October 29, 2025 • 19 mins
Leslie is joined by Dr. Robert Shapiro, Chairman of Sonecon, an economic advisory firm, and a Senior Fellow of the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.
The two discuss his latest blog, "The Government Shutdown Is the First Skirmish in the Battle Over Trump’s 2026 Budget."
(Link: https://www.sonecon.com/the-government-shutdown-is-the-first-skirmish-in-the-battle-over-trumps-2026-budget/)
In it, Dr. Shapiro argues that the current federal government shutdown marks the opening move in a much larger struggle over the fiscal direction of the federal government under Donald Trump’s 2026 budget proposal. It contends that what appears to be a short-term fight over spending bills is in fact a strategic effort to reshape federal priorities—cutting large swaths of domestic programs while boosting defense, border security and deregulation. The shutdown is portrayed as both a bargaining tactic to force concessions from Congress and a signalling device to markets and stakeholders about how aggressively the administration intends to pursue its agenda. The blog warns that the deeper economic and institutional damage will come once the shutdown ends and the budget battle truly begins, with Congress and the administration locked in a clash over the size, scope and role of the federal government.
Dr. Shapiro's website is Sonecon.com and his handle on X is @RobShapiro.
(Image Credit: Shealah Craighead)
The two discuss his latest blog, "The Government Shutdown Is the First Skirmish in the Battle Over Trump’s 2026 Budget."
(Link: https://www.sonecon.com/the-government-shutdown-is-the-first-skirmish-in-the-battle-over-trumps-2026-budget/)
In it, Dr. Shapiro argues that the current federal government shutdown marks the opening move in a much larger struggle over the fiscal direction of the federal government under Donald Trump’s 2026 budget proposal. It contends that what appears to be a short-term fight over spending bills is in fact a strategic effort to reshape federal priorities—cutting large swaths of domestic programs while boosting defense, border security and deregulation. The shutdown is portrayed as both a bargaining tactic to force concessions from Congress and a signalling device to markets and stakeholders about how aggressively the administration intends to pursue its agenda. The blog warns that the deeper economic and institutional damage will come once the shutdown ends and the budget battle truly begins, with Congress and the administration locked in a clash over the size, scope and role of the federal government.
Dr. Shapiro's website is Sonecon.com and his handle on X is @RobShapiro.
(Image Credit: Shealah Craighead)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Leslie Marshall Show, the only true democracy and Talk
radio of four and by you the people, live nationwide
and streaming live at Leslie Marshallshow dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
And we are here. I do it. I'm Leslie Marshall.
Welcome to Welcome back on the True Democracy in Talk.
Doctor Robert Shapiro, chairman of Sonacon, is our guest. He's
been on the show before. He is an economic advisor
and he has an economic advisory firm. That's what Sonacon is.
He's a Senior Fellow at the McDonough's School of Business
at Georgetown University in DC. He brings broad knowledge and
(00:35):
experience in economics and politics based on his government service
decades of conducting analysis and providing advice to US presidents, senators, representatives, governors,
as well as foreign leaders and senior executives at numerous
Fortune one hundred companies. His views are respected not only
in the United States but worldwide. He's helped develop numerous
(00:56):
policies that affect investment, taxation, regulation, trade, and government spending
here and abroad. His website is snocon dot com. His
handle on x is at Rob Shapiro Rob sha PI
R Doctor Shapiro thank you for joining us. Welcome back.
Always good to have you with us. You write some
(01:17):
great articles, and for the Washington Monthly, you wrote the
government shutdown is the first skirmish in the battle over
Trump's twenty twenty six budget. So look, right now, we
are seeing a lot of fear mongering, especially from Republicans,
blaming Democrats, and I think it's hard. Polls would show
(01:40):
that I'm in the right here and that the majority
of Americans agree with me. If you have control of
the House, you have control of the Senate, and you
have control of the White House. Saying it's the Democrat's
fault doesn't fly. Because you're in control, you have the power.
And then when people on the right go, yeah, but
we need some Democrat votes, well, you've had some Democrat
votes on some of the these issues. And if you
(02:02):
are a true leader, because we have seen an administration's
like from Clinton administration you worked in and others where
you have a Republican or a Democrat House speaker, sit down,
not go away for weeks. Sit down, get in a room,
hammer out details, negotiate and come to a decision that's
in the best of the people, the American people, the
(02:23):
constituents of everybody sitting and fighting in that room. So
right now we have a crisis, really crisis coming up
in November first snap especially right, I mean the you know,
the neediest of our nation. Right, So they're economic cost
and you're going to talk about that, but there are
human cost to this as as well. And you know,
(02:45):
I know people think, you know, there are some people
out there on the right that think all federal workers
are you know, terrible, but they're American. You know, they're Americans,
just American citizens just working hard to provide for their
families and jobs that you know they were trained to do.
Seven hundred and fifty thousand federal workers furloughed, six hundred
and fifty thousand working without pay. You wonder why they
(03:07):
don't show up here in La at Lax. The other
day it was almost like, you know, nobody came to
work and another three hundred thousand fired. That doesn't sound
to me like a robust growing I want to brag
about this coming up to midterms in a little more
than a year, economy am I right.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yes, you are right. The fact is, you know, we've
had shutdowns now for thirty five years, and they really
started under President Clint and every one of them has
been resolved through negotiation and mutual concessions. The Democrats have said,
(03:53):
this is what we want some concession on, and we'll
talk about it with you, and that's vomitcade of subsidies,
and the administration has refused to do it, and consequently
the shutdown continues. And for some gauge of the impact
(04:18):
on the one point four million workers who've been furloughed
or working.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Without pay, the Federal Reserve last year issued a study
which showed that thirty seven percent of the country could
not absorb or deal with a four hundred dollars unexpected
expense without borrowing or selling some asset, having a garage sale, or.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Couldn't deal with it in either way. Well, the average
weekly salary of a federal worker is sixteen hundred sixty dollars,
not four hundred. They've been out three weeks. That comes
to about five thousand dollars already. So what we know
(05:15):
is that virtually all federal workers, the best majority, are
now in a position where they have to borrow enormous
amounts and they have to cut their spending and um
(05:38):
and in either case it slows the economy. If they're
borrowing it, it'll slow the economy later. But by cutting
their spending, it's not just that they are cutting the
revenues for the companies that produce, deliver, and sell, and
(06:00):
that's three sets of corporations, thousands of companies that supply
the goods and services that Federal that that the the
one point four million households are normally buying. But in addition,
(06:20):
the companies that produce, transport, and deliver the inputs to
the to produce those goods and services, so it ripples
across the economy. The second group affected, and you've just
(06:42):
named one of the primary ones, that is peak the
forty million Americans who receive food assistance.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Those properly, doctor Schag, Let me just jump in for
a secon because you know these numbers. You know, you're
a numbers cruncher. There is there is a belief that
out there, and you can see it from Magaland especially
that people who need food assistants don't work, people who
need food assistants are lazy, people that need food assistants
(07:16):
are all minorities. And none of that is true because
there are a number of people who work remember when Walmart,
you know, people had of food drive. They worked at
Walmart and had a food drive in front of a
Walmart that they worked at to you know, be able
to pay what Walmart's salary for them didn't cover, hours
for them didn't cover. There are people that work on Snap.
(07:36):
The majority of people on Snap are white, and we
forget how many of these millions are children, yes, or
people who are handicapped, or veterans or elderly.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
And they are children or older people who many of
whom are also MAGA followers.
Speaker 5 (07:57):
Yes, yes, you know it's and the fact is that
most people receiving assistants are I this food assistance are
either working, they're the working poor in America, or they're disabled.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Or two elderly to work. So the work requirement, the
talk about that is just to cover. And the other
thing to remember about this particular part of it is
that this was voluntary by the Trump administration. At the
(08:36):
Department of Agriculture has an emergency fund for food assistance
and which would have covered fifty percent of the benefits.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
And if you combine that with people with charity, right,
you know, just to you know, doctor, no joke. When
I drive down the street, all the way down the street.
If I want to go to certain stores like the
pet store, right, I want to go to Best Buy
whatever on my way there. There are still lines for
(09:12):
food for people from the fires which took place January
seventh here in California. People have no idea when you
lose income, you know how rippling and effect that has.
You cite in your wonderful piece here the Federal Reserve
data that shows thirty seven percent of households can't cover
(09:32):
a four hundred dollars emergency, and you talk about how
vulnerable workers are, especially when they lose roughly one thousand,
six hundred and sixty to a week in income. We're
going to take a break when we could back. We're
going to talk more about these families that are forced
to cut spending, to borrow and to deepen that economic
(09:53):
drag and that is very stressful and that is not healthy.
We'll be back with doctor Roberts sparing you right after this.
We are back. We are me Leslie Marshall, Hey there,
good afternoon, and doctor Robert Shapiro, chairman of Soniccon. He
is also a senior Fellow of the McDonough's School of
(10:15):
Business at Georgetown University. We are talking about his great peace,
the government shut down. For the Washington Monthly, the government
shutdown is the first skirmish in the battle over Trump's
twenty twenty six budget. We were talking about the immediate crisis,
the economic and human cost of the shutdown before we
get to the political undercard. You write about in the
second part of your piece, anything you want to say
(10:37):
about the four hundred dollars emergency that thirty seven percent
of households can't cover doctor or the you know how
how workers are losing roughly oney six hundred and sixty
two dollars a week. That's a lot for almost anybody
unless you are like one or top two percent income.
Even then, you know, you feel that you know, so
anything you want to say in that before we talk
(10:58):
about the political undercard here.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Well, just that it creates ripple effects across the economy.
And it's not just the loss of the workers lost
to the workers. It's suspending programs that both help people,
like the food assistance program which reduces their spending, but
(11:24):
also you know the national parks for example, you know
the national parks are closed, most of them, and there
are all these companies and workers who supply the goods
and services needed to operate the national parks. All of that,
all of their revenues are also being suppressed, and that
(11:47):
has ripple effects.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
That absolutely. Something else that has ripple effects is what's
coming for healthcare. God, I've already seen it my but
my electric bill. It's insane. They just no somebody the
electric He sent me to electropill with a nine hundred
dollars edition. I'm like, how can I seriously and and
my husband and I work. I can't even imagine you
(12:10):
know somebody who's you know, struggling like you know, a retirement,
you know, on their Social Security or something like that.
But I want to I want to talk about the
Continuing Resolution dispute. Yeah, we're reversing the GOP cuts to
Obamacare subsidies, because that seems to be what Republicans say
this is all about. And you say, no, that's not true.
This is minor compared to the overhaul and in funding
(12:35):
that Republicans really are are are looking to cut.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Well, it's it's just the opening act. It's it's what
boxing fans call the undercard, the first fight before the
big fight. After all the Continuing Resolution is not the budget.
It says what we've been spending, we're going to continue
to spend. And the Democrats have said, we are going
(12:58):
to focus this fight on the Obamacare subsidies. But once
there is some resolution to this continuing resolution fight, then
they turn to the actual budget. And the actual budget
is filled with political third rails. The tariffs. They're going
(13:24):
to be votes on the tariffs because the tariffs produce
so much revenue. There are going to be votes on
the enormous cuts to medicate. They're going to be.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Vote Wait, doctor, let me interrupt. I want to go
back to people listening. Understand when you say tariffs produce revenue,
the tariffs being paid by the consumers produce the revenue.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Right, Yes, they produce the revenue by.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
The other country, because that's what people think. People think
and Trump talks about how brilliant he is in Republicans,
I'll say how brilliant he is, And I guess it
is brilliant when you're brainwashing a bunch of peace people
that we're screwing you to make us look better, because
at the end of the day, the bottom line looks better,
but you paid for that bottom line. Number. You know,
you're getting what you voted for, but you're paying for
what you voted for. Anyway, go ahead. We're talking about
(14:12):
not just terrorists, but expanding ice deportations.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Going And you're absolutely right, terrorists are a form of
national sales tax on the goods that are subject to
the tariffs. But there's the enormous cuts in medicaid, they're
the enormous cuts in food assistance beyond this particular month
(14:35):
long continuing resolution, And they're going.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
To take the money from people eating and from us
paying more, and from people's necessity lifeline, right, you know,
not just healthcare Medicaid, and then medical research cuts to
medical research that you write about as well. And they're
going to put this in military deployments and ice deportations.
(15:01):
I mean, it's like all of our money is going
to go to get rid of millions of people, the
overwhelming majority of which have not committed a crime ever,
have been here longer than many of us, and are
are an integral part of our economy. Are two points
on that. Two points on that, because you are the
numbers guy, you're the economic guy. How badly if they
(15:21):
actually deport all of the undocumented workers are a huge chunk,
you know, a majority. Whatever. How bad is that going
to hurt our economy because a lot of these people
do jobs that nobody else wants to do.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
It would be catastrophic. It's a you know this is.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
No no, wait a minute, doctor, I agree. So why
on earth someone would ask with somebody in their right mind,
because there are Republicans who are economic wonker people, right,
they're they're economically they're numbers crunchers. Actually, they know it's
going to be economically catastrophic. So why are they on
(15:58):
board with this? Do they just think they'll be dead
by the time it's catastrophic.
Speaker 5 (16:02):
No.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
The kind of big answer is that the Republican Party
does not respond anymore like a normal political party. It
responds like a party controlled by a leader. And you
know this is not normal. Just like the White House
(16:27):
and the Republicans in Congress so far refuse to negotiate
in order to come to some compromise on the Continuing Resolution,
that's because the White House. That's because President Trump has
decided that this is what he wants to do.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
This is political, this is political suicide. Especially GOP lawmakers
risk alienating their own voters and especially for those who
are in vulnerable districts purple districts. Correct.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Absolutely, This is why of political insiders are beginning to
talk about a blue wave election next year, because as.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
A Democrat, I don't see a problem with that.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
But but that's.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
What happens, right, I mean, that's our history.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Right.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
They elect the red inn and they get pissed at
the red, and then they elect the blue, then they
get pissed at the blue, you know. And the problem
is on both sides of the aisle, we keep re
electing incumbents who really aren't doing as much for their constituents.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
So the question, the political question is, if you've got,
once we get passed a continuing resolution, the continuing resolution,
if you've got all of these incredibly unpopular initiatives in
the Trump budget, will you be able to pass that budget?
Speaker 2 (17:55):
That's a good question, DUCTA. Shapiro, That's going to be
our cliffhanger, because we're going to have you back to
talk more about this. Doctor Shapiro's chairman of Soniccon. His
website soniccon dot com. Check out the Washington Monthly the
government shutdown where you can see it on sonacon dot com.
But the Washington Monthly. The government shutdown is the first
skirmish in the battle over Trump's twenty twenty six budget,
and also follow him on x He posted there as
(18:16):
well at Rob Shapiro, un Leslie Marshall our second guest
coming up right after this, and doctor Shapiro always I
learned something from you. The time always flies by two fasts.
We look forward to seeing you and hearing from you again.
Great piece, Thank.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
You, here's the pleasure.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Whoa a digital music player? Thanks mom, glad you like it.
We can finally toss out that old massive sterea.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Mom.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
You can't just throw out electronics. They need to be
recycled or donated. Recycled like aluminum cans. Yeah, you just
go to greenergadgets dot org and to your zip code
and it tells you where the nearest certified recycling center is.
I knew that, okay, mom.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Recycling electronics is as easy as buying them.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Log on to greenergadgets dot org to find electronics recycling
options near you.
The Leslie Marshall Show, the only true democracy and Talk
radio of four and by you the people, live nationwide
and streaming live at Leslie Marshallshow dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
And we are here. I do it. I'm Leslie Marshall.
Welcome to Welcome back on the True Democracy in Talk.
Doctor Robert Shapiro, chairman of Sonacon, is our guest. He's
been on the show before. He is an economic advisor
and he has an economic advisory firm. That's what Sonacon is.
He's a Senior Fellow at the McDonough's School of Business
at Georgetown University in DC. He brings broad knowledge and
(00:35):
experience in economics and politics based on his government service
decades of conducting analysis and providing advice to US presidents, senators, representatives, governors,
as well as foreign leaders and senior executives at numerous
Fortune one hundred companies. His views are respected not only
in the United States but worldwide. He's helped develop numerous
(00:56):
policies that affect investment, taxation, regulation, trade, and government spending
here and abroad. His website is snocon dot com. His
handle on x is at Rob Shapiro Rob sha PI
R Doctor Shapiro thank you for joining us. Welcome back.
Always good to have you with us. You write some
(01:17):
great articles, and for the Washington Monthly, you wrote the
government shutdown is the first skirmish in the battle over
Trump's twenty twenty six budget. So look, right now, we
are seeing a lot of fear mongering, especially from Republicans,
blaming Democrats, and I think it's hard. Polls would show
(01:40):
that I'm in the right here and that the majority
of Americans agree with me. If you have control of
the House, you have control of the Senate, and you
have control of the White House. Saying it's the Democrat's
fault doesn't fly. Because you're in control, you have the power.
And then when people on the right go, yeah, but
we need some Democrat votes, well, you've had some Democrat
votes on some of the these issues. And if you
(02:02):
are a true leader, because we have seen an administration's
like from Clinton administration you worked in and others where
you have a Republican or a Democrat House speaker, sit down,
not go away for weeks. Sit down, get in a room,
hammer out details, negotiate and come to a decision that's
in the best of the people, the American people, the
(02:23):
constituents of everybody sitting and fighting in that room. So
right now we have a crisis, really crisis coming up
in November first snap especially right, I mean the you know,
the neediest of our nation. Right, So they're economic cost
and you're going to talk about that, but there are
human cost to this as as well. And you know,
(02:45):
I know people think, you know, there are some people
out there on the right that think all federal workers
are you know, terrible, but they're American. You know, they're Americans,
just American citizens just working hard to provide for their
families and jobs that you know they were trained to do.
Seven hundred and fifty thousand federal workers furloughed, six hundred
and fifty thousand working without pay. You wonder why they
(03:07):
don't show up here in La at Lax. The other
day it was almost like, you know, nobody came to
work and another three hundred thousand fired. That doesn't sound
to me like a robust growing I want to brag
about this coming up to midterms in a little more
than a year, economy am I right.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yes, you are right. The fact is, you know, we've
had shutdowns now for thirty five years, and they really
started under President Clint and every one of them has
been resolved through negotiation and mutual concessions. The Democrats have said,
(03:53):
this is what we want some concession on, and we'll
talk about it with you, and that's vomitcade of subsidies,
and the administration has refused to do it, and consequently
the shutdown continues. And for some gauge of the impact
(04:18):
on the one point four million workers who've been furloughed
or working.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Without pay, the Federal Reserve last year issued a study
which showed that thirty seven percent of the country could
not absorb or deal with a four hundred dollars unexpected
expense without borrowing or selling some asset, having a garage sale, or.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Couldn't deal with it in either way. Well, the average
weekly salary of a federal worker is sixteen hundred sixty dollars,
not four hundred. They've been out three weeks. That comes
to about five thousand dollars already. So what we know
(05:15):
is that virtually all federal workers, the best majority, are
now in a position where they have to borrow enormous
amounts and they have to cut their spending and um
(05:38):
and in either case it slows the economy. If they're
borrowing it, it'll slow the economy later. But by cutting
their spending, it's not just that they are cutting the
revenues for the companies that produce, deliver, and sell, and
(06:00):
that's three sets of corporations, thousands of companies that supply
the goods and services that Federal that that the the
one point four million households are normally buying. But in addition,
(06:20):
the companies that produce, transport, and deliver the inputs to
the to produce those goods and services, so it ripples
across the economy. The second group affected, and you've just
(06:42):
named one of the primary ones, that is peak the
forty million Americans who receive food assistance.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Those properly, doctor Schag, Let me just jump in for
a secon because you know these numbers. You know, you're
a numbers cruncher. There is there is a belief that
out there, and you can see it from Magaland especially
that people who need food assistants don't work, people who
need food assistants are lazy, people that need food assistants
(07:16):
are all minorities. And none of that is true because
there are a number of people who work remember when Walmart,
you know, people had of food drive. They worked at
Walmart and had a food drive in front of a
Walmart that they worked at to you know, be able
to pay what Walmart's salary for them didn't cover, hours
for them didn't cover. There are people that work on Snap.
(07:36):
The majority of people on Snap are white, and we
forget how many of these millions are children, yes, or
people who are handicapped, or veterans or elderly.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
And they are children or older people who many of
whom are also MAGA followers.
Speaker 5 (07:57):
Yes, yes, you know it's and the fact is that
most people receiving assistants are I this food assistance are
either working, they're the working poor in America, or they're disabled.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Or two elderly to work. So the work requirement, the
talk about that is just to cover. And the other
thing to remember about this particular part of it is
that this was voluntary by the Trump administration. At the
(08:36):
Department of Agriculture has an emergency fund for food assistance
and which would have covered fifty percent of the benefits.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
And if you combine that with people with charity, right,
you know, just to you know, doctor, no joke. When
I drive down the street, all the way down the street.
If I want to go to certain stores like the
pet store, right, I want to go to Best Buy
whatever on my way there. There are still lines for
(09:12):
food for people from the fires which took place January
seventh here in California. People have no idea when you
lose income, you know how rippling and effect that has.
You cite in your wonderful piece here the Federal Reserve
data that shows thirty seven percent of households can't cover
(09:32):
a four hundred dollars emergency, and you talk about how
vulnerable workers are, especially when they lose roughly one thousand,
six hundred and sixty to a week in income. We're
going to take a break when we could back. We're
going to talk more about these families that are forced
to cut spending, to borrow and to deepen that economic
(09:53):
drag and that is very stressful and that is not healthy.
We'll be back with doctor Roberts sparing you right after this.
We are back. We are me Leslie Marshall, Hey there,
good afternoon, and doctor Robert Shapiro, chairman of Soniccon. He
is also a senior Fellow of the McDonough's School of
(10:15):
Business at Georgetown University. We are talking about his great peace,
the government shut down. For the Washington Monthly, the government
shutdown is the first skirmish in the battle over Trump's
twenty twenty six budget. We were talking about the immediate crisis,
the economic and human cost of the shutdown before we
get to the political undercard. You write about in the
second part of your piece, anything you want to say
(10:37):
about the four hundred dollars emergency that thirty seven percent
of households can't cover doctor or the you know how
how workers are losing roughly oney six hundred and sixty
two dollars a week. That's a lot for almost anybody
unless you are like one or top two percent income.
Even then, you know, you feel that you know, so
anything you want to say in that before we talk
(10:58):
about the political undercard here.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Well, just that it creates ripple effects across the economy.
And it's not just the loss of the workers lost
to the workers. It's suspending programs that both help people,
like the food assistance program which reduces their spending, but
(11:24):
also you know the national parks for example, you know
the national parks are closed, most of them, and there
are all these companies and workers who supply the goods
and services needed to operate the national parks. All of that,
all of their revenues are also being suppressed, and that
(11:47):
has ripple effects.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
That absolutely. Something else that has ripple effects is what's
coming for healthcare. God, I've already seen it my but
my electric bill. It's insane. They just no somebody the
electric He sent me to electropill with a nine hundred
dollars edition. I'm like, how can I seriously and and
my husband and I work. I can't even imagine you
(12:10):
know somebody who's you know, struggling like you know, a retirement,
you know, on their Social Security or something like that.
But I want to I want to talk about the
Continuing Resolution dispute. Yeah, we're reversing the GOP cuts to
Obamacare subsidies, because that seems to be what Republicans say
this is all about. And you say, no, that's not true.
This is minor compared to the overhaul and in funding
(12:35):
that Republicans really are are are looking to cut.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Well, it's it's just the opening act. It's it's what
boxing fans call the undercard, the first fight before the
big fight. After all the Continuing Resolution is not the budget.
It says what we've been spending, we're going to continue
to spend. And the Democrats have said, we are going
(12:58):
to focus this fight on the Obamacare subsidies. But once
there is some resolution to this continuing resolution fight, then
they turn to the actual budget. And the actual budget
is filled with political third rails. The tariffs. They're going
(13:24):
to be votes on the tariffs because the tariffs produce
so much revenue. There are going to be votes on
the enormous cuts to medicate. They're going to be.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Vote Wait, doctor, let me interrupt. I want to go
back to people listening. Understand when you say tariffs produce revenue,
the tariffs being paid by the consumers produce the revenue.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Right, Yes, they produce the revenue by.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
The other country, because that's what people think. People think
and Trump talks about how brilliant he is in Republicans,
I'll say how brilliant he is, And I guess it
is brilliant when you're brainwashing a bunch of peace people
that we're screwing you to make us look better, because
at the end of the day, the bottom line looks better,
but you paid for that bottom line. Number. You know,
you're getting what you voted for, but you're paying for
what you voted for. Anyway, go ahead. We're talking about
(14:12):
not just terrorists, but expanding ice deportations.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Going And you're absolutely right, terrorists are a form of
national sales tax on the goods that are subject to
the tariffs. But there's the enormous cuts in medicaid, they're
the enormous cuts in food assistance beyond this particular month
(14:35):
long continuing resolution, And they're going.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
To take the money from people eating and from us
paying more, and from people's necessity lifeline, right, you know,
not just healthcare Medicaid, and then medical research cuts to
medical research that you write about as well. And they're
going to put this in military deployments and ice deportations.
(15:01):
I mean, it's like all of our money is going
to go to get rid of millions of people, the
overwhelming majority of which have not committed a crime ever,
have been here longer than many of us, and are
are an integral part of our economy. Are two points
on that. Two points on that, because you are the
numbers guy, you're the economic guy. How badly if they
(15:21):
actually deport all of the undocumented workers are a huge chunk,
you know, a majority. Whatever. How bad is that going
to hurt our economy because a lot of these people
do jobs that nobody else wants to do.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
It would be catastrophic. It's a you know this is.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
No no, wait a minute, doctor, I agree. So why
on earth someone would ask with somebody in their right mind,
because there are Republicans who are economic wonker people, right,
they're they're economically they're numbers crunchers. Actually, they know it's
going to be economically catastrophic. So why are they on
(15:58):
board with this? Do they just think they'll be dead
by the time it's catastrophic.
Speaker 5 (16:02):
No.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
The kind of big answer is that the Republican Party
does not respond anymore like a normal political party. It
responds like a party controlled by a leader. And you
know this is not normal. Just like the White House
(16:27):
and the Republicans in Congress so far refuse to negotiate
in order to come to some compromise on the Continuing Resolution,
that's because the White House. That's because President Trump has
decided that this is what he wants to do.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
This is political, this is political suicide. Especially GOP lawmakers
risk alienating their own voters and especially for those who
are in vulnerable districts purple districts. Correct.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Absolutely, This is why of political insiders are beginning to
talk about a blue wave election next year, because as.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
A Democrat, I don't see a problem with that.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
But but that's.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
What happens, right, I mean, that's our history.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Right.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
They elect the red inn and they get pissed at
the red, and then they elect the blue, then they
get pissed at the blue, you know. And the problem
is on both sides of the aisle, we keep re
electing incumbents who really aren't doing as much for their constituents.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
So the question, the political question is, if you've got,
once we get passed a continuing resolution, the continuing resolution,
if you've got all of these incredibly unpopular initiatives in
the Trump budget, will you be able to pass that budget?
Speaker 2 (17:55):
That's a good question, DUCTA. Shapiro, That's going to be
our cliffhanger, because we're going to have you back to
talk more about this. Doctor Shapiro's chairman of Soniccon. His
website soniccon dot com. Check out the Washington Monthly the
government shutdown where you can see it on sonacon dot com.
But the Washington Monthly. The government shutdown is the first
skirmish in the battle over Trump's twenty twenty six budget,
and also follow him on x He posted there as
(18:16):
well at Rob Shapiro, un Leslie Marshall our second guest
coming up right after this, and doctor Shapiro always I
learned something from you. The time always flies by two fasts.
We look forward to seeing you and hearing from you again.
Great piece, Thank.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
You, here's the pleasure.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Whoa a digital music player? Thanks mom, glad you like it.
We can finally toss out that old massive sterea.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Mom.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
You can't just throw out electronics. They need to be
recycled or donated. Recycled like aluminum cans. Yeah, you just
go to greenergadgets dot org and to your zip code
and it tells you where the nearest certified recycling center is.
I knew that, okay, mom.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Recycling electronics is as easy as buying them.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Log on to greenergadgets dot org to find electronics recycling
options near you.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.
The Brothers Ortiz
The Brothers Ortiz is the story of two brothers–both successful, but in very different ways. Gabe Ortiz becomes a third-highest ranking officer in all of Texas while his younger brother Larry climbs the ranks in Puro Tango Blast, a notorious Texas Prison gang. Gabe doesn’t know all the details of his brother’s nefarious dealings, and he’s made a point not to ask, to protect their relationship. But when Larry is murdered during a home invasion in a rented beach house, Gabe has no choice but to look into what happened that night. To solve Larry’s murder, Gabe, and the whole Ortiz family, must ask each other tough questions.