Shutdown, Breakdown, Takedown: They're Busted! (Again)

It's your Sunday shows rundown!

As we fast approach what will soon be the longest shutdown in our nation’s history, we are reminded of the the previous longest shutdown in 2019, created by our tantrum-throwing White House resident and his all-too-willing congressional sycophants. Like painful poetry, Trump history always rhymes.

And just like in 2019, the Sunday shows ... well, they said words!

Scott Bessent

We begin with CNN’s State Of The Union with Jake Tapper interviewing Trump’s Treasury secretary and humble soybean farmer.

Tapper asked Bessent if SNAP benefits were being reinstated, as two federal judges ordered him to use $5.5 billion in contingency funds. Bessent responded by claiming twice that Donald Trump was still awaiting a court decision to release the now legally required funds, and Tapper had to clarify for Bessent (and the viewers) that it’s been decided already.

With that lie debunked, Bessent had to look for a new excuse to halt SNAP benefits, and his new one wasn’t very convincing.

BESSENT: No. But there’s a process that has to be followed, so we have got to figure out what the process is. President Trump wants to make sure that people get their food benefits.

We agree with Thor here.

This “process” is not difficult. The entire purpose of the SNAP contingency funds is to prevent a disruption.

Later on, Tapper played a clip of former President Barack Obama criticizing Trump for having a Great Gatsby-themed Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago, as SNAP benefits were cut off for millions of low-income Americans as he also bragged about his new bathroom renovations.

Bessent tried to defend his boss by telling an easily disprovable and quantifiable lie.

BESSENT: I believe President Obama played a record amount of golf of any president. So I’m not sure why he’s out there throwing stones.

Trump played 261 rounds of golf during his first term and 70 rounds since becoming president again, totaling 331 rounds of golf in his five presidential years. By comparison, Obama played 333 rounds during his eight years as president. So unless Trump never golfs for the next three years, he’s gonna smash Obama’s “record.”

Bessent went on to prove that for a finance guy he’s terrible with math when Tapper asked about recession fears.

TAPPER: Do you agree that the U.S. is at risk of facing a recession?

BESSENT: I believe that we are in a transition period here. […] if we are contracting spending, then I would think inflation would be dropping. If inflation is dropping, then the Fed should be cutting rates.

TAPPER: But do you think that the U.S. is at risk of a recession if the Fed does not continue to drop rates?

BESSENT: I think that we are in good shape, but I think that there are sectors of the economy that are in recession.

Translation: The sectors of the economy “in good shape” are for rich people.

But, hey, some good news: it seems we finally found the only “transition period” the GOP approves of. Too bad it's the one for every day Americans, between having disposable income and being debt-ridden.

Mike Johnson

Over on Fox News Sunday, host Shannon Bream interviewed House Speaker Mike Johnson. He has a very open schedule after sending Republican House members home for the sixth straight week, thus rendering his job obsolete.

After Bream read an excerpt from a Washington Post article showing voters hold the GOP responsible for the shutdown, Johnson tried to shift the blame to the Democratic Party for his party’s inability/unwillingness to negotiate a bipartisan solution.

Johnson tried using his experience as a pious evangelical to spew lies. But it was his insincere attempts to act as if he cares for SNAP recipients that broke the needle on our horseshit meter.

JOHNSON: You had 42 million recipients of SNAP in jeopardy right now because the nutrition program that President Trump and the White House have heroically funded thus far is running out of money.

Um, the funding was appropriated before, and Trump had nothing to do with it. There’s nothing heroic about what he did, nor about cutting funding. During the previous 2019 Trump shutdown, SNAP benefits continued with no issue and Trump’s own USDA said they could use these funds. So it’s clear that purposely starving people is not a bug, but a feature of Trump/GOP negotiation tactics.

Later, after Bream read an Axios article excerpt and a statement from Senator Chuck Schumer about the GOP “weaponizing hunger” against those most vulnerable, Johnson tried the old “we’re rubber, you’re glue” strategy.

He ended up having a Freudian slip, though:

JOHNSON: Absolutely absurd. […] Remember -- don’t get lost in the facts …

Bream then moved to the topic of the Affordable Care Act, as open enrollment began this weekend, and people can see their premiums skyrocketing. She mentioned Marjorie Taylor Greene criticizing her party’s lack of a solution or transparency. But while trying to dispute Greene’s critiques, Johnson all but confirmed them as accurate.

JOHNSON: We’re not gonna be on a conference call explaining all our plans and strategies for healthcare reform, because they’re leaked in real time.

Why would they be afraid of it leaking if it’s good? The answer is that they either have no concepts of a plan or, as given away accidentally by some Republicans like Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, they plan to bring back bad things like high-risk health pools.

Trump has previously expressed his love for ”The Gilded Age” and his desire to return us to 1920s America. A Bluesky user juxtaposed Trump’s Halloween party footage with complementary news headlines showing we are well on our way.

We are reminded of this quote from the titular Great Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book:

“Can’t repeat the past? Why, of course you can!”- Jay Gatsby

Have a week.

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