00:00pay for $24.99. But then next up in the news, one week into this U.S. government shutdown,
00:04and things are quickly going to shit. From chaos with airports across the U.S. to reports that
00:09the Trump administration is trying to screw furloughed workers out of back pay. I mean,
00:13things are getting messy. And starting with the workers, as soon as the government shut down on
00:16October 1st, pretty much all non-essential staff, about 750,000 people, were furloughed and not
00:21being paid. Kind of. And I say kind of because normally they're entitled to back pay for that
00:26time off. But even with that, like, it's rare for a government shutdown to extend past a payday,
00:30because even missing one paycheck in the short term, it can be catastrophic for most Americans.
00:34Which is then why it was pretty damn shocking to find that the Trump administration is considering
00:38not even giving back pay to furloughed workers. And you had that coming from a memo seen by Axios,
00:43and it's believed that by putting the possibility of no back pay on the table, that the Trump
00:47administration is hoping to force Senate Democrats into a deal. But I will say there's also an even
00:51bigger wrinkle to all this, and that is that the plan, it flies in the face of how U.S. law is
00:55currently understood. Right? I mean, back in 2019, Trump signed a law that was generally understood
00:59to guarantee back pay. But now, you've got officials in the Office of Management and Budget
01:02shifting their stance. With one senior White House official, for example, speaking to Axios and
01:06saying, does this law cover all these furloughed employees automatically? The conventional wisdom
01:10is yes, it does. Our view is no, it doesn't. Right? And what they're calling this new interpretation
01:15of the law by the Office of Management and Budget, it not only contradicts nearly six years of
01:19precedent and understanding, but also recent memos from other Trump agencies. Just this month,
01:24the Council of Economic Advisers released a guide about the shutdown, and they explicitly touched
01:28on this when talking about how this would affect contractors, saying, unlike federal employees,
01:33federal contractors are not entitled to back pay after the conclusion of a shutdown. And that
01:37followed a memo from the Office of Personnel Management from last month, where it had an FAQ,
01:41and one of the questions was, will employees who are furloughed get paid? And just to keep it short,
01:45they said yes. So as far as how Trump and his administration are trying to justify this, well,
01:49shortly after that law was passed in 2019, it was amended. And in that amendment,
01:53the law said that workers would get paid, quote, subject to the enactment of appropriations acts,
01:57ending the lapse. Right? That language, it makes it sound like an automatic thing. But Trump,
02:01he's arguing that no, the 2019 law mentions explicitly that year's shutdown, so it's the
02:06only one that automatically qualifies. Right? So according to this train of thought,
02:09all future shutdowns would need to have that money specifically set aside by Congress. So I will say,
02:14it is very hard to find someone outside of Trump's inner circle who supports this interpretation.
02:18But also, it still could be enough of a threat to try to pressure Senate Democrats. Right? Especially
02:22considering the timing, right? October 15th, that's the next government paycheck. And now,
02:27there's a possible legal battle about whether they're ever going to get paid. Well, right now,
02:30at least according to the polling, more people blame the Republicans and the Democrats for this
02:34shutdown. One of the big questions that pops up here, in addition to, oh my God, how is this going
02:38to affect so many hundreds of thousands of Americans, is will this messaging work? Can they muddy the
02:43waters not only for this fight, but maybe even the upcoming midterm? Now, with all this,
02:47if you're thinking, you know, this isn't that big of a deal because, you know, you're not a federal
02:50employee, you know, how can the shutdown affect you? Well, I do have some bad news for you. Right?
02:55One, if you or anyone you know is a contractor for the federal government, they're not entitled
02:59to automatic back pay. And in total, the White House itself says that the reduced spending due to
03:03federal employees and contractors not getting paid could mean $30 billion less in the economy.
03:08And then two, there are also the potentially deadly impacts around transportation and particularly
03:12airports as air traffic controllers and other personnel don't go to work. But that's not because
03:16they're furloughed, actually the opposite. Right? By law, air traffic controllers are not allowed to
03:20leave work to protest or because they're not getting paid. However, a workaround that many ATC use is to
03:26just call out sick with the feds pointing out that worker absenteeism among ATCs triples to 10% during
03:32government shutdowns. We're actually seeing this play out in real time. You've got airports like Burbank
03:35literally having no one manning air traffic control yesterday afternoon and evening, with then
03:39ATCs in San Diego having to take over. And there were also major flight delays. Right? And while in the grand scheme of things,
03:45Burbank, it's not the most major airport. It is, one, in SoCal and shares airspace with major airports like
03:51LAX and San Diego, not to mention other regionals like John Wayne and Ontario. But also, two, Burbank is
03:57hardly alone in dealing with delays and even airports that still have ATCs dealing with massive
04:01headaches. Right? Newark, Jacksonville, Chicago, and DC, they've all had less air traffic controllers
04:06than usual leading up to multiple hour delays. And that's not only because the flights get fucked, but also
04:10because staff like TSA actually call out more often during shutdowns as well. And then, of course,
04:14there are just the increased safety concerns that come with fewer air traffic controllers. Which is an
04:18occupation that was already heavily short-staffed and facing tons of scrutiny over recent aviation
04:23disasters earlier this year. And so with all this, you've had administration officials like
04:26Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy recognizing the absences spiking and saying in a conference
04:30yesterday. And so now what they think about as they're controlling our airspace is, how am I going to pay my
04:36mortgage? How do I make my car payment? Do I think they're more stressed right now in our towers? Yes. Is our
04:42airspace unsafe? No. And then with all that, you had Trump speaking about the situation saying...
04:46Oh, sure. I mean, it's, uh, they're all Democrat delays. There are delays at the airport. That's
04:51standard. And again, this is something that we've, every day we put forth a bill. It's just a
04:57continuation. It's a very simple thing to sign and very simple to do. And I, I really think that these
05:03are people that I think they have nothing to lose. They have a party that's out of control. They have
05:07no leader. Nobody knows who the leader is. With Trump then going on to say that many Dems have
05:12quote, very low IQs and called some out by name, such as Jasmine Crockett, which is really quick.
05:16It's just to say this, like if you do not know anything about Jasmine Crockett, other than passing
05:20by stuff, that is a genuinely funny metric because she's actually a pretty accomplished and smart
05:24woman. He just disagrees with her politically, but I guess that is, that's the state of things.
05:27You know, with all that said, we're going to have to continue to watch and see where this goes. It's a bit of a
05:31high stakes game of chicken right now. And while we wait to see, I got to ask you, what are your thoughts,
05:35opinions and reactions here, especially if you're someone that's affected and that could be you or
05:38someone, you know, working for the government or even the, the impacts there changing your plans.
05:43Like, are you maybe not going to fly somewhere because you.
