00:00we find ourselves once again in a federal government shutdown.
00:04What exactly do these shutdowns accomplish?
00:07You tell me.
00:08Because the government shutdowns that I have observed,
00:12pretty much every time the instigators,
00:14the ones that wanted to go into the government shutdown,
00:17that thought it was going to give them some kind of political leverage to get their way,
00:22eventually had to fold.
00:23Whether they fold after three days or after 30 days,
00:27like the last government shutdown that took almost 35 days,
00:31the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
00:34But eventually they have to fold their cards
00:37because a government shutdown doesn't cut spending,
00:40it doesn't fix our budget problems,
00:43and it also doesn't give, especially the minority party,
00:47more leverage than they already had before going into the shutdown fight.
00:52So what's really at stake in the shutdown?
00:55The way I see it is that Democrats are trying to signal to their base
01:00that they are taking a tough stance against President Trump and Republicans,
01:05and they're using the expiration of enhanced Obamacare COVID credits,
01:11health care subsidies that extended health insurance to families
01:16that have multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars in incomes a year.
01:20This is definitely not about supporting low-income individuals.
01:26Using that expiration, which by the way,
01:28that program doesn't expire until the end of the year,
01:31to now negotiate over whether to fund federal government operations
01:36and make sure that federal workers get paid.
01:40Republicans have already said,
01:42we will negotiate with Democrats about those health care subsidies
01:45after we reopen the government.
01:47Let's not hold federal government employees hostage
01:51to health care subsidies that don't even expire until the end of the year.
01:56But even that doesn't get at the real issue with the government budget.
02:01These types of budget deadlines should be about how we reduce spending,
02:06how do we get our out-of-control debt back under control.
02:10The U.S. government this year will run a $2 trillion deficit.
02:15As a share of GDP, we're at crisis levels
02:19at a time when the United States is definitely not in a crisis.
02:23Instead, these deficits are driven by spending on old-age entitlement programs,
02:30Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid,
02:33that are driving us into this debt crisis.
02:36And this government shutdown doesn't do anything to fix that.
02:39Nobody is even debating how to stabilize the growth in the debt.
02:44So as much as I'm concerned,
02:46this government shutdown is primarily political theater
02:49rather than real problem-solving.
02:52What we need are legislators who tell the truth about the U.S. federal budget.
02:58The fact that our debt is as big as the entire economy
03:01and is growing to exceed record highs
03:04that we haven't seen since after World War II.
03:07And this time, it's not because of a major world war,
03:11but it's because politicians have promised benefits
03:14to politically powerful older voters
03:18in the form of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid
03:21that have not been paid for
03:23and that politicians have made no provision to cover
03:27except by adding more and more debt to younger generations
03:30until bond markets pull the plug.
03:33And then we could have a full-fledged fiscal crisis.
03:38And we shouldn't find out where that fiscal cliff is by going over it.
03:43So we need politicians to stand up
03:46to the fact that the budget is driven primarily by entitlement programs.
03:50These are inflating the debt,
03:52driving us into a debt crisis,
03:53and we'll need reforms.
03:55And the best solution is most likely
03:58a bipartisan or nonpartisan fiscal commission
04:01that can make the economically necessary
04:04but politically tough decisions
04:07to put the budget back on track.
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