AFP - Dems need to end the shutdown now

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're a ceed the talk station.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
It's seven twenty nine fifty five kr CD Talk Station,
Happy Wednesday. Fast forward an hour. Judgejennen of Politano jailed
in America for free speech, preceded by retired captains in
Saint Police Department, Captain Russ Neville can be talking about
his sister police Chief three C Fiji and the saga
that's going on right now brought to you by aftab

(00:24):
Purvol and City Manager Cheryl Won. So I'm looking forward
to having Russ in the studio talk about that. Also
looking forward to, as I always do this segment because
Donovan and Neil from Americans Were Prosperity joins a program
every every week at this time to talk about stuff
and things and what AFP is doing. Most notably today,
Let's get the government going again. That's the Democrats issue,
is it not. Donovan and Neil, Welcome back to the

(00:45):
Morning Show, Brian.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Always a pleasure to be with you. Yeah, at twenty
eight days and the federal government second longest shut down
in American history at this point.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
And people are getting ready to start feeling the pain.
I know, the snaps. In a notice out to snappership
INSID November. First, they're not going to have any more
money left. Donald Trump says there is no money left.
Lawsuit just filed by twenty five states saying, hey, you
got five billion dollars you're sitting on. Sadly, even if
they win that lawsuit and they allocate that pile of
money wherever that happens to be, Donovan, it's not going
to be enough to even cover the nut for the

(01:16):
month of November, which is widely reported as nine billion dollars,
for exceeding the five billion dollars that apparently is laying
in a pile somewhere in Washington.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah, and that's really what we're facing up against. And
you've got talking points coming out of you know, radio
shows and television interviews with Democrats. Who are you talking
about the political pressure point that they're using this for.
This is about policy, Brian, It's about politics for the
Democrats right now, and that's why they're not breaking ranks
in the Schumer shutdown. Right.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Well, let's go down the list. Here. We have it,
among others, Senators Martin Heinrich. Paying our troops gives the
president more leverage. Bernie Sanders, you reopen the government and
we lose our leverage, Chuck Schumer, every day gets better
for us, meaning the Senators, not the American people. Rubin Gallego,
then I'd get just go back to another shut down
again after this one. Chris Coons, Frankly, this is our

(02:10):
only moment of leverage, and although a very unpleasant tool
to use, and finally we have Catherine Clark Congresswoman. There
will be families that are going to suffer, but it
is one of the few leverage times we have. Well,
they're revealing their hand quite openly. They know it's painful,
they know it's stupid, they know they own it. They
know that the funding levels have not been reduced. They
don't have any argument that the Republicans somehow gutted government

(02:33):
spending and passing the clean cr from the twenty twenty
four funding levels. I thought that was brilliant from the
Republicans taking out that argument that they of course would have.
The only thing they have the hand to hang on,
have the hang to hang their hat on, is that
these subsidies are going to end. For Obamacare, subsidies that
in their own legislation passed I believe exclusively by Democrats,

(02:53):
has a cutoff date of the end of this year.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Hmm.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
I guess this is a Democrat's fault. Huh, Donovan, That's
absolutely right.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
They set temporary subsidies to end that have nothing to
do with the funding and function of our federal government.
And I think that's why Republicans conservatives have the moral
high ground in this in this argument and are winning it.
But this isn't about winning the argument, right, Brian. It's
the budge just getting to a normal order of business,
opening our federal government so that you know, these benefits

(03:23):
that are promised to individuals in this country are able
to flow to them, so that we can get back
to getting the budget done in both chambers and sent
to the President's desk, so for the first time and forever,
we can actually have a normal budget process and fund
our federal government. And here's the thing too, Brian, that
we're not talking about as well, but starting to come
into focus. We're not getting done because we're stuck in

(03:45):
this stalemate. Right, We've got opportunities to do immigration reform.
We've secured the border through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act,
but there's opportunities here to further reformer immigration system. So
that it works for the people coming to this country
and the people in this country already. We got opportunities
to do more in terms of precisions, in reforming government
to make it work better for the people. And here's
a big one, permitting reform. We've got to get permitting

(04:07):
reform done so we can unleash energy abundance and help,
you know, bring down the costs for homeowners as well
as manufacturers in this country when it comes to energy.
Although that's not happening, Brian, because we're stuck in the
Schumer shutdown. That's sucking all the oxygen out of the room.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
All right, head caller earlier in the program, and I
think it's an important time to interject this question. Maybe
you have the answer, maybe you don't, But it seems
to me odd if the Republicans weren't in recess, couldn't
they be working on things? Couldn't they be sitting down
and working on appropriations bills or at least maybe making
phone calls as senators are obviously still doing their job, well,
not doing their job, but at least they'll still in Washington, DC.

(04:44):
Get them out of recess, let them start working on legislation.
Couldn't they Actually, is it possible for them to pass
something out of committee even during a government shutdown? Because
they're still being paid their salaries. They could still do
their work and show up in DC, pass something out
of committee, put it up for a vote, and do it.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
Happened. Yeah. I'm not entirely plugged into the strategy that
Speaker Johnson has in terms of how he's run in
his chamber with this. But my understanding is, and I
think it fits in is right as a matter of policy,
is the House of Representatives got their clean Continuing Resolution
done back on September nineteenth. That was the deal that

(05:23):
was negotiated with Jeffreys and Schumer and a Senate majority leadership.
But then when Schumer started getting unrest from his left flank,
he realized he had to This was a This was
a point where he had to put a put a
stake in the ground and cause the shutdown. What we

(05:45):
need to get done is it's real simple, pass the
clean Continuing Resolution. The Senate has had thirteen opportunities to
pass this. Republicans and three Democrats have joined consistently to
open the government up. That would cause Congress to come
back into session would get these committees moving, and I
think really, as a matter of principle, this is a

(06:06):
clarifying moment for America and for Congress. Are we going
to allow folks like Senator Schumer and the Democrats in
the Senate to use this as a circus to score
political points on President Trump and the new Republican majority,
or are we going to get to a normal order business,
reopen the government with a clean continuing resolution and then
go back to debating and discussing bills with an open

(06:28):
government rather than a closed federal government.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
Well, I'm a little perplexed by the idea that they
in insisting on this painful government shutdown, which will become
more painful for a lot of regular Americans each and
every day, that they can score points against Trump off
of keeping the government shut down. Let's review Democrat bothes
required to open the government. Democrats have voted thirteen times
to keep it closed. Democrats refuse to fund government unless

(06:53):
Congress restores left wing projects, and Democrats admit to using
pain as leverage and boast every day that it gets
better for us. Some of the quotes I just gave
you all the all the arrows, all the facts, all
the information points of the Democrats owning this thing, How
in the hell could it possibly inure to their benefit?
And to be a point against Donald Trump, who's screaming
about trying to get the government back open again.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
Well a lot of ways. It's it's that messaging war, right,
making sure that that folks aren't distracted with the dips,
dives and dodges that the crabs are doing right now.
And that's a lot of what you're seeing right. It
started out as this is about you know, health, making
sure that we make permanent these COVID subsidies for Obamacare. Well,
then it's about, you know, we've got we've got to

(07:39):
restore some things that were lost into one big beautiful
bill act that you know, impacted folks on Medicaid. And
then it's shifting, you know, it shifts every week into
something different that the Schumer shutdown is about. And why
of the Democrats they're looking for something to stick here.
The reality is September nineteenth, Republicans passed a clean continuing

(07:59):
resolution over to the Senate, well ahead of the October
first funding deadline into the fiscal year. Democrats chose to
shut down the federal government rather than vote for a clean,
no frills continuing resolution, and that they've got to hang
that hat on their heads now. And that's the important
thing of getting out there and talking about this is
that it's a very easy fix, Brian, as you've outlined,

(08:23):
there's nothing to negotiate, nothing to a broker. It's just
open the government, a very simple premise that is being
convoluted in the mainstream media by by Democrats and their allies.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
All Right, let's just say, for the sake of discussion
that the Democrats capitulate, they open the government back up,
and they continue this ongoing discussion over the extension of
these supplements, which is what the Republicans say they are
willing to do once you get the government open. Now,
do I really believe the Republicans are going to be
interested in continuing these subsidies down the road? Not really.
In the Democrats, I think appreciate that which means opening
the government up is going to end the debate over

(08:58):
the continuation of the subsidies. But do you think, I think,
in the back of your mind, or do you think
as a matter of going forward, if it were to
go in that order the government opens, they sit back
down at the negotiation table. Do you think there's a
lot of Republicans or enough Republicans to capitulate and give
them something in return by way of supplements.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
Oh. I mean that's part of how Washington works, right,
That's politics, is a lot of negotiating, debating and discussing
on ideas. Now, whether you know certain folks will come
to the table in good faith or not, that there's
a whole other factor at play. But I think you know,
throughout the process, going back to the passing the One
Big Beautiful bill, at the Working Families tax cuts, right,

(09:36):
there were opportunities for Democrats to vote to support of
many of those provisions right that they would say they
agree with, right, no tax on overtime, no tax on tips,
making sure that working Ohioans Americans keep their lower tax rates.
But you know, they allowed themselves, I think, to get
tangled up on the areas where there's more disagreement than agreement,

(09:56):
and I think there's opportunities for debate on that. That's
how this work, That's how the process works, and the
opportunity we have now. I believe it was Senator Houstad
who said this at a function. I was at a
few weeks back. You know, we can debate and discuss
these things with the government shut down and not functioning,
or we can debate and discuss these things with the
government open and functioning like normal. And that's really the question.

(10:19):
Do we want to debate these things while people are
losing their snap benefits, military members are going and paid
air traffic controllers are going on demonstration and walking off
the job. Or do we want to do this where
folks are getting their benefits, federal employees are being paid
to do their jobs. DC police are getting paid to
do their jobs, and our military men and women are

(10:40):
being able to send their paychecks home to their families.
It's real simple. I choose that option. Right, Let's go
open the government up and had continue to have these
debates and discussions and see where we land. All right.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
I presume that the call of action will be for
our listening audience to have these discussions out loud with
their neighbors and their friends. Is there any other action
item you might suggest, Donovan O'Neil.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
Well, yeah, got, that's absolutely right. Also go to makes
governmentwork dot com. Makes Government work dot Com. There are
a number of active pieces of legislation that when we
get the government back open to get done, to get
sent to the President, that would present government shutdowns like
this from happening ever again in the future. So go
to Make Government Work dot com to learn more.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
Donald Neo Americans for Prosperity. I always appreciate what you're
doing for well everybody, and thanks for coming on the
show every week to talk about these issues. And folks,
it's within your grasp to help out. Get over to
the websites Donovan recommends every week and engage. They make
it very easy. Donovan, we'll talk again next week. Have
a fantastic week between now and then.