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>> The federal government
shutdown likely rolls into

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next week after competing
funding bills failed in the

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U.S. Senate Friday
afternoon. Some 18,000

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federal employees in
Wisconsin go without pay

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during a shutdown. Most
essential services and

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benefit payments continue.
The shutdown went into

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effect at midnight on
October 1st, after the

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Senate failed to pass a
short term funding bill,

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falling short of the 60
votes needed. All but two

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Democratic senators opposed
the bill, including

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Wisconsin U.S. Senator
Tammy Baldwin. Democrats

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wanted an extension of
expiring Affordable Care

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Act subsidies, and a
reversal of about $1

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trillion in Medicaid cuts.
Even as the shutdown

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started, Wisconsin
Republican U.S. Senator Ron

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Johnson proposed a bill
called Eliminate Shutdowns

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Act. He's here to explain.
Senator, thanks for being

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here.
>> Well, Frederica, how are

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you doing?
>> Good. So you've had it

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with shutdowns. What does
your bill do?

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>> Well, first of all, I
will ask you. I think it's

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pretty obvious. You and
your listeners. I mean,

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aren't you getting sick and
tired of this? I've been

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sick and tired of this for
a long time. And all it

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does is if you don't
appropriate money for

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government prior to the
beginning of the fiscal

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doesn't shut down,
government doesn't shut

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down those departments,
just establishes a rolling,

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14 day continuing
appropriation. So then the

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appropriators have time to
pass an appropriation bill.

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Again, it's just it's
modeled really is modeled

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after what Wisconsin did in
the 50s. They're the same

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thing. It doesn't decrease.
It doesn't increase

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at last year's levels until
you pass appropriation. I

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was disappointed that every
Democrat voted against that

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when we voted on it Monday.
But we also had 12

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appropriators. Republican
appropriators vote against

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it because they said it
would undercut the

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let me just describe that
process. That's be undercut.

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I've been here 15 years. 15
appropriation cycles. That

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means 180 appropriation
bills should have been

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passed before the end of
the fiscal year on time.

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You know how many have been
passed? Six. But that's a

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96.7% failure rate. That
that's apparently what the

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Alleviate Shutdown Act
would undermine or undercut.

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Again, it's absurd. I'm not.
Listen, I would love to see

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an appropriation process
work. It doesn't. It's

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obvious. It doesn't. So
let's at a minimum, stop

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playing partisan politics
with people's lives. I mean,

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this is highly disruptive
there's no reason for it

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whatsoever. The House has
passed a continuing

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resolution. All Democrats
have to do is do the same

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thing to end the Schumer
shutdown.

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>> So in this shutdown,
again, as you've just

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expressed, you blame
Democrats, but why not

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negotiate it out before it
gets to this point?

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>> Well, that's what I try
to do. Just let let's

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prevent this. Just pass the
Eliminate Shutdowns Act and

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then we can negotiate
whatever wants, whatever

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needs to be negotiated.
Individual appropriation

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bills. You know, there is
agreement on many things.

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For example, the Senate did
pass what we call a minibus.

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The main part of that was
Veterans affairs and

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military construction that
passed the Senate. I'm not

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sure what happened in the
House. We didn't conference

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those. It hasn't been
signed into law, but there

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should be plenty of areas
of agreement. The problem

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is, as dysfunctional as
this seems. Frederica, this

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actually is a very
well-honed process on the

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part of the uniparty where
you don't pass

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appropriation bills, you
put yourself into the

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shutdown mode. You create
deadlines like right before

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Thanksgiving or right
before Christmas. You know,

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members want to go home.
The appropriators or

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leadership basically writes
a 2000 page plus omnibus

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spending bill, drops it on
her desk and say, vote for

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you can't go home. That's
one of the reasons we've

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gone from 14 trillion to
over $37 trillion in debt

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since I arrived here in
Democrats are seeking, and

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that is an extension of the
enhanced tax credits in the

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Affordable Care Act. You've
long opposed the Affordable

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Care Act. I trust you would
never vote in favor of

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extending those enhanced
credits.

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>> Well, remember, these
were temporary enhanced

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credits for the pandemic,
but there's all kinds of

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pandemic relief funding
that has expired that we're

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not continuing. Why do we
continue these?

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you see Republicans backing
down on any of the

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provisions in the big,
beautiful bill, including

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additional requirements
around eligibility that

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critics argue would result
in people losing coverage?

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>> Well, first of all, what
we did was actually minimal.

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We're not cutting Medicaid
funding we're trying to do

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is eliminate the fraud.
We're trying to eliminate

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Medicaid being used by
people in this country

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illegally. Quite honestly,
we didn't go far enough.

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>> What is your response to
President Trump seeming to

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use the shutdown as a
predicate to put to cut

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agency budgets and
personnel?

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>> Well, first of all, in
the private sector, when

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your company goes bankrupt,
you know, unfortunately

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people lose their jobs and
they have to go find

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employment elsewhere. You
know, except for the fact

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that the federal government
our labors and taxation.

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This will bankrupt entity.
And so I don't see why

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public service, public
sector employees should be

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immune to what we all have
to experience in the

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private sector. It's
unfortunate. It doesn't

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have to be. Again,
Democrats could end this

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today in about an hour when
we vote on the House

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continuing resolution, we
could reopen government. So

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there's no sense them
wailing about the fact that

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maybe President Trump will
utilize this opportunity to

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shrink down the size of
government, which by and

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large, I'd be all for. I
mean, the federal

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government is massive.
Spent $7 trillion this year,

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2019, before the pandemic.
We're spending 4.4 $37

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trillion in debt. You got
sometime.

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>> We leave it there.
very much, Vigue. For her

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part, Democratic U.S.
Senator Tammy Baldwin was

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expected to join us, but
her office told us the

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senator had a last minute
scheduling change. Earlier,

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she said, quote,
Republicans who control the

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white House, the Senate and
the House have not only

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refused to listen to
families who need some

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breathing room, but they
breathing room, but they