Tommy Vietor

We're two weeks or so into this government shutdown.

Are there any conversations happening between leadership, kind of rank and file, you know, the gangs we used to always hear about that would solve these problems or talks with the White House that kind of might give you a sense of the endgame at this point?

That's good news.

Can you remind listeners what these horribly named enhanced ACA tax credits actually do and what the impact would be if Republicans let them expire at the end of the year?

Yeah, they're doing a bunch of very unpopular things.

You mentioned the cost of electricity going up.

That's happening as Trump is killing off all these clean energy projects just left and right.

I mean, it's just this ideological driven sort of attack on the consumer that seems like it's going to harm him.

Yeah, that's exactly right.

There are some Democrats, I'm sure you've heard this argument, who kind of look around the country.

They see the ICE raids.

They see troops in the streets.

They see the administration defying court orders.

They see this rescissions process where no matter what you guys negotiate in good faith, the OMB just claws back that money.

And they see that and they think Democrats shouldn't fund this government for any reason, given all those factors.

What's your response to that argument?

Yeah, it seems like the bare minimum they should do.

So House Republicans are on vacation.

They're not in D.C., I don't think.

The White House is using the shutdown as a pretext to lay off thousands of federal workers.