Everything You Need To Know About The Latest Government Shutdown

Federalist Radio Hour

Radio America

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.5 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 October 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

On this episode of The Federalist Radio Hour, Veronique de Rugy, the George Gibbs chair in political economy and senior research fellow at George Mason University's Mercatus Center, joins Federalist Senior Elections Correspondent Matt Kittle to explain the conditions that led to the current government shutdown, analyze whether Congress will ever rein in the national debt, and discuss what elected officials need to do to resolve the latest spending disagreement.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	And we are back with another edition of the Federalist Radio Hour.
0:21.4	I'm Matt Kittle's senior elections correspondent at The Federalist and your experience
0:26.2	Sherpa on today's quest for knowledge.
0:29.3	As always, you can email the show at Radio at the Federalist.com.
0:34.0	Follow us on X at FDRLST.
0:36.8	Make sure to subscribe wherever you download your podcast and, of course, to the premium version of our website as well.
0:44.1	Our guest today is Veronique de Ruggi, George Gibbs Chair in Political Economy and Senior Research Fellow with the Mercatus Center.
0:53.9	Our topic today, yes, the shutdown,
0:58.0	staredown is on. Shutdown politics and the ultimate loser. In this latest dysfunctional
1:05.6	government saga, the taxpayer, of course, always the taxpayer.
1:14.8	Varyneek, thank you so much for joining us on this edition of the Federalist Radio Hour.
1:16.6	Thank you for having me.
1:17.4	Absolutely.
1:32.4	As we talk this afternoon, the government is still shut down in, what, day number two of the usual round of madness, that's subject to change at any time.
1:38.5	And so therefore, I really want to talk about the mechanics behind all of this.
1:42.8	What these two sides seem to be fighting for.
1:47.4	What is on the line, ultimately, for Americans and for the American taxpayer specifically. But let us begin with, how did we get here?
1:53.3	It's a good question. I think we got here many years ago, I think, when Congress lost the muscle fairly quickly, actually,
2:05.3	to pass the budget and appropriation bills on time, do their job, basically.
2:16.9	They just barely, in the last 50 years that the budget rules were passed, they've only
2:25.5	passed the budget four times following the regular order.
2:29.4	In 50 years, that is ridiculously amazing.
	...

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