If you ask Republican leadership about who is in charge of making the decisions during the government shutdown, they are awfully definitive.

Most of the responsibility falls to Russ vote. He's the director of the Office of Management and Budget.

I'd be thinking long and hard about shutting down the government and handing the keys to the OMB and to Russ vote.

That's right. Trump's director of the OMB and to Russ vote. That's right.

Trump's director of the OMB, a key architect of Project 2025, Russell Vote, has become

the face of this shutdown.

And so far, he seems pretty intent on making it as painful as possible.

I mean, yesterday, vote reportedly told House Republicans he was going to start directing

agencies to lay off federal workers under the guise of the government shutdown.

And I say under the guise of the government shutdown, because that is not how shutdowns work.

I mean, it's already painful enough that hundreds of thousands of federal workers are temporarily

furloughed, which often

typically happens during shutdowns, and others are forced to work without pay until the government

reopens. But no one has to be laid off. That part is a choice. In fact, federal employment

lawyers and mass layoffs during a shutdown would, quote, almost certainly be illegal. But of course, rest of vote is reportedly

trying to do them anyway. And at the same time, he's also using the shutdown as a pretext to cut

funding for blue states. I mean, he's announced that he's canceling nearly $8 billion worth of

federal funding for climate-focused projects in these 16 states. You can see them all on your screen.

Almost all of them, not all, but almost all of them are bright blue states. And as Senate Democrats

immediately pointed out, unilaterally cutting spending already appropriated by Congress would be

illegal. We know this because they've been trying to do this and been doing it since Trump got into office.

But that appears to be the plan here. Republicans are hiding behind Russ vote while he tries to use

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