Speaker Johnson: ‘I Would Like for Us To Be Voting on [Shutdown Deal] as Early as Wednesday’

KUDLOW: “I don’t understand it. He didn’t even get — you know, it’s the idea of political coverage. He may be in a lot of hot water himself. Actually, the New York Giants just fired their football coach. That could be apocryphal. I wonder if Mr. Schumer is looking at that. Such things happen in life. He didn’t even get that. And the left-wing of the party is probably furious at him, so the civil war continues. You know, I mean, Mr. Speaker, I don’t understand it. I’ve seen a bunch of these before. I’ve lived through a couple of these before. I don’t — I don’t understand it. I am glad, if you get this thing done. Maybe you could just walk us through, Sir. Some process. Now, it’s not quite a done deal, as you say Churchillianly, it’s the beginning of the end. So what must happen? We need to get a vote in the Senate. And then what happens? And then when’s that vote going to come?”

Johnson: “Well, that’s the big question right now. The latest update, I’m just down the hall from the Senate chamber. Rand Paul, maybe a couple others, are gumming up the works, so to speak. They’re holding this up a bit because they have a couple of little parochial priorities that they want to use as leverage to get the final vote. But we’re hoping that they will fast-track this. I mean, if — they they wanted to, they could probably drag this out into the weekend, but that would just exact a whole other level of pain on the American people when they can least afford it. So we’re praying that they get about the business, fast-track this thing. I have already put the House on notice that all members are to be headed back to the Hill right now. I would like for us to be voting on this as early as Wednesday, which would be the quickest we could process it if the Senate does their work. And I think we’ll get it passed off the House floor, get it to the president’s desk. He is anxious to have it. As you know, he is very anxious, happy to get the government reopened. And he’s been working on that every day since this shutdown.”