US govt shutdown a tale of healthcare and rescissions which undermine Congress’ power of the purse

US govt shutdown a tale of healthcare and rescissions which undermine Congress’ power of the purse

Well, we’re going to bring in now Todd Belt. You’re the director of the political management program at George Washington University. Thank you so much and good morning to you. Uh let’s talk a bit more about the main causes behind this failure of Congress to to pass this funding and trigger today’s shutdown. Why did it actually come to this now? Good morning. It’s great to be with you again. Thanks for having me on. Uh yeah, this shutdown happened for two reasons. And the first is back in March, there was a continuing resolution. And some of you and your viewers might remember, we had Chuck Schumer take a hard line on it only to reverse himself after the House had voted on it uh because he thought that the pain would be too great for the American people and it would give too much power uh if there was a shutdown uh to Donald Trump. So there’s politics in this because uh Schumer wants to retain his position at top the Democratic party and uh he faced a lot of blowback from his own party on that. And the second thing is we had the uh the healthcare issues coming up. Uh the Obamacare subsidies are scheduled to sunset at the end of this year, which means a lot of families could be facing several hundred in increases in their premiums for their health care on a monthly basis, as well as the Medicaid cuts that were part of that big, beautiful bill that Donald Trump signed into law on July 4th. And the Democrats want to reverse some of that. And finally, there’s one other thing that the Democrats want, and that is they would like to have um a law passed that uh would limit what Donald Trump can do with recisions, and those are stopping the spending of money that has been authorized by Congress, which he has been doing a lot lately, and which the Supreme Court just last week gave him some of the ability to do as well. Now, these types of shutdowns are really a a particularly American phenomena with American consequences. Uh, first just talk us through what happens to the federal government when the funding lapses as as it’s doing now. Yeah, sure. For um the the shutdown when it happens, which was 11:59 p.m. last night, uh there’s going to be a half of a day when most employees can go in. they would be unpaid, but they have to go in and shut down their computers and and shut down all of their work. Uh there are essential employees that will uh be required to continue to work. Of course, the military, uh the transportation security agency, those people who check you before you get on your plane, uh those sort of uh emergency types of people will be required to continue to come in uh but they won’t be paid. And there’s also the issue of the shutdowns of government buildings and agencies. is nobody will be there to pick up the phone. Uh nobody will be there to process uh any new uh claims for government services. And of course the national parks and this is the biggest public-f facing part of it. Uh we’re in October so it’s not a huge part of uh people’s vacation plans although we do have the changing of the leaves out here on the east coast and people like to go to the parks for that. But this time around the uh Trump administration has said that they’re going to try to keep them open with some skeleton crews so people can still visit them. But usually a shutdown of the parks is something you have with the um with the shutdown. So I I imagine this is going to be followed quite a bit in the United States. Uh which way do you think the public is going to fall on this? Are they going to blame the Republicans? Are they going to blame the Democrats? Or are they not even really following this story much at all over there? Well, this is really interesting. There was a poll done earlier this week that said 45% would blame Democrats and I’m sorry, 45% would blame Republicans. 32% would blame Democrats, but that was early on. And as we know about these government shutdowns, if we look at the polling over time, people really start paying attention once it happens. And right now, it’s the Democrats who are forcing the shutdown. And it’s usually the side that’s forcing the shutdown that gets the blame. And so, we can see public opinion swing very quickly against the Democrats. And that’s what the Republicans are trying to do. Uh Trump has already issued uh or ordered all the departments to blame the shutdown on the Democrats. There were memos that went out to all uh all the federal employees from their department heads on that. And he’s got a countdown clock uh on on the website for the White House. And he’s also been saying that, you know, the Democrats won’t just do a clean resolution. So this is all on them. And so I think that that blame could shift onto the Democrats very quickly uh the longer that this goes on. Well, just a quick word on the length. The last shutdown seven years ago in Trump’s first term lasted over a month. That was a record. How do you see this one playing out? I think it’ll be at least a few weeks. Uh I know a lot of times uh there are some deadlines in uh legislative terms that people like to get to. Of course, the one is this is the start of the fiscal year and there’s going to be another one. Of course, the Thanksgiving holiday and the uh Christmas holiday. That’s when we see a lot of work get done because members don’t like to go back to their district during those holidays and talk to a lot of angry constituents with a shutdown government. So, I think that, you know, we could go as long as Thanksgiving. I doubt it. I think that we’ll get back to we’ll get back to the table uh as soon as the pain really starts to hit uh some of these legislators and they get a lot of angry constituents forcing them back to the table. But they’re far apart right now. Obviously, Donald Trump doesn’t want to give up his power to resend things. Uh he doesn’t want to give up what was in the big beautiful bill, which was those Medicaid cuts. Uh and there’s also even if they do uh put some more money back into Medicaid, that would help Republicans going into the um the midterm elections next year. So, Democrats have to be careful what they’re doing. Todd, thanks for that. Todd Belt there speaking to me from George Washington University. Thank you.

The US is confronting a fresh cycle of uncertainty after President Donald Trump and Congress failed to strike an agreement to keep government programs and services running. Disagreement stemmed from a deadlock in Congress over Democratic demands over health care and Republican efforts to kick that can down the road. At issue are tax credits that have made health insurance through the Affordable Care Act more affordable for millions of people since the COVID-19 pandemic. For in-depth analysis and a deeper perspective, Genie Godula welcomes Todd Belt, Professor and Director of the Political Management Program at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management (GSPM).
#USA #Shutdown #Trump

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