And listen, Look, we've been
doing this for a long time. I knew when we
didn't hear from you yesterday that something like you just
said must have happened. But the point is, the bottom
line is that you're with us now and it's the
first time we had a chance to talk to you,
and you're in your freshman stretch here as a US congressman.
(02:22):
So first of all, congratulations on the victory, and welcome
to our show. We hope you hope this is the
first of many conversations.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
And look, we like to bring politicians together. It's what
we do, and we make sure that they say nice
things about each other.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Well, thank you for that. That's a huge undertaking.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Well, so let's talk about you for a second before
we get to things in Washington, DC, because we've had
a chance to talk to Mark Harris a good bit.
He joins us once a week on Fridays. Of course,
he represents a good portion of the district, which is
part of our listening area. You're in District six, so
you're a bit further away, but we've been sort of
living vicariously through him, going through the process of being
(03:00):
a freshman senator and sort of taking all that in.
I know, a lot of it's got to be like
a fire hose as far as information and learning how
this all goes. But what's your experience been so far
as a congressman dealing with things in DC, and just
tell us about the path so far? Sure?
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Well, I mean, we got really lucky to come in
when we did, with the majority in the House, the Senate,
and President Trump in the White House, so we had
all three branches of government. And now there's a caveat
to that. With the US Senate. You need sixty votes
to pass pretty much everything, and we only have fifty
three Republicans, so it's not full control, kind of as
(03:40):
if you had a veto proof majority in the state
Senate at the state House. So it's not easy to
get things done through the Senate. But that being said,
we're just having win after when after when, and so
that's been really a great way to come in. I mean,
I think about my freshman Democrat colleagues, who, uh, you know,
(04:01):
they're they're not having the same experience as I am,
because they're in the minority. And and so I think
it's been good to be in the majority U and
actually get things done and do what we said we
would do. I mean, we we spent the better part
of two years campaigning and telling people what we would
do if we if we won power back in Washington,
and now we're making good on that promise, which is
(04:22):
something that as you know, a bystander, uh, you know,
up until now, uh, I heard a lot of politicians
say things and then not do them. And so to
be able to go to Washington and do what we
said we would do, that's huge.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
And so it's been fun.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
I'm glad that you you mentioned your your colleagues, and
I hadn't thought about that, But you're right, as far
as Democrats are going, is probably a very different experience
as a freshman Democratic congressman of this particular year. Right now,
in this in this shutdown, one of the big conversations
that's happening is over the funding for the Affordable Care
Act and whether or not, you know, the debate back
(05:00):
and forth whether or not immigrants have access or illegal
immigrants have access to any kind of taxpayer funded healthcare.
Marjorie Taylor Green, one of your Republican, one of your
Republican colleagues, has now come out in support of more
the democratic side of things with her talking points about
(05:21):
health care. And I know that healthcare itself is probably
a big issue with your constituents, not necessarily the immigration
part of the ACA, but more How can families at
this point in time afford healthcare? A lot of people
feel like they're one emergency away from bankruptcy.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Sure, no, and you're exactly right. And the problem is
it's too expensive. And the thing that you know, Marjorie,
she got half of the thing. She got half of
it right, Okay, She's saying that it's too expensive and
premiums are going to go up. That is true, and
that's something I'm willing to have a conversation about. What
we're you know, what we're being held hostage by the
(06:04):
Democrats on is these COVID era tax credits, which we're
done by Democrats during the COVID time frame. Well, COVID's
gone now and so these were set to sunset right now,
and so this is a very complex and I don't
know how into the weeds y'all want to get. But
it's it's you know, it's not just a tax credit
(06:28):
versus no tax credit issues. This is a the Affordable
Care Act or Obamacare. It's never actually been affordable. It
didn't do anything to make healthcare more affordable. And now
we're we're seeing the we're seeing the fruit of that
labor kind of bear out down the road, and it's
it's turning into insurance companies and regulators raising the costs
(06:51):
of premiums to the point that they're the same or
more than your mortgage. And that doesn't work. It doesn't
work for me, it doesn't work for for other families,
and uh, in my disc and so the healthcare topic
is that's a debate I am more than willing to
have because I think there is a tremendous amount that
is wrong with how we do that. But being a
(07:13):
fiscal conservative and someone that considers themselves a budget hawk,
spending money on covid era and enhanced tax credits and
giving money to illegals, that's that's not a debate I'm
willing to have with you know, Chuck Schumer holding a
hostage for the government to you know, pass a clean
(07:35):
government funding short term extension that virtually every Democrat has
voted to pass thirteen times during the Biden administration. It's
just not how it's going to work well.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Talking to Addison McDowell, who serves District number six, that's
all of Davidson, Davy, Rowan Counties, parts of Caberis, Forsyth,
and Guildford if you're looking at you know places places
cities wise Greensboro and Winston Salem also parts of that district.
There question for you. We've had the opportunity to talk
to a number of people their ears to the ground
(08:05):
in Washington. You're there day to day. What's your sense
on how long this government shutdown is going to go?
How long is it going to go for?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
I think every day that it drags on is going
to be more and more painful for the Democrats that
are that are voting to keep the government closed. Right now,
the longer this drags out, the more, you know, the
more people are going to be withheld their paychecks, the
more that people are going to be fired or furloughed,
the more you know, logistical problems we're going to have,
(08:37):
like air traffic control not having the people that they need,
and so the longer that this drags out the more
painful that it's going to be. But you know, I'm
not a gambling man, and so I have a hard
time guessing when the Democrats are going to come to
their senses and pass something that every time we've brought
it up in the House or on the Senate side
(08:57):
has been has been voted on, pass in the House
and voted on in the Senate with bipartisan support. And
so as soon as Chuck Schumer is ready to give
our soldiers their their salaries back and and open up
our government, we'll be there to to, you know, keep
moving as soon as he's ready to do that. But
I hesitate to guess on how long this is going
(09:18):
to go, because I don't think it should have ever
happened to begin with.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Well, listen, we appreciate you calling us and glad we
finally got the signals to cross at the right place,
and hopefully we'll be able to talk to you many
more times in the future. But we appreciate you being
on today.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
And can we just say the fact that you were
volunteering at church and that's why you missed the missed yesterday,
We're totally cool with that.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Yeah, I mean you don't get a lot of time
with your wife's We wanted to do that, but I
do have to say last thing. My daughter turns one
on Friday. Happy birthday, Eleanor.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Go Happy birthday, Eleanor, Happy Birthday Eleanor. We appreciate your
time and good luck with everything as you continue to
navigate the waters of Washington. You're one of the youngest
congressmen in the country and I just can't imagine what
that all must be like. But we'll talk again soon.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
You got it, guys,
This is Good Morning get with both Thompson and Beth
trout Man. Hello, senator boy.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
You know, all Beth has to do is say my
name and I magically appeared.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
It's like he's like beetlejuice. If I say his name,
I just say it three times, he pops out.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
So that's the trick. Now she just says your name
three times. I don't have to worry going through your
press people. I just tell about to say your name
three times on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, we're gonna get Addison's face on a milk carton
poor guys. He's a great guy, but he's young. I
got a pair of sweatpants older than him end to day.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Well, it's like I said, we'll get him on eventually.
We've never talked to him before, and he reached out
to us and said, yeah, we talked to you know,
we talked to senators all the time on this show
case in point. But so you're about to go into
a meeting. What's going on there on Capitol Hill? So
that was Tom Tillis about to go in and ask
(00:55):
questions of the Attorney General yesterday, and he was reacting
to us having some fun with the fact that we
got our signals crossed with our next guest who is
here with us today, and we're very happy for the
first time on Good Morning BT to welcome Congressman Addison
McDowell to the WBT Hotline. I was basically told you
you would be okay if we had a little fun
(01:15):
with this. So we have to do this because this
is what we do, Addison.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
No one know, and I'm grateful that you did. I
do have to say, and this is gonna sound like
my dog ate my homework. My wife and I my
wife and I were volunteering at church together and I
left my phone in the car and I get I
have a text from Mark Harris and then from Senator Tilla's.
Senator Tillo's just said his text to me, And if
you didn't hear that on the radio, it would have
(01:40):
been very confusing. But he just said, I really do
have a pair of sweatpants older than I'm like, what
the heck? What was he talking about? But all I
heard on the cliff you just played was the Senator
Tom till has called me a great guy. And that's
the only thing that I heard. And so if this
all happened so that he would say something nice about
me public I'll take it.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Well, he did, and he even doubled down on it later,
so he's a big fan. And listen, Look, we've been
doing this for a long time. I knew when we
didn't hear from you yesterday that something like you just
said must have happened. But the point is, the bottom
line is that you're with us now and it's the
first time we had a chance to talk to you,
and you're in your freshman stretch here as a US congressman.
(02:22):
So first of all, congratulations on the victory, and welcome
to our show. We hope you hope this is the
first of many conversations.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
And look, we like to bring politicians together. It's what
we do, and we make sure that they say nice
things about each other.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Well, thank you for that. That's a huge undertaking.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Well, so let's talk about you for a second before
we get to things in Washington, DC, because we've had
a chance to talk to Mark Harris a good bit.
He joins us once a week on Fridays. Of course,
he represents a good portion of the district, which is
part of our listening area. You're in District six, so
you're a bit further away, but we've been sort of
living vicariously through him, going through the process of being
(03:00):
a freshman senator and sort of taking all that in.
I know, a lot of it's got to be like
a fire hose as far as information and learning how
this all goes. But what's your experience been so far
as a congressman dealing with things in DC, and just
tell us about the path so far? Sure?
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Well, I mean, we got really lucky to come in
when we did, with the majority in the House, the Senate,
and President Trump in the White House, so we had
all three branches of government. And now there's a caveat
to that. With the US Senate. You need sixty votes
to pass pretty much everything, and we only have fifty
three Republicans, so it's not full control, kind of as
(03:40):
if you had a veto proof majority in the state
Senate at the state House. So it's not easy to
get things done through the Senate. But that being said,
we're just having win after when after when, and so
that's been really a great way to come in. I mean,
I think about my freshman Democrat colleagues, who, uh, you know,
(04:01):
they're they're not having the same experience as I am,
because they're in the minority. And and so I think
it's been good to be in the majority U and
actually get things done and do what we said we
would do. I mean, we we spent the better part
of two years campaigning and telling people what we would
do if we if we won power back in Washington,
and now we're making good on that promise, which is
(04:22):
something that as you know, a bystander, uh, you know,
up until now, uh, I heard a lot of politicians
say things and then not do them. And so to
be able to go to Washington and do what we
said we would do, that's huge.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
And so it's been fun.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
I'm glad that you you mentioned your your colleagues, and
I hadn't thought about that, But you're right, as far
as Democrats are going, is probably a very different experience
as a freshman Democratic congressman of this particular year. Right now,
in this in this shutdown, one of the big conversations
that's happening is over the funding for the Affordable Care
Act and whether or not, you know, the debate back
(05:00):
and forth whether or not immigrants have access or illegal
immigrants have access to any kind of taxpayer funded healthcare.
Marjorie Taylor Green, one of your Republican, one of your
Republican colleagues, has now come out in support of more
the democratic side of things with her talking points about
(05:21):
health care. And I know that healthcare itself is probably
a big issue with your constituents, not necessarily the immigration
part of the ACA, but more How can families at
this point in time afford healthcare? A lot of people
feel like they're one emergency away from bankruptcy.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Sure, no, and you're exactly right. And the problem is
it's too expensive. And the thing that you know, Marjorie,
she got half of the thing. She got half of
it right, Okay, She's saying that it's too expensive and
premiums are going to go up. That is true, and
that's something I'm willing to have a conversation about. What
we're you know, what we're being held hostage by the
(06:04):
Democrats on is these COVID era tax credits, which we're
done by Democrats during the COVID time frame. Well, COVID's
gone now and so these were set to sunset right now,
and so this is a very complex and I don't
know how into the weeds y'all want to get. But
it's it's you know, it's not just a tax credit
(06:28):
versus no tax credit issues. This is a the Affordable
Care Act or Obamacare. It's never actually been affordable. It
didn't do anything to make healthcare more affordable. And now
we're we're seeing the we're seeing the fruit of that
labor kind of bear out down the road, and it's
it's turning into insurance companies and regulators raising the costs
(06:51):
of premiums to the point that they're the same or
more than your mortgage. And that doesn't work. It doesn't
work for me, it doesn't work for for other families,
and uh, in my disc and so the healthcare topic
is that's a debate I am more than willing to
have because I think there is a tremendous amount that
is wrong with how we do that. But being a
(07:13):
fiscal conservative and someone that considers themselves a budget hawk,
spending money on covid era and enhanced tax credits and
giving money to illegals, that's that's not a debate I'm
willing to have with you know, Chuck Schumer holding a
hostage for the government to you know, pass a clean
(07:35):
government funding short term extension that virtually every Democrat has
voted to pass thirteen times during the Biden administration. It's
just not how it's going to work well.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Talking to Addison McDowell, who serves District number six, that's
all of Davidson, Davy, Rowan Counties, parts of Caberis, Forsyth,
and Guildford if you're looking at you know places places
cities wise Greensboro and Winston Salem also parts of that district.
There question for you. We've had the opportunity to talk
to a number of people their ears to the ground
(08:05):
in Washington. You're there day to day. What's your sense
on how long this government shutdown is going to go?
How long is it going to go for?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
I think every day that it drags on is going
to be more and more painful for the Democrats that
are that are voting to keep the government closed. Right now,
the longer this drags out, the more, you know, the
more people are going to be withheld their paychecks, the
more that people are going to be fired or furloughed,
the more you know, logistical problems we're going to have,
(08:37):
like air traffic control not having the people that they need,
and so the longer that this drags out the more
painful that it's going to be. But you know, I'm
not a gambling man, and so I have a hard
time guessing when the Democrats are going to come to
their senses and pass something that every time we've brought
it up in the House or on the Senate side
(08:57):
has been has been voted on, pass in the House
and voted on in the Senate with bipartisan support. And
so as soon as Chuck Schumer is ready to give
our soldiers their their salaries back and and open up
our government, we'll be there to to, you know, keep
moving as soon as he's ready to do that. But
I hesitate to guess on how long this is going
(09:18):
to go, because I don't think it should have ever
happened to begin with.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Well, listen, we appreciate you calling us and glad we
finally got the signals to cross at the right place,
and hopefully we'll be able to talk to you many
more times in the future. But we appreciate you being
on today.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
And can we just say the fact that you were
volunteering at church and that's why you missed the missed yesterday,
We're totally cool with that.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Yeah, I mean you don't get a lot of time
with your wife's We wanted to do that, but I
do have to say last thing. My daughter turns one
on Friday. Happy birthday, Eleanor.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Go Happy birthday, Eleanor, Happy Birthday Eleanor. We appreciate your
time and good luck with everything as you continue to
navigate the waters of Washington. You're one of the youngest
congressmen in the country and I just can't imagine what
that all must be like. But we'll talk again soon.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
You got it, guys,
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