Karoline Leavitt defends Trump layoff plan during shutdown : NPR

The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, spoke with journalists in the White House, Thursday October 2 in Washington.

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Evan VUCCI / AP

With the federal government in the third day of a closure, the press secretary of the White House, Karoline Leavitt, said that the Trump administration has no choice but to see where it can make cuts to government spending.

The majority of the federal government closed Wednesday after the Senate did not have a short -term spending agreement. While the Republicans control the Senate, they need democratic support to obtain the 60 votes necessary to approve the funding. But Democratic leadership wants any agreement that any agreement includes subsidies to the affordable care law on which millions rely and cancel the reductions on health expenses by the signing of President Trump One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The Republicans say they want to negotiate subsidies after having concluded an agreement to finance the government.

The White House proposed layoffs on federal workforce in response to prolonged closure, which has shot various unions representing federal workers. As a rule, in a temporary financing period like this, a wide band of workers is on leave, but not permanent.

In an interview Morning editionLeavitt said that President Trump met the management and budget office to examine “where we can reduce to save money in a responsible manner that respects money from the American taxpayer, especially when we are in this financial respect at the moment, in the midst of a democratic closure.”

Addressing Steve Inskeep of NPR, Leavitt discussed the position of the White House on the closure and why the administration thinks that the Democrats are to blame.

This interview has been modified for duration and clarity.

Strengths of the interview

Steve Inskeep: As everyone knows, the president likes to conclude agreements. What is his plan to get out?

Karoline Leavitt: Listen, the president loves to conclude agreements. And he offered Capitol Hill Democrats a very simple affair to adopt a continuous resolution. This is what the president argued. This is what the Republicans presented. And it is bipartite legislation. There were three Senate Democrats who finally voted for this. But it is not enough. Not enough democrats voted for this common sense, a continuous resolution clean to keep the government open. So, unfortunately, we are now in a closure of the federal government, and that is not what President Trump wanted. We are in talks with moderate democratic senators who know that it is not the right thing to do, who know that they have supported this same element of legislation to keep the government open as recently as Mars. They have supported it 13 times in the past. There is no reason for them to push this stop now in the name of health care. Currently, we must keep the government open. Health care discussions can occur after that. And the president continues to encourage the people of Capitol Hill to vote so that it is clean.

Inskeep: It seems to me that you do not necessarily go to the Democratic leadership. You will see if you can select a few more moderate democrats and get up to 60 votes to get out. Is it the idea?

Leavitt: Well, the president went to the Democratic leadership. We had Senator Chuck Schumer and the head of the majority of the room, Hakeem Jeffries, at the White House … and the president offered them the opportunity to return. And unfortunately, they chose a different path. They remained provocative and they chose a partisan struggle for financing health care, which, by the way, is a fight and a discussion that is worth. But we cannot have it at the ninth hour when the federal government firm and now our troops are without salary. We have federal staff who have been known to his job, the federal staff who work without salary. And it is unacceptable and it is deeply unhappy.

Inskeep: Now let’s talk about this assertion that is made on the democratic side. They wish to extend the tax credits for Obamacare health insurance premiums. There are 24 million Americans, roughly, who use these markets. They benefit from these tax credits. Registration is not for next year. Registration is actually in a few weeks, November 1. And these millions of people are citizens and taxpayers who are about to be faced with much higher bonuses. Does the president have a plan to respond to this concern before starting to register on November 1?

Leavitt: Look, the president and vice-president, the White House has always said that we were going to engage a lot on this issue and that we have solid discussions on this subject and determine what is the best policy for our country in the future. But at the moment, we have to reopen the government so that these discussions can continue and we can start doing the business of the American people.

People can be seen in the reflection of the entry doors of the information center as well as a closed panel in the center due to the closure of the national government at the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Thursday, October 2, in Keystone, SD

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Matt Gade / AP

Inskeep: But the clean resolution would reject you beyond November 1. You couldn’t do it in time.

Leavitt: Well, the premiums you discuss do not express until the end of the calendar year. And so right now, we have to keep the government open. We want to adopt its own continuous resolution for the next seven weeks, and we will discuss the budget fight again when these seven weeks stand out. But at least during these seven weeks, these discussions on health care and all the other questions that our country faces can continue. And you have heard the vice-president of the United States say several times, as soon as we reopen the government, he will immediately go to Capitol Hill to discuss this very important subject of health care. But at the moment, once again, the government must reopen. We have people who cannot afford critical food assistance. You are looking at members of our soldiers, air traffic controllers, federal law enforcement agents, who must all work without wages at the moment.

Inskeep: I want to ask questions about something else here. The administration says that she is preparing to dismiss people. I know that there was a meeting on this subject earlier in the week and the president said before closing “we can do things during the closure that is irreversible, which are bad for them”. What is the reason to do bad things here and what bad things are planned?

Leavitt: Well, unfortunately, we have to do things that we do not want to do because the government is completely closed and there is no money in the chests of the federal government.

Inskeep: I try to understand this. First, tax money still arrives. It seems to be a short -term problem. It is not as if the government is about to miss money. There is an authority so as not to spend or not.

Leavitt: Well, we have 37 billions of dollars of debt.

Inskeep: The president spoke of closing what he calls “democratic agencies”. What agencies are the “Democrats” agencies?

Leavitt: Well, this is something that the White House is currently discussing. And the president meets the management and budget office to try to understand the essential agencies, which agencies do not align themselves with the priorities and values ​​of the administration. I think each of your listeners should be far too big. And so where can we repress to save money in a responsible manner that respects the money of the American taxpayer, especially when we are in this financial respect at the moment, in the midst of a democratic closure.

Inskeep: When the administration canceled $ 18 billion spending on infrastructure projects in New York, was it a blow to Chuck Schumer in New York and Democrats in general in a blue state?

Leavitt: Well, look, this is one of the many things we examine. What do these waste projects do? And by the way, the reason is that the workers of the Ministry of Transport who worked and pushed the funds for all were all on leave. They cannot go to work at the moment. So, this project is currently temporarily interrupted due to the closure of Chuck Schumer. So Chuck Schumer did this. He did it to his voters in New York. If the government remained open because Chuck Schumer and the Democrats voted for this, this infrastructure project would be underway.

This digital article was published by Treye Green. The radio version was produced by Nia Dumas.