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- [00:00]
Announcer
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- [01:35]
Senator Josh Hawley
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- [02:08]
Ben Ferguson
Welcome to the wealthbreak podcast, a real conversation about finance.
- [02:12]
Senator Josh Hawley
Let's be honest, building wealth doesn't look the same for everyone.
- [02:17]
Announcer
I feel like sometimes being broke is a cycle and that we might have.
- [02:20]
Senator Josh Hawley
To revisit that and we're not stopping at success stories.
- [02:24]
Announcer
What happens when it doesn't go right? How do you cope with it?
- [02:27]
Senator Josh Hawley
Because wealth isn't just about money, it's about creating a life where you thrive and help others do the same. Listen to the Wealth Break podcast on the iHeartRadio app. AI agents are everywhere, automating tasks and making decisions at machine speed. But agents make mistakes. Just one rogue agent can do big damage before you even notice. Rubrik Agent Cloud is the only platform that helps you monitor agents, set guardrails and rewind mistakes so you can unleash agents, not risk. Accelerate your AI transformation@rubrik.com that's R U B R I K.com Welcome.
- [03:10]
Ben Ferguson
It is verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. And Senator, we are in a government shutdown that is ending and the official vote on that's going to take place today. For most Americans, that means things will get back to normal pretty soon, but it's still chaos in the skies as well.
- [03:29]
Senator Josh Hawley
Well, that's right. The shutdown very likely ends today. The House of Representatives is going to vote later this afternoon on the appropriations package and the continuing resolution that the Senate passed on Monday. Our podcast that we put out, we predicted that the government would open on Wednesday. And I think it's very likely to. When the House passes it, I expect the president to sign it pretty much immediately. And once it's signed, the funding has returned. Now, it will take a little bit of time. I don't know how quickly paychecks will process. So for the federal employees who haven't gotten paychecks now for 44 days, they would really like their paychecks. And I'll tell you, there are a lot of places, like I'll give you an example, Capitol Hill. There are a lot of people on Capitol Hill, staffers who have not gotten paid, Capitol Police that have not gotten paid. All of the employees, the employees who drive the subways have not gotten paid. Everyone who's an employee of the federal government, the custodians, the electricians, they have not gotten paid. And look, not to mention the TSA agents and the air traffic control agents and the border Patrol agents and throughout the federal government, thousands and thousands of people have not gotten paid. Particularly for some of the younger ones, like on Capitol Hill, you've got, you know, young men and women that are 22, 23 years old. This is their first job out of college. They're, you know, some of them may have some savings, but many of them don't have any savings at all. And I'll tell you, they're stressed. I mean, they're very stressed. So my hope is the paychecks will come very quickly. I don't know if they will come as quickly as Thursday or how long it will take. Actually, the pipes to do the direct deposit. But my hope is it will be quite quick after the government opens sometime Wednesday evening when I anticipate the President will sign the legislation. Some of the other delays will take a little bit more time. Presumably when the government opens Wednesday, each of the cabinet agencies will send out emails and notify the non essential personnel. The personnel who'd been furloughed come back to work. And so I'm anticipating they'll come back to work Thursday morning because everyone's knowing this is coming. So I think you'll see full staff. Now. It may take a little bit of time to start government services flowing at the same speed that they normally flow at. And something like air travel in particular. My suspicion is there'll be more of a lag in air travel. I anticipate that we'll continue to see delays and cancellations for several days beyond today. Because what's driving the delays and cancellations is that a lot of the air traffic controllers and TSA agents have been calling in sick. Maybe that immediately turns around on Thursday, but that depends upon the decision of 50,000 TSA agents and 14,000 air traffic controllers. And the FAA is not going to return to full capacity flights until we have sufficient numbers of controllers in the air traffic control room to ensure that people are flying safely.
- [06:30]
Ben Ferguson
That's going to be a really important part of the equation as you described it there. And it's a smart way that I think what we've really seen is true leadership from the Transportation Secretary on that issue and the Trump administration to make sure, hey, yeah, there's some delays, but we're going to make sure you're safe in the skies. And, and that is one of the caveats to all of this is at least you know that someone's kind of looking out for your well being. And look, there's one party just playing pure politics, trying to hurt people. There's another that's playing defense and trying to protect you. That is, I think, the takeaway from this shutdown.
- [07:02]
Senator Josh Hawley
I think that's right. We also saw that the president called for $10,000 bonuses for the air traffic controllers who worked during the shutdown. I think that's a great policy. I think that makes an awful lot of sense. I would like to see the law change so that air traffic controllers get paid whether there's a shutdown or not. And as you know, I voted multiple times for Ron Johnson's legislation that would pay all essential employees so that you don't have federal workers forced to come in and work. But not to get a paycheck because that's what drives things like the sick outs and people not showing up. And so I think it would make perfect sense to have written as a matter of law that regardless of whether there's a shutdown, soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines and FBI agents and border patrol agents and ICE agents and air traffic controllers and TSA agents and everyone who is essential, who is required to work, they get paid. The problem has been that Democrats have voted against that over and over and over again. I don't really see that changing. Because look, one of the consequences of this, we have funded three appropriations bills. We funded the agricultural appropriations bill. That includes the programs for farmers and ranchers, that includes snap. So food stamps is funded. All of that's funded for a year. So there won't be a shutdown on that going forward. We have also funded military construction in the va. So that's really important both for construction projects at military bases across the country. And that's a job driver. And it's important for our military defense that's funded for a year. And the va, obviously caring for our veterans is critically important. That's funded for a year. So that's good news. It means the next shutdown will have a smaller impact because those three appropriations will continue. But the continuing resolution we passed expires January 30th. And I gotta say, I will be very surprised if the Democrats don't force another shutdown on January 30th. And so these battles have not gone away, but they're at least delayed till January 30. And we may be right back with the same problem with flight delays if the Democrats do it again.
- [09:20]
Ben Ferguson
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- [11:31]
Senator Josh Hawley
Yes. No. They want to inflict maximum pain. They want the shutdown to be painful for the American people. And it's so they don't want. They were furious when Trump paid the military and he had enough funds from the one big beautiful bill that he could shift money around and pay the military. They wanted the military not to be paid. They're looking for maximum pain because, and they've said this, they've been very candid. They say that's where they get leverage. You know, tonight it's Tuesday night, it's Veterans Day. So I want to say to everyone who defended this nation, every veteran we have, thank you. We are grateful for your service, your sacrifice. Our liberties are here because of you. I am right now. Today, I'm in Miami. So this evening I spoke at the Miami Dade County, Lincoln Dade Dinner. It's a huge event, over a thousand people. You know, Miami Dade county has been a Democrat stronghold for decades. This last cycle, we flipped Dade county red. It is a Republican county. Republicans won multiple elections up and down the slate. There was a lot of energy there tonight. But I gotta say, Ben, I started by telling everyone, I said, last night, I was on the floor of the Senate, Bernie Sanders was screaming, Elizabeth Warren let out an angry war whoop. Cory Booker curled up in a ball. Adam Schiff was pouting and Chuck Schumer was crying. And that's not exactly right. But I said, you know what all of that says it was a great day for America. The Democrats were consuming each other because there were eight Democrats that finally, after 42 days showed the courage to say, enough is enough, let's reopen the government. And the Democrats turned on each other with a viciousness that, that is truly extraordinary. So here was a major story in in in the Washington Post headline Democrats Push for a Ruthlessly Pragmatic Approach to Counter Trump. And here's what the Post reported. The fury at eight Democratic aligned senators who voted with Republicans to end the longest ever government shutdown highlights the dramatic shift in the Democratic Party less than a year into President Trump's second term, as voters and lawmakers argue that the party needs to adopt a more more ruthless tactics to counter the president and claw its way back to power. So listen, the Democrats are saying the longest shutdown in history wasn't ruthless enough. It needs to be worse. Post continues the reaction to the two votes on Sunday and Monday, which provide a pathway for the government to reopen after more than 40 days, was fierce. Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat from California, called for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to be replaced, suggesting he was an ineffective leader even though Schumer opposed the government funding measure. So Schumer voted no, but it doesn't matter. They want to throw him out anyway. House Minority Leader Akeem Jeffries, Democrat New York, blasted the eight senators and said the House Democrats would not support a government funding bill that did not include the health care measures the party has demanded. So today the Democrats, presumably all or virtually all, are going to vote to keep the shutdown going. Now, I fully expect House Republicans will provide the votes needed to send this to the president. But here, here's what the Post continues. Democratic advocacy groups, politically vulnerable lawmakers, potential 2028 presidential candidates and voters all followed suit, lambasting those in the party they saw as caving the desire for Democrats to hold firm despite the pain inflicted by the shutdown, even though the party's prior posture was that shutdowns are self destructive, was the latest sign that the party has decided it must adopt an altogether different playbook, given Trump's willingness to resort to unprecedented measures to consolidate and maintain powers rather than try to uphold norms as the president shatters them. They have decided to fight Trump with tactics they previously disdained, and they have excoriated those who have stood in the way, whether on redistricting or candidates with problematic pasts. And here's one of my colleagues, Chris Van Hollen, one of the more liberal Democrats, quote, early on, there were not enough members of Congress who recognized the magnitude of the threat Donald Trump poses to our Democracy and Constitution. That has changed. Van Hollen said that there were a few senators in what he has dubbed the, quote, no business as usual caucus at the beginning of Trump's term. But it has since grown dramatically in response to energy from the party's base. Quote, the lesson is there is power and unity and in members of Congress working in partnership with the grassroots community. This is why so many people are feeling let down at this moment, because that unity was important. This is the reaction on the Democrat side. They, they are. Schumer is besieged from all sides, and he started this shutdown.
- [16:43]
Ben Ferguson
We had a shutdown, civil war, let's be clear. And that's part of what I got to ask you about is there. There are Democrats now that are basically like, off with his head in leadership. They want him gone. They're publicly saying that. They're saying this is the end of him. He MSNBC said it multiple times. CNN commentators said the same thing. Like he's done. They gotta get rid of him. His career's over. This goes back to the being held hostage by the Marxists, the socialists and the communists of the Democratic Party. Now, they didn't police them, now they're running the party and they're anarchists. And Chuck Schumer shut down the government for the longest period in history of this country, and that wasn't good enough for them.
- [17:23]
Senator Josh Hawley
And he still voted no on reopening it. So he shut it down for the longest in history. He voted no consistently, and yet they're still off with his head. It really is. The crazies are driving the Democrat Party. And look, if you don't believe me, maybe you will believe John Fetterman. I want you to listen to this exchange. Senator John Fetterman, Democrat from Pennsylvania, was on the View. And Sonny, you know, one of the left wing hosts there, comes after him and comes after him hard. Listen to her unhinged question and then listen to Fetterman's response.
- [17:59]
Ben Ferguson
Well, Senator Bernie Sanders said the vote.
- [18:01]
Announcer
Was a horrific mistake.
- [18:03]
Senator Josh Hawley
Governor Gavin Newsom called it pathetic. And a surrender poll after poll found.
- [18:08]
Announcer
More Americans on both sides of the aisle blaming Republicans. Even Marjorie Taylor Greene blamed the gop. As you mentioned, Democrats had big wins last week, so you had momentum.
- [18:19]
Senator Josh Hawley
Why give in now?
- [18:21]
Announcer
Why bring a butter knife to a gunfight?
- [18:23]
Senator Josh Hawley
Are you willing to gamble that the.
- [18:26]
Announcer
GOP will neglect negotiate on health care.
- [18:28]
Senator Josh Hawley
In good faith once the government reopens? Because if that gamble is wrong, half.
- [18:33]
Announcer
A million Pennsylvanians that you represent, their health care costs will skyrocket if you are wrong.
- [18:40]
Senator Josh Hawley
And I believe you are wrong.
- [18:43]
Senator John Fetterman
Well, first of all, MTG is quite literally the last person in America that I'm going to take advice or to get their kinds of my leadership and values from. And now if Democrats are celebrating crazy pants like that, then that's on them. And I don't need. And I don't need a lecture. I don't need a lecture from. From whether it's Bernie or the governor in California because they are representing very deep blue, blue kinds of populations. And a lot of those things, a lot of those things were part of the extreme. And now, remember, what really needs to win, to win the big win, is involving my state and other states and those things. And why have we arrived here after the election a year ago? We want to forget. We got to forget some of the things that cost us that election. Or now for me, it's like, that's why I'm trying to remind people that kinds of the extreme extremism, we can't return to those kind of things and realize we need to find a way forward. And I would like to, rather than cite mtg, I'm going to cite one of the new governor elects saying that my election is not a green light to continue this shutdown. Because I promise you, this isn't a political game. It is viewed by that, by many of us. But the reality is 42 million Americans now not sure where their next meal is going to come from. And because we vote like that, vote like that, or people that haven't been paid for five weeks now, and that kinds of chaos, those workers borrow more than half a billion dollars, you know, from their credit union just to pay their bills.
- [20:19]
Ben Ferguson
You listen, talking about paying their bills. And I love that from Fetterman there. They also were very quiet because I don't think they realized he was gonna come back with facts that way and describe it. I jokingly said to you before the show started, when's John Fetterman gonna join the Republican Party? Because he's been speaking an awful lot of truth about the reality of this shutdown.
- [20:41]
Senator Josh Hawley
Well, look, I like John Fetterman, and I will tell you, Republicans actually treat him much more nicely than the Democrats do. The Democrats are mis. Mean to him. They're vicious to him. They really have a deep antipathy to him. And the amazing thing, he votes the overwhelming majority of the time with the Democrats. You know, he's on the Commerce Committee with me on virtually every vote. He votes party line with the Democrats on most votes on the floor. He votes party line with the Democrats. He has a few defections. So he did vote to open the government, and that's viewed as this great heresy because he didn't want to have a force a government shutdown and hurt millions of Americans and continue the longest government shutdown in history. And the main area that he's been willing to dissent from, virtually every other congressional Democrat is in support of Israel. And we've talked about before that there is a real and cognizable pro Hamas caucus in the Democrat Party. It rose up about 10 years ago. The Democrats did nothing. They looked the other way, and it's now taken over their party. And Fetterman is a massive outlier because he is genuinely pro Israel. He is vocally pro Israel, and the radicals in the Democrat Party hate him for that. And again, if you don't believe me, listen to what John Fetterman said on exactly this topic. You are not Jewish, at least as far as I know.
- [22:12]
Senator John Fetterman
I'm.
- [22:12]
Senator Josh Hawley
Feel free to cut. Feel free to come out here to me right now. But you have been one of the most outspoken.
- [22:19]
Announcer
It's beyond Washington. It's beyond politicians. You have been one of the most.
- [22:22]
Senator Josh Hawley
Outspoken people in American life on the issue of anti Semitism. Why is this issue so important to you?
- [22:32]
Senator John Fetterman
Ironically, I did that 23andMe, 97% German and 3% Neanderthal. And it's like, maybe it's ironic that that a. A big German guy from Pennsylvania who's been very, absolutely devoted to Israel and to experience the kind of anti Semitism in my life. I mean, you know, what, you know, the tree of life. I mean, that's, that's where you're from, too. Absolutely appalling. And my heart breaks for what the Jewish communities suffered, especially after 10, 7. I've had the honor of meeting, you know, members of the hostages, former people that were kept underground for 500 days. I mean, those are heroes. I've met with widows. Their husbands were lost in the Gaza war, and they have eight children. Raising eight children by their own. That's a hero for all of it. So for me, it's heartbreaking. And that's been. What's so difficult for me is like being devotion to Israel becoming increasingly incompatible with being a proud Democrat now, too. And that's put me at odds. And the things that put me at odds have all converged at the same time. You know, the Gaza war, the peace deal, and then we move right into a shutdown. You know, like now Democrats might not be allowed to hold these views. And I'M not changing my party and you know, run the numbers, run the numbers. You know, I, you would find that I am a, I'm a Democrat.
- [24:02]
Ben Ferguson
You know, he is a Democrat. But you've walked past his, his Senate office countless times. I've walked past it probably dozens of times when I'm up in D.C. and he had all the hostage pictures up in his front office, which I thought was incredible.
- [24:18]
Senator Josh Hawley
Look, he has been genuinely courageous and sincerely courageous on Israel. And it's earned the absolute ire, hatred, animosity, venom of the radical left in the Democrat Party. I mean, you heard what he just said there, that being pro Israel is becoming incompatible with being a proud Democrat. I mean, that's a tragic statement. I wish that statement were not true, but, but it is the biggest reason why their radicals hate him. And much of, you know, when he was first elected and he came into office, he had had a stroke during the campaign. And the stroke was very debilitating. When John showed up, the stroke really limited. Like when I first met him, what the stroke did is it limited his ability to process auditory input. So you would talk to him and his brain was not able to process the words he was hearing. And so he would carry with him an iPad that had a translator because it just. This is one of the consequences that can be from a stroke is your ability to process words that you hear. Your brain just can't put them together. So you would talk and he would read it, but when he first got there, you would talk to him and he would literally, he was not able to understand what you were saying. And I mean, it hurt your heart. I mean, this is a, He's a very bright man. The man's a Harvard graduate, but he had a medical issue that he had real consequences. Early on, the Democrats all circled around him and said he's perfectly capable. There are no issues whatsoever. Because they assumed he would be a left wing Democrat. That's what they expected of him. That was not a crazy expectation going in. And then when he started standing up, particularly on Israel, standing up and defying the pro Hamas caucus, you started seeing the Democrats leaking and planning stories and really attacking his mental capability. And the irony is, look, you heard in those exchanges, he's now able to have a conversation. He still is a little halting in his communication. And I think that's some of the aftermath of the stroke. But the difference is night and day, you can now have a conversation and he can hear you in a way that when he showed up in the Senate, he was not able to. And yet Democrats are running to reporters to plant negative stories attacking him. Many of his colleagues want to drive him out of the party. And at least on the Republican side, I like John, and I think consistently all the Republicans are just trying to be nice to him. By the way, they did the same thing to Joe Manchin. They did the same thing to Kyrsten Cinnamon. They succeeded in driving both of them out of the party because they want no dissent. You must obey and follow orders or they'll do everything they can to drive you out. And to be honest, both Sinema and Manchin, I think Republicans were much nicer, too, than Democrats were. And the consequence was they were both driven out of the party.
- [27:27]
Ben Ferguson
For the last several weeks, you've heard me talk with Josh Sherrard at Burna and tell stories about people just like you and I and how they've used their burner launcher protect themselves and their families. Now, if you don't know what a burner is, it is a handheld pistol that fires both kinetic rounds and chemical irritants to separate you from an attacker. And it's truly amazing. Now, Josh is back today to share a story about a store owner and how a burner launcher could have really come in handy.
- [27:54]
Senator Josh Hawley
Yeah, so in Seattle, the owner of a local small business decided to have a sidewalk sale to engage more directly with her community. Well, the day was going great when.
- [28:02]
Ben Ferguson
A male walking down the middle of.
- [28:04]
Senator Josh Hawley
The street could be seen seen yelling, streaming and hitting passing cars. This man was clearly suffering from an acute mental episode. When he then approached, the store owner, began threatening her. After several failed attempts at de escalating the situation, the woman ultimately tried to go back into the store to try to get to safety. And it was then that the deranged man yelled that he was going to gouge out her eyes and then grabbed her, slammed her to the ground and began choking her. It was only due to several good Samaritans that jumped in to pull him off of her. That probably saved her life.
- [28:36]
Ben Ferguson
You know, this is a growing trend. Unfortunately, mental health is a. Is a serious issue. And in areas with larger homeless populations, these individuals affected by this can really get violent. Could burn us still be effective in this case?
- [28:51]
Senator Josh Hawley
Absolutely. You know, mental health is striking. Populations all over America and those with.
- [28:56]
Ben Ferguson
Mental health issues that also have separate.
- [28:58]
Senator Josh Hawley
Substance abuse issues are over 1100 times more likely to commit violent crime. And the problem is, you never know.
- [29:05]
Ben Ferguson
When that may happen.
- [29:06]
Senator Josh Hawley
Burna, especially used with our chemical agent projectiles, will incapacitate even those suffering from those Acute mental episodes. So Burna is a great tool to use when you absolutely have no idea that you may need it.
- [29:18]
Ben Ferguson
If you want to find out more about how Burna can help you or your family members, it's a great gift with holidays coming for someone you want to help protect, go to Byrna by r n a.com that's Bernaby r n a.com Berna.com Final question on this as we move forward. What does your gut say about another government shutdown early next year?
- [29:42]
Senator Josh Hawley
I think it is very likely. When the CR expires on January 30, I don't see a fundamental dynamic that changes now. Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe the eight Democrats who cut the deal now, maybe on January 30, they cut the deal at the front end. That's possible. Um, I can tell you as we were sitting there on Monday and they had cast the initial vote on Sunday and they were getting savaged on the Republican side, we felt a real urgency, a vote now, now, now, because, look, we were very afraid one of them would flip. I mean, I mean it. There is typically a limit to how much abuse an elected official can take. And the left wing base was savaging those eight. Now we actually had a delay because John Kennedy, who's a good friend of mine, in fact, he's been on the podcast just a week ago.
- [30:40]
Ben Ferguson
Just a week ago, yeah.
- [30:42]
Senator Josh Hawley
John was pressing for a resolution that says if there's a shutdown, senators will not be paid so long as federal workers are not being paid. And as you know, I voluntarily did that. So I have not taken a paycheck for the entire length of this, this shutdown. I sent a written letter to the Secretary of the Senate saying, hold my paycheck. I'm not going to be paid as long as they're federal workers who are not being paid. So whenever the, at some point, I'll get my paychecks from the last four, 40 days, in the next, presumably few days, whenever the other federal workers do. I don't know when that will come. But many, and I think most of the Democrats did not do that. They continued taking their paychecks throughout, which was an incredible hypocrisy. And so Kennedy was pushing really hard for saying, look, no senator should get paid while there's a shutdown. He wanted a vote. When we were taking this up and voting on it, he wanted a separate amendment vote on that. And it was a challenge because the Democrats were refusing to give that amendment vote and saying, if you get that amendment vote, then we want a bunch of amendment votes. And so everything was paralyzed. And it could have delayed. Instead of the Senate voting Monday night, it could have delayed till Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday. And I and many others were really concerned if it delayed till Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday for the Senate to vote, one or more of the eight Democrats would get cold feet and flip. And so actually, the way it got resolved is I went to John Kennedy's office, and he and I are good friends, and I said, look, can we work something out? Because he was really mad. He was frustrated that he couldn't get his vote. I said, can we work something out that lets us vote to reopen the government and get you what you want? And so we cut an agreement that next week the Rules Committee, on which I serve is going to vote on John Kennedy's resolution. And I think we're gonna vote it out of the Rules Committee and put it on the Senate floor, and we'll vote on the Senate floor right after Thanksgiving on Kennedy's provision. And I ask him, look, would you be willing to accept a vote on this that's separate, that doesn't delay the overall funding bill? Because if we delay it, if one of these Democrats get cold feet, we could have another week, two, three, four weeks of shutdown, and none of us want that. And Kennedy, he was angry, but he said, yes, he would agree to that. I'm really glad John did that. That was the right thing. But he's fighting for something he really believes in. So I was able to go to leadership and say, look, you guys need to commit to have the vote in the Rules Committee and the vote on the floor. And leadership did make that commitment. And that was the pivotal piece that got us to a vote Monday night to reopen the government.
- [33:30]
Ben Ferguson
Thirty days from now, what do you think the fallout's gonna actually be? I think people are so fast to get back to normal. The holidays are coming. I think that's gonna be something where people just like, all right, everything's fine. My normal chaos. As long as we don't have chaos in the skies outside of the normal chaos, when it comes to Thanksgiving or Christmas travel, I'm good. We're pretty selfish as a people now. Let's just be honest about it. So it's. A lot of it is, hey, if it doesn't affect me, is it really happening? This happens now. And is there going to be fallout or accountability on either side?
- [34:02]
Senator Josh Hawley
Yeah, look, people will remember what impacted themselves and their families. So if your food stamps got delayed, you'll Remember that. That will have made a real difference if your paycheck got delayed. That will impact. You know, I was having a conversation with a Capitol Police officer yesterday, and this was a Capitol Police officer, was a veteran, had been around a while, and he was talking about how they were giving grief to, like, some of the rookies who were brand new. He said there was a class straight out of the academy who started, like, two days before the shutdown. And, you know, these are all really, you know, young men and women, 22, 23 years old, and this is, like, their first job, and suddenly they're not getting paid. And he did say that the veteran Capitol Police officers were basically giving grief to the young rookies and being like, oh, you're new to this game and, you know, shutdowns are part of working for the federal government. But, you know, a lot of these young guys don't have much savings, so they were a little bit shell shocked from it. Those folks will remember. But most Americans, if it didn't impact you. The biggest way that a lot of Americans were impacted was flight delays and flight delays and cancellations. The people who had their trip to visit their mom canceled, the trip to go to a funeral in the family, the trip to go on family vacation, the trip to go on a work trip. People will be annoyed at that. Now, look, it's November. We'll move into Thanksgiving. I think by Thanksgiving, the air traffic will be back to normal, so it won't be an additional burden. And then we'll get into Christmas and the holidays. And do I think by December 1st, the shutdown's gonna be front and center in anyone's mind? Not really. But then we're gonna get to January 30th. And I mentioned in the last podcast, it was really important that we had the continuing resolution. There was a big push to get it to expire on, like, December 21st. Yeah, that was a terrible idea. Because often if government funding expires right before Christmas. Look, obviously every member of Congress wants to get home to be with their family for Christmas. That's. That's natural. You know, most of us have kids. You want to be with your kids for Christmas. That leads frequently to really bad deals. There's an old phrase that jet fumes get in the air, that people are really anxious to get out of town so they'll agree to horrible deals. So the conservatives, I was pressing hard, do not end it right before Christmas. We need to go into January so we don't have that pressure pushing people to make a bad deal and thankfully, and I'll give John Thune credit. John Thune leaned in and said, we're going till January 30th. That's what's in there. We will have this same fight at the end of January, but that at least gives us some more time and and some more time to deal with it.
- [36:51]
Ben Ferguson
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Senator Josh Hawley
No.
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- [39:48]
Senator Josh Hawley
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Ben Ferguson
Instead of football, play a different game on your phone.
- [39:59]
Senator Josh Hawley
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- [41:17]
Ben Ferguson
One of the things that's coming out of the shutdown that I do think is interesting and I did not see this coming. Maybe you did, but this was not on my on my bingo card for government shutdown conversations after the fact and that is the outrageous subsidies of Obamacare. It was called the Affordable Care Act. We now know that it's anything but affordable. Even yesterday on tv, Ana Navarro said, well, you know, we know that premiums have gone up 100, 200 300%. And that's why we need the government open, as she described it, and why we need to fix this. She just said the problem. And I'm like, you guys told us this was gonna be affordable. It is not affordable. Not only that, I think at some point it's pretty clear it's not sustainable. And so this is like, for Me, Social Security 2.0 issue. Right. Sustainability and solvency. This is now, I think, given a gift to fiscal responsibility that people are talking about just how crazy these subsidies are. We're talking about trillions we've spent.
- [42:23]
Senator Josh Hawley
Yeah. Look, you go back to when I filibustered on the Senate floor against Obamacare and I spoke for 21 hours straight and, you know, you may recall red Green Eggs and Ham, which a lot of people forget why I read Green Eggs and Ham. The reason is, at the time, my daughters were 3 and 5 years old. And whenever I was at home, I would read them bedtime stories. And so it was their bedtime. I was talking for 21 hours. It was their bedtime. So we called home and told them, turn on the tv. And I read them Green Eggs and Ham on tv. And my favorite picture. You've seen it, Ben?
- [42:55]
Ben Ferguson
Oh, yeah, I love it.
- [42:56]
Senator Josh Hawley
That hangs in my Senate office in D.C. is the two girls. They're both in matching pajamas, which at 3 and 5 they could do. At 15 and 17, were well past the stage of matching pajamas, but they're in matching pajamas. And Catherine, the three year old, she has her hand on the TV and she's looking at it in wonderment as her Daddy's reading her Dr. Seuss on television. And Caroline, and you know my girls really well, Caroline is the eldest and I love her, but she, she's a cynical kid. Not. Not much her dad does impresses her. And in that picture, she.
- [43:31]
Ben Ferguson
That was very accurate, by the way. Very accurate.
- [43:35]
Senator Josh Hawley
Oh, no, no, it's. There are few things better for humility than being a parent, because your kids really, if you're starting to get a big head, your kids are really good for bringing you down to earth.
- [43:46]
Senator John Fetterman
Yep.
- [43:47]
Senator Josh Hawley
But. But this picture, Caroline at age 5, she's cracking up, laughing. And it's, it's why I love this picture, because there's just joy in her face. And when I came home after the filibuster at age 5, she had her arms crossed and she said, okay, dad, that was cool. And it was like, yes, finally, those trees.
- [44:07]
Ben Ferguson
It took me talking for 21 hours to get a cool.
- [44:10]
Senator Josh Hawley
Yeah. So in that filibuster I laid out exactly what has happened. That premiums are going to skyrocket. Remember, Barack Obama promised that Obamacare would cut the average family's premiums by $2,500.
- [44:24]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah.
- [44:24]
Senator Josh Hawley
It has massively increased the average family's premiums instead of. And there's a reason for that. What Obamacare did is drastically reduce the choices people had and forced people into more expensive plans. It basically outlawed less expensive plans. And Economics 101, supply and demand. When you shrink supply and you also mandate demand, which Obamacare initially had, the individual mandate that force people to buy. The combination of that drives prices through the roof. Now, we repealed the individual mandate and I was the one who led the fight to do that. So we successfully repealed the individual madnate. Under the original Obamacare, if you lacked the income to be able to afford healthcare, the consequence of that is the IRS would fine you. So you'd have an insult to injury. You didn't have the money to pay for health insurance and the IRS came and fined you. It was, it was idiotic policy. Thankfully, we repealed that. And that was in 2017, a fight I led and won. So that aspect of Obamacare has gone away, but the limiting the choices has not. And what Obamacare does, it's basically built on an invisible cross subsidy where, listen, if you're young and healthy, it's not very expensive to insure you because insurance is all about actuarial risk and young, healthy people. You know, some young healthy people get cancer, get in a nasty car accident, but it's statistically speaking, quite unlikely. And so it's pretty cheap to insure a young, healthy person. If you're older and sicker, it's more expensive to insure you. And what Obamacare did is it mandated that essentially the young healthy people pay higher premiums to subsidize the older, sicker people. Now, one of the weird things that's backwards about this, if you look during the course of a person's life, typically they earn more and accumulate more in savings as they get older. So it's literally reverse Robin Hood, they were robbing from the poor to give to the rich is what Obamacare did. And it was based. And you look at the architects of Obamacare, they thought young people were too stupid to know that their premiums were being doubled and tripled and being used to subsidize older and sicker people. I think the whole thing is cynical as hell. And so what I've argued for for 13 years is let people buy the insurance they want, let Young, healthy people buy low cost, inexpensive insurance. And then for people that are really, really old or really sick, we can subsidize them directly, but don't do it through an individual invisible cross subsidy where you're basically screwing people who aren't aware they're getting screwed. All of which is to say, why are insurance premiums skyrocketing? Because Obamacare, that was the predictable outcome of Obamacare. It wasn't just predictable, it was predicted. And I stood on the Senate floor and predicted it 13 years ago.
- [47:26]
Ben Ferguson
You know, it's interesting if you look at the takeaway here, it took 40 days, longest shutdown in government history. And it seems that Democrats are just saying we'll kick the can down the road a couple months. We may have another government shutdown. We're going to keep holding the American people hostage. We're not learning from any of this. And this is a scary way that the government's being run right now. But this is what happens when you have the extreme left who is hell bent on hurting Americans to get their way when they don't win an election. And that's what this is really all about for them. We'll keep you updated on all of it.
- [48:02]
Senator Josh Hawley
Don't. Rage is not. Rage is not an agenda. Anger is not an agenda. Hate is not an agenda. And unfortunately on the far left in the Democrat Party, that is what they are for is rage, hate and anger. And we're gonna see more chaos. We're gonna see more holding the American people hostage because it's a direct outgrowth of that rage and hate and anger.
- [48:25]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah. Amen to that. Don't forget, we do the show Monday, Wednesday and Friday. So hit that subscribe or auto download button so you can get this show and not miss any of the episodes. We've been talking a lot about the government shutdown. We're gonna get into some other big issues as well moving forward, that I can promise you. So make sure you download Verdict with Ted Cruz and grab my podcast, the Ben Ferguson Podcast, on those in between days. I'll keep you updated on what's going on as well there, and we'll see you back here Friday morning.
- [48:52]
Senator Josh Hawley
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- [49:44]
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- [50:14]
Senator Josh Hawley
I'm Rodney Williams. And I'm Travis Holloway.
- [50:17]
Ben Ferguson
Welcome to the wealthbreak podcast, a real conversation about finance.
- [50:22]
Senator Josh Hawley
Let's be honest, building wealth doesn't look the same for everyone.
- [50:26]
Announcer
I feel like sometimes being broke is a cycle and that we might have.
- [50:30]
Senator Josh Hawley
To revisit that and we're not stopping at success stories.
- [50:33]
Announcer
What happens when it doesn't go right? How do you cope with it?
- [50:37]
Senator Josh Hawley
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- [51:19]
Announcer
This is the story of the One. As head of maintenance at a concert hall, he knows the show must always go on. That's why he works behind the scenes.
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Senator Josh Hawley
Ensuring every light is working, the H.
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Senator Josh Hawley
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Senator Josh Hawley
Call quitgranger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.
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Announcer
This is an iHeart podcast.