Verdict with Ted Cruz - Government Shutdown ENDING! We Explain When & How

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.660 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.540 Welcome.

00:00:06.200 It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:09.240 And this episode will be a dual episode.

00:00:11.100 My show and Senator Cruz as well here because we're trying to figure out what the hell's

00:00:15.300 going on, just like every other American, when it comes to is the government open?

00:00:19.780 Is it closed?

00:00:21.380 Senator, as we are doing this 10 o'clock Eastern, we're recording on Sunday night.

00:00:25.520 You've just left the Senate floor.

00:00:28.040 So where the hell are we now?

00:00:29.740 Because there were some reports like the government's reopened, then it's not reopened.

00:00:33.840 We're heading towards reopening.

00:00:35.580 What is right?

00:00:36.480 What's wrong?

00:00:37.560 Well, we have really good news, which is the government is in the process of reopening.

00:00:41.940 It's not going to be reopened on Monday, but we got the votes tonight that will start the

00:00:46.420 process of reopening it.

00:00:47.620 We're going to explain exactly what that means, what the deal was, and what the timing is going

00:00:53.980 to be and how that's likely to impact you, whether it is going to a national park or going

00:00:59.280 to the Smithsonian or flying on an airplane, what the timing is likely to be.

00:01:04.240 We're also going to talk to you about a bill that I introduced this past week, the deporting 0.99

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00:01:14.720 benefits.

00:01:15.200 And right now, fraudulently taking welfare benefits is not a statutory ground for deportation.

00:01:21.640 I'm introducing legislation to change that.

00:01:23.720 We'll explain that all to you.

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00:03:40.000 So, Senator, there was a lot of excitement earlier Sunday evening.

00:03:44.120 My phone blew up.

00:03:45.400 I'm assuming you were getting the text.

00:03:47.040 It's like, oh, great.

00:03:47.780 The government's wide open again.

00:03:49.140 It's going to go back to normal.

00:03:51.520 I wish that was true.

00:03:54.220 You just described it as we've got the votes to move forward.

00:03:57.840 Yeah.

00:03:58.380 Explain the process, because, I mean, even on social media, it was like the government's

00:04:02.920 reopened.

00:04:03.340 I'm like, not so fast.

00:04:05.520 That's not how this can work.

00:04:06.840 In fact, it could take almost another week and totally get this thing back to where it

00:04:11.120 needs to be.

00:04:12.120 So, look, the good news is we finally have a deal and we got the votes that are necessary

00:04:17.360 to reopen the government.

00:04:19.040 So we've had a shutdown, the Schumer shutdown, for 40 days.

00:04:23.060 Yeah.

00:04:23.380 14 different times.

00:04:24.700 14 times Republicans have voted to open the government.

00:04:28.320 14 times Democrats have voted no, have voted to keep the government shut down.

00:04:33.140 Now, remember, the entire reason that we have a shutdown is because under the Senate

00:04:38.040 rules, you need 60 votes to move to proceed to legislation funding the government.

00:04:43.440 We only have 53 Republicans.

00:04:46.160 That means we need at least seven Democrats.

00:04:49.220 And unfortunately, RAND votes no on all of these.

00:04:52.720 So we have 52 Republicans to fund the government.

00:04:56.060 So we need eight Democrats.

00:04:58.660 The 14 times we voted over the last 40 days, over and over and over again, we've gotten at

00:05:05.020 most two or three Democrats.

00:05:06.660 Tonight, Sunday, it's just a few minutes after 10 p.m.

00:05:10.140 Sunday night, we finally got the eight Democrats we needed.

00:05:13.780 So the Democrats who voted to reopen the government are Durbin, Hassan, King, Cortez Masto, Cain,

00:05:20.640 Shaheen, Rosen, and Fetterman.

00:05:22.420 Those are the eight.

00:05:23.720 We got exactly what we needed.

00:05:25.780 We ended up with 60 votes, not 61, so that not in a sink.

00:05:29.920 Every other Democrat voted no, keep it shut down.

00:05:33.280 But getting eight is important.

00:05:35.420 And there was a substantive deal, but the substantive deal has several pieces.

00:05:39.840 Number one, there's a continuing resolution that runs through January 30th.

00:05:44.520 So one thing that was really important to me and to a lot of conservatives was that we

00:05:49.940 not have government funding expire right before Christmas.

00:05:53.720 Yeah.

00:05:54.340 Often, government funding expires right before Christmas, and they use the desire everyone

00:05:59.520 has to go home to their families for the holidays to twist their arms into passing a really bad

00:06:06.220 bill.

00:06:06.700 So this does not end right before Christmas.

00:06:09.200 The CR instead, the continuing resolution continues until the end of January.

00:06:14.280 That was significant.

00:06:15.680 We also included three appropriation bills in the deals.

00:06:19.380 Now, these are appropriation bills.

00:06:20.800 There are two ways you can fund the government.

00:06:22.980 You can fund the government through an appropriation bill.

00:06:25.640 There are 13 different appropriation bills that fund different cabinet agencies and different

00:06:29.780 major programs.

00:06:31.200 Yep.

00:06:31.520 Those take 60 votes.

00:06:33.180 That's what's called regular order.

00:06:35.500 That's the way the system is supposed to work.

00:06:38.060 And then you can also fund the government through a continuing resolution, also called a CR,

00:06:43.500 that just keeps everything the way it was before and maintains the status quo.

00:06:49.060 We ended up doing a combination of both.

00:06:51.520 So in this deal, we have, number one, the ag approach.

00:06:55.800 So that's the agriculture appropriation.

00:06:58.240 That includes the funds that farmers rely on.

00:07:01.060 But it also importantly includes SNAP.

00:07:03.380 It includes food stamps.

00:07:05.220 So one of the consequences of the shutdown was the funding for food stamps went away.

00:07:11.440 With this appropriation bill, we will fund the food stamps for an entire year.

00:07:15.560 So that will be taken off the table.

00:07:17.200 And by the way, let's be very clear about that.

00:07:19.100 Republicans tried to make sure that even with the government shutdown, that SNAP benefits

00:07:25.460 were continuing and were not stopped.

00:07:29.320 Democrats made damn sure that people did not get their food stamp benefits during the 40-day

00:07:35.160 longest shutdown in American history.

00:07:37.420 They did that because they thought it was leverage to hurt the poorest among us in America.

00:07:42.160 And that would then give them leverage to get more of the pork barrel things they wanted

00:07:45.980 for the Democratic programs and initiatives.

00:07:48.420 And they didn't care if you couldn't feed your kids over the last 40 days.

00:07:52.200 So understand that was the entire Democrat strategy is maximize the pain on the American

00:07:57.500 people because the more pain that they could inflict, they were counting on the media to

00:08:02.540 be dishonest and blame it all on Trump.

00:08:05.020 And so repeatedly this past week, I went back and forth with Democrats repeatedly and their

00:08:09.460 talking points were very simple.

00:08:10.860 They would say, well, you have a Republican president, Republican Senate, Republican House.

00:08:14.600 The shutdown is their fault.

00:08:16.060 And that was it.

00:08:17.160 And they were counting on the dishonest corporate media to tell that lie.

00:08:23.100 What they omitted, and actually I talked about this just this weekend, I spoke on the Senate

00:08:28.440 floor and I said, look, whenever anyone takes an oath to testify in court, that they put their

00:08:35.000 hand on the Bible and they pledged to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

00:08:38.980 Well, the Democrats saying that they're failing part number two, the whole truth, because it is

00:08:43.000 true, we have a Republican president, House and Senate, what they're ignoring is the fact

00:08:46.860 that it requires 60 votes and it is the Democrats who forced the shutdown because they're the

00:08:51.780 ones that are not voting to keep the government open.

00:08:54.360 This package, we took three appropriations bills, the ag appropriation bill, which is farmers,

00:09:00.900 ranchers and food stamps, the military construction and the VA bill.

00:09:05.760 So that funds funds our veterans and also gives funds for military construction projects

00:09:10.620 across the country, and then the legislature bill, which among other things, we increase

00:09:16.640 the funding for security for members of Congress, given the political violence we see.

00:09:21.080 I think that's very important to have more funds to increase security on both sides of

00:09:25.960 the aisle.

00:09:26.340 So that package, those are three appropriation bills that were bipartisan, that Democrats had

00:09:32.040 a part in, that were passed along with the 30-day CR, or not 30-day, the CR to January 30th,

00:09:41.040 right?

00:09:41.120 January 30th, yeah.

00:09:42.340 Yeah.

00:09:42.800 So all of that is what we got 60 votes for tonight.

00:09:48.100 Now, what does that mean tomorrow morning?

00:09:49.660 Does that mean the government is open Monday morning?

00:09:52.180 Unfortunately, no.

00:09:53.680 And by the way, people are frustrated because they think, well, you guys shut it down quickly,

00:09:57.760 then why can't you just reopen it quickly?

00:10:00.580 And this is how the sausage is made, and that's why I think there's some miscommunication

00:10:04.940 on Sunday night about, oh, the government's, like, open up.

00:10:08.280 I mean, there was major news outlets, like, government opening up, we have votes to have

00:10:11.980 it, and they're thinking, all right, well, if I'm flying out Monday or Monday afternoon

00:10:15.300 or Tuesday, there should be no problems at the airport.

00:10:18.900 That's also not true.

00:10:20.460 I want to be very clear about that.

00:10:22.100 Look, if the Democrats want to be full obstructionists, they could delay opening the government as

00:10:28.800 late as Friday of this week.

00:10:31.080 Really?

00:10:31.680 Because there are a series of votes we have to take, and under the Senate rules, they

00:10:36.120 can delay things, they have a right to an intervening day between one vote and another,

00:10:40.120 they can delay things for 30 hours, and so they could drag it out, even though we have

00:10:46.140 the 60 votes, they could drag it out as late as Friday.

00:10:49.980 My guess is they'll drag it out till Monday or Tuesday.

00:10:55.380 My best guess is the government will open up Tuesday or Wednesday.

00:10:59.180 But we really are dealing with, look, the Bernie Sanderses of the world, by the way, Chuck

00:11:03.420 Schumer voted no, because the whole point of this was for him to tell the crazy left he 0.64

00:11:09.160 still hates Donald Trump.

00:11:10.740 Now, I don't think these eight Democrats would have voted yes without Schumer blessing their

00:11:16.620 voting yes.

00:11:17.260 So this was always going to end this way.

00:11:19.160 I was going to ask you, so getting to the perfect number of eight, and again, this is

00:11:24.360 how the sausage is made, so let's talk about behind the scenes.

00:11:27.600 You guys, the Republicans, have been meeting, right, behind the scenes.

00:11:30.760 You have your normal lunches that you have and your other meetings, and I see you guys

00:11:34.280 on the floor of the Senate talking, and you're outside the Senate.

00:11:36.900 I mean, Democrats are doing the same thing.

00:11:39.160 When they decide who is in the eight to vote yes, is that strategic based on who needs cover

00:11:46.800 when they're running for office?

00:11:48.300 Is that, I mean, there's some like Fetterman that clearly were leaders on this just saying,

00:11:51.900 I think it's wrong to hold the American people hostage.

00:11:54.020 I'm voting to open this thing up.

00:11:55.860 How do they decide on the exact eight?

00:11:58.280 And is it literally to the point where they're like, all right, we're going to only give

00:12:02.060 eight, and you've got to make your argument to us why you should be in the eight, and we'll

00:12:07.800 give you that blessing?

00:12:08.720 How does that work?

00:12:10.280 So I don't know for sure.

00:12:12.340 I will say there were a number of Republicans who were surprised we did not get more than

00:12:17.240 eight.

00:12:17.480 So there were other Democrats who were telling Republicans privately they were going to vote

00:12:21.580 yes to open the government.

00:12:23.360 People like John Ossoff, who's got, he's the most vulnerable Democrat running for re-election

00:12:27.920 in Georgia.

00:12:28.920 He just voted the 15th time to keep the government shut down.

00:12:33.340 You know, Georgia.

00:12:34.640 By the way, Raphael Warnock, the other Georgia senator, did as well.

00:12:38.700 We actually thought there was a real possibility they would both vote tonight to open the government.

00:12:44.160 I don't know what Ossoff's calculus was.

00:12:46.180 Warnock will often vote with Ossoff to give him some political coverage.

00:12:50.340 So we figured that they would go either both yes or both no.

00:12:54.840 They both voted to keep the government shut down.

00:12:57.580 What is the chances two guys like that on Tuesday, Wednesday, vote yes after they say,

00:13:03.480 all right, well, fine, we're already going to be there.

00:13:05.360 Does that change, you think, that eight number?

00:13:07.360 Could that change a 10, 12, or is it pretty much eight is eight?

00:13:10.240 No, I could easily see on a subsequent vote some additional Democrats.

00:13:14.600 Patty Murray, who is the senior Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, a number of

00:13:20.460 Republicans believe she was going to vote.

00:13:22.280 Yes, I mentioned we just were going to pass three appropriation bills.

00:13:26.220 She played a major hand in drafting those three appropriation bills. 1.00

00:13:29.720 And so for appropriators, look, when Chuck Schumer and the Democrats had the majority, do you know how many appropriation bills they passed into law?

00:13:37.980 How many?

00:13:38.880 Zero.

00:13:39.920 Wow.

00:13:40.260 Like the process was broken.

00:13:42.400 They didn't do appropriations.

00:13:44.440 It's our hope to actually go through the process, to have amendments, to negotiate it.

00:13:48.900 And that's what these three bills are doing.

00:13:52.300 And yet the senior Democrat on the Appropriations Committee voted no.

00:13:56.680 Chris Coons, who is widely seen as one of the more moderate Democrats, he voted to keep the government shut down.

00:14:05.040 Alyssa Slotkin from Michigan.

00:14:06.860 Look, Michigan's a purple state.

00:14:08.660 She voted to keep the government shut down.

00:14:11.060 Gary Peters, also from Michigan, retiring.

00:14:13.760 He voted to keep the government shut down.

00:14:15.440 So there were another half dozen or so that a lot of folks thought we would have a chance at getting their votes, and we did not.

00:14:23.880 So when you don't get those votes, we move forward.

00:14:26.340 You said this thing could end up to Friday.

00:14:29.220 You're guessing probably Tuesday.

00:14:30.900 Wednesday, the government reopens.

00:14:32.660 How many more votes after tonight, again, for people that are listening, we're doing this Sunday night at 1015 right now in D.C.

00:14:41.660 How many people, or how many votes will it take starting now to get the government actually reopened?

00:14:49.100 We need to continue to hold 60, but we're going to.

00:14:52.860 The underlying terms of the deal have been cut.

00:14:55.220 So I don't expect any of the eight who just voted yes to flip.

00:14:58.960 So I think we've got our 60, but the remaining Democrats can just drag things out and make it painful.

00:15:06.020 I hope they don't.

00:15:07.180 And I actually pulled Dick Durbin aside, Durbin, Durbin is retiring, and I mentioned I always thought this was going to end with retiring Democrats voting to open the government.

00:15:16.840 Durbin did so.

00:15:17.620 Now, look, he's the number two in leadership among the Democrats.

00:15:21.240 He's Chuck Schumer's right hand, but he's retiring.

00:15:25.060 I told Dick tonight, I said, look, we've got 60 now.

00:15:28.860 It sure would be nice if, like, you guys didn't drag this out unnecessarily till Friday and just the identical outcome will happen and it just is more painful for everybody.

00:15:38.860 I think there are a lot of Democrats who feel that way.

00:15:42.280 It's why I think we'll end Tuesday or Wednesday.

00:15:45.680 But who the heck knows?

00:15:46.960 Now, there's another element of this deal that's getting some attention online, which is a commitment to reverse the rifts, the reductions in forces that happened during the shutdown.

00:15:57.220 Yeah. And and there's some folks online saying, oh, you guys cave.

00:16:01.360 This is terrible.

00:16:02.720 That was was an offer that that President Trump made, I think, like two weeks ago to the Democrats.

00:16:08.120 That has been on the table for them a long, long time.

00:16:11.400 And the White House made made the decision, OK, if you guys open the government, we agree we'll offer you that we'll reverse those rifts.

00:16:18.920 So that was in the deal. But it was a deal that came from the White House that we just agreed, OK, if that's if those are the terms that the president wants to cut, we'll we'll back up the president.

00:16:28.760 So you go into Monday, you're going to have more meetings throughout the day or explain to me Monday what that looks like.

00:16:35.520 We're anticipating the first vote probably around noon.

00:16:38.800 And as I said, that there could be we could have done it all tonight if the Democrats had agreed to in the Senate, you can do anything by unanimous consent.

00:16:48.440 And so if they wanted to open the government tonight, they could have just consented to do one vote and then do the other one next to the other one next, the other one next.

00:16:54.500 And we'd be done like you can do that.

00:16:56.660 You know, literally, instead of us recording right now, you guys could actually be voting.

00:17:02.200 And this could have all been Monday morning. The government is open for business.

00:17:06.780 All the FAA guys are back to normal. Everybody's getting paid.

00:17:10.200 And they're like, no, screw it. We'll just wait a few more days.

00:17:12.940 So no one's flying home, right? I mean, you're not flying home tonight, are you?

00:17:15.980 No, no. I mean, I'm in D.C. I didn't see my family this weekend.

00:17:19.580 I would have loved to have seen my kids. I didn't.

00:17:23.120 I spent most of the time just sitting here waiting for Democrats to to to finally agree to cut a deal.

00:17:29.120 But it was striking. We could have done it tonight.

00:17:35.940 But to do that, you need unanimous consent.

00:17:38.780 That means you don't need 60. You need 100.

00:17:41.000 That means one person can object and say, no, drag it out.

00:17:45.760 I want to burn more time. I want to burn more time.

00:17:48.620 And you have people like Bernie Sanders.

00:17:51.800 You have all the Democrats who are running for president that want to want a spectacle.

00:17:56.320 And so that if they really decide to be just just fully obstructionist, they could drag it as late as Friday.

00:18:06.340 All right. So one other question is, is this is unfolding when the government opens back up.

00:18:11.820 And let's just use a hypothetical of Wednesday. All right.

00:18:15.400 Wednesday, the government opens up.

00:18:16.640 Does that mean that instantly the system is going to go back to normal?

00:18:21.920 I'm saying this to people traveling.

00:18:24.140 You and I have traveled a lot.

00:18:25.200 We've started to see the breakdown of of of air traffic control and of having to cancel flights.

00:18:31.480 I've witnessed it traveling internationally and domestically over the last couple of days.

00:18:36.420 You've done it as well.

00:18:37.400 And so when it opens back up, is that like an instant fix or is that going to take a couple of days to cycle through the system as well?

00:18:45.220 What does travel look like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday?

00:18:49.500 Look, at least travel Monday and Monday and Tuesday, I would expect still really significant delays and really significant cancellations.

00:18:56.540 The reason for those delays and those cancellations, we have roughly 50,000 TSA agents all across the country.

00:19:06.320 Many of them are going into work.

00:19:08.000 None of them are being paid.

00:19:10.160 They all missed their last paycheck, didn't get their last paycheck.

00:19:13.360 We have roughly 14,000 air traffic controllers.

00:19:17.200 Many of them are going into work.

00:19:19.400 None of them are getting paid.

00:19:20.800 They all missed their last paycheck.

00:19:22.040 Listen, if you're a TSA agent, if you're an air traffic controller, typical TSA agent or air traffic controller doesn't have a deep reservoir of savings.

00:19:31.300 I mean, they're under real stress right now.

00:19:33.920 How do I pay my mortgage?

00:19:35.080 How do I pay my rent?

00:19:36.120 How do I pay my bills?

00:19:37.760 And so what is happening with both TSA agents and controllers, they're calling in sick.

00:19:42.800 They're just not showing up.

00:19:44.240 I say some are coming into work.

00:19:46.040 The problem is in New York City on Halloween Day, roughly 80 percent of the controllers called in sick and didn't show up to work.

00:19:53.940 That's Chuck Schumer's hometown, by the way.

00:19:56.440 And so we're seeing with TSA, you had Monday a week ago the lines in the Houston Bush Airport were two and a half to three hours long to get through security because they were so short-staffed on TSA agents, they didn't have enough to move people through security.

00:20:13.140 So even if the government opens up tomorrow, you're dealing with the independent decisions of 50,000 TSA agents and 14,000 controllers when they come back to work.

00:20:24.700 And the reason that the FAA has mandated 10 percent of flights be canceled is they're looking at the data and seeing that these short-staffed air traffic controllers, there's an increased risk to safety.

00:20:36.420 So they're saying, all right, if we don't have full staffing, we've got to reduce the number of flights.

00:20:41.060 So in a week, do I expect things to go back to normal?

00:20:46.200 Yes, a week after things open up.

00:20:48.600 But it could easily take several days for people to say, OK, I'm going to come back into work now.

00:20:54.920 That doesn't happen automatically just by flipping a switch.

00:20:57.780 So what you're basically telling me is this week when I'm flying and when you're flying and so many others that listen to the show are flying, we're going to be dealing with this type of chaos because the Democrats decided not to do their job, even while doing their job on Sunday night right now.

00:21:13.040 Yes, and by the way, they could have agreed to open it all up tonight.

00:21:18.860 They could have given consent, said, OK, you've got a deal, let's move ahead.

00:21:24.400 And it's now just the obstructionist who, you know, if your flight is canceled tomorrow, you can thank Chuck Schumer and every Democrat senator running for president who's trying to show off to the crazy left.

00:21:34.880 But we will get it open now, but it will take it'll take a few more days at a minimum.

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00:22:03.980 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:22:07.520 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:22:13.200 All right, so let's move to another issue in the shutdown.

00:22:16.260 And there's been some confusion over it.

00:22:18.040 There's been a lot of fighting over it.

00:22:19.680 It deals with Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act.

00:22:23.420 Democrats decided, and this is some of the history that I do think we need to now explain because there's been so much of a political football on this one,

00:22:32.160 that they purposely designed for the subsidies, which make Obamacare seem cheaper than it is,

00:22:39.660 even though your tax dollars are paying for the subsidies to subsidize people's health insurance.

00:22:45.060 They designed it purposely to expire now.

00:22:49.280 And that was something that was done by design, I'm assuming, for this type of fight.

00:22:54.440 Am I wrong?

00:22:55.240 And explain what's happening with Obamacare now and moving forward.

00:22:59.440 Well, look, the other thing Democrats talked about and they claimed they were fighting the shutdown for was to extend Obamacare.

00:23:07.600 And in particular, during COVID, when the Democrats had control of the House and the Senate and the White House,

00:23:13.560 they passed massive subsidies that went straight to giant insurance companies,

00:23:18.860 didn't go to the people, didn't go to you, but went to insurance companies.

00:23:22.660 Roughly $50 billion worth of subsidies, just huge corporate welfare.

00:23:28.380 And that corporate welfare to the insurance companies expires the end of December.

00:23:33.160 And so part of this deal is Republicans agreed we will have a vote on those subsidies the first week of December.

00:23:42.500 Now, by the way, Republicans offered them that we would schedule that vote 40 days ago.

00:23:47.100 So they've had that on the table for 40 days.

00:23:50.640 But we said at the beginning, sure, we'll give you a vote.

00:23:53.680 They're going to lose that vote.

00:23:54.640 They know they're going to lose that vote.

00:23:55.820 But we said we'll give you that vote.

00:23:58.680 And so we agreed to have that vote.

00:24:00.680 Now, what's the answer?

00:24:02.360 And this is where I want to take folks a little bit behind the scenes to some of the sausage making.

00:24:08.100 So most of the Senate was in D.C. all weekend.

00:24:11.200 We'd all planned to be back home and had many people had fundraisers or political events or family events.

00:24:16.620 And we missed most of them just staying here.

00:24:20.640 So Friday night, I invited a dozen senators out to dinner.

00:24:24.940 And so we went to a local restaurant and got a room together and had a great dinner.

00:24:30.100 And we're laughing and talking and strategizing and saying, look, are the Democrats going to move?

00:24:34.920 So in that dinner, we decided to call President Trump.

00:24:39.720 So we called President Trump, got him on the cell phone.

00:24:43.000 And the president, he was in a good mood, but he was expressing his views emphatically, as he always does.

00:24:50.680 Yeah.

00:24:51.040 By the way, for people that have ever done a phone call, like if you've never gotten to do this,

00:24:54.680 he does not ever hold back when you're talking about the phone.

00:24:57.620 Not a single phone call.

00:24:59.020 You've had a lot more than I have.

00:25:00.640 But when I've had phone calls with him, whether it was in 16 to 20 or now forward, like he does not hold back at all when you're on the cell phone, on speakerphone as well.

00:25:11.480 He does not.

00:25:12.380 So one of the things we asked of him Friday night, we said, listen, in this battle with the Democrats over Obamacare, Obamacare is failing.

00:25:19.580 It's a bad program.

00:25:20.480 And if you go back, go back to 2013, 2013, when I did a filibuster against Obamacare, I said at the time, if you remember, Barack Obama promised the American people Obamacare would cut the average family's premiums by $2,500 a year.

00:25:36.100 Yep.

00:25:36.340 That was a lie, and in fact, they skyrocketed at the time, $5,000 a year.

00:25:41.700 They've skyrocketed a lot more than that.

00:25:44.100 Even the Washington Post has now admitted the editorial page, the Affordable Care Act, which is the misleading name of Obamacare, did not make health care more affordable.

00:25:53.080 It caused premiums to skyrocket.

00:25:54.660 So when we had Trump on the phone, we said, look, it would really help if you made the case that what Democrats are fighting for is these massive multibillion-dollar corporate welfare payoffs to the health insurance companies instead of empowering consumers.

00:26:12.220 And look, we want to lower prices.

00:26:14.640 And so we said in particular, it would really help if you would send a truth.

00:26:19.440 And Trump said, great, come up with something.

00:26:22.880 And so I will tell you what the president sent.

00:26:25.940 I had a lot of input in this, and here's what he put out.

00:26:30.000 President Trump said, Democrats claim to be working for, quote, the little guy and driving down your health insurance.

00:26:37.920 But the, and the rest of this is in all caps, Obamacare scam goes straight to their best friends in the insurance industry.

00:26:45.880 They are making a killing, while health coverage only gets worse.

00:26:50.700 If Democrats get their way again, they're in for another huge payday at the expense of the American people.

00:27:01.140 No deal, in all caps.

00:27:03.460 Republicans should give money directly to your personal health savings accounts, all in caps, that I expanded in our great, big, beautiful bill.

00:27:13.620 Thank you for your attention to this matter.

00:27:15.920 Now, this is really important, because if you want a really strong, principled, conservative reform to health insurance.

00:27:24.440 Yeah.

00:27:25.720 Expanding health savings accounts so that you give you, the consumer, you, the patient, more control.

00:27:30.860 And instead of sending money to the insurance companies, send it straight to people's health savings accounts so you can spend it on premiums, you can spend it on deductibles, you can spend it on health care.

00:27:41.680 That expands competition and empowers patients and it lowers prices.

00:27:45.500 The president leaning in with this tweet really helps in this political battle we'll have over the next six weeks because the outcome he's advocating for is something I've advocated for a long time.

00:27:59.880 And that was a direct result of that dinner on Friday night where we got him on the phone.

00:28:04.880 You know, there's one interesting thing that's coming out of this first year of Trump being back in office.

00:28:10.620 It is really empowering the American people, whether it is the account you just talked about, whether it's the Trump accounts that are going to be coming in this next year that you guys pass to give kids the opportunity to save money and to be able to grow accounts and to build wealth over their lifetime.

00:28:28.720 Like there is a lot of personal growth and personal excitement that it's Trump is get the government out of your life.

00:28:37.220 You can do better without it. We want to help you do that.

00:28:40.520 And then the Democrats like, no, no, no, no, no, Mondani's and others, you should have no control of your life. 0.98

00:28:45.940 We want to run the whole damn show from from from birth to death. 1.00

00:28:49.820 Just trust the U.S. government to be your daddy or your mommy or both. 0.99

00:28:54.680 And that's exactly the difference between the Republicans and Democrats right now.

00:28:59.080 Look, it's a fundamental divide. As you noted, we passed the Trump accounts, as you know.

00:29:04.020 Well, I wrote that legislation.

00:29:06.000 Yeah, this has been a major theme that I've been fighting for since the first day I got elected to the Senate.

00:29:12.060 And whether you're talking about health savings accounts, whether you're talking about Trump accounts that are that are essentially 401k savings accounts for kids or whether you're talking about school choice and getting tax credits.

00:29:24.680 The unifying theme of all of those is individual choice, empowering you, the individual, rather than government, competition and giving you control.

00:29:38.400 That is the fundamental difference between left and right.

00:29:41.080 And President Trump has been a great partner in this.

00:29:43.020 And I'll tell you, as a part of his tweet, he sent out a chart, a chart which which which I had sent him.

00:29:50.020 But I want you to see the chart.

00:29:52.080 We're going to put it up on on on YouTube for anyone that's watching it on YouTube.

00:29:56.100 But it goes through the major health care companies, their stock performance since Obamacare passed.

00:30:05.840 I'm going to walk through them.

00:30:07.240 Aetna.

00:30:08.820 Obamacare March 2010 is when it passed.

00:30:11.300 Aetna's stock stock price was thirty dollars and fifty cents.

00:30:15.540 Today it's two hundred and twelve dollars.

00:30:17.480 So it's increased five hundred and ninety five percent since Obamacare passed.

00:30:20.960 Centene, its stock has increased six hundred and four percent.

00:30:26.980 Molina, its stock has increased eight hundred and fifty nine percent.

00:30:32.100 Humana, its stock has increased four hundred and ninety percent.

00:30:36.360 Anthem, Elevance Health, its stock has increased four hundred and fourteen percent.

00:30:41.840 Cigna, its stock has increased eight hundred eight hundred and twenty two percent.

00:30:46.960 And UnitedHealth Group, when Obamacare passed, UnitedHealth's stock was $25.66.

00:30:55.400 Today, November 2025, it is $327.74.

00:31:01.580 That is a 1,177% increase.

00:31:05.960 That's what Obamacare did. 1.00

00:31:07.700 It massively increased the profits of the health insurance companies.

00:31:10.960 By the way, those health insurance companies overwhelmingly give to Democrats.

00:31:14.720 They give to Chuck Schumer.

00:31:15.900 They give to Akeem Jeffries and the Democrats because they recognize when Democrats are in power, their profits go through the roof, and the American people's premiums skyrocket.

00:31:25.880 What do the Democrats say they wanted to do in this shutdown?

00:31:29.440 Give $50 billion to those same health insurance companies whose profits have skyrocketed.

00:31:34.340 And it's why what the president said is so important.

00:31:36.980 No, we're not going to give money to health insurance companies.

00:31:39.280 Instead, we're going to expand health savings accounts so you, the individual, has control over your own health care.

00:31:45.900 For the last several weeks, you've heard me talk with Josh Sherrard at Burna and tell stories about people just like you and I and how they've used their Burna launcher to protect themselves and their families.

00:31:56.800 Now, if you don't know what a Burna is, it is a handheld pistol that fires both kinetic rounds and chemical irritants to separate you from an attacker, and it's truly amazing.

00:32:06.800 Now, Josh is back today to share a story about a store owner and how a Burna launcher could have really come in handy.

00:32:12.780 Yeah, so in Seattle, the owner of a local small business decided to have a sidewalk sale to engage more directly with her community.

00:32:19.640 Well, the day was going great when a male walking down the middle of the street could be seen yelling, screaming, and hitting passing cars.

00:32:26.580 This man was clearly suffering from an acute mental episode when he then approached the store owner and began threatening her.

00:32:33.440 After several failed attempts at de-escalating the situation, the woman ultimately tried to go back into the store to try to get to safety. 0.93

00:32:40.540 And it was then that the deranged man yelled that he was going to gouge out her eyes and then grabbed her, slammed her to the ground, and began choking her.

00:32:48.000 It was only due to several good Samaritans that jumped in to pull him off of her that probably saved her life.

00:32:55.480 You know, this is a growing trend, unfortunately.

00:32:58.200 Mental health is a serious issue, and in areas with larger homeless populations, these individuals affected by this can really get violent.

00:33:07.040 Could Burna still be effective in this case?

00:33:09.500 Absolutely.

00:33:09.940 You know, mental health is striking populations all over America, and those with mental health issues that also have substance abuse issues are over 1,100 times more likely to commit violent crime.

00:33:22.560 And the problem is you never know when that may happen.

00:33:25.140 Burna, especially used with our chemical agent projectiles, will incapacitate even those suffering from those acute mental episodes.

00:33:32.380 So Burna is a great tool to use when you absolutely have no idea that you may need it.

00:33:36.500 If you want to find out more about how Burna can help you or your family members, it's a great gift for the holidays coming for someone you want to help protect.

00:33:44.520 Go to Burna, B-Y-R-N-A dot com. 1.00

00:33:47.660 That's Burna, B-Y-R-N-A dot com, Burna dot com.

00:33:52.600 Senator, I also want to get a little preview of something that you're working on.

00:33:56.700 We're going to do a more expansive show on this, but it's important that people know that even while the government has been shut down,

00:34:03.180 you have been working very hard on other things.

00:34:06.020 One of those things is you have now introduced the, quote, Deporting Fraudsters Act of 2025,

00:34:11.880 and it deals with SNAP and public benefits abuses that is costing the American people millions and millions of dollars.

00:34:21.620 Give us a little preview of this so people know what's been going on.

00:34:25.140 Look, this is a very simple bill.

00:34:26.800 It is an astonishing fact that right now, welfare fraud, fraudulently taking government assistance benefits,

00:34:33.360 is not a deportable offense under the immigration laws.

00:34:37.620 This law will change that and make it a deportable offense.

00:34:40.140 Let me give you some basic statistics.

00:34:42.440 Forty-eight percent of households headed by illegal immigrants received food-related welfare benefits.

00:34:49.700 Forty-eight percent, nearly half.

00:34:51.740 Specifically SNAP.

00:34:53.180 A CIS analysis found that 31 percent of illegal alien households with children draw SNAP benefits.

00:35:01.300 One in five households getting WIC, women, infants, and children, or SNAP,

00:35:07.260 is headed by a non-citizen, and 96 percent of the children in those households are U.S. but born,

00:35:14.400 showing how illegal aliens exploit child-based eligibility to access benefits indirectly.

00:35:20.000 The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports 1.76 million non-citizens on SNAP in 2023.

00:35:30.300 That is roughly $312 million in taxpayer funds.

00:35:36.940 In 2012, or not 2012, rather, 2022, it was 1.5 million recipients.

00:35:42.880 That cost $222 million.

00:35:45.280 Fraud is rampant.

00:35:47.380 For example, in 2024, $126.8 million was stolen from EBT cards.

00:35:54.360 In Texas, 3.7 million people, about 11 percent of the state, relies on SNAP.

00:36:01.500 Every stolen or unlawfully claimed dollar robs a citizen family in genuine need.

00:36:07.720 And according to the CBO, about 200,000 illegal aliens from the surge of alien asylum seekers from 2023 to 2024

00:36:16.580 already received SNAP, growing to $800,000 by 2034, assuming no deportations,

00:36:25.340 a 10-year cost, you said this cost millions?

00:36:28.540 Yeah.

00:36:29.180 The 10-year cost is $15 billion.

00:36:33.220 And so this bill is to target that and say, if you're here illegally,

00:36:36.840 you do not have any entitlement to public welfare,

00:36:39.320 and if you fraudulently access public welfare, that is yet another ground to deport you.

00:36:45.800 Now, Chuck Schumer is a co-sponsor of this bill, right?

00:36:48.780 No.

00:36:50.740 And I feel confident that Schumer is not just a no, he's a hell no,

00:36:55.020 because today's Democrat Party, it is all for giant health insurance corporations. 0.58

00:36:59.620 It is all for illegal immigrants. 1.00

00:37:02.020 It is all for violent criminals. 0.91

00:37:03.840 It is all for men and women's sports.

00:37:07.320 It's all for everyone except the average American citizen trying to work hard

00:37:11.480 and provide for his or her family, and that's exactly backwards.

00:37:15.040 It's incredible.

00:37:16.760 Well, as we're doing this show right now at 1040 at night on Sunday evening,

00:37:20.440 the government's still shut down.

00:37:21.700 You're still being held hostage.

00:37:23.020 We're moving in the right direction.

00:37:25.140 Democrats could drag this out even until Friday just to hurt you. 0.91

00:37:29.060 If you're traveling this week, you're not alone.

00:37:31.360 Senator Cruz and I are traveling with you. 0.97

00:37:32.880 It's going to suck. 0.98

00:37:34.100 That's just the best way I can describe it. 0.86

00:37:35.840 But at least hopefully we'll be safe while doing it.

00:37:38.040 Senator and I will see you back here when the government hopefully reopens.

00:37:41.920 We'll be doing a show on it on Wednesday, so hit that subscribe or auto-download button

00:37:46.180 and grab my podcast, the Ben Ferguson podcast, on those in-between days.

00:37:50.360 I will keep you up to date with whatever is happening.

00:37:52.840 I can promise you that.

00:37:54.140 And we'll see you back here in a couple of days.

00:37:55.660 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:37:59.340 Guaranteed Human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - November 10, 2025

Government Shutdown ENDING! We Explain When & How

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