WASHINGTON — This morning, Speaker Johnson joined Joe Kernen and Becky Quick on CNBC’s Squawk Box to discuss Democrats keeping the government closed for more than two weeks now.
“Today, the issue is to get the government open again so that we don’t hurt our economy, hurt our national security, and hurt the American people who depend upon all these services. It’s plain and simple,” Speaker Johnson said.
Watch Speaker Johnson’s full interview here.
On the short-term, clean, nonpartisan continuing resolution:
We passed a totally clean stopgap funding measure, a clean CR. There’s no Republican priorities or policy riders or anything on that at all. It’s 24 pages in length, and every person in the country can see it for themselves. Now, do we have headwinds from the mainstream and legacy media who, you know, parrot Chuck Schumer’s talking points every day? Of course, but the American people are not stupid, and they understand what’s going on here.
And the polling that we’re seeing is moving the needle rapidly in our direction because they know our message is simple. Because the truth is simple, and it’s very easy for me to go out and debate anybody or do interviews. I’m constantly out on the airwaves trying to just relay the simple truth. And it sounds repetitive, but that’s what it takes to saturate. You know the message and people are getting it. And I know, and Chuck Schumer knows, that what he’s doing is wrong, and you can roll the tape and play his own speeches. In fact, play the floor speech that he gave in March of this year on the identical scenario where he said it would be morally wrong, outrageous, and selfish to close the government down because it would hurt real Americans.
On Democrats refusing to disavow their unserious, partisan demands to reopen the government:
Remember, as you said earlier, Joe, their counterproposal CR is a joke. It’s not just health care they added; they want to add $1.5 trillion in new spending on a seven week stop-gap funding measure. They want to give health care paid for by U.S. taxpayers to illegal aliens. Yes. That is in the bill. Page 57, look at section 2141. They want to unwind all we cut, all their fraud, waste, and abuse from the One Big Beautiful Bill. They want to reverse all that. They want to give $500 million to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting again. I mean, all sorts of things. And they want to pull $50 billion from rural hospitals, while they’re claiming that they care about Americans healthcare. It is a joke. They know it. They need to give it up and open the government.
On Democrats preventing negotiations by keeping the government closed:
This is not about me, it’s about the American people. Let’s make something very clear. Let me predict what Senator Kelly is going to say on the show. He’s going to give you a long, impassioned speech about health care and how the subsidies are so important to make sure that people don’t die and all of this. Let me tell you something. This is not a health care fight. This is a very simple funding fight. It always was. They have created a red herring; the subsidies don’t expire until the end of the year. We were always planning to have the thoughtful debate and deliberation over that in the month of October and November before the subsidies expired. They know that they grabbed that issue from the end of the year and pulled it back into September to try to pretend like that was the issue.
It never was. Now, let me say this about the subsidies. It needs a dramatic amount of reform if indeed they’re going to be extended, because as you know, there were no income caps. You have very wealthy people getting subsidized for health care. It was a COVID-era patchwork situation that the Democrats did on their own. And by the way, they voted to put the expiration date on it at the end of 2025. Right? They did that themselves. Why? Because they knew it would’ve been absurd to try to extend it any further. It has driven the cost of healthcare up dramatically. There’s no Hyde protections in that program. So, the point is, that is a very complicated issue. We have 535 members between the House and Senate. This is a deliberative legislative body. It takes a while to find consensus on an issue that complicated. They know that. So, they have grabbed onto that. It is a farce. It is a red herring. It is not the issue of today. Today, the issue is to get the government open again so that we don’t hurt our economy, hurt our national security, and hurt the American people who depend upon all these services. It’s plain and simple. It’s as simple as you outlined at the beginning of this interview. And I hope you’ll keep bringing these Senators back to that simple point.
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