The politics of a government shutdown

Left, Right & Center

KCRW

352865, News

4.2 • 4.8K Ratings

🗓️ 3 October 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

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Summary

The federal government shut down this week, leaving thousands of federal employees furloughed. Families who depend on WIC and SNAP could also be at risk if the shutdown prolongs. Since President Trump took office, thousands of federal employees have faced layoffs or resigned themselves. Conversations around a government shutdown brewed in March, but the final straw for Democrats may have been in August. That was when Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said the House of Representatives would withhold $4 billion previously allocated for foreign aid. Trump blames Democrats for the shutdown. Which party will get their desired outcome here?

Ezra Klein, a New York Times opinion writer, said that a shutdown may be exactly what Democrats need to regain power of the legislative branch. But could it jeopardize the party’s political future?

Also this week, President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gathered global military leaders in Quantico, Virginia, sharing their visions for the newly-named Department of War. This comes after 200 National Guard troops were sent to Portland, Oregon because Trump said the city looked like “World War II.” How do active and retired military members feel about orders to enforce the law in American cities?

Transcript

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0:00.0	There's a lot going on right now.
0:02.9	Mounting economic inequality, threats to democracy, environmental disaster, the sour stench of chaos in the air.
0:11.2	I'm Brooke Gladstone, host of WNYC's On the Media.
0:15.0	Want to understand the reasons and the meanings of the narratives that led us here and maybe how to head them off at
0:22.3	the pass, that's on the media's specialty. Take a listen wherever you get your podcasts.
0:31.6	Welcome to left, right and center, everybody. I'm David Green. Well, the federal government
0:36.2	is currently shut down.
0:38.5	Here is President Trump just before that happened.
0:41.4	A lot of good can come down from shutdowns.
0:43.8	We can get rid of a lot of things that we didn't want, and they'd be Democrat things.
0:48.0	Reporters asked Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer about those threats from the president.
0:53.1	Here was Schumer's reply.
0:54.0	The bottom line is he's doing it anyway. They've already cut 300,000 people. Whether there's a
0:59.0	shutdown or not, it'll be up to Trump whether he's going to let Musk formally do these cuts,
1:08.0	do these layoffs. He's doing it anyway.
1:14.6	Schumer seems to be saying that President Trump will attack Democratic priorities and do damage anyway, so why not dig in?
1:17.8	But this moment certainly comes with enormous political risk for Democrats, and we'll
1:22.3	talk about that a lot today.
1:23.5	Just a reminder first of how we ended up here at this moment, congressional Democrats were
1:28.5	activated, one might say, after Russell Vaught, White House budget director and also a key player
1:33.6	in Trump 2.0 announced that the White House would withhold $5 billion that had already been
1:38.3	allocated for foreign aid. Congressional Democrats, joined by a few Republicans, saw that as a blatant
	...

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