Inside Douglas County with U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz | Government shutdown in D.C. [0:00-5:08]

Inside Douglas County, 1243. This is Inside Douglas County, a news radio 939 FM and 1240 KQEM. It's our daily in depth look at people and issues that are shaping the local area. Inside Douglas County is presented by concrete builder supply. Now inside Douglas County, a news radio 939 FM and 1240 KQEM. Afternoon. Thanks for being here in the Uplaw Valley Congressmen Clip Vence at joining us now. Congressmen, I know things happening back in where you are today. Thanks for getting across the way and getting on with us. Well, I'm sorry, I apologize for being late Kyle. When you're speaking with a senior member of Congress, despite repeated signals that I needed to get out of the room, it wasn't taking them. So anyway, I'm glad I'm with you now. So this does mean though that you're back in Washington, DC, correct? That is correct. That came back on Sunday. And can I give us an update to your perspective regarding the continuing shutdown of the federal government? Well, let me begin by saying it shouldn't be shutdown. We Republicans voted for keeping it open over four weeks ago and sent the bill over to the Senate. And it stalled out there because in order to pass anything in the Senate, you have to have 60 votes. And we Republicans only have 53. So a few Democrats joined us, but we need five more. So it shut down because of five Democrats out of the 40 that have that vote otherwise. They haven't joined us. It makes no sense because we voted to keep the government open and they're voting to close it. And why they would do this to people is beyond me. Now, very few Democrats, as you mentioned, have changed their votes. Do you see? Do you see a trend here? Do you think more will move that direction? Well, you think so with snap benefits in the this coming weekend with with the military as they manage to pay for the past month, but I doubt it looking forward with airlines running and all kinds of difficulty because people are calling in tick and not being able to run control towers. I mean, this is all on the Democrats. They need to be those five people need to change their votes to yes. And all of a sudden all of this goes back to normalize beyond me why they are holding the American people hostage. It makes no sense. Now, of course, the Democrats paint a bigger or rather a different picture. What do you think their their thoughts are? The their argument is that they're going to hold the government hostage in their own words. They're going to damage people because they want to use the shutdown as a continuing threat until those of us on the Republican side of the aisle agree to spend 1.5 trillion dollars and that they want spent in a certain way. They're the minority basically in this case, five people because that's what it would take to go ahead and reopen the government. But they're busy talking about the only thing they talk about. They don't mention the 1.5 trillion they've actually put in their continuing resolution. But they talk about is the extension of certain tax credits that were put in place during COVID and the idea was to drag down the cost of Oblomac 8 the ACA the so called affordable a care act. It should be called a non affordable care act, but they they want to continue those subsidies. They're proving by the way that it's most assuredly not affordable unless you have the government throw in literally hundreds of billions of dollars. But they they would make the argument that this is their chance to hold the American people hostage until the Republicans give them what they want. Now, we talked to somebody from one of the food banks this morning. We've got another email and press releases and a lot of concerns from the food banks about the SNAP benefit situation. 157,000 Oregonians, including many here in Douglas County, both the second and fourth congressional districts are recipients. I think the number I heard today was about 20% of the statewide number is here for Douglas County. A lot of concern about the wealth from frankly, a number of people coming in for help is already going up. These food banks are very worried about what's going to happen next week. What are your thoughts? The people who are on SNAP need to immediately contact Senator Murkley and Senator Wyden and say be part of the five Democrats in the Senate to vote for reopening the government and this instantly gets fixed. So why and the world people are looking at the Republicans when we already voted to open the government. This is a situation where they, the Democrats are basically saying we're going to hold the American people hostage, including all of those on food stamps or excuse me, SNAP until they get what they want.