It Is On The Backs Of The Democrats Ashley Moody Calls Out Dems Over Shutdown Mid Hearing

I feel like we have to address all of the comments that have been made, but especially the last entire amount of time that was designed to suggest that this is a shutdown on anyone's watch other than the Democrats. And we cannot let that go unanswered, and I agree with Ms. Abruzzo that this is a system designed against workers in the sense that this whole design of this shutdown, led by shutdown Schumer and these Democrats that won't just keep the funding going for a few weeks while we can figure out next year's spending, it is their design to blame it on President Trump, to blame it on the Republicans, but it is in fact the Democrats who have decided not to continue funding. So they have to spend an entire time, when I really want to get to bipartisan solutions for labor. I was very excited. I have all these suggestions, especially Florida. I feel like we've done a lot of things right for workers. You cannot have somebody sit here and put in front of the American people that the government is shut down because of President Trump or because of the Republicans. It is on the backs of the Democrats who we've given them time and time again the opportunity to show up and vote yes, let's keep the government open so we can engage in these bipartisan conversations as someone whose oldest boy is in the Army, as someone who understands that people are facing not getting paychecks. And I think we just heard five minutes of comments on this rather than getting to bipartisan solutions on labor because someone comes from a state where they have a lot of people that are employed by the federal government and they, by golly, need to blame it on someone else besides the Democrats that are not showing up and voting to open this government. And it makes me incredibly sad because we have really hardworking people in this country that are not going to get their paycheck very soon. And so I appreciate you letting me indulge in correcting the record because we are here to do important work. This president, more than any president in my memory, has said, how can we come together in a way that is pro-worker and pro-business, American business, and do right and focus on how we can maybe tweak our laws to have a better system in place? I'm all about that. And I appreciate you, sir, for coming in here today and saying, I've asked my members, let's come at this from a politically blind way. Who are the best people and what are the best policies that we can push forward in this new age of America, the golden age of America, where we're focusing not on how do we ensure strong free markets, less red tape, better ability to build businesses, can support our workers and our families, and also have a strong backbone to support those business and our American workers? So thank you for saying that. I took note of that and I thought that was especially useful. I want to start with employee stock option plans. And I want to turn to you, Mr. O'Brien. Have you found or have you ever been in negotiations where focusing on how employees might be given the opportunity to be owners in the businesses help alleviate some of the negotiation strife or even mitigate strikes? My experience, and there are stockholders in businesses, but that, in my experience, hasn't had an impact one way or the other on what a employee feels because he may be a stock owner of that particular business or not. My experience has been most of my members are always concerned about earning a livable wage, affordable health care, and negotiating pensions that they know that they'll be able to retire on with dignity and respect. My experience also in situations where you have employers that don't want to agree to retirement plans or any type of retirement outside of 401k, my experience has always been when you look at the demographics of a 401k versus a pension, a 401k is usually taking money out of your own pocket, investing in a retirement plan, if your lucky employer may or may not make contributions to match that. But it's no guarantee. So you haven't seen that be helpful in negotiations? No, I have not. I want to turn to you, Ms. Gessler. Have you seen that? And I'm sorry to cut you off. I just want to make sure I have time for this. And I think at its core, this is a great way to empower workers. And it's a way that recognizes that employees and employers are in business together. And so when the company profits, the workers profit. And that's a great way to recognize that and to have those individuals, the workers have a stake in the company. And I'm out of time. I had a million bipartisan issues I wanted to discuss. I just want to thank each of you for being here today. This is a great panel. And Chairman Cassidy, I commend you, sir. I know I'm over my time. But let me compliment you. You can go over your time to do that. I knew it. But bringing together people who have different backgrounds and generally come at it from a different place and the stakeholders they're representing, I think this is a great way for us to actually focus on legislation that has a chance of passing. And I was excited to be here today. And I wanted to thank all the witnesses. Thank you so much. Thank you, Senator. Thank you.