Title: Rep. Suozzi on the Shutdown & Election Results

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Well, there was big news last night on the government shutdown front. If you haven't heard this yet, 10 Democratic or independent members of the Senate, I think it was 8 Democrats, 2 independents, broke with the rest of the Democrats to advance a bill to end the shutdown at least through January and get a separate vote on extending Obamacare subsidies that the Democrats have been holding out over.

Headlines this morning include USA Today, "Democrat vs. Democrat," and POLITICO, "Dem Civil War." With me now is New York Democratic Congressman Tom Suozzi of Northeast Queens and the North Shore of Nassau County. He was part of a bipartisan group in the House last week that proposed a compromise on how to move forward on Obamacare subsidies.

Maybe his plan will be taken as the path to yes on that standalone Obamacare vote if they get to that part. Suozzi also was a Cuomo supporter in the New York City mayoral election and wrote a Newsday op ed on what he thinks the future of his party should be after Election Day. The blue wave that swept over New Jersey, Virginia, and New York City notably did not wash up onshore in Nassau County, which remains solidly red. Lots to talk about. Congressman Suozzi, always good to have you on the show. Welcome back to WNYC.

Congressman Tom Suozzi: Brian, good to be with you.

Brian Lehrer: First, I haven't seen yet whether you endorse the Senate bill to end the shutdown. Do you?

Congressman Tom Suozzi: Not yet. I'm happy that we're going to reopen the government. A lot of people are suffering, but I'm unhappy with the Senate deal, that they didn't require that there also be a vote in the House on whatever compromise is negotiated. I don't want to go through this whole process and then the Senate negotiates something on the ACA premium tax credits, which we all want, and then it's not voted on in the House. That would be a real kick in the head.

Brian Lehrer: Wouldn't it have to be voted on in the House? Maybe I don't understand how the process works. In order to get this budget through, this stopgap budget, through January, wouldn't it have to be approved by both Houses of Congress? Correct me if I'm wrong.

Congressman Tom Suozzi: You're correct that the continuing resolution would have to be approved by both houses of Congress, but they're talking about voting on the premium tax credits within 40 days. Long after we vote on reopening the government, it'll be up to the Senate. They promised that they'll vote, pinky swear, they'll vote on the premium tax credits in the Senate, but there's no promise that they'll vote on it in the House. I'm trying to negotiate with some of my Republican colleagues to say, "Listen, you want our votes on the continuing resolution, we need a vote in the House on whatever they vote on in the Senate."

Brian Lehrer: Do you want to go right into the compromise on Obamacare subsidies that you and I see one other Democrat plus two Republicans have been working on as part of the Problem Solvers Caucus, which some of our listeners may know of, some may not know, that includes some Democrats, some Republicans who even in this polarized world try to work on some bipartisan solutions to things?

Congressman Tom Suozzi: There's been a couple of different things. This was not actually part of the Problem Solvers. This was done by myself and Congressman Don Bacon-

Brian Lehrer: Oh, sorry.

Congressman Tom Suozzi: -Congressman Josh Gottheimer from New Jersey, and Congressman Jeff Hurd from Colorado. We said, "Listen, let's do a framework whereby we'll extend the premium tax credits for two years, and we will have a phase-out as to who gets the premium, starting at $200,000 up to $400,000. We all want to see this solved, and we don't want to see people suffer like this, and we're not going to figure out the perfect solution, so let's extend it for a period of time."

That was the framework that we laid out. There was a lot of action behind that, with a lot of people talking about that. That was hard because we went out on a limb to do something separate and apart from our leadership on both sides. I worked on something else before the shutdown, where there were 12 Democrats and 12 Republicans that said, "Let's extend the premium tax credit for a year, and then we'll work out a longer-term plan during that year, but let's not shut the government down. Let's just extend it for a year."

The bottom line is that right now, there's a deal in the Senate to reopen the government with a promise that the Senate will put something on the floor to extend the premium tax credits. We don't know how long, we don't know what other terms will be, but they promised there will be a vote within 40 days. There is no promise that there'll be a commensurate vote in the House. That's a problem. We're trying to see if we can fix that.

Brian Lehrer: Can they promise that in the Senate, or do you have to get Speaker Mike Johnson or someone like that on board?

Congressman Tom Suozzi: You'd have to get Johnson on board, or you'd have to get a bunch of Republicans who agree that they would sign what's called a discharge petition. Because it's so close between Democrats and Republicans, if you could get four or five Republicans to say they would sign a discharge petition, it would force a vote in the House.

Brian Lehrer: Right.

Congressman Tom Suozzi: Right now, I would say that most people in Congress and in the Senate want to reopen government. I would say that most Democrats, all Democrats, really, and quite a few Republicans, not a majority, but a bunch of Republicans, want to do something about the premium tax credits. If we have that, why can't we get something done? Because nobody trusts each other because of all this crazy stuff that Trump's been punching everybody in the face for the past 10 months, it's very hard in this toxic environment to get people to even talk to each other.

The public, there's a big debate, "Oh, who's losing the shutdown fight? The Democrats are losing or the Republicans are losing?" I think the Republicans are losing, and the election results would bear me out on that, but it's not about who the Democrats or Republicans are winning or losing; it's about the people that are suffering because of this, and everybody thinks we're a bunch of idiots.

Everybody's sick of Congress that we can't just sit down and talk to each other and work it out the way people do in their families and their businesses and the rest of life. I think we're all losers here in that people are sick of government, and we have to figure out, despite this toxic environment, how to get it back again, where there's some semblance of trust and getting things done.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, we invite you to weigh in on the Senate compromise with a number of Democrats being willing to, let's say, break the filibuster not as a permanent thing like President Trump wants to break the filibuster and the whole tradition of the filibuster, but enough Democrats are willing to vote with the Republican majority to move this stopgap bill with the various provisions we've been talking about through and end the government shutdown.

There is a lot of backlash from what's being reported in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Listeners, what do you think? Is this too new for you to have an opinion? Well, I'll let you correct that framing in just a minute if you want to do that. Listeners, I don't know if it's too early because this just broke last night for you to have an opinion on it, but call and weigh in if you do, or ask any question of our guest, Democratic Congressman Tom Suozzi from part of Northeast Queens and the North Shore of Nassau County. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Call or text. Congressman, go ahead.

Congressman Tom Suozzi: I don't want to reframe your question; I just want to point out that in the midst of this shutdown with very few people talking to each other, when the President came out and said he wants to try and force the Senate to get rid of the filibuster, the Democrats and Republicans in the Problem Solvers Caucus, that's 50 members of Congress pretty evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans trying to work together.

Again, very difficult in this toxic environment, but we did come out and say that we do not support the idea of getting rid of the filibuster. We think that's a bad idea. It's the only thing in government these days that forces some bipartisanship, where people do have to try and compromise with each other. It's the only vestige that's left of that right now.

Brian Lehrer: There is this reporting about, I mentioned some of the headlines at the beginning, USA Today, "Democrat vs. Democrat," POLITICO, "Dem Civil War." The argument on the other side of this is, "Wait, we Democrats," that these Democrats would say, "just did so well in the elections on Tuesday. Why are we the ones caving?" How would you respond? I know you haven't endorsed it yet, either yourself, but how would you respond to that?

Congressman Tom Suozzi: The bottom line is we did win. We had a big night on Tuesday night. There's no question about that. That's great, but it's more than just about winning. It's about the people. I have people who called me on Friday of last week about they're not getting their SNAP benefits, and they don't know what to do. They're not able to pay their utility bill. They're not going to be able to pay their rent.

I've got a lot of air traffic controllers and government employees who are going to work, and they're not getting paid, and it's affecting them. There's all kinds of bad things that are happening in real life, with people calling my office who need to get something done with their Social Security application or something to do with their Medicare application, or some immigration issue, or passport or visa issue, whatever it may be.

They're just like, "What's wrong with you guys? I'm suffering out here." We all, I think, want to open the government, and I'm happy we're opening the government, but I share some of these concerns that this deal that was negotiated does not include a required vote in the House. If we knew we were going to get a vote in the House, I'd probably support this deal. I think that the Democrats, what do we do during the shutdown?

Like I said before, we've been getting slapped around for 10 months, kind of all over the place. If you poll the American people and you ask them, "What are the issues you care about the most?" Number one is affordability. That was borne out in the elections on Tuesday. Number two is immigration. Number three is taxes. Number four is crime. Number five is health care.

Well, by talking about the affordability of health care, which is the basis of this shutdown, we have reasserted the fact that the Democrats are out fighting for you on issues you care about, affordability and health care, which I think we always have. We just didn't do as an effective a job communicating that as being a priority of ours, but now we've done it very effectively.

Now the Republicans have to decide, are you with the people? Are you not with the people? Because everybody's prices are still going up. People's prices are still up because of the tariffs. People's prices are up because energy demand is going up for the first time in 30 years, because of all these data centers. The President and the Republicans just cut all of these Build Back Better incentives for green energy.

Prices are going up because of the health care that I was just talking about. Prices are up because interest rates are high, even with a quarter percent decrease here and a quarter percent decrease there. They're at modern-day highs because of the upward pressure, because of all the deficits created by the Big Beautiful Bill. Prices are high because there's a million and a half-plus people in the workforce, immigrants that have been deported or self-deported, or afraid to go to work, which is not only inhumane the way a lot of folks have been treated.

I'm all for securing the border. I am not for mass men breaking the windows of landscapers and dragging people out onto the street. With all these folks out of the workforce, this is causing upward pressure again. All these things the President said on day one, he says, "I'm going to rapidly reduce prices." Well, prices are going up because of these five things: tariffs, energy, health care, interest rates, and the labor force.

Brian Lehrer: Interestingly, in their article about the divide within the Democratic Party on the Senate moving forward in this way, POLITICO notes that what it says, most importantly, on the side of these senators making the compromise, Dems have put the Obamacare subsidies squarely on the political map and drawn a clear political dividing line between the two parties over a highly salient issue. How salient?

It adds, the polling on extending the subsidies is extraordinary. A whopping 71% of Americans in a stack poll said they were concerned about the subsidies and ending. That's obviously bipartisan concern. Here is Sheila in Oyster Bay in your district. Sheila, you're on WNYC with Congressman Tom Suozzi.

Sheila: Hi. First of all, I just wanted to say I worked for Representative Suozzi when he was running for election. Very quickly, a couple of things. One, I am against the compromise, I think, for two reasons. One, I think that it requires trusting the Republicans to actually, in fact, bring up a vote on the Obamacare issue separately. Even Representative Suozzi mentioned pinky swear.

Well, that's not good enough. They have shown themselves to absolutely ignore any agreements they make with the Democrats. That doesn't seem like a good idea. Second, I'm very interested to see how the SNAP issue, which to me is the crucial one, I actually don't care so much, and this sounds weird, but yes, everyone wants to go to their family for Thanksgiving, but that seems to me a very selfish way of looking at the shutdown.

To me, much more important is how these poor families aren't getting food to eat. I would like to see-- Ketanji Brown did something that, on the face of it, looks as though she's kind of siding with the administration, but my husband, who's a lawyer, was telling me that it's a very interesting thing because, actually, this is her district, and she gets to make the original pronouncements about it.

I think it would be amazing if the courts were able to say that the President doesn't have authority to withhold the SNAP payments. Last thing, I'm very disappointed to hear that Representative Suozzi supported Cuomo. I totally get that. I didn't know that. I totally get the fight between the progressives and the more moderate, but oh my goodness, Cuomo is so corrupt and awful. Why not just not endorse? I know people are afraid of Mamdani; I'm not. I think he's great, Mamdani, but if you felt worried about that, just don't endorse, but Cuomo is just a corrupt pal of the first order. That's it.

Brian Lehrer: Sheila, thank you for your call. Thank you very much. Well, she put a few things on the table. What do you want to respond to?

Congressman Tom Suozzi: Well, I'll respond to all of it, but let me first say that on SNAP, the President is just being mean-spirited here. This is just mean. The money is there to feed poor people, low-income people, children, elderly people, disabled people. The idea that he's using people hostage like this is just mean-spirited. I think that's going to continue to hurt him while it's hurting all these folks.

It's just plain straightforward mean. As far as the polling that you talked about before, and about how we've put it on the table that this issue is out there, we've kind of won this fight about making the affordability of health care a clear choice between the Democrats, who are credible on this, and the Republicans, who are not credible on this. Now they have to decide as part of this Senate vote.

I know it's only a pinky swear, as we said before, but they can't not vote on it. They're too far out there on this. If they didn't vote on it, they'd just look like fools, but they have to decide whether they're going to vote for a compromise or not vote for a compromise. They're going to have to be held accountable politically one way or the other. That's why it's so important to me that there also be a vote in the House so that people will be held--

First of all, I want to help people. I want to help extend their premium tax credits, but I want to hold people accountable. Are you for people's health insurance being affordable or not? That's why we need a vote in the House. I think there's enough support from Republicans and certainly from the Democrats to do it, but we have to have a vote in order to make that happen.

Number three, Cuomo versus Mamdani. I've had my problems with rew Cuomo for 20-some odd years, quite frankly, but he won my district in Queens by 27%. I was representing the people in my district. I do not support the idea of democratic socialists. People have asked me, "Are you going to work with the mayor-elect?" I said, "I'll work with anybody. If you want to help people, I'm going to try and do the best I can to help them. I'm going to help trying to help New York succeed."

I'll work with President Trump. I don't agree with him. I'll work with him to help America succeed. I'll work with anybody if you really want to work together to try and solve problems. I don't agree with Mr. Mamdani on a lot of different things. I agree with his diagnosis. I think that Mamdani, much like Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill, and even Donald Trump, all diagnosed the problem.

People are economically insecure. They're concerned about affordability. They're sick of the disparities in wealth that exist and the concentrations of wealth that exist while so many people are struggling to get by. That's the correct diagnosis. I'm more inclined to follow Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger on their prescriptions and not Donald Trump or Zohran Mamdani on their prescription.

Brian Lehrer: About your differences with Mamdani, let me quote from the article that you wrote in Newsday after the election. You wrote, Capitalism must work for everyone, and the excess of concentrated wealth must be tempered with fairness. A full-time job should enable a person to own a home, educate their kids, pay for health care, and retire without fear. Policy must favor workers, drive down the cost of living, let Medicare and Medicaid negotiate with Big Pharma for lower prices.

On immigration, you wrote, the rule of law guided by economic interest and moral principles, not masked agents creating chaos. How is any of that different, on a policy level, from what Mamdani actually ran on or espouses?

Congressman Tom Suozzi: Mamdani says he wants to raise taxes in New York City. When I was born, there were 42 members of Congress from New York State; today there's 26 members of Congress from New York State, and it's going down to 25 [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: He says 2 percentage points on people making a million dollars or more per year.

Congressman Tom Suozzi: I'd like to see a 2.6%, actually, increase on high-wealth individuals, people making above $400,000 a year at the federal level. I'd like to see that money. There's a thing called revenue sharing we used to have in America. The money that's generated from the states, from each state, from the people in the states, and their federal income taxes goes back to the states.

I'd like to see a 2.6% increase on the wealthiest Americans at the federal level, and that money goes back to the states where it was generated from. Then New York State can stop having this upward pressure on taxes that is forcing so many businesses and so many individuals out of our state. We have a big problem in our country that a lot of Democratic states are losing relative population to the rest of the country.

The blue wall that we've talked about for several election cycles now is going away in the next census. It's not going to exist, the blue wall, because we're seeing more seats increasing in Florida and Texas and Arizona and North Carolina and South Carolina, and Tennessee, and going down in New York and California and Minnesota and Wisconsin, in Michigan, in Illinois.

We have got to recognize that we don't want to race to the bottom. We don't want to be like Florida and Texas, where they don't pay their teachers. We don't want to be like Florida and Texas, where they have the highest rates of uninsured children, the highest rates of uninsured adults, whereas in New York, we have the lowest rates of uninsured children and the lowest rates of uninsured adults.

We don't want to be like them, but we have to recognize we're in a competition as to where people are living in our country. We are losing that race with some of these low-tax states. We have to figure out how we can be competitive so that we can maintain our political influence in our country. Raising taxes in New York City is not the way to do that.

Brian Lehrer: Why do you think, with the blue wave that did come, even to New York City, we think of it as a very blue place, but a lot more Latinos, for example, voted for Trump last year than voted for either Cuomo or Sliwa this year? A lot of those people came home to the Democratic nominee, Mamdani. Of course, you know what happened in New Jersey and Virginia, but not in Nassau County, which seemed to stay, just based on the percentages in the local elections there, county executive, the county DA, et cetera--

Congressman Tom Suozzi: County supervisor, the mayor of my hometown.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, Glen Cove.

Congressman Tom Suozzi: Even in my Queens portion of my district, Vickie Paladino. She got 60% votes [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: Yes, Vickie Paladino, she's so MAGA. She won reelection in that part of Queens, as you say, even though she had a Democratic challenger, Ben Chou, a former firefighter, who people considered a strong challenger. Why?

Congressman Tom Suozzi: Because I think that the Republicans effectively weaponized Mamdani and some challenges with the Democratic brand against us. For as long as I've been alive, longer than I've been alive, I'm 63, the Republicans on Long Island have said, "Stop the Queensification of Nassau. Stop Nassau from becoming the Sixth Borough," which is a lot of coded code words as well, but the idea of socialism and Mamdani is a very scary--

They did the same thing with immigration. They did the same thing with crime in the 2022 elections. They have created these boogeymen. I've heard stories, I don't know if it's true or not, that the Republican National Campaign Committee is offering $1,000 reward for whoever can get a picture of me with Mamdani. [laughs] It's so absurd because you don't want the commercial [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: So they can use it against you next year.

Congressman Tom Suozzi: Of course, [unintelligible 00:23:45]

Brian Lehrer: Let me get one more call in here on how this possible end to the government shutdown might resolve in the next round, which would take place in January. Aminata in Brooklyn. Hi, Aminata, thanks for calling in. We have 30 seconds for you.

Aminata: Hi. Yes, I'm just wondering if they don't go for a vote on the ACA subsidies in the House, if the folks in the Senate, the Democrats in the Senate, would consider not voting for the government, voting against government funding when the CR expires in January, just as a way to sort of, "Okay, you're not going to deliver on the promises of having a vote, we're going to hold it again."

Congressman Tom Suozzi: Yes, I don't think we can predict about what's going to happen between now and January 30th. That's a lifetime away in these things. I think that nobody really wants to shut the government down. I think it's something that people really don't like doing that. I think it happened this time because, again, as I said earlier in the show, we were just getting beaten up so badly for the past 10 months, with the President just doing whatever he wants, that we had to send a message that this can't continue.

One of the other good things that the Senate did get in this negotiation is to undo a lot of the layoffs the President did. That's one of the reasons I got the Virginia votes, for example, because there's so many government employees. There's a lot of different moving pieces. I think what I have to do as a Democrat and other Democrats have to do is make it clear to people we're fighting for them, and we hear you loud and clear.

You care about affordability. You care about the immigration issue. You care about taxes. You care about crime. You care about health care. I'd throw in education and the environment in there as well, but that's not in the top five list, but I think that that's important. The other important issues that people think we stand for, like choice and LGBT protections and saving democracy, and climate change, are all very important issues.

I have good records on all those issues, but that's not what people are talking about every day. That's not what they're worried about when they are talking to their family or they're talking to their friends at work, or you're going to a barbecue or something like that. They're talking about affordability, talking about immigration, they're talking about taxes, they're talking about crime, and they're talking about health care. This fight on the affordability of health care is a good fight for us to have. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it's what people care about.

Brian Lehrer: Congressman Tom Suozzi, we always appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Congressman Tom Suozzi: Thank you, Brian.

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