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10 Minute Drill
The end of Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi’s Greatest Legacy, and the fall of America’s oldest environmental group
00:15:57
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- [00:00]
A
The end of the longest government shutdown in history is near. We talk about how it got to this point, what the fallout is for Democrats, the Democrat civil war. We're also going to talk about the end of America's oldest environmental group. That and so much more today on 10 Minute Drill. Everybody get up. Get up. The story of America is the story of an adventure.
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B
I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. We are a nation under God, and I believe God intended for us to be free.
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A
For those of you who tuned in to our slightly technologically challenged Monday audio only lightning round episode, you know that on Sunday night, Senate Democrats, a handful of them, came together with Republicans to begin the process of ending the longest government shutdown in history. Here is Senate Majority Leader John Thune yesterday giving an update on that.
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B
The American people have suffered for long enough. Let's not pointlessly drag this bill out. Let's get it done, get it over to the House so that we can get this government open.
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A
Included in that deal to open the federal government is a continuing resolution to fund the government through January, a promise to hold a vote in December on a bill related to Obamacare, premium subsidies, and then a couple different appropriations bills to fund departments like the Department of Agriculture, military, things like that. Food stamps will be funded for another year. But the one thing that Democrats have touted as their biggest victory is the repeal of federal government layoffs that happened due to the shutdown. The reason that's not really a victory is the only reason those people were laid off was because of the shutdown. So this is a major egg on face moment for Senate Democrats. And we're gonna talk a little bit about how we got here. Now, after the last 40 days, there were a few things that I believe played the biggest role in driving the end of this shutdown. One of them came late last week when the Trump administration announced that America's top airports would be reducing the volume of flights that would come through them. The reason being air traffic controllers, working unpaid, were understaffed and unable to keep the skies safe. Now, a number of Democrats complained about that and said, this is again, President Trump playing politics. But they Democrats said in the beginning of this they would hold their shutdown out until planes fell from the sky. That became a very legitimate risk when air traffic controllers aren't getting paid. And a lot of them are either calling in sick, taking time off, or waiting until they're going to get paid again. So Democrats looked really terrible complaining about that. But they also were seeing news segments of Delays of absolute calamity at airports as people were waiting to try and get home to their families, things like that. I flew all on Saturday and I was very lucky to only have one small 45 minute delay. But so many others missed major family events, family appointments. And we're looking ahead to Thanksgiving, one of the highest traffic travel times of the year. So that was one thing that really put a lot of pressure on Democrats, but another thing that really pressured Democrats was the fact that they kept on saying the quiet part out loud about the politics behind this.
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C
We need to do this while we have the leverage.
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D
There will be, you know, families that are going to suffer, but it is one of the few leverage times we have. Democrats have this one little sliver right now when we've got some leverage here.
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A
So with those dynamics compounded by the continued issues with food stamps and the fact that Democrats shut down, had cut off food stamps, even if they tried to really twist into pretzels to say, actually that was President Trump's fault, eventually it just got to be too much and a group of Senate Democrats crossed over. So what's going to happen next? Over the next few days, the Senate will have a few procedural votes to try and advance this package of bills as quickly as possible. The soonest they're talking about House action would be Wednesday. I believe it will actually probably fall into Thursday or Friday. Doesn't necessarily mean there is a huge hiccup, but there are just procedural pieces that go along with this. And so I would say, best guess, the government could be open and running again probably by Thursday or Friday. One thing we talked about from the beginning of this shutdown was the why of it all. Why were Democrats shutting down the government? It's pretty clear a big part of this was the fact that when Chuck Schumer voted for this same government funding bill several months ago, he took a lot of heat from the Democrat base. And that's what started a lot of the conversation about AOC potentially running against him in 2028 for his Senate seat. What do you think's gonna happen now that he's led his party into this shutdown? Last Tuesday, AOC's handpicked cand for the New York mayoral race. Zoran Mondami won, which gave a lot of power and wind at the sails of AOC and Bernie Sanders. Now there's going to be even more pressure on Chuck Schumer, who was already in a pretty tough spot to begin with. Let's look at his approval ratings. This from Scott Rasmussen. Chuck Schumer is the best known and least liked congressional leader. He's viewed favorably by just 29%, unfavorably by 51%. And among Democrats, just 43% have a favorable opinion of him. It's notable that Chuck Schumer's approval ratings as a leader trend very closely to Democrats party approval rating because everyone is just frustrated with them. And we're gonna talk a lot about Schumer's strategic missteps here. But the biggest problem is the fact that he ginned up the base, fired them up about the fact that this was sort of an existential crisis for people's healthcare with no plan to actually deliver on any of it. Shutdowns have never helped the the side shutting down the government. Historically, that's just never been how it's worked. But Chuck Schumer nevertheless drove his party off this cliff, into this. And Democrats are not happy about it. You can see how tired I am. I've been here all weekend, I've been.
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B
Working, I'm outside the Capitol, it's dark and raining.
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A
And that seems all too appropriate for this moment.
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B
Tonight was not a good night as.
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A
Some Democratic senatorial quislings negotiate to reopen the government for.
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C
Well, there you have it. Democrats just caved and bent the knee to Donald Trump and the Republicans.
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D
We have Chuck Schumer, the cowardly lion, who we refer to as Chuckles, who again proved he is a terrible leader.
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B
Standing up to Donald Trump didn't work.
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C
And now they just caved and surrendered. I think Chuck Schumer, his days are over. He needs to go. He needs to be behind.
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A
Now when a Democrat loses the view like this, the oracles of left wing wine moms around the country, you know their days are numbered. But for good measure, let's check in with Edna Mode, the Lieutenant governor of Minnesota.
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D
It sucks and we deserve so much more.
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A
Sorry, that was not Edna mode. That was actually Peggy Flanagan, the Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota. But here's the real Edna Mode, because they are basically the same person. Edna mode. The tough thing for Chuck Schumer and Democrats is where are they gonna go with this? You have Democrats that are absolutely furious they didn't hold out. But hold out to what end? In that sizzle reel, you saw Angus King say, standing up to President Trump didn't work and it's because they didn't have a plan. There was no sort of policy win that was going to happen. Republicans weren't going to roll over and say we'll extend this terrible policy for another year without any Hearings, vote, discussion, because it's bad policy. It's $1.5 trillion and they have the White House, House and Senate. There's only so much you can get away with in demands. But Democrats have conditioned their base to believe that if they want it hard enough, if they tweet enough emotional videos for something, eventually they'll be able to overcome the rules and structures of these institutions of governing. It's called the Green Lantern theory. The Green Lantern theory of politics was first introduced by a Dartmouth political science professor who talked about President Obama. Like the Green la, the Green Lantern has a powerful ring that can accomplish anything in the world if they want it bad enough. The Green Lantern theory of politics suggests that a leader can do whatever they want if they use the right tactics, if they give the right speeches, and if they work hard enough for it. When in fact the federal government has checks and balances institutional structures that limit what anyone can do. And Democrats ran into that brick wall of reality here and Chuck Schumer was the one stuck holding the bag. So the greatest frustration from Democrats from left wing base, from everybody has been the Democrats marched into this shutdown claiming that they would not leave until they got the extension of these pandemic premium Obamacare subsidies. And in the end left with nothing but a promise of a Senate vote on this. But we need to talk a little bit about what's gonna happen next with us. But to highlight how we got to this point in the debate, I wanna bring back a floor exchange that happened over the weekend between Ohio Senator BER Moreno and Chuck Schumer.
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E
Because we have two sentences we would add to any proposal which would extend the ACA benefits for one year does.
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F
Still have no income caps. So people who make A million to $3 million, as we said, if he.
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E
Would have listened to my speech yesterday, we care about average working people. I yield the floor.
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F
So just to be clear, what you heard from the minority leader was the following. I just want to recap it for those of who might missed. He acknowledged that his plan would be to allow millionaires. Let me just say that clearly people making millions of dollars would receive Biden era Covid Obamacare subsidies.
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A
We have said from the beginning on 10 minute drill. The longer this shutdown goes on, the harder it gets to be for Democrats because people will learn about how absurd it is that they're demanding some of these things. And as Bernie Moreno talks about the subsidies that Democrats are demanding one are pandemic era from 2021, it is now 2025. But they still want pandemic emergency policies, but they also go to overwhelmingly wealthy people, including as we've talked about, people making $600,000 a year. As Bernie Moreno talked about, people making millions of dollars will get taxpayer funded subsidies which are paid for by the lowest income taxpayers in the country. This in many ways is the perfect encapsulation of Democrats in 2025 cosplaying as working class heroes while forcing the working class to pay for subsidies for people making millions of dollars a year. Obamacare has been an absolute disaster from the very beginning, objectively from the if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor, which turned out to flop on its face and led to a massive red wave in 2010 and 2012 for Republicans to when Republicans tried to fix it with major overhaul bills in 16, 17 and 18. They face major backlash because Democrats put their entire political apparatus into defending Obamacare. And every time Democrats have been in power, they've poured a little bit more gas on the fire, expanded the program bigger and did things like these pandemic subsidies that go to people making over 400% of the poverty rate. And it makes it so much harder to put that toothpaste back in the tube when the pandemic and emergency is over. There needs to be a fix here. We're not going to see a massive Obamacare overhaul between now and the end of the year. But this program, as is of pandemic subsidies for wealthy people was not sustainable. But also having them go away completely will present its own set of challenges, particularly as Republicans are starting to really focus on this issue and message about affordability. Last week, the New York Times reported on the implosion of the once storied Sierra Club. The Sierra Club embraced social justice, then it tore itself apart. The story that everyone should read goes into great depth about how in the years 2020 and 2021, when the entire world went crazy, a number of staffers at the Sierra Club, one of the oldest environmental organizations in the country, decided that they needed to shift their focus a little bit more to Environmental Justice. During Mr. Trump's first term, when the Sierra Club was flush with donations, its leaders sought to expand far beyond environmentalism, embracing other progressive causes. Those included racial justice, labor rights, gay rights, immigrant rights and more. They stand by that shift today. One thing that happened in President Trump's first four years is the left was very, very exercised about just about everything. And they were willing to throw money at any organization that they thought might resist him. And so groups like the Sierra Club had millions and millions of dollars and said, what should we do besides environmental issues? And so they expanded their reach into these social justice issues. The problem, though, is it took their eye off the ball. Here's one example. It issued an equity language guide which warned employees to be cautious about using the words vibrant and hardworking because they reinforced racist tropes. Lame duck session was out because lame was offensive. Even Americans should be avoided, the guide said, because it excluded non US Citizens. When you are trying to cancel the word Americans, you may have gone a little bit too far. But you'll remember in 2020 and 2021, everyone went absolutely crazy. Remember when Bachelor host Chris Harrison got canceled? Yeah, it was a nutty, nutty time. But to get into a little bit more depth about this story. For example, in one part someone opines that they had 108 people focused on DEI and only two focused on President Trump's work on the Arctic Refuge. So again, they had taken their eye far off the ball on fighting for the environment and were hyper focused on far left social justice issues. I can't believe that turned out problematic for them. But to close my favorite anecdote from this story was about Colorado wolves. One employee recalled an incident when a club staff member had scolded her for saying that the club should lobby Colorado's legislature for more protections for wolves. One of the staff said, that's fine, Delia, but what do wolves have to do with equity, justice and inclusion? Ms. Malone said, what do they have to do with equity, justice and inclusion? For today's yous Can't Make it up segment, we are saying a fond farewell to Nancy Pelosi. She is going out with a bang. Shut up. But perhaps her greatest legacy is her impact on our understanding of corruption in Congress, particularly through her insane investment portfolio. This from the New York Post Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband made at least $130 million in stock profits over the course of The California Democrats. 37 years in Congress, a staggering return of 16,930%. That is a lot of money. And it's very hard to take Democrats concerns about ethics seriously when she has been their leader for so long. Since before I was born. But my favorite Nancy Pelosi highlight is a little bit different. You may remember that during the pandemic, Nancy Pelosi, who supported lockdowns and supported masking, was caught forcing her own hair salon to open for her. While that is hilarious in itself, what was even better was the press conference that she held after.
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D
It was a setup. So I take responsibility for falling for a setup. And that's all I'm going to say on that. Anything else?
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A
It was a setup. It's not her fault she got set up. I'm gonna miss her and these great moments. That is all the time we have for today. Thank you so much, so much for tuning in. Please, like, subscribe, leave us a review, Tell your friends, have a great day.