Stay tuned after the show for a message from United Health Group.

Good Friday morning. I'm Anna Palmer and welcome to your Politico Playbook Audio Briefing.

And I'm Jake Sherman. Just a quick note, the Playbook Audio Briefing will be on hiatus for the last two weeks of December.

So this will be Anna and my last recording. Thanks for listening and coming along for the journey.

Okay, let's get to it. Here's how your American government is ending the year and the Trump presidency.

Government runs out a spending authority this evening at midnight.

Typically, the government doesn't shut down officially if there's a spending bill on the horizon.

Divided government began in 2019 with the shutdown and it may end with Congress unwilling

or unable to reopen.

Congressional leaders are preparing the second largest federal rescue package in our nation's history,

and no one has seen it just days before it'll get a vote.

All of the power is centralized among four people and their aides, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell,

Chuck Schumer, and Kevin McCarthy.

President Donald Trump has continued his mastery of Congress by nearly blowing up the talks

by demanding large stimulus checks at the last moment. This is per Jeff Stein, the master of the

direct check at the Washington Post. All the meanwhile senators are walking around clueless,

with no idea what to expect or when to expect it. They are killing time by voting on more executive branch nominations

with 33 days left in the Trump presidency.

On Thursday, they plopped someone on the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

McConnell has actually run out of judges.

Our government and its technology infrastructure are under siege by Russia. Trump has said nothing.

The president is still falsely suggesting he won the election. Fifty lawmakers have contracted

...