#government-shutdown

#government-shutdown

You could almost mistake it for an ad. Last week, the far-right Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was on the Amtrak Crescent traveling from the nation's capital to her home state, and she was enchanted. "The sweetest people run the train," she posted on X, alongside a video of the autumnal landscape rushing by. "And the morning views of my north Georgia mountains made me smile and warmed my heart."

Thanks to the shutdown, there have not been too many innovative government programs operating over the past few months. NASA was able to continue its latest crowdfunding challenge, which asks people to help design new tires for future moon missions, largely because that is hosted by its partner site, HeroX. But beyond that, most everything was either shuttered or running with skeleton crews.

The markets are ending the week on a low note as the global selloff continued in Asia and Europe this morning, prompted by rising uncertainty stemming from the U.S. economy. Doubts about a much-anticipated December interest rate cut from the Fed are mounting, with the likely outcome obscured by patchy data after Washington's government shutdown. Wall Street was bumpy yesterday. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones posted contractions of more than 1.6%, while the Nasdaq Composite fell by 2.3%.

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss why Democrats caved to end the government shutdown and what comes next, the affordability crisis with guest and editorial director for New York Times Opinion David Leonhardt, and the importance of this week's spectacle of competing Epstein document drops. Here are some notes and references from this week's show: David Morgan for Reuters: US House to vote on deal to end longest government shutdown in history

The reality is that there was stress, there was strain, it was completely unnecessary,

The House did its job," Johnson said on the third day of the shutdown when asked why he wasn't having members stay in town. "The House will come back into session and do its work as soon as [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer allows us to reopen the government.

My great fear, of course, is that with the release of that information, which I think will be devastating for Trump, he's going to do everything in his power to distract,

The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached 46,441.10 on the first day of the shutdown. Since October 1, it has grown over 4%, reaching over 48,000 for the first time on Wednesday, November 12. While the record number came as the shutdown's end became a sure thing, the Dow had continued to rise throughout the period. The S&P 500 also followed a mostly upward trajectory throughout the shutdown. It opened at 6,664.92 on October 1 and closed at 6,850.92 on Wednesday.

It's finally, officially, over. On Wednesday, Nov. 12, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to end the longest (43 days) U.S. government shutdown in history by a vote of 222-to-209, echoing the verdict of the U.S. Senate that voted 60-to-40 on Monday to do the same thing. When President Trump signed off on the law late Wednesday evening, the shutdown ended.

So I just want to tell the American people, you should not forget this,

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[Some Democrats] assert that in hammering away at the extension of health care subsidies that are slated to expire at the end of next month, they managed to thrust Mr. Trump and Republicans onto the defensive, elevating a political issue that has long been a major weakness for them. And in holding out for weeks while Republicans refused to extend the health tax credits and Mr. Trump went to court to deny low-income Americans SNAP food benefits,

In the checkers board that is our government (no one here's playing chess), we have Democrats who enjoy pretending to put up a fight, only to cave at the first whiff of a breeze, and we have Republicans who will, without fail, find a way to make everything about banning abortion. The House reconvenes today, November 12, to vote on the bill to reopen the government after the longest shutdown in U.S. history. On Sunday night, seven Democrats and one Independent broke ranks to vote with Republicans on the spending bill.