The shutdown is over - but the fighting isn’t

Left, Right & Center

KCRW

352865, News

4.2 • 4.8K Ratings

🗓️ 14 November 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

President Trump put his signature on a bill that will fund the government through the end of January. The bill brought an end to a 43-day shutdown of the federal government. A group of eight Democratic senators negotiated with Senate Majority leader John Thune to get concessions for furloughed and laid off government workers, and the funding of several federal agencies. The deal did not include the extensions for healthcare subsidies that had become a key messaging point for Democrats throughout the shutdown. Will working out a deal without a big win hurt the political leverage the party seemed to be building? What will it mean for the position of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer?

Next, Congress turns back to the Epstein files, with new emails emerging that appeared damning for President Trump.

The president signed off on several pardons this week. Among those receiving the pardons were Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows and other members of the president’s inner circle who faced scrutiny for their roles in undermining the 2020 election. None of the 70 individuals pardoned were facing federal charges. So what was the point? Does the pardon process need a facelift?

The Supreme Court rejected the appeal of a Kentucky county clerk who wanted them to reconsider the landmark same-sex marriage case Obergefell v. Hodges. Concerns on the left about the case’s standing were high after the court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. KCRW discusses why Obergefell may not be overturned anytime soon, and answers a question from a listener looking for insight from last week’s election margins.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Being an American right now is a wild ride. The headlines come fast, but what do they actually
0:05.3	mean for people's lives? I'm Alex Wagner, and on my new crooked media podcast, Runaway Country,
0:11.5	I'm talking to people across the nation to uncover how political chaos is shaping their everyday
0:16.6	realities. Join me in some of the smartest thinkers in politics to ask how we take back the
0:22.5	reins of a runaway nation. Listen to Runaway Country with Alex Wagner every Thursday, wherever
0:28.0	you get our podcasts or watch full episodes on YouTube.
0:34.4	Hey everybody. I'm David Green and welcome to left, right and center where we are always open for business, unlike the U.S. government. But, hey, they're back open now.
0:43.6	I just want to tell you, the country has never been in better shape. We went through this short-term disaster with the Democrats because they thought it would be good politically. And it's an honor now to sign this
0:56.2	incredible bill and get our country working again. And just like that, President Trump announced
1:02.9	that the longest federal shutdown in U.S. history, 43 days had come to an end. And I want to
1:08.4	talk about some of the factors that contributed to this mounting
1:12.6	pressure on lawmakers to get some kind of deal done. Furloughed and unpaid federal workers,
1:18.4	including TSA and air traffic controllers, were leading to flight delays, flight cancellations,
1:24.2	there was the withholding of SNAP benefits and what that has meant for a lot of low-income Americans. And in the end, it was a group of eight moderate Democratic senators who voted to end this shutdown after more than 40 days. Working with Republican leaders, they came to terms on a continuing resolution that would restore government funding at current levels for three months and through a
1:45.7	series of minibus bills, the Agriculture Department, which runs SNAP benefits and also the
1:50.7	Department of Veterans Affairs will remain fully funded for a year. The resolution will fund the
1:55.6	government as a whole through the end of January, which means, yes, we could be going through all
2:00.6	of this again
2:01.2	sooner than we think just out of the holidays.
2:04.3	This deal did not include an extension on health care subsidies under the Affordable Care Act,
2:10.3	which had been central to Democrats' argument for this shutdown.
2:14.4	The deal does include a promise from Senate Republicans to vote on that extension
	...

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