Shutdown Theater & Missed Opportunities: A Rant on D.C. Dysfunction

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When Washington shuts down, the political drama kicks into overdrive — but real people still need paychecks and food assistance. In this fiery commentary, we dig into the air-traffic-controller funding mess, SNAP debates, and why both parties keep missing chances to fix broken systems. From Truth Social filibuster threats to judges praising emergency action, it's another example of Washington choosing theatrics over solutions.
Why can’t airlines front temporary pay for controllers and get reimbursed? Why not use crises to reform waste instead of rubber-stamping old programs? Meanwhile, Democrats seize windows for policy wins and Republicans… well, they seem allergic to winning plays. The shutdown continues, spending never stops, and no one in D.C. appears ready to face real fiscal reform.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Shut down, shit it again inside anyway. Yeah, it's funny.
Trump put out a truth social post talking now alluding
to maybe blowing up the filibuster. Oh my god, everyone's
getting the vapors on that one. You're watching various different

(00:36):
publication New York Times, Wall Street Journal, same old thing,
you know, the woe is me story out there. Oh,
how terrible this is, how awful this is. Now I
got to go through this because again, don't doubt me.
I was just wearing shirts here. I should just say,
don't doubt me. We're gonna get nothing out of this,

(00:57):
and it's it. Truly is a shame to start off
talking about the air traffic controller situation. Here, air DearS
store air traffic controllers who missed their paychecks for the
first time. Ah. Yes, they're asking the public for donations.
Controllers passed out leaflets at twenty airports to also ask

(01:18):
people to call their congressional representatives and urge them to
re open the goumit. I got a quick question here.
You know, I'm raising my hand here like I'm sitting here.
I want to ask a question to all the airlines
or all the politicians out there. The money You're eventually

(01:40):
going to reopen the government, and the money is going
to be there, and you're gonna make everyone whole when
it comes to paychecks, because you always do. Why can't
the airlines front the paychecks for the aircraft air traffic
controllers and you just pay them back later? Problem solved?
Everything about that? It makes perfect sense, right right? If

(02:03):
you Trump calls up, Delta calls up you and not listen.
You know what, you guys take care of this for now.
As soon as the government reopens, will pay it back.
Is that that difficult to do? Maybe they don't really
want to solve the problem. I don't know. I don't know,
could be call me crazy. Seems like a pretty easy

(02:25):
fix right there, but maybe maybe I'm missing something. I'm
asking a question here from the Peter Gallery, Mark House
has got a question. Why can't why can't the air
traffic controllers be paid and then the government get paid
back later? When they open up. Problem solved. All right,
let's take that. We'll put that aside. Judge rules. Judge

(02:48):
rules that you have to you have to pay food stamps,
have to pay food stamps, and oh and you never
get this very liberal Rhode Island judge praise Donald Trump's
quick and definitive response to the Friday order facilitating the
timely funding of the SNAP payments. The Court greatly appreciates

(03:14):
the President's quick and definitive response. Hmmm hmm. Okay, Trump's
you know, asked them to where am I gonna get
the money from? You're gonna make me take it from this? Uh,
this fund that's there in case of an emergency. Okay,

(03:34):
this contingency fund. There's all at five and a quarter
billion available at that. But I think you need eight
point five billion for the entire month of November. So
you got to find out where you're gonna get the
money from. Uh. The judges order requires the use of
all available contingency funds, you know. Trump, Trump wrote on

(03:56):
truth Social says, I don't want Americans to go hungry.
I asked the court to clarify how we can legally
fund SNAP as soon as possible. If we are given
the appropriate legal direction by the court, it will be
my honor, he said, all caps to provide the funding. Again,
very disappointing, my opinion, very disappointing. Here was an opportunity

(04:18):
again where you could have fixed a problem the right way.
You could have fixed a problem. You could have said,
you know, okay, and you've even done here, Okay, we
are we're going to use the contingency funds, but we're
no longer going to allow any any snack, food, any soda.

(04:42):
We could be taking a look at the amount of
people that are able bodied, able bodied without kids that
are getting foodsams. Thirty six percent, thirty six percent of
the recipients of food SAMs don't have children. It's like
twenty something percent have nothing, no income whatsoever over the

(05:05):
course of the year. I don't know. It might be
something you can look at, maybe clean this thing up
to some degree, a step in the right direction. Right
should you do that? There is crisis situation where you
can take advantage of this. Let me give you an
example of how democrats operate in their situations. There's a

(05:28):
great piece by Alissa Finley today. Again this is part
of the shutdown stuff too because of the Obamacare enhanced
subsidies for health insurance. And man, oh man, some of
these plans. I mean you're talking thirty five forty fifty
thousand dollars. Now for some people, that's just how much

(05:49):
it is. That's Obamacare. I mean, the whole thing should
be blown up, but it's not. It's not. And again,
I wouldn't be surprised. I wouldn't be surprised if Republican's
cave on this. This is going back in time, Ram
Emanuel mayor Ram Emmanuel Chicago scrambling to close a three

(06:11):
hundred and sixty nine million dollar deficit. This is back
in twenty thirteen. Now Obamacare. Wooh, this is good idea.
We could use Obamacare to shave retiree health coverage. Now,
the city expected to spend one hundred and ninety four
million dollars that year subsidizing health insurance for its retirees,

(06:34):
many of whom were too young to qualify for Medicare.
Such costs were projected to increase to five hundred and
forty million by twenty twenty three, at the same time
as pension payments were going through the roof. Now, the
courts in Illinois and other states have held that public

(06:55):
employee pensions are legally protected. Governments have moral latitude to
make changes to medical benefits. So Ram and Manuel dumped
his city's retirees onto the Obamacare exchanges. Where Hey, the
entire country's going to have to start footing the bill.
Federal subsidies after reduce can reduce those premium payments. Wila,

(07:19):
Chicago's two point one billion dollar unfunded retiree healthcare liability boof,
it's gone. So yeah, we the taxpayers from all over
the country have to pick up the tab for Chicago's
retirees in their fifties and early sixties before they get Medicare.
That sounds fair, right, Chicago not alone. Detroit, Stockton, California.

(07:46):
San Bernardino, California also save billions by shifting pre Medicare
retirees to Obamacare when they filed for Chapter nine bankruptcy
in the twenty tens that minimize cuts workers' compensation pension
Detroit one hundred and seventy million dollars annual retiree healthcare
bill made up nearly twenty percent of its general fun budget,

(08:08):
one of these citi's biggest costs. That's you know that's
a savvy move by Ram Emmanuel and some of these
others putting it on the rest of the country. Yeah,
they got handed to the Democrats. You know, they take
advantage of these opportunities when they come to pass. Republicans. Yeahah,

(08:36):
and I give you we could be totally dealing with Obamacare.
Blow this whole thing. It's right before everyone's eyes right now,
front and center. We all see the costs. But again,
I want to remind everybody in the same sense, the
same sense that we could be piece of cake, no soda,
no Twinkies, no ho hose, no garbage food on snap.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
But he has come.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
Panies write very nice checks just as much as insurance
companies do. So there we have it, with our shutdown,
shut down agains. I don't election day tomorrow. I don't
know what's going to happen. Some are saying after that
they're going to come to some sort of meeting of

(09:20):
the mind. All I know is that, in my opinion,
Republicans have failed once again in doing anything, doing anything.
All we're going to get eventually is more Biden spending.
That's what it is. It's just continuing. I mean, Donald

(09:43):
Trump's been president, been president on not a year. It's
going to be year January twentieth, elected, you know, a
year ago, and we are still operating under Biden's spending
is what it is. Watchdog on Wall Street dot com