The United States is yet again on the verge of a government shutdown as House Republicans work to cut spending. But is that really a bad thing as the media has suggested? Glenn and Pat debunk some of the myths surrounding this current shutdown debate and review a "60 Minutes" report that details what your tax dollars are actually funding. Did you know that your money is bailing out small businesses in Ukraine? Meanwhile, here at home, small businesses are suffering under inflation. "We are destroying ourselves," Glenn warns, as the Biden administration depletes our munitions and oil supplies. So, maybe it's about time for a government shutdown.
TranscriptBelow is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Oh, man, I am so concerned about the government shutdown. And Pat is here to share my panic.
PAT: Oh man. I am scared. I am scared.
GLENN: What are we going to do?
PAT: I don't know. Same thing we always will, only it will be better. Because they are spending less of our money.
GLENN: But can they? Can they spend less of our money?
PAT: Well, they have to if the government shuts down, which is the beauty of a government shutdown.
They have to do all the necessary things. Like pay off the Social Security benefits and the veterans benefits, and all of that. They have to continue to do that, and they do.
STU: Yeah, including the interest.
PAT: Right. Right.
STU: You notice they're not talking about defaulting on the debt this time. That's weird.
PAT: That is weird.
GLENN: That was their biggest concern. We will default on the at the time. I haven't heard word one on defaulting on the debt.
PAT: I haven't either.
GLENN: That's weird. Now they're trying to say, you know these Republicans, they want to have a government shutdown. Because they want to shut down the ATF. Yeah. Yeah. At least we're honest about it. You know, all the things you want to do. Oh, how dare you, we want to take guns away. We love guns. I was kissing mine last night. Oh, I cleaned the tongue. I cleaned the barrel of my gun with my tongue, I love it so much.
Shut up!
PAT: And while we're at it, maybe the FBI too. Maybe that can go as well. Maybe that can go.
GLENN: And I don't know. The IRS. That wouldn't be a bad thing.
PAT: Yeah. Department of Education. Yeah. Get rid of all the nonessential nonsense.
GLENN: Yeah. Kevin McCarthy says, we're not going to default.
We have a number of days until funding runs out.
Do you know what we didn't have until -- until 1980.
Government shutdowns?
We never had them.
If -- you know, if the budget wasn't done, and it happened many times, you know, since 1776.
The budget wasn't done. They just went on, and no big deal. The budget will be finished soon.
But now, after 1980, I wonder what changed.
PAT: Huh.
GLENN: I wonder what changed. Because now we have to shut it down.
No. We really don't. We really don't. It's all funny money in the first place, you know.
PAT: That's for sure.
GLENN: So the -- the House Republicans are working hard today, to get everybody on the same page.
And that is, yeah. We should stop spending all of this -- this money.
You know.
And what do you say? We start with a few things. Like, no. The taxpayer shouldn't pay for abortions.
And send people on a vacation. At our expense.
And then at the end of that vacation, they have an abortion. No. Uh-uh.
No. No. I don't think so. Uh-uh.
PAT: How do you feel about the money going to Ukraine though? You love this for small business loans?
GLENN: Well, now, hold on just a second.
We're trying to help them win a war. Let me -- let me give you a couple of clips, from CBS.
When was the last time 60 Minutes actually did something where, he cared about.
PAT: Yeah.
GLENN: Well, they did this weekend. Listen to this from 60 Minutes. Cut one.
VOICE: What Americans have to pay is financing more than just weapons. We've discovered the US governments are buying seeds and fertilizer for Ukrainian farmers, and covering the salaries of Ukraine's first responders.
VOICE: Yeah. Yeah, 57,000 of them. That includes between the trains. This rescue dog named, Joy, to comb through the wreckage of Russian strikes and looking for survivors.
GLENN: Okay. I don't mind helping that one.
VOICE: And the US also funds the divers who we saw clearing unexploded ammunition from the country --
GLENN: Maybe that. Maybe.
VOICE: To make them safe again. The swimming and fishing. Russia's invasion shrank Ukraine's economy by about a third. We were surprised to find that to keep it afloat, the US government is subsidizing small businesses.
GLENN: Wait. What. Hold it. Now, the dog thing. Okay. If we can help out on the dog thing, fine.
PAT: And it seems to be connected to the war.
GLENN: Yeah. And finding the unexploded bombs in the rivers.
Okay. Okay. But wait a minute. Wait a minute. Paying 56,000 firefighters to show up.
You know we're also paying the government salaries. And we're paying the people's Social Security. Okay?
We're not even paying it here.
And every dollar that we print to send over there, is causing inflation, here.
So while our -- while we're getting poorer and poorer, it's almost like he designed it to be this way.
While we're getting poorer and poorer, they're -- they're getting bailed out by our government. And every time we send a dollar over there, you get poorer.
And it's not because it's taking money.
It's because we're printing money. Inflation.
So now we find out, that they're also, they're not helping small businesses here.
No. No. No.
When we had COVID. No. Home Depot.
Sure. Home Depot. I mean, they're safe.
But the Ma and pop stores, they're completely unsafe.
Huh! And now we're paying.
But wait, there's more. Cut two.
VOICE: Russia's invasion shrank Ukraine's economy by about a third. We were surprised to find that to keep it afloat, the US government is subsidizing small businesses, like Tatiana's mid-ware company.
PAT: Oh.
VOICE: That's cute.
GLENN: Oh, that is very nice.
VOICE: This fashion is a condition of war. We have to work. We have to pay taxes. We have to pay --
GLENN: Taxes. Oh, no.
VOICE: To our employees. We have to work. Don't stop.
VOICE: Why does that help Ukraine win the war?
VOICE: Because economy, it's a foundation of advocacy.
It's an aid from government, but it's an aid, say, from their heart of every ordinary American person.
GLENN: Okay. So wait. Hang on just a second. I'm not sure all that aid is from the heart of every American. Because we didn't know. If they would have asked us to help out, we would have been -- we would have been great. We are the most charitable nation in the history of the world.
PAT: And we would. We do give charitably.
GLENN: Correct.
PAT: More than the rest of the world, combined.
GLENN: Correct. But instead, they went through our government. And our government didn't tell us what they're doing. And they are doing things that are causing us pain. And not just pain.
What's happening here is, we are destroying ourselves. We're giving them all of our tanks and ammunition, that we are now dangerously low.
Dangerously low.
We don't have enough howitzer shells in you, to do any kind of war.
And we can only make 25,000 of those, a month.
Russia is using 60,000 a day.
A day. So I don't know.
I don't feel comfortable with this.
We've also destroyed our own oil supply. Our strategic oil reserve, almost gone.
We're destroying our ability to make oil, to find oil. To find oil. To refine it into gasoline. And yet, we're sending stuff over there.
We're letting everybody have whatever they want over there.
Including fertilizer.
Which our farmers are being told, we can't use any more, because of global warming.
Huh. Now, that's weird. How come it's okay for Ukraine. But not for us.
You haven't even passed a farm bill over here, to help our farmers.
But we're buying their grain over there. Which, by the way, because they're getting free grain.
They're planting crops. They can now sell it at such a low cost. That Poland has said, you're killing our farmers.
We can't support you anymore, Ukraine.
See what happens when man starts to get involved in ways that he shouldn't get involved?
See what happens? All of the unexpected consequences that come from this?
Or maybe they are expected.
So now, the Biden administration is requesting over $20 billion more. We wondered how they were paying for it.
We wondered where it was going.
Well, there are some things that you should probably know.
There is -- there is some questioning of some of the people that were in the administration over there.
And part of the group that was getting the money, and divvying it out. I think about 60 of them now, are actually being investigated.
Or going to jail. Or have lost their jobs.
Because they were corrupt. And taking and using our money for other things.
I just didn't know we were paying for everything over there.
Things that we wouldn't pay for us, over here.
Didn't know that. Just --
PAT: Nobody did.
Except the administration.
Until Sunday, with 60 Minutes.
GLENN: Yeah. And USAID. Which is now run by Cass Sunstein's wife.
Remember her?
She's in charge of USAID. And that's where all this money is coming from. And being distributed through.
Now, one last thing.
You know, that lady at least sounded grateful.
I want you to listen to the Ukrainian's -- hmm. Tell us how they really feel about our money. Your money. Listen.
VOICE: The country is fighting formal its survival. Bankrolled in large part by US taxpayers.
The outcome may be decided by America's willingness to keep paying.
VOICE: Some Americans say, we're very sympathetic to you, Americans. But we're going through tough times at home, and we just can't afford to keep supporting you.
VOICE: Ukrainians pay with their lives.
GLENN: Ukrainians pay with their lives. And...
VOICE: And I believe all their lives are much more than money. Much more than taxpayer's money.
GLENN: Their lives count much more than taxpayer's money. Yeah. It does. It does.
Although, nobody asked us. Now, this is what Joe Biden is talking about, when he calls for -- when he's saying, it's going to be a government shutdown.
You don't have to shut it down. Just agree to send any more money to Congress.
And then propose exactly what you want. And exactly where it's going.
Go through the proper channels for it. But you don't want to do that. Because you know.
I mean, I find it amazing. That CBS and 60 Minutes. Ran this right at the beginning of the budget stuff.
STU: Yeah. Incredible.
GLENN: That says something.
STU: Yeah. It does. It says, even they are getting fed up now with the shenanigans of this administration.
GLENN: Hopefully.
PAT: I hope so.
And I think, you know, we talked about this a little bit yesterday. But I think even the liberals in the media, are disgusted with this president.
And they see the fact.
And even if they're not disgusted. They understand he's a problem. And he might not win.
Because people are seeing, how compromised he is, mentally and physically. And so this might be part of encouraging him to exit.
GLENN: By the way, we now have photos of the ambassador -- the American ambassador, that was over in Ukraine.
Meeting twice with the Burisma official. After being told the firm was corrupt.
So we were told, that they didn't know anything. It's impossible to not know that Burisma and the head of Burisma was a total oligarch, that literally beheads the people, that -- that are in his way. And our American ambassador was told, as was Joe Biden, don't meet with these guys.
Don't. They're really, really bad. But the Burisma official, who worked closely with Hunter Biden was invited to two separate events, by the US ambassador.
For what reason? For what reason?
After she was told, have no contact with this person.
What was going on? What is still going on?
Why are we bankrupt America. This isn't America 1960, 1940. We have lost our manufacturing base. We are now in the midst of losing our cheap energy. And we have lost our cheap labor.
So what made America, America, in the 1940s, '50s, and '60s was, we had cheap labor. We had abundant, cheap energy. We had all of our natural resources. And nobody else had anything.
Well, now we don't have those things. Because they've been taken off the table.
And now when we do a marshal plan, by the way, in inflation-aged numbers, we are only about $50 billion away, and Joe Biden wants another 20 billion today. We're about $50 billion away, from the cost of the entire marshal plan.
Which rebuilt Europe.
PAT: Wow.
GLENN: Where is all that money? Where is all that money?
And had you --
PAT: And what you want to bet, we're past that already. In reality. We don't have any idea.
GLENN: Correct.
So when they say, we have some extremists, that want to shut the government down.
I don't think it's extremist.
I really don't. With all the corruption, which we'll get into here in a second.
All the corruption that seems to be everywhere now.
Everywhere. All these deals being made with foreign countries by our senators. And our House members.
On top of that, the incredible spending!
I think it would be a good idea to shut it down.