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 your
00:56vote?
00:57Well, I was sitting down with the Senator, and I asked him because I saw that we 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 will be a negotiation on the health care.
01:21So help us understand because Democrats want an extension of the ACA subsidies and you also want
01:28to reverse the Medicaid cuts that were passed in the one big beautiful bill. Why does that need to be in a
01:34continuing resolution when you would need to get that into a four-year appropriations package anyway?
01:39Yeah. Well, look, if you look at the shutdowns we've had since the 1980s, a lot of those shutdowns have
01:50been under Republicans. Ronald Reagan had three shutdowns. I think the current president has two.
01:57This might be the third one. And if you recall that 34, 35-day shutdown that we had, the last one,
02:03it was over what? Border wall, which is something that could have been done in the appropriations.
02:09And eventually it was done in the appropriations itself. I think this is one way that we can get
02:16to the table. And I think it's very important to understand that the health care is something
02:23that we need to protect. The current seven-week package, which give you until November 21st,
02:30and the House Appropriations Committee, albeit on a partisan basis, has approved all 12 appropriations
02:36bills sent on the House floor. And the Senate has approved three of the 12 appropriations bill
02:41on a very bipartisan basis. So do you think that's solid progress where if you had until November 21st,
02:48you don't think Congress could get something done or do you? Well, look, we could have done this
02:55appropriations a long time ago. I sit on the Appropriations Committee. When I first started,
03:01I was told, Henry, now that you're a member of the appropriations, keep in mind that there are
03:06Democrats and there's Republicans in Congress, and then you have appropriators. This time it was just
03:14not the same. Everything was very partisan instead of the bipartisan type of negotiations I've seen in
03:22the past. So again, we'll get there. It's always a little dance to get there, but we'll get there.
03:28Let's talk about the OMB memo. I know you saw it. It's a big deal. The Office of Management and Budget
03:33sent a memo to departments and agencies. It says agencies are directed to use this opportunity
03:37to consider reduction in force or RIF notices for all employees in programs, projects, or activities
03:43that aren't consistent with the president's priorities. It was that exact concern that got
03:49Senate Democrats to give the green light in March to prevent a government shutdown. Why is it different
03:55this time? Well, again, it's unprecedented to say that you're going to have mass layoffs. We've never
04:03seen this before. And what we're seeing is the other side basically is trying to put the pressure
04:11on Democrats to just cave in and do whatever they want to. I really think that what we ought to do is
04:18sit down and work this out. Look, there are so many ways that we can work this out. I know we can.
04:24We've done it in the past. But again, the last time we were dealing with the border wall,
04:31it was a 34, 35-day shutdown. And I hope that we don't get in that same type of situation.
04:37It appears that part of the decision to demand these Affordable Care Act subsidies now was based
04:45on polling. And there's one poll from the Data for Progress that reveals 59 percent of voters would
04:50blame President Trump and congressional Republicans for a shutdown and that voters overwhelmingly
04:56support the Affordable Care Act extension. But here's the question. This poll only shows that the
05:03voters support the Affordable Care Act subsidies. It doesn't necessarily show that they support
05:08a shutdown to get them. And it doesn't necessarily show that they need them to be in a continuing
05:14resolution as opposed to the final appropriations bill. How do you know then that this is the right
05:20path? Well, look, when people get their notices that they're not going to have any more insurance,
05:28it's going to be real. It's not going to be a process whether you add it on a CR or you do it in a
05:34regular appropriations. It becomes real. When a government shuts down and then on top of that,
05:42you have high costs because of tariffs, you have utility prices going up, grocery prices going up
05:49because of tariffs. And then on top of that, they get an insurance notice that they don't have any
05:54more insurance or their Medicaid is going to be cut or the Medicare eventually will be cut.
06:00This doesn't become a process question. It becomes something real to the voters.
06:06Let me ask you this. That poll that I just cited is from a progressive firm. And it even says,
06:13polling that empowers progressive activists. I mean, that's their motto. So when you get polls like
06:18that from a partisan firm, do you feel that it is emblematic or truly represents all of America or
06:26just a specific subset? Well, I've always looked at, I've seen polls from the left, from the right,
06:33but I always go on trying to get the pulse of the community. And all I know is my area is one of
06:39the most uninsured areas, districts in the whole country. And this is why I feel that health care,
06:46Medicaid, Medicare, the Obamacare are things that people really care about.
06:52The government is currently being funded by a continuing resolution, and it has been all year,
06:57which of course it goes back to 2024. And that brings us to President Biden. And that is something
07:02that some conservatives like Thomas Massey and Chip Roy, they have talked about, they say, we don't
07:07want to keep this moving forward because this is Biden's budget. Does that make you want to support
07:14it at all knowing, well, listen, this isn't ideal, but at least it's a budget that was passed under the
07:19Biden administration? Well, it wasn't, it wasn't really passed by Biden himself. It was passed by
07:25Congress. So I always look at, and I do joke around with my Republican friends, you do know that
07:31every 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, 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.
07:50So if someone comes to you and says, why would you vote against a CR, where even if you disagree
07:58with the substance of the CR, you still know what it means for the Pentagon, you still know what it
08:03means for the Border Patrol and a lot of these other important agencies. What's your response to that?
08:09Well, it's a very simple response. Look, we've, we've seen different issues come up during
08:15appropriations and appropriations and appropriations is one of those processes that I think we've passed
08:21only all 12 bills, uh, probably four times in the last, what, 30, 40, 50 years that we've always had CRs.
08:30Uh, and again, uh, we will go ahead and, and, uh, fund the appropriations. It might not be right now,
08:36but we will get it funded. And by the way, you know, also under the big, beautiful bill, uh, I think,
08:43uh, the, uh, department of defense got a big bump also. All right. So we're not too far away from
08:47the Capitol here. We're starting to approach. Um, let me ask you, you're about to go into this
08:52meeting with all 213 house Democrats. What does leader Jeff Fries need to say to make sure everybody
08:59is unified and on the same team here and ensure that a purple district Democrat doesn't say, Hey,
09:05you know what? I don't want to take a chance on this. This could come back to haunt me in 2026.
09:10Yes. And, and we saw that in, uh, 2019, uh, when we had a government shutdown and I think I'm able
09:17to explain it well to the public in my district about government shutdowns. And when you have to
09:23stand up for something, I mean, you don't just cave every time there's a threat of a government
09:28shutdown and we don't want to have a government shutdown, but I think people understand that I'm
09:33one of those that I stand for, uh, you know, where we put people first country first instead of
09:40putting party first. And that's unfortunately what happens here in Washington, DC, sometimes by
09:46Democrats, sometimes by Republicans that they put party first, but people understand that I always
09:51put country first. Well, thank you very much, Congressman Cuair. We appreciate you having
09:55us for the ride, ride from the airport. Thank you. Thank you. I'm Ray Bogan for straight
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