NEWS HEADLINES: The Government Will Shutdown Tomorrow — And Play PERFECTLY Into President Trump’s Plan! * 100PercentFedUp.com * by Noah

But their whole thing is, “It’s up to you.” That’s their message. Uh, what do you say to that?

Well, I- I don’t know where they come up with that because we are Republicans united, House Republicans, Senate Republicans, President Trump. The House Republicans have passed a short-term funding resolution that is clean, nonpartisan, and came over to the Senate. It’s sitting at the desk in the Senate. We could pick it up and pass it tonight. The president would sign it into law. The government stays open. It’s that simple.

And what they’re trying to do is create a, uh, counter-narrative that, uh, suggests that they can add trillions of dollars of spending, uh, free healthcare for illegals to this thing, and it’s just flat, you know, there, there, there’s just, there isn’t a, um, a world in which they’re being realistic. This is a totally unserious proposal.

You wrote an op-ed and you said, in fact, uh, the Democrats voted 13 times for clean funding bills while President Biden was in office. So what is the explanation, uh, why not this time to continue negotiating the appropriations bills?

Well, we, this is And that’s exactly what we wanna do, and I’ve made this very clear. You pass a short-term funding resolution that will enable us to finish the other appropriations bills through the normal regular process. So we wanna fund the government the way that it should be funded, which is through regular order. And that’s the appropriations committee marking up bills, reporting ’em to the floor, opening it up to the amendment process. That’s the way it used to work.

Um, in Chuck Schumer- Schumer’s universe, we didn’t do appropriations bills. It was all written behind closed doors in his office. And now he’s upset because he isn’t being consulted on everything because we’re doing things the way we should be doing ’em, allowing Republican senators and Democrat senators to work together to pass these bills. And what we need is to fund the government, give us some time to, to do the rest of the appropriations bills.

And if there are other issues they wanna talk about, one of which is this premium tax credit issue, we’re wel- you know, we welcome that conversation. But you can’t hold the federal government hostage. Release the hostage, and then we can start talking about these other things.

You know, Leader Jeffries said, um, in the Oval Office, there was a frank and direct discussion. In Washington, that translates to heated at times. Was it heated?

Well, I mean, I think it was, uh, it was-

Lively?

It was lively. It was spirited. And, um, you know, obviously they’re in a tough spot politically. And I, and I get it. I mean, they’ve got a base that is demanding that they fight anything related to President Trump. This, you know, you mentioned the 13 times they did this. When they, when they had the majority, the Democrats did, you had Joe Biden in the White House, passed 13 short-term continuing resolutions.

Well, what’s changed? Donald Trump’s the president. That’s what’s changed. But, you know, on the health issue, health providers could lose 32 billion if ACA credits at the center of the shutdown fight expire. The lapse in Obamacare subsidies could also lead to an additional 7.7 billion in unpaid medical bills for uninsured patients, from uninsured patients. Big deal, right? For a lot of people.

Well, the premium tax credit issue is something we’re willing to have a conversation about. But the fact of the matter is, it is rife with waste, fraud, and abuse. It needs reforms. It is a program where the government pays, makes direct payments to insurance companies. Insurance companies get subsidies to cover more people, so through their agents and brokers, they go out and auto enroll people, many of whom don’t even know they have coverage.

And of the 23 million people who were covered in the exchanges last year, 12 million never filed a claim ’cause a lot of ’em don’t even know they have coverage. And there’s no income caps on it. There’s a couple in West Virginia making $580,000 a year that’s getting subsidies from the federal government for their healthcare.

Um, there are, you know-

But you’re willing to work on this issue in particular?

Yeah, I mean, part of this is the, the base Obam- Obamacare program is not gonna be affected. What’s gonna be affected is the enhancements that the Democrats added when they had the majorities. So we’re-

What about-

But we’re willing to have that conversation. But you gotta do that in, you can’t do that in the context of a hostage-taking situation, which is where we are right now.

What about the OMB director’s letter, uh, Russ Vought, in which he asks the department heads or tells them there might be possible permanent layoffs, uh, saying, “Agencies are directed to use this opportunity to consider reduction in force notice for all employees that don’t fit under, uh, being funded by the funding that continues.”

Right. Well, and that’s, and that’s exactly why we oughta keep the government open.

So that’s a real threat?

Well, I mean, I think that Look, if you, you have to manage a shutdown. If you’re Russ Vought, you have to figure out in the middle of a shutdown, “What am I gonna do? How am I gonna shift money around?” It is the American people that get hurt by this. There is no reason for a government shutdown. Republicans are united, House Republicans, Senate Republicans, the president of United States, all agree to keep the government open.

All it takes is Chuck Schumer to agree to put the bill that’s sitting at the Senate desk. The House has passed it. We can pass it. President signs it into law. Government stays open.

You know, we saw this train coming down the tracks. I interviewed you in July and asked specifically about this. Take a listen. You’re gonna need Schumer’s support to keep the government open. We are.

And we, and we- And so how are you gonna get it?

Well, I mean, we, it, at some point, you hope that in the interest of the country, that they will work with us on issues like funding the government. But it’s been very hard because at least right now, they’re, anything that the president wants, they’re against. Said anything the president wants, they’re against. And we’re at this moment.

Are you in the same place?

Well, this is a perfect example of what I was talking about because it is. This is a clean, short-term, bipartisan funding resolution, something we did 13 times when the Democrats had the majority. And all we have to do is pick it up and pass it and then we can go to work on the other appropriations bills and the other things that Democrats want to address.

But they’ve tried to introduce, you know, a trillion dollars in new spending, free healthcare for illegals, uh, as part of their proposal. And we can’t do that by tomorrow night at midnight. And we’re not gonna do most of that stuff anyway. But if they wanna do something on premium tax credits, uh, we’re open to having that conversation.

Su- But you can’t do it in this context. Schumer is running scared from his political left. I mean, it’s that simple. And again, this is all about who’s in the White House. They did this 13 times when Biden was in the White House.

So chances right now, standing in the White House driveway, that the government shuts down, where do you put it?

Well, I mean, it’s up to them and, uh, I don’t know-

So above 50%.

Well, if the Democrats are coming out and saying flatly, um, “We will vote,” repeatedly, and they will have to because we won’t force ’em to vote ’cause the bill is sitting in the Senate to, to keep the government or to shut the government down, not to fund the government. It’s up to them. The ball is in their court and, um, this is-.