As the House of Representatives votes to temporarily fund the government and end the longest shutdown in American history, Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA 50) joins Politically Speaking to talk about what Democrats learned from the shutdown and what happens now.
Below is the transcript of the full interview:
Safchik: Congressman, what was this shutdown for?
Peters: Well, you know, we have to do a budget every year. It’s supposed to be done by September 30th. From time to time, more than we’d like, it takes longer than that, and we have to do an extension. This time, we were frustrated, as Democrats, that Republicans hadn’t even started talking about what the budget was going to look like even until the day before the deadline. So, we were concerned about health care. We asked that health care subsidies be preserved so that people didn’t see their health care prices go right through the roof, which is happening right now. We didn’t get that, but we did get an agreement in the Senate that gets us until January to do an actual budget. So we are going to be, I hope, learning the lesson of, not, from not talking and hope the Senate and the House are starting to negotiate right away what the budget’s going to look like in January, in January, so we don’t go through this again.
Safchik: What gains were made?
Peters: Well, we want to make a point about health care costs. I believe that that point has been made. I think that will be part of the discussion in January. And, you know, unfortunately, I think, a lot of these issues weren’t resolved in the way that we wanted. But, they did make some agreements about preserving SNAP funding. That’s what we call food stamps so that people won’t be starving if there’s a shutdown again. There are three, three parts of the 12-part budget that actually have been negotiated. So that’s a start. But we still got a lot of work to do. And, you know, we need more leadership from the president, who was absent without leave. And we need the Republicans to understand that they can’t give Democrats a take-it-or-leave-it deal. These are always bipartisan. They need votes in the Senate, even if they don’t need the votes in the House. And so, I hope that they’ve learned from that experience and also from the elections, which showed a lot of frustration with the Republicans, that they have to work with us, and I suspect that they will.
Safchik: We know that if past is prologue, shutdowns don’t always garner policy concessions, but they can be used to prove a point. So what point were Democrats hoping to make, and did your party make it?
Peters: Well, we made a point, but we didn’t make the policy we want. We want to make sure people understand that Democrats want to keep health care costs down. And the Republicans will seem to be willing to do anything not to provide those subsidies for people who can’t afford their health care. And, even to the extent that people are starving or going to go off food, lose their food, food assistance, air traffic controllers, TSA agents, federal workers weren’t getting paid all over this one issue. Like I said, this gets us to January, gets us past the holidays, gives us time to negotiate something in a bipartisan way, with the House and the Senate and the president. You know, I hope that’s what happens. That’s the lesson we should have learned from this. You can’t do it without talking to each other and certainly shutting down the House, I hope that never happens again. We weren’t. We were gone for 50 some days without having the opportunity to discuss, ‘Hey, how are we going to get out of this?’ Which we normally would.
Safchik: How will you be voting today?
Peters: I didn’t see the issues that I raised before resolved. I’m happy that the government will be open. I am intending to cast a vote against this. I don’t think that it’s good enough. And I hope that if we do resolve these issues in January, that I’m able to vote for a bipartisan product that we can all be proud of.
Safchik: We are hearing a lot about how your party is fractured right now. Do you think that’s true?
Peters: I actually see we’re in better shape than we were last year because we’re finally talking about the things that matter to people. We’re talking about the cost of living, whether it’s the cost of health care or the cost of food. The effect that these tariffs are having on prices. Stagflation in the form of interest rates and sluggish job growth. Those are the things that matter to people. That’s what Democrats are talking about. And, winning elections like we did last week, does a lot to allay the concern about inter-party fights. We do have disagreements within our party. I think there’s different perspectives, and there’s different places where different Democrats do well. But they all did well last Tuesday. And I think that that’s an indication that maybe we’re not in as bad as shape as we thought we were.
Safchik: Does all of that messaging about the cost of living, about health care costs, does that land or does it get lost in the noise of this government shutdown?
Peters: I think people are not going to remember the shutdown as much as they think about going forward. Which party is going to fight to make sure that they have a shot? You know, I, I sort of believe that the government’s role is to provide you the basics: basic education, basic health care, a decent retirement, a chance to compete, and, Democrats are all about that. We just have to remind people that that’s what we’re really about. We’re not about fringe issues. And that’s what people care about. And we have to convince them we can do a better job than the Republicans at delivering. Right now, the Republicans aren’t delivering. And I think that’s what you saw in the election results last Tuesday, whether it’s health care or on tariffs or on talking back to Donald Trump, who’s doing a lot of things that have made him very unpopular. I think no one’s life is better since the election, and that’s, that’s going to be reflected in political campaigns and decision-making going forward. So, really, I think now’s a good time to step back from politics. We’ve still got, you know, basically a year until the elections. Let’s fix this budget, see if we can do it in a bipartisan way and maybe get past the politics of this moment to do some, some things that are right by Americans.
Safchik: How optimistic are you that that can happen?
Peters: I’m the most optimistic person in America, Joey. I get on a plane from San Diego, California, every week to come out to Washington, DC. I must think that there’s something worth doing out here. Because it’s a pretty nice place to leave. No, I think it’s important. I do think that Republicans see a fallibility in the president that they didn’t maybe understand before the elections. I think they’ll be motivated to maybe create some distance between themselves, some independence between themselves and the president. And that offers a hope that they’ll be able to work with Democrats better. And, so I do think that elections have a way of shaking people into reality. We’ll see if Republicans respond, in a rational way. And if they do, I think there’s a good shot we can make some progress.
Safchik: How confident are you that there will be negotiations and a vote on health care premium costs once the government is back up and running?
Peters: I’m more confident that there will be negotiations. I have to say, you know, there are issues with Obamacare and Republicans have been complaining about it since 2010. They have never offered an alternative. And, I keep hearing there’s a plan, a plan for a plan, but we’ve never seen an alternative to it. If they have something better, they should offer it. But I think the fact that you never see an alternative indicates that they’re really flailing. And, the best, the best we have right now is Obamacare. It expanded coverage to a lot of people. It made it more affordable, not affordable enough. But if you take away these subsidies for people who really can’t just fill that gap, in, in, in their, in their budget for health care insurance, people will lose health care insurance or they’re just not going to be able to afford it. It’s going to crowd out everything else in their lives, and that’s the wrong thing to do. So until Republicans have an alternative, I’d invite them to work with us to make this system better. And I certainly think that would be a rational thing for them to do from a policy perspective and a political perspective.
Safchik: Even if that group of Democrats in the Senate ultimately raised the white flag, how do you leverage this shutdown fight in your midterm campaigns over the next year?
Peters: Well, I said it’s a little early for campaigning yet. I think there’s a lot of time and for people to form their positions and for voters to think about this. We don’t even have a lot of the candidates set. We’re still seeing a lot of folks retire. So. Right, right in the meantime, you know, it seems like it’s always about campaigning here. I would just like to sit down with my colleagues, Republicans and Democrats, to figure out how to work on some of these problems. Maybe pull back from some of these tariffs that are really hurting our farmers, raising our prices, figuring out how to deal with health care and make the system that we have better, and, you know, addressing some of the issues we have around food, food assistance and hunger. That’s something we could work on together and, and do a budget for the country, for the military and everything else. So we’ve got a lot of work to do before we start thinking about campaigning. I would invite all of us to turn our attention to that for at least a little while.
Safchik: But you could understand how people at home watching the news could hear that that’s a lofty goal, but be a little bit skeptical about the reality, right?
Peters: I understand that skepticism completely, Joey, but, you know, we really are elected to do a job. It is not just the campaign, and so, that’s certainly what I’m all about. I am really about solving problems for my community and for my country, bringing home resources to San Diego. And that’s why I come here. I think that’s why most of us come here. There will be plenty of time for campaigning later. Although there are people in this body who will always be campaigning. That’s not me. I think we’re sent to do a job, and we ought to do that job. At least spend some of the time where we’re in office actually working on the problems and not just thinking about campaigns.
Safchik: Based on what you’re hearing, talking to constituents, is the average Democratic voter frustrated that that a handful of Democratic senators capitulated, or were they more worried about disruptions to travel and food assistance?
Peters: If you’re dependent on SNAP or food assistance, you need the food assistance. TSA agents hardly make any money. They were coming to work and not getting paid. And, you know, obviously air traffic controllers were putting a lot of pressure on flight availability and so forth. I mean, there’s a lot of reasons to end the shutdown that help people. And so, I’m glad that the shutdown is ending. I’m not going to vote for this resolution. I don’t think it’s enough, but I think there will be votes to get past this. And I’m glad about that. And now it’s on us to make sure we do a budget in January and that’s going to be our next job. And that’s really why people send us here.
Safchik: Was this shutdown worthwhile?
Peters: I don’t think a shutdown’s ever a good position. I’ve done, I’ve had my staff look, I’ve done four continuing resolutions, which is, you know, sometimes for a day or two, sometimes for longer. They’ve always been bipartisan, but they’ve always been an indication that we didn’t do our job on time. So I just offer once again, that one motivation for us to do our time, our budget on time would be my ‘no budget, no pay’ bill, which says if you don’t do a budget on time, you don’t get paid in Congress. And, I think that would provide a lot of motivation. California did it. It’s one of the things I think California did right for the rest of the country. After they enacted that kind of law, they were really never late again. They may not agree with their budget, but they always got it done on time. And that’s the kind of incentive we need here, I think, to avoid these shutdowns in the future. And, that’s why I invited my colleagues to join me with no budget, no pay.
Safchik: At the end of the day, as this all wraps up, do you think the average American understands what this shutdown fight was all about?
Peters: I think the average American doesn’t pay close attention to Washington, D.C., as you or I. I think they’re very frustrated. I believe the average American wants to go to bed not worrying about politics and would like to see us work together. So I’m hoping that that’s what happens between now and our new January deadline if these bills pass tonight. The average American is tired of the fighting and wants to see us solving problems. And, that’s kind of been my orientation, as you know, and I think maybe, maybe the lessons we learned from the shutdown and from the elections last week will compel us to work together to solve some of these problems. And by the way, I think solving problems is pretty good politics, too.
Safchik: The House has been out of session for six weeks now. What comes next? Do you have to play catch up?
Peters: Yeah, I saw that we are scheduled to be in session next week, so that’s good. I saw that the speaker added an extra day onto next week, so I’m glad to see an effort to get us back to work. You know, we have a lot of things we do here that don’t have anything to do with the shutdown. I’m working on a lot of issues around forestry and permit reform to make permitting federal projects go faster. We should have been here working on that. There was no reason for us not to be here. And members of Congress, as you may know, we get full pay during this shutdown, so there was no reason for us not to be at work. So we have some catching up to do. The days are always limited here in D.C., and so I’m glad we’re getting back to work. And, you know, I think we’ll figure out a way to catch up, but I don’t think the speaker made it any easier for us by closing down Congress for this period of time during the shutdown.
Safchik: Well, hopefully you can get back to the mundane very soon.
Peters: And it’s cold here, Joey. It’s no good. No good. It’s still summer in San Diego. I guess it’s going to rain, but I do miss, I do not like the cold weather out here in D.C.
Safchik: Well, we’re enjoying the sunshine on your behalf. Thank you so much for your time this morning.
Peters: Thank you. Be well.
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