House Speaker Mike Johnson shared tense exchanges with callers during a rare live C-SPAN appearance Thursday, including one with a military spouse who warned that “my kids could die” over his refusal to back a funding bill to pay troops during the government shutdown.
The government shutdown has stretched into its second week, with Congress still at a stalemate.
A caller named Samantha, who identified herself as a Republican, said her husband is currently serving in the military and warned that if troops go unpaid on Oct. 15, “my children do not get the medication that’s needed for them to live their life because we live paycheck to paycheck.”
The caller said she has “two medically fragile children,” a husband suffering from PTSD after two tours in Afghanistan, and that her family depends on each paycheck to get by.
“I am begging you to pass the legislation,” Samantha said. “My kids could die. You could stop this and you could be the one that could say military is getting paid.”
Advertisement
“I think it is awful, and the audacity of someone who makes six figures a year to do this to military families is insane,” she added.
The caller also voiced her disappointment with her own party and directly toward Johnson.
“As a Republican I’m very disappointed in my party, and I’m very disappointed in you because you do have the power to call the House back,” she said.
After offering his sympathies to Samantha, Johnson attempted to shift blame for the funding stalemate to Democrats, saying they had refused to advance the GOP’s bill in the Senate. Senate Democrats say extending tax credits for Affordable Care Act health insurance premiums, which expire on Dec. 31, need to be part of any deal to reopen the government.
“The Republicans are the ones delivering for you,” Johnson said. “We had a vote to pay the troops — it was the CR three weeks ago. Every single Republican but two voted to keep the government open so that your paycheck can flow,” Johnson told Samantha.
Advertisement
“The Democrats are the ones preventing you from getting a check,” he added.
Other callers pressed Johnson on expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies and the deployment of the National Guard to US cities.
A caller pushed back on Johnson’s claim that “everyone is smiling” in cities where President Trump deployed the National Guard, saying the description felt “dystopian.”
When a caller from Texas asked what Republicans planned to do to fix the Affordable Care Act, Johnson responded, “There’s a lot of improvement that’s needed. Obamacare did not do what was promised.”
“We’ve got to fix that. Republicans are the party that have the ideas to do that,” Johnson added.
Alyssa Vega can be reached at alyssa.vega@globe.com.