Richard Arnold: US Correspondent on the Senate approving a bill that could end the Government shutdown

Division within Democrats as US Senators approve the final version of a Bill that could end the weeks-long Government shutdown.  

The deal from a group of Democrats and GOP leaders will go to the House of Representatives, then will need signing into law by the President.  

Under the deal, the Government will reopen in exchange for a future vote on extending Affordable Care subsidies. 

Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley told CNN it's unlikely that vote will go anywhere, because Republicans have vastly different healthcare ideals. 

US Correspondent Richard Arnold told Mike Hosking that the Democrats who flipped say that they’ve at least set the table for the debate in the midterm elections. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Richard Ardel, how are you yeah?

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Doing well?

Speaker 3 (00:02):
Mine? Now?

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Are we going to get across the hurdle? Here? Is
something going to open up or not?

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (00:06):
Well, yeah, maybe this misery appears to be on the
way to some conclusion, but it isn't coming easily and
it leaves a lot of people unhappy, some furious, even
as the Democrats who flipsay that they've at least set
the table for the debate on the midterm elections coming
up next year. So the Senate last night approved the

(00:27):
legislation to end the shutdown. It now moves on to
the House, which hasn't done any official business since it's September,
which seems astonishing anyway, speak of. Johnson sent his House
members home at the time in what were seen as
a bid to quiet and calls for release of the
Jeffrey Epstein file. Seven Democrats and one independent joined all
but one Republican senator to pass that government reopening measure,

(00:50):
which does not include the very thing Democrats said was
their main demand, the continuation of health insurance subsidies. One
of those dams who folded his Senator June, who said
on this early on.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
I had a meeting with some constituents last Friday when
I was in New Hampshire. One was a man. He said,
if I didn't have that insurance through the Affordable Care Act,
I would not have gone to the doctor, I would
not have gotten my cancer treated, and I would be
dead by now.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
Well, now she is citing those same constituents for the backdown.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
When I talked to my constituents in New Hampshire, you
know what they say to me. They say, why can't
you all just work together to address the problems that
are facing this country?

Speaker 3 (01:31):
Right? That's the way, Gozie Washington. Yeah, Trump crushed his opponents,
including Democratic Senate leader Schumer, says Trump, of that face off,
he thought he could break the Republicans, and the Republicans
broke him. Benacle politics. Some Dems are calling for Schumer
to be replaced into Bernie Sanders, saying, of this.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Look, I think it was a terrible, terrible vote at
a time when we have a broken healthcare system.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
Republicans say they might have a vote on healthcare subsidies,
perhaps in December. Even if there is a vote on this,
it is unlikely to win Republican backing in Republicans for
years have come out with no plans zip for health
care improvements, so the expectation would be that millions of
people here who have subsidized health care at the minute
will lose that health coverage. All this comes to a
crunch again by the end of January, when there could

(02:18):
be another shutdown, and centrist Dems argue it would be
even clearer that their political opponents have nothing on their
health issue. Meantime, air travel here continues to be completely chaotic.
The number of flight cancelations this week is growing more
than today. Trump has slammed those air traffic controllers who,
with no money coming in, took on other jobs, who
quit just to allow their families to survive. That was Unamerican,

(02:41):
says Trump, who doesn't have to worry about missing a
monthly paycheck. I guess Trump is proposing a bonus of
ten thousand bucks for controllers who stayed on the job.
No details on any of that, so they don't hold
your breath. Folks. Ask John Fox where he Trump would
find the money for that the funding, the President snapped,
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
I'll get it from someplace.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
So money for phony paybacks or billions for Argentina no problem.
Money for healthcare or food for Americans struggling, not possible.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
I suppose this was always coming, But this Camp Mystic
thing will end up in court.

Speaker 3 (03:12):
Yeah, it's about time. I think the story has kind
of disappeared. Back in July the fourth, it was a
dark time when twenty seven people, mostly the young kids
of course, drowned in flash floods had that religious retreat
site known as Camp Mystic. This camp was in a
known flash flood zone. Now, the families of some of
those victims of vide lawsuits where they claim in gress
negligence by the camp operators, and these lawsuits got to

(03:33):
say a brutal in their accusations. They accused the camp
management putting profit over safety, some of the parents saying
the tragedy was no mischances one.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
This wasn't an accident, this was complacency and it is
one hundred percent preventable.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
They say the owners chose to house young girls in
cabins in flood prone spots to avoid the cost of
relocating those cabins. They claim also that when the Weather
Service put out their middle of the night warning of
life threatening mass flooding, the owners spent about an hour
plus predicting equipment. I did nothing at that point to
try and save lives. They claimed. The owners wrongly directed
some to stay in the cabins while others were running
for their lives. The owners say they did not realize

(04:10):
at first the scale of this thing, but these are
pretty scathing accusations.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
See Friday Ridgard I'd sightside.

Speaker 3 (04:16):
For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
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Speaker 3 (04:19):
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