Hey, this is Emily from the University of Missouri where I am currently sitting in my dorm

procrastinating, studying for all of my finals I have this week by listening to the NPR

Politics Podcast. This podcast was recorded at 3.41 pm on Tuesday, December 11.

Things might have changed by the time you've listened, so please enjoy the show.

I hope she's a political science major because that's not procrastinating.

And also, hopefully we will give her at least one or two more podcasts this week so she will

continue to be able to procrastinate. Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast,

and I know that we say this a lot, but something wild happened in the Oval Office today,

when the top congressional Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer went to meet with President

Trump. It was 15 minutes of sparring in front of cameras that ended with Trump saying he would be

proud to shut the government down over funding his border wall. If we don't get what we want,

one way or the other, whether it's through you, through military, through anything you want to call,

I will shut down the government. Okay, I'm Tamer Keith, I cover the White House.

I'm Scott Detero, I cover Congress, and I'm Dominican Montenaro political editor.

First, Scott, how did we get here? What were they there to talk about? What were they trying to solve?

They were there to talk about the fact that government funding for a section, not the whole

government, but a key section of the government runs out a week from Friday. This was actually due

to expire last Friday, but they punted for two weeks because last week was eaten up on Capitol Hill

by the funerals for George H. W. Bush. So the key issue for this upcoming deadline is the same thing.

It's been the last two times. President Trump does not want yet another funding deadline to pass

without getting funding for the wall he wants to build on the US-Mexico border. Republicans

have controlled the House and sent it all along. He knows that it's going to get even harder to get

...