Congressman Guest Talks Government Shutdown, ACA Subsidies, and Charlie Kirk
Washington, D.C. – Recently, Congressman Guest joined the Tim Young Show to discuss the Democrats’ government shutdown. Here are some key things that Congressman Guest noted in his interview:
Congressman Guest and his staff are still working:
“My staff has all been deemed essential and we’re working and serving the people of our district. I will tell you, before I came on today, I got to meet a guy by the name of Billy Byrd. Billy is a 100 year old World War II Veteran. He came in my office and gave me a copy of a book he had written. He was actually on the first wave of Marines that invaded Iwo Jima. He was on the island for 32 days fighting the Japanese, so got a chance got meet with a war hero. Somebody who fought for our country, somebody who served, served in combat – part of that greatest generation. While I am not in D.C. working, I am still here in the district, and I am getting to spend, at least today, some time with two great Americans.”
The shutdown is over ACA Subsidies and the political playground of Democrats:
“This is clearly a political shutdown. This is not over policy. The Democrats have tried to make it over policy particularly the expanding the Obamacare enhanced subsidies that will expire at the end of the year. These are policies that the Democrats put in place. These are things in which the Democrats set when these expiration dates would occur. These were supposed to be temporary in light of COVID. Now, we see that they want to make these permanent. The cost of that would be over $500 billion and so the Democrats are asking for $500 billion in new funding to keep the government open for a mere 7 weeks. You’re right, some of the healthcare they’re talking about would go to illegal aliens. And so, this is not a shutdown where they have a key issue that they really disagree with. They are just throwing a bunch of things at the wall hoping that they can make something stick. And some of it, I think much of it, is driven by Chuck Schumer and his fear of a very popular Democratic member in his district. She may not be popular in my district, but she is popular in New York- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who was threatening to primary Chuck Schumer for his U.S. Senate seat.”
The shutdown is over ACA Subsidies:
“If the issue of the enhanced Obamacare subsidies is worth shutting the government down, which is what Chuck Schumer has told us, then our Republican leadership has said we’re willing to have a conversation with you about that. But what we want to do is we want to know a couple of things. We want to put some income limits on that because right now what most people don’t know is that 35% of those enhanced Obamacare subsidies go to families making more than $100,000. So, Democrats want you to believe that this is a program for those people who are in poverty or at the poverty limit. That’s not the case. 35% of those subsidies go to people or families making $100,000 or more. So, we need income limits. We need to put safeguards in place to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse. And again, if this is something that is so important that the Democrats are willing to shut down the government, tell me how you are going to pay for it. That’s what we need. If we are going to put government programs in place, how are we going to pay for those programs? Don’t say we are going to add half a trillion dollars to our national debt. We’ve done that for far too long. If this is a program and a hill worth dying on from the Democrats, tell me what programs you’re willing to cut to have for that.”
Some Democrats have refused to condemn violence:
“The recent resolution in light of Charlie Kirk’s passing. The number of Democrats that refused to support that. It was a resolution that did two things. One, it talked about some of the major accomplishments that Charlie had given to our country, but the second is that it condemned political violence. We have Democrats, more than half of the Democrats, either voted against it or didn’t vote for the resolution at all. Which is in stark contrast to every Republican who voted to condemn violence in light of the state representatives and state senators in Minnesota who were killed. So, it kind of goes to show that Democrats are great about talking about bringing down the temperature but when it actually comes to voting for that, they’re not willing to put their money where their mouth is.”
Congressman Guest continues to work hard and keep his office open during this time.
Tune into the entire interview here.
Congressman Michael Guest represents Mississippi's Third Congressional District. Currently serving his fourth term, Congressman Guest is the Chairman of the Border Security and Enforcement Subcommittee of the Committee on Homeland Security and is also a member of the House Appropriations Committee.