Speaker Johnson REVEALS the reason why Schumer is leading Dems off shutdown cliff

The federal government, of course, officially in shutdown mode right now after Democrats and Republicans failed to agree on a funding bill. The measure required 60 votes to pass, but it fell short in a 55 to 45 vote.

Democrats John Federman and Catherine Cortez Masto went with Republicans along with independent Angus King. They all voted with Republicans to support the bill and support the government staying open.

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul was the only Republican who voted against the bill. The Congressional Budget Office says an estimated 750,000 federal employees could face furloughs as a result of this. In past the OMB formally instructing agencies to begin shutdown procedures

Tuesday night. Another memo expected today. This marks the 4th government shutdown this century, the first since 2019's record 35 day standoff over border wall funding. That was in 2019. Joining me now is the Speaker of the House,

Congressman Mike Johnson. Mr. Speaker, it's great to see you this morning. Thanks so much for being here, and I know you've had a lot going on overnight. We're not going to get economic data this Friday because the government just shut down. What else will be impacted by this shutdown?

Good to see you this morning, my friend. It was a long night here. It's been a long few days. We were hoping, praying that the Democrats would not take this dramatic step, and they have. Let's be clear what happened last night.

44 Senate Democrats rejected a clean, nonpartisan continuing resolution to keep the government operating. They decided that it would be more important to force, to give health care to illegal aliens again instead of keeping critical services running for the American people. That's what happened. So real people are going to be affected. About half the civilian workforce, federal, hardworking Americans who work for the federal

government will be furloughed. We'll have troops and border patrol agents who do have to go to work but who will not be paid. You're gonna have critical services to women, infants and children through the nutrition programs that will now be halted. You're gonna have FEMA that can't renew flood insurance programs while we're in the center of hurricane season. I mean it's really incredible that they took this step,

and I want to make something very clear at the outset here, Maria. There is one reason, and one reason alone, that Chuck Schumer is leading the Democrats off this cliff. He is trying to get political cover from the far left corner of his base.

He's afraid of a challenge for his Senate seat by AOC or someone like that, and that's why he has changed his tune. Everything he said for his entire career in Washington for decades, that shutdowns would be dangerous and reckless and irresponsible, he's now changed his tune to give himself political cover, and that's exactly what's going on here.

That's incredible. There were two Democrats who actually sided with Republicans to keep the government open, and I spoke with one of them, Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman on Sunday, who told me then that he would not vote against keeping government open. Here's what he told me Sunday. Watch.

It is always, always wrong to shut our government down. That is a core responsibility. I'm always going to vote against those things. And if it's the Republican side or now it's our side, especially with the kinds of chaos that we are facing after Kirk, and now there's a cat five storm that might hit our nation too.

Now, and you're willing to threaten us down. I was the only Democrat voting against that. And now that CR was the same CR from the Biden administration as well too. I'm a big believer of if you want to change the policies, win elections. And that's that's really the way democracy works.

So Mr. Speaker, the Senate will vote again today on both the House passed CR and the version introduced by Chuck Schumer. Do you think a breakthrough could be possible today or no?

Well I certainly hope so. We already saw a bit of a, the beginning of a break I think last night with a couple more joining. What Senator Fetterman said there is exactly right. That interview you had with him has been sent around the world because there's so much common sense there.

And what he was referring to is the fact that his colleagues, Democrat colleagues, have always supported continuing resolutions. In fact, Maria, the actual number is 13. 13 times in the previous four years under the Biden administration, there were CR situations, and they all voted yes.

Why?

Because they wanted to keep the government open because they knew how dangerous and damaging it would be for the American people. And now they've switched their tune because they're trying to play politics.

President Trump has said, you know, he could use this as an opportunity to further cut government and turn some of those temporary furloughs into permanent job cuts. Speaker, can you assess what you're expecting in terms of the job cuts and how severe they could be?

Yes. The president and I have talked about this at great length. While a shutdown is very damaging for real American people who depend upon government services, it can provide an opportunity to downsize the scope and the scale of government, which is something that we've all always wanted to do. And so in a way, Chuck Schumer has now handed the keys to the kingdom, to the executive branch under President Trump, to do some things that we would not otherwise be able to do because we would never get democrat votes for them.

Now, Russ vote is in charge, as you know, of the office of management and budget, and it is his responsibility to look at all of this and make very difficult choices. He gets to decide now what services are essential, what programs and policies should be continued and which would not be a priority for taxpayers. That is what is about to happen, and Chuck Schumer has allowed that and so it from his political perspective it's a pretty massive backfire and there's a real

opportunity for government to work more efficiently and effectively for the

people if those decisions are made. Well I mean it has to be stressed that this is the same continuing resolution that they voted for under Biden and so what's changed now President Trump is the president. Is it all just about fighting Trump?

It appears that way. And, again, giving Chuck Schumer personal political cover in New York because he's afraid he's going to be challenged from a socialist, okay? He acts like a socialist himself,

but he's not far enough left for the base that's arisen there. That's the problem, and that's what's changed. Now, we were in the Oval Office, you know, with the leaders. Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries were invited because President Trump shows strong leadership, and he said, I'll hear the arguments, bring it in.

They couldn't present a single argument that was credible. So there was nothing to negotiate. They don't have any credible point to make, they're just trying to make a partisan political stand for their own purposes. And real people are going to be affected, and that's what's so frustrating about this

whole thing. Well, I think they feel that if they keep saying it's health care, it's health care, that they'll get the American people's attention. And I know it is largely about those subsidies, those Obamacare subsidies. But you also said it's about making it easier for illegal immigrants to get health care benefits. I want to get your take on what Ro Khanna said to me yesterday, because he's pushing

back on that and saying that it's really not about illegals. Watch this. He spoke with me yesterday here.

In terms of health care, the reality is they're just not being honest. The amount of money that actually is going towards people who are undocumented is such a small portion of the Medicaid cuts or the Affordable Care Act, if at all. And so we can argue that point, but the reality that even the vice president would acknowledge, that anyone who looks at the numbers will acknowledge, is 90 to 95 percent of the funding we're talking about is talking about funding for American citizens.

So, Mr. Speaker, what really is this fight about?

Well, I'd like everybody to go read the bill for themselves. They rejected our clean, nonpartisan, continual resolution and they filed their own. What Chuck Schumer presented as the counterproposal, look at page 57, section 2141, okay? They would repeal, Maria, what we put into the one big beautiful bill, the working families tax cuts, okay?

In that provision was the healthcare section. They want to repeal it in its entirety. That section has been wildly successful. The Congressional Budget Office issued a report earlier this month, last month, a few weeks ago, and they said that that bill has already saved taxpayers $185 billion because it's got 2.3 million ineligible recipients kicked off of Medicaid.

What does that mean? There's a lot of illegal aliens that were on that program who were not eligible to be there. It was draining resources from the people that it's intended to help, and that is young pregnant women, the disabled, and the elderly. We are strengthening Medicaid, and the Democrats want to unwind that because they have a political

talking point. This thing about the subsidies is an issue that is to be debated and decided by the end of the year. It doesn't expire until December 31. They've inserted it into the September funding decision because they're trying to show a fight against Trump.

It's ridiculous. They have nothing to argue and everybody here knows that.

So you're going to have to deal with those subsidies anyway. You could deal with them later in the year. You don't have to deal with that right now while you're trying to fund government by November. But let me get your take on what Senator Mike Rounds is sending around. Because his idea from South Carolina would be that

the subsidies are extended for one year, which would then be followed up by a one year phase down return to the tax credits to pre-COVID levels. Is that something you could support?

Listen, we have a lot of debate and discussion about that because the subsidy program is propping up insurance companies, not premium payers. Premiums have continued to go up. There are lots of problems. So there's been a lot of discussion here, early discussion, about how those things could be dramatically revised.

I mean, there's got to be changes to it if it's even going to be considered. But we need a lot more time to build consensus around any idea that would be viable to pass with conservatives in the House and Senate. And we just simply can't do that before the end of the fiscal year, which was yesterday, right? So they've got to keep the government open. Our point is exactly that.

Do your first job. Your most important responsibility as Congress is to keep the government operating for the people. Just do that. And then we'll have all these debates. I mean, that's what the process is for.

A deliberative legislative body works through that but you got to have the lights on to do it and it's absurd that they're denying that reality. You

know in previous shutdowns you had the debt limit debate which sort of was acting like a catalyst for action right I mean when you know you're up against the debt limit you got to move you got to you got to make a decision you don't have any action forcing catalysts this time around. So this could go on and on. How long would you expect this to go on?

Well our prayer is that it is a very short shutdown and that more Democrats come to their senses and do the right thing for the American people and not follow Chuck Schumer off the cliff. He has painted himself into a corner because he's made absurd arguments. They've created a position here that is indefensible. There's nothing I can give.

There's nothing to negotiate, Maria, because I can't offer anything to make our CR less partisan because I never added partisan provisions in the first place. It's totally clean. It's exactly what Chuck Schumer voted for in March. And you should go see what he said

and how important it was back then. It's exactly the same. He has nothing to argue and I have nothing to offer. So there's no negotiation. And that's why President Trump sent them away from the White House and he said, this is very unfortunate. You won't do the right thing.

I mean, that's what happened.

Putting aside the people who could get fired altogether'll likely get paid on October 5th for the last two weeks of September, but the next pay period would be October 20th. Are you expecting them to miss that October 20th paycheck for the first two weeks of October work and do they get that money back later?

I sure hope that they don't miss that paycheck. They do typically get the money back, but you're talking about real hardships for real people. I mean, think of it, you know, military troops who are serving, some who are overseas right now, they're deployed. Well, their families are back here. You know, you have spouses and children who are dependent upon

those paychecks. They may not have a big, you know, savings account that they can rely upon. It does real harm to real people. TSA agents, border patrol agents, vital federal services. In the healthcare sector, they claim this is all about healthcare. Guess what they

put in their counterproposal, Maria? They want to strip away the $50 billion that we put in the big beautiful bill to prop up rural hospitals. Why? Because they're in red states. I guess that's how they see it. But they've made some absurd arguments. The WIC program that provides nutrition assistance for women, infants, and children is going to be stopped. Veterans Healthcare Services. We have people who are low-income recipients on the Medicare program who receive telehealth and health from home. Those programs just got stopped by Chuck Schumer's antics. I

mean this is this is real harm to a lot of people, and I think we've got to resolve it ASAP.

And some of the bills that expired at midnight last night, the Farm Bill, the CISA authorization, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, flood insurance, as you just mentioned, complicating home purchases and or refis in flood plains. You got the AGOA, African Growth and Opportunity Act, offering tariff-free access to U.S. markets for 32 African countries, in past expirations, retroactive extensions and importer refunds.

But, you know, one of the big questions is how long does it last? But all of those things, in addition to everything you've just mentioned, obviously, does that

come back on the docket if this is a fast and quick shutdown? Well, yes, we can minimize the damage if it's a short-term, you know, continuing resolution. I mean, a short-term shutdown, we can fix that. I will tell you that Leader Thune is going to put the bill on the floor again today. They're going to have another opportunity. And we are certainly hopeful that more than 44 Democrats will do the right thing. They voted to shut it down. We need more of them to peel off of that position and do the right thing and keep the government open.

Do what they have always done in the past. Again, I'll say it again, 13 times in the previous four years under the Biden administration, every single one of those Democrats voted to keep the government open. They need to do it again.

All right. We will be watching that. The vote happens when, Mr. Speaker, later this afternoon? Later this afternoon.

There's a press conference at 10 a.m., a joint press conference between the Republicans and the Senate and House leadership, and we'll explain exactly what's going on for the American people. And after that, there'll be a vote.

We'll see what happens. All right. Mr. Speaker, great to have you. Mr. Speaker, great to have you. We'll be watching your work, obviously.