Budget Watchdog All Federal
The podcast dedicated to making sense of the budget, spending, and tax issues facing the nation. We cut through the partisan rhetoric and talking points to bring you the facts about what's being talked about, bandied about, and pushed in Washington. Budget Watchdog All Federal is brought to you by Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Budget Watchdog All Federal
Shutdown Postmortem
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After 43 days, the longest government shutdown in U.S. history has ended. But at what cost? Steve Ellis and Josh Sewell break down the $60 billion price tag taxpayers absorbed for absolutely nothing. Beyond the waste, the Trump administration used the shutdown to expand executive control over federal spending, bypassing Congress to reallocate funds and lay off thousands of workers. The compromise bill may have reversed those moves, but it revealed a dangerous willingness to ignore constitutional spending authority. With another shutdown deadline looming on January 30th and Congress punting on actual appropriations bills, the fiscal dysfunction continues. No victories here—just billions wasted and constitutional concerns that should alarm every taxpayer.
Welcome to all American taxpayers seeking common sense. You've made it to the right place. For 30 years, TCS, that's taxpayers for common sense, has served as an independent, nonpartisan budget watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. We believe in fiscal policy for America that is based on facts. We believe in transparency and accountability because no matter where you are in the political spectrum, no one wants to see their tax dollars wasted. It's November 14th, 2025, and after 43 days, the longest government shutdown in U.S. history has finally ended. President Trump signed the funding bill late Wednesday night, and federal workers have headed back to their offices. But podcast listeners, this isn't a victory lap moment. This is a postmortem on a fiscal catastrophe that costs taxpayers billions while delivering absolutely nothing. Joining me today to break down just what happened and what it means for your tax dollars is our very own director of research and policy, Josh Sewell. Welcome back, Josh.
SPEAKER_02Hey, thanks, Steve. And I wish we were talking under better circumstances, but here we are.
SPEAKER_01Yes, here we are. So, Josh, 43 days. That's not just a government shutdown, that's a government meltdown. When we recorded episode 99 back in September, we were six days away from the shutdown. Now we're coming out the other side. What did this shutdown actually cost taxpayers?
SPEAKER_02Well, Steve, we know from past shutdowns that these things are expensive. So the 2013 shutdown cost an estimated $24 billion, uh, which was about $1.5 billion per day. Uh, but this particular shutdown that just ended lasted for 43 days. So if you do the math, we're potentially looking at over $60 billion in direct and indirect costs to taxpayers. And honestly, that's a conservative estimate. This one, it's longer, uh, is more disruptive, and it affected more of the government than previous shutdowns.
SPEAKER_01And just to be clear to our podcast listeners, that $60 billion doesn't mean we saved $60 billion by not uh operating the government. That's the hit to the economy that came from not actually paying workers, not actually having people go to work. That's money that will never be gained again.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's missed economic activity for the most part. And think about it, federal workers are guaranteed back pay by law, so they are getting paid for the time they couldn't work. So we have lost economic activity and we're still paying for things. And so the bill signed uh Wednesday night ensures that I think it was 650,000 furloughed workers and also another 600,000 federal workers who had to work but weren't paid, they're all receiving their paychecks starting this Saturday. So we paid for work, that didn't happen, and we lost all those services that those workers would have provided if we had allowed them to work. But you know, it's pure waste when it comes to it.
SPEAKER_01So we're paying people not to work, and then we're paying them again to catch up on the backlog when they return. So it's a double hit to taxpayers. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and that's what makes this frankly annoying. It's not just payroll costs. You also have, as we mentioned, this depressed economic activity across the entire country. And so we saw this, especially in such a long shutdown, flight delays started coming and snarling up airports across the country because the air traffic controllers and also the TCA, some of the TSA agents were working without pay and started calling in sick, you know, more often than they normally would. Saw families that rely on the SNAP benefits, this food assistance, what used to be known as food stamps. They didn't know if they'd get their November payments. And that's in about 42 million people that depend on that. And so also national parks are partially closed, or as if you ever went to one, you saw they were operating under skeleton crews. I was saw things like farm loans uh were not going out because the offices were shuttered. Some were reopened, some were not. It was a it's kind of haphazard of what happened there. Uh, so that the ripple effects just it goes way beyond just the immediate federal workforce and goes starts spiraling throughout the economy.
SPEAKER_01Speaking of those ripple effects, Josh, let's talk about what happened during the shutdown. Because this wasn't just a typical lapse of appropriations. The Trump administration used the shutdown to expand executive power over federal spending. So what were they doing?
SPEAKER_02So this is where things got really concerning from a budget watchdog perspective. So the administration, one of the things they did in the shutdown is they moved to lay off over 4,000 federal workers during the shutdown. And they're promising to do more, but they they initiated layoffs for 4,000 federal workers. They also repurposed leftover funding in one instance to ensure that the military and law enforcement got paid. Now that sounds reasonable on its face, you know, but it's actually an instance of the executive branch deciding how to spend money that Congress appropriated. Because they took it from an account for one purpose and moved it to a completely different purpose. And they did that multiple times to pay for different folks. And so they also, very concerningly, uh they cut programs in states and cities, but often only those led by Democrats. And so claiming that they didn't have the money to spend on these provisions, they just happened to only cut the spending in blue states or in districts that they didn't like. Essentially, they the administration used the shutdown as an opportunity to just reshape federal spending uh to their own liking without congressional authorization or direction.
unknownTrevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_01And it's a real question whether those pots of funds that were rated, like the RD funds, uh research and development funds at the Pentagon are going to get restored and how that exactly operates. And um, but then just to be clear, so our our our budget watchdog AF Faithful know, the the compromise bill that finally ended this shutdown reverses those 500 firings, the reductions in force, correct?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's right. It is actually the bill um last I saw there were about 4,000 or so people were laid off. And uh the bill tech says all any reduction of force initiated starting on October 1st uh has no force or effect, which means it like it never happened. And so it also so it reverses those layoffs, but it also, in the language, prevents future layoffs through at least the end of January, through however long the continued resolution lasts. But here's the thing, Steve. The administration already demonstrated that they're willing to use a shutdown to bypass Congress on spending decisions. So the administration has shown their hand, and that's a president that should concern every taxpayer, regardless of party affiliation.
SPEAKER_01Because it's fundamentally about who controls spending. The Constitution gives that power to Congress in Article I, not the president.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. And we talked about this in episode 99, I think it was, the pocket rescission strategy and how this particular administration was testing the boundaries of executive authority. Every administration tests the boundary, but this one really tests boundaries in this area. Well, during this 43 days that the government was completely shut down, uh the administration didn't just test the boundaries. They bulldozed right through all of that precedent that has guided these things in the past.
SPEAKER_01Okay, Josh, so let's talk about how we got to the end of this mess. The House has been out of session since September 19th. Speaker Johnson kept them out for nearly eight weeks trying to pressure the Senate. Then they suddenly come back, vote 222 to 209 to reopen government, and it's done. What changed?
SPEAKER_02Well, I think politics and political calculations. So this happens in shutdowns. Both sides thought they could win the shutdown fight, uh, at least initially. So Republicans thought they could force Democrats to cave. Democrats thought the public would blame Republicans, so they had the upper hand. But frankly, after 43 days of real consequences and some of them increasing consequences in the real economy, something had to give. So you can see in seven dem uh you saw what is it, seven Senate Democrats and one independent, Mr. King from Maine, who coxes with Democrats, you know, they broke ranks and negotiated with Senate Republicans over the weekend to get a final deal, and eventually that deal passed the Senate on Monday night. Uh and once that happened, the House had to scramble to come back, and on Wednesday, late in the day, they voted to accept that compromise.
SPEAKER_01And Democrats are furious about that, aren't they? Because those senators agreed to reopen the government without securing extension of the Affordable Care Act, ACA or Obamacare subsidies, which was the whole reason the Democrats were holding out in the first place. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_02Right. And Democrats stated that they wanted to extend these enhanced ACA subsidies that do expire at the end of this year. And these subsidies significantly lower the cost of health care coverage for many people who obtain that health insurance through the ACA marketplaces. And Republicans have consistently said that that's a separate policy fight for another time. And Senator Majority Leader John Thune from South Dakota promised fine, we'll have a vote on the issue by mid-December before we leave town for the Christmas holidays. But there's no guarantee that that will pass. And even if it did, House Speaker Johnson has made it pretty clear that he's not interested in extending those subsidies without major reforms. So it may not even come to a vote in the House.
SPEAKER_01And this has revealed another truism about shutdowns, and that is the party that is seeking change, whether it's President Trump and his border wall back in his first administration or the Democrats seeking these additional ACA subsidies in this shutdown fight are the ones that lose. Now, they may not get blamed entirely, but the people who are holding out to try to get something don't seem to be able to get that thing in a shutdown.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's pretty clear from a policy perspective. And the only thing that you may or may not get is is a political win. But that's kind of in the eye of the beholder. And whether that pays off down the line is we'll have to see for folks.
SPEAKER_01So, Josh, just to be clear, the Democrats who broke ranks essentially reopened the government on Republicans' terms and hope for the best on the healthcare subsidies.
SPEAKER_02Aaron Powell Yeah, I think that's pretty much how you can look at it. And because of that, the Democratic base sure is livid about it. House Minority Leader Jeffries, he actually filed a discharge petition seeking to force a vote on a three-year extension of these subsidies. You know, discharge petitions, we all may be familiar with those now, they need 218 signatures right now to succeed in a nearly full Congress. And so Republicans control the House 219 to 214. So it's an uphill battle and not likely to be successful.
SPEAKER_01So Josh, there's a little provision, or maybe not so little provision, in this bill that's been getting some attention. It allows at least eight senators to sue the government over subpoenas related to the January 6th investigation. What's that about?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, this is one of those things that slipped into a must-pass bill that, let's be honest, probably wouldn't survive on its own out in the light of day. So the provision it allows senators to sue federal law enforcement for seizing or issuing subpoenas for the senator's data without notifying the senator's office or the senator first. So they could potentially get up to $500,000 in damages for each violation. This is clearly a response to the special counsel investigation into activity surrounding January 6th, you remember, where federal investigators obtain phone data and texting data from eight different senators to try to figure out uh exactly what was happening on January 6th during the riot and the attack on the Capitol.
SPEAKER_01And it's important to note that this is a a retroactive provision that goes back to 2022. It's not prospective on new cases. And this provision doesn't apply to House members, just senators, correct? Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_02So it is both it is prospective as well, and so that is why Senator Schumer. So the way this happened is it appears that the majority leader, Mr. Thune, inserted this language with the approval of the minority leader, Senator Schumer. And the argument is that going forward it can protect senators, quote unquote, from a rogue Justice Department. But the retroactive part is back to January 1st, 2022. So we know that there are several senators who could who do directly benefit from this if they want to use it. Now there but there are several House members who were also named in uh various FBI documents investigating January 6th, and they had their data was obtained. But they can't sue under this provision. It's ridiculous in some respects. It's a ridiculous provision, and and but also the fact that only senators can, but not House members, uh it's a little weird. And the kicker, honestly, is like House Republicans they're furious about this being in the bill, some of them. Uh specifically Representative Chip Roy from Texas, uh Freedom Caucus member, he said that it was beside his comprehension how it got included, called it self-serving, self-dealing, used a couple other choice words. Uh but in the end, they all voted for it anyway. Every Republican voted for it, and actually a number of a handful of Democrats as well. Because frankly, amending the bill at this stage would have delayed reopening the government and sent it back to the Senate, and you would have had to have another couple of days worth of fight at least.
SPEAKER_01So rather than strip out a controversial measure that even members of their own party called self-serving, they just passed it to avoid more delays.
SPEAKER_02Aaron Powell Yeah, another profile and courage, I guess. But uh Yeah, and honestly, Speaker Johnson, he said he'd fast track separate legislation to strip it out after this week. But again, that's a separate vote, like the Obamacare subsidies. That may or may not happen. Uh it's the kind of thing that just, for me, I think it just just reinforces the public's worst assumptions about how Congress operates.
SPEAKER_01So let's talk about what happens next. The bill funds the government through January 30th. So we're not out of the woods here. We could be right back in the same situation in two and a half months for much of government.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, deja vu all over again. So this is just a continuing resolution through the end of January, it's January 30th, for nine of the twelve bills that fund the government. We've only passed three for a full year. Uh so you know, the other nine are just hanging there. And we've got the exact same fight coming up again in about, I guess, ten weeks, you know, after a little small respite here for the holidays.
SPEAKER_01And budget watchdog AF Faithful, so that would be the Department of Agriculture, the FDA, the um military construction projects. So not the whole Pentagon, but just the military construction projects, veterans' affairs, and legislative branch operations. Those are the three bills that actually got a full year funding. And uh, Josh, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I heard that House Freedom Caucus uh chairman Andy Harris said that any bills not agreed to by January 30th should be funded through another continuing resolution until after the 2026 midterm elections. So we could be looking at another continuing resolution for the entire year for much of government.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, exactly. And I think most Democrats and members on both parties on the appropriations committees, you know, they're opposed to that full year continuing resolution and even beyond the next full year. Because if you go beyond the 2026 midterms, you're actually going into fiscal year 2027, not even the end of this fiscal year, uh, if that's really what you want to do. And you don't want to do that because it gives a lot more leeway to the administration to make decisions on spending. Uh and so after what we just saw during this shutdown, I think that's a legitimate concern. If you don't pass appropriations bills with specific legislative language and direction and oversight provisions, you're basically giving the executive branch a blank check to move money around however they want.
SPEAKER_01So for taxpayers, what's the bottom line here, Josh? The government's back open, federal workers are getting paid, but what did we actually accomplish in the shutdown?
SPEAKER_02Well, I think substantively from a policy perspective, nothing. Steve, absolutely nothing. Zero zilch, however you want to say it. So 43 days wandering the desert and potentially 60 billion dollars of depressed economic activity, and we ended up right back where we started. Except now we get to do it again in January. We didn't pass any new appropriations bills. Like those three bills that the that this that make this package had already passed the Senate. Um and besides those nefarious changes in some respects, uh, you know, didn't m get much of a change. Um they didn't resolve the ACA subsidy fight, and the overall problem of our underlying budget and the massive deficits, uh, it's still there. Um probably gonna get a little bigger. And so instead, lawmakers just kicked every single can down the road for two months.
SPEAKER_01And in the meantime, there's a mountain of work waiting for the federal workers when they get back to their desks.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's I mean, even when you if you go on a vacation, you have a backlog. I mean, can you imagine 43 days not being able to work? So it's a massive backlog at some of these uh agencies. And so just think about all the things that are that did not happen. So you have all kinds of permits that didn't get processed, you get benefits applications for various programs that didn't get reviewed, there's a lot of inspections that don't happen, and there were actually tons of calls. Think about the IRS because they weren't there, or the Social Security Administration, people people needing taxpayers needing support uh that didn't get their calls answered or their or their emails returned. Uh that work didn't disappear, it's all just piled up and it has to be done now. And those workers are going to be playing catch up for weeks, if not months. And well, they also have to possibly prepare for another shutdown uh before they can even get that pile of stuff off their desks.
SPEAKER_01And what about the broader impacts? You mentioned earlier the flight delays and SNAP benefits. Where do things stand now?
SPEAKER_02Well, um it's a little snarled. So the FAA had uh required a reduction in flights. I think people saw that. I think it was at 40 airports. Some of the busiest airports were seeing a reduction in the number of flights that were allowed out of safety because there weren't enough air traffic controllers. And so the problem that really was kind of a problem before the shutdown. Um there's been an underinvestment and a lack of uh air traffic controllers. Uh and it's gonna be even more of an issue moving forward. And so besides that, I think the White House National Economic Council director said that he has high confidence that the aviation system will be almost back to normal by Thanksgiving. But let's be honest, that's pretty that's pretty soon to get back to normal. And as far as SNAP goes, I think I saw that it was at least sixteen states had paid the November benefits in full after a judge had ruled the government must fully fund the program using these contingency funds that had been set aside that the administration said we don't want to use, even though they were set aside for an emergency. Um but many other states were waiting, you know, in that legal limbo, and so millions were without food assistance. The Secretary did announce that support all the states should have their funding within 24 hours of of the bill, so sometime on Friday or Saturday. But how quickly that happens you know really depends on how those 50 states and the other and DC really uh implement the programs. And the national parks? Well, most of them stayed open, at least with uh skeleton crew during the shutdown. So you could get in them, you may not be able to get much assistance from somebody, but you could get into those parks. Um but now they can start charging interest fees again and start doing some damage assessments because that's actually something we saw in past shutdowns, is that for some reason people do vandalism or just don't follow some of the rules at the national parks. And so I think there's already been reports of graffiti at the Arches National Park in Utah, which makes no sense. And someone toppled a stone wall at Gettysburg. You know, but also the Smithsonian Museums here in DC and the National Zoo have they've been closed since mid-October, and so they'll be open in the next few days, so people can visit those again.
SPEAKER_01Josh, we talked in episode 99 about how shutdowns are corrosive to government efficiency and public trust. And you mentioned that a little bit earlier as well, just about the slipping stuff into the bills. After 43 days, what's the long-term damage here?
SPEAKER_02Well, I think it's significant. It's not I mean, the more we talk, the more cynical I seem to become on just this conversation. Like it's the same thing for people looking at the shutdown. Like, you've got talented people in the federal workforce, I mean, who are asking themselves, why put up with this? Not everybody can go 43 days without a paycheck. And every shutdown makes it harder to recruit and retain qualified people. And I think for the public, this just reinforces this narrative that government doesn't work. And it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If people don't believe government can function, they're less likely to support the resources and reforms needed to make it function better. And it's a negative feedback loop.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and you had also for the federal workforce, you know, they had this threat of the RIF, the firings hanging over their head, and then you know, talking about how the furloughed workers may not be getting paid, even though the law says that. And if you just think about it, that's almost a if if they didn't get paid after not working for 46 days because by law they could not work, that would be about a 12% cut in their annual salary. And so, yeah, I think it's gonna make it harder for the federal government to attract and retain top-level talent that we all need our civil servants to be. And when the next crisis hits, another pandemic, another financial crisis, another major disaster, we need a functional government that can respond quickly and effectively.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we do. And we've seen the government move fast when it needs to. Like you mentioned, I mean, COVID response, uh, the financial crisis response. We had annual annually, we have disaster response all across the country. The government can't Can move fast. And but if we can't even pass a basic funding bill without a forty-three-day shutdown, I don't I just don't know how I don't think taxpayers can have confidence that we'll be able to handle the next major emergency. Like it's it's really dispiriting.
SPEAKER_01President Trump, speaking from the White House Wednesday night, said this is no way to run a country. I hope we can all agree that the government should never be shut down again. I happen to agree with the president. But Josh, he also blamed the shutdown entirely on Democrats and told voters not to forget it come 26, 2026 midterms. That doesn't sound like somebody who's interested in preventing future shutdowns. That sounds like someone planning to use shutdown threats as political leverage and to score political points.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and and I think that's the problem, right? Both parties thought they could win this fight politically. And the the president's comments suggest that Republicans still think they won. And I think many Democrats still think they can use the discharge petitions and public pressure to get what they want. Um they were already talking about on the next spending fight that they need those Obamacare, those ACA subsidies extended. And so But nobody's really talking about the fundamental reforms needed to prevent this from happening again. Nobody, very few people, if anybody, is talking about how we got to a place where we didn't pass they didn't pass a single appropriations bill of those twelve through regular order and before the fiscal year started. And actually, let's remember they didn't even they couldn't even agree, they being the House and Senate, on a top-line spending number. They couldn't, at the beginning of this year, start out their budget process agreeing to a basic budget framework. There's some major problems in Washington.
SPEAKER_01Budget Washtag AF Faithful, you know that we've supported legislation that came from Senator Lankford from Oklahoma and from House Budget Committee Chairman Jodie Arrington that would essentially create a series of ongoing continuing resolutions so government does not shut down and that they continue to negotiate. You know, I mean it's really legislative malpractice to have the House basically pass a bill, throw up its hands, and leave town mid-September, so not even the end of the fiscal year, and then not come back and stay in their districts hiding behind their desks rather than actually coming here and doing legislative business, which the Senate was doing at the same time that the government was shut down. They were they were passing, passed major legislation like the National Defense Authorization Act, they passed uh judicial uh they they passed nominees, they did things that were what they're supposed to be doing. I mean, granted, this government was still shut down, but they were at least legislating the House, it was crickets. So, you know, you were talking about that they didn't pass a single appropriations bill. And let's talk about regular order. It's worth reminding our listeners that this shutdown happened because Congress failed to pass, as you said, any of the 12 fiscal year 2026 appropriations bills before the beginning of the fiscal year on October 1st. And fiscal year 2025 was a full government continuing resolution based on FY24 spending bills. So that CR itself was a product of congressional dysfunction. And now we've passed another CR through January 30th. This is no way to run a budget of our country.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's budget dysfunction on top of budget dysfunction. Uh and actually, let's think about this. If you end up doing that full year CR that Mr. Harris has proposed, if we don't have this resolved by January 30th, that's another full year CR punting all the way back to the 24 levels. And so it's absolutely ridiculous. And I think the real kicker is that continuing resolutions are actually they're really actually more expensive than passing appropriations bills. And that's because you the agencies they lose the flexibility to respond to new priorities or to eliminate wasteful programs. Like you are when you do a CR, you are per you you're going to perpetuate these inefficiencies from the prior year's budget. Um or in the case now two-year-old, two years old budgeting. So things that were a priority and were enacted in the Biden administration under a CR would be continued because you can't fundamentally change the spending uh in those bills. And you also, frankly, you just create this level of uncertainty for federal agencies who are trying to plan and execute their missions. Their missions in what could be a very different environment economically and politically than when those bills were passed originally two years ago. So it's it's bad budgeting, it's bad governance, and it's just it's bad for us taxpayers.
SPEAKER_01Imagine that Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House, and yet their budget is basically what President Biden signed into law for fiscal year 2024. Makes no sense to cede that authority that you have to actually make your mark on government. So, Josh, some things function in the bill, maybe not the right things. You mentioned about senators being able to sue the government, catching a ride. And Josh, that's not all that was tacked into there. There was an incredibly expensive provision, too. I'll I'll set the stage. As budget watchdog AF listeners know, the OBA, the one big beautiful bill act that Josh has been referring to, has been scored to add roughly three and a half trillion dollars to deficits over the next decade. Under normal circumstances, that would show up on the statutory paygo, pay as you go scorecard and trigger a round of across the board cuts at the end of the year. Medicare provider payments would take up to a 4% hit, and non-exempt mandatory accounts would be trimmed to account for the bill's excess.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but that scenario just disappeared the moment Congress reopened the government. So the continuing resolution, there's a provision under that resets the paygo scorecard to zero once this session ends. And that just wipes out the OBA debt and it stops that potential sequestration from being ordered. And so that means, like you said, no Medicare cut, no haircut to the other mandatory programs, including farm bill programs, uh, and no pay go reduction in state leasing payments, which is something we saw. That's a mechanism that would have forced those offsets um to, you know, it's been turned off. Uh, but the deficits and that added debt, it still remains.
SPEAKER_01Okay, Josh, so what's the path forward? We've got ten weeks until the next deadline. What should taxpayers be watching for?
SPEAKER_02I think first I'd watch to see if Congress actually tries to pass the remaining nine approbed bills before January 30th. There's a lot of work in a short time, especially with the holidays coming up. I mean, the Senate has hotlined its package of five bills to try to see if they can get those through. I'm not very optimistic. Second, I'd watch those ACA subsidies. I mean, Senate Republicans promise to vote, uh see if it happens. Um and even if it happens, again, there's no guarantee of success if you're a fan of those subsidies coming back. And if that does fall apart, you can see Democrats dig in and come again here in January, um, might have to fight again. But then the third thing I look for is really watch the administration and see what they do uh with federal spending between now and especially January 30th. Um if the administration continues to test the boundaries of their authority, that's gonna be an even bigger fight uh come the new year.
SPEAKER_01So Josh mentioned the hotline in there, just so those of you um listening at home, that's where the Senate on both Republican and the Democrats, they send out a message to their whole conference or caucus and try to find out, flesh out or flush out any of the kind of problems or issues someone would have, a senator would have with the legislation. So that's what the hotline is of those of that five-bill package. And clearly there's gonna be some senators that are gonna have some issues or some heartburn. Budget Watchdog AF Faithful, we've just lived through the longest government shutdown in American history. 43 days, potentially $60 billion or even more wasted. Zero accomplishments, and we're heading right back toward another shutdown deadline in January. This is fiscal malpractice, this is government failure, and every single taxpayer is paying the price. Thanks to Josh Sewell for breaking down this mess and helping us understand what just happened and what's coming next.
SPEAKER_02Hey, always happy to shine a light on government waste and dysfunction, Steve, even when it's a little depressing.
SPEAKER_01There you have it, podcast listeners. The shutdown's over, but the dysfunction continues. This is the frequency. Mark it on your dial, subscribe and share, and know this Taxpayers for Common Sense has your back, America. We read the bills, monitor the yearmarks, and highlight those wasteful programs that poorly spend our money and shift long term risk to taxpayers. We'll be back with a new episode soon. I hope you'll meet us right here to learn more.
