North Texas lawmakers discuss peace in the Middle East, ongoing government shutdown
Members of Congress from North Texas react to the history-making events in the Middle East as emotional family reunions continue in Israel.
Israeli hostages returned to their country after being held by Hamas for more than two years. The remains of the hostages who didn't survive are in the process of being returned as well.
Eye on Politics reporter Jack Fink spoke with Republican Craig Goldman, of Fort Worth, who credits President Trump with a big win that he hopes will turn into a lasting peace.
"I think the key was one person, Donald Trump, and his team. His negotiating team. The many times that Bibi Netanyahu came to either America or Trump talk to him on the phone, it was, let's end this war, and let's bring the hostages home. It was their negotiations that made this happen."
When asked how to achieve a lasting peace in the region, Goldman said, "Step one was to get the hostages home and in the war. Right. So that's step one. Now step two comes from negotiations of what happens next, which was, if you watched yesterday, part of the historical, another historical moment is when President Trump went to Egypt and met with all those foreign leaders, the region, the Middle East, that's going to affect their lives as well, and their countries as well. So they have to have input of what happens next there as well."
Fink also spoke with Democrat Julie Johnson, of Farmers Branch, who is also criticizing one aspect of the Middle East peace deal.
"I think there's several factors at play," Johnson said. "You know, a two-year war takes a significant toll on everyone involved. Obviously, the Israeli military had done significant damage in Gaza and to Hamas, and I think they… and the people of Gaza were suffering mightily. And so, at some point, it has to end. And I think there's also a lot of world pressure being put to bear on Netanyahu and the Israeli government. Trump certainly had a role in that, but other countries, Qatar and Egypt, and others did as well."
"I think there's pressure to bear on all sides. And, obviously, that pressure finally moved the needle. I think there have been a lot of efforts to try to bring this war to an end over these last two years, and finally, we finally got to a point where it was achievable. Obviously, there's a lot of moving parts going forward. How's, you know, Gaza gonna govern itself? Who's gonna take over the leadership of the Palestinian people and their government and their structure, or their leadership, rather, and what's… how to move forward. There's a lot, yet to be achieved and yet to work through, but I'm glad, at least for these families."
Ongoing government shutdown
Texas Republicans and Democrats in Congress continue blaming each other for the federal government shutdown, and there is no indication yet when they will strike a deal to reopen it.
Goldman said that the "end in sight is Chuck Schumer saying, 'Okay, I'll vote for the continuing resolution.' That's it. It's very simple... there's no reason to have this shutdown right now. Zero."
He said that the enhanced tax credits from the Affordable Care Act "don't expire until December."
"By the way, tax credits the Democrats voted for put a temporary five-year term on them, knowing that they were going to expire at the end of this year. And now all of a sudden, they come up with a negotiating tactic. Oh, well, we need to talk about that in order to reopen the government."
Fink asked Johnson for her opinion on what it would take for the government to reopen at this point.
She responded, "It's going to take Republicans to recognize that Americans need their healthcare, and they're not going to easily walk away from it. You know, millions of Americans are going to lose their health coverage. Notice letters are starting to go out. Six states have received notice letters."
"Texas notice letters will go out Nov. 1. So I think what we're going to see is, Texas is the largest state that participates in the Affordable Care Act. Every congressional member of the Texas delegation has constituents that benefit and get their healthcare coverage from this program, and I'm sure that they're going to start…their phones are going to start ringing off the wall when people start getting their notice letters and realizing that their premiums could go...up hundreds of doubling and quadrupling for their healthcare coverage, and it's unacceptable in our state," she said.