Speaker 1: To be the iHeartRadio AP take that wherever you want.
Speaker 1: You also stream it, but also podcast that. We're here
Speaker 1: for you, especially if you're driving and stuck in god
Speaker 1: awful traffic this morning. Yes, we had rain and we've
Speaker 1: had some significant rainfall today and tomorrow. And you know
Speaker 1: what that means. We're going to practice driving like morons.
Speaker 1: All of us are going to drive stupidly. So we
Speaker 1: have accidents and backups and all that stuff as well.
Speaker 1: So hang type, be patient, and it is what it is.
Speaker 1: So we jump in this morning with news a governor
Speaker 1: a shutdown of course, approaching the thirty day mark, and
Speaker 1: it's starting to become a growing liability for both the
Speaker 1: Democrats and Republicans. So Republicans passed the Continuing Resolution, which
Speaker 1: is basically kicking the can down the road to fund government.
Speaker 2: We do.
Speaker 1: That's all we do now is continuing resolutions and then
Speaker 1: address it later on. And the threat of shutting the
Speaker 1: government will happen in another seven weeks. So Democrats have
Speaker 1: blocked it. They want enhanced Obamacare subsidies and want Medicaid funding,
Speaker 1: and now with forty two million people set to lose
Speaker 1: flo's assistance with snap benefits, on Saturday. Is anyone feeling
Speaker 1: the pressure at all to get this thing wrapped up?
Speaker 1: And I'll know too that congressional approval rating has plummeted
Speaker 1: from twenty six percent, which is awful, to fifteen percent
Speaker 1: in the past month. A fifteen percent approval rating. To
Speaker 1: put that in perspective, the Cincinnati Bengals defense has an
Speaker 1: eighteen percent approval rating.
Speaker 2: That's how bad it is.
Speaker 1: Kevin Burton is a political analyst at Crosstown Consulting in
Speaker 1: northern Kentucky.
Speaker 2: Kevin, welcome back. How are you? Thanks for having me, sloney,
Speaker 2: appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Before we get into the national politics of this, I
Speaker 1: want to put our local head on and I know
Speaker 1: you isn't a keen observer of both sides of the
Speaker 1: Ohio River. We have an election coming up in seven days.
Speaker 1: Mayor aft Ted Pureval has fired but not fired Chief
Speaker 1: Thiji Terry Thigi, the police chief. They're going to take
Speaker 1: until the end of the year. They've hired Frost Brown,
Speaker 1: Todd and Company to poke and prod and find out
Speaker 1: why they fired her. If that makes any sense, that
Speaker 1: that doesn't have to make sense because it's politics. I
Speaker 1: suspect that Aftab will not pay a political price for this,
Speaker 1: and he'll get reelected. But you wonder about members of council.
Speaker 1: Somebody's gonna have to pay the price, and not just
Speaker 1: Terry Thiji. I think would you agree or disagree?
Speaker 3: So yeah, I mean for as mayor Aftabs going to
Speaker 3: win reelection, you you know, you have about as good
Speaker 3: as chances getting a date with uh Plly Berry as
Speaker 3: astab Pas is losing, like it's not gonna happen, He's
Speaker 3: going to win. The real question is going to be
Speaker 3: there's a lot of legacy family names on the ballot
Speaker 3: this time. Uh you know, you have a Mallory, you
Speaker 3: have a dree House, Uh.
Speaker 2: You know, Lukta Cole is a well known name.
Speaker 3: So the question really is how many people vote, you know,
Speaker 3: let's say six incumbents, two or three of the you know,
Speaker 3: non incumbents, and is that enough to get someone like
Speaker 3: a Chris Smitherman.
Speaker 2: Or Liz Keating through the finish line.
Speaker 3: So you know, we can all speculate, but I would
Speaker 3: say Chris Smitherman unless Heating are the two best to
Speaker 3: break the stronghold of the Democratic All Council.
Speaker 2: And then you wonder who loses.
Speaker 1: I think last time it was council Member Anna Oldby
Speaker 1: is the one who I think she was just above
Speaker 1: that the threshold, right, the nine papose person to get it.
Speaker 1: And you wonder who it is going to be this
Speaker 1: time for sure, But somebody's going to pay some price.
Speaker 1: There's just too many people running and there's too much upheaval,
Speaker 1: and namely with this crime issue that's polarizing everybody. Aftab
Speaker 1: will be just fine. But at the same time, politically speaking,
Speaker 1: in seven days and I think he's pretty much a
Speaker 1: lock at this point. No such thing. You never know,
Speaker 1: But I just don't see the demand by people who
Speaker 1: live in Hamlin County, specifically Cincinnati's saying, yeah, we got
Speaker 1: to get rid of him. I don't know if the
Speaker 1: alternative is better or not. I know a lot of
Speaker 1: people are lobbing, but I'm not sure that works in
Speaker 1: all blue Hamlin, deep blue Hamlin County. But I would
Speaker 1: think he's going to be on somewhat of a short
Speaker 1: lease with the new council coming in and go correct.
Speaker 1: Isn't that what he's going to have to pay politically,
Speaker 1: is he's going to have to probably be a little
Speaker 1: bit more in tune with what's happening and doesn't have
Speaker 1: as much wiggle room as he used to.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, first off, the city of Cincinnati voted
Speaker 3: roughly seventy five to twenty five percent for Harris versus Trump,
Speaker 3: So you can suffer a lot of defections and still
Speaker 3: be completely fine, you know. For Astab, I think the
Speaker 3: bigger issue is going to be the posturing of council
Speaker 3: candidates after this election, because he's term limited out for
Speaker 3: mayor and what's what's the number one thing politicians do?
Speaker 2: They try to make themselves look better.
Speaker 3: So I think for the next you know, two four years,
Speaker 3: you're going to see a different council because now the
Speaker 3: stakes are you know, there's more at stake because all
Speaker 3: of them want to be mayor. So I think you're
Speaker 3: going to start seeing more pushback, more, you know.
Speaker 2: Different thought processes.
Speaker 1: So it'll be interesting to see does the dismissal of
Speaker 1: Terry Thiji play with the electorate. You know, we tend
Speaker 1: to be a little more newsy and news cycle. I
Speaker 1: mean I can smell BS a mile away. Uh you
Speaker 1: can too. I think most people listening have a good
Speaker 1: sense of that as well, because you look at this
Speaker 1: makes no sense whatever, But the typical voter doesn't pay
Speaker 1: that close attention. Do the optics of her dismissal or
Speaker 1: I guess her suspension while I investigate what is it
Speaker 1: she did wrong? Which is completely backwards? Does that actually
Speaker 1: play with voters?
Speaker 3: Well, we will see in seven days. Historically, no, I mean,
Speaker 3: you know, everyone always talked about how they're tired of
Speaker 3: the status quo, you know, and all this. Ninety one
Speaker 3: percent of the time, the better finance candidates win, ninety
Speaker 3: percent of the time, you know, the incumbents win.
Speaker 2: Right at the end of the day, it's up to
Speaker 2: the voters.
Speaker 3: And time and time again, voters for just have apathy
Speaker 3: and they just keep voting for whoever's in office. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and no real change ever really happens.
Speaker 1: Well, and then first of all, it's deep blue, so
Speaker 1: it favors after pure vol has incombinated favors in. But
Speaker 1: also the the money. He's over three hundred thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: I believe Corey Bowman, the challenger has less than sixty.
Speaker 1: So that kind of tells you what he's up against THEREA.
Speaker 1: Let's shift to what's going on the federal government. Kevin Burton,
Speaker 1: political analysts with crossdown consultings, upholster with the shutdown itself,
Speaker 1: and now we're as I said at the beginning, I
Speaker 1: think I hate you on to it's all theater. For
Speaker 1: the first few weeks of the shutdown, it's nothing but theater.
Speaker 1: Because eight percent of government is shut down. The other
Speaker 1: ninety two percent is doing just fine. It's like letting
Speaker 1: the receptionists go home early, turning the lights out in
Speaker 1: the front office. But people are still working behind the scenes.
Speaker 1: It's just you don't see the forward facing stuff like
Speaker 1: parks and trash pickup and stuff like that. There are
Speaker 1: forty two million people, forty two million families set to
Speaker 1: lose food assistance with SNAP shutting down on Saturday because
Speaker 1: there's no funding. I asked, who's feeling the pressure at all?
Speaker 1: Fifty percent blame Republicans, forty three percent blame Democrats with independence.
Speaker 1: It's about fifty one to thirty four Republican. And obviously
Speaker 1: the reason why is because Republicans controlled the White House,
Speaker 1: the Senate in the House, so that makes them the
Speaker 1: more vulnerable party. But the numbers starting to shift relative
Speaker 1: to people blaming Democrats with US.
Speaker 3: So yes, in the last three weeks it was substantially more.
Speaker 3: It basically went from thirteen points now down to seven.
Speaker 3: You know, so the Republicans have closed the gaps, but
Speaker 3: at the end of the day, I don't know how
Speaker 3: much lower it's going to go because they do control
Speaker 3: both chamber, and you know, frankly, both parties are gambling
Speaker 3: with forty two million lives, which I mean, I think
Speaker 3: that's the bigger issue that we should be talking about.
Speaker 3: That Just get the job done. Like you guys are elected,
Speaker 3: you are still getting paid. But if you're trying to
Speaker 3: fly with TSA or anything, it's a nightmare. And I
Speaker 3: just think the American people just want it done. Just
Speaker 3: get the deal done. That's what you're elected, right.
Speaker 1: Democrats will say, well, we're getting some traction here because
Speaker 1: you know, we're on the right side with healthcare. Americans
Speaker 1: favor us and our plans with healthcare. Republicans really don't
Speaker 1: have a plan. And we just had seven million people
Speaker 1: will show up to attend a No Kings rally, whatever
Speaker 1: the hell that was, that has no impact whatsoever for them.
Speaker 1: To look at the No Kings rally go A million
Speaker 1: people showed up this week in the protest. They all
Speaker 1: protested Trump for different reasons.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, no, and sometimes when you're the loudest,
Speaker 3: it doesn't mean anything. It's you know, it's an echo chamber.
Speaker 3: The real question is how many new people did you get?
Speaker 3: Because at the end of the day, Trump has figured
Speaker 3: out that his model of it's fifty plus one, So
Speaker 3: every single election is fifty percent of the vote plus
Speaker 3: one more person. And he knows his basse, he knows
Speaker 3: how to turn him out bigger than everything.
Speaker 2: And there is a lot of silent Trump voters.
Speaker 3: So you know, at the end of the day, Democrats
Speaker 3: need to play the smart and frankly, you know, jakeem
Speaker 3: Jeffries and Chuck Schumer have looked kind of like a
Speaker 3: deer in a headlight. Regardless of what you thought of
Speaker 3: Nancy Pelosi, she stood on she was a fighter, right,
Speaker 3: Can you say the same about those two?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: No, The thing is if this shutdown extends in November,
Speaker 1: we're closing in thirty five days is the longest period
Speaker 1: we have with a shutdown. That's largely because of the
Speaker 1: real cuts. We start to see the theaters at the
Speaker 1: first few weeks. Now you're starting to see the real
Speaker 1: results of the shutdown. People not getting food, and food
Speaker 1: is instance. And like, if this extends into November and
Speaker 1: we see the Obamacare premiums hit millions of Americans, which
Speaker 1: party's better position to capitalize on that. You want to
Speaker 1: say the Democrats, But with the leadership and lack of
Speaker 1: direction they have, I don't think that's necessarily true to you.
Speaker 3: I would still favor the Democrats just because healthcare is
Speaker 3: kind of their number one thing. And frankly, you just
Speaker 3: said Obamacare. So if Obamacare goes up three you know,
Speaker 3: three times under a president, you're going to be like, well, under.
Speaker 2: Obama was this.
Speaker 3: But I just think it speaks more of just how
Speaker 3: in the last twelve years you can't get anything done anymore.
Speaker 2: No, it's so polarizing.
Speaker 3: That, you know, frankly, both sides need to concede a
Speaker 3: little bit and if it's good for eighty five percent
Speaker 3: of the country, just get the deal done.
Speaker 1: And if you're complaining and you're part of the no
Speaker 1: Kings movement, which I know, we have a king because
Speaker 1: he just does what he wants with executive order, it's
Speaker 1: because of what we're talking about. The Congress is so ineffective,
Speaker 1: so gridlocks and dead luck that they you know, we certainly,
Speaker 1: Joe Biden had his share of executive orders. Now Trump
Speaker 1: has exceeded that for sure, but that that's the new reality.
Speaker 1: Congress isn't doing their job. They're not legislating anymore. They're
Speaker 1: just leaving good to the president and their guy via
Speaker 1: executive order.
Speaker 3: And this is why we should have term limits in Congress.
Speaker 3: I mean, frankly, you have people in there who's been
Speaker 3: in all like their careers have been thirty plus years
Speaker 3: in Congress.
Speaker 2: Get out, you're too old, right, like sorry, Like I
Speaker 2: just you know, it boggles my mind that we have.
Speaker 3: Term limits for governors, we have term limits for presidents,
Speaker 3: but heaven forbid, senators and representatives have terms now.
Speaker 1: Pilots, truck drivers, there's all sorts of occupations in the
Speaker 1: real world where you can't work past a certain age,
Speaker 1: and there's nothing wrong with that. But I don't understand
Speaker 1: how an eighty plus year old lawmaker is relevant. And
Speaker 1: you know, you got to explain them how an iPhone
Speaker 1: works before you can actually address the issues of legislating
Speaker 1: what that looks like, and no idea whatsoever. They're completely clueless.
Speaker 1: And those are the most senior people in leadership positions.
Speaker 1: The Shoomer's the world. There's just so many of them
Speaker 1: right now, and I think we can do better, and
Speaker 1: term limits are certainly part of that. Kevin, regarding this,
Speaker 1: at some point, do you think that there's going to
Speaker 1: be cool or heads like, is it really going to
Speaker 1: get to the fact that forty too many people won't
Speaker 1: get snap benefits starting on Saturday? That's kind of like overplayed,
Speaker 1: but that hits home for a lot of people, especially
Speaker 1: with you know, go to the grocery store and seeing
Speaker 1: like the cost of beef. You know, I'm nowhere certainly near,
Speaker 1: thank god, receiving public assistance. I go to the store
Speaker 1: and I see ground beef. I go, yeah, you know what,
Speaker 1: I like ground beef. But I'm good I'm not paying
Speaker 1: those kind of prices right now. That that's really got
Speaker 1: to hit home for these lawmakers. Do you see this
Speaker 1: thing ending before Saturday that they're going to come to
Speaker 1: a conclusion And if so, let's get down the path
Speaker 1: of what that looks like.
Speaker 2: Well, and that's that's the billion dollar question.
Speaker 3: I mean, gambling with forty two million lives is a
Speaker 3: risky proposition for both sides. I don't have the data
Speaker 3: of where those forty two million.
Speaker 2: You know, voters are, but it's kind of like a kid.
Speaker 3: You know, when you have an exam, you're going to
Speaker 3: push it off, push it off, push it off. Well,
Speaker 3: you know, Friday is kind of the date you have
Speaker 3: to get it done by, and if you don't, then
Speaker 3: there's actual serious consequences. And this keeps going longer in November.
Speaker 3: You know, the busiest time of the year to travel
Speaker 3: is during Thanksgiving, so you're going to create even more
Speaker 3: of a headache with TSA and the air traffic. So
Speaker 3: to your point, starting Saturday is when you know it
Speaker 3: really hits home.
Speaker 1: And we're seeing a fifteen percent approval rating. Fifteen percent
Speaker 1: that has got to be close to an all time
Speaker 1: low for Congress.
Speaker 3: Yet you know ninety percent of the incumbents will still win.
Speaker 3: It is you know, it's the complete It's just amazing that,
Speaker 3: you know, we all agree that Congress isn't effective, but
Speaker 3: then you know everyone turns around and just rubber stamps
Speaker 3: them again. And I think the interesting thing is, and
Speaker 3: you're kind of seeing this with up in New York
Speaker 3: with Mindani and that in a lot of ways, the
Speaker 3: Democrats are kind of going through what Republicans did you
Speaker 3: know ten years ago that they felt like, you know,
Speaker 3: party apparatus has sailed them, and there's kind.
Speaker 2: Of a revolt. You know, so like the neo liberals,
Speaker 2: I want to be shocked if.
Speaker 3: He starts seeing maybe even Chuck Schumer and all these
Speaker 3: older ones and get primaried because you know, because that's
Speaker 3: exactly what Trump and you know, the Maga movement kind
Speaker 3: of really did that, you know, simply they said that
Speaker 3: we are tired of the status quo and you kind
Speaker 3: of let us down the road and we've gotten nowhere.
Speaker 1: Thomas Massy a great example of that where you are
Speaker 1: in Kentucky. To get out of this mess, they'd have
Speaker 1: to strike a deal to save face. And I guess
Speaker 1: if we're looking at the Democrats are talking about, you know,
Speaker 1: we've got seven million Americans losing their healthcare. We're trying
Speaker 1: to prevent that. We we forced Republicans to back down
Speaker 1: from gutting Obamacare, and this is what we're fighting for,
Speaker 1: Republicans to say, you know, we want a targeted relief,
Speaker 1: we don't want more socialism, socialist expansion. We save hundreds
Speaker 1: of billions of dollars, uh with you know, but by
Speaker 1: gutting the by stopping this and restored responsible governance and
Speaker 1: ended democratic obstruction cent So that's what both sides will say.
Speaker 1: Which is the winning messaging?
Speaker 3: I mean, on paper, it should be the Democrats, but
Speaker 3: they've played everything wrong against Trump for the last decade.
Speaker 2: However, So you know, if I was.
Speaker 3: The Democrats right now, I would say, aren't we raking
Speaker 3: in billions of dollars in tariffs? And then that helped
Speaker 3: pay for this? But they're incompetent. Their leadership is incompetent.
Speaker 3: So if you ask me, I think Republicans will come
Speaker 3: out of this probably, you know, absolutely, fine.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would think so.
Speaker 1: It's just because the idea is and I think most
Speaker 1: people realize, like, well, we're subsidizing something. Okay, great, and
Speaker 1: I need it.
Speaker 2: I need it today.
Speaker 1: I don't care it's going to bankrupt the country because
Speaker 1: we're just borrowing more money. It's way too ex healthcare
Speaker 1: is way too expensive. We're subsidizing that. That's other people's
Speaker 1: tax money that you're subsidized with. But you know, if
Speaker 1: you can't afford to get cold or your fear that,
Speaker 1: you know, my chronic illness is going to come back,
Speaker 1: And I can't get coverage, and I'm going to fall
Speaker 1: between the quack cracks and what happens. Everything I work
Speaker 1: for is is gone.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: I get the urgency, that's a different matter entirely, and
Speaker 1: I could see where both sides everything, but but yeah,
Speaker 1: I think they just come to a conclusion. Go listen,
Speaker 1: this has been too you know, if you get the
Speaker 1: speakers together, the length and the pain of the shutdown,
Speaker 1: it's been too long. It's probably we're gonna we're gonna
Speaker 1: do something for thirty day, seven weeks, whatever it is.
Speaker 1: We've proved our point. It's time to govern at some point.
Speaker 1: Somebody's got to do that, or both sides got to
Speaker 1: do that, don't they.
Speaker 2: He would think, So go to your job. Everyone else
Speaker 2: has to do their job.
Speaker 3: I mean they're still collecting paychecks, so you know, it's.
Speaker 2: The rule for the but not for me. And that's
Speaker 2: just the story of our Congress.
Speaker 3: Where they can do insider training, where they can basically
Speaker 3: do whatever they want and not actually have consequences.
Speaker 2: And yeah, I mean they need to get to work.
Speaker 2: I know that today.
Speaker 1: And Ohio, there a meaning about the constitutional convention of
Speaker 1: all things, which is a whole political you know a
Speaker 1: whole different matter entirely, but about getting control and our
Speaker 1: arms back around our government that they work for us. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know you talk about no kings, but that would
Speaker 1: apply to Congress as well based on what you just said.
Speaker 1: Kevin Burton is with Crosstown Consulting. He's a political Anamson
Speaker 1: polster in northern Kentucky. Kevin, thanks to the inside is
Speaker 1: always good stuff. Thank you, Flney, appreciate it. By the way,
Speaker 1: real quick, what if you're going to put odds on
Speaker 1: this thing as a political guy, the odds of this
Speaker 1: thing ending, the shutdown ending by Saturday is what what
Speaker 1: would you put money on?
Speaker 2: I would say sixty five seventy percent?
Speaker 1: Okay, so seven out of ten chance that this thing
Speaker 1: is done by Saturday, they fix it.
Speaker 3: I just think that you know, there's elections, you know,
Speaker 3: in a week from now, so there's real consequences, and
Speaker 3: you know you're gambling with forty two million lives.
Speaker 2: I think both sides will blank. You just have to.
Speaker 1: The optics on that are terrible. Kevin, all the best,
Speaker 1: Thanks again, brother, Yeah, I appreciate you. Let's get a
Speaker 1: time out in we got a news update. Traffic is
Speaker 1: an absolute disaster still in areas. Chuckle have an update
Speaker 1: for you a real time on that one as well,
Speaker 1: and it's going to just continue to be wet here
Speaker 1: for the next couple of days. Weekend for the little
Speaker 1: trick or Treat is looking pretty good though full details
Speaker 1: in that in news in just about four here, and
Speaker 1: when we return, a case has been made with an
Speaker 1: untimely death. As far as talk about bodily autonomy, I'm
Speaker 1: going to make the case for being allowed to sell
Speaker 1: your organs, and it has something to do with the
Speaker 1: news happening over the weekend here local news for that matter,
Speaker 1: just add sloanely seven hundred WLW