Congress avoids a shutdown — and doesn’t seem thrilled about it

KCRW's Left, Right & Center

KCRW

352865, News

4.2 • 4.8K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2023

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Congress agreed to a new spending bill this week to avoid a government shutdown. The bill relies on the same type of structured deadlines that cost former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy his party’s support and eventually his job. New Speaker Mike Johnson chose not to fight for the spending cuts and border funding that Republicans sought in order to get the bill through the House. Will his willingness to compromise lead him down the same path?

Israel’s war against Hamas has strong backing from President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. There’s also been plenty of public support, as seen from a large rally in Washington, D.C. this week. But rising civilian deaths in Gaza have led to calls for a ceasefire from Democratic voters as well as members of the State Department. Can Biden successfully navigate the growing rift over the conflict on the left?

Plus, reversing climate change will require forward-thinking solutions. The president of the Good Food Institute talks about his innovation to soften meat production’s impact on the planet.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to left right and center, the show where we cross the lines of the political
0:05.8	spectrum to take on all the complicated issues. I'm your host this week, Bo Alethy,
0:10.8	filling in for David Green. As always I'm joined by Sarah Isker, senior
0:15.2	editor at the dispatch, a lawyer and former spokesperson at the Department of
0:19.2	Justice under President Trump. Well guys guys, good news.
0:23.4	The government might be saved, at least for now.
0:28.0	With a shutdown hanging in the balance, Congress voted to pass a spending measure that would keep the government open beyond this weekend's
0:35.7	deadline, at least for a few more months.
0:39.2	It was a trial by fire for the newly elected Speaker of the House, Louisiana Representative Mike Johnson.
0:45.2	The measures a stopgap bill with split deadlines that keep some government agencies open
0:51.0	until January and others open until February at current spending levels.
0:57.8	Now while the Speaker's approach was certainly novel, it was very much like the legislation passed by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy
1:06.0	in one important way.
1:08.2	It passed with more support from Democrats than from Republicans, which was the very sin that was the catalyst for McCarthy's
1:16.7	Auster speaker. In fact, more than 90 House Republicans voted against the measure upset that it didn't include any
1:23.8	spending cuts. Confused? Me too. So we're very lucky to have the perfect person to
1:29.8	help us make sense of it all. Jackie Kucinich is the Washington Bureau Chief for the
1:34.4	Boston Globe. Welcome to the show Jackie. Thanks for having me. I will try to live up to
1:39.7	that very kind introduction. Well Jackie maybe you can help explain to us what just
1:47.4	happened. How did we get to this point with this staggered deadline thing and
1:52.4	how is that going to work?
1:54.9	So we got to this point because I mean the Republicans couldn't decide on a path forward so they had to rope in the Democrats to get
	...

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