Hi, this is Congresswoman █████████████ asking you to join our live telephone town hall meeting. Just stay on the line to be automatically connected. You'll have an opportunity to ask questions, share comments, vote and polls on your phone, or just listen in. We will be discussing the issues that matter most to Californians, based on questions from the live Teletown hall audience. Invitandolos. ███████ again. Please stay on the line to be connected to our forum now in progress. Also, you can reach my office in ████████ at ████████████ anytime. Thank you. You are joining a live conference already in progress. Please be aware that your local phone company may leave your line open for up to ██ seconds after you leave the conference. If you would like to ask the speaker a question, please press 0 pass funding to keep the government operating. This means that many government agencies stop working altogether and thousands of federal workers are furloughed or they work without pay until a funding deal is reached. So they are the very first people affected by a shutdown. Some services do continue, like Social Security, Medicare and VA benefits. Those are very important benefits. Those continue, but others are shut down or they are delayed. This is now the third shutdown that is linked to the █████ administration. Despite the fact that Republicans control the White House, the House and the Senate, Republicans could not keep the government operating. Republicans need ██ votes in the Senate to pass a funding bill, but they continually refuse to work with Democrats to include critical health care subsidies for ██ million Americans. I just want folks to know that Democrats were not included in any funding discussions heading into the shutdown, and the president and Republican leaders only met with democratic leaders on ██████████████. So it is pretty clear that they don't appear to want to reopen the government. Speaker ███████ hasn't called the House back to vote since ██████████████. Yes, you heard that correctly. The house has been in recess for nearly a month during the shutdown. Time and time again, Republicans have shown that they are willing to sacrifice working families financial security in order to push through their extreme agenda. I know that right about now, millions of Americans are very anxious. Thousands of federal workers are being fired. They are being furloughed, or they are working without pay. Families face financial uncertainty, and many government programs have stalled. And sadly, Republicans are nowhere to be found in ██████████. But I want you all to know that I am here in ████████████████ along with my Democratic colleagues, we are ready to get to work and reopen the government. We want to keep it running, but not at the expense of millions of people's health care. This funding fight essentially hinges on the expected increase in health insurance premiums if Congress fails to act by the end of the year. Anyone who gets coverage, health care coverage through the Affordable Care act state exchanges and in ██████████ it is covered. California. Will likely see their monthly premiums double next year. That is right. You heard that correctly. Doubled next year. So if you think health insurance is expensive now, it will cost you double next year. And that is because Republicans have refused to renew the tax credits that help keep the cost down for buying your insurance on the exchange. The tax credits were created to deliver low or zero dollar premiums for low and middle income Americans. Who are struggling to afford their health care. But Republicans refused to extend these premiums. When they made their massive tax break for billionaires. Permanent in the big ugly bill. So they didn? T care about renewing tax credits so that people could afford health insurance, but they sure cared a lot about making tax cuts for billionaires permanent. And I want everybody to know I am not just speaking hypothetically. This is happening right now.