Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch
Speaker 2: us live weekdays at noon Eastern on Apple car Play
Speaker 2: and then Broud Auto with the Bloomberg Business App. Listen
Speaker 2: on demand wherever you get your podcasts, or watch us
Speaker 2: live on YouTube.
Speaker 3: You're in Washington. People are on watch to see if
Speaker 3: the government is going to shut down after midnight tomorrow. Yes,
Speaker 3: the deadline is less than thirty six hours away, and
Speaker 3: at this point it's not clear how a shutdown will
Speaker 3: be averted. After the one five hundred and forty seven
Speaker 3: page stopgap continuing resolution put forward by House Speaker Mike
Speaker 3: Johnson on Wednesday met with a wall of opposition from
Speaker 3: the likes of Elon Musk, from President elet Donald Trump himself,
Speaker 3: and from a number of other conservatives in Congress, including
Speaker 3: Republican Senator Josh Holly of Missouri.
Speaker 4: Here's the thing that really gets me. Republicans negotiated this
Speaker 4: The Speaker of the House negotiated this bill. It is
Speaker 4: a total travesty. This has got to change, Sean. I mean,
Speaker 4: we cannot go on like this, and I hope that
Speaker 4: Republican leadership gets the message here, the message of this election,
Speaker 4: which is that people want change, they don't want this garbage.
Speaker 4: I'm a hard no on this thing. It is a joke,
Speaker 4: it is a travesty, and they need to go back
Speaker 4: to square one.
Speaker 3: And things did change pretty quickly in that Plan A
Speaker 3: has now been declared dead. Becomes a question of what
Speaker 3: exactly Plan B is going to be and how Plan
Speaker 3: B can pass in a House that is divided along
Speaker 3: very slim lines. The Republican majority is very narrow, and
Speaker 3: Democrats have suggested that unless it's the original deal, they
Speaker 3: may not be along for the ride. We heard from
Speaker 3: the Democratic leader in the House, Hackeing Jeffreys on that
Speaker 3: earlier this morning.
Speaker 5: House Democrats, House Republican, Senate Democrats, and Senate Republicans reach
Speaker 5: the bipartisan agreement to fund the government, prevent a shutdown,
Speaker 5: and meet the needs of the American people. That bipartisan
Speaker 5: agreement has now been detonated because House Republicans have been
Speaker 5: ordered to shut down the government and hurt the very
Speaker 5: working class Americans that many of them pretend to want
Speaker 5: to help.
Speaker 3: So let's get the latest from Capitol Hill now where
Speaker 3: Jack Fitzpatrick Bloomberg government Congress supporter is joining us from
Speaker 3: so Jack, where do we stand at this hour? With
Speaker 3: not a lot of time left to go to avert
Speaker 3: this thing?
Speaker 6: Right now, no one knows where we stand. We could
Speaker 6: be pulled in two totally opposite directions, as we've seen
Speaker 6: in the last twenty four hours. There was a bipartisan agreement.
Speaker 6: Then Elon Musk came in with some conservative House members
Speaker 6: and people like Josh Holly saying we should take out
Speaker 6: some of this additional spending. This is too big, too bloated.
Speaker 6: Then the President elect Donald Trump pulled us in the
Speaker 6: opposite direction and said his top priority was adding something
Speaker 6: that's a hard vote for many Republicans, which is a
Speaker 6: debt limit measure. In fact, he's followed up multiple times
Speaker 6: and says, I don't just want to suspend or raise
Speaker 6: the debt limit, I want to eliminate it. So do
Speaker 6: we strip this down to a bare bones bill to
Speaker 6: try to just simply avoid a shutdown and maybe the
Speaker 6: disasterate is not in there, or do we add to
Speaker 6: it and say this is a total reimagining of the
Speaker 6: existing debt limit law. Speaking to lawmakers so far today,
Speaker 6: no one knows other than that, Democrats, despite having advocated
Speaker 6: for an end to debt limit standoffs, are not interested
Speaker 6: in working with Trump to end them permanently in the
Speaker 6: future if it's in conjunction with this stopgap. They are
Speaker 6: focused on just trying to avoid a shutdown, and any
Speaker 6: debt limit talk should come later, they say. So it's
Speaker 6: not clear where they go, and the likelihood of a
Speaker 6: funding lapse seems pretty high right now.
Speaker 3: Well, so then it becomes a question on how long
Speaker 3: exactly that could last, Jack, and what is going to
Speaker 3: be able to get through Ultimately, If what we're looking
Speaker 3: for here is some kind of slim down package that
Speaker 3: certainly is not north of fifteen hundred pages, would it
Speaker 3: still include theoretically disaster relief for example, that many in
Speaker 3: the Southeast desperately need.
Speaker 6: That is an important issue to some key members. So
Speaker 6: it's hard to imagine this thing moving without disaster aid.
Speaker 6: Theoretically they could vote separately, but just late yesterday the
Speaker 6: Senators from North Carolina Tom Tillis and Ted Budd were
Speaker 6: saying they're not going to vote for a stopgap if
Speaker 6: it does not include packaged within it, the disaster Aid.
Speaker 6: When you have a hurricane pla through your state or
Speaker 6: the other areas that have had wildfires, flooding, tornadoes, et cetera.
Speaker 6: You don't just want to vote on disaster Aid. You
Speaker 6: want to attach it to the must pass bill to
Speaker 6: keep the government running, because that's your point of leverage,
Speaker 6: and that has been raised by key members so far.
Speaker 6: So a major part of any whipcount is going to
Speaker 6: be if you take out disaster Aid, you're going to
Speaker 6: lose members, probably from a wide variety of places around
Speaker 6: the country that stand to benefit from this, because it's
Speaker 6: not just Hurricane Helene and Milton. It's years of a
Speaker 6: backlog of FEMA funds that people are waiting on, whether
Speaker 6: it's the Maui wildfires that still has money. It's a
Speaker 6: lot of lawmakers who would be upset if that is
Speaker 6: pulled out of this stopgap.
Speaker 3: Well, we know Jack that a lot of lawmakers are
Speaker 3: upset already. Specifically a lot of Republican lawmakers are quite
Speaker 3: upset with Speaker Johnson for putting forward this initial mammoth
Speaker 3: cr in the first place, knowing that just weeks from
Speaker 3: now he has to stand for re election to get
Speaker 3: the Speaker's gavel again. How precarious does his position actually, look,
Speaker 3: is he going to be able to hang on to
Speaker 3: the job.
Speaker 6: This is so much more difficult for Mike Johnson than
Speaker 6: I think anyone really imagined. The initial reason we were
Speaker 6: talking about a stopgap measure to fund the government through
Speaker 6: March fourteenth is at least one reason is it would
Speaker 6: be very difficult for the Speaker to negotiate a full
Speaker 6: government funding package that requires a lot of compromises right
Speaker 6: before running for speaker. That's the kind of thing conservatives
Speaker 6: don't like. But when you load this up as a
Speaker 6: fifteen hundred page bill with one hundred billion dollars in
Speaker 6: disaster AIATE and a wide variety of things Democrats tried
Speaker 6: to get in there and succeeded, it's just about as complicated.
Speaker 6: So he has entered into tough negotiations that are only
Speaker 6: getting more complex, especially with a potential debt limit vote
Speaker 6: being demanded by the President elect. He may look back
Speaker 6: and wish that he had just taken care of everything
Speaker 6: rather than kicking this to March. But it's very, very
Speaker 6: difficult and unex expectedly so at this point.
Speaker 7: All right.
Speaker 3: Jack Fitzpatrick, Bloomberg Government Congress supporter, with the latest from
Speaker 3: Capitol Hill, where it is certainly a chaotic day. Thank
Speaker 3: you so much. Will of course be checking back in
Speaker 3: with our team on the Hill throughout the day as
Speaker 3: we try to get a sense of what exactly is
Speaker 3: happening here and what exactly it all means politically. So
Speaker 3: for that, let's turn to our political panel. Kristin Han
Speaker 3: is joining me, Democratic strategist and partner at Rock Solutions,
Speaker 3: alongside Bloomberg Politics contributor Rick Davis, Republican strategist and Stone
Speaker 3: Court Capital partner. Kristin. There has been a contention from
Speaker 3: President elect Donald Trump in the last twenty four hours
Speaker 3: as he tanked Plan A and is now pushing for
Speaker 3: this debt sealing issue to be dealt with before he
Speaker 3: takes office, that whatever happens now is going to be
Speaker 3: shouldered by the incumbent president, which is a Democrat, Joe Biden.
Speaker 3: And I wonder the extent to which you are hearing
Speaker 3: concern from Democrats about that being true.
Speaker 1: May I think there's a serious concern particularly among a
Speaker 1: number of uh we call them the front line, or
Speaker 1: the Democrats in those districts that that have the toughest races.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's clear what the president wants. The president
Speaker 1: wants the a democratic president technically to shoulder the responsibil
Speaker 1: or for the responsibility for you know, either lifting the
Speaker 1: dut limit, which he will you know, have to deal
Speaker 1: with next year, but or getting rid of it all together,
Speaker 1: because he knows that during tax negotiations when that issue
Speaker 1: comes to a head next year, that that that money
Speaker 1: tax cuts. Whether you believe in trickled on economics or not,
Speaker 1: we can have that discussion later that that money that
Speaker 1: that adds to the ledger, and it adds to the debt.
Speaker 1: And so in order to be successful, and you know
Speaker 1: in the tax negotiations on the Republican side, that will
Speaker 1: have to happen. So he certainly wants a democratic president
Speaker 1: and Democratic members of the House to shoulder all of
Speaker 1: that responsibility before he even comes into office. And there
Speaker 1: are serious political considerations I think for Democrats to be made.
Speaker 3: Well, is there a political consideration for Donald Trump here, Rick,
Speaker 3: if he's actually now openly advocating for a abolishment of
Speaker 3: the debt ceiling, which is something that of course is
Speaker 3: intended to keep at least some level of fiscal responsibility
Speaker 3: in the US government. When this is supposed to be
Speaker 3: the fiscally conservative party. Is that not somehow problematic if
Speaker 3: not for Trump himself or everybody else who has to
Speaker 3: represent themselves as a Republican in Congress.
Speaker 8: Hayleie, I think it's safe to say that there are
Speaker 8: no more deficit hawks left in Congress, Republican or Democrat alike.
Speaker 8: We've had a wild spending spree for two decades that
Speaker 8: has tripled the requirement to raise the debt limit compared
Speaker 8: to where it was in two thousand and so Congress
Speaker 8: has just gotten used to having a blank check. And look,
Speaker 8: I mean it's a very simple equation here. If you
Speaker 8: know Speaker Johnson wants to keep this, he just puts
Speaker 8: a clean cr and a zeroing out of the debt
Speaker 8: limit process on a bill and throw it on the
Speaker 8: floor of the Congress and see who votes for it.
Speaker 8: And then guess what. He's going to find out that
Speaker 8: he's not got enough votes to pass that, And then
Speaker 8: the ball goes back to Elon Musk and Donald Trump
Speaker 8: and Ramaswami saying, Okay, I did exactly what you said,
Speaker 8: and we don't have the votes for that. The problem
Speaker 8: is this just killing time. Everybody knows that's the outcome.
Speaker 8: But maybe he just has to be able to do
Speaker 8: that to get the onus off of his back and
Speaker 8: shut up all the guys in the cheap seats right
Speaker 8: now so that he can actually get some work done
Speaker 8: in Congress.
Speaker 3: But what a moment we are in, Rick, for what
Speaker 3: you just said to actually be the people that need
Speaker 3: to be pleased here, that anything is going to have
Speaker 3: to get kicked back, not just to the president elect,
Speaker 3: Donald Trump, who's of course the leader of the party,
Speaker 3: but for two people who have not been democratically elected
Speaker 3: to be representatives in the US government, Elon Musk and
Speaker 3: Pavake Ramas. Is it ultimately Elon Musk here who was
Speaker 3: most in charge, because it does seem like he got
Speaker 3: a little bit ahead of President Trump yesterday until Donald
Speaker 3: Trump then came to sing along.
Speaker 5: Yeah, no question.
Speaker 8: I mean he's been beating his chest since election day,
Speaker 8: taking credit for the win by spending you know, hundreds
Speaker 8: of millions of dollars on get out the vote and
Speaker 8: and and claiming victory alongside Donald Trump. He was plastered
Speaker 8: next to Donald Trump for the ensuing month since the election,
Speaker 8: you know, acquiring a very important role in the new
Speaker 8: administration is the head of the DOGE and and having
Speaker 8: meetings in Congress, you know, detailing out the kinds of
Speaker 8: initiatives that they are talking about promoting, and and and
Speaker 8: and this is a prime example that you've got a
Speaker 8: guy who's never been sworn in for any public office whatsoever.
Speaker 8: He has no constitutional responsibility to protect and defend the
Speaker 8: United States, and yet you know, is basically acting as
Speaker 8: a you know, deputy president of.
Speaker 1: The United States.
Speaker 8: And look, he's a brilliant guy and probably has a
Speaker 8: lot to offer to our country. But the idea that
Speaker 8: he's able to create this kind of situation in Congress,
Speaker 8: and the guy who's getting to blame for it is Johnson,
Speaker 8: who was just doing his day job. Yeah, it was
Speaker 8: a bad bill, but you know, bad bills get agreed
Speaker 8: to all the time in Congress. I mean, it's what
Speaker 8: Congress does. I don't even remember the last time I
Speaker 8: heard someone pass the bill that said, wow, this was fantastic.
Speaker 8: And we don't have to think too far back to
Speaker 8: remember when Donald Trump put the cabash on a bipartisan
Speaker 8: you know, significant reform to the immigration program. So, you know,
Speaker 8: these guys who have no public standing yet haven't been
Speaker 8: sworn into office for anything. You know, have really been
Speaker 8: wrecking havoc in the House of Representatives.
Speaker 3: Well, and they have been charged with making recommendations not
Speaker 3: just to the House but to the Senate as well
Speaker 3: in the next two years Kristin about how to make
Speaker 3: the government more efficient and how to trim down spending.
Speaker 3: They say they could do true trillion dollars in spending cuts,
Speaker 3: and there has been some degree of optimism about the
Speaker 3: idea that perhaps that could be a step toward greater
Speaker 3: fiscal responsibility and government efficiency. But has this whole episode
Speaker 3: revealed anything to you about the degree to which anything
Speaker 3: bipartisan is actually going to be able to happen With
Speaker 3: the recommendations of Elon Musk, what kind of broker is
Speaker 3: he really proving to be.
Speaker 1: I don't think he's off to a good start. I
Speaker 1: mean he said, you know, I think he tweeted out
Speaker 1: something like no bills should be passed before January twentieth.
Speaker 1: He needs to take a civics course. He does not
Speaker 1: know how Washington works. So, you know, I think anytime
Speaker 1: anybody puts forth ideas they should be looked at. But
Speaker 1: you know, the messenger here, he's just not doing himself
Speaker 1: any favors, and let's be clear. You know, if we
Speaker 1: really want to get to the issue of debt and deficit,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of sick of hearing about waste fraud abuse. Yes,
Speaker 1: we should always address waste fraud abuse that you have
Speaker 1: to talk about tax reform and entitlement reform. Those things
Speaker 1: are very can be politically toxic and until the members
Speaker 1: and you know, the Doge, if they're being serious about
Speaker 1: really bringing down our debt and debicit, they should they
Speaker 1: should include those types of elements, as unpopular as they
Speaker 1: may be with regard to Social Security, Medicare and other things.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm glad you raised tax reform, Kristen, because we
Speaker 3: know Donald Trump wants to get that done.
Speaker 5: Rick.
Speaker 3: It's very high on his to do list for early
Speaker 3: in his term, and that's going to require a budget
Speaker 3: reconciliation process. Given how badly this has gone this week,
Speaker 3: what does that spell for these other legislative efforts that
Speaker 3: arguably are going to be even harder with a slimmer
Speaker 3: House majority next year.
Speaker 8: Yes, it will be harder because the votes just aren't there.
Speaker 8: And this idea that you can do it with some
Speaker 8: level of purity in other words, you don't have to
Speaker 8: cut deals with Democrats to get things done, just betrays
Speaker 8: the lack of experience that some of the folks who
Speaker 8: have been in echo Chamber lately have got. Everything that
Speaker 8: happened last year, really the subsequent two years happened with
Speaker 8: bipartisan support and a lot of good things happen. It
Speaker 8: was a pretty productive Senate, less so in the House.
Speaker 8: And you know, obviously leadership challenges there delayed things. But
Speaker 8: at the end of the day, this idea that it's
Speaker 8: our way or the highway. The highway is paved with
Speaker 8: good intentions, but it doesn't necessarily get you anywhere. And
Speaker 8: so the reality here is this group of leaders coming
Speaker 8: in to run this administration is going to be faced
Speaker 8: with the Congress where deals are going to have to
Speaker 8: be cut and we don't see that level of understanding
Speaker 8: at this point in time, and that can only get
Speaker 8: worse if they're ignored.
Speaker 3: All right, Rick Davis and Kristen Hahn our political panel
Speaker 3: today here on Balance of Power. Thank you so much
Speaker 3: both of you for joining me and will continue to
Speaker 3: keep you updated on the latest from Capitol Hill as
Speaker 3: we try to figure out what Plan B is here
Speaker 3: and We're going to have an important conversation still ahead
Speaker 3: with one member of Democratic leadership. Congressoman Susan Delbenet of Washington,
Speaker 3: the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, will be
Speaker 3: here with me in our Washington d C studio.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast kens
Speaker 2: just Live weekdays at noon Eastern on Applecarplay and then
Speaker 2: roud Oro with the Bloomberg Business app. You can also
Speaker 2: listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station,
Speaker 2: Just say Alexa play Bloomberg eleven.
Speaker 3: Thirty and the clock is ticking loudly and quickly as
Speaker 3: we get closer and closer to a midnight tomorrow deadline.
Speaker 3: To keep the government funded, there was a Plan eight
Speaker 3: that was introduced earlier this week by the House Speaker
Speaker 3: Mike Johnson. It was a oney five and forty seven
Speaker 3: page stopgap measure, a continuing resolution that would have kept
Speaker 3: the government funded until March fourteenth. Included a number of
Speaker 3: other measures as well, including one hundred billion dollars in
Speaker 3: disaster relief and billions of dollars in aid economic aid
Speaker 3: for a firm. But that plan quickly met its death
Speaker 3: in the face of opposition from conservatives, from Elon Musk,
Speaker 3: and ultimately from President elect Donald Trump himself. So we're
Speaker 3: spending our day today wondering what Plan B is going
Speaker 3: to be, when we're going to get it, and what
Speaker 3: exactly Plan B is going to look like, especially considering
Speaker 3: that whatever it is, there is no guarantee that House
Speaker 3: Democrats or Senate Democrats for that matter, will be eager
Speaker 3: to go along with it after the initial bipartisan agreement
Speaker 3: was tossed out. And I want to join bring in
Speaker 3: now here in our Washington d C studio a senior
Speaker 3: member of Democratic leadership, Congressman and Susan DelBene of Washington,
Speaker 3: who is chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is
Speaker 3: here with me on Bloomberg TV and Radio. Congressman, thank
Speaker 3: you so much for your time, really in what has
Speaker 3: been a very busy twenty four to forty eight hour
Speaker 3: period here in Washington. What have you heard, if anything,
Speaker 3: from Republican leadership at this point about what the path
Speaker 3: forward is going to be?
Speaker 7: Well, I think I'm not sure they know what the
Speaker 7: past forward is going to be. They we negotiated a
Speaker 7: deal between the House and the Senate, between Republicans and Democrats,
Speaker 7: and that deal they blew up at the last minute,
Speaker 7: and I don't think they have a path forward. So
Speaker 7: they are talking to each other, but we obviously have
Speaker 7: an important deadline government funded rents out tomorrow, and we're
Speaker 7: all waiting. We're waiting because there's a lot at stake
Speaker 7: in terms of making sure that families, our communities aren't
Speaker 7: seeing the ongoing chaos and dysfunction that they've seen from
Speaker 7: Republicans over and over that is not impacting them. And
Speaker 7: we've all been negotiating for weeks. But here we are.
Speaker 3: Well and Leader Jeffries Hawking Jeffrey said yesterday, you break
Speaker 3: the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow. Should
Speaker 3: we read that to me? Whatever this plan v ultimately is,
Speaker 3: there are no Democrats who are going to be willing
Speaker 3: to cast a vote to get that over the finish line.
Speaker 7: Well, they're not negotiating with Democrats right now, so we
Speaker 7: aren't really sure or what's on the table, So it's
Speaker 7: really hard right now. It is on them to figure
Speaker 7: out a bath for it if they want to work
Speaker 7: and actually come up with the deal. And to your
Speaker 7: point earlier, it has to go through the House, through
Speaker 7: the Senate, and be signed by President Biden. This isn't
Speaker 7: a House only decision, and Republicans can't agree with Republicans,
Speaker 7: so they haven't even been able to pass legislation on
Speaker 7: their own in the House. They have a small margin,
Speaker 7: they have a lot of disagreement, and so in order
Speaker 7: for something to get past, they need to work with Democrats.
Speaker 7: And that was the original plan. So I'm not sure
Speaker 7: if they have a plan or know what their plan is.
Speaker 7: They seem to just wait for Donald Trump or now
Speaker 7: Elon Musk to tell them what to do.
Speaker 3: Well, what Donald Trump is now saying is that either
Speaker 3: the debt ceiling needs to be lifted or completely outright
Speaker 3: abolished before he takes office. Can you see a world
Speaker 3: in which that actually happens. Would you be willing to
Speaker 3: cast a vote to get rid of the debt ceiling?
Speaker 7: Well, let's be clear, this wasn't even something that was
Speaker 7: on the table vote it is, and they just put
Speaker 7: it on the Well, is it? I don't think this
Speaker 7: is the question. We don't really know what's on the table.
Speaker 7: We don't know what Republicans are going to propose as
Speaker 7: their to your point, plan B and so until they
Speaker 7: figure out what they're going to do, it's really hard
Speaker 7: to respond to that. I don't know what the plan is.
Speaker 7: I know that we have come to the table, worked
Speaker 7: on a deal that was important to make sure the
Speaker 7: government's funded, and now it's up in the air because
Speaker 7: Republicans don't know what they want to do. And it's
Speaker 7: kind of poignant because that's how this Congress started, whether
Speaker 7: Republicans unevile to elect a speaker, and now here we
Speaker 7: are at the end of this Congress, still in chaos, dysfunction,
Speaker 7: and extremism.
Speaker 3: I do have a question around the speaker, But first
Speaker 3: on this debt ceiling question. If the debt ceiling were
Speaker 3: to somehow be raised, if that is what they decide
Speaker 3: to pursue, and it somehow gets through, what implication would
Speaker 3: that have if it's not just raised but outright abolished
Speaker 3: for the tax battle we all know is coming next year.
Speaker 7: Well, first of all, I don't know what they're proposing.
Speaker 7: I don't think any of us know what they're proposing.
Speaker 7: I don't think we know what it might be on
Speaker 7: the table. And it comes to important things like disaster assistants,
Speaker 7: like making sure we have support for our families and
Speaker 7: our farmers and our communities. So right now everything's kind
Speaker 7: of speculation. But I know, all I know is we
Speaker 7: have a path forward, We have a bipartisan deal that
Speaker 7: folks spend a lot of time working on, and now
Speaker 7: we're back in chaos.
Speaker 3: I know it's hard to look to the future, but
Speaker 3: in some sense, a lot of your job is to
Speaker 3: look toward the future, toward the next election, the midterms
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty six, because a share of the d
Speaker 3: Triple CEU are charged with getting more Democrats elected to Congress.
Speaker 3: And I do wonder how you see everything that is
Speaker 3: playing out right now is ultimately affecting that Donald Trump
Speaker 3: is suggesting that if all of this happens while Biden
Speaker 3: is still in office, it reflects badly on Democrats, not
Speaker 3: on Republicans. If Elon Musk is playing this kind of
Speaker 3: outsize role, already threatening to put money to work in
Speaker 3: primaries over this, how do you see this changing the
Speaker 3: next cycle?
Speaker 7: Well, Elon Musk actually has suggested the government just shut down,
Speaker 7: and which would be devastating for our communities. We've been
Speaker 7: through Republican shutdowns before. Those are devastating for families, for farmers,
Speaker 7: for our small businesses. And yet that's his suggestion. This
Speaker 7: is the person who's going to be in charge of
Speaker 7: government efficiency, and this is one of the least efficient,
Speaker 7: most expensive things we could do, is shut the government down.
Speaker 7: Republicans made a lot of promises to voters, and we
Speaker 7: have folks who came to our coming to Washington, d C.
Speaker 6: To govern.
Speaker 7: The question is are Republicans capable of governing? Today is
Speaker 7: not a very good example of their ability to govern,
Speaker 7: But voters are going to hold them accountable for what
Speaker 7: happens for what happens on their pocketbook issues, what happens
Speaker 7: to prices at the store, what happens to housing, what
Speaker 7: happens to jobs. These are important issues, important priorities for
Speaker 7: us to fight for. But unclear what Republicans are going
Speaker 7: to do or if they're capable of governing. But I
Speaker 7: do know that their dysfunction is something we're going to
Speaker 7: hold them accountable for. And the first chance voters will
Speaker 7: have a chance to voice their opinion on what Donald
Speaker 7: Trump and Republicans have done in this upcoming Congress will
Speaker 7: be in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 3: Well, and when we consider the accountability thing, it's for
Speaker 3: people who have to earn the vote of the American
Speaker 3: people to hold their office. Right, that's not the case
Speaker 3: for Donald Trump. He was not democratically elected to be
Speaker 3: a representative. And I just wonder if you think the
Speaker 3: electorate ultimately we're Therefore, if they can't hold him accountable,
Speaker 3: decide to hold other Republicans accountable in his set if
Speaker 3: they don't actually like the work or the influence he
Speaker 3: is having on the government as the world's richess person.
Speaker 7: Well, the midterms will be about the House and some
Speaker 7: of the Senate, so it will be about Congress, and
Speaker 7: that's when people be able to voice their concerns. People
Speaker 7: want to see governance work. They want folks to focus
Speaker 7: on pocketbook issues like lowering costs, like making sure we
Speaker 7: have affordable housing across the country, that people have good
Speaker 7: paying jobs. These are critical issues and if Republicans can't
Speaker 7: do anything, if they aren't and frankly, a lot of
Speaker 7: congressional Republicans don't even know how to govern unless they
Speaker 7: are told what to do by Donald Trump or maybe
Speaker 7: now Elon Musk is the voice. It's unclear who's even
Speaker 7: in charge on the Republican side. Speaking of folks who
Speaker 7: weren't elected this is the environment we're heading into. But
Speaker 7: really what matters most is are we able to make
Speaker 7: sure that we're making progress for the American people. If,
Speaker 7: despite all their promises, if they're unable to do that,
Speaker 7: I think they're going to pay. We have great folks
Speaker 7: in office, and we have folks across the country want
Speaker 7: to see responsible leadership, and that's why we picked up
Speaker 7: seats this last election. And another reason why I think
Speaker 7: folks have supported Democrats is because we are focused on
Speaker 7: making sure we actually come to Congress to get things done.
Speaker 3: I was hearing a lot yesterday Congress women about actually
Speaker 3: some concerned Democrats had when the text of this original
Speaker 3: cr was really least about the fact that it did,
Speaker 3: through a cost of living adjustment, lead to a pay
Speaker 3: raise for members of Congress. Is it actually in some
Speaker 3: way a blessing for the D triple C that no
Speaker 3: one has to be on the record voting for that,
Speaker 3: especially the frontline members who are perhaps most vulnerable in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty six.
Speaker 7: Well, our frontline members are incumbents who are in those
Speaker 7: swing districts, and the reason that they are successful in
Speaker 7: swing districts is because they are authentic, independent minded representatives.
Speaker 7: Who are focused on their communities and whatever deal came forward,
Speaker 7: they're going to vote in a way that they think
Speaker 7: is most important for their district. That's why they were
Speaker 7: elected and that's why they continue to be elected. So
Speaker 7: that's always where I think our frontliners need to go
Speaker 7: is do what they think is right for their district.
Speaker 7: That's really their responsibility is to make sure they're standing
Speaker 7: up for their communities.
Speaker 3: And as you point out, these are people who are incumbents,
Speaker 3: so they already know what it is like to serve
Speaker 3: in this role. But there are going to be some
Speaker 3: newly elected freshmen. So we're getting ready to be sworn
Speaker 3: in just a few weeks from now and are probably
Speaker 3: watching all of this happen with pretty wide eyes. What
Speaker 3: is your messaging to those incoming to join the Democratic
Speaker 3: Caucus about how they can try to make progress in
Speaker 3: any kind of bipartisan way with what's going on going on.
Speaker 7: Well, first of all, in the swing districts, the new
Speaker 7: incoming freshmen who won in tough purple districts, they won
Speaker 7: because they really were talking about the kitchen table issues
Speaker 7: that were important to the communities they're going to be
Speaker 7: serving and representing. And again not any different than our incumbents.
Speaker 7: They need to be standing up for their communities and
Speaker 7: putting them first. And that's always my advice to them.
Speaker 7: Listen to your constituents, make sure that you are using
Speaker 7: them as your guide, and do us right for your communities.
Speaker 7: And that's what folks want in a representative, and that's
Speaker 7: what will help them even in a tough district. Well.
Speaker 3: And of course, one of the first votes that they'll
Speaker 3: get to take after being sworn into office is going
Speaker 3: to be to decide who the next Speaker of the
Speaker 3: House is, or if it will be the same Speaker
Speaker 3: of the House is. I'm sure you're well aware, Congressman.
Speaker 3: We have seen a lot of rumbling because of the
Speaker 3: events of this week about the future of Mike Johnson
Speaker 3: and whether he's going to be able to get adequate
Speaker 3: support from the Republican Conference, especially considering how narrow the
Speaker 3: majority ultimately will be. Is there any scenario in which
Speaker 3: to avoid what happened with Kevin McCarthy fifteen rounds to
Speaker 3: get a Speaker of the House, Democrats will be willing
Speaker 3: to put up a vote for Johnson or anyone else
Speaker 3: just to have order in the chamber.
Speaker 7: Well we were unified. We voted for Hakking Jeffreys across
Speaker 7: the board last time, over and over and over again.
Speaker 7: The dysfunction is Republican dysfunction. And as we head in
Speaker 7: to go then, and as we head into the next Congress,
Speaker 7: the margins even tighter. We picked up seats, so Republicans
Speaker 7: are going to have to make a decision of whether
Speaker 7: they can coalesce around someone. It's unclear they disagree with
Speaker 7: each other all the time. We're seeing that happen right now.
Speaker 7: I guess I won't be surprised if we see some
Speaker 7: of that at the beginning of the next Congress.
Speaker 3: Is Mike Johnson as honest a broker, as Democrats who
Speaker 3: could be hoping to work with in the one hundred
Speaker 3: and nineteenth Congress, Though for all of the conversation around
Speaker 3: Mcarthy not having been authentic or not negotiating in good faith,
Speaker 3: many have viewed Johnson differently. And I do wonder what
Speaker 3: your take is if they were to try and put, say,
Speaker 3: someone even more hardline a conservative in his place, if
Speaker 3: he can't get the votes.
Speaker 7: Well, it's unclear that there's anyone who really is the
Speaker 7: leader of the Republican caucus. Here, we sat down for
Speaker 7: weeks working on a bipartisan deal, and Republicans couldn't stand
Speaker 7: by that deal. So it's unclear who you even are
Speaker 7: supposed to negotiate with who actually is in charge. That
Speaker 7: might be true no matter who ends up as speaker
Speaker 7: on the Republican side, because they don't agree with each other,
Speaker 7: and maybe the only person that they're willing to listen
Speaker 7: to is an Elon Musk or a Donald Trump.
Speaker 3: We just have a minute left here, Congressman. But when
Speaker 3: a government shut down now, make it more likely that
Speaker 3: the speaker we're talking about in twenty twenty seven is
Speaker 3: Speaker Hockeing Jefferies.
Speaker 7: Well, I think a government shutdown is painful for our communities.
Speaker 7: We've seen it over and over and over again, and
Speaker 7: yet Republicans still put us in a place where we
Speaker 7: have a looming government shut down here just a little
Speaker 7: over day away. So that would be devastating for communities,
Speaker 7: devastating for so many people, federal workers, you know, TSA, agents,
Speaker 7: border security, all sorts of folks who are working across
Speaker 7: the country. It's irresponsible, and so yes, we will hold
Speaker 7: them accountable for being irresponsible, and right away as well.
Speaker 7: As in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 3: All right, Congressman and Susan del Benet of Washington, the
Speaker 3: chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, here with us
Speaker 3: in our Washington, d C. Studio. Thank you so much
Speaker 3: for joining me.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to the Balance of Power podcast.
Speaker 4: Make sure to subscribe if you haven't already, at Apple,
Speaker 4: Spotify
Speaker 8: Or wherever you get your podcasts, and you can find
Speaker 8: us live every weekday from Washington, d C at time
Speaker 8: Eastern at Bloomberg dot com.