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How Government Shutdowns Work · Stuff You Should Know

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello, Stuff you should know, come and see us in
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Speaker 1: so just look up End of the World, Josh Clark,
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0:43
Speaker 1: See you guys soon. Welcome to Stuff you Should Know,
0:47
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey,
0:56
Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. So I'm Josh Clark, and
0:58
Speaker 1: there's Charles W Chuck, Brian, there's Jerry over there, and
1:01
Speaker 1: this is the podcast. Like I said, in particular, it's
1:04
Speaker 1: the Stuff you Should Know podcast. So if that's not
1:08
Speaker 1: what you're here to listen to, you're in the wrong place.
1:10
Speaker 1: And if you don't want to listen to us talk
1:12
Speaker 1: about government shutdowns, then you're in the wrong place. But
1:15
Speaker 1: who doesn't want to know about government shutdowns? Yeah? I agree,
1:20
Speaker 1: educate yourself right as a matter of fact, because it's
1:23
Speaker 1: gonna happen again soon enough. That's exactly right. That is
1:26
Speaker 1: why I wanted to do this episode because I've been
1:30
Speaker 1: meaning for us to do this for years now, and
1:32
Speaker 1: every time, um we do it, and it's like, every
1:36
Speaker 1: time I go to do it, say, let's do a
1:38
Speaker 1: government shutdown episode, I think, is what I'm trying to say. Sorry,
1:41
Speaker 1: just drank a red Bull because I was about to
1:43
Speaker 1: fall over, and now I'm talking really fast. Just give
1:45
Speaker 1: me like ten minutes, okay, and you're drinking a Coca Cola. Well,
1:49
Speaker 1: we don't have zero here anymore. This is all we have.
1:52
Speaker 1: You want that extra caffeine kick on top of the
1:54
Speaker 1: red bull? I think I have just this twelve ounce can.
1:57
Speaker 1: It's not even gone, and I think I've burned a
1:58
Speaker 1: hole in my stomach. It's crazy, but delicious. It is delicious.
2:03
Speaker 1: I'll give you that. But coke zero is really delicious
2:07
Speaker 1: too for being a diet cola at any rate. Government shutdowns. Um,
2:14
Speaker 1: you were saying, Yeah, every time we go to do this,
2:17
Speaker 1: the government shuts down, so it looks like we're chasing
2:19
Speaker 1: a trend. So we have to wait. And I'm like,
2:21
Speaker 1: finally the time is right, because it wouldn't be cool
2:23
Speaker 1: to do one in the midst of one. Is that
2:25
Speaker 1: the deal definitely not gotcha. No, that's like buying a
2:29
Speaker 1: T shirt at a concert and then putting that T
2:31
Speaker 1: shirt on and looking around like, yeah, I'm at the
2:34
Speaker 1: concert with that horrible smell. No T shirt, especially concert
2:38
Speaker 1: t shirts they're printed out of, you know, straight chemicals,
2:42
Speaker 1: out of Buffalo Bill's basement, Native skin Man. He's been
2:46
Speaker 1: on my mind a lot because of the Geen episode.
2:49
Speaker 1: Well because that, and then I just saw on the
2:52
Speaker 1: movie Crusher's page someone posted a funny little thing that
2:55
Speaker 1: was a Buffalo Bill tender profile. Is really funny that, uh,
3:02
Speaker 1: and then there was something else from this past weekend.
3:04
Speaker 1: There was a lot of Buffalo Bill happening. He's he's everywhere. Yeah,
3:07
Speaker 1: remember we used to send each other that that one
3:10
Speaker 1: screen shot that was great back when we shared a
3:13
Speaker 1: cubicle wall I know, and it was easy enough to
3:16
Speaker 1: do that back in the day. Now we have gold
3:19
Speaker 1: plated air on chairs and no walls anywhere I take
3:23
Speaker 1: a regular air on. I think that's what you're sitting
3:26
Speaker 1: here right now. It was quite comfy. So anyway, welcome
3:30
Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Josh, there's Chuck. We should edit
3:33
Speaker 1: all that other stuff out, don't you think, or get
3:36
Speaker 1: money from Red Bull, Coca Cola and Airon and Buffalo
3:39
Speaker 1: Bill right, um or the Buffalo Bills football team. Dang man,
3:44
Speaker 1: you just really pulled it together with that last one.
3:48
Speaker 1: So we've been through some shutdowns in our time, Chuck
3:51
Speaker 1: our day. Yeah, as a matter of fact, Um, you'd
3:55
Speaker 1: think based on how common they kind of seem. I
3:59
Speaker 1: mean every few years. There's like the federal government, I
4:01
Speaker 1: should say, for our fellow listeners outside of the United States,
4:06
Speaker 1: our government is broken, right, We're talking about government shutdowns,
4:10
Speaker 1: and it's a lot like what it sounds like. I mean,
4:13
Speaker 1: we'll get to the nuts and bolts of it, obviously,
4:15
Speaker 1: but it's basically where the federal government, not state governments,
4:21
Speaker 1: but the federal USA government parts of it just stop functioning.
4:26
Speaker 1: And the reason they stop functioning is because those agencies
4:31
Speaker 1: that those parts of the federal government have not been funded,
4:34
Speaker 1: and since they haven't been funded by law, by Congressional
4:38
Speaker 1: Act from years back, they are not allowed to pay
4:42
Speaker 1: workers any longer. They're not even allowed to accept volunteer
4:46
Speaker 1: work from their workers. So with no workers, that means
4:50
Speaker 1: the agency shuts down, and that's a that's a government shutdown.
4:53
Speaker 1: That's what we're talking about. Literally parts of the government shutdown. Yeah,
4:56
Speaker 1: and again we will get into all the nuts and bolts,
4:59
Speaker 1: but it's uts down because of funding gaps, and those
5:02
Speaker 1: funding gaps happen almost always because of um entrenched politics. Yeah,
5:09
Speaker 1: it's it's two sides playing chicken over the budget, and
5:13
Speaker 1: when the government shutdown happens, neither side blinked, right. And
5:19
Speaker 1: it's also very important to point out that a big
5:22
Speaker 1: part of government shut downs is trying to get the
5:25
Speaker 1: other side too, maybe not accept blame, because no one
5:29
Speaker 1: ever does, it seems like, but at least the perception
5:32
Speaker 1: in the general media that this person or this side
5:36
Speaker 1: is the one to blame. Yeah, and more often than not,
5:39
Speaker 1: public polling shows that it's Congress that almost always takes
5:42
Speaker 1: to blame. Until this last one, it was always Congress, right,
5:47
Speaker 1: no matter what, which is funny that they would try
5:49
Speaker 1: to pull us off because it's so politically risky, because
5:52
Speaker 1: it's so damaging on an individual level among like federal
5:56
Speaker 1: employees or just average Americans, but also on a national level. Yeah,
6:00
Speaker 1: our economy takes a huge, huge hit that we just
6:03
Speaker 1: never regain. All right, that's a great setup and I
6:06
Speaker 1: think so too, So Chuck, to start, I think we
6:09
Speaker 1: should talk about how money moves around the federal government,
6:13
Speaker 1: don't you. Yeah, And this is uh again, if you
6:16
Speaker 1: live outside the country, and even if you live in
6:18
Speaker 1: the United States, um, you you may not understand what
6:21
Speaker 1: power of the purse means. But in the United States
6:25
Speaker 1: and in the US Constitution, Article one, Section nine, Class seven. Yeah,
6:30
Speaker 1: not even the Bill of Rights, like the Constitution. Yeah,
6:33
Speaker 1: like this is one of the first things they thought about.
6:35
Speaker 1: It was Congress who was granted control over the money. So, um,
6:40
Speaker 1: the president and can't just fund something. Uh, the Senate
6:45
Speaker 1: can't just fund something. Everything has to be agreed on
6:48
Speaker 1: and they can't spend a dime without Congress's express approval.
6:53
Speaker 1: Through this process, we're going to get into called appropriations, right,
6:57
Speaker 1: and so in the Constitution It just said the Congress
7:01
Speaker 1: is the one that approves all money. Everything comes through Congress. Right, Yeah,
7:05
Speaker 1: we should read that because it does have one funny line.
7:07
Speaker 1: Go ahead in from the Constitution, no money shall be
7:10
Speaker 1: drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of the appropriations
7:14
Speaker 1: made by law. So far, so good, and a regular
7:17
Speaker 1: statement of account of receipts and expenditures of all money
7:21
Speaker 1: shall be published from time to time. It's very non specific.
7:25
Speaker 1: Whenever you get to it. Why not, like you know,
7:28
Speaker 1: in November of every year. I honestly don't know, because
7:32
Speaker 1: I mean from time to time makes it seem unimportant.
7:34
Speaker 1: It makes it seem uh, what's the word when you
7:37
Speaker 1: don't have to do something, makes it seem non mandatory? Yeah, optional, optional,
7:42
Speaker 1: that's the word. I know you so well after all
7:46
Speaker 1: these years. So that's the from Article one of the Constitution,
7:51
Speaker 1: and presidents from seventeen seventy eight onward said, okay, I
7:57
Speaker 1: can work with that. There's a huge loophole here, like no,
8:00
Speaker 1: I can't. I can't, you know, spend money myself, Like
8:05
Speaker 1: I can't pay anybody myself. I have to wait for Congress.
8:08
Speaker 1: But that doesn't mean I can't like get the work
8:11
Speaker 1: done first, and then when it comes time to pay,
8:14
Speaker 1: I can just direct this contractor vendor, whoever, militiaman to
8:20
Speaker 1: Congress to go get money, which is really I mean,
8:23
Speaker 1: that is so United States government to be like, well,
8:26
Speaker 1: I'm technically not writing the check. I've just engaged someone
8:30
Speaker 1: services and now we owe them this money. Yeah, Congress,
8:33
Speaker 1: pay this guy. He's he yeah, yeah, we he did
8:35
Speaker 1: what he's saying he did. And so there was this
8:37
Speaker 1: representative in Virginia who was not happy about this, this
8:40
Speaker 1: kind of precedent that had been adopted by the executive
8:43
Speaker 1: branch um. This representative said in eighteen o six that
8:47
Speaker 1: presidents were acting like a saucy boy whose wealthy grandfather
8:52
Speaker 1: was going to cover his needs, and that that was
8:56
Speaker 1: the case. So eventually Congress said, we got to close
8:59
Speaker 1: the sloophole, and they did in eighteen eighty four. I
9:02
Speaker 1: think yeah. The Anti Deficiency Act basically said no, you
9:08
Speaker 1: can't just uh pay the guy to paint your house
9:11
Speaker 1: and then stand there tapping your toes looking at the
9:13
Speaker 1: guy with the checkbook right exactly. As a matter of fact,
9:15
Speaker 1: they said you can't spend a single time that Congress
9:20
Speaker 1: hasn't already appropriated for that. That's right. You just can't
9:24
Speaker 1: do it so much so that again you can't even
9:27
Speaker 1: accept volunteer work unless it is basically to protect life,
9:32
Speaker 1: for public safety, something really really important. But when we
9:36
Speaker 1: say we fund you, Congress funds the Executive Branch, all
9:40
Speaker 1: the agencies in the federal government, we really mean it.
9:43
Speaker 1: And that's what the Anti Deficiency Act really said. Yeah,
9:47
Speaker 1: but it would take until nine when Richard Nixon signed
9:51
Speaker 1: the Congress Budget and Impoundment Control Act. It's a barn burner. Yeah,
9:55
Speaker 1: but that's what really changed everything, and that's what kind
9:58
Speaker 1: of laid out this process that we still work with
10:01
Speaker 1: today or don't work with, or sit on our hands
10:04
Speaker 1: and hold our breath, right I ideally it functions kind
10:10
Speaker 1: of clunky even in its best form, but purposefully so
10:13
Speaker 1: it's to keep Congress from being profligate with its spending, right,
10:17
Speaker 1: Like I mean, it's to say, this group over here
10:20
Speaker 1: and this group over here, we're taking the same tasking,
10:24
Speaker 1: making you guys do it twice separately and then come
10:26
Speaker 1: together and hammer out the details. Yeah, it's really discouraging
10:30
Speaker 1: to look at the history of our country in the
10:33
Speaker 1: you know, the idea should be that, like, all right,
10:35
Speaker 1: we know that in this country we have a lot
10:37
Speaker 1: of people that feel one way about a lot of stuff,
10:39
Speaker 1: a lot of people that feel the other way, and
10:41
Speaker 1: the government's job should be to come together and negotiate
10:44
Speaker 1: and find nice middle grounds. And it seems like it's
10:47
Speaker 1: more like the government just finds loopholes and is sneaky
10:51
Speaker 1: and underhanded to find workarounds from actually trying to work
10:54
Speaker 1: together and find a middle ground. Stinks? Does stink? Sick
10:58
Speaker 1: of it? I'm I'm pretty fed up with government too.
11:01
Speaker 1: I think most people in America, and I would gather
11:04
Speaker 1: the UK too, all right, oh man, especially right now. So, uh,
11:09
Speaker 1: here's how it happens. Every year, the two chambers of Congress,
11:13
Speaker 1: they have to agree on a budget for the discretionary spending,
11:17
Speaker 1: which is I think only of the overall budget is
11:22
Speaker 1: is discretionary. Um. Everything else is mandatory or nondiscretionary, and
11:26
Speaker 1: that means stuff that you just can't not pay for,
11:31
Speaker 1: right um. And it's mostly things like Medicaid, medicare, social
11:34
Speaker 1: security entitlement programs to where these are These are mandatory
11:39
Speaker 1: programs that are created by an Act of Congress that
11:42
Speaker 1: says whatever these programs need to run and operate. That's
11:46
Speaker 1: how much Congress gives them. There's no spending levels, there's
11:50
Speaker 1: no you know what about this is like you can
11:52
Speaker 1: go in and monkey with the operation by Congressional Act.
11:56
Speaker 1: But as far as spending in budget goes, whatever they
11:58
Speaker 1: need they get. That's right. The other stuff, the discretionary stuff,
12:03
Speaker 1: that's what you say about thirty of the budget. But
12:07
Speaker 1: that's still like in two thousand eighteen that was one
12:09
Speaker 1: point two trillion dollars. And it's really important stuff. It's
12:12
Speaker 1: not like the mandatory spending is the only important stuff.
12:16
Speaker 1: We're talking about. The f d A, Homeland Security t
12:19
Speaker 1: s A, UH, the n i H, National Parks, the
12:23
Speaker 1: i r S, the Department of Defense. Yeah, big time stuff.
12:26
Speaker 1: Basically everything except so security, medicaid and medicare. Oh really
12:30
Speaker 1: is that essentially? Geez? I know? All right, So this
12:36
Speaker 1: all starts, this appropriations process. Uh. It's laid out for
12:39
Speaker 1: the first Monday in February UM and this is the deadline.
12:44
Speaker 1: It lines up with the deadline for the president to
12:47
Speaker 1: submit uh their budget to Congress, which you always here.
12:50
Speaker 1: This is the president's budget. The president over you know,
12:54
Speaker 1: overseas stuff, and approved stuff. But the president is not
12:56
Speaker 1: in there with the calculator crunching numbers. No, No, it's
13:00
Speaker 1: Office of Management and Budget that does it for the president.
13:02
Speaker 1: That's right, but it's under the president's direction. The president says,
13:05
Speaker 1: I really want to do this, but I don't want
13:07
Speaker 1: to do this anymore. But the thing is, it's almost
13:10
Speaker 1: like a little kid going through the Montgomery Ward wish
13:12
Speaker 1: book and then writing their list in crayon that has
13:15
Speaker 1: about the same polling power as the president's budget. It
13:20
Speaker 1: really is saying this is what the president wants to do,
13:22
Speaker 1: and then Congress either says these are good ideas or
13:24
Speaker 1: they say we're not listening to that at all, because
13:27
Speaker 1: it's not legally binding in any way. There's probably in
13:29
Speaker 1: fact party line templates. They just throw down like a
13:35
Speaker 1: mad lib and they tweak it a little bit, but
13:37
Speaker 1: they say like, well, here's the Republican style budget, and
13:40
Speaker 1: here's the Democratic style budget Obama or Trump, and now
13:44
Speaker 1: do your minor tweaks. Right. I think that is kind
13:47
Speaker 1: of it's got to be because it's a huge, massive document. Yeah,
13:51
Speaker 1: they can't like start from scratch every time, can they know?
13:54
Speaker 1: It's got to be like the first few pages are
13:56
Speaker 1: what really count, you know what I mean, it's got
13:58
Speaker 1: to be. But again and this is like, uh, they
14:01
Speaker 1: call it in this article like a the wish list
14:04
Speaker 1: of funding priorities, and that's a good way to put it.
14:07
Speaker 1: The Montgomery Award wish book wish list that I was
14:12
Speaker 1: Sears kid. I didn't discriminate. I went through all of
14:16
Speaker 1: them to make sure. Yeah, we didn't even have Montgomery Wards.
14:19
Speaker 1: So I never I've never laid eyes upon that catalog.
14:22
Speaker 1: It was. It was good. It was a good one.
14:25
Speaker 1: I put it up against the series one. Yeah we
14:27
Speaker 1: had Sears. And then I guess Service Merchandise was I
14:30
Speaker 1: remember that didn't they sell everything from like diamond rings
14:33
Speaker 1: and Cassio keyboards? They sold everything. I think I bought
14:35
Speaker 1: my very first guitar from Service Merchandise and returned it
14:38
Speaker 1: like a week later because it was cretty, and I
14:42
Speaker 1: went to a real guitar store, sam Ash. No, actually
14:46
Speaker 1: I remember I went to dirt cheap music on Memorial
14:48
Speaker 1: Drives any shop local. Yeah, yeah, dirt cheap buzz marketing
14:54
Speaker 1: for a business that is no longer around. So, uh,
14:58
Speaker 1: they've got this wish list. Then it goes on to
15:01
Speaker 1: Congress and they have to pass what's called a concurrent
15:04
Speaker 1: budget resolution, right, and Congress can totally ignore the president's budget.
15:08
Speaker 1: They can taken into consideration, um if the if Congress
15:12
Speaker 1: is in the controlled by the same party the president is,
15:15
Speaker 1: the president's wishes are probably going to be taken into constitution.
15:19
Speaker 1: But ultimately Congress says, this is what we want to do.
15:22
Speaker 1: And from what I can tell, when they come up
15:24
Speaker 1: with this concurrent um budget, right, yeah, concurrent budget a
15:29
Speaker 1: CBS are current budget resolution, it's basically just setting the
15:33
Speaker 1: spending for the year. Right. That's that's all that is,
15:36
Speaker 1: isn't it like this the cap on what the federal
15:39
Speaker 1: government can spend entirely? I think. So it's just that
15:42
Speaker 1: broad agreement of the total amount of spending, and then
15:46
Speaker 1: it starts to get divvied up. Yeah, they're not in
15:48
Speaker 1: the weeds at this point, but they're supposed to pass
15:50
Speaker 1: that by mid April. Uh. And that's where they set
15:54
Speaker 1: these spending levels for twenty categories. And this is where
15:57
Speaker 1: you know, this is where it starts tore down or
16:00
Speaker 1: not breakdown, but like in a bad way, but they
16:03
Speaker 1: start to break it down because it's such a massive thing.
16:07
Speaker 1: You gotta break it down into smaller departments. Right. So
16:09
Speaker 1: Congress says, here's the total amount of money that we're
16:12
Speaker 1: going to spend this year. Uh, And it goes to
16:15
Speaker 1: the Appropriations Committee in the Senate and the Appropriations Committee
16:20
Speaker 1: in the House, and then each of them says, Okay,
16:22
Speaker 1: we've got this this whole. Let's divvy it up into
16:26
Speaker 1: twelve slices. Not necessarily equal slices. I think they'd probably
16:30
Speaker 1: be pretty lazy. Um, but they say, you know, Agriculture
16:34
Speaker 1: and Rural Development, you're going to get this much this year, Commerce, Justice,
16:39
Speaker 1: and Science you're going to get this much, like this
16:41
Speaker 1: slice of the pie. And they do that over twelve
16:45
Speaker 1: departments that roughly correspond to the different cabinet posts in
16:50
Speaker 1: the federal government. That's right. And it's up to those subcommittees,
16:54
Speaker 1: those twelve different ones, once they get their little slice
16:57
Speaker 1: of pie, to then decide how to eat that high. Yeah,
17:00
Speaker 1: I think it's that piece of the pie. There's an
17:02
Speaker 1: appropriation subcommittee that says, this is how you're going to
17:05
Speaker 1: spend this, and they have hearings and stuff like that,
17:08
Speaker 1: where like the heads of these departments come and say,
17:10
Speaker 1: we really need this we've got some really exciting stuff
17:13
Speaker 1: coming up. Give us some more money. Where we figured
17:16
Speaker 1: out how to ride sharks and hunt dolphins with spear guns,
17:19
Speaker 1: and we really want to get into that this year.
17:21
Speaker 1: Or you know, we really need to build this thing,
17:24
Speaker 1: or the military really needs to upgrade that thing, stuff
17:27
Speaker 1: like that. And then these appropriation subcommittees, each one dedicated
17:31
Speaker 1: to a group of agencies or a couple an agency,
17:34
Speaker 1: just a single one, um say okay, this is how
17:36
Speaker 1: we're going to spend this money. And then once that
17:40
Speaker 1: happens in the House and the same thing happens in
17:42
Speaker 1: the Senate, those two groups, the appropriation subcommittees for each
17:46
Speaker 1: of these twelve slices of pie, come together ideally and
17:50
Speaker 1: they say, well, we came up with this, what do
17:52
Speaker 1: you guys come up with? And they say, well, we
17:53
Speaker 1: came up with this, and we're off by seven billion dollars.
17:57
Speaker 1: How are we going to figure this out? That's great?
17:59
Speaker 1: Only seven billion hours, right, that's nothing these days. Well,
18:02
Speaker 1: they negotiate with each other to come up with a
18:04
Speaker 1: joint spending bill. UM. I imagine those meetings are contentious
18:10
Speaker 1: and tough, and eventually, though ideally, they negotiate that spending bill.
18:16
Speaker 1: Then that gets sent to the president and they can
18:18
Speaker 1: veto that or sign that. Right. So, remember there's twelve
18:23
Speaker 1: there's actually twenty four of these going on over twelve
18:26
Speaker 1: different slices of pie. And when they come back together
18:29
Speaker 1: and form twelve different appropriations resolutions, um, they can say
18:35
Speaker 1: we're done, this is good, Let's send it to the
18:37
Speaker 1: president and the president can sign that. If things are
18:39
Speaker 1: going along really smoothly and Congress wants to show off there,
18:42
Speaker 1: they will say, we want to get all these together
18:44
Speaker 1: in one package, but we're going to present all twelve
18:47
Speaker 1: to the president and the president can either sign or veto.
18:51
Speaker 1: So they could the president can sign or veto each
18:54
Speaker 1: one separately, in small groups or as a whole. As
18:58
Speaker 1: a whole is called omnibus. If you if you've ever
19:00
Speaker 1: heard the term omnibus spending bill and you're like, what
19:03
Speaker 1: in the world is at That just means this everything
19:05
Speaker 1: group together, right. And so one reason that you would
19:08
Speaker 1: go through the headache of trying to put all twelve
19:11
Speaker 1: of those appropriations bills into one package is that if
19:14
Speaker 1: there's something in one of those appropriations bills that you
19:17
Speaker 1: want out, you've got a lot more leverage than the
19:19
Speaker 1: other eleven that you can trade from the budget as
19:22
Speaker 1: a whole to get that thing out or get this
19:24
Speaker 1: thing in. If it's one appropriations bill, you have much
19:27
Speaker 1: less leverage. So that's why they would go to that trouble.
19:31
Speaker 1: But that's fairly rare, I believe. Yeah, And this is
19:34
Speaker 1: all due by October one, because that is the beginning
19:37
Speaker 1: of the federal government's fiscal year, is October one. And
19:42
Speaker 1: since we've been doing this in modern times, I believe
19:45
Speaker 1: in ninety seven, um was when we started this process.
19:49
Speaker 1: Congress has passed all twelve by October one by that
19:52
Speaker 1: deadline only four times. Four times, that's right. So we'll
19:59
Speaker 1: take break and we'll discuss what happens all of the
20:02
Speaker 1: other times right after this. So okay, Congress comes. Also,
20:38
Speaker 1: big shout out to Dave Rouss. This is his first
20:41
Speaker 1: article that we're doing an episode on. Yeah, Dave is
20:44
Speaker 1: one of the great writers from how Stuff Works dot
20:46
Speaker 1: Com that we long admired over the years and tapped
20:50
Speaker 1: him to do some stuff for us, tapping him. We're
20:53
Speaker 1: tapping him and he's tapping back. It's great. We've got
20:56
Speaker 1: a pretty great little stable going here. We've got Dave
20:58
Speaker 1: Russ Julia Layton in the grab st all writing for
21:02
Speaker 1: stuff you should know right now, that's right, And I
21:03
Speaker 1: think if they keep up the good work, then that's
21:05
Speaker 1: all we need. Sure, Yeah, I think so too, because
21:08
Speaker 1: we still put together our own stuff too. I want
21:11
Speaker 1: to give us a pad on the back as well.
21:12
Speaker 1: All right, that's fine, alright, So I just pulled the
21:16
Speaker 1: muscle in my I can't write this week. So Um,
21:20
Speaker 1: like we said before the break, UM, this has only
21:23
Speaker 1: happened four times in the since nineteen seventy seven that
21:27
Speaker 1: all twelve approp appropriations bills were passed by that October
21:31
Speaker 1: one deadline. So when it comes to October two, it
21:35
Speaker 1: doesn't mean if um, we haven't passed those appropriations bills,
21:39
Speaker 1: that's like everything just stops working. Because if you pay
21:43
Speaker 1: attention to the news, you will notice that there's something
21:46
Speaker 1: called a continuing resolution. So this can happen for a
21:50
Speaker 1: lot of reasons. One UM, One good and sort of
21:54
Speaker 1: non offensive reason could be that, man, we were really
21:57
Speaker 1: close and we're almost there. We just need another week
22:01
Speaker 1: or the weekend. We'll work through the weekend even to
22:03
Speaker 1: get this done. Um. A good but offensive reason is
22:07
Speaker 1: because someone farted and everyone cleared out of the chamber
22:11
Speaker 1: and missed the deadline, so they had to do it continuing.
22:16
Speaker 1: Uh No, I mean if they're close and they just
22:18
Speaker 1: need a few more days to work it out, then
22:20
Speaker 1: that can happen. They'll pass a continuing resolution, which means
22:23
Speaker 1: everything stays the same. You don't get any more money,
22:26
Speaker 1: or you don't get money taken away, just keep like
22:28
Speaker 1: operate as usual. Right. You can't increase spending. You can,
22:32
Speaker 1: you can spend differently or whatever, but you can't spend
22:35
Speaker 1: above the levels of the previous fiscal year're currently in. Right,
22:39
Speaker 1: that's right, Okay, I'm with you. I think continuing resolution,
22:44
Speaker 1: whether it's one for a day or for a year,
22:46
Speaker 1: and there have been ones that have been like year
22:48
Speaker 1: long continuing resolution. Yeah, there's no limit. You can pass
22:52
Speaker 1: them forever long you think you need. Um, it does
22:56
Speaker 1: show that negotiations are still ongoing. They haven't broken down.
22:59
Speaker 1: It haven't reached the point where where they're in agreement yet,
23:03
Speaker 1: that's right. The problem comes when they stop issuing continuing resolutions,
23:08
Speaker 1: that's right. Uh. Day two and a few pretty cool
23:11
Speaker 1: facts here, UM, A hundred and eighty six continuing resolutions
23:16
Speaker 1: have been passed since nineteen seventy seven and a hundred
23:19
Speaker 1: and seventeen or those of those or those have been
23:25
Speaker 1: since nine. Yes, so it's taking them a hundred and
23:28
Speaker 1: seventeen times that they could not work it out since nine.
23:33
Speaker 1: That's a lot. Yeah, that's it is. But if you
23:36
Speaker 1: think about it, the um it's about evenlyplit. Well, no,
23:41
Speaker 1: it's not evenly split. It's like seventy two I think,
23:45
Speaker 1: six hundred and seventeen over to twenty year periods, and
23:50
Speaker 1: it does seem to be getting worse, but that's kind
23:52
Speaker 1: of lopsided because in two thousand one there were twenty
23:54
Speaker 1: one of that hundred and seventeen. Twenty one of them
23:57
Speaker 1: all came in two thousand one. Yeah, so I'm not
24:01
Speaker 1: quite sure about this, but I wonder is the number
24:04
Speaker 1: of increasing continuing resolutions is that like a barometer for
24:08
Speaker 1: government or how government is working? Uh? I don't know,
24:13
Speaker 1: because I wonder, because I mean, ideally like they would
24:15
Speaker 1: get all this done by the October first deadline every time,
24:19
Speaker 1: Well it depends because um, as this points out, like
24:23
Speaker 1: sometimes it is over the weekend and it's just a
24:25
Speaker 1: few days and they're like really close to having it
24:28
Speaker 1: worked out. So to me, that's not the biggest deal
24:30
Speaker 1: in the world. That doesn't mean the government isn't functioning well,
24:33
Speaker 1: I mean as well as it ever does, am I right?
24:36
Speaker 1: But like in two thousand, seven, eleven, and thirteen, they
24:43
Speaker 1: were all year long. There were no appropriations bills, right,
24:48
Speaker 1: they just said we're just gonna repeat last or no
24:51
Speaker 1: real appropriation spills. I guess right. They just they just said,
24:54
Speaker 1: remember the spending levels from before. Go with God, that's
24:56
Speaker 1: what you got again this year because that's when things
25:00
Speaker 1: are bad. So um continuing resolutions to like it doesn't
25:05
Speaker 1: affect spending levels or it doesn't increase him. It can't,
25:08
Speaker 1: I wonder. I don't know if it can decrease him
25:11
Speaker 1: or not. I know you it just basically says the
25:13
Speaker 1: same spending levels last year, So maybe it can't decrease
25:16
Speaker 1: him either. I think you can't decrease I think it's
25:18
Speaker 1: just your current funding is locked. Right, But you can
25:21
Speaker 1: attach writers onto continuing resolutions. Yeah, these policy writers. Um,
25:27
Speaker 1: those can be like the make or break And if
25:30
Speaker 1: it's clean, which I don't know how often that happens,
25:32
Speaker 1: I'd be curious to see a stat But if it's
25:34
Speaker 1: a clean policy writer. That means it has nothing else,
25:38
Speaker 1: or a clean cr CR it doesn't have any policy writer.
25:43
Speaker 1: That's right. So um. A lot of times though, if
25:46
Speaker 1: there's a policy writer on a CR, it might be like, Okay,
25:50
Speaker 1: we can't come to an agreement about medicaid funding abortion.
25:54
Speaker 1: That was a big one in the nineties seventies. Um.
25:58
Speaker 1: And but in this same appropriations bill that we're haggling over,
26:04
Speaker 1: there's this other thing that's like super critical. It's like, um, like, uh,
26:09
Speaker 1: local hospitals aren't going to get any any nique funding
26:12
Speaker 1: and it's about to run out. So we need to
26:14
Speaker 1: increase the nique funding for local hospitals. And we'll attach
26:18
Speaker 1: that as a policy writer to this continuing resolution because
26:21
Speaker 1: this is kind of an emergency and it doesn't really
26:23
Speaker 1: have anything to do with the contentious part that that's
26:26
Speaker 1: keeping the policy or the appropriations built from being passed. Right.
26:30
Speaker 1: So that's I think usually what happens with that. You know,
26:32
Speaker 1: what show really nails the stuff is veep, Oh my gosh,
26:36
Speaker 1: for all it's like you know, comedy and funny stuff.
26:39
Speaker 1: They it seems like they really nail kind of what
26:41
Speaker 1: it's like in Washington, because there's a lot of talk
26:44
Speaker 1: of this kind of stuff, clean bills and writers and
26:47
Speaker 1: who's on whose side? And can we sway this one
26:49
Speaker 1: person and doctor's side. Yeah, a lot of just dirty,
26:52
Speaker 1: dirty language. Oh yeah, man, Julie Louis Dreyfuss, she is
26:56
Speaker 1: a nash She's an international treasure. Totally. At one interaction
27:01
Speaker 1: with her briefly when uh in l A and my
27:04
Speaker 1: friends building in Los Felis, the Holly Mountin building. He
27:08
Speaker 1: lived there, Scotty, you know Scotty, and we had a
27:11
Speaker 1: case of beer and a pizza and some snacks and
27:14
Speaker 1: we were going she showed up. It's like, where's the party. Well,
27:16
Speaker 1: that's sort of what happened. We were going up in
27:19
Speaker 1: the front of the building and she was shooting uh,
27:21
Speaker 1: New Adventures of Old Christine right there at the entrance,
27:24
Speaker 1: and we literally walked by her and they were like
27:27
Speaker 1: putting on her makeup, like right in front of They
27:29
Speaker 1: were right about to go, and she said, who were
27:32
Speaker 1: those guys? I want to go with them? Where are
27:34
Speaker 1: you guys going? And of course we're like, come on up,
27:36
Speaker 1: that's cool. And then an electrician knocked on her door
27:39
Speaker 1: and asked to put a light in his apartment shining
27:42
Speaker 1: out the window. How much does you charge? No, we didn't.
27:44
Speaker 1: We were just like come on in, and then Ericastrada
27:47
Speaker 1: showed up and arrested you. Uh, all right, so where
27:52
Speaker 1: are we here? So I'll tell you where we left off, Chuck.
27:56
Speaker 1: We left off with continuing resolutions, temporary funding. Yeah. Eventually,
28:01
Speaker 1: if a position is contentious enough about some part of
28:05
Speaker 1: the budget, and very rarely is it something is it
28:11
Speaker 1: something financial? Necessarily like it has to do with finances
28:15
Speaker 1: because it's in the budget, But typically it's something more
28:19
Speaker 1: political than that, like the idea of medicaid funding abortions.
28:24
Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy seven and ninety eight, there were, um
28:27
Speaker 1: there impasses were reached where they could not come to
28:31
Speaker 1: an agreement on using medicaid to fund abortions, federal dollars
28:35
Speaker 1: to fund abortions. Right, very contentious issue. Yes, it had
28:39
Speaker 1: to do with money and had to do with finances
28:41
Speaker 1: medicaid funding, but really it was about the social issue,
28:44
Speaker 1: is cultural issue abortion. That's usually the kind of um,
28:50
Speaker 1: the kind of political uh impass or divide that it
28:54
Speaker 1: takes to really reach a point where one side says,
28:58
Speaker 1: you know, I don't even agree to this continuing resolution anymore.
29:00
Speaker 1: Just forget it, We're done. Yeah, it seems like it's
29:03
Speaker 1: usually something that is so important to that either president
29:07
Speaker 1: or party or both, that they feel like it's worth
29:10
Speaker 1: digging in. Um. And a lot of times that has
29:13
Speaker 1: to do Sometimes that has to do with the thing itself,
29:16
Speaker 1: but sometimes it has to do with the perception of
29:18
Speaker 1: that thing to your voting base. Sure that's part of
29:21
Speaker 1: it too, But I mean we're talking politicians here. I
29:23
Speaker 1: think you could have just said the last part. You
29:26
Speaker 1: know that's true. So what happens when they failed to
29:29
Speaker 1: pass that appropriations bill and they're not talking, You're going
29:33
Speaker 1: to get a funding gap. And that doesn't necessarily lead
29:36
Speaker 1: to a shutdown either. Can we please get to the shutdown? Well,
29:41
Speaker 1: since more than half of the fundy gaps lasted just
29:44
Speaker 1: a few days when I talked about solving it over
29:46
Speaker 1: the weekend, a lot of times that will happen over
29:49
Speaker 1: the weekend. Um. And if it's less than a few days,
29:52
Speaker 1: that means no one had to sit out work or whatever.
29:55
Speaker 1: It was furloughed. Right, So technically the government was shut down,
29:58
Speaker 1: but no one noticed because it happened on days when
30:01
Speaker 1: the federal government isn't open anyway. Yeah, and until nine one,
30:05
Speaker 1: they were actually allowed to keep operating, but the Reagan
30:09
Speaker 1: administration changed all that. Yeah, what was the name Benjamin
30:12
Speaker 1: Sivelletti Chivoletti technically an Italian to be hip because as
30:18
Speaker 1: a sea followed by a vowel makes a chill sound.
30:22
Speaker 1: Did you know that? I do? And I don't remember
30:24
Speaker 1: this guy? I don't either. I mean we were young
30:27
Speaker 1: and probably too young to really know about attorney general.
30:31
Speaker 1: Like I knew the president, the vice president, and maybe
30:34
Speaker 1: the Speaker of the House or something. First attorney general
30:37
Speaker 1: I was cognizant of was Edwin Mease, wasn't he or
30:40
Speaker 1: was he state? I don't even know he was the
30:42
Speaker 1: first cabinet member. I was aware of Edwin me because
30:47
Speaker 1: I think they made phonem in in Mad magazine, showed
30:50
Speaker 1: him like getting hit by a mouse trap or something,
30:52
Speaker 1: because he was a mess. That's kind of how I
30:55
Speaker 1: was exposed to politics too, Mad, I think. So. Yeah,
30:58
Speaker 1: I knew all about spear o agnew even though I
31:01
Speaker 1: know who he was, still don't really know who he was.
31:04
Speaker 1: There's this great Simpsons quote where Millhouse and barter looking
31:07
Speaker 1: at a bad magazine. They're like, they're making fun of
31:09
Speaker 1: that Spiro Agnew guy. Again. He must work there or something.
31:13
Speaker 1: And I remember thinking, like, I guess Spiro Agnew works
31:16
Speaker 1: there because they used to skewer like the publisher too,
31:19
Speaker 1: So I just thought Spiro Agnew was one of them.
31:21
Speaker 1: I think it's a funny name to comedy circles. Yeah,
31:24
Speaker 1: that's a good one. Um. Yes. Attorney General Benjamin he
31:30
Speaker 1: was Reagan's a g and he said it is not
31:33
Speaker 1: constitutional to keep spending money without congressional approval, which is
31:37
Speaker 1: what's happening when you say we'll go ahead and keep
31:39
Speaker 1: working federal government. So he I mean they kind of
31:45
Speaker 1: made shutdowns happen. Yeah, Like it was like, okay, we're
31:48
Speaker 1: shut down, ha ha. We're still discontinuing on like normal
31:52
Speaker 1: until CHIVALLETTI said, well, remember that Anti Deficiency Act. That's
31:55
Speaker 1: actually for real. And I saw somewhere that it like
31:59
Speaker 1: they actually enforced that, and like federal agencies are are
32:03
Speaker 1: um are frequently fined for violating these things like going
32:08
Speaker 1: into contracts or hiring people when they don't really have
32:11
Speaker 1: the money for it. And I saw somewhere the SEC
32:15
Speaker 1: got an eight hundred million dollar fine ones for it.
32:18
Speaker 1: Couldn't find it anywhere else, but it was a spectacular
32:22
Speaker 1: enough number to at least mention it. Um. So Chivaltti
32:26
Speaker 1: really changed the rules for shutdowns, because before, if the
32:30
Speaker 1: government shut down but the government still functioned, it was
32:33
Speaker 1: almost more of like a um, uh, what's the word
32:37
Speaker 1: I'm looking for ceremonial kind of thing, didn't really mean anything.
32:43
Speaker 1: It was um symbolic um. Once Civilletti said no, no no, no,
32:49
Speaker 1: we actually can't stay open during a shutdown, that made
32:53
Speaker 1: the whole thing way more politically risky, and so they
32:56
Speaker 1: stopped happening nearly as frequently from that point on. Things
33:00
Speaker 1: have changed since then tremendously. Uh. And there have been
33:03
Speaker 1: four times and sort of recently where uh people really
33:09
Speaker 1: dug in and there were what we would call major shutdowns.
33:13
Speaker 1: The winner of there were two shutdowns because of Bill
33:18
Speaker 1: Clinton being a Democrat and Newt Gingrich hating his guts.
33:24
Speaker 1: He was the House Speaker at the time and the
33:26
Speaker 1: Republican controlled Congress, and new it was all about the
33:29
Speaker 1: Contract for America, which basically was small government, lowering taxes,
33:36
Speaker 1: really sticking it to the poor. Yeah, like really higher
33:39
Speaker 1: restrictions on or more strict restrictions on welfare recipients. So
33:44
Speaker 1: he and Bill Clinton went at it for a long time.
33:46
Speaker 1: They really did, and I mean like each side was
33:48
Speaker 1: dug in and um Gingrich was trying to shove that
33:52
Speaker 1: contract for with America down Clinton's throat. It's not what
33:57
Speaker 1: Clinton's policies were, and Clinton said no, and neither i'd
34:00
Speaker 1: would would would give. And finally, this is how um
34:05
Speaker 1: shutdowns usually get resolved. They start doing polls of the
34:09
Speaker 1: American public and say who do you blame for this?
34:12
Speaker 1: And almost invariably the public says, Congress, this is Congress's fault,
34:17
Speaker 1: that that the country is um just being weakened right
34:21
Speaker 1: now by this government shutdown. And then Congress relance, and
34:24
Speaker 1: that's what happened for those two. Both of the shutdowns
34:27
Speaker 1: were combined twenty six days, and Republicans in the Congress
34:32
Speaker 1: were to blame, according to American people and polling numbers
34:35
Speaker 1: at least. Uh so, you know, they they said, sorry, fine, fine,
34:43
Speaker 1: well we'll try to get you impeached instead. Should we
34:46
Speaker 1: talk about two thousand thirteen? Yeah, I remember this one
34:49
Speaker 1: really clearly. That's right, President Barack Obama Republicans in Congress. Again,
34:54
Speaker 1: Ted Cruz like almost single handedly shut the government down,
34:58
Speaker 1: if I remember it correctly. Yeah, he passed the bill
35:00
Speaker 1: that UM. The Republicans were very upset about the Affordable
35:04
Speaker 1: Care Act, and he did all he could to defund that,
35:08
Speaker 1: basically defund what was later to be known as Obamacare.
35:12
Speaker 1: And he was like leading a kind of a rogue
35:15
Speaker 1: faction of Tea Party Republicans because John Bayner was the
35:19
Speaker 1: speaker at the time, and he was a traditional conservative
35:22
Speaker 1: Republican UM, and I believe he was on board to
35:25
Speaker 1: just at least with continuing resolutions to keep the UM
35:30
Speaker 1: negotiations going. And I remember Ted Cruz just being like, nope,
35:34
Speaker 1: I'm shutting the government down. And it was a ballsy move.
35:37
Speaker 1: I'll tell you that, that's right, And that lasted sixteen days.
35:40
Speaker 1: Eight hundred thousand federal workers were furloughed, which we'll talk
35:44
Speaker 1: about what that means here in a minute. But again, uh,
35:48
Speaker 1: public polling and public outcry was against the Republicans at
35:52
Speaker 1: the time, and they said, all right, we'll pass a
35:55
Speaker 1: c R and let's change some things about the Affordable
35:59
Speaker 1: Care Act, but we will pass a CR. Right. They
36:03
Speaker 1: basically got some minor changes. I think a big one
36:07
Speaker 1: with the biggest concession they got was that, um, there
36:10
Speaker 1: will be income verification for people who were applying for Obamacare.
36:15
Speaker 1: We should talk about the most recent shutdown as well,
36:18
Speaker 1: two thousand and eighteen nineteen. I remember this one too,
36:21
Speaker 1: like it was yesterday. Basically was yesterday, and this was
36:24
Speaker 1: obviously when uh, Donald Trump said I want a border
36:29
Speaker 1: wall and I want five billion dollars to get this
36:32
Speaker 1: thing going, and Democrats said, no, you're not, and they
36:36
Speaker 1: had a meeting on TV which was really weird, and
36:41
Speaker 1: Chuck Schumer um trick to Donald Trump into taking responsibility
36:47
Speaker 1: for the shutdown. Did Schumer do it? I thought he just, like,
36:50
Speaker 1: out of nowhere, asserted it. I think I thought I
36:52
Speaker 1: remembered Schumer sort of tricking him in the room into
36:56
Speaker 1: sort of claiming ownership, almost like a dare. And Trump
36:59
Speaker 1: was sort of like, yeah, it's my shutdown because this
37:02
Speaker 1: is important, and you know, you could see Schumer kind
37:06
Speaker 1: of laughing like, oh, I don't think he even understands
37:08
Speaker 1: what he just said. Yeah, I'm sure the Republicans were like,
37:11
Speaker 1: I can't believe you just said that. That's right, And
37:14
Speaker 1: there was a partial shutdown on December twenty two that
37:17
Speaker 1: ran for a historically long thirty five days. Yeah, the
37:22
Speaker 1: previous one in two sixteen days. The previous record was
37:27
Speaker 1: combined day. This is thirty five days over Christmas and
37:33
Speaker 1: New Year's which was a tough time to do that. Yeah,
37:35
Speaker 1: it was because again the deadline is October one, so
37:39
Speaker 1: they had created continuing resolutions from October one or September
37:44
Speaker 1: thirty on to December twenty two, and then finally on
37:49
Speaker 1: December twenty two. I remember this. Trump had been signaling
37:54
Speaker 1: that he was willing to give uh and I guess
37:57
Speaker 1: at least keep negotiating continuing resolutions and Culture, that's right
38:02
Speaker 1: expressed on Trump's it would not be giving on this
38:05
Speaker 1: position and that the government shutdown would go on. And
38:08
Speaker 1: Culture basically single handedly forced this government shutdown because she said,
38:12
Speaker 1: if you give on this like we're done, I'm go
38:15
Speaker 1: I will vote against you at the polls to make
38:17
Speaker 1: sure everybody else does. And that's when Trump's will was
38:20
Speaker 1: bolstered tremendously, and that's when the government shutdown happened. That's right,
38:24
Speaker 1: You wanna take a break. How many people are still
38:27
Speaker 1: listening to this? Do you think roughly, we'll be right back, okay, Chuck,
39:05
Speaker 1: So um, well we should. We left a cliffhanger. The
39:10
Speaker 1: government was shut down when we left. Oh yeah, it
39:12
Speaker 1: came back. It came back after how long? Again. Thirty
39:15
Speaker 1: five days later, on January, Trump called off that shutdown
39:20
Speaker 1: without that funding for the border wall, again because public
39:25
Speaker 1: perception was swayed not in his favor, right, which is rare. Again,
39:29
Speaker 1: every single one of the shutdowns, everyone said it was
39:33
Speaker 1: Congress's fault. With this one, they said it was the
39:35
Speaker 1: president's fault. Surely that at least partially had to do
39:38
Speaker 1: with him claiming on TV that it was his responsibility
39:42
Speaker 1: for shutting down the government. That didn't last long though,
39:43
Speaker 1: because I remember, and it gets so just childlike and snippy.
39:47
Speaker 1: But with the tweets from both sides calling it the
39:50
Speaker 1: Trump shut down, Trump calling it the Schumer Pelosi shut down,
39:54
Speaker 1: trying to hashtag these things see what's trending, it's all
39:58
Speaker 1: just so ridiculous, it is Twitter. So, um, the shutdown ended,
40:04
Speaker 1: and like you said, Trump didn't get that five billion
40:07
Speaker 1: dollars for the wall. I think they ultimately added like
40:10
Speaker 1: one point six billion for border security, but nothing specifically
40:13
Speaker 1: for that wall right, and and the Democrats started saying, well, like,
40:17
Speaker 1: let's really define wall right. Yeah, I remember that. But
40:21
Speaker 1: what people like to point out is, not only did
40:24
Speaker 1: Trump not get that five billion dollars, but America lost
40:28
Speaker 1: at least eleven billion dollars right during the shutdown income right,
40:35
Speaker 1: So there's a real economic cost of government shutdowns. Basically, everyone,
40:39
Speaker 1: I don't care whether you're a Republican. Stuff you should
40:41
Speaker 1: know a listener, A Democrats stuff you should know, a listener.
40:44
Speaker 1: An anarchist stuff you should know, a listener, A central
40:47
Speaker 1: stuff you should know. Listener doesn't matter. You should be
40:51
Speaker 1: really mad at your government whenever there's a shutdown because
40:55
Speaker 1: it is holding people's jobs hostage. Millions of people depend
41:05
Speaker 1: directly on the federal government for their paycheck, and during
41:08
Speaker 1: a shutdown, you don't get a paycheck. Some people even
41:12
Speaker 1: have to work. But the people who don't have to
41:14
Speaker 1: work not only don't get a paycheck, they will never
41:18
Speaker 1: get that money for the work that they missed against
41:21
Speaker 1: their own will during that shutdown. Yeah, like you can
41:25
Speaker 1: apply for back pay, is that right? No? You can't
41:29
Speaker 1: know for who. No one can know if you worked
41:32
Speaker 1: during the shutdown, you can get retroactive pay. Congress has
41:36
Speaker 1: to approve it, but you had to have been working.
41:38
Speaker 1: It had to have been in a sense that you
41:40
Speaker 1: can't get back pay for for a load time. Okay,
41:42
Speaker 1: just just gone forever. So people who were out of work, Um,
41:48
Speaker 1: who are federal workers. I think about eight hundred thousand
41:50
Speaker 1: of them during the two nineteen shutdown, the Trump Schumer
41:55
Speaker 1: Pelosi shutdown, Um, they didn't. They went with out pay
42:00
Speaker 1: for thirty five days. Yeah, three hundred and eighty thousand
42:03
Speaker 1: of the eight hundred thousand federal workers actually had to
42:05
Speaker 1: stop working. That's almost every bit of NASA, h U D, Housing,
42:11
Speaker 1: Urban Development staff, eight percent of National Park Service, fifty
42:16
Speaker 1: workers at the I r S, and then the other
42:19
Speaker 1: four hundred and twenty thousand that they deemed essential. Uh,
42:23
Speaker 1: they still worked, and I believe they're the ones that
42:26
Speaker 1: could apply, but they aren't guaranteed that money though. Right. No, Again,
42:29
Speaker 1: Congress has to vote, and usually as part of a shutdown,
42:32
Speaker 1: just to kind of like get public perception in Congress's favor.
42:36
Speaker 1: Congress will hold a vote and almost nearly almost every time,
42:41
Speaker 1: nearly unanimously for retroactive pay. When this thing's over, the
42:46
Speaker 1: problem is is again those people who aren't working during
42:49
Speaker 1: that time, whose jobs are deemed non essential, they'll they'll
42:53
Speaker 1: never get that money. They just don't get it. And
42:56
Speaker 1: that I mean if you project it to your future retirement,
42:58
Speaker 1: like that's money that you're investing a you're not buying
43:02
Speaker 1: things with it, right, So you're not helping the American economy,
43:05
Speaker 1: especially during the holidays this last time. Yeah, you're not
43:08
Speaker 1: investing in the stock market, you're not taking care of
43:10
Speaker 1: your retirement. So it has these ripple effects that last,
43:13
Speaker 1: you know, months and years. Right. So, so just to
43:16
Speaker 1: get a little bit back to the nuts and bolts
43:18
Speaker 1: of all this, it's not like every time there's a
43:21
Speaker 1: government shutdown, the um the same agency, are the same
43:25
Speaker 1: people are affected in exactly the same way. Each shutdown
43:28
Speaker 1: is different because do you remember how there's twelve different
43:32
Speaker 1: appropriations bills that have to go to the president. Some
43:35
Speaker 1: of those can be passed and signed before the shutdown
43:39
Speaker 1: ever happened. If that happens and your agency was in
43:42
Speaker 1: one of those those appropriations bills, it's like every other
43:45
Speaker 1: Tuesday or Wednesday for you during the shutdown, right. But
43:49
Speaker 1: you can straddle those agencies and they can be split,
43:52
Speaker 1: and that can get weird. It can UM well like
43:55
Speaker 1: in A good example of it getting weird is when
43:57
Speaker 1: UM this past one happened, the Coast hard which falls
44:01
Speaker 1: under the Homeland Security UM slice of the pie. Homeland
44:06
Speaker 1: Security hadn't been funded yet, so the Coast Guard had
44:09
Speaker 1: to keep its operations going without pay, while the rest
44:13
Speaker 1: of the military the other four branches were just operating
44:17
Speaker 1: as normally because the Defense Appropriations bill had already been
44:20
Speaker 1: passed before the shutdown. So depending on which bills have
44:24
Speaker 1: already been passed, some groups are working, some groups aren't.
44:27
Speaker 1: And even in each agency where UM the funding hasn't
44:32
Speaker 1: been appropriated for this coming year, there will be some
44:37
Speaker 1: people who will be working and others who aren't. And
44:40
Speaker 1: it's up to each agency during a shutdown to say,
44:43
Speaker 1: this is how we're going to function during this This
44:45
Speaker 1: is the jobs that have to be carried out whether
44:47
Speaker 1: the government's open or not. And these are the people
44:50
Speaker 1: who can be sent home without ever hopeful, without any
44:53
Speaker 1: hopes of ever be getting paid. Yeah, like you see, A,
44:55
Speaker 1: you see the thing coming, so it's not like a
44:58
Speaker 1: big surprise, but b you have this sort of plan
45:00
Speaker 1: lady in place, UM it's called you submit it actually
45:05
Speaker 1: to the Office of Management and Budget and you coordinate
45:08
Speaker 1: with him rather and that's where you know, you gotta
45:12
Speaker 1: lay out your plan, like they know it's coming and
45:16
Speaker 1: so they gotta they gotta plan accordingly. And like I remember,
45:20
Speaker 1: I have friends that worked with the federal government at
45:22
Speaker 1: the CDC in places like that, and you know, they
45:25
Speaker 1: watch the stuff really closely. And some of them were
45:27
Speaker 1: furloughed and you know, went thirty five days without a paycheck.
45:31
Speaker 1: And there's so there's that personal level where you, um
45:35
Speaker 1: missed rent that that month. I can't remember who was
45:38
Speaker 1: at Wilbur Ross one of the cabinet members was like, go,
45:43
Speaker 1: you know, go uh take up a craft and or
45:46
Speaker 1: a hobby and turn that into like money to pay
45:49
Speaker 1: your rents. Just something some unsolicited advice that no one
45:53
Speaker 1: wanted to. Yeah. Um, so get on Etsy if you are,
45:57
Speaker 1: if you are in that position, like, yes, you missed rent,
46:00
Speaker 1: you mr car payment, you missed like all sorts of stuff.
46:03
Speaker 1: Even if you're not a federal employee. UM, you're still
46:08
Speaker 1: probably affected in one way or another. And the longer
46:10
Speaker 1: that a shutdown goes on, the more and more people
46:13
Speaker 1: are affected. Everybody, from people who are trying to get
46:16
Speaker 1: their passport application pushed through to people who UM are
46:21
Speaker 1: supplemental nutrition program recipients, welfare recipients, food stamps, UM children's
46:28
Speaker 1: UH morning Breakfast programs, like all these things start to
46:31
Speaker 1: run out of funding and they get affected, and more
46:34
Speaker 1: and more people start to be directly impacted by these
46:37
Speaker 1: shutdowns the longer they go on, sure the f d
46:41
Speaker 1: A food inspections can be curtailed UH and in fact,
46:44
Speaker 1: during long shutdowns there are safety experts that say, you
46:48
Speaker 1: might want to steer clear fresh food right now. Yeah,
46:51
Speaker 1: don't eat like that bag of romane lettuce, especially if
46:54
Speaker 1: you're pregnant or something. Or let me see. The National
46:57
Speaker 1: Park Service this was a big window in the last shutdown. UM,
47:01
Speaker 1: I think they some parks were closed all together. That's
47:05
Speaker 1: how they did it. In Yeah, that was a big one.
47:08
Speaker 1: They lost seventy six million bucks a day and lost
47:10
Speaker 1: revenue for the National Park Service. But this most recent
47:12
Speaker 1: when some of them were shut down, some of them
47:14
Speaker 1: were kept open but not staffed, so very famously there
47:18
Speaker 1: was I think it was that Joshua Tree where they
47:21
Speaker 1: damaged like irreparable damage to some of the Joshua tree.
47:25
Speaker 1: Somebody cut down at least one Joshua tree, which takes
47:28
Speaker 1: centuries to grow, um so that they could drive their
47:32
Speaker 1: off road vehicle in an area where you're not supposed
47:35
Speaker 1: to drive an off road vehicle, so they could get
47:38
Speaker 1: to it. They cut down a Joshua tree, and that
47:40
Speaker 1: became kind of symbolic for that last last shutdown. I mean,
47:43
Speaker 1: there's a range of problems that range from inconveniences to
47:47
Speaker 1: not getting paid. But you know, imagine coming from another
47:51
Speaker 1: country and planning this thing for a year. You put
47:53
Speaker 1: all this money into a trip to come see the
47:56
Speaker 1: greatest places in the United States. You know, I'm from wherever,
48:00
Speaker 1: I'm German, Germany, I was gonna say Germany, and I
48:03
Speaker 1: want to go see the most beautiful things in America.
48:05
Speaker 1: I want to go to the Grand Canyon in Yellowstone.
48:07
Speaker 1: And I've had this trip paid for and planned and
48:09
Speaker 1: it's not refundable. Right. What do you mean Mount Rushmore
48:11
Speaker 1: is closed? I can see it right there. Well that yeah, sorry, Franz, Sorry,
48:17
Speaker 1: go see. Uh. I don't know what else is around there,
48:21
Speaker 1: not much nothing. That's kind of the point. Yeah, you
48:25
Speaker 1: can see Van Nostran's childhood birthplace right, and again these
48:30
Speaker 1: are seemingly like if you ask the federal government, they
48:34
Speaker 1: they're like, who cares about that minor inconvenience. Well, there
48:37
Speaker 1: was one thing that I came across that I found
48:40
Speaker 1: particularly scummy. Chuck during government shutdowns, when other people who
48:45
Speaker 1: are working are not getting paychecks, we go some congress
48:49
Speaker 1: people still get theirs. All congress people do, but some
48:52
Speaker 1: have the wherewithal be like, I'm not taking any pay
48:55
Speaker 1: during this shutdown, Like maybe I'll get it retroactively, that's fine,
48:58
Speaker 1: but you just hang onto my page check. Other other
49:01
Speaker 1: Kindress people are like, yeah, keep the money coming, I
49:03
Speaker 1: need it, which is that's super scummy to me. Other
49:07
Speaker 1: people are out of work or working and not getting paid,
49:10
Speaker 1: like the T s A famously had to work and
49:13
Speaker 1: and whether they wanted to or not, and they didn't
49:15
Speaker 1: get paid. Um or they're calling in sick. They should yeah,
49:18
Speaker 1: they should not be Comress should not be getting a
49:20
Speaker 1: paycheck during that time because it's Congress is fault. I
49:24
Speaker 1: think they said that T. S A employees is about
49:26
Speaker 1: ten at one point, we're calling in sick every day. Yeah,
49:30
Speaker 1: after after a little while, do you remember that it
49:32
Speaker 1: was not a good time to travel, and that's an
49:34
Speaker 1: inconvenience people flying yep, taking longer. When's the next one coming, Chuck,
49:40
Speaker 1: that's what everyone wants to know October two. We'll keep
49:45
Speaker 1: an ear up for it. Uh. In the meantime, now
49:48
Speaker 1: you know everything there is to know about government shutdowns.
49:50
Speaker 1: There's more little interesting details. But if you want to
49:54
Speaker 1: know about them, you can be a saucy boy or
49:56
Speaker 1: girl and look it up on the internet. And since
49:58
Speaker 1: I said saucy, it's time for listener mail. We have
50:04
Speaker 1: a couple of corrections. We haven't done these in a while.
50:07
Speaker 1: We haven't made mistakes in years. Uh. These are both
50:10
Speaker 1: yours not to pile on. Uh. Hey, guys, I want
50:14
Speaker 1: to point out that Donald Trump spoke to the Prime
50:16
Speaker 1: Minister of Sweden Stephan love Vin about the arrest of
50:21
Speaker 1: Asap Rocky, not the king. Yeah. Everybody was really making
50:25
Speaker 1: a lot of noise about that over here because I
50:27
Speaker 1: got it wrong. Uh. And he said, I would not
50:30
Speaker 1: have even sent this email if Josh hadn't have finished
50:32
Speaker 1: that story with this is reality. What I just said
50:35
Speaker 1: is actual facts. It was close enough. Yeah, it was
50:39
Speaker 1: just a slip at the time. Facts are the lower
50:41
Speaker 1: case F and that is from hump Us bove Jerk.
50:48
Speaker 1: What's try that again, hump Us bob Jerk. Let me see,
50:54
Speaker 1: there's a lot of consonants in there. I'm sure some
50:56
Speaker 1: of those are quite silent. Wow, I think you nailed it,
50:59
Speaker 1: but you forgot the rip his last name. I think
51:01
Speaker 1: Bob Jerk is the middle name of the compass, so
51:05
Speaker 1: Hampa's grip. And I love that he put swede in parentheses,
51:08
Speaker 1: as if I had to see that. Uh. And then
51:11
Speaker 1: the other one was a math thing, and I'm kind
51:12
Speaker 1: of curious about this one nuclear semiotics. Josh said, nine
51:15
Speaker 1: thousand seconds is four and forty six days. He said,
51:18
Speaker 1: it's a hundred and four days, And he said, I
51:21
Speaker 1: don't know. You guys are busy in recording and performing calculations,
51:24
Speaker 1: he said, But I'm really curious just where that number
51:26
Speaker 1: came from. He said, because no combination of multiplying dividing
51:30
Speaker 1: nine million by sixty or twenty four yield four sixty six.
51:34
Speaker 1: And I'm really just curious. You guys do a great job.
51:36
Speaker 1: Thanks for everything, Joey Russo, Thanks Joey. I think that
51:40
Speaker 1: that number was where Mike pat Thumb and Syria got
51:43
Speaker 1: together and had a baby. That's where I think that four.
51:47
Speaker 1: And I'm sure the right after you said that, I went,
51:50
Speaker 1: uh huh, that's right. So I'm equally to Blaine, thank
51:53
Speaker 1: you Chuck for taking that for the team. Team josh
51:58
Speaker 1: uh if you want to get in touch with us
52:00
Speaker 1: to let us know what kind of mistakes I've been
52:02
Speaker 1: making left and right and Chuck's been abiding. We love
52:05
Speaker 1: that stuff. Love it, can't get enough of it, so
52:08
Speaker 1: get in touch with us. You can go on to
52:10
Speaker 1: stuff you Should Know dot com and check out our
52:11
Speaker 1: social links, and as always, you can send us an
52:14
Speaker 1: email to stuff podcast at iHeart radio dot com. Stuff
52:21
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52:23
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