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C-SPAN caller confronts Johnson about shutdown effects

admin - Latest News - October 9, 2025
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C-SPAN caller confronts Johnson about shutdown effects



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Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleOct. 9, 2025, 3:20 PM EDTBy Sahil Kapur and Scott WongWASHINGTON — Eight days into the government shutdown, Senate Democratic communications directors received a private briefing and a memo from pollster Geoff Garin.The crux of the message: Stay the course because Democrats are winning the battle of public opinion.“Voters continue to blame Trump and Republicans more than Democrats for the shutdown,” said the memo, which was obtained by NBC News and featured new polling data conducted by Hart Research, with findings that are backed by other public national surveys on the shutdown fight.It added that voters are siding with Democrats’ health care funding demands, that “Republicans are starting the feel the heat” on the issue and that the GOP’s political pain will worsen “the longer and more aggressively” Democrats litigate it.ACA subsidies set to expire fueling government shutdown01:48The memo helps explain why Democrats are refusing to blink in the staring contest, defying predictions by the White House and Republican leaders that they would have backed down by now.Republicans need five more Democratic votes to break a filibuster and pass their bill to reopen the government on a temporary basis and buy time for a larger spending deal. On Thursday, the Senate voted again — for the seventh time — on that plan and a Democratic alternative. No senators budged.Instead, Democratic leaders, emboldened and energized, are taking every opportunity to highlight their central demand: extend the expiring Obamacare subsidies to avoid health insurance premium hikes or coverage losses for millions of Americans next year. Insurers are already sending out notices of upcoming rate hikes in the mail, and bringing costs back down will get messy if Congress waits until the end of the year to act.We’d like to hear from you about how you’re experiencing the government shutdown, whether you’re a federal employee who can’t work right now or someone who is feeling the effects of shuttered services in your everyday life. Please contact us at tips@nbcuni.com or reach out to us here.The health care subsidies are used by scores of working-class voters, including Trump supporters. Enrollment in Obamacare is about 24 million, and an estimated 92% of those insured benefit from the enhanced tax credit, which was first passed in the 2021 Covid-19 relief bill.A KFF national poll showed that 57% of “MAGA supporters” favor extending the subsidies, while 43% are opposed. Overall, 78% of U.S. adults said they favor extending the funding, while 22% say it should expire.But Republican leaders, facing a divided conference with many members who want to end the subsidies, are refusing to make any promises on the issue. Instead, they say, Democrats must vote to reopen the government, and then the two parties can discuss the subsidies.The pivot to health care has frustrated House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.“They’re trying to make this about health care. It’s not. It’s about keeping Congress operating so we can get to health care. We always were going to. They’re lying to you,” Johnson told reporters on Thursday. “The health care issues were always going to be something discussed and deliberated and contemplated and debated in October and November.”Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has referred to them as “Covid subsidies” that were designed to expire for a reason, and insisted on imposing new restrictions on the funding in order to have any chance of preventing a full sunset.Democrats are refusing to settle for assurances of a debate or a future vote. They say they want an extension attached to government funding legislation in order to win their votes. They have offered their own government funding bill, which includes attached Obamacare funding and repeals President Donald Trump’s recent Medicaid cuts and changes.Republicans, meanwhile, have seized on a quote published in Punchbowl in which Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said, “Every day gets better for us.”Thune had a poster made of the quote and brought it to the floor on Thursday. Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., made his own poster of Schumer’s face with the quote.“He said, ‘Every day gets better for us.’ Who is us?” Barrasso asked on the floor. “Not better for the American people. Who does he mean by us? Not the military who’s not getting paid. Not the Border Patrol who’s not getting paid. Not the traffic controllers who aren’t getting paid.”On the Senate floor Thursday, Schumer attempted to clarify his remarks, arguing that with each passing day of the shutdown, Democrats’ “case to fix health care and end the shutdown gets better and better, stronger and stronger.”This is now the eighth-longest government shutdown in history, according to an NBC News analysis. If the government is still closed at the end of Friday, it will become the seventh-longest shutdown.#embed-20251002-shutdown-milestones iframe {width: 1px;min-width: 100%}Federal workers, including members of the military, are working without pay and will begin to miss paychecks in the coming days if the government remains shuttered. The direct deposit deadline is Friday, while physical checks are scheduled to go out on Oct. 15; those payments will not occur during a shutdown.With Johnson keeping the House out of session for a third consecutive week, tensions are running high among the few lawmakers running around the Capitol. On Wednesday, Johnson and fellow Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York sparred with Arizona Democratic Sens. Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly over Johnson’s delay in seating Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz.Later, Lawler, a Republican representing a swing district, confronted House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., after his news conference over Democrats’ refusal to back the GOP funding bill or a one-year extension of Obamacare subsidies. The debate devolved into a shouting match about Trump’s “big bill,” health care cuts and Lawler’s chances for re-election.Johnson and Senate Democrats argue about government shutdown and health care03:20There are some signs that House Republicans are beginning to grow restless and feeling pressure from constituents back home.Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., a onetime Trump loyalist who has recently broken with the president, has faulted Johnson and her party for having no plan to address the expiring health care subsidies.And Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., who, like Lawler, faces a tough re-election fight in next year’s midterms, is one of a handful of Republicans who have called on Johnson to reconvene the House. She represents a military-heavy district in Virginia Beach and is demanding a vote on her legislation, the Pay Our Troops Act.“I’m urging the Speaker and our House leadership to immediately pass my bill to ensure our servicemembers, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck while supporting their families, receive the pay they’ve earned,” Kiggans wrote on X. “Military pay should not be held hostage due to Washington’s dysfunction!”Responding Thursday, Johnson said that House Republicans already passed a bill on Sept. 19 to fund the entire government, which includes paying the troops, through Nov. 21.“We put that bill on the floor, and the Republicans voted to pay the troops, TSA agents, border patrol, air traffic and everybody else,” Johnson told reporters. “The Democrats voted no.”Asked about his confrontation with the Democratic senators a day earlier, Johnson acknowledged that “emotions are high” between the parties.“And so is it better for them, probably, to be physically separated right now? Yeah, probably is, frankly,” the speaker said. “I wish that weren’t the case, but we do have to turn the volume down. The best way to turn the volume down is to turn the lights back on and get the government open for the people.”Sahil KapurSahil Kapur is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.Scott WongScott Wong is a senior congressional reporter for NBC News. Kyle Stewart and Frank Thorp V contributed.
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Sept. 24, 2025, 3:47 PM EDTBy Tyler KingkadeAfter dozens of school districts and colleges fired employees or placed them on leave over social media posts about Charlie Kirk’s assassination, some of those employees are turning to federal courts to get their jobs back. A former Ball State University staff member is suing the Indiana school’s president after she was fired for posting on Facebook: “Charlie Kirk’s death is a reflection of the violence, fear and hatred he sowed. It does not excuse his death, AND it’s a sad truth.”An art teacher in central Iowa filed a suit last week after the Oskaloosa school board voted to fire him for posting “1 Nazi down” about Kirk’s assassination.An elementary school teacher assistant is suing her Spartanburg County, South Carolina, district over what her lawsuit calls an unconstitutional social media policy. According to the suit, she was fired for posting a quote from Kirk in which he said it’s worth having “some gun deaths every single year” to protect the Second Amendment, and then adding the phrase “thoughts and prayers.” And on Wednesday, an art professor will plead his case before a federal judge in Sioux Falls, hoping to stop the University of South Dakota from firing him for posting on Facebook: “Where was all this concern when the politicians in Minnesota were shot? And the school shootings? And capital police? I have no thoughts or prayers for this hate spreading nazi. A shrug, maybe.”The schools have not yet responded in court. The universities and two districts declined to comment on pending litigation.The lawsuits are among the first actions educators have taken to combat a campaign propelled by conservative influencers and Republican lawmakers who urged schools and other employers to fire people who they say made light of or celebrated Kirk’s death. Those pushing for the firings have argued that teachers and professors with abhorrent views shouldn’t be allowed to influence students. Liberal-leaning critics have accused conservatives of embracing so-called cancel culture, which they had long condemned. Death of Charlie Kirk raises questions about future of free speech in America02:00Civil liberties groups have warned that some of the firings could violate the First Amendment, regardless of whether they simply criticize Kirk or openly celebrate his death. The legal challenges filed over the past two weeks will be important test cases on whether public employees can post statements deemed offensive, said Adam Goldstein, vice president of strategic initiatives at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.“It’s an unfortunate necessity that the courts will have to weigh in here,” Goldstein said. “There’s no option here other than a number of cases where courts hopefully reinstruct us on how the First Amendment is supposed to work.”In the days after Kirk was shot earlier this month, Vice President JD Vance and other top Republicans urged citizens to report people who mock Kirk’s assassination to their employers. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon told Fox News last week that she’d “like to see more” college faculty who celebrate Kirk’s death fired or suspended.Some Democrats have shared similar sentiments. In Iowa, a leading Democratic gubernatorial candidate echoed calls to remove the Oskaloosa teacher. “I’d be pretty uncomfortable with my kids having teachers that celebrated someone’s murder,” Rob Sand, the candidate and current state auditor, told the Des Moines Register this week. Because the cases involve public employees, the employers have a higher bar to meet before firing them for speaking out, legal experts say. They will have to show the staff members’ posts created a disruption that interfered with classes, for instance, or the operation of a school. Goldstein said generating controversy or complaints is typically not enough to warrant a firing. Michael Hook, the University of South Dakota art professor, deleted his remarks after a few hours, and shared an apology that stated he regretted the original post. Through his lawyer, Hook declined to be interviewed.Hook filed a motion Tuesday to get an emergency order to block the university from moving forward with the next step in his termination process. He alleges his firing stems from angering “the wrong people,” noting that the governor and speaker of the state house had called for his termination. “When I read this post, I was shaking mad,” Gov. Larry Rhoden, a Republican, posted on X.An online petition to reinstate Hook has over 8,000 signatures.In many cases, Goldstein said, the teachers’ punishment seems disproportionate to their alleged offense, noting that an inappropriate post could be flagged without termination.“It’s very weird to live in a world where Charlie’s wife can forgive the shooter,” Goldstein said, “but we can’t forgive a teacher who quoted him.”Tyler KingkadeTyler Kingkade is a national reporter for NBC News, based in Los Angeles.
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