Dec. 20, 2024

The Government Shutdown Showdown: Trump's Debt Ceiling Dodgeball

Show Notes
Transcript

Patrick takes on the looming government shutdown, Trump's Truth Social financial advice, and Congress's latest game of fiscal hot potato. Watch as we explore how Trump wants to treat the national debt like an annoying terms of service agreement - just click accept and move on. Plus, a special look at how Speaker Mike Johnson is running out of options faster than Mar-a-Lago runs out of lawyers. Between Republican infighting and Trump's attempt to make this Biden's problem, it's an episode that proves running the government is harder than running from subpoenas.

We'll be back on January 6th, which just happens to be a Monday after our two week vacation. Don't read anything into that.

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Callaroga Shark Media from Washington, DC, where this is our

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last new episode of the year. This is valid, that's right,

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and if they can shut down the government, then we

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can shut down the podcast for two weeks. Let's hit

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this well, it looks like we're heading for another government shutdown,

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and Trump's solution is basically, hey, let's just get rid

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of that pesky debt ceiling, because apparently treating the national

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debt like an annoying Facebook notification you can just dismiss

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as totally. Presidential speaker Mike Johnson is desperately searching for

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options faster than Trump searches for his next social media platform,

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and speaking of truth social Trump posted that the pressure

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is on whoever is president, which is kind of like saying, hey, Biden,

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this will be your problem until it becomes my problem.

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The House Republicans were rejected Trump's plan worse than they

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rejected Rudy Giuliani's hair dye choice. Two hundred and thirty

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five to one hundred and seventy four voted no. Even

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Trump's usual yes men were like, actually, we're going to

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pass on this one. It's the political equivalent of your

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most loyal friend, not liking your Instagram post. And now

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some Republicans are floating the idea of a very short

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term funding measure because nothing solves long term financial problems

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like kicking them slightly less far down the road. It's

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the governmental version of saying I'll start my diet next month,

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but next month is just January. The real kicker, Trump

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wants the debt ceiling dealt with while Biden's still in office.

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He's basically saying, you clean up the kitchen before I

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move back in. Though, to be fair, that's probably the

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first time Trump has ever worried about someone else cleaning

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up his mess. Meanwhile, Representative Dusty Johnson says the Speaker

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is considering a number of different options, presumably ranging from

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bad to worse to maybe we should just turn off

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the lights and pretend we're not home. So here we

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are watching Congress play chicken with the economy. The good

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news Medicare and Social Security will continue without interruption. The

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bad news everything else. But hey, at least we're getting

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really good at these shutdown drills. We're like the fire

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Department of Fiscal Irresponsibility. We had another thrilling episode of

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Garden State X Files turns out those mysterious drones weren't

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actually hunting for radioactive material, which honestly is probably for

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the best. New Jersey's got enough problems without adding glowing

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in the dark to the list. So here's what happened.

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A cancer center shipped some medical equipment via FedEx, because apparently,

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when you're sending radioactive materials, you just slap a handle

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with care sticker on it and hope for the best.

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The material was so weak they wrapped it in styrofoam,

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you know, that stuff that can't even protect a coffee

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cup properly. Then Mayor melm goes on Good Day New

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York playing amateur conspiracy theorists like he's auditioning for a

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role in Men in Black, New Jersey edition. He's connecting

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dots between drones and radioactive material faster than your aunt

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connects everything to mercury being in retrograde. But plot twist,

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the Nuclear Emergency Support Team doesn't even use drones for

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detection missions. That's right. The high tech government agency responsible

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for tracking nuclear material apparently draws the line at technology

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available at best Buy and the grand finale. FedEx just

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misplaced it then found it, which is exactly the kind

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of anti climax you'd expect from a story that started

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with mysterious drones over New Jersey. It's like finding out

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the Lockness Monster was just a really ambitious beaver. So

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there you have it. No radioactive treasure hunt, no government

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can inspiracy, just FedEx being FedEx. Well, looks like Captain

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Kirk and crew are boldly going where no Star Trek

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film has gone before the National Film Registry. That's right,

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The Wrath of con just got inducted alongside Beverly Hills

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cop and Dirty Dancing because nothing puts the preserve and

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preservation quite like Ricardo Montleband's PEX in that spacesuit. You

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know what's fascinating about this Paramount was so nervous after

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the first Star Trek movie flopped, they cut the budget

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to one third for Wrath of khn. That's like telling

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the Enterprise to explore strange new worlds, put only in

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the cheap neighborhoods of the galaxy. And get this, director

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Nicholas Meyer had barely watched Star Trek before taking this on.

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He just said, hey, what if we made it like

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the Navy put in space, Which honestly explains why everyone's

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wearing those weirdly formal uniforms while fighting a guy who

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looks like he rated a medieval costume shop. The movie

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joined some pretty wild company in this year's registry class.

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We've got Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills, Cop Patrick Swayze's

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Hips and Dirty Dancing and The Social Network. You know

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that movie about how Mark Zuckerberg invented new ways to

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make us all hate each other. Even Texas Chainsaw Massacre

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made the cut because apparently the Library of Congress has

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decided that historical preservation should include scenes of people running

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from a guy wearing someone else's face. Talk about your

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required reading. William Shatner, who's now ninety three years old

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and still going strong, called being part of Star Trek

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a phenomenon, though let's be honest at his age, most

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phenomena are probably just acid reflux. As I said in

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the opening, if they're going to shut down the government,

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then I'm shutting down the podcast for the holidays. Anyway.

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Before Macdavies quit on us, I had booked a two

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week vacation to Italy and I'm taking it until then.

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Happy Holidays, Happy Festivus season greetings, Happy New Year, and

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we'll be back on January sixth, which just happens to

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be a Monday. Don't read anything into that. Portions of

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this year's shows were made with the help of Ai Trump,

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Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Drones, Con, Luigi Elon Musk, and

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of course Cheryl Hines. Thanks for listening and we'll see

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you soon.