What happens in the next three hours and also the days ahead could depend in large part on my first source tonight, the Republican Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson. And thank you so much for being here. Mr. Speaker, do you believe the government's going to shut down in three hours from now?
I think it is inevitable now. It's a very reckless decision that Chuck Schumer has made. The Democrats have taken the last vote within the last few hours. They voted it down once again. And so there's no other option. Now, it's important to note what they're doing here. They're throwing a fit. They're making partisan arguments. The House did its job. We sent to the Senate a clean CR. What that means, it's a very short stopgap funding measure so that the appropriators in Congress and both parties can continue their work of doing the appropriations bills, 12 separate bills. We've made a lot of progress in that. We just need a little more time because tonight is the end of the fiscal year. Chuck Schumer has refused to give the extra time. Why? Because we won't agree to restore health care to illegal aliens. Because we won't agree to give a half a billion dollars back to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He wants to cut the big fund of $50 billion that we set aside to support and prop up rural hospitals in America. Because we won't agree to those partisan demands and $1.5 trillion in new spending on a stopgap funding measure, he's decided to shut the government down. It's real pain for real Americans and it's so frustrating.
I heard you make that first point at the White House yesterday after the meeting y'all had with the president and with Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries. People, as you know, people who are here in the United States legally have never been eligible for the Obamacare subsidies, for Medicare, for Medicaid. So what exactly are you saying that they're trying to do when you talk about giving free health care to...
I'm so glad you asked. Okay, so when we passed the one big beautiful bill, the working families tax cut, we had Medicaid reforms in the bill. You and I talked about it on the air. What we did was to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse. There were a lot of people on the program who were enrolled in the program who were never eligible to be there. Medicaid is intended for eligible U.S. citizens, not illegal aliens, not also U.S. citizens who are able-bodied workers like young men. So we passed the law. This president signed it into law. Democrats voted against it, of course, and it's been wildly successful. The CBO, the Congressional Budget Office, which is the neutral arbiter of all these things, released a report a few weeks ago, earlier this month, and they said, 'You know what? The bill has had its intended purpose. Premiums are coming down.' Listen, because 2.3 million ineligible enrollees had been kicked off of Medicaid, which helps to save the program, prop it up, and $185 billion has been saved already.
What you did was narrow the eligibility for certain people to get access to the ACA subsidies. What they want to do is undo the changes that Republicans made in that. But basically, wouldn't that only affect people who do have legal status, people who are refugee seekers here in the United States, asylum seekers here?
Those are two totally different issues. Now, they've created this as a new argument that they have as to why they should not keep the government open, but they're arguing a December policy debate for a September funding issue. The subsidies that you're talking about don't expire until the end of December.
No, no, no. Those are the subsidies for just everyday Americans. That's one thing that obviously has been the main premise of their argument. But you're saying they want to give free health care to people who are in the United States illegally.
That is exactly what the effect will be.
But when I looked at it, there's a little nuance because they want to undo changes that y'all made narrowing who is eligible to get that. Those are people who are refugee seekers, asylum seekers. They're not technically people who are here illegally, just crossed the border.
No, this is exactly what will happen. And Maxine Waters admitted, I think accidentally today on the House steps, they want to give health care to everybody.
But Maxine Waters is not in charge. She's not the one. She didn't write this bill.
She's one of the senior leaders in the House. Democrats and everybody should Google it and read their counterproposal.
You see my point, right? You're making this argument that they want to just give health care to everyone who's here illegally. This is not for people who cross the border and don't have paperwork. These are people who have temporary protected status.
Right. Absolutely. What will happen if that counterproposal was enacted is illegal aliens would be paid for. American taxpayers' hard-earned dollars would be paying for benefits for illegal aliens. Again, we're not doing that.
But it's against federal law for people who are here illegally to get...
Yes. And that's why our reforms are so important to enforce all that. What the important thing to remember is the Democratic proposal that people who are here illegally should get... because they don't have the level of specification that we had in our bill. It will unwind that and all those things that the CBO just verified will be reversed. We can't afford to do that.
But you see my point that there's no argument that you're making, right?
No, that is a red herring in this debate. What they've decided to do tonight with their vote is to close the government. And what that means, everybody needs to understand, real pain for real Americans. What does that mean? It means women, infants, and children do not get their nutrition programs. That is not funded anymore. Veterans don't get their health care services, suicide prevention, and other very important things that are very timely. You have low-income persons who are Medicaid, Medicare recipients who are receiving care at home. Those programs are now lapsed. They will not be funded. You got about TSA... That's right. And they just decided to do it. So the only question tonight is how long will Chuck Schumer keep the government closed? It's a dangerous gambit. It's something that he himself said his entire political career would be dangerous and disastrous. Roll the tape. We're rolling the greatest hits on our social media.
I'm just saying that the point about giving people who are here illegally health care is not exactly what is in their...
It is 100% what they're...
immigrants who have legal status and you're just disagreeing on who's eligible. I looked at it actually because I was curious about your argument yesterday.
You should study the CBO's analysis that they just put out a few weeks ago.
I saw that about the 1.2 million people. You're basically arguing about who has legal status, people who are seeking refugee or seeking asylum.
