Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Joining us now, as we promised, live from Capitol Hill
Speaker 2: is the US Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson. Welcome
Speaker 2: back to Bloomberg TV and Radio, mister Speaker. But looking
Speaker 2: forward to the conversation, and I appreciate your time this evening.
Speaker 2: I'm sure you're having a ball and you don't want
Speaker 2: this to end anytime soon. But I'm just wondering what
Speaker 2: your gut check is here and how long you think
Speaker 2: this is going to go on.
Speaker 1: This is a very frustrating exercise for us. It's no
Speaker 1: fun at all, Joe. And that's because real Americans are
Speaker 1: feeling real harm because of this. It's political games being
Speaker 1: played by Democrats in the Senate. There is one reason,
Speaker 1: and one reason alone, that they've all just magically changed
Speaker 1: their tune. I mean, they've done one hundred to eighty
Speaker 1: degree turn. And what they have always said and done
Speaker 1: emphatically in keeping the government open. They said as recently
Speaker 1: as March of this year. We're playing the highlight reel
Speaker 1: tape outside the Speaker's office right now. They all said,
Speaker 1: in their own words, you can't shut the government down.
Speaker 1: It's too painful. Something change. What changed was the political calculation.
Speaker 1: Chuck Shermer is worried about, as was just said, an
Speaker 1: attack or a challenge from his left flank. He's afraid
Speaker 1: that the Marxist wave in New York is going to
Speaker 1: take him over as well, because he represents that state,
Speaker 1: and so he's got to pick a fight with Trump
Speaker 1: and show that he's fighting. Well, they picked a fight
Speaker 1: that has nothing to do with stop gut funding. They're
Speaker 1: talking about the Obamacare subsidies, for example. That's a December
Speaker 1: thirty one policy issue. We were always going to negotiate
Speaker 1: that and debate it and deliberate over it in October November.
Speaker 1: That always has been on the schedule and they know that.
Speaker 1: But they're trying to pretend that's the issue of the day.
Speaker 3: It's not.
Speaker 1: It's a red herring. It's a distraction. They're not doing
Speaker 1: their jobs and real Americans are getting hurt.
Speaker 2: Well, we spoke just a few moments ago with Congresswoman
Speaker 2: Catherine Clark who said, we just want to gesture, mister speaker,
Speaker 2: would you consider a promise to bring that negotiated legislation
Speaker 2: to a floor vote up or down. We'll make sure
Speaker 2: that happens before the end of the year.
Speaker 1: Well, the Speaker of the House is in no position
Speaker 1: to project forward what the outcome of a big policy
Speaker 1: debate is going to be. That'd be unprecedented for anyone
Speaker 1: to do that, and I won't.
Speaker 3: What we have told them.
Speaker 1: Is the obvious fact that there are ongoing negotiations and
Speaker 1: discussions going on today between Republicans and Democrats, and certainly
Speaker 1: within our own caucuses about how some of that would
Speaker 1: need to be reformed. Look, there's a lot of conservatives
Speaker 1: who have real problems with the Obamacare subsidy. Okay, when
Speaker 1: the government subsidizes something, it means it's not working. It's
Speaker 1: like the ev mandates. You know, people didn't want to
Speaker 1: buy electric vehicles. The government said we'll give you seventy
Speaker 1: five hundred dollars cash if you do, and they still
Speaker 1: didn't buy enough of them. Right, when the government subsidizes something,
Speaker 1: it means the market's not working. Obamacare was supposed to
Speaker 1: bring down the cost of health care. Premiums of skyrocketed
Speaker 1: since it was created in two thousand and ten. They're
Speaker 1: up like sixty percent, So something's not working. There's real
Speaker 1: reforms that are needed, but it's a complex issue that
Speaker 1: takes a lot of time for members on both sides
Speaker 1: of the island, in both chambers to negotiate. They're trying
Speaker 1: to search short circuit all that. Right now, that's not
Speaker 1: how this process works. The clean cr is so simple,
Speaker 1: Joe is twenty four pages in length. It has exactly
Speaker 1: zero Republican policy writers on it.
Speaker 3: We made it so simple. We just said, do what
Speaker 3: you've always done.
Speaker 1: Let's keep the lights on and keep the appropriations and
Speaker 1: the negotiation process going. They refuse to do it because
Speaker 1: again they want to show a fight because they can't
Speaker 1: stand President Trump.
Speaker 3: That's what this is.
Speaker 1: And in the meantime, American people are being used as
Speaker 1: pawns in this game, and it is so frustrating to us.
Speaker 1: I think it's shameful. I think it's immoral for them
Speaker 1: to do what they're doing right now.
Speaker 2: Well, I know your position on that, and you we
Speaker 2: hear about the Schumer shut down a lot around here.
Speaker 2: Tom Emmer was with us just a couple of days
Speaker 2: ago making the point that we've heard this over the
Speaker 2: past couple of weeks, but what happens if Chuck Schumer
Speaker 2: doesn't come around for you? What happens if weeks go by.
Speaker 2: If members of the military are not being paid, are
Speaker 2: there off ramps here for you? Mister Speaker, Will you
Speaker 2: start reaching out directly to Democrats? Do we need another
Speaker 2: meeting in the Oval office.
Speaker 1: Look, I am a good faith operator. I am a negotiator.
Speaker 1: I like to find common ground. Here's the problem, because
Speaker 1: we were operating in good faith and doing the most
Speaker 1: basic simple thing, I mean, the bare minimum piece of
Speaker 1: legislation to keep the lights on. I literally don't have
Speaker 1: anything to negotiate on the CR. I can't go into
Speaker 1: that document then say, oh, let me pull off these
Speaker 1: Republican priorities and see if we can get some more
Speaker 1: Democrats to.
Speaker 3: Vote on it. I don't have anything to pull off
Speaker 3: of it.
Speaker 1: I sent over a clean continued resolution, and by the way,
Speaker 1: very important. It continues Biden era policies and spending, which
Speaker 1: we conservatives don't like. We're trying to change that, but
Speaker 1: we need the appropriations process to finish it. All we
Speaker 1: needed was seven more weeks on the clock to finish
Speaker 1: the process. And the Republicans and Democrats who are appropriators
Speaker 1: are the ones that decided that date and decided it
Speaker 1: should be clean. And everything was going smoothly until Chuck
Speaker 1: Schimmer decided to blow it up. Is he going to fold?
Speaker 1: I don't know, but I'll tell you what needs to happen.
Speaker 1: Some other Senate Democrats need to come to their senses
Speaker 1: and realize they should not be blamed for the pain
Speaker 1: that's being inflicted on the people. Make it stop as
Speaker 1: soon as possible, do the right thing and join your
Speaker 1: Republican colleagues and open the government back up.
Speaker 2: That's why I ask if you're reaching out to some
Speaker 2: of the Democratic senators, mister speaker, have you talked to
Speaker 2: Chuck Schumer since your Oval Office meeting?
Speaker 3: No? Not since the Oval Office meeting. But I'll tell
Speaker 3: you what.
Speaker 1: The President made an impassioned plea while we were there
Speaker 1: to please not do this, Please don't shut the government down, Chuck,
Speaker 1: and he was spurned, and Chuck Schumer and HACKEM. Jeffreys
Speaker 1: walked out defiantly. You know they wanted to pick this fight.
Speaker 1: It's very clear. The question everybody's asking is how long
Speaker 1: October fifteenth troops begin to lose a real paycheck, and
Speaker 1: you've got TSA agents and Border patrol agents and all
Speaker 1: these people sacrificing their own safety. To protect everyone else,
Speaker 1: and they won't be paid. You've got nutrition programs and
Speaker 1: health services and femous services and all sorts of other
Speaker 1: things stalled, and half the civilian workforce of the federal
Speaker 1: government is now furloughed. This is dangerous stuff. Real people
Speaker 1: are being hurt. Air traffic controllers are falling back on
Speaker 1: the job because they don't have enough personnel. It's a
Speaker 1: serious stuff, and we need the Democrats to come to
Speaker 1: their senses and do the right thing.
Speaker 3: Well, of course there's.
Speaker 2: A thread of mass layoffs coming from the president. He
Speaker 2: said maybe four or five days he would make a
Speaker 2: decision on that. But there's also been a conversation and
Speaker 2: I heard you speaking earlier in your briefing about back
Speaker 2: pay for federal workers who have been furloughed. There's, of
Speaker 2: course a law on the books around furloughed workers getting
Speaker 2: back bay today, and I know that you have been
Speaker 2: speaking to the letter of a law. The President yesterday
Speaker 2: yesterday said though that there are some federal workers who
Speaker 2: do not deserve the quote was to be taken care of.
Speaker 2: Is this issue the purview of Congress? Do you plan
Speaker 2: to follow this law or is this somehow up to
Speaker 2: russ vote. Now.
Speaker 1: Well, look, there's different legal analyzes that are floating around
Speaker 1: right now, and I've been so busy with this i
Speaker 1: haven't had a chance to dig into it.
Speaker 3: I am a lawyer.
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to reading through that because I kind
Speaker 1: of get into all the scholarship side of this. It
Speaker 1: has always been my understanding that the law requires furloughed
Speaker 1: workers to receive back pay, and of course that's been
Speaker 1: the tradition. And I'm not sure exactly what the President
Speaker 1: is referring to there there. I haven't had a chance
Speaker 1: to talk to him about that specific issue yet, but
Speaker 1: we will. I can tell you this though, the view
Speaker 1: of the White House, the view of the President himself,
Speaker 1: is that he doesn't want federal workers to be used
Speaker 1: as ponds.
Speaker 3: Here.
Speaker 1: We've got some great patriotic Americans who work for our
Speaker 1: agencies and provide essential services to the people. They should
Speaker 1: not suffer the harms of people who want to pay
Speaker 1: political games. And I think this really important principle for
Speaker 1: us to advance.
Speaker 2: Do you worry about mass layoffs coming as early as
Speaker 2: next week and that actually poisoning the well even more
Speaker 2: between Republicans and Democrats? What would be the impact of a.
Speaker 1: Move like that, well, look, I'm worried about all sorts
Speaker 1: of adverse effects because of how it affects the American people.
Speaker 1: We had some analysis today that every week that the
Speaker 1: Democrats shut down continues, we could lose fifteen billion dollars
Speaker 1: in gross domestic product. I mean, it's a real hit
Speaker 1: for real people, and it has a reverberating effect. And
Speaker 1: if you keep it closed for a month, then one
Speaker 1: of the estimates I saw today is you lose forty
Speaker 1: three thousand civilian employees. You know, because it has a
Speaker 1: ripple effect throughout the economy. We can't afford to do that.
Speaker 2: Right now.
Speaker 1: Things were going in the right direction and this is
Speaker 1: a terrible setback for the country. It also has implications
Speaker 1: for national secure I mean, you look at things like
Speaker 1: nuclear deterrence. Those programs are stalled right now, right and
Speaker 1: every day you do that, it has real world consequences
Speaker 1: for us. Not a game, and we need to end
Speaker 1: it right now.
Speaker 2: I know that you've said it to House Republicans at
Speaker 2: least reportedly, that you would give them forty eight hours
Speaker 2: notice if they had to come back into town. When
Speaker 2: folks left following the vote on the CR in the House,
Speaker 2: if they're talking next door in the Senate, if some
Speaker 2: sort of deal is broker that might alter the CR
Speaker 2: as it stands. Now, do you plan to call your
Speaker 2: members back?
Speaker 1: Look, the devil's in the details, but I don't know
Speaker 1: how they could possibly alter it. We made it so
Speaker 1: simple there Again, there is nothing to take off of that.
Speaker 1: It is virtually identical to what Chuck Schumer himself championed
Speaker 1: in March of this year. And so we're not going
Speaker 1: to strap on extraneous policy issues and all of that.
Speaker 1: That would take a long time. Because the government's now
Speaker 1: closed down, they need to pass the clean CR, turn
Speaker 1: the lights back on, and get everybody back to work.
Speaker 1: I'm just so frustrated with the nonsense around this, and
Speaker 1: I think more and more people at Homer as well.
Speaker 1: I saw a rass must and poll that came out
Speaker 1: a couple of hours ago. Forty nine percent of the
Speaker 1: American people were polled. So that Democrats did this to
Speaker 1: give benefits to illegal aliens.
Speaker 3: They are not wrong.
Speaker 1: Two hundred billion dollars in their counter proposal would pay
Speaker 1: illegal aliens the benefits that hard earned, hardworking American taxpayers provide.
Speaker 3: We're not doing that.
Speaker 1: We're not going to add a trillion and a half
Speaker 1: new dollars to spending. We're not taking Chuck Schumer's ridiculous counterproposal.
Speaker 1: We're going to do the right thing for the people,
Speaker 1: and the Republicans are on the job to do it.
Speaker 2: I know you had a couple of visitors at your
Speaker 2: office today, mister Speaker, a couple of Democratic Senators. I
Speaker 2: believe Kelly and Diego had a lot of things to
Speaker 2: say about the swearing in of a new member of
Speaker 2: Congress from Arizona. I also saw Congress with Mike Lawler
Speaker 2: from New York get into an altercation with HAKEM. Jefferies
Speaker 2: as he was coming out of his office here. I
Speaker 2: know that elbows can be sharp on Capitol Hill, But
Speaker 2: mister Speaker, what's happened to decorum?
Speaker 3: Is this a new law? Oh?
Speaker 1: Look, I work on decorum around here all the time.
Speaker 1: Everybody knows that's my record. I started it when I
Speaker 1: came to Washington in January twenty seventeen. I authored the
Speaker 1: Honor and Civility Caucus Pledge and the Commitment to Civility.
Speaker 3: I mean, we have to maintain this.
Speaker 1: There fights about policy, but it shouldn't be personal. I
Speaker 1: try to model that myself. I try to encourage colleagues
Speaker 1: to do it. But I would tell you the tension
Speaker 1: here is very high because it's high because the stakes
Speaker 1: are so high, and you get real Americans, real constituents
Speaker 1: back home who are really suffering because of the nonsense,
Speaker 1: and it gets as upset here sometimes, you know, I
Speaker 1: understand that emotion. We've got to keep it in check.
Speaker 1: We've got to get everybody working together, and we've got to.
Speaker 3: Get the lights back on.
Speaker 2: I want to ask you about that new member Grihalva,
Speaker 2: the congress woman elects from Arizona. The senators were asking
Speaker 2: you to swear her in, or I guess they were
Speaker 2: urging you to swear her in, which I know you've
Speaker 2: done a couple of times for Republican members in pro
Speaker 2: forma sessions. These two senators were yelling about Jeffrey Epstein,
Speaker 2: I think to make a point here, and they did
Speaker 2: get some on that. Mister speaker, Is this an Epsteine
Speaker 2: issue or is this a process issue?
Speaker 1: They're master's at distraction. To go back and watch the
Speaker 1: video of Senator Reuben Gego. These are the two Democrat
Speaker 1: senators from Arizona, Mark Kelly and Gayego, and they're voting
Speaker 1: to keep the government closed. I told them, if you
Speaker 1: want to get your House colleague from your state, take
Speaker 1: the oath of office, then open the government so we
Speaker 1: get back to regular session. They claim everything's about Epstein.
Speaker 1: It's a joke, master's a distraction. We did. This is
Speaker 1: a long standing tradition in the Congress when you administer
Speaker 1: the oath after a special election, you do it the
Speaker 1: first time that the Congress is back in session. After that,
Speaker 1: we did change that modify it earlier this year. On
Speaker 1: one occasion, we had two Floridians who came in on
Speaker 1: the same special election, but it was a very different
Speaker 1: set of circumstances. I explained to them very quickly. We
Speaker 1: had a scheduled date for the oath office ceremony. The
Speaker 1: House went out of session unexpectedly. They already had their
Speaker 1: family and friends here and it was already pre arranged.
Speaker 1: So we just went ahead and went through the motion.
Speaker 1: We're going to recollect Grihalba. We'll be sworn in as
Speaker 1: soon as we get back to regular session. She never
Speaker 1: had a scheduled date because you got elected after the
Speaker 1: House went out of session. This is real simple. We're
Speaker 1: going to do that as soon as we get back.
Speaker 1: But they are in charge of turning the lights on
Speaker 1: so Congress can get back to work.
Speaker 2: Well, I appreciate your answering that for us, mister Speaker. Lastly,
Speaker 2: if you were to join me, say next Wednesday, would
Speaker 2: we be having the same conversation about a shutdown.
Speaker 1: I am on my knees praying that we would not be.
Speaker 1: We have got to get the government operated again. It's
Speaker 1: the most basic function of the federal government is to
Speaker 1: serve the people, keep the people safe, and keep the
Speaker 1: lights on. And we need the Democrats that we're here
Speaker 1: to see the light and do that.
Speaker 2: We appreciate the conversation. House Speaker, Mike Johnson, thank you.
Speaker 2: You're always welcome on Bloomberg TV and radio.