Hello, everyone, I'm Kimberly Adams.

Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where none of us is as smart as all of us.

But all of us probably would have been a lot more effective than Congress because it finally is over.

The longest government shutdown in U.S. history is done. The Democrats did not get the ACA subsidy extension they wanted, but the deal does include a reversal of the federal layoffs that happened during the shutdown, a year of funding for a few departments, including the USDA, where the SNAP funding comes from, but we're teed up for

another partial government shutdown, possibly as soon as January, and the Democrats didn't secure

any promise that future funding decisions would actually be adhered to by the White House.

This fight is one of several lately that effectively come down to the balance of power in government, which is a conversation we've had a lot on this show over the years.

So, of course, we had to bring back Kai for this one.

Oh, my. Can I tell you how hard it was not to jump in when that music hit and say, hey, everybody, I'm Kyle Rose.

I'll welcome back to make me smart. It was really close. It was touching go. You should have just gone for it. For anybody new here. I didn't know if it was like a surprise or whatever. So I'm like, I'll just be, I'll be the good guest. I'll just wait. I'll just wait. For anybody new here, Kai Rizdahl is a host of Marketplace and a long time host and the original host of this very show. Welcome back,

Kai. It is so good to be here. I thought you'd never ask. Oh, snap. Kai, come on. I was trying

to give you a break, man. And I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Oh, my gosh, this shut down.

Can we talk about it? Sure. Like, what was your read as all this was going down?

It stretched on for so long.

A couple of thoughts.

I think the Democrats picked the wrong issue to draw the line on.

There is no way, zero way.

We would have been destroyed by an asteroid before Donald Trump was ever going to sign something that amplified, boosted, extended whatever, anything for the

Affordable Care Act. It just was never going to happen. Never going to happen, right?

Much less the other thing they were asking about, which was to actually make him adhere to their funding decisions. Well, hang on, because that's another issue, right? And that's the separation of powers thing you mentioned in the introduction. I think the other thing, though, is that, you know, in picking the ACA, wrong issue, but also the Democrats have been saying for, since January the 20th, oh my God, he's doing these unconstitutional

things. He is a threat to the Republic, blah, blah, blah, blah. But if he fixes this ACA problem,

we're going to say bygones on the rest of that stuff, right? And that was, that was, I think,

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