Speaker of the House Mike Johnson opened my program today, discussing with me the Schumer Shutdown:

Audio:

10-06hhs-johnson

Transcript:

HH: Pleased to begin today’s program with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Honorable Mike Johnson. Mr. Speaker, welcome back to the program.

MJ: Hello, my friend. It is great to hear your voice, and I really enjoyed watching you on Fox News today. Great commentary.

HH: Well, I watched your press conference this morning, and when I was on Fox News, I just reiterated what you had to say, which is you’ve been there and done that. You passed the budget. I’m just checking in. It’s been four or five hours. Have the Democrats moved in those four or five hours?

MJ: No movement, I am so sad to tell you. They’re inflicting real pain on real Americans, and they seem not to care. They’re playing political games as you have explained so clearly, as I tried to set out in my press conference this morning. The facts are very clear, and as John Adams reminded us, facts are stubborn things. I mean, they really are doing this for political cover.

HH: There is an old Napoleon saying, Mr. Speaker. Never interrupt your enemy when he is destroying himself.

MJ: Exactly.

HH: Is that your plan right now, just to wait, because they are destroying themselves.

MJ: Yes, and we take no pleasure in this, because it’s not just a cat and mouse game. It’s not a political contest between R’s and D’s. We’ve got millions of Americans being seriously adversely affected right now. I mean, you’ve got women, infants, and children that are not getting nutrition supplements, the programs that the federal government pays for and they desperately need. We’ve got veterans’ health services being suspended. We have tele-health services for people who have disabilities and get their healthcare at home. They’re not getting that right now. You know, I live in a hurricane state, Hugh, and I mentioned, I keep harping on this, but this is real for people that live along the coastal areas of the country. And you can’t get a flood insurance policy renewed or applied right now, because all this is halted. And we’ve got troops and TSA agents and Border Patrol agents protecting us without a paycheck. It’s absurd, and all these Democrats in the Senate know that. They have given their own impassioned speeches about this issue so many times, we can’t count it. The highlight reel would take hours to play, and yet, and yet, they’re holding out. Why? Because they need to “show a fight” against Trump. It is shameful, and it’s got to stop.

HH: It is, I think, AOC’s responsibility, but she’s not in the Senate. Leader Schumer of the Democrats is the guy who is doing this, because he’s afraid of her. Is there anyone who doesn’t acknowledge this off-the-record to you, Mr. Speaker? Because everybody knows it’s about Chuck Schumer being afraid of AOC.

MJ: It absolutely is, and no one can refute that. They don’t even try. And the frustration for us is most of the legacy and mainstream media will not press them on that issue. And so I keep pointing it out. It’s just a simple fact. It’s clearly obvious. I know that the little visual aid on my press conference this morning, it was a cover from back in March of this year, the Washington Examiner, this cartoon image of poor Chuck Schumer walking out with a box from his office looking all beat up. And there’s a character of all the House Democrats holding up signs calling him a traitor and enemy of democracy. Why? Because when this exact scenario was presented in March, he voted for the C.R., because he knew it was the right thing to do. He knew that he could not hold the American people hostage over their political shenanigans. But he flipped this time, and everybody knows why.

HH: Now Mr. Speaker, you’ve got Chuck Schumer in a box canyon. And up on top are the President and the Vice-President. You and Leader Thune are on one side, and you’ve got all of the chairman of all of the committees like Senate Intel Committee Chair Tom Cotton, who’s going to be on the show later, Appropriations Chair in the Senate Susan Collins, who’s going to be on the show later. Everybody wants to come on to rain down fire on the Democratic talking points. How long can they put up with this, do you think?

MJ: I really don’t know. I mean, I’m rather surprised that it’s gone on this long. We’re on day, what, six now? You know, I can’t imagine that it could go longer than a week, because in the middle of this month, on the 15th, that’s when the paychecks being withheld gets very real. You’ve got troops and, you know, people serving in our armed services. I come from a big military district in Louisiana, Hugh. I know a lot of these families. I’ve got airmen and soldiers at Barksdale Air Force Base and Fort Polk. And some of these folks are deployed. You’ve got these young soldiers who are deployed overseas right now serving and defending freedom and their country. And they’ve left their spouses at home with young children. They need that paycheck. This is not a game to them. They won’t be able to make their car payments and put food on the table, because Chuck Schumer needs political cover from AOC. I mean, it is so absurd. How long can they continue to do this?

HH: Moreover, just to elaborate on that, Mr. Speaker, because I married into a military family. We have active duty in the family. They’ll be okay if they miss a paycheck or two. They’re officers who have been in for a long time. But those E-1’s through E-4’s, they are married.

MJ: Right.

HH: They do have dependents. They cannot miss a paycheck, and they’re already getting phone calls and texts about are we going to get paid from their spouses and their kids at home. And unlike everybody else in the federal government, they can’t quit. Everybody else can get mad and go home if they don’t get paid. Not the people in uniform. They’re under orders. They have to show up. Have the Democrats got no shame at all?

MJ: Well, they seem not to care. They’ve put their own self-interest above those people that you’re referring to, and I thought your point was made so well, and I saw you say that on Fox News and point out. If you’re a civilian employee of the federal government, and by the way, about half of them are furloughed right now, and you’re sick of these Democrat shenanigans, you can just quit your job and go do something else. But to your point, yes, military, they’ve made a commitment. They can’t leave. They’ve got to endure this. And we’ve trying to appeal to the consciences of these Democrat senators and say please, for the love of all that’s good and holy, do the right thing. Do the right thing. We have plenty of time to debate our policy differences. Don’t hold these young families as hostages for this nonsense. And that’s exactly what’s happening right now.

HH: Before I get technical and into the weeds with you, Mr. Speaker, have you spoken today with President Trump? Is he holding the line like Leader Thune?

MJ: He is. He sent me a note after my press conference, saying that it was well done and all of that. And I called him and we talked, and he is holding the line. He understands we are doing the right thing for the right reason, and he is in no way inclined to give into their radical demands. Remember, their counterproposal, Hugh, and you and I both have been pointing out, they want to spend a trillion and a half new dollars, and they want to give healthcare and benefits to illegal aliens. Yes, that is a fact. That is not a Republican talking point. It’s in their own document that they filed in the Congressional record.

HH: Now if you are watching Fox News, you saw John Roberts say there’s one talking point that’s not so terrible by the Democrats, which is that insurance plans will raise rates on November 1. Luckily, I had watched your press conference, so I had the answer. That would be a legitimate talking point if there were only six days in October. There aren’t. You could be negotiating right now, but no one can negotiate, because the Democrats have shut down the government.

MJ: 100%. Look, that issue, the funding actually runs out December 31. We acknowledge that there are some insurance companies that would be sending notices out in early November, but we have the month of October to resolve it. There are, that’s a terribly flawed program. We were philosophically opposed to it. We understand the realities of it, and there’s a lot of substantive changes that would have to be done to even consider renewing it. But there’s a lot of thought that’s gone into that already, Republicans and Democrats. We’ve got probably a hundred ideas for reforms on the table. But I can’t snap my fingers this afternoon and make that happen. That’s a consensus voting exercise, and that’s why we need the month of October. And they themselves are stalling it.

HH: And I actually think you could go to December 30th, and the insurance companies will send out another notice. Two more questions, Mr. Speaker. We did reconciliation, you did reconciliation last year. You got that done with Leader Thune and the Republicans in both houses. Can you start a second reconciliation right now just to prove to the Democrats they get nothing out of this? You’ll do a second reconciliation while they go home?

MJ: Yes, we can, and we’re actually talking about that. I mean, I’ve got to bring everybody back into session to do it, but we have lots of plans on the table already. We’ve been preparing already Reconciliation 2.0. And to your point, we can do that without them. But you know, it’s a difficult thing for us to be working through the next level and the next set of plans when all these Americans are hurting because of Chuck Schumer’s shenanigans. So we’ve made the point, not politically, but because it is reality. We have got to turn the lights back on. We have to get the government operating again so that we can get to these big priorities.

HH: When you get to those negotiations, Mr. Speaker, last question and comment, there’s a fellow named Marc Andreessen who you probably know…

MJ: He’s a dear friend, yes.

HH: …big a16z, and he does a podcast with Ben Horowitz. And they spent an entire hour and a half talking about permitting reform and what we need to keep up with China.

MJ: Yes.

HH: I mean, when we sit down and negotiate, when you sit down and negotiate with the Democrats, is everything on the table? Can you get permitting reform in exchange for some of their demands?

MJ: Well, we certainly hope so. It is a top priority for us. And Marc and others have been so good on this. Look, we’re in a competition. Energy policy is national security now, and you’ve got to have permitting reform so that we can save America. This is not a game. It’s not hyperbole. The need for energy, the demand goes up exponentially because of AI and all these other uses. And our European allies, by the way, are desperate for our LNG exports and all this. So when we increase our energy production, we do well for every single American. And we’ve got to get about that immediately. And there’s great ideas on the table, but yes, we’re going to have to force some of the Democrats to go along with us on that, because they are not inclined. It is against some of their religion with their big Green New Deal scam stuff.

HH: Yeah, but there are things they want which you can trade. Mr. Speaker, thank you for your time. You did a great job today. I hope you do that every morning, because it was not fun for Democrats, and I enjoyed it immensely. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

MJ: Thanks, my friend. Great to talk to you.

End of interview.