The government shutdown is here! But is this really just about a dispute over illegal immigration and healthcare? Or do President Trump and his OMB Director Russ Vought have additional plans? Glenn and Stu explain how the shutdown could lead to much-needed government layoffs and spending cuts.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Well, the government is shut down. Boy, oh, boy, oh, boy.

I'm really -- I had somebody call me at home last night. Somebody called for the family and said, "Is it safe to fly tomorrow?" And I'm like, "What -- why? What are you hearing?"

"The government is shutting down. Planes going to fall out of the sky?"

No, they're not going to fall out of the sky. Well, let just say that. I -- today, I'm not sure I would -- I would try to be some place that's not under the sky.

Let's just say that to be safe, be some place, not under the sky. Because the planes are going to be falling.

And when you say the planes will fall out of the sky, I mean more than Boeing planes are going to be falling out of the sky today. Because it will be chaos. Complete chaos.

The government is just -- and, by the way, you'll probably -- you should start taking Mandarin, because the Chinese are going to invade. Because the army is on furlough now. Because of these damn Republicans. Oh, wait.

No, hang on just a second. It's the Democrats. The Democrats are being so unbelievably irresponsible. You know what they always say, when the Republicans do this? They're so irresponsible. You're like, wait a minute. No.

This time, they're being very, very irresponsible. The Democrats are. Because the Republicans just would not allow health care to be extended to all illegal aliens.

I heard -- I actually heard somebody on CNN yesterday, this is -- saying, all people have a right to health care!

No. I mean, you mean American citizens?

No. All people. So illegals?

All people of earth, should be able to have universal health care.

Oh! Okay. Well, why don't we just start writing that check for the Chinese too.

You know, the -- the poor Greeks, man. They really have -- Cuba, they're having a hard time with their health care system.

There are a lot of places collapsing. We should just write the check for everybody on earth, for their health care.

How's that even make sense?

Now, the Democrats are in a really precarious situation because they had to acquiesce to the extreme left. Because their base wants to fight.
And I think literally fight.

But at least at this particular case, it means, you can't -- you have to -- you have to walk out on a deal. You cannot accept it. Unless you have universal health care.

And so they said, no.

Republicans, what a surprise.

No. Not going to do it. Actually, it's kind of a surprise. Wouldn't you say that Stu. It's kind of a surprise. That they're not saying yes to even more spending.

STU: Yes. And we can't rule it out quite yet. The fact that they didn't immediately before the shutdown, agree to whatever they wanted to spend was nice.

GLENN: Correct. Correct.

So if I may make a prediction. See where I am on this.

My prediction on how this will work. We will shut down, because the Republicans didn't want to spend more money. And the Democrats wanted to spend a trillion dollars more.

And so what will happen is, we'll shut down. But we'll spend more money.

And we'll end up paying for it.

And then they'll just sign another continuing resolution. And nothing will really be done.

That will be --

STU: That's a little pessimistic there, Glenn.

GLENN: Well, it only comes -- it only comes from 60 years of watching our government.

STU: Yes, although I do think things are a little different right now.

GLENN: Yeah, I do.

STU: I think Republicans are in a place where they have more cards than the Democrats do. There's a good chance the Democrats wind up getting blamed by this. By the American people. Not the media. But by the American people. They don't like shutdowns. Although, I'm not honestly that much broken up about them.

GLENN: Oh, I'm thrilled. I'm thrilled.

STU: Then you have the other part of this. Then you have the Russell Vought. You know, Donald Trump.

GLENN: Do you think that's real? By the way, is that how you say his name? Because I always thought it was Russ Vought.

STU: I hear it both ways.

So I don't know. I will just go back and forth to confuse people. But, yeah. That's -- the -- in case you don't know what we're talking about here. There's a -- Russ. He put together this plan. Over the four years while they were out of power. To try to maximize opportunities like this.

There's this long profile, just written in the New York Times about how scary and terrifying he is. For those reasons.

GLENN: Because he's smart and prepared.

STU: When you hear Trump talk about, hey, we will fire these people, and not bring them back.

GLENN: That's Trump's plan.

STU: It's Trump's idea with Russ' execution behind it.

That's the thought here.

Maybe you should get some long-term gains out of this.

One of my other favorite nuggets on this, Glenn.

The health care credits that they're looking for.

That the Democrats say they want.

They're like, we have to have these. We can't have a seven-week, which was the proposal by Republicans. Seven weeks, just continuing the spending and figuring things out.

So currently, those tax credits are in effect. They are available right now. Republicans want to end them.

The interesting part is, they don't run out in the seven-week period that Republicans are proposing to increase -- to continue the spending. So they wouldn't go away, if everybody is just signed on to the Republican plan.

Which, by the way, I mean, neither one of us particularly like. Just increasing -- spending at these ridiculous levels for another seven weeks. But these credits that they're so worried about, like they're going to kill all these people. And the health care is going to go away.

Don't go away during that time period. They go away after that. And they're saying. Well, people are going to get notified that they're going away in that period. And therefore, we have to shut county the government. So that people wouldn't get notifications, that they might be going away. We have to stop it before that.

That's their big plan.

GLENN: You would think that the Democrats would want people to be notified, that they're going away. Because it would help their case.

STU: Right. There's an argument to be made. Maybe they do.

I think a lot of that is, they're making things up as they go along.

GLENN: That doesn't sound like the Democratic Party.

STU: Like, Chuck Schumer last time. When he was threatened with evil Russ and his evil plans. Said, okay. We're going to fold. And we will just keep the government going, at the current levels.

And this time, he is saying, the exact opposite.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: Because last time, his idea was, well, they're going to fire all these people.

This time, they're saying, well, they're firing all these people anyway.

They just change -- move the goal post. Change the arguments. And act as if this all makes sense.

GLENN: So here's what I would like to see Donald Trump do.

Because I read this morning. And I don't know what rag it was. Donald Trump. He's bluffing. He's bluffing.

No. I don't think he is. I hope he's not. Listen to Donald Trump yesterday on this cut one.

VOICE: If DOGE is already reducing the federal workforce, why is it necessary to link more federal judges cut to a shutdown?

VOICE: Well, the Democrats want to shut it down. So when you shut it down, you have to do layoffs, so we would be laying off a lot of people that will be very affected. And the Democrats, they will be Democrats.

As you know, this country, no country can afford to pay for illegal immigration, health care for everybody. That comes into the country. And that's what they're insisting. And obviously, I have an obligation to not accept that.

That would affect everybody. You know, when I see what we're doing with AI. And all the plants that are opening up in the country.

$17 trillion are coming in.

If you compare that to Biden.

Biden had, in four years, less than a trillion. We have 17 trillion more than that. I think it will be much more than that, David. By the end of this year.

I think it will be -- it's a record. It's already a record. In 18 months. It's a record by a lot. So we're doing well as a country. So the last thing we want to do is shut it down.

But a lot of good can come down from shutdowns. We can get rid of a lot of things that we don't want, and they would be Democrat things.

But they want open borders. They want men playing in women's sports. They want transgender for everybody. They never stop. They don't learn. We won an election in a landscape. They just don't learn.

So we have no choice. I have to do it for them, for the country.

GLENN: So I -- I'm hearing him say here, over and over again. Is, yeah. We're just going to shut these things down. We don't want them.

And it's a permanent thing. You're going to have to go through reauthorization to get these non-essential programs back. And, you know, if they're not mandated, he's saying, Russ is planning to just cut them all. If it's not mandatory spending, cut it. I think that is absolutely fantastic.

I mean, I don't know why we haven't done that before. Now, it's going to go into the court system, et cetera, et cetera.

But that's one I'm willing to die on. That's a hill I want to take.

STU: And, of course, you're right. Every single one of those jobs have a lawsuit attached to it. And they will get some of them reversed. No question about that.

GLENN: Right. We should fire twice of the amount of people.
STU: Right. If they will reverse half of them, just fire twice as many.

Yeah. And I think that partially one of the reasons -- the question from the reporter was, hey. You're doing this with DOGE already. How come?

Well, part of it, was a lot of the DOGE stuff got blocked. A lot of the DOGE stuff got blocked by courts, and it's a real problem. This is a way they think they have a little more legal clearance on it.

Glenn, can I give you one trip down memory lane here though? Fun trip down memory lane. Let's go back to 2009, if we could.

Barack Obama. He's doing the State of the Union address.

GLENN: Oh, my God.

STU: And in the middle of this great man's address, as he's talking about the wonders of Obamacare. An evil Republican legislator screams out, "You lie!" From the audience.

It's a massive controversy. A terrible.

GLENN: Because you don't do that. You don't call the president of the United States a liar.

STU: Decorum, sir.

GLENN: Decorum. Decorum. You can call him a Nazi. But you don't call him a liar!

Okay.

STU: So he says, you lie. Why does he say you lie?

He says, because Barack Obama is up there on the stage. And Barack Obama says, with Obama care, we're not going to be giving any health care to illegal immigrants.

GLENN: You lie.

STU: You lie. That's the controversy.

Everyone says, of course, every media report is, of course, this isn't Obamacare.

How would he even claim such a thing?

And then the next president -- the next presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, puts it in the middle of her website! Running for office.

That's 2016.

It's part of her platform, that illegal immigrants will get care under Obamacare.

Part of her platform.

They go from you lie. To part of the platform, in just one presidential election. And then, we should note, now, that it's so shocking, that illegal immigrants wouldn't get health care, out of Obamacare.

We need to shut the government down, over it!

STU: That is how your country works, in three easy steps.

GLENN: Yep.

That is -- that is by definition, progressivism.

STU: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

GLENN: You -- you move in the direction. But you say, no. It will never be that. Then the next president. The next opportunity, you move a little further.

And then the next president, the next opportunity, you're like, of course, that's what it is.

I mean, it's just right there.

STU: And then you say, how dare you, hurt these poor people by taking away that plan we say didn't exist. Oh, it's so frustrating.

GLENN: Right. And nobody knows. Because people are so stupid. They don't remember, you lie. They -- they have been ratcheted up into their hatred for the other side. And they always lie. They always lie. They always lie.

Like, when he stood up and called President Obama a liar. No. They weren't lying. They were telling the truth, because they understand how progressivism works.

But you refuse to see, you know. This is my favorite question to ask people. Is how did you get there?

How did you get there?

What do you mean?

How did you get to where illegal aliens should. Because you were against that ten years ago. In fact, you said, that's a lie. That will never happen.

Okay. So take me. That's a lie. That will never happen. Which you were passionate about.

Because you understood, we couldn't afford that. Tell me the logic, that had been introduced to you, over the last ten years. That made you move from that's a lie, that will never happen. How un-American of you to even say we would think that way. To, how dare you, even try we shouldn't be paying for that health care! Help me with the logic.

Because I want to understand.

My guess is: You've just been riding a wave of feelings and propaganda. So please, tell me, how did you get from that place, ten years ago, to this place, today?

Because there is no new information. There's none. In fact, the new information shows, it's even more insane to do it today, than it was ten years ago.