Transcripts For CSPAN Washington 20240703

Nonstarter . Host were three days out from a potential Government Shutdown and the house and senate are on separate tracks. Republicans in the house and senate are not on the same page. We will spend our first hour in your take on this spending debate. Democrats, 202 7488000. Republicans, 202 7488001. Independent, 202 7488002. We also want to hear from federal workers at 202 7488003. You can also text us. Lets hear a little more from the leaders. The senate moves to bring up a continuing resolution, estop gap measure that would keep the government open so they can conclude just continue negotiating. The stopgap measure in the senate includes funding for ukraine and disaster relief. You heard from the speaker in the house, that is a nonstarter. Here he is yesterday with more about what House Republicans want to see in any continuing resolution. Is the plan eight nonstarter . I dont see it. You told them you would not do anything without the border. Does that mean you consider ukraine how do you think about that . Of the way i look at it, 50,000 people in the last five days were watching time again, massachusetts, state of emergency, new york it became the number one issue. I want to deal with disaster but also more. The people of congress have a right to vote. I would first go to the people of congress have a right to vote. They said they were still annoyed. I dont understand where somebody would want to stand with President Biden and not keep the government open when you look at how it funds the government and also puts in hr to that would secure our border. That will be important to the rest of the nation. Democrats have the opportunity. Host Speaker Mccarthy saying republicans will demand border provisions in any continuing resolution. The Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell of kentucky yesterday stressing the need for both parties of congress to Work Together. 200 years of the senate in the house have been very different. But what we are focusing on in the senate is to try and keep the government open, try to continue to pay the people who are essential to our security like air trash, Border Patrol, capitol police. The constitution requires that we continue to be paid through and shut down during a shutdown is complete the unfair to the American People. I dont want to give the speaker any advice about how to run a house, particularly through you. We are going to concentrate on trying to do our job here in the senate, which i think is to pass a bill that keeps the government open. I cant have an impact on what happens in the house. Host Mitch Mcconnell yesterday on the hill talking about the between these two bodies. They need to pass something to keep the government running by midnight saturday. Here is the washington times. Carthy doubles down on demand for Border Security. Seemingly heating the house gop is called. Senate republicans have begun to work on amendments to the Upper Chambers stopgap bill that would include Border Security. Well see how that plays out. Watch our coverage of the senate floor on cspan2 today. Gaveltogavel coverage as the debate continues. In our first hour, your turn to tell these lawmakers what you want them to do. Melissa in did tennessee, democratic caller. Caller good morning. Im frustrated with both parties in congress. I hear Speaker Mccarthy demanding something is done on Border Security, but he wants to shut the government down and forced the Border Agents to work without any money. Not only funding for what they do but actually demanding that they work without pay. That is not a job i think you are going to get a lot of good quality work out of if you are not paying your employees. And you are not funding their department. You have them on we should do this and we should do that. I dont see the need to before the primary season starts in january, which i think youre sitting back and watching six republicans. It does not benefit the people who rely on a paycheck and moa on a paycheck to pay their bills and feed their families. Host the republicans, you are referring to those members of the freedom congress. The holdouts on the republican side. Caller the Freedom Caucus is basically a clown college, people like Marjorie Taylor greene. There are basically six People Holding the entire government hostage. Host on your criticism of democrats, the president and mccarthy worked out a deal in june but was supposed to avert this round of backandrth. During those talks, republicans agreed to extend they debt limi in exchange for limiting nondefense spending in 2024 to about 1. 6 trillion, accounting for inflation, that could be a cut from current spending levels. Democrats are saying we already did talk to the other side and we negotiated a deal. We will get a reaction from other calls. Debbie and ohio, republican, you are next. Caller good morning, that lady that just called is the exact same thing i wanted to say, that the Freedom Caucus is holding our Republican Party hostage and by doing that they are deterring the party, people are going independent or they just dont care. It has gotten to the point that it makes me sick that our country has gotten to the point where congress does not represent the people of the United States. Host you are a republican and you are putting the blame on these Freedom Caucus members. Caller im putting the blame on congress into itself because they are not representing the people as a whole that are playing politics. Our country is deteriorating because of the politics being played. We have no true republicans anymore that i think represent our congress. If they are out there, i wish they would come forward. The ones that have been in office before that are respected and upheld have retired or been voted out of office due to the hypocrisy of this uprising theyre having with the maga people. It needs to end. Host the Washington Post notes in a quote from a senator that 77 of americans do not want the government to shut down. Kevin, independent. Good morning. Caller good morning, i just want to say look a lot like jacqueline kennedy. I want to say about ukraine, we should toward ukraine and because the history with pearl harbor, the long island sound, our allies helped us and we have to help nato. Im afraid if we lose our democracy, we have no friends anymore and now we are going to war for some autocrat crispy lost . Ukraine defense democracy and host there is disagreement within the Republican Party that House Republicans and Senate Republicans disagree on this question of whether or not there should be funding from ukraine. Mitch mcconnell, the leader of the republicans in the senate, declined to to throw his support behind the idea of a Senate Funding measure. With funding stripped out and mcconnell said in a rare show of bipartisanship, with the Washington Post says. In maryland, a democrat, lets hear from you. Caller good morning. It is rare that i praise Mitch Mcconnell, being a democrat myself, but i have to say im very grateful that senator mcconnell and more than two dozen Senate Republicans have voted, put it on the record, of wanting to come to a bipartisan deal at least on a stopgap spending measure. Because we have divided governments. Joe biden is still the president , democrats still control the senate and House Republicans are being unreasonable. They are asking for things like with the Border Security bill that they could not even get from donald trump as president. They cannot get it when they control both chambers of congress and the first two years of trump presidency. Speaker mccarthy has got to roll over these Freedom Caucus people , do exactly what has happened with the debt ceiling deal and reached to the middle of the house. If you put the bill that the Senate Leadership leadership on both sides negotiate is on the house floor, i guarantee you it will pass and probably with more than 300 votes or something. The problem is that mccarthy is so beholden to the far right in his caucus that he doesnt have the gumption to do the right thing and to get us out of this mess by passing the senate bill. Also, it is a shame that House Republicans are throwing ukraine under the bus. It shows you where their minds are with regard to the threat that a Vladimir Putins poses with ukraine but also to liberal democracy throughout the world. Ronald reagan is rolling over in his grave at the antics of House Republicans. Host i will just note that there are a couple of senators on the gop side who are also opposed to having any stock having stopgap measure including funding for ukraine. Senator rand paul and rick scott of florida are holding of the procedure of getting to final passage of the continuing resolution according to the Washington Post. It is looking like they coulds vote on this emergency bill on sunday, according to the Washington Post. There holding up the passes and to your point about the bipartisan support in the senate, we were just showing you from the Washington Post that the stopgap measure in the senate, which includes some ukraine funding got support from 28 republicans as well as all present democrats. It would extend federal government funding at current levels until november 17 and include assistance for ukraine and 6 billion for domestic disaster relief. Mary, in texas, a republican. Caller yes, some of these people that call in every day, do they not know that there has to be a budget . How much money can we print until every dollar of the money that comes in goes for interest . They have raised the interest now and so we might have to reborrow. It is time to get something to close the border down. In august it was a high some of you on Social Security or food stamps im sure want it. Your money coming in with them, we just cant afford to keep doing that. Host so you say shut the government down over this. Caller i say what to Work Together and do something. Every democrat i saw out there does not consider voting. All of this voting on the border being shut down, no. It is about time to Work Together and not one side get all of their ok. Isnt government about working together . Host mary in texas. More of your calls coming. Joining us to give us the latest from capitol hill. A senior congressional reporter with nbc news, lets begin with what has been happening in the senate and what has the house been doing and what does that mean for any sort of deal that would avoid a shutdown. Guest good morning. I will try to explain this as simply as possible. Our two trucks moving right now. One is the cr truck, a shortterm funding bill that will be needed to avert any sort of Government Shutdown saturday at midnight. The senate as you know has put together and come up with a deal for a bill as you mentioned till november 17. It has enough support to pastor the Upper Chamber but it is going through a lot of procedural hurdles right now. Some senators including rand paul are making sure they are going to slow down this process as much as they can, so there will not be a speedy vote on that, extending into the house. The house has another problem in that it does not see i to eye with the senate on the shortterm funding bill. Kevin mccarthy plans in the house to introduce cr and bring it to the floor, he says by friday, but that would be a conservative package, shortterm funding bill that would not include the ukraine money the senate put in, the 6 billion you mentioned. It would include the Border Security package. I think the senate would have a hard times to making and the white house would have a hard time signing that into law. The two chambers were not seeing eye to eye on any shortterm funding path, which is why so many of us on capitol hill think this is heading toward a shutdown this weekend, at least if the shortterm shutdown, perhaps an even longer one. Separately, and mentioned the other track, the appropriation bill, the house is moving through the inner chamber. They went through a series of amendments yesterday and theyre going to try to pass the package of the single subject appropriation bills. These are bills that include deep cuts, further than the deal that President Biden and Kevin Mccarthy negotiated in the debt ceiling and that has invited criticism from the president of the United States himself, mccarthy reneged on a deal. The deal is a deal, he said at a fundraiser in San Francisco just yesterday. He said this is a problem Kevin Mccarthy has to work out between the factions of his own gop conference. Mccarthy tried to defect blame on the president , saying he needs to shore up the border, cut spending in america. A lot of fingerpointing that suggests to me and others that this is heading toward a shutdown. Host does the speaker have the votes for whatever continuing resolution he puts on the floor friday . Guest that is why he is going to this tedious single subject appropriation product project. He is hoping that by passing some of those bills, it will buy himself some good grace from conservatives in his conference and they will be more willing to vote for acr. However, florida matt gaetz, mccarthy, others have indicated they will not vote for acr under any circumstances. So it really does not appear at the moment the mccarthy has the votes to pass a conservative cr, may i just on republican holy. He would have to reach across the aisle, in order to keep the government open, reach across the aisle to have democrats help bail him out in this situation. But as we have discussed, doing so could cause matt gaetz and some of his other foes to make a motion to vacate to try to remove the speaker of the house. Matt gaetz reiterated that threat to the speaker just yesterday, saying if mccarthy put the cr on the floor i will have to move forward with an effort to remove him with a former vote formal vote. Host some Senate Republicans may try to out a Border Security amendment in the debate to the Upper Chamber to appease the house. How do you think the minority leader at Mitch Mcconnell and other republicans who voted for this continuing resolution how do you think they would vote on the Border Security provision . Guest clearly Mitch Mcconnell and other republicans support additional Border Security, given the migrant crisis in the images we are seeing at the border, the images we are seeing in major american cities. However, Mitch Mcconnell has endorsed and signed off on this shortterm cr. He spoke yesterday favorable terms that we need to keep the government open. The white house on top of that has been making the point that in a shutdown, Border Security agents would go unpaid. Tens of thousands of american troops protecting this country would go without pay. They believe democrats and the white house believes it would undermine National Security if we had intuition down including when it comes to the. Protecting the border. Host a senator expected to address Senate Colleagues behind closed doors today. What do you know about the meeting . Guest menendez has already said he has defied the charges, he plead not guilty. In the interviews he said he maintains his innocence and he said that is why he is not resigning despite this chorus of calls from his own democratic members, fellow senators and friends of his who have come forward publicly in statements, comments to reporters on the capital. Saying that based on the seriousness of the charges and the details must go. Menendez will make his case today and explain we hope in detail because we have not heard much of his defense yet. But he will make the case to colleagues about why he should remain a senator. Democrats are saying this is all up to him. His is his choice. Theres been no talk of any vote for expulsion. But Democratic Senators want to hear from him and he believed that he really wants to explain some of the allegations against him and refute some of them in a personal way with people he works with every day. Host has Chuck Schumer answer the question about whether or not he should resign and why he has stayed on as chair of the Foreign Relations committee in the senate during this investigation . Guest senator schumer has not called for him to resign even though more than 30 members of the Senate Democratic caucus have gone that far, including the number two leader for democrats, dick durbin of illinois. Senator schumer has had a long relationship with senator menendez. The camp together in the house of representatives before they both moved over to the senate. They work in neighboring states, obviously a lot of cooperation between them on joint projects between new jersey and new york. Senator schumer believes he should let the process go down and leave the commentary for others to make. But clearly this is an issue that is impacting his caucus in a severe way. A handful of democrats told me this past week that they believe there are electoral consequences to having menendez remain in the senate. Democrats hold a very narrow majority and they believe there is going to be a number of vulnerable members on the ballot this year. Having him stay on the ballot through general election could drag down some of these colleagues and perhaps, as John Fetterman said, put the United States majority host scott wong, you can go to nbc news. Com, thank you as always. We will get back to your calls, three days until a potential Government Shutdown. It is looking more and more likely. More on senator menendez, a lengthy profile piece in todays New York Times. On the front page, stretching into the paper about his political career over the years. One paragraph to share. Prosecutors have spent the better part of 18 years, the length of his tenure, looking into the blurry lines between his office and special interests. That investigative distinction is approached by no other modern senator. Any of the suspicions that attracted their attention never amounted to charges, but other facts still raise concern. The rise of private planes, luxurious vacations and other perks from wealthy friends will advance. He helped advance the career of longtime friends and Love Interest to remain loyal and when they crossed him he did not hesitate to use his deep rolodex to exact payback. Back to our discussion about a potential Government Shutdown, and crystal river, florida, independent. Your turn to give us your take. Go ahead. Guest thank you so much. I am disturbed and perplexed with both sides of the government because according to our government, for centuries and decades, our government has been ran by corrupt officials, but also righteous officials. I have the understanding that when this righteousness within governments and leadership, things run accordingly, meaning there is not the symbolic aggression and greed and hatred and all this other stuff that goes along with that. There is a lot of division because of that. Host tieback to the potential Government Shutdown, the spending debate on capitol hill. Guest a lot of it has to do with our creator. Host in new york, a republican. Guest my name is lorraine and i think there should not be a shutdown. However, i feel that both sides have to do more to settle the debt. We have a 33 trillion debt, which means that almost 1 trillion in interest is spent every year. I dont know a lot of the details of that Mccarthy Biden deal prior to this. I think we need that information. The transportation the head of transportation said that an 8 cut would practically destroy the transportation system, which is absurd. I am in my 70s. I have had to take cuts all along. I know that is not possible. I would like someone to ask what was the cut you received of the previous still deal with mccarthy, and if 8 is going to be that bad, what percent would you accept . I dont see any negotiations, i do see both sides saying without this we die, or with this we die. Host you mentioned the debt and that you want to see congress get it under control. Guest caller but i want them to do it without a shutdown. Can they come to a deal . Host do you agree that to tackle the nations debt and deficit, you have to have it discussion about the drivers of the nations debt, which is Social Security, medicare, medicaid, those costs and not about Discretionary Spending . Caller i think every thing should be on the table. I get Social Security, but i also provided for myself. I was a Catholic School teacher and i saved and i had a second job when i needed it. So everything should be on the table. A lot of these programs, especially with all of the new people in the country, we can sustain all of these different programs, all of this Discretionary Spending. We dont have the money to do it. Everything should be on the table. Host about the deal on the debt ceiling between the president and Speaker Mccarthy, cnbc has the details. Caps on Discretionary Spending, the deal to suspend the debt ceiling until january 1, 2025, allowing the government to pay its bills. They estimate the total nondefense Discretionary Spending, excluding benefits are better veterans with total total billions for the fiscal year. Down from the year before. The total would also increase by 1 in 2025. That is what the two sides agreed to on Discretionary Spending. Of the debt limit extension last past, congress would not need to address the issue again until after the november 2024 president ial election. The deal would boost defense spending to be in line with the biden budget spending proposal. This is about a 3 increase for those allocated for the pentagon and other programs and agencies. Those are some of the details. Can on cnbc. Com and other news outlets as well. In an dutch in pennsylvania, and independent. Lets hear from you. Caller good. My comment on the issue of the day is that the Freedom Caucus in the chairman of the Freedom Caucus i heard him over the weekend at his event. I support him 100 plus percent. 100 . He is doing, and the Freedom Caucus is doing what every other vocal support group has done through the years. Listen to us because we make sense. The civil rights movement, which has been a mixed bag, 60 years later they are doing what they should do. Host greg caller let me finish this comment. I started watching when brian lamb was on. I detect a shift in the colors callers. The mainstream media, including these fans that support the democrats. It is time to get real about the problems we have and what is happening. You get more calls from independent than anyone else, you should rotate that to the top of the list instead of always being three. Host i will move on. Sarah and alabama, republican. Caller thank you for finally getting into you guys. The man that was speaking from pennsylvania, i am 100 with him. But closing the border would stop the problem. Why do the democrats not do it . Host kyle from new york, a republican. Your turn. Caller good morning. I remember when we had a debt of about 10 or 12 trillion and there was talk about shed the government down then. Then we got into the 20s. Now we are in the 30s and i dont recall any major cuts happening over the last 15 years , every time they threatened to shut the government down. I dont want to see the Government Shutdown, but weve got to stop this spending. It seems like every couple of years there is a new department established in the federal government that does the same job that another department does. There are calls to talk about the immigration people coming in. We cant keep paying for all of this. 50 of americans do not put him into the tax space. At some point we are going to keep raising it every year. That seems to be the trend. Im frustrated because we have a balanced budget 20 or 30 years ago and that was last time we have seen it. We cant keep it up. Host kyle in buffalo, new york. A republican. Wes listen to the majority leader of the senate, Chuck Schumer of new york. Heres what he had to tell reporters about the bipartisan resolution that is being debated in the Upper Chamber. Republicans are taking the opposite path, one headed to shut down. Every reproach approach House Republicans are pushing are partisan. Every cr has been aimed at the extreme far right. Every path they have pursued today will inevitably lead to a shutdown. Speaker mccarthy wants to move a partisan cr that has no chance of becoming long. Is he trying to help the country or trying to appease the most extreme members of his caucus . Because the same republicans that the speaker seeks to satisfy, the same ones that seem happy to shut down the government have already objected his plan to avoid one. This is not an impossible puzzle to solve. The solution remains clear. Speaker mccarthy needs to stop letting the radicals drive his excision decisions and do the sensible thing. Follow the senates lead and pass a bipartisan cr to prevent this reckless shutdown. Host the majority leader on capitol hill yesterday. On capitol hill today, this morning, i want to let you know about the first hearing looking into an impeachment, possible impeachment of President Biden. This being connected by the House Oversight and accountability committee. We will have coverage at 10 00 a. M. Eastern time on cspan3, our mobile app cspan now or on our website, cspan. Org. Act two hour conversation with all of you this morning. Three days until a possible Government Shutdown. What do you want lawmakers to do . Colin in d. C. , independent. Caller i just wanted to say 60 of our budget is mated spending, Social Security, medicare, etc. And the 40 of discretionary funding we have is what we have to spend. I wanted to quickly speak to host i want to jump in on your point, 60 mandatory, 40 discretionary. That is what theyre discussing is the 40 . 60 does not get touched. By the appropriators when they fund to government. Caller however, what does get passed every year is the military spending budget. The defense budget. We not only have the Largest Military in the world but we also simultaneously fund many other countries in the world and i find it interesting that in these conversations about 40 of Discretionary Spending, we never talk about slashing defense spending. We are consulate going around the world telling other countries what to do in the name of imperialism and corporate interest and fundamentally this does not work when you have a country that has an aging population, a multitude of competing domestic projects that have been put on the wayside and put on that burner since highspeed rail, infrastructure spending, we talk about spending. We need to do more spending. We have real climate issues that need to be tackled, that need spending. We need to solve these issues instead of dumping billions into the endless money pit of the defense permit. Host diane in ohio, democratic coal. Caller the whole reason people are arguing about this, the republicans are telling lies several times. I take notes on washington journal. Not only to have people talking on the show, we are seeing news of this nation and they have seen that. Only 5 of the fentanyl coming to the United States from the migrants, the rest is coming in by americans in trucks and cars on the border. Number two, we need the migrants. Rivera said if we could only that the people that are coming through and bring them to this area, cleveland area. We need employees. Host talking about Border Security, House Republicans are insisting it is in a continuing resolution to keep the government open while they negotiate funding the government in 2024, a larger spending package. The government shut down would occur saturday at midnight if the continuing resolution is not passed in both chambers of congress. John, an iowa republican, what do you say on this . Caller im in favor of side and government down. Over the weekend i watched the rules committee and i was surprised. I also watched a lot of the hearings and i watched the amendments as they brought them up, got to be two to highlight those things, there were two amendment put forth by republicans on the Freedom Caucus. One of them pertained to 2004 that was funded for 50 million and since then has grown 250 million. That role in our government is to buy excess commodities and give it away to seven countries that i cant remember. The effect of that in those seven countries has been to decimate the industries in those seven countries. There is another one that has to deal with putting internet in the country, they funded with 50 million any techno when they did that but it turns out there are six other agencies that have the exact same wall to do. Six other agencies. Your 300 Million Dollars that our government is spending that does not need to be spent. Host john has been listening to the floor debate as republicans attempt to take up some of the Appropriations Bills for the agriculture department. Yesterday they were talking about funding for the pentagon and Freedom Caucus members had moments on that spending bill. John continues, gaveltogavel, on cspan. We watch the debate on the conversation in that chamber as well. Lee, democrat. What is your take a . Caller i think the shutdown is ridiculous. When they controlled the senate, the white house and the house, they did nothing for the debt. Another democrats are in charge we want a tight budget and to cut spending. In my home, when i found out i cant cut anything else, i go out and get more revenue. I get another job. So everything is on the table. Why isnt the increase and taxing the rich also on the table . There is no fentanyl ferry. Fairy. If these children stopped taking it, the country will be better. Thank you. Host the gop candidate for president gathered for their second debate in california yesterday. I want to show you a little bit from four of the candidates, posted by foxbusiness. We will begin with the former governor of new jersey and Florida Governor ron desantis talking about the Government Shutdown and inflation. They inflation is caused by government spending. That is why they are suffering. We dont get any answers because joe biden hides in his basement and wont answer as to why he is raises the dead. Donald trump hides behind his golf clubs and wont answer questions like the rest of us are appear to answer. He put 7 trillion on the debt, he should be in this room to answer questions for the people you talk about an if the government closes it is to the blame of everyone in washington, d. C. Has failed to do their job. [indiscernible] you have not spoken, please. The people in washington are shutting down the American Dream with their reckless behavior. They printed, they spent and now you are paying more for everything. They have shut down our National Sovereignty by allowing our border to be wide open. Please spare me the crocodile tears for these people. Joe biden is missing in action from leadership and you know who else is missing . Donald trump is missing in action. He should be on this stage. He owes it to you to defend his record where they added 7. 8 trillion to the debt. That set the stage for the inflation that we have. Host ron desantis and former new Jersey Governor Chris Christie from the debate last night. And moment between two other candidates, nikki haley and vac ramaswamy. I favor this if we actually win. While the democrats are running rampant, reaching the next generation 31, there is one person in the Republican Party which talks a big game about reaching young people. I am the new guy here. I know i have to earn your trust. You see a young man in a bit of a hurry, and bit of a new it all. Im here to tell you i dont know it all. I will have the best and brightest in this country, whatever age they are about advising me. Many of the people on this stage included. That is how i built my companies. I want to be challenged and i want people who disagree with me. We are not a perfect nation, we are founded on the pursuit of perfection. That is what makes america great. And thats how it will be once we win the election. This is infuriating. Tiktok is one of the most dangerous social media apps we could have and honestly every time i hear you, i feel a little dumber. I cant believe the tiktok situation, 150 Million People are on tiktok, they can get your contacts and your email, texas jazz, all that. Text messages, all of it. Host last nights debate from republican candidates hosted in california. The former was not there. He headed yesterday to michigan, one day after President Biden was on the picket line with uaw workers, the former president in michigan asking for the endorsement from the union. Under crooked joe biden, you have none of the things we want. Instead of economic nationalism, you have ultra leftwing liberalism. They hit our country. The workers of america are beginning to put it nicely and screwed. He came to michigan to pose for photos at the picket line. It sends michigan autoworkers to the unimportant line. He only came after i would be here, he announced later. The uaw leadership, no problems with them, but they have to endorse trump. If they dont, they are committing suicide and you dont want that to happen because they are committing suicide on the back of your job and you cant let that happen. The democrats as they wave the white flag of surrender open your future to other countries, if you can speak to sean, he is listening right now. He endorsed trump and you can take for two month vacation. You will come back better than they ever were. The other way you wont have a vacation, sean. And youre not going to have a union, jobs, anything. Youre the strongest youve ever had youre going to do great. Host the former president in michigan. He is going to be delivering remarks, honoring the legacy of the late senator john mccain and what americans can do. We will have coverage of that today, on our website, cspan. Org, around 3 00 p. M. Eastern time. Back to our discussion about a potential Government Shutdown. Rick in providence, kentucky. Independent. Good morning to you. Caller good morning. I was watching the houseboats last night that houseboats last night on cspan and my question is why did the numbers of the parties keep changing . Sometimes when you watch the votes in there are 225 republicans and 215 democrats, other times there are differences in numbers, 222 republicans and 212 democrats. Last night there were 224 republicans and 2015 democrats. I was just wondering why the numbers keep changing. Host it could be who is present in the chamber. If they are not there, they are not going to vote because they dont vote by proxy anymore. That could be an issue. You also have retirements, resignations that happened during a term and so on both sides of the aisle, you have the numbers change. The total numbers change. Tom in republic dutch in connecticut, republican. Good morning. Caller we have lived through shutdowns before, it is not the end of the world. It is a good indication that darst we are financially troubled. The borrowing and spending has brought us to the ranks of spending money we dont have and we keep printing money, were going to be deep in trouble. Mcconnell and a small band of republican senators dont really represent the people. They represent power and they will side with the democrats and they will go along with them. Their philosophy is to hold onto power and spend and print money and they really dont care. That is might look at it. It is not the end of the world. We can live through a shutdown. The democrats say the border people are not going to be paid. It is like portion. If you dont go along with this, we are not what you do this or that. They put you into the makebelieve situation that is kind of like bribery. The president is doing right now with china. Host tom in los angeles. Dana, a democrat. Caller i want to say i mostly agree with tom. We have survived a Government Shutdown before, but i do think a shutdown does not look good for either party. I do think it is their publicans indicating this who have made it my their mission to do this. It used to be part for the course when it mattered that both sides would be able to Work Together because the people and their constituents mattered and lately for the past several years it seems like all republicans care about is making governing for the opposite party as difficult as possible. And the citizens suffer. I dont understand why they keep doing this, because nobody looks good in a Government Shutdown. But i do feel like the people who are taking on the anything, democratic member yesterday as we were walking from a committee hearing. I told them i have been at the border earlier in the week. I have been at eagle pass. This member said, where is that. It really took me back. Eagle pass is down in texas. He said, what did you see their . I said it looks like anarchy to me. These people coming over. He goes, oh really. He seems unaware of what is going on right now at the southern border. I think it was 11,000 within the 24 our. I find it stunning that a member of congress can be that aware that unaware. Kamala harris has been down there for a brief moment. That kind of lack of awareness of what is going on there seem shocking to me. I do not know how to overcome that. I think you should go. I would be happy to go there with you. You do not see any democratic members of congress at the border. The fact that they would not feel any urgency about the border, i think it is evidence of that. Host go ahead. A democratic caller. Allison, good morning. Allison in washington. We are listening to you. Please go ahead. Caller i have two comments. No one addresses the millions of dollars that are going to be wasted by the fact that it is a tremendous amount of money shutting down the government, bringing the Government Back online and all of the millions of dollars that we will be paid even though we are not allowed to work during the shutdown. That is number one. The congressman talked about the people there having to bear the pain. The real issue is, the pain is being born by low means. All of the federal workers who very many of whom do not make a lot of money. The congressman is not ready to bear that pain. He is going to take his salary and he excuses that by the fact that his family does not make a lot of money. There are a lot of federal contractors who will not be compensated during that time off. There are a lot of people, not even federal workers, Business People who are going to lose money. I work in immigration, i would never address about the border is not about the policies of the administration, but the fact that people are going to come here because what is going on in their countries regardless of the countrys immigration policy. Host your response to her . Guest she is right. It is incredibly wasteful. The Government Shutdown is wasteful. She is exactly right. The pain suffered by federal workers is real. In is nothing to dismiss. I agree with you in that. This is how government is set up. Just throwing more money and passing spending is how we got into this mess. There has to be reform and reconciliation. If you are out in the private sector, i can assure you there is lots of uncertainty in the private sector as well, that people get laid off, fired, they change careers far more than they do in government service. I do not think you will find a huge amount of sympathy for people who have been furloughed or early retirement, laid off of their pension going bankrupt. You are not going to find a huge amount of sympathy out there. I am afraid that is just the reality. I do not think a shutdown is a win for anybody. I am doing everything i can to avoid that while trying to accomplish the goals of the American People, which is congress has to change. Host thank you for talking with our viewers this morning. We will take a short break. When we come back we will be joined by a Democratic Congress woman of wisconsin. We will get her take on this when we get back. Monday, watch a partnership with the library of congress. It will feature the journals of lewis and clarke. To explore the west all the way to the pacific ocean. Lewis and clark have detailed journals throughout the trip about the terrain, native people and trade groups. The author of several books of the expedition will join us to discuss the expedition. Watch, books that shaped america , featuring the journal of lewis and clark, monday on cspan. Also, please be sure to scan the qr code to listen to our companion podcast, were you can learn more of the authors featured. Cspan shop. Org is cspans online store. Something for every cspan fan. Every purchase helps support our nonprofit organization. Shop anytime. American history tv, saturdays on cspan two exploring the people and events that tell the american story appeared Calvin University professor talks about british writer, cs lewis discussing his views and how it connected to the authors christian beliefs. A look at the white house and presidency in the context of Popular Culture a part of a daylong symposium. Explore the american story. Watch American History tv, saturdays on cspan two. Find a full schedule on your program ide or watch anytime. Cspan is your unfiltered view of government. We are funded by these Television Companies and more, including comcast. Comcast is partnering with 1000 Community Centers to create wifi in book listings. Comst support cspan as a Public Service along with these television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. Washington journal continues. Host we are on back we are back on capitol hill this morning with congress woman. Do you think a shutdown is imminent . Guest i am sorry to say that i think a shutdown is inevitable. I had been one of those optimistic people when i look at the opportunities that we had to keep it open. A senates, democrats and republicans do not want to shutdown. The white house does not want to shutdown. There seems to be people among the House Republicans that really want a shutdown. Host we just heard from our previous guests, congressman from new york saying right now there is discussions to have weeklong continuing resolutions. At the same time the house would work on those 12 appropriation bills. Would you support one week continuing resolution . Guest a shutdown is a very expensive. I do not know how a continuing resolution week by week would change that scenario. The senate does have a proposal to expand the time, which would really give both sides an opportunity to come closer to coming up with a solution. This is my first time hearing that there was a proposal for week two week proposal. I do know that any interruption we know from history would cost millions of dollars opening and shutting the government is not something that you can do painlessly. Host our guest before you came on also said that funding in the sentence into no resolution for ukraine is a nonstarter and that should be stripped out. If democrats and some republicans in the white house want that funding, it should be voted on by itself, standalone. Guest we have had many votes. The position in the United States right now is to support ukraines efforts. I think that representatives williams notion that we needed another vote in order to pass our defense bill is ludicrous. Host the congressman also is saying in continuing resolution to include Border Security provision. According to gallup poll that was done recently this summer, they asked people, do you consider the situation to be a crisis, major problem, minor problem or not a problem. 39 says it is a crisis. 33 says a major problem. Why not include hr to end a continual resolution. Guest why not have a real honest debate about the border . There is nobody who doesnt recognize that the border is a crisis. Especially those people who are risking their life to get here. What we really need is a comprehensive immigration program, which really involves more border agent to really separate the legitimate petitions from the illegitimate petitions for judges. Our constitution says that anyone has the law to present themselves at the border. A solution that only involves fences, borders, razor wire is a nonstarter. Without the technology of a human being at the border as well. Republicans do not seem to be willing to fund those things. Host what has your democratic leader told you about you and your colleagues about what the party should vote for to keep the government up and running . Guest our party has not changed our value simply because we are trying to. It is basically clean. It does not have a lot of policy in it. We do not want a bill who tells the military for example that they cannot provide for woman who need an abortion. We do not want to vote on appropriation bills that have a lot of policy in it. We do not want continuing resolution that provides the spending for the rest of the fiscal year. Instead it is loaded up with people. Last night we were there until midnight. It is just ridiculous. Things that really do not resolve the funding problems that we have. Host frank is in california. Democratic color. You are up. Caller thank you for taking my call. I am a retiree federal worker. It seems like this is the norm because you have two parties that do not get along, they do not get what they want. I have been affected by it, my family has been affected by it. The lady is right. It is expensive. The last couple of days i have been watching cspan. I didnt really get nothing out of it, no answers. I have not heard anything about what President Biden wants to do. The bottom line, people count on their paycheck. I know a lot of people who suffer from that. It is really hard. What resources do we have . We have to apply for food stamps, unemployment. That does not come right away. We work for you. You are our bosses. I do not think it is fair. The other thing is, they talk about Border Patrol. I have a lot of friends who are Border Patrol agents. Theres a lot of transparency stuff that is not happening. They are not mandated, they are not manpower enough cleared we. We still need bodies. You think that nonsense is coming through now because the border is open . I do not believe that. They only tell the public what they want to know. It i just think that we need to get people on the ground to go in there and testify. A lot of stuff, when you get supervisors in there, theyre only going to tell you what Congress Wants to know because it is about the numbers. Host we have got to get a response from the congresswoman. Guest you have been very insightful. You make my point perfectly. We need boots on the ground, people on the border. With regard to your notion that both parties. Google it. Youll see the shutdowns being caused by republicans. Democrats do not want a Government Shutdown. We are being held hostage. Back in june the president made a deal with Kevin Mccarthy to cut 1. 5 trillion out of the budget. Now republicans not only want to cut another 120 billion 8 cut across the board and all kinds of things like 8 cut to our airlines in israel funding. They want all of this policy. They do not want woman who may have been raked by their superiors in the arm forces. They do not want them to be able to travel to have an abortion. They do not want diversity, equity and inclusion. It is not a issue of democrats not coming together, the republicans are in charge and the house of representatives were all appropriation bills generate from the house of representative. The republicans in the house are the cause for this shutdown. Host jerry in somerset, kentucky. Caller my personal experience with the border problem. Every morning we would line up on one side of the road and get our orders. One morning i looked over in there was no workers. I said, where are all of the workers . The fed came and got them last night. 52 years ago. These republicans have had the house and the senate, i do not know exactly how many times. When they have the problem and the border, why didnt they fix it when they had the people to do it . Guest the caller makes eight we are point. The border continues to be a red hearing tell of the other problems that we are facing. Right now we need to keep the government open. As the previous caller talked about, we need not only to disrupt not to disrupt the lives of federal workers, but federal contractors who will never get their money back. A shutdown cost us 11 billion. Of that, 3 billion will never be recovered. There will be contractors who will not get back pay. Those people who are retiring today are those people who have become widowed today and try to apply for Social Security would find that there are furloughed workers who will not be able to process their claims. This is not a victimless piece of policy. To say that a 60yearold problem of the border that we need to come together and fix, we are going to allow this to become the problem that we must solve, unless we are not going to fund the government. Caller i am really proud of all of the work you are doing to allow the migrants to come into this. Appreciate all of the work you are doing to allow the migrants that are coming into this country from all of these different places where it is so unsafe. Their lives are threatened. They need to come into this country. Do all of you can. Why arent the blacks leaving chicago, detroit, baltimore dcu, you think they would be migrating out of every major city. They are getting shot and killed every night by these gangs. You know what youre doing about it . Nothing. Guest thank you for your observations. Some of the most dangerous cities in place of the United States are in fact not necessarily places where there is a majority black community. When you look in the south he will see some of the most dangerous areas in the country. Places a place like florida i would not want to live. A part of our problem in this country is it we have racialized crime in a way that is not fair. When we start thinking about the flow of drugs and fence small and these kinds fentanyl. These are not black people that are bringing this stuff in. Or they do not have the resources to commit crimes at this level. I appreciate your call. I do hope that you will see that crime is not a black or white thing. It is something that has an impact on all of us. When you look at the gun problems, the mass shootings, very often we think that these are nonblack people who are committing these crimes. I just wanted to ask you to expand your point of view. Caller thank you for having me. I am so glad i am calling with you on here. That was so racial that that gentleman just called in. That was so racist. That was so racist. Im so sick of tired of republicans blame racism on everything. It i cannot even how any africanamerican should be a part of the Republican Party. We got to open our eyes. Bringing other members into nato , trying to pass the student loan act, climate change, 13 million jobs. Freight as a black person i am very worried about the democracy in america right now. We got to wake up america. Stop all of this that americans arent laying out your that stuff that tim scott said last night about america is not a racist country, no america is not. America is a country. In some of the people in america that we got to open our eyes up. Open your eyes. Do not play games with us. You all are trying to put crime on black people. Crime is everywhere. God also told us wake up. The poor is always going to be among us. They wont even extend the child credit act. I am not stupid. I know what is up. Young people, you better wake up. Guest you are informed and i appreciate your phone call. It is important to not to say, democrats or republicans are all the same. They have different priorities. I know your previous guests, representative williams talked about all of this reckless spending. I just want to point out that it is republicans who have done the reckless spending since i have been in congress. Just look at the history of these deficits that they talk about. Ronald reagan ran the deficit up. George h w bush it. Been clinton came in and gave us a surplus. George w. Bush doubles it by having a war. Plus horrific tax cuts for the wealthiest people. Barack obama inherited an economy that was bleeding, 700,000 jobs a day. He cut the deficit in half, only for former President Trump to increase the deficit by 39 , featuring a 2 trillion giveaway to the wealthiest people. Now for debating these bills where they want to cut wic benefits to babies. They want to cut snap foodstamp benefits. They want to balance the budget on the backs of the poorest people. A lot of talk about dipping into the Social Security and medicare funds in order to balance the budget. They do not want to take one d ime from the wealthiest people in the america. They do not want to fund irs agents we need to prevent illegal tax evasion. The irs does not simply have the resources. The priorities are very different. My grandmother, who i named was a republican. She died a republican. This is not my grandmothers Republican Party. Host richard in philadelphia. Independent. Caller i wanted to make a few statements as far as the reckless spending that they keep talking about. As far as the border, the more coming across the border, the more welfare has to be put out. Theyre letting the irs in the epa spend trillions of dollars on ammunitions and advanced warfares. They do need to tax the rich like i was speaking of a minute ago. They are constantly funding these extreme expirations of deepsea explorations and things to worry about. We need to worry about what is on land right now before worrying about everything else. Caller other than native americans, all of us are immigrants. We need an immigration system that works. The Congressional Research services, all of them have said that fixing immigration will bully our economy. We do need more workers. We do not need criminals coming across the border. For sure. This country, i know i am an immigrant. I got here on a slave ship. There are plenty of people who have got here. We do need to have a real immigration reform. Not just using this as a wedge issue. This immigration problem is a problem that we need to deal with. It is going to take boots on the ground. It is going to take people coming together. I agree with you. In terms of providing welfare to people who are immigrants, i think we have an obligation to not separate families. Treat people like human beings when they come across the border. In order to do that, we need technology, people. We need to really meet people where they are. Host the household gavel in early this morning. Can you walk us and what you will know about what is happening on the floor today and tomorrow . Guest we are headed toward a shutdown. We will continue to vote ridiculous amendment to the four appropriation bills that they put out there. Up until midnight voting on stuff like, lets define the department of Homeland Security secretarys. Lets defund the office of intelligence and analysis and Homeland Security. Lets not allow women to travel who need abortions. On and on. These amendments are failing by the way. 300 to 61. Whatever. We are not considering some sort of continuing resolution to keep the government open. Not for a day, not for a week, not for a month. That is a crime. Host what have you been told about your work schedule this weekend . Guest i do not know. I am prepared to be here to keep the government open. I am prepared to do my part. I am ready to vote on something that will pay our basic bills, keep us from losing more of a credit rating. We have been downgraded, just as the debt reduction. We have been downgraded. They have downgraded us. This means there is a higher cost of borrowing, Interest Rates will go up, not only for our country, but for everybody out there who is trying to buy a house, by a are. Uy a car. Host thank you for your time as always. The house is Just Moments Away from gaveling and for todays legislative session. We will bring you up there now for live gaveltogavel coverage of the debate. The shutdo i am so grateful for washington journal and all of the coals you present. If this is the best weve got im all for it. Thank you for your work. Host all right, thanks. Tom in illinois, independent. Caller thank you for your patience on this outlet. I want to discuss primarily the bank of the United States, that every time we talked about national banking, it has the horrible reflection of democratic socialism or Something Like a bogeyman in the room, when in reality it was a concept of architecture and it would have had a greater diversification of power when deciding massive budgets, Discretionary Spending, and a lack of oversight is a concern grading social creating social compression in the same form of populism. Host from west virginia, republican, we will hear from you. Youre on air so youve got to mute the television please. Just listen and talk through your phone. Caller all right, i dont get the way they are acting. The democrats blame the republicans, republicans blame the democrats and they are all with the government and they are supposed to do what is right for the people. They are supposed to do what is right for the country. Why cant they do that instead of acting like a bunch of kids back and forth to biden has not done anything good for the country, prudent is not into poland push and does not have to go to poland. Its in ukraine. We can be smart and use common sense. Host we will ask two memories of congress next. What is the solution . A short break when we get back from capitol hill. First, republican congressman rented williams of new york and then congresswoman quinn more gwen moore and then democrats. We will get back. Monday, watch the cspan series in partnership with the library of congress, books that shaped america. We will feature the journals of lewis and clark, to explore the west all the way to the pacific ocean. Lewis and clarke have detailed journals throughout the trip of the terrains and potential trade groups. Stephanie will join us to discuss of the expedition. Watch, books that shaped america. Or online at cspan. Org. Be sure to scan the qr code to listen to our companion podcast, where you can learn authors of the features. Book tv, every sunday on cspan two features leading authordiscussing their latest nonfiction book. Live, douglas rush joins book tvs indepth to talk and to cause a the Digital Resolution revolution and consequences. At 10 p. M. On after work, New York Times reporter looks at the successes and failure of the last four decades of his publication in his book, the time. Watch book tv every sunday on cspan two. To find a full schedule on your Program Guide or watch online anytime. Washington journal continues. Host joining us is congressman brandon williams, a republican of new york represents the 27th district. Will there be a Government Shutdown . Guest it is unknown at this time. I think we are working overtime to make sure there is not a Government Shutdown. Part of some conversations last night looking for solutions. I am just generally an optimist. I am optimistic that we are going to avoid that. I do not think a Government Shutdown helps anyone. Host the deadline is saturday at midnight. How does it get done . Guest we have to create trust so that within my own conference, the republican conference, that all parties feel like we are headed down the right path in the same path. That is the most important thing that we have to get to. Then that opens up temporary funding, shortterm funding to keep the government open while get the 11 appropriation bills that are already through the committee, get them past and through the senate. Host what does that trust look like . Guest there are basically two pillars of what we have to solve. Pillar number one, congress has to reform how we spend money. The American People trust us to do that. I think that is a lot of what the 2022 election cycle was about. We have to push back against the Progressive Agenda or the biotin agenda. We have to be in the majority. Those two pillars, those two goals are with the American People are expecting from us. I think that is the path forward. Whatever compromise comes together to get us through this budget cycle to get all 12 appropriation bills passed, we have to think keep in mind those goals and principles. Host what does a continual resolution looks like in the house that can get all republicans to vote for it . Guest i think you are breaking it down in the wrong way. I do not think the issue is continuing resolution or not. The real issue inside the room, inside the conference is stressed trust. The American People do not want to see business as usual from our congress. Or they want to see his act in a responsible way, spend money in a responsible way. A continuing resolution has to be very short timeframe as short as possible so that we can continue regular order and continue appropriation space spending pattern. That is what we abandoned for the last 25 years. The American People want to get back on track. Host what we could seal the floor are continuing resolutions that last for a week at a time . That would garner trust with some in the Freedom Caucus. Guest that is certainly a solution. It is incremental trust. In small steps of trust instead of 38 45 days. You know, these are big checks the biden arrow spending come abide in priority spending. I really would biden priority spending. I would emphasize trust. What steps will we take to follow through on our commitment to pass appropriation bills and continual resolution spending, the better. Host conservative republicans who have said no continual resolution, will not vote for one. Are you saying you have heard from them that they will go along with a week at a time . Guest it is not always clear who are the holdouts. It seems to shift a little bit. To speak in a definitive way, please remember i was a marine officer for the navy. I try to speak in deliberate precise way. It is not clear to me who are although the holdouts are. As i propose my view on our current dilemma of these two goals that we have to achieve, i have had positive feedback from shortterm spending approvals just to get us to the trust that we need to get the appropriation bills through. I think it could work. Im telling you the issue is trust. Host what about passing these weeklong crs and then getting approval in the senate winston and Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell of your party says it needs to include ukraine funding, that they already agreed to that in the Upper Chamber . Guest it can stand on its own. Cramming enter acr to avoid a shutdown is exactly the behavior the American People are talking about. They want everything to stand on its own. If leader schumer wants ukraine funding, it should stand on its own and get voted. It really should not be a bargaining chip. Host the same article provided to hr two, that House Republicans are insisting be included in continuing resolution, that it should stand on its own . Guest i think the Democratic Party wants rescue on the. E border issue. Kathy hochul wants rescue on the border issue. On monday i saw firsthand the imams flood of migrants across firsthand i saw the enormous flood of migrants. Our southern border in ukraine are not equal issues. Certainly, i think there is a lot of desire across the board to get a much better Border Security in place. Host lets go to stephen and illinois. You are talking to brandon williams. Caller we increase the deficit by 7 trillion under trump. Five chilly was before the pandemic. While the five chilly was before the pandemic. We were increasing the deficit. The republicans cut taxes, increase the deficit. The democrats spend money and increase the taxes. What we talked about his 5 trillion of trunks increase of deficits. He was goosing the economy the whole time. Deficit spending made this economy. Everything claims the pandemic, but nobody gives biden a piece of crumb about how the pandemic would affect his environment. You cannot stop paying your bills. That is what republicans do. React to that. It is just a must. It is a mess. Guest it is a mess and both parties are responsible. I do nothing both parties are responsible in the same way. The 10 trillion that has been added in the Biden Administration posted inflation boosted inflation. Every american is paying for. It is incredibly aggressive tax and unfair. I get back to my two pillars, that congress has to reform itself on how it spends money. That is my message. It is not about cutting spending or this number or that number, the American People want to know that for the next Generation Congress is going to act in a responsible way. That is what this standoff is about. Thats what has to be resolved. The caller is right. This is a both parties problem. What enables it is the omnibus bills in the big blanket longterm continuing resolution bills and the American People have had enough. They see that congress is not acting in a responsible way. There is terrible consequences. Host republicans do not trust one another. Why didnt the republicancontrolled house passed the appropriation bills months ago. The president on the budget to avoid the nuclear bomb default on our debt. Guest the conversations on about the timing of when bills go through. I think that is a fair question. Why are we in crisis 10 days before the federal fiscal year. Only passed one appropriation bill and have 11 bills on the docket. I would like to see those either come back from august recess or spend more time to get these done in orderly fashion. Reform, when i talk about reform , how we spend money is not easy. All of this paying that is building up outs inside all of congress, specifically in my conference, maybe what we have to experience in order to get the reforms that we need. Going all the way back to december, the rules and discussions that we had, the 15 votes per speaker, this has always been about regular order and Appropriations Bills for spending. Looks like that issue is still top of mind for everyone. Host if the speaker moves to a continuing resolution a clean centennial resolution, that garner support for democrats to get it approved to get us into the senate, what would he think of that action by the speaker . Is there a motion to vacate because of that would you support it . Guest i support Speaker Mccarthy. I think this is a difficult time. It i think he is uniquely able to hold our conference together and get stuff done. To take on leader schumers clean resolution with a bunch of spending in it is exactly the problem the American People want fixed. To have a clean cr that is really not addressing reforming congress or reducing spending, i think it is a disservice to the American People. Everybody knows that. Host kurt in new jersey. Independent. Caller i hear you speak trust. I obviously have trust issues. I have no trust in our government. If the government shuts down, do you guys go back on vacation . Do all of the biolabs shutdown . Do all of the wars shutdown . Do all of the investigations shutdown . I think this is all on purpose. I am not stupid. I try to figure out what the truth is because that is far and in between. Host lets get a response on your question. Potential Government Shutdown, what happens . Guest i am the First Nuclear submarine veteran to serve and congress in 50 years. Served in congress in 50 years. I am used to operating in a very , very high trust environment. Not just in government, anywhere in the human experience, being on a Nuclear Submarine is about the highest trust that you could imagine. To go from that and to a business career, now into congress, i just see things differently. I really focus on trying to see things as they are aimed to speak truth the best i can into my colleagues they are and to speak truth the best i can into my colleagues. It takes frankly a lot of free orientation for me. There are some very fine people on both sides of the aisle that are committed to the will of the people. When i hear the questions of the trust of government, i think it is the issues that we have two address. We have to restore the trust. I walked away from a business i have never been remotely connected to politics in my life. Pretty much. My wife and i decided that this is what we do because we need better leaders in congress. I cannot provide that. I am one voice out of 435. One point of the government and the legislative cycle. I will try to describe things as accurate as i can. I am optimistic that we will have the trust and do the right thing, like Winston Churchill says, after we every other possibility. Host if a shutdown happens, are you concerned your party will get blamed . Guest we will get blamed. I am not concerned, that is a reality. My concerns about my reelection, i have been concerned about serving the people of central new york. If you ask my staff with the congressmans job is is to love the people of the district. I think it is important that republicans lead the nation going forward. I think we have to step back from the fantasies of the Progressive Left that are running our cities and borders. Quite frankly are running our energy and our electric grid. Theres a lot of reasons i am passionate about serving. It is not frankly about me. I never anticipated having a political career. Im not here to protect my political career. We just got to get this country is headed in the right direction. Caller i was watching the amendment votes last night. Everyone of those amendments that 56 or 75 republicans voted with the democrats. I would like to know why . Guest it is democracy. Every member of congress represent 760,000 americans are less. This is what i democracy is, you put your ideas forward, you put it to devote. Im often reminded that the that fault in english to banish the slave trade. He put forward a bill after bill, year after year for decades until it was finally adopted and the slave trade was ended. The nature of democracy is we show up, try again. You have to influence all of the nation to go along with that point of view, the nature of democracy. Host chris is in louisville, kentucky. Democratic line. Caller greta, i hope you will give me a minute because i want to share some things that the American People need to hear. I will be quick. I am an americanborn african from the vietnam era. When i was listening to you, i had you to alexa. When i first heard of the congressman begin to speak for about 10 seconds in he was republican because of this ingenuous things he was saying. I will ask the congressman, if we go into shutdown, he can leave by saying i will not accept my pay until this is over, like so many americans. When he started talking about trust, again how can he as a republican knowing that their standard is up for indictment, has done all kinds of political things. Potentially going to jail. He is the standard for the Republican Party and we are supposed to follow that. Host will you take pay if the government shuts down . Guest i am not sure how that works. Host you still get money. Minority leader said so yesterday. Will u. S. Tapped the pay . Will you accept the pay . Guest i will. I am not independently wealthy. We are like any other family we want to stay focused on the job and not be manipulated by our own financial circumstance to do what is right for america. I assume that is why that is in place. Host do you believe that the formal president is the standard for the party . Guest i never met President Trump, spoken with President Trump. The principles that i it hereto for the Republican Party go back to Ronald Reagan. I describe myself as a Ronald Reagan republican. Host mark is in d. C. Independent. Caller i just wanted to speak a little bit about the reform. I am extremely shocked to hear there is a proposal. Why i am shocked about that is, i do not know if congressmans williams is aware. I will ask you the question. Are you aware that during a shutdown government officials have to go out to each officer division to check to see who is expected, who is furloughed to prepare guidance to send folks because they are not going to get their paycheck, they do not know when they are going to get their paycheck. They might have two reach out to their Mortgage Company to make sure to let them know they are going to be a weekly, two weeks late, three weeks late. Just a question when we talk about putting people into a chaotic, anxiety inducing environment where we are going to be having one week crs. I will be interested to see your response to that, especially based off your comments you are a person of moral character. I will leave it there. Guest trying to digest that. The nature of reforming the spending of congress means that there will be pain and suffering for a lot of people, not just government employees, but people that rely on contracts of the government that people get different payments for the government. It is the nature of how we got here. To unwind irresponsible spending. There is no painless way to do that. I have to say that is where we are as a nation. We got here over many decades of reckless spending. The fact that there will be some pain and discomfort should be anticipated and expected. This is a longterm problem that we have to solve. I am not without compassion for the difficulties that it causes. I had 500 days of sea on the submarine. My daughter was born. I had to go see 10 days later. Even though my wife and daughter was readmitted to, i still had to go to the hospital. There is a lot of uncomfortable things that would come for this type of reform. I do not know the specifics that you outlined. We got here to wean ourselves off of this we will be thankful. Host dan, a republican. You are next for the congressman. Caller the United States of america believe in slavery. That is for sure. What we have across our borders, our southern borders is horrendous. It is human trafficking. There are laws against that. There are federal laws against that. When i saw some of the votes come up yesterday about protecting our border, how is it possible that no democrats voted in favor of securing the border. None. Over a third of the republicans voted with the democrats to profess this. I consider those republicans i do not consider them report americans. I would like your opinion. Guest i had a conversation with a private conversation with a