Here & Now

Congressman Glenn Grothman Talks about Government Shutdown

Frederica Freyberg:
We move across the aisle now to speak to Sixth District Republican Congressman Glenn Grothman who joins us by phone. Thanks a lot for doing so.

Glenn Grothman:
Glad to be on the show as always. We’re doing this from an airplane at the Washington airport. So we’ll see how it works out.

Frederica Freyberg:
All right. We’ll be mindful of that. So now this week there were some Appropriations bills on the floor of the House and you voted against those. Why is that?

Glenn Grothman:
Well, first of all, they’re too free-spending. In the past, I have sometimes voted for bills I thought were excessive spending yet there was a very important thing to get done and we have previously voted for bills with funding for a wall in there even though they were more free-spending than I wanted. But now that that was removed, I don’t think these bills are appropriate. Adding too much to the federal debt.

Frederica Freyberg:
Are you opposed then to ending the government shutdown?

Glenn Grothman:
I think we should end the government shutdown. I voted for a bill that would have ended the government shutdown in December. Unfortunately, did not have enough votes in the Senate to pass.

Frederica Freyberg:
So you voted also against a bill to pay furloughed workers back pay. Why?

Glenn Grothman:
Well, I have no problem with paying people who are working. And I am one of 12 cosponsors of a bill to pay people immediately who are working. But this shutdown could go on for six months. Is it appropriate to pay somebody six months for not working? I mean maybe eventually we can reach some sort of compromise to pay them something to tide them over, but making as much not working as you do working seems a little ridiculous. That’s why we’re $22 trillion in debt.

Frederica Freyberg:
Not their fault they’re not working.

Glenn Grothman:
Well, that’s true of anybody who’s not working, isn’t it? If you get laid off from public radio or public television, it’s not your fault you got laid off. But I don’t think the government steps in and pays you your full salary, either.

Frederica Freyberg:
Ok, so there’s about 3,000 people in Wisconsin who are on furlough or working, working without pay. What do you say to them?

Glenn Grothman:
I am, like I said, one of only 12 Congressmen who’s a cosponsor of a bill drafted by Mo Brooks of Alabama to pay those people immediately. The bill we voted on today was a little ridiculous. It did nothing to immediately pay the people who are working, but it guaranteed eventual full pay for people who aren’t working. It puts you in a much better position not to work than to work.

Frederica Freyberg:
Well, could you live without your paycheck or are you doing what some Congress people are doing, which is donating them?

Glenn Grothman:
We have said right now that I will not — they should withhold my check for now. The degree at which I give to charity, I’m thinking about it right now. In the past I’ve given money to charity but we’ll see what I give to charity. But right now I’m having my paycheck withheld, just like the other employees.

Frederica Freyberg:
All right. You introduced a bill called the Peoples Border Wall Fund Act, basically a crowd source funding effort, allowing citizens to directly contribute to the wall. What has been the reaction to that?

Glenn Grothman:
Overwhelmingly positive. I think people know we have a crisis at the border. Over 90% of the heroin in this country comes in over the border. Over 2,000 people have been charged in Texas alone with homicide who are here illegally. So we have a crisis that has to be dealt with. I know Donald Trump has been very patient. He’s been president for over two years without insisting this be an Appropriation bill. But I think largely for partisan reasons, a given number of politicians are not voting for this wall. And it’s a shame. You know, the amount of money that Donald Trump is asking for this wall is less than one-seventh of what we spend on foreign aid every year. Think about that. Nobody has a problem spending all this money on foreign aid. But one-seventh amount for the wall, “Oh, I don’t see a crisis.”

Frederica Freyberg:
So you see this more of a criminal type crisis than a crisis of asylum seekers trying to gain safety by being given asylum in the U.S.?

Glenn Grothman:
Oh, it’s a crisis for the entire immigration program. Donald Trump will continue to allow 700,000 new people to be sworn in as citizens every year. He’s just saying you got to wait in line to be one of the 700,000. It’s unfortunate that so many people feel that people who are breaking the law to cross the border should jump in ahead of those who are patiently waiting and doing it right.

Frederica Freyberg:
What’s your reaction to the declaration of a national emergency over the wall and shutdown? Would you be in favor of that?

Glenn Grothman:
I hope we don’t have to go there. I mean obviously we do have a national emergency between the heroin, the crime, people flooding over getting free health care, free education. Given, like I said, we’re $22 trillion in debt, there’s no question we have a national emergency here. But I hope it doesn’t come down to that.

Frederica Freyberg:
All right. You know that fact checkers say that the heroin comes through the legal ports of entry, not kind of over the border where there isn’t a wall yet.

Glenn Grothman:
There are some drugs coming over the border as well. And, you know, to me that’s a crisis. I don’t know why we wouldn’t build a wall. Plus the wall sends a message. Right now with so many American politicians for sanctuary cities, with the governor of California coming out for Medicaid for illegal immigrants, same thing with the mayor in New York, I can understand why people south of the border begin to think our immigration laws don’t mean anything.

Frederica Freyberg:
All right. We need to leave it there. Congressman Glenn Grothman, thanks very much for making the time.

Glenn Grothman:
Glad to be on the show as always.