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Donald Trump threatens 'irreversible' firings ahead of government shutdown deadline · DEEP INSIGHT

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  Speaker 1: There are just over twelve hours to go to stop
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  Speaker 1: another shutdown of the US federal government. It would be
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  Speaker 1: the first time in seven years, and it could have
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  Speaker 1: widespread consequences for what is the world's biggest economy, everything
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  Speaker 1: from stopping the publication of economic data to the collection
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  Speaker 1: of tariff revenue. Why is it happening, Well, because Democrats
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  Speaker 1: and Republicans contagree on how to fund the federal government.
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  Speaker 1: At a time when the US national debt has risen
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  Speaker 1: to more than thirty seven trillion dollars. A shutdown would
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  Speaker 1: mean that many federal workers being furloughed until the differences
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  Speaker 1: are overcome. But President Trump has now up the ante.
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  Speaker 1: He suggested that some of them could be laid off permanently.
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  Speaker 1: As he left the White House a little earlier, he
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  Speaker 1: was asked how many workers could be fired.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we made you alt and that's only because the
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  Speaker 2: Democrats said, as you know, they wanted to be able
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  Speaker 2: to take care of people that have come into our
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  Speaker 2: country illegally, and no system can handle that. And so
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  Speaker 2: we're totally opposed on that. But we can't take it.
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  Speaker 2: We just can't do it. To do everybody, I'd love
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  Speaker 2: to do the whole world. But our country can't handle
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  Speaker 2: people that come into our country illegally, and they want
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  Speaker 2: to give them full health care benefits. They want to
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  Speaker 2: open the wall again. Could you believe it? I can't
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  Speaker 2: even believe it. They want to open the wall. They
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  Speaker 2: haven't taken away boys playing in women's sports. They haven't
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  Speaker 2: done that, men playing in women's squads. It's like they
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  Speaker 2: don't change. They lost an election in a landslide and
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  Speaker 2: they don't change.
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  Speaker 1: So bit of everything there from President Trump, Let's talk
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  Speaker 1: to our North American business correspondent Michelle Fleury, who's following that. So, Michelle,
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  Speaker 1: let's talk about that shutdown that he's looming. I think
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  Speaker 1: we've been doing this job too long, Michelle, because it
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  Speaker 1: feels all too familiar. We've talked about this before, but
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  Speaker 1: sometimes the deal is done on the brin cove that deadline.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, what's going on here this time?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean talking to people around this, you know,
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  Speaker 3: I think there is less optimism that a deal could
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  Speaker 3: be done, and so we're now stirring down the barrel
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  Speaker 3: about thirty hours or so before potentially a government shutdown
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  Speaker 3: kicks in. If you think back to the last time
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  Speaker 3: it was twenty eighteen, Donald Trump was ding was in
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  Speaker 3: office during his first term, and that shutdown lasted over
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  Speaker 3: thirty days at the end of twenty eighteen into twenty nineteen.
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  Speaker 3: At that time you had Republicans in charge of the
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  Speaker 3: White House and also both chambers in Congress. Here we
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  Speaker 3: are again, Donald Trump is in the White House. Republicans
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  Speaker 3: do control both chambers, but with a difference. They don't
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  Speaker 3: quite have the votes in the Senate. They have about
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  Speaker 3: fifty three and they need sixty. So it comes down
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  Speaker 3: this time, unlike last time, to the Democrats who say
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  Speaker 3: they want to with hold votes at the moment because
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  Speaker 3: they are pushing the Republican Party to kind of meet
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  Speaker 3: them halfway or do some sort of deal on extending
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  Speaker 3: tax credits related to healthcare and Obamacare that was approved
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  Speaker 3: during the COVID crisis. So that is the sticking point.
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  Speaker 3: And we know ben that yesterday Donald Trump met with
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  Speaker 3: the four leaders of Congress. The Democrats came out, they
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  Speaker 3: said that disagreements remained significant, and then we heard from
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  Speaker 3: the Vice President jd Vance basically saying that at this
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  Speaker 3: point it looked like a shutdown was inevitable. So here
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  Speaker 3: we are, like I said, more than ten hours to go,
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  Speaker 3: with people waiting to find out what will happen. Will
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  Speaker 3: federal workers be going into work or not tomorrow morning
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  Speaker 3: when they wake up.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, And there'll also be some worry, won't they Michelle
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  Speaker 1: about that clip that we played just there, Donald Trump saying, actually,
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  Speaker 1: they won't potentially be laid off temporarily. They could find
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  Speaker 1: themselves without a job, but we know that if they
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  Speaker 1: were for the federal government, you know, something might need
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  Speaker 1: to happen. I mean, there's so much at stake here.
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  Speaker 1: And like I said, sometimes their deal is done at
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  Speaker 1: the eleventh hour, but this time maybe it feels a
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  Speaker 1: little different.
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  Speaker 3: I mean it does. And so you know, when I
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  Speaker 3: speak to people in Washington and kind of hear from
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  Speaker 3: them what they're saying, you know, the odds of something
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  Speaker 3: being reached in the next couple of hours keeps slipping.
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  Speaker 3: So you know, I was saying, oh, well, there was
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  Speaker 3: maybe seventy five percent chance of a shutdown happening. Now
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  Speaker 3: people are raising their odds to maybe ninety percent. Chants,
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  Speaker 3: and that's because you look at the sort of pressure
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  Speaker 3: at least within Democrat ranks the Democrat Party, there is
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  Speaker 3: this desire to kind of hold the line when it
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  Speaker 3: comes to healthcare on the Republican side, certainly from the
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  Speaker 3: White House and the administration. You've also got these kind
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  Speaker 3: of threats potentially that these won't just be furloughs, it
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  Speaker 3: could turn into kind of more longer term layoffs. It'll
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  Speaker 3: be interesting to see whether that is just saber rattling
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  Speaker 3: or whether they can do it. What is the mechanisms,
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  Speaker 3: because typically with a shutdown, how it works is they
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  Speaker 3: don't agree on a spending plan and there are furloughs
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  Speaker 3: and you come back to your job when the government reopens,
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  Speaker 3: and so you would have to kind of invoke another
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  Speaker 3: mechanism to do what they're calling kind of reductions in force.
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  Speaker 3: So we have to wait to see how serious this
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  Speaker 3: threat is.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I know what you're going to do for the
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  Speaker 1: next twelve hours, Michelle. Thank you. Keep an eye on
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  Speaker 1: it for us, see them. Schelle Flurry in New York.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you,