Government Spending & Shutdown Costs - Government shutdowns can cost taxpayers money [1] - A 2013 shutdown led to an estimated $10 million loss due to uncollected fees and charges [2] - Back pay to furloughed employees during the 2013 shutdown amounted to $25 billion [2] Discretionary vs Mandatory Spending - Congress controls approximately $18 trillion in discretionary funding for fiscal year 2024 [3] - Mandatory programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid cost $41 trillion in the same fiscal year [3] - Interest payments alone totaled $881 billion [3] Economic Impact - Shutdowns can be quite expensive for American taxpayers due to their impact on the economy [3]

Joining us now, a couple of Capitol Hill insiders. Former Republican Congressman Garrett Graves from Louisiana and Michael Hardaway, former spokesperson for Democratic leader Hakee Jeff. And I know Michael, you're trying to get that if in your ear so you can hear when we play those sound bites.Good to have you both as part of this conversation. Thanks so much. Here we are, day two of the shutdown.Congress isn't in session. We just listened to uh at least Speaker Johnson talk this morning about the pain that ...

Joining me right now, we have MSNBC White House correspondent Laura Baron and Capitol Hill reporter Kevin Fry along with Shenika McClendon, vice president political strategy at Crooked Media and former Florida representative and MSNBC political analyst Carlos Carbelloo. It's a big panel here. Um Laura, you know, I want to pick up with something that uh Yamisha just said.When the president told her that, yeah, we're going to be, you know, getting rid of a lot of people, but I'd rather not do that. Can't he t ...

Public Perception vs Reality - Americans overestimate the proportion of the federal budget spent on foreign aid, with an average estimate of 26% [1] - The actual proportion of the federal budget spent on foreign aid is approximately 1% [1]