Speaker 1: Already, and this is the Daily This is the Daily OS. Oh,
Speaker 1: now it makes sense.
Speaker 2: Good morning, and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Friday,
Speaker 2: the third of October.
Speaker 1: I'm Sam Kazowski, I'm Billy fit Simon's wait before we
Speaker 1: get into the deep dive. Yeah, it's a big day,
Speaker 1: third of October.
Speaker 2: Third of October. It's two days before my mum's sixtieth birthday.
Speaker 1: And Taylor Swift is also dropping an album today. And
Speaker 1: it's the Mean Girl's Meme Day, which.
Speaker 2: Means that most of tda's office will not do any
Speaker 2: work today.
Speaker 1: No, wait, do you know what I'm saying when I
Speaker 1: say the Mean Girl's Meme.
Speaker 2: Day that it's a date mentioned in the diary. And yeah, girls,
Speaker 2: pretty much, I'm up with it.
Speaker 1: Big day, big day for the girls.
Speaker 2: Big day. And I'm sorry to kind of change the
Speaker 2: tone of this conversation, but we're talking about US politics.
Speaker 2: It's a big day for US politics, not as exciting
Speaker 2: as a new Taylor Swift album. And that's because the
Speaker 2: US government is shut down, and it's shut down Congress
Speaker 2: failed to pass funding legislation. It's the twenty first shutdown
Speaker 2: since nineteen seventy seven, and it has triggered the indefinite
Speaker 2: pause of most federal services, putting tens of thousands of
Speaker 2: federal employees out of work. On today's podcast, we're not
Speaker 2: going to talk about the new Taylor Swift album. Instead,
Speaker 2: we're going to break down what a shutdown actually means,
Speaker 2: how an entire government can just stop, and why this
Speaker 2: one might be different from past shutdowns. Before we jump
Speaker 2: into all of that, here's a message from our sponsor.
Speaker 1: Sam. When I first saw this story, my first thought
Speaker 1: was not again, because I feel like this happens every
Speaker 1: single year. But then I just realized that there's kind
Speaker 1: of talk about it happening, or there's a threat of
Speaker 1: it happening exactly, but this time it's actually come to fruition.
Speaker 1: We're here, we are here. My understanding is that it
Speaker 1: all centers around the budget. Do you want to explain
Speaker 1: exactly what this process is?
Speaker 2: Sure, So, the US government operates on a fiscal year
Speaker 2: that runs from the first of October to the thirtieth
Speaker 2: of September the following year, and towards the end of
Speaker 2: each fiscal year, Congress needs to pass legislation to fund
Speaker 2: federal operations for the next year. So a tick of
Speaker 2: approval on the money that federal operations such as the military,
Speaker 2: but also the National Park Service or a lot of
Speaker 2: the health authorities in the country need to function. And
Speaker 2: all of this starts in February, and that's when the
Speaker 2: President usually proposes the budget and then he sends it
Speaker 2: to Congress to review it. Just like in Australia, the
Speaker 2: budget is a political reflection of what the priorities are
Speaker 2: of that government or the president and almost always the
Speaker 2: two sides, so the Republicans and the Democrats, they're going
Speaker 2: to disagree on some measures and that's when they enter
Speaker 2: a period of negotiation. And that period between February and September,
Speaker 2: so you know, a good chunk fifty percent of the
Speaker 2: time spent is on making sure the next year's budget
Speaker 2: is approved. But if they can't reach an agreement by
Speaker 2: the thirtieth of September, they've got two options really ahead
Speaker 2: of them. They can either pass what's called a continuing
Speaker 2: resolution or a CR. It's basically a band aid. It's
Speaker 2: basically saying let's give enough funding for like thirty or
Speaker 2: sixty days so that we can keep negotiating. Or they
Speaker 2: can shut the government down.
Speaker 1: Right and so this time, they shut the government down
Speaker 1: because they couldn't agree exactly.
Speaker 2: They couldn't not only could they not agree on the
Speaker 2: federal budget, they couldn't agree on the terms of that
Speaker 2: continuing resolution either, right, And what happens then is the
Speaker 2: government shuts down literally at midnight on the first of October.
Speaker 2: They don't have money that's been approved by Congress to
Speaker 2: operate and they have to see non essential operations. That's
Speaker 2: a shutdown. And that's where we are right now.
Speaker 1: You've mentioned Congress a few times. In Australia, we don't
Speaker 1: have Congress, So do you want to just explain exactly
Speaker 1: what that is, because it's critical to understanding how this
Speaker 1: has happened.
Speaker 2: In many ways, it is similar to the Australian model.
Speaker 2: It's different in terms of the leader of the country
Speaker 2: being the president is not in Congress, whereas here Anthony
Speaker 2: Alberanezi as a Prime Minister, would be the leader of
Speaker 2: the House of Reps. But Congress has two chambers just
Speaker 2: like us. They've got the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Speaker 2: In the House of Representatives, a party needs two hundred
Speaker 2: and eighteen votes to pass a bill before it can
Speaker 2: be sent up to the Senate right now, the Republicans
Speaker 2: have a majority by one. They've got two hundred and
Speaker 2: nineteen seats, the Democrats have two hundred and thirteen, and
Speaker 2: there's three spots that are vacant. And in the Senate,
Speaker 2: most bills need fifty one votes to pass. It's one
Speaker 2: hundred seats in the Senate, but spending bills like a
Speaker 2: budget needs sixty votes. Now, the problem is that the
Speaker 2: Republicans have fifty three seats there, so they've got enough
Speaker 2: to pass another bill, but when it comes to budgetary bills,
Speaker 2: they don't have enough. They actually need the support of
Speaker 2: seven Democrats. The Democrats have forty seven seats, then there's
Speaker 2: two independents, and that's where things have fallen down.
Speaker 1: Got it. So the budget was able to pass the
Speaker 1: House because they passed the House control the House exactly,
Speaker 1: But then it wasn't able to pass the Senate because
Speaker 1: even though they have a majority there, they don't have
Speaker 1: enough of a majority to pass.
Speaker 2: A budget exactly. And that's where that negotiation point I
Speaker 2: made earlier really came into play. Is the Democrats basically said,
Speaker 2: we will support the passage of this budget through the
Speaker 2: Senate if you give us AB and C. The Republicans
Speaker 2: couldn't meet those demands, and that's where things fell apart.
Speaker 1: And so what happens during a shutdown, like do people
Speaker 1: just stop working?
Speaker 2: Well, a chunk of the federal government stops operating. About
Speaker 2: twenty five percent of the federal government completely stops. I
Speaker 2: think the National Park Service is a really interesting one.
Speaker 2: So these are the employees who would sit at a
Speaker 2: boomgate of cars looking to enter a national park, or
Speaker 2: they'd be working on sustainability measures in the park safety
Speaker 2: that's not seen as an essential service, So those people
Speaker 2: are immediately furloughed or cush essentially. The other seventy five
Speaker 2: percent continues, and we're talking there about things like air
Speaker 2: traffic control security and airport police ambulances, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: They continue, but employees don't get paid.
Speaker 1: So they're required to rock up to work, but they
Speaker 1: know that they might not be paid for that for
Speaker 1: a while until this budget.
Speaker 2: Goes through exactly. So they're back paid when the budget
Speaker 2: does eventually go through. They're paid for all of their time.
Speaker 2: But the twenty five percent that is kind of dismissed
Speaker 2: on the spot. We're talking there about four million federal employees.
Speaker 1: That's a lot. So four million people who no longer
Speaker 1: work and suddenly wake up knowing that they don't have
Speaker 1: a paycheck coming.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's a bit more complicated than that in
Speaker 2: terms of most of these shutdowns are resolved in a
Speaker 2: couple of days, and these people are immediately rehired and
Speaker 2: there's a gap where they weren't covered. But then it's
Speaker 2: kind of business as usual. But it can get really messy.
Speaker 2: I mean there are non essential federal employees who may
Speaker 2: suddenly have to use food services, or there's stories about
Speaker 2: kids being withdrawn from school because parents who are non
Speaker 2: essential employees can't afford petrol to get in their car.
Speaker 2: Then there's also stories of like military personnel who are
Speaker 2: told to continue working but may go a full month
Speaker 2: without a paycheck.
Speaker 1: Okay, so I understand what happens during the shutdown. One
Speaker 1: thing that I think we've kind of skimmed over is
Speaker 1: what actually led to this and what in particular, the
Speaker 1: Democrats and the Republicans aren't agreeing on that has meant
Speaker 1: that this shutdown has happened.
Speaker 2: So the Republican controlled House, they passed that continuing resolution.
Speaker 2: I spoke about the band Aid they passed that in
Speaker 2: September that would have given everybody funding until the end
Speaker 2: of November, and we got some clues in that as
Speaker 2: to what the key issues were. And essentially we're talking
Speaker 2: here about probably two primary issues. One is the bucket
Speaker 2: of healthcare, the very complex bucket of healthcare. In the UA,
Speaker 2: Democrats essentially wanted temporary healthcare subsidies introduced under former President
Speaker 2: Barack Obama. You might have heard the term Obamacare. So
Speaker 2: those were temporary subsidies that are about to expire, and
Speaker 2: Democrats wanted to make them permanent subsidies. Republicans opposed this.
Speaker 2: They said that this would really ramp up the cost
Speaker 2: of the American healthcare system. Who pays for the system
Speaker 2: its taxpayers. That would put pressure on cost of living.
Speaker 2: Then there's also some proposed cuts by the Republicans to
Speaker 2: particular health agencies. The new head of America's health system,
Speaker 2: RFK Junior, has some controversial policies on things like vaccines
Speaker 2: or the treatment of some infectious diseases. Then a third
Speaker 2: problem in healthcare is the availability of healthcare to undocumented migrants.
Speaker 2: Then you have another topic of presidential authority. And this
Speaker 2: won't surprise people listening, but Democrats wanted to restrict the
Speaker 2: president's ability to withhold funding for programs that had already
Speaker 2: been approved by Congress. So an example would be an
Speaker 2: eighteen billion dollar infrastructure program for New York that would
Speaker 2: have upgraded trains around the city of New York City
Speaker 2: that passed Congress, and then President Trump used his powers
Speaker 2: to defund that program. So Democrats wanted to remove that
Speaker 2: power to do that to programs that have been approved.
Speaker 2: Republicans said that we need to look to the Supreme
Speaker 2: Court ruling. The Supreme Court recently ruled that that's okay
Speaker 2: to do and that executive control, according to the Constitution,
Speaker 2: needs to stay with the president.
Speaker 1: What I think is interesting is, you know, America is
Speaker 1: so divided politically, and the fact that they do need
Speaker 1: to negotiate on these points that are so fraught between
Speaker 1: the two parties, it's almost surprising to me that this
Speaker 1: doesn't happen more.
Speaker 2: Well, I feel like there's so much money in that
Speaker 2: budget that both sides will often find ways to make
Speaker 2: each other happy. Yes, and to you know, you give
Speaker 2: a little bit of leniency over here in healthcare, will
Speaker 2: make sure that there's more in defense of the southern
Speaker 2: bar and there's this big kind of to and fro
Speaker 2: process because both parties know that eventually the other one
Speaker 2: will be in power, and so there's also a bit
Speaker 2: of kind of a favor system and the negotiation system
Speaker 2: of some of these politicians have been working together for
Speaker 2: thirty forty years, so they have the trust to be
Speaker 2: able to build a negotiated budget together.
Speaker 1: What have passed shutdowns been like, because, like you said
Speaker 1: at the top, this isn't the first time it's happened.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I was reading. I think every president maybe
Speaker 2: except one since the seventies has had a shutdown. Some
Speaker 2: are a couple of days. The longest one in history
Speaker 2: was thirty five days, and that was in twenty eighteen,
Speaker 2: and in that scenario, three hundred thousand federal workers were furloughed,
Speaker 2: so they were dismissed, and they were totally unpaid in
Speaker 2: that period. Usually a federal government shutdown is seen as
Speaker 2: this really negative thing by both Republicans and Democrats, and
Speaker 2: so it's normally resolved pretty quickly. Neither party want to
Speaker 2: answer to their constituents of why am I out of work?
Speaker 2: Why can't I access public resources? And so thirty five
Speaker 2: days was pretty long, and I think the second longest
Speaker 2: was in the twenties, so that was a rarity in itself.
Speaker 2: Analysts say that we could be headed towards the thirty
Speaker 2: five day mark and even beyond.
Speaker 1: Really, yeah, so we think that this is going to
Speaker 1: go on for a long time.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And the phrase that a lot of US media
Speaker 2: outlets are using is that this shutdown feels different. Well,
Speaker 2: the reason really is the way that the Trump administration
Speaker 2: is talking about the shutdown. The president sets the tone,
Speaker 2: especially for the Republicans who control the House and control
Speaker 2: the Senate. He's positioning it as a way to actually
Speaker 2: permanently close some of the federal agencies that his administration
Speaker 2: has been talking about wanting to close for a long time.
Speaker 2: And so think about it, like these people are dismissed
Speaker 2: because there's no more funding for the federal government for
Speaker 2: say two weeks. It's an opportunity for the Trump administration
Speaker 2: to actually permanently take away that institution.
Speaker 1: And this is part of we know that US President
Speaker 1: Donald Trump is wanting to cut spending from the budget,
Speaker 1: so he's kind of seeing this as a way to
Speaker 1: do that exactly.
Speaker 2: And that's not a new idea. There was a similar
Speaker 2: threat to shut down the government back in March with
Speaker 2: the previous year's budget, and Chuck Schumer, who's one of
Speaker 2: the senior members of the Democrats, he actually decided to
Speaker 2: vote with the Republicans to avoid what he said would
Speaker 2: be a situation where Trump could permanently dismantle some of
Speaker 2: these agencies. Now six months on, Schumer has flipped his vote,
Speaker 2: and he's actually said, I know that I said that
Speaker 2: back in March. Now that we're here in October, the
Speaker 2: threat to our democracy is too real. We need to
Speaker 2: take stronger action than a negotiated outcome.
Speaker 1: It's such a complex situation.
Speaker 2: But yeah, sorry, I thought that was a complex one
Speaker 2: of that definitely ask questions in the comments or DMUs
Speaker 2: as that's a take in.
Speaker 1: I feel like every time I said this is my understanding,
Speaker 1: you're like, yeah, kind of, that's a lot more complex
Speaker 1: than that.
Speaker 2: Well, people, you know, people have designed over two hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty years a US system that is really really complex.
Speaker 2: Whichever way you can.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much for explaining it to us.
Speaker 1: Thanks Billy, and thank you so much for listening to
Speaker 1: this episode of The Daily OS. We hope that you
Speaker 1: have a great October third. There is much to celebrate today.
Speaker 1: We'll be back this afternoon with your evening headlines, but
Speaker 1: until then, have a great day. My name is Lily
Speaker 1: Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda Bungelung Kalkottin woman from
Speaker 1: Gadigol Country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is
Speaker 1: recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays
Speaker 1: respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island and nations.
Speaker 1: We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries,
Speaker 1: both past and present,