Cuellar on SAN: Texas Dem upbeat about deal 1 day out from shutdown

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00:00It's 4 p.m. in Washington, D.C. We're 32 hours away from a government shutdown and negotiations

00:05have stalled. The House of Representatives is out of session. Speaker Mike Johnson says

00:09they already passed a seven-week continuing resolution to fund the government, so the

00:13ball's in the Senate's court. House Democrats are on their way back to Washington right

00:17now. All 213 are going to meet to chart their path forward, and that's why we're in this

00:21car. We're going to the airport to pick up Texas Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar

00:25to discuss his party strategy. Thanks for having us. Appreciate it.

00:30All right, so let me start off by asking you, you may or may not have seen this because

00:36it happened when you were in the plane, but Chuck Schumer has asked a small group of Senate

00:41Democrats if they would be okay approving a 10-day CR if President Trump promises to negotiate

00:48on Affordable Care Act subsidies, which of course are going to expire at the end of the year.

00:53If they did that, it would need to go back to the House. Does something like that get

00:56your vote?

00:57Actually, I was sitting down with a senator, and I asked him because I saw that. I do have

01:01Wi-Fi on the phone, on the plane. And he said he would prefer to have seven instead of 10

01:08days so we can, you know, still talk about it. Would I look at something like that? Yes,

01:16if there was something that would tell us that there would be a negotiation on the health care.

01:21So help us understand, because Democrats want an extension of the ACA subsidies, and you also

01:28want to reverse the Medicaid cuts that were passed in the one big beautiful bill. Why does that need

01:34to be in a continuing resolution when you would need to get that into a four-year appropriations

01:39package anyway? Yeah. Well, look, if you look at the shutdowns we've had since the 1980s, a lot of

01:50those shutdowns have been under Republicans. Ronald Reagan had three shutdowns. I think the current

01:56president has two. This might be the third one. And if you recall that 34, 35-day shutdown that we had,

02:02the last one, it was over what? Border wall, which is something that could have been done in the

02:08appropriations. And eventually it was done in the appropriations itself. I think this is one way that

02:16we can get to the table. And I think it's very important to understand that the health care is

02:23something that we need to protect. The current seven-week package, which give you until November

02:2821st. And the House Appropriations Committee, albeit on a partisan basis, has approved all 12

02:35appropriations bills sent on the House floor. And the Senate has approved three of the 12

02:40appropriations bill on a very bipartisan basis. So do you think that's solid progress, where if

02:46you had until November 21st, you don't think Congress could get something done, or do you?

02:51Well, look, we could have done this appropriations a long time ago. I sit on the appropriations

02:58committee. When I first started, I was told, Henry, now that you're a member of the appropriations,

03:05keep in mind that there are Democrats and there's Republicans in Congress, and then you have

03:11appropriators. This time, it was just not the same. Everything was very partisan instead of the

03:18bipartisan type of negotiations I've seen in the past. So again, we'll get there. It's always a little

03:26dance to get there, but we'll get there. Let's talk about the OMB memo. I know you saw it. It's

03:30a big deal. The Office of Management and Budget sent a memo to departments and agency. It says,

03:35agencies are directed to use this opportunity to consider reduction in force or RIF notices for

03:41all employees in programs, projects, or activities that aren't consistent with the president's priorities.

03:46It was that exact concern that got Senate Democrats to give the green light in March to

03:52prevent a government shutdown. Why is it different this time?

03:56Well, again, it's unprecedented to say that you're going to have mass layoffs. We've never seen this

04:03before. And what we're seeing is the other side basically is trying to put the pressure on Democrats

04:12to just cave in and do whatever they want to. I really think that what we ought to do is sit down

04:20and work this out. Look, there are so many ways that we can work this out. I know we can. We've done

04:25it in the past. But again, the last time we were dealing with the border wall, it was a 34, 35 day

04:33shutdown. And I hope that we don't get in that same type of situation. It appears that part of the

04:39decision to demand these Affordable Care Act subsidies now was based on polling. And there's one poll from

04:47the data for progress that reveals 59% of voters would blame President Trump and congressional

04:52Republicans for a shutdown and that voters overwhelmingly support the Affordable Care Act

04:58extension. But here's the question. This poll only shows that the voters support the Affordable Care

05:05Act subsidies. It doesn't necessarily show that they support a shutdown to get them. And it doesn't

05:11necessarily show that they need them to be in a continuing resolution as opposed to the final

05:16appropriations bill. How do you know then that this is the right path? Well, look, when people get their

05:23notices that they're not going to have any more insurance, it's going to be real. It's not going

05:29to be a process whether you add it on a CR or you do it in a regular appropriations. It becomes real

05:37when a government shuts down. And and then on top of that, you have high costs because of tariffs.

05:45You have utility prices going up, grocery prices going up because of tariffs. And then on top of that,

05:51they get an insurance notice that they don't have any more insurance or their Medicaid is going to be

05:57cut or the Medicare eventually will be cut. This doesn't become a process question. It becomes

06:03something real to the voters. Let me ask you this. That that poll that I just cited is from a

06:10progressive firm. And it even says polling that empowers progressive activists. I mean,

06:16that's their motto. So when you get polls like that from a partisan firm, do you feel that it is

06:22emblematic or truly represents all of America or just a specific subset? Well, I've always looked at

06:30I've seen polls from the left, from the right, but I always go on trying to get the pulse of the

06:36community. And all I know is my area is one of the most uninsured areas, districts in the whole

06:43country. And this is why I feel that health care, Medicaid, Medicare, the Obamacare are things that

06:50people really care about. The government is currently being funded by a continuing resolution. And it has

06:56been all year, which, of course, it goes back to 2024. And that brings us to President Biden.

07:01And that is something that some conservatives like Thomas Massey and Chip Roy, they have talked

07:06about. They say, we don't want to keep this moving forward because this is Biden's budget.

07:12Does that make you want to support it at all, knowing, well, listen, this isn't ideal,

07:17but at least it's a budget that was passed under the Biden administration?

07:20Well, it wasn't, it wasn't really passed by Biden himself. It was passed by Congress.

07:25So I always look at, and I do joke around with my Republican friends, you do know that

07:30every time you do a CR, it's a Biden, it was done under Biden. I'd rather just have Congress do it

07:37the way we've always done it in a bipartisan way, pass an appropriation bill or 12 appropriation bills.

07:43Let me ask you this. CRs are horrible for national security. I know you have expertise in this. So if

07:51someone comes to you and says, why would you vote against a CR, where even if you disagree with the

07:59substance of the CR, you still know what it means for the Pentagon, you still know what it means for

08:04the Border Patrol and a lot of these other important agencies. What's your response to that?

08:08Well, it's a very simple response. Look, we've, we've seen different issues come up during

08:15appropriations and appropriations is one of those processes that I think we've passed only all 12

08:22bills, probably four times in the last, what, 30, 40, 50 years that we've always had CRs. And again,

08:31we will go ahead and, and fund the appropriations. It might not be right now, but we will get it funded.

08:37And by the way, you know, also under the big, beautiful bill, I think the Department of Defense

08:44got a big bump also. All right. So we're not too far away from the Capitol here. We're starting to

08:49approach. Let me ask you, you're about to go into this meeting with all 213 House Democrats.

08:55What does leader Jeff Fries need to say to make sure everybody is unified and on the same team here

09:01and ensure that a purple district Democrat doesn't say, Hey, you know what? I don't want to take a

09:07chance on this. This could come back to haunt me in 2026. Yes. And, and we saw that in 2019

09:13when we had a government shutdown. And I think I'm able to explain it well to the public in my

09:20district about government shutdowns. And when you have to stand up for something, I mean,

09:25you don't just cave every time there's a threat of a government shutdown and we don't want to have a

09:30government shutdown. But I think people understand that I'm one of those that I stand for, you know,

09:37where we put people first, country first, instead of putting party first. And that's unfortunately

09:43what happens here in Washington, D.C., sometimes by Democrats, sometimes by Republicans, that they put

09:49party first. But people understand that I always put country first. Well, thank you very much, Congressman

09:54Quare. We appreciate you having us for the ride from the airport. Thank you. Thank you. I'm Ray

09:59Bogan for Straight Arrow News. For more reporting straight from our nation's capital, download the

10:03SAN app.

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