Open Mic Catches Shutdown "Strategy"
WHITFIELD: Four days and counting for the government shutdown. Four days marked by spin on both sides of the political aisle and an increasingly personal war of words between lawmakers. And now Kentucky Senators Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell have been caught in one very unscripted moment courtesy of an open mic.</s>SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: Do you have a second?</s>SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), KENTUCKY: I'm all wired up here.</s>PAUL: I just did CNN and I just go over and over again, we're willing to compromise, we're willing to negotiate. I think, I don't think they poll tested "we won't negotiate". I think it's awful for them to say that over and over again.</s>MCCONNELL: Yes I do, too. And I just came back from a two-hour meeting with him and that was -- that was basically the same view privately as it was publicly.</s>PAUL: I think if we keep saying we wanted to defund it, we fought for that, but now we're willing to compromise on this, I think they can't -- I think I know we don't want to be here but we're going to win this -- I think.</s>WHITFIELD: All right joining us now Republican Congresswoman Renee Ellmers of North Carolina good morning to you.</s>REP. RENEE ELLMERS (R), NORTH CAROLINA: Good morning.</s>WHITFIELD: So what do you think about those comments? Is this an issue of you know who can come up with the best talking point, instead of talking about real solutions, getting the government back open, getting business to resume?</s>ELLMERS: Well, you know, there again, that's the Senate and what we need the Senate to do, we need Harry Reid and the senators -- senators who are appointed to come to the table. We're following regular order here in the House as laid out by the Constitution. When we have disagreements, we have to come to the table. And that's where we're at and we're waiting.</s>WHITFIELD: Ok so one solution the house is offering is a separate bill to fund NIH cancer trials. The Senate rejected that proposal. And Harry Reid has vowed that no piecemeal bills will pass. So would you support a clean funding bill with no changes to the health care law just to simply get the government going again?</s>ELLMERS: Well, as I said, we're waiting for them to come to the table. That was the last effort that we made to them before shutting down the federal government. You know, this is the thing, this isn't our shutdown. This is Harry Reid and Barack Obama's shutdown.</s>WHITFIELD: Really?</s>ELLMERS: And yes as far as piece-mealing these efforts, appropriations, we're doing the job that the House is supposed to do. We own the purse. We can and have the ability to do this. Why would anybody deny NIH funding? Talk to any family who's gotten a new diagnosis of cancer for their child.</s>WHITFIELD: But isn't that a consequence -- that's a consequence of shutting the government down. I mean there are an awful a lot of entities within the U.S. government, and when the government is shut down, that means there's a lot of pain being felt in lots of different directions.</s>ELLMERS: Oh there's a lot of pain. There's a lot of pain being inflicted by the President himself. Let's look at my own district. I have Ft. Bragg. We have 7,000 civilian employees who have been furloughed, totally unnecessary. We passed legislation to keep them working. This is something the President has instituted. Look at the World War II Memorial, for crying out loud. Here we have an open air memorial under barriers and security.</s>WHITFIELD: That's a national park. It falls under the U.S. government as a whole. I mean nowhere does it say only portions, only pieces of the government would be affected. Only some of the national monuments will be affected by all of this.</s>ELLMERS: Why not? We have -- we have the ability to pass appropriations. It's what we should have been doing all along except that we've received so much resistance from the Senate, from Harry Reid who just simply will not work with us. We're doing the job that the House is supposed to do by passing appropriations. This is as laid out in the Constitution. There is absolutely no reason to be resistant to this effort.</s>WHITFIELD: So there are a number of folks, a number of lawmakers who said they are willing to give up their paychecks. Are you among them who said I'm not giving up my paycheck, I need it? So what do you say to those many furloughed government workers who say they, too, need their paychecks but they don't have that option right now?</s>ELLMERS: Well absolutely. Well you know the thing of it is, is let's -- let's talk about the facts here. Our paychecks came on October 1st. They were already instituted and they ended up in our bank accounts as our staff as well. Now, you know, a month is going to go by and there will be another opportunity to defer my -- to defer my paycheck. You know, I may do it at that point. The point of the matter is we were already past that level and now we're in the situation where this is being brought up as an issue. I feel for those who have been furloughed. I'm there with them. But at the same time we have to stick to the facts here and we've got a month. We've got to come up with a big deal. We're faced with a debt ceiling negotiation and whether the President wants to negotiate with us or not he's going to have to if he wants that.</s>WHITFIELD: So it doesn't sound like you're very helpful if there's going to be some agreement in a matter of days to get the government working.</s>ELLMERS: Well you know I'm not sure what's going to happen as long as Harry Reid says he's not going to come to the table we're stuck. You know we're going to keep passing appropriations bills. We're going to keep fighting for the American people. We want fairness, we want every American to have the same options that we have here in congress. We want every American to have good health care but at the same time it shouldn't be mandated -- mandated to them as we've given all these waivers and delays and exemptions to other big business and everyone across this country.</s>WHITFIELD: Ok. We'll have to leave it there. It sounds like we're going to continue this fight forever and ever of because it seems like there are an awful lot of contradictions in what both sides are saying. Representative Renee Ellmers of North Carolina thanks so much.</s>ELLMERS: Thank you, Fredricka.</s>WHITFIELD: And we'll be right back.