Selects: How Government Shutdowns Work | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

hi there friends it's me Josh and for. this week's select I've chosen our. September 2019 episode on government. shutdowns sadly this is such a perennial. topic we should re-release it every. couple months it's a good thing to. understand so that you can be good and. ticked off at your elected officials. anytime a shutdown happens because as we. learned in this episode they are totally. avoidable so enjoy I. [Music]. guess welcome to you should know a.

production of iHeart. [Music]. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast so. I'm Josh Clark and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant and there's Jerry over. there and this is the podcast like I. said in particular it's the stuff you. should know podcast so if that's not. what you're here to listen to you're in. the wrong place and if you don't want to. listen to us talk about government. shutdowns then you're in the wrong place. but who doesn't want to know about.

government shutdowns yeah I agree. educate yourselves right as a matter of. fact CU it's going to happen again soon. enough that's exactly right that is why. I wanted to do this episode yeah because. I'm I've been meaning for us to do this. for years now and every. time um we do it and it's like or every. time I go to do it say let's do a. government shutdown episode I think is. what I'm trying to say sorry I just. drank a red bullt cuz I was about to. fall over and now I'm talking really. fast oh good lord just give me like 10. minutes okay and you're drinking of.

Coca-Cola well we don't have Coke Zero. here anymore this is all we have you. want that extra caffeine kick on top of. the Red Bull I think I have just this 12. oz can it's not even gone and I think. I've burned a hole in my stomach yeah. it's crazy but delicious it is delicious. I'll give you that but Coke Zero is. really delicious too for being a diet. cola at any rate government shutdowns um. you were saying yeah every time we go to. do this the government shuts down so it.

looks like we're chasing a trend so we. have to wait yeah and I'm like finally. the time is right cuz it wouldn't be. cool to do one in the midst of one is. that the de definitely not got no that's. like buying a t-shirt at a concert and. then putting that t-shirt on and looking. around like yeah I at the concert with. that horrible smell that new t-shirt. especially Concert t-shirts they're. printed out of you know straight. chemicals out of Buffalo Bill's. basement made of skin man he's been on. my mind a lot.

because of the egg G episode well. because that and then I just saw on H. the movie Crushers page someone posted a. funny little thing that was a Buffalo. Bill Tinder. profile which was really funny I got to. see that uh and then there was something. else from this past weekend it was a lot. of Buffalo Bill happening he's been he's. everywhere yeah yeah remember we used to. send each other that that one screenshot. yeah that was great back when we shed a. cubicle wall I know and it it was easy. enough to do that back in the day now we.

have goldplated Aon. chairs and no walls anywhere I'd take a. regular Aon I think that's what you're. sitting in right now oh is it quite. comfy so anyway welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh there's Chuck we should edit. all that other stuff out don't you think. or get money from Red Bull Coca-Cola and. Aeron you're right and Buffalo Bill. right um or the Buffalo Bills football. team dang man you just really pulled it. together with that last one.

so we've been through some shutdowns in. our time Chuck sure in our day yeah as a. matter of fact um you'd think based on. how common they kind of seem I mean. every few years there's like the federal. government I should say for our fellow. listeners outside of the United States. our government is broken right we're. talking about government shutdowns and. it's a lot like what it sounds like I. mean we'll get to the nuts and bolts of. it obviously but it it's BAS basically.

where the federal government not state. governments but the the federal USA. government yeah parts of it just stop. functioning right and the reason they. stop functioning is because those. agencies that those parts of the federal. government have not been funded and. since they haven't been funded by law by. congressional act from years back they. are not allowed to pay workers any. longer they're not even allowed to. accept volunteer work from their workers.

so with no workers that means the agency. shuts down and that's a that's a. government shutdown that's what we're. talking about literally parts of the. government shut down yeah and again we. will get into all the nuts and bolts but. it shuts down because of funding gaps. and those funding gaps happen almost. always because of um entrenched politics. yeah it's it's two sides playing chicken. over the budget right and when the. government shutdown happens neither side.

blinked right and it's also very. important to point out that uh a big. part of government shutdowns is trying. to get the other side. to maybe not accept blame because no one. ever does it seems like sure but at. least the perception in the General. Media that this person or this side is. the one to blame yeah and more often. than not public polling shows that it's. Congress that almost always takes the. blame oh really until this last one it. was always Congress right no matter what.

which is funny that they would try to. pull us off cuz it's so politically. risky cuz it's so damaging on an. individual level among like federal. employees or just average Americans but. also on a national level yeah our. economy takes a huge hit huge hit that. we just never regain all right that's a. great setup I think so too so Chuck to. start I think we should talk about how. money moves around the federal. government don't you yeah and this is uh. again if you live outside outside the. country and even if you live in the.

United States um you you may not. understand what power of the purse means. but in the United States and in the US. Constitution Article 1 Section 9 Clause. 7 yeah not even the Bill of Rights like. the Constitution yeah like this is one. of the first things they thought about. it was uh Congress who has granted. control over the money so um the. president and can't just fund something. uh the Senate can't just fund something. everything has to be agreed on and they.

can't spend a dime without congress's. Express approval uh through this process. we're going to get into called. Appropriations right and so in the. Constitution it just said the Congress. is the one that approves all money. everything comes through Congress right. yeah we should read that though because. it does have one funny line you go ahead. in from the Constitution no money shall. be drawn from the treasury but in. consequence of the Appropriations made. by law so far so good okay and a regular.

statement of account of receipts and. expenditures of all money shall be. published from time to time it's very. non-specific whenever you get to it why. not like you know in November of every. year I honestly don't know because I. mean from time to time makes it seem. unimportant it makes it seem uh what's. the word when you don't have to do. something makes it seem non-mandatory. yeah optional optional sure that's the. word right uh I know you so well after. all these years so that's the the that's.

from article one of the Constitution and. presidents from. 1778 onward said okay I can work with. that there's a huge loophole here like. no I can't I can't you know spend money. myself like I can't pay anybody myself I. have to wait for congress right but that. doesn't mean I can't like get the work. done first and then when it comes time. to pay I can just direct this cont. contractor vendor whoever militia man to.

Congress to go get money yeah which is. really I mean that is so United States. government to be like well I'm. technically not writing the check right. I've just engaged someone services and. now we owe them this money yeah Congress. pay this guy he's yeah yeah we he did. what he's saying he did and so there was. this representative in Virginia who was. not happy about this this kind of. precedent that had been adopted by the. executive branch um this representative. said in 18 6 that presidents were acting.

like a saucy boy whose wealthy. grandfather was going to cover his needs. yeah and that that was the the case So. eventually Congress said we got to close. this loophole and they did in 1884 I. think yeah the anti-deficiency ACT uh. basically said no you you can't just uh. pay the guy to paint your house and then. stand there tapping your toes looking at. the guy with the checkbook right exactly. as a matter of fact they said. you can't spend a single dime that.

Congress hasn't already appropriated for. that that's right you you just can't do. it so much so that again you can't even. accept volunteer work unless it is. basically to protect life or Public. Safety something really really important. right but when we say we fund you. Congress funds the executive branch all. the agencies in the federal government. we really mean it and that's what the. anti-deficiency act really said yeah uh. but it would take until 1974 when.

Richard Nixon signed the Congress budget. and impoundment Control Act it's a barn. burner yeah but that's what really. changed everything and that's what kind. of laid out this process that we still. work with today or or don't work with or. sit on our hands and hold our breath. right I ideally it. functions kind of clunky even in its. best form yeah but purposefully so it's. to keep Congress from being proplate. with spending right like I mean it's to.

say this group over here and this group. over here we're we're taking the same. task in making you guys do it twice. separately and then come together and. Hammer out the details yeah it's really. discouraging to look at the history of. our country and the you know the idea. should be that like all right we know. that in this country we have a lot of. people that feel one way about a lot of. stuff a lot of people that feel the. other way and the government's job. should be to come together and negotiate. and find nice middle grounds right and. it seems like it's more like the.

government just finds loopholes and is. sneaky and underhanded to find. workarounds from actually trying to work. together and find a middle ground right. it stinks does stink a little bit sick. of it I'm I'm pretty fed up with. government too I think most people in. America and I would gather the UK too. all right oh man especially right now so. uh here's how it happens every year uh. the two chambers of Congress they have. to agree on a budget for the. discretionary spending which is uh I.

think only. 30% of the overall budget is is. discretionary um everything else is. mandatory or non-discretionary and that. means stuff that you you just can't not. pay for right um and it's mostly things. like Medicaid Medicare Social Security. entitlement programs right to where. these are these are mandatory programs. that are created by an act of Congress. that says whatever these programs need. to run and operate that's how much. Congress gives them there's no spending.

levels there's no you know what about. this is like you can go in and monkey. with the operation by Congressional Act. but as far as spending and budget goes. whatever they need they get that's right. the other stuff the discretionary stuff. that's what' you say about 30% of the. budget it's 30% but that's still like in. 2018 that was $1.2 trillion and it's. really important stuff it's not like uh. the mandatory spending is the only. important stuff we're talking about the. FDA M Homeland Security.

TSA uh the NIH national parks the IRS. the Department of Defense yeah Big Time. stuff basically everything except Social. Security Medicaid and Medicare oh really. is that 70% essentially geez I. know I know all right so this all starts. this Appropriations process uh it's laid. out for the first Monday in. February um and this is the deadline uh. It lines up with the deadline for the. president. to submit uh their budget to Congress.

which you always hear this is a. president's budget the president over. you know oversees stuff and approv stuff. but the president's not in there with a. a calculator crunching numbers no no no. it's the Office of Management and budget. that does it for the president but it's. under the president's Direction the. President says I really want to do this. but I don't want to do this anymore. right but the thing is it's almost like. a little kid going through the. Montgomery Ward wish book and then. writing their list in crane that has. about the same polling power as the.

president's budget it really is saying. this is what the president wants to do. and then Congress either says these are. good ideas or they say we're not. listening to that at all because it's. not legally binding in any way there's. probably in fact uh Partyline templates. that they just throw down like a Mad Lib. right and they tweak it a little bit but. they say like oh here's the Republican. style budget and here's the Democratic. style budget right Obama or Trump and. now do your minor tweaks right I think. that is kind of it's got to be because.

it's a huge massive document yeah they. can't like start from scratch every time. can they no it's got to be like the. first few pages are what really count. you know what I mean it's got to be but. again this is like uh they call it in. this article like a the the wish list of. funding priorities and that's a good way. to put it the Montgomery Ward wish book. wish list you remember that I was a a. sear kid oh I didn't discriminate I went. through all of them make sure I had all. my bases covered yeah we didn't even.

have Montgomery Ward so I I've never. I've never laid eyes upon that catalog. it was it was good it was a good one I. put it up against the Sears one yeah we. had Sears and then I guess uh Service. Merchandise was another oh I remember. that didn't they sell everything from. like diamond rings the CIO keyboards oh. they sold everything I think I bought my. very first guitar from Service. Merchandise oh nice and returned it like. a week later because it was cruddy. broken and I went to a real guitar. store Sam Ash no I actually I remember I. went to dirt cheap music on Memorial.

Drive it's not there anymore good shop. local yeah yeah Dirt Cheap right Buzz. Marketing for a business that is no. longer around so uh they've got this. wish list then it goes on to Congress. and they have to pass what's called a. concurrent budget resolution right and. Congress can totally ignore the. president's budget they can take it into. consideration um if the if Congress is. in is controlled by the same party the. president is the president wishes are. probably going to be taken into.

consideration But ultimately Congress. says this is what we want to do and from. what I can tell when they come up with. this concurrent um budget right yeah. concurrent budget cbsr concurrent budget. resolution it's basically just setting. the spending for the year right that's. that's all that is isn't it like this. the cap on what the federal government. can spend entirely I think so it's just. that broad agreement of the total amount. of spending okay and then starts to get. divvied up yeah they're not in the weeds.

at this point no but they're supposed to. pass that by mid April uh and that's. where they set these spending levels for. 20. categories and this is where you know. this is where it starts to break down or. not break down but like in a bad way but. they start to break it down because it's. such a massive thing you got to break it. down into smaller departments right so. Congress says here's the total amount of. money that we're going to spend this. year M uh and it goes to the appropr. ation Committee in the Senate and the.

Appropriations Committee in the house. and then each of them says okay we've. got this this whole let's divvy it up. into 12 slices not necessarily equal. slices I think that'd probably be pretty. lazy um but they say you know. Agriculture and rural development you're. going to get this much this year. Commerce Justice and science you're. going to get this much like this slice. of the pie and they do that over 12. departments that roughly correspond to.

the different cabinet posts yeah uh in. the federal government that's right and. it's up to those subcommittees those 12. different ones once they get their. little slice of pie to then decide how. to eat that pie yeah or eat that piece. of the pie there's an appropriation. subcommittee that says this is how. you're going to spend this that's right. and they have hearings and stuff like. that where like the heads of these. departments come and say we really need. this we've got some really exciting. stuff coming up give us some more money. we're uh figured out how to ride sharks.

and Hunt dolphins with spear guns and we. really want to get into that this year. or you know we really need to build this. thing or the military really needs to. upgrade that thing right stuff like that. and then these appropriation. subcommittees each one dedicated to a a. group of agencies or a couple an agency. just a single one um say okay this is. how we're going to spend this money and. then once that happens in the house and. the same thing happens in the Senate. those two groups the appropriation. subcommittee for each of these 12 slices.

of pie come together ideally and they. say well we came up with this what did. you guys come up with and they say well. we came up with this and we're off by7. billion how are we going to figure this. out that's great only7 billion right. that's nothing these days well they. negotiate with each other to come up. with a joint spending bill um I I. imagine those meetings are uh. contentious and tough sure and. eventually though ideally they negotiate. that spending bill then that gets sent. to the president and they can veto that.

or sign that right so remember there's. 12 there's actually 24 of these going on. over 12 different slices of pie and when. they come back together and form 12. different Appropriations. resolutions um they can say we're done. this is good let's send it to the. president and the president can sign. that if things are going along really. smoothly and Congress wants to show off. they're they'll say we want to get all. these together in one package we're. going to present all 12 to the president.

and the president can either sign or. veto so they could the president can. sign or veto each one separately in. small groups or as a whole as a whole is. called Omnibus yeah if if you've ever. heard the term Omnibus spending Bill and. you're like what in the world is that. that just means it's everything grouped. together right and so one reason that. you would go through the headache of. trying to put all 12 of those. Appropriations bills into one package is. that if there's something in one of. those appropr a bills that you want out.

yeah you got a lot more leverage in the. other 11 that you can trade from the. budget as a whole to get that thing out. or get this thing in if it's one. Appropriations bill you have much less. leverage so that's why they would go to. that trouble but that's fairly rare I. believe yeah and this is all due by. October 1st because that is the. beginning of the federal government's uh. fiscal year is October 1 and since we've. been doing this in modern times uh I. believe 1976 7 um was when we started.

this process Congress has passed all 12. by October 1st by that deadline only. four. times four times that's right so uh. we'll take a break and we'll discuss. what happens all of the other times. right after this. [Music].

[Applause]. [Applause]. so okay Congress comes along also big. shout out to Dave ruse this is his first. article that we're doing an episode on. yeah Dave uh is one of the great writers. from house upworks.com that we long.

admired over the years and tapped him to. do some stuff for us tapping him we're. tapping him and he's tapping back it's. great we've got a pretty great little. stable going here we got Dave Roose. Julia Leighton and the grabster all. writing for stuff you should know right. now that's right and I think if they. keep up the good work then that's all we. need sure yeah I think so too because we. still put together our own stuff too yes. we do I want to give us a pat on the. back as well all right that's fine all. right so I just pulled the muscle in my. arm I can't write this week so um like.

we said before the break um this has. only happened four times in the and. since 1977 that all 12 appro. Appropriations bills were passed by that. October 1 deadline that's so funny so. when it comes to October 2nd it doesn't. mean if um we haven't passed those. Appropriations bills it's like. everything just stops working right. because if you pay attention to the news. you will notice that there's something. called the continuing resolution so this.

can happen for a lot of reasons one um. one good and sort of uh non-offensive. reason could be that man we were really. close and we're we're almost there we. just need another week or the weekend. we'll work through the weekend even to. get this done right um a good but. offensive reason is because someone. farted and everyone cleared out of the. chamber and missed the deadline so they. had to do a continuing resolution uh no. I mean if if they're close and they just.

need a few more days to work it out then. that can happen they'll pass a. continuing resolution which means. everything stays the same you don't get. any more money or you don't get money. take it away just keep like operate as. usual right you can't increase spending. you can you can spend differently or. whatever but you can't spend above the. levels of the previous fiscal year. you're currently in right that's right. okay I'm with you I think a continuing. resolution whether it's one for a day or. for a year and there have been ones that.

have been like yearlong continuing. resolutions yeah there's no limit you. can pass them forever long you think you. need right um it does show that. negotiations are still ongoing they. haven't broken down yeah they just. haven't reached the the point where. where they're in agreement yet that's. right the problem comes when they stop. issuing continuing resolutions that's. right uh Dave th in a few pretty cool. facts here um 186 continuing resolutions. have been passed since 1977 and 117 or.

those uh of those or those have been uh. since. 1998 yes so it's taken them 117 times. that they could not work it out since. 1998 that's a. lot yeah that's it is but if you think. about it the um it's about evenly split. well no it's not evenly split it's like. 70 to I think 6 9 to. 117 over 2 20e periods oh yeah and it.

does seem to be getting worse but that's. kind of lopsided because in 2001 there. were 21 of that 117 21 of them all came. in 2001 yeah so I'm not quite sure about. this but I wonder is the a number an. increase in continuing resolutions is. that like a barometer for government or. how government's working. uh I don't know cuz I wonder CU I mean. ideally like they they would get all. this done by the October 1 deadline.

every time well it it depends because um. as this points out like sometimes it is. over the weekend and it's just a few. days right and they're like really close. to having it worked out so to me that's. not the biggest deal in the world that. doesn't mean the government isn't. functioning well right I mean as well as. it ever does sure am I right yeah but uh. like in. 2007 11 and 13 MH they were all year. long. there were no Appropriations bills right.

they just said we're just going to. repeat last year or no real. Appropriations bills I guess right they. just they just said Remember the. spending levels from before go with God. that's what you got again this year. because we can't come to an agreement. yeah that's when things are bad so um. continuing resolutions too like it. doesn't affect spending levels or it. doesn't increase them it can't I I. wonder I don't know if it can decrease. them or not I know you it just basically. says same spending level as last year so. maybe can't decrease them either I think. you can't decrease I think it's just.

your current funding is locked right but. you can attach Riders on to continuing. resolutions yeah these policy writers um. those can be like the make or break and. if it's clean which I don't know how. often that happens I'd be curious to see. a stat but if it's a clean policy writer. that means it has nothing else or a. clean uh CR CR it doesn't have any. policy writers that's right so um a lot. of times times though if there's a. policy writer on a CR it might be like.

okay we can't come to an agreement about. uh Medicaid funding abortion that was a. big one in the 1970s yeah um and but in. this same Appropriations bill that we're. we're haggling over there's this other. thing that's like super critical it's. like um like uh local hospitals aren't. going to get any any knq funding and. it's about to run out so we need to. increase the Q funding for local.

hospitals and we'll attach that as a. policy writer to this continuing. resolution because this is kind of an. emergency and it doesn't really have. anything to do with the contentious part. that that's keeping the policy or the. Appropriations bill from being passed. right so that's I think usually what. happens with that you know what show. really Nails this stuff is vep oh my. gosh for all it's like you know comedy. and funny stuff they it seems like they. really nail kind of what it's like in. Washington sure cuz there's a lot of. talk of this kind of stuff yeah clean. bills and riters and who's on whose side.

and can we sway this one person over to. our side yeah a lot of just dirty dirty. language oh yeah God man Julie Lou driis. she is a n she's an international. treasure totally had one interaction. with her briefly when uh in LA in my. friend's building in Los felis the. hollymont building he lived there Scotty. he know Scotty sure of course and we had. a case of beer and and a pizza and some. snacks and we were going she showed up. as like where where's the party well. that's sort of what happened we were.

going up in the front of the building. and she was shooting uh New Adventures. of Old Christine right there at the. entrance and we literally walked by her. and they were like putting on her makeup. like right in front of they were right. about to go and she said who are those. guys I want to go with them where are. you guys going and of course we like. come on up that's cool and then an. electrician uh knocked on her door and. asked to put a light in his uh apartment. shining out the window how much did you. charge him no we didn't we were just. like come on that's nice and then Eric.

Estrada showed up and arrested. you uh all right so where are we here so. I'll tell you where we left off Chuck we. left off with continuing resolutions. temporary funding yeah. eventually if a position is contentious. enough about some part of the budget. right and very rarely is it. something is it something Financial. necessarily like it has to do with. finances because it's in the budget but.

typically it's something more political. than that like the idea of Medicaid. funding abortions right in 1977 and 1978. there were um there impasses were. reached where they could not come to an. agreement on using Medicaid to fund. abortions federal dollars to fund. abortions right that's right very. contentious issue yes it had to do with. money it had to do with finances. Medicaid funding but really it was about. the social issue this cultural ISS. abortion and that's usually the kind of.

um the kind of political uh impass or. divide that it takes to really reach a. point where one side says you know what. I don't even agree to this continuing. resolution anymore just forget it we're. done yeah it seems like it's usually. something that is so important to that. either president or party or both that. they feel like it's worth digging in um. and a lot of times that has to do. sometimes that has do with the thing. itself but sometimes it has to do with.

the perception of that thing to your. voting base sure that's part of it too. but I mean we're talking politicians. here I think you could have just said. the last part you know that's true yeah. so uh what happens when they fail to. pass that Appropriations Bill and. they're not talking you're going to get. a funding Gap and that doesn't. necessarily lead to a shutdown either. can we please get to the. shutdown well uh since 1981 more than. half of the funding gaps lasted just a. few days when I talked about solving it. over the weekend A lot of times that.

will happen over the weekend um and if. it's less than a few days that means no. one had to sit out work or whatever or. was Furlow right so technically the. government was shut down but no one. noticed because it happened on days when. the federal government isn't open anyway. yeah and until 1981 they were actually. allowed to keep operating but uh the. Reagan Administration changed all that. yeah what was the name uh Benjamin. civiletti chetti. technically in Italian it' be CH because.

a c followed by a vowel makes a CH sound. did you know that I do and I don't. remember this guy I don't either uh I. mean we were young and probably too. young to really know about attorney. generals Young and Reckless like I knew. the president and the vice president. sure and maybe the speaker of the house. or something first attorney general I. was cognizant of was Edwin me wasn't he. or was he State I don't even know he was. the first Cabinet member I was aware of. Edwin me yeah I know Ed me cuz I think.

they made fun of him in in Mad Magazine. it showed him like getting hit by a. mouse trap or something cuz he was a me. that's kind of how I was exposed to. politics too mad I think so sure yeah I. knew all about speo agu even though I. had no idea who he was I still don't. really know who he was there's this. great Simpsons quote where Milhouse and. Bart are looking at a Mad Magazine. they're like they're making fun of that. speo agnu guy again he must work there. or something and I remember thinking. like I guess speo agu works there cuz. they used to skewer like the publisher.

too so I just thought speo agu was one. of them I think it's a funny name too. and comedy circles yeah that's a good. one um yes attorney general Benjamin uh. chetti he was Reagan's Ag and he said it. is not. constitutional uh to keep spending money. without Congressional approval which is. what's happening when you say we'll go. ahead and keep working federal. government so he I mean they kind of. made shutdowns happen yeah like it was.

like okay we're shut down haha we're. still just continuing on like normal. until chetti said well remember that. anti-deficiency act that's actually for. real and I saw somewhere that it like. they actually enforced that and like. federal agencies are are um are. frequently fined for violating these. things like going into contracts are. hiring people when they don't really. have the money for it and I saw. somewhere the SC got an $800 million.

fine once for it couldn't find it. anywhere else but it was a spectacular. enough number to at least mention it. yeah um so chival really changed the. rules for shutdowns because before if. the government shut down but the. government still functioned yeah it was. almost more of like a um uh what's the. word I'm looking for ceremonial yeah. kind of thing I know what you mean. didn't really mean anything it was um. symbolic. yes um once civiletti said no no no we.

actually can't stay open during a. shutdown that made the whole thing way. more politically risky and so they. stopped happening nearly as frequently. from that point on that's right things. have changed since then tremendously uh. and there have been four times and sort. of recently where uh people really dug. in and there were uh what we would call. major shutdowns uh the winter of 9596. there were two. shutdowns uh because of Bill Clinton.

being a Democrat and N Gingrich hating. his. guts he was the house speaker at the. time uh and the Republican controlled. Congress and new it was all about the. contract for America which basically was. small government uh lowering taxes um. really sticking it to the poor yeah like. really higher restrictions on or more. strict restrictions on welfare. recipients yeah so he and Bill Clinton. went at it for a long time they really. did and I mean like each side was dug in.

and um gingr was trying to shove that. contract for with America down Clinton's. throat it's not what Clinton's policies. were and Clinton said no and neither. side would would would give and finally. and this is how um shutdowns usually get. resolved they start doing polls of the. American public and say who do you blame. for this and almost invariably the. public says Congress this is congress's. fault that that the the country is um.

just being weakened right now by this. government shut down and then Congress. relents and that's what happened for. those two both of the shutdowns were. combined 26 days and uh Republicans and. the Congress were to blame according to. American people right and polling. numbers at least uh so you know they. they said sorry fine fine we'll we'll. try to get you in peached instead should. we talk about.

2013 yeah I remember this one really. clearly that's right uh President Barack. Obama republicans in Congress again Ted. Cruz like almost single-handedly shut. the government down if I remember it. correctly yeah he passed a bill that um. the Republicans were very upset about. the Affordable Care Act and he did all. he could to defund that basically defund. uh what was later to be known as. Obamacare and he was like leading a kind. of a rogue faction of Tea Party. Republicans cuz John Boehner was the.

speaker at the time and he was a. traditional Conservative Republican. right um and I believe he was on board. to just at least with continuing. resolutions to keep the the the um. negotiations going right and I remember. Ted Cruz just being like nope I'm. shutting the government down and it was. a ballsy move I'll tell you that that's. right and that lasted 16 days uh 800,000. federal workers uh were furloughed which. we'll talk about what that means here in. a minute but again uh public polling and.

public outcry uh was against the. Republicans at the time and they said. all right we'll pass a CR and uh let's. change some things about the Affordable. Care Act but we will pass a CR right. they basically got some minor changes I. think a big one well the biggest. concession they got was that um there. would be income verification for people. who were applying for ObamaCare that's. right uh we should talk about the most. recent shutdown as well 201819 I.

remember this one too like it was. yesterday basically was yesterday uh and. this was obviously when uh Donald Trump. said I want a border wall and I want $5. billion to get this thing going and. Democrats said no you're not M and they. had a a meeting on TV which was really. weird oh it was so weird and Chuck. Schumer. um tricked to Donald Trump into taking. responsibility for the shutdown did.

Schumer do it I thought he just like out. of nowhere asserted it I think I thought. I remember Schumer sort of tricking him. in the room into sort of claiming. ownership uhuh almost like a dare and. Trump was sort of like yeah it's my. shutdown oh really because this is. important yeah and you know you could. see Schumer kind of laughing like oh I. don't think he even understands what he. just said yeah I'm sure the Republicans. were like I can't believe you just said. that that's right and there was a. partial down on December 22nd that ran.

uh for a historically long 35 days yeah. the the previous one in 2013 was 16 days. the previous record was the 95 96 on. combined were 26 days yeah those were. two this was 35 days M over Christmas. and New Year's which was a tough time to. do that yeah it was because again the. deadline is October 1st so they had. created continuing resolutions from. October 1st or September 3rd 30th on to. December 22nd mhm and then finally on.

December 22nd I remember this Trump had. been signaling that he was willing to. give uh and I guess at least keep. negotiating continu resolutions and an. cter that's right expressed on Trump's. behalf that he would not be giving on. this position forgot about and that the. government shutdown would go on and cter. basically single-handedly forced this. government shutdown cuz she said if you. give on this like we're done. I will vote against you at the polls. make sure everybody else does and that's.

when Trump's will was bolstered. tremendously and that's when the. government shut down happen that's right. you want to take a break yeah how many. people are still listening to this do. you think roughly. 70% we'll be right back. [Music].

[Applause]. [Applause]. okay Chuck so um well we should we left. a cliffhanger the government was shut. down when we left oh yeah it came back. it came back after how long again 35. days later on January.

25th uh Trump called off that shutdown. without that funding for the border wall. again because public perception uh was. swayed not in his favor right which is. rare again every single one of these. shutdowns everyone said it was. congress's fault with this one they said. it was the president's fault surely that. at least partially had to do with him. claiming on TV that it was his. responsibility for shutting down the. government that didn't last long though. cuz I remember and it gets so just. childlike and snippy but with the tweets.

from both sides calling it the Trump. shutdown Trump calling it The Schumer. Pelosi shut down uhhuh uh trying to. hashtag these things see what's trending. it's all just so ridiculous it is. Twitter so um the shutdown ended and. like you said Trump didn't get that5. billion for the wall I think they. ultimately added like 1.6 billion for. border security but nothing specifically. for that wall right and and the. Democrats started saying well like let's.

really Define wall right yeah I remember. that but what people like to point out. is not only did Trump not get that5. billion but America lost at least 11. billion yeah right during this shutdown. yeah of income right so there's a real. economic cost to government shutdowns. basically everyone I don't care whether. you're a republican stuff you should. know listener a Democrat stuff you. should know listener an anarchist stuff. you should know listener a Centrist.

stuff you should know listener doesn't. matter MH you should be really mad at. your government whenever there's a. shutdown that's right because it. is. holding people's jobs hostage yes. millions of. people depend directly on the federal. government for their paycheck and during. a shutdown you don't get a paycheck some. people even have to work but the people. who don't have to work not only don't. get a paycheck they will never get that.

money for the work that they missed. against their own will during that. shutdown yeah like you can apply for. back pay is that right no you can't no. for who no one can no if you worked. during the shutdown uh you can get. retroactive pay but Congress has to. approve it but you had to have been. working it had to have been an essential. job so you can't get back pay for fur. time no okay it's just gone forever so. people who were out of work um who were.

federal workers I think about 800,000 of. them during the 201819 shutdown the. Trump Schumer Pelosi shutdown um they. they didn't they went without pay for 35. days yeah 380,000 of the 800,000 federal. workers actually had to stop working. right uh that's almost every bit of NASA. uh HUD housing Urban Development staff. 80% of National Park Service. 50,000 workers at the IRS mhm and then.

the other. 420,000 that they deemed essential uh. they still worked and I believe they're. the ones that could apply but they. aren't guaranteed that money though. right no again Congress has to vote and. usually as part of a shutdown just to. kind of like Get public perception in. congress's favor Congress will hold a uh. um a vote and almost nearly almost every. time nearly unanimously vote for. retroactive. the those people who aren't during that.

time whose jobs are deemed nonessential. they'll they'll never get that money. right they just don't get it and that I. mean if you project it to your future. retirement like that's money that you're. not investing a you're not buying things. with it right so you're not helping the. American economy especially during the. holidays is last time yeah you're not uh. investing in the stock market you're not. taking care of your retirement so it has. these Ripple effects that last you know. months and years right so so just to get. a little bit back to the nuts and bolts.

of all this it's not like every time. there's a government shut down the um. the same agency or the same people are. affected in exactly the same way right. each shutdown's different because do you. remember how there's 12 different. Appropriations bills that have to go to. the president some of those can be. passed and signed sure before the. shutdown ever happened yeah if that. happens and your agency was in one of. those those Appropriations bills it's. like every other Tuesday or Wednesday. for you during the shutdown right but.

you can straddle those agencies and they. can be split and that can get weird it. can um well like a good example of it. getting weird is when um this past one. happened the Coast Guard which falls. under the homeland security um slice of. the pie Homeland Security hadn't been. funded yet so the Coast Guard had to. keep its operations going without pay. while the rest of the military the other. four branches were just operating as. normally because the defense.

Appropriations Bill had already been. passed before the shutdown that's right. so depending on which bills have already. been passed some groups are working some. groups aren't and even in each agency. where um the funding hasn't been. appropriated for this coming year there. will be some people who will be working. and others who aren't and it's up to. each agency during a shutdown to say. this is how we're going to function. during this this is the jobs that have. to be carried out whether the.

government's open or not and these are. the people who can be sent home without. ever hopeful without any hopes of ever. getting paid yeah like you see a you see. the thing coming so it's not like a big. surprise but B you have this sort of. plan already in place um it's called you. submit it actually to the Office of. Management and budget and you coordinate. with them rather and that's where you. know you you got to lay out your plan. this is like they they know it's coming. and so they got to they got to plan.

accordingly and like I remember I have. friends that work for the federal. government at the CDC and places like. that and you know they watch this stuff. really closely and some of them were. furloughed and you know went 35 days. without a paycheck right and there's so. there's that personal level where you um. missed rent that that month I can't. remember who was it Wilbur. Ross one of the cabinet members was like. go you know go uh take up a craft and. and or a hobby and turn that into like.

money to pay your rent or just something. some unsolicited advice that no one. wanted to hear welome yeah um so get on. Etsy if you are if you are in that. position like yes you missed rent you. missed your car payment you missed like. all sorts of stuff even if you're not a. federal employee um you're still. probably affected in one way or another. and the longer that a shutdown goes on. the more and more people are affected. everybody from people who are trying to. get their passport application pushed.

through to people who um are uh. supplemental nutrition program. recipients welfare recipients food. stamps um children's uh morning. breakfast programs like all these things. start to run out of funding and they get. affected and more and more people start. to be directly impacted by these. shutdowns the longer they go on sure the. FDA Food inspections can be curtailed uh. and in fact during long shutdowns there. are safety experts that say you might.

want to steer clear fresh food right now. yeah don't need like that bag of Roma. lettuce especially if you're pregnant or. something or uh let me see the National. Park Service this was a big one during. the last shutdown the. um I think they some parks were closed. all together that's how they did it in. 2013 yeah that was a big one they lost. 76 million bucks a day and lost revenue. for the National Park Service but this. most recently some of them were shut. down some of them were kept open but not. staffed right so very famously there was.

uh I think it was at Joshua Tree where. they damaged like irreparable damage to. some of the Joshua trees somebody cut. down at least one Joshua Tree which take. centuries to grow yeah um so that they. could drive their off-road vehicle in an. area where you're not supposed to drive. an off-road vehicle so they could get to. it they cut down a Joshua tree and that. became kind of symbolic for that last. last shutdown I mean there's a range of. problems um that range from. inconveniences uh to not getting paid.

but you know imagine coming from another. country and planning this thing for a. year you put all this money into a trip. to come see the greatest places in the. United States sure you know I'm from uh. wherever I'm German Germany I was going. to say Germany and I want to go see the. most beautiful things in America I want. to go to the Grand Canyon in Yellowstone. and I've had this trip paid for and. planned and it's not refundable right. what do you mean Mount Rushmore is. closed I can see it right there it's. closed well bit yeah sorry frons sorry.

go see uh I don't. know what what else is around there not. much no there's nothing that's kind of. the point yeah you go see van nostrin. childhood birth place right and again. these are seemingly like if you ask the. federal government they they're like who. cares about that minor inconvenience. well there was one thing that I came. across that I found particularly scummy. Chuck during government shutdown when. other people who are working are not. getting paychecks oh yeah here we go.

some Congress people still get theirs. all Congress people do but some have the. wherewithal be like I'm not taking any. pay during this shutdown right like. maybe I'll get it retroactively that's. fine but you just hang on to my paycheck. other other count people are like yeah. keep the money coming I need it which is. that's super scummy to me other people. are out of work or working and not. getting paid like the TSA famously had. to work and and whether they wanted to. or not and they didn't get paid um or. they're calling in sick they should yeah.

they should not be Congress should not. be getting a paycheck during that time. it's congress's fault I know I think. they said that TSA employees about 10%. at one point were calling in sick every. day yeah after after a little while you. remember that yeah it was not a good. time to travel and that's an. inconvenience people flying yep taking. longer when's the next one coming Chuck. that's what everyone wants to know um. October 2nd. we'll keep an ear up for it uh in the.

meantime now you know everything there. is to know about government shutdowns. there's more little interesting details. but uh if you want to know about them. you can be a saucy boy or girl and look. it up on the internet and since I said. Saucy it's time for listener. mail uh we have a couple of Corrections. we haven't done these in a while we. haven't made mistakes in years that's. right uh these are both yours not to. pile. on uh hey guys I want to point out that. Donald Trump spoke to the prime minister. of Sweden Stefan Lin about the arrest of.

ASAP Rocky not the king yeah everybody. was really making a lot of noise about. that over here because I got it wrong uh. and he said I would not have even sent. this email if Josh hadn't have finished. that story with this is reality what I. just said is actual facts that was close. enough yeah it was just a slip of the. tongue facts with the lowercase f and. that is from uh humus. [Music]. bujer what try that again humus bujer.

let me. see there's a lot of consonants in there. I'm sure some of those are quite silent. wow I think you nailed it but you forget. the grip is that his last name I think. Bob jerg is the middle name of humus so. humus grip and I love that he put swed. in parentheses as if I had to see that. uh and then the other one was a math. thing and I'm kind of curious about this. one okay uh nuclear semiotics Josh said. 9,000 seconds is 446 days MH he said.

it's 104 days and he said I know you. guys are busy in recording and. Performing calculations he said but I'm. really curious just where that number. came from he said because no combination. of multiplying dividing 9 million by 60. or 24 yield 466 and I'm really just. curious you guys do a great job thanks. for everything Joey Russo thanks Joey I. think that that number was a where my. fat thumb and Siri get together had a. baby that's where I think that 446 came. from gotcha and I'm sure right after you.

said that I went uh-huh that's right. yeah so I'm equally to blame thank you. Chuck for taking that for the team sure. team Josh uh if you want to get in touch. with us to let us know what kind of. mistakes I've been making left and right. and Chuck's been abiding we love that. stuff love it can't get enough of it so. get in touch with us you can go on to. stuffy know.com and check out our Social. Links and as always you can send us an. email to stuff podcast iheartradio.com.

stuff you should know is a production of. iHeart radio for more podcasts iHeart. Radio visit the iHeart Radio app Apple. podcasts or wherever you listen to your. favorite shows. [Music].