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Selects: How Government Shutdowns Work · Stuff You Should Know

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