Karoline Leavitt says White House must cut spending due to shutdown

With the federal government in the third day of a shutdown, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says the Trump administration has no choice but to look at where it can make cuts to government spending.

Most of the federal government shut down Wednesday after the Senate failed to pass a short-term spending agreement. While Republicans control the Senate, they do need some Democratic support to get the 60 votes needed to approve the funding. But Democratic leadership wants any agreement to include an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies that millions rely on and to undo cuts made to health spending by President Donald Trump's signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Republicans say they want to negotiate the subsidies after reaching an agreement to fund the government.

The White House has proposed layoffs to the federal workforce in response to a prolonged shutdown, which has drawn a lawsuit from various unions representing federal workers. Typically in a temporary funding lapse like this, a broad swath of workers is furloughed but not permanently fired.

In an interview with Morning Edition, Leavitt said President Trump is meeting with the Office of Management and Budget to look at "where can we cut back to save money in a responsible way that respects the American taxpayer's money, especially when we are in this financial crunch right now, in the midst of a Democrat shutdown."

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Speaking to NPR's Steve Inskeep, Leavitt discussed the White House's stance on the shutdown and why the administration believes Democrats are to blame.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Interview highlights

Steve Inskeep: As everybody knows, the president likes to make deals. What's his plan to get out of this?

Karoline Leavitt: Look, the president does love to make deals. And he offered Democrats on Capitol Hill a very simple deal to pass a clean continuing resolution. That's what the president supported. That's what Republicans introduced. And this is a bipartisan piece of legislation. There were three Senate Democrats who eventually voted for it. But that is not enough. Not enough Democrats voted for this common sense, clean continuing resolution to keep the government open. So unfortunately, we are now in a federal government shutdown, and this is not what President Trump wanted. We're in talks with moderate Democrat senators who know that this is not the right thing to do, who know that they supported this exact same piece of legislation to keep the government open as recently as March. They've supported it 13 times in the past. There is zero reason for them to now be pushing this shutdown in the name of health care. Right now, we need to keep the government open. Discussions about health care can happen after we do that. And the president is continuing to encourage people on Capitol Hill to vote so that it's clean.

Inskeep: It sounds to me like you're not necessarily going to the Democratic leadership. You're going to see if you can pick off a few more moderate Democrats and get up to 60 votes to get out of this. Is that the idea?

Leavitt: Well, the president did go to the Democratic leadership. We had Senator Chuck Schumer and the House majority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, at the White House … and the president offered them an opportunity to come to their senses. And unfortunately, they chose a different path. They remained defiant and they picked a partisan fight over health care funding, which, by the way, is a fight and a discussion worth having. But we can't have it at the ninth hour when the federal government is shutting down and now our troops are going without pay. We have federal staff that have been furloughed from their jobs, federal staff that are working without pay. And that's unacceptable and it's deeply unfortunate.

Inskeep: Now, let's talk about this assertion that is made on the Democratic side. They are wanting to extend tax credits for Obamacare health insurance premiums. There are 24 million Americans, roughly, who use these marketplaces. They benefit from these tax credits. The enrollment is not for next year. The enrollment actually comes in a few weeks, Nov. 1. And those millions of people are citizens and taxpayers who are about to be faced with much higher premiums. Does the president have a plan to address that concern before they start enrolling Nov. 1?

Leavitt: Look, the president and vice president, the White House has consistently said we are very much going to engage on this issue and have robust discussions about it and figure out what is the best policy for our country moving forward. But right now, we need to reopen the government so those discussions can continue and we can get back to doing the business of the American people.

People can be seen in the reflection of the Information Center front doors along with a closed sign to the center due to the nationwide government shutdown at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Thursday, Oct. 2, in Keystone, S.D.

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Inskeep: But the clean resolution would push you back beyond Nov. 1. You wouldn't be able to do it in time.

Leavitt: Well, the premiums that you're discussing don't expire until the end of the calendar year. And so right now, we need to keep the government open. We want to pass a clean continuing resolution for the next seven weeks, and we'll address the budget fight once again when that seven weeks lapses. But at least in those seven weeks, those discussions on health care and all of the other issues our country is facing can continue. And you've heard the vice president of the United States say numerous times, as soon as we reopen the government, he will go to Capitol Hill right away to discuss this very important topic of health care. But right now, again, the government needs to reopen. We have people who cannot afford critical food assistance. You look at members of our military, air traffic controllers, federal law enforcement officers, all of whom are having to work without pay right now.

Inskeep: I want to ask about something else here. The administration says it's preparing to fire people. I know there was a meeting about that earlier in the week and the president said before the shutdown "We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that 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 we don't want to do because the government is completely shut down and there's zero money coming into the federal government's coffers.

Inskeep: I'm trying to figure that out. First, tax money is still coming in. This does seem to be a short-term issue. It's not like the government is about to run out of money. There's an authority not to spend money or not.

Leavitt: Well, we're $37 trillion in debt.

Inskeep: The president has talked about shutting down what he calls "Democrat agencies." Which agencies are the "Democrat agencies"?

Leavitt: Well, that's something that the White House is currently discussing. And the president is meeting with the Office of Management and Budget to try to understand what agencies are essential, what agencies do not align with the administration's priorities and values. I think every single one of your listeners would agree the federal government is way too big. And so where can we cut back to save money in a responsible way that respects the American taxpayer's money, especially when we are in this financial crunch right now, in the midst of a Democrat shutdown.

Inskeep: When the administration canceled an $18 billion spending on infrastructure projects in New York City, was that a shot at Chuck Schumer of New York and Democrats in general in a blue state?

Leavitt: Well, look, this is one of the many things we're taking a look at. What are these wasteful projects doing? And by the way, the reason for that is because the Department of Transportation workers who were working and pushing out the funds for that were all furloughed. They can't show up to work right now. So that project is currently temporarily halted because of Chuck Schumer's shutdown. So Chuck Schumer did that to himself. He did that to his constituents in New York. If the government remained open because Chuck Schumer and the Democrats voted for it, that infrastructure project would be ongoing.

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