The Joyce Kaufman Show 10/3/25 - Government Shutdown offers a unique opportunity, Breaching laws for control, Democratic spending, Charlie Kirk

This is the Joyce Kaufman podcast, honest, straight and unapologelic, with your host, Joyce Kaufman. Well, happy Friday, and as always, we remember the men and women who serve in the military, because without them standing on the wall... where would we be? We would certainly not be safe. There are so many times when I see this dangerous world spinning out of control and I'm so grateful that the men and women who volunteer to stand on the wall, well, they are true and blue and red, white and blue. How about that? So we've got a government shutdown going on, which you know doesn't bother me. I feel as though the government being shut down is an opportunity for us to catch our breath maybe and just realize that there are so many people working in these bureaucracies in all of these departments in Washington, D.C., and actually in state capitals as well, that are unnecessary. Now, that doesn't mean I believe the person is unnecessary, but the job may be unnecessary. And now is an opportunity. So for the Democrats who thought they were so slick and who thought they could pull this off and end up making the American people like them better, I got some good news and some bad news. Well, the good news is you're still a party. The bad news is nobody likes you, and the odds on people voting for you, either to put another Democrat in the White House or to give the Democrats a majority in either the House of Representatives or the Senate, your odds are terrible. And that's just the truth. It's not me being mean. It's me telling you the truth. They're deeply divided the Democrat Party right now on this government shutdown to nowhere, and it's only a matter of time before they break. But even if they don't, the cost of the shutdown will only amount in unexpected ways. all to accomplish what might have been better attempted had Democrats won one or both majorities in the House and Senate in 2026 and then would actually be in a better position to negotiate. Are government shutdowns popular? Maybe they are, but Democrats better hope not when they're in the majority. Because if they're a good thing and politically expedient, then Republicans will try them more often, too, even when their only leverage in the Senate is a filibuster. But by that time, say 2029 or 233, maybe Democrats, when they have a trifecta again,

You know, Democrats usually win the trifecta of the House, Senate, and White House when they win the electoral college will just abolish the filibuster so they can completely federalize elections, pack the Supreme Court, make more states to pack the Senate, impose the Green New Deal, and then they'll have proper socialist republic, just like they tried in 2022. Who knows? Until the next election. And then they'll wish they had never breached the delicate norms that have governed Congress for decades. Or maybe if the government shutdown goes on long enough now, in 2025, it will be Trump and Republicans who first break the sacred seal and start passing appropriation bills on simple majorities and just dismantle the federal leviathan right now. President Trump is already threatening irreversible reductions in force of the federal workers. He can get there with executive actions during the lapse in funding, but Congress could just pour cement on it with partisan appropriations bills. Right now, Decades to build, but toppled in moments. Is that what Democrats really want? The appropriations process in 2025 is a direct consequence of the elections of 2024, wherein the American people's will was that the Republicans would have House and Senate majorities and President Donald Trump would be reelected, which temporarily limits the role of the opposition party. The American people are expecting Republicans to govern. In 2021, the roles were reversed and Republicans were similarly situated. Democrats had both chambers of Congress and Think about this. And the White House with former President Joe Biden, and they ran the table on bills like the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act and otherwise appropriations were similarly governed by continuing resolutions and omnibus spending bills. Republicans mounted principled opposition during the Biden years, even while they and their constituents were being surveilled and censored. Their party leaders were being unjustly prosecuted, and Biden was inciting the American people against them. But their leaders did not take them into battles that could not be won. There's not much you can do against the trifecta, except take a stand, maybe voice your opposition and do better in the next elections. Democrats don't have the votes. They can't get to 51, let alone 60 in the Senate, to do what they're asking, which frankly is absurd right after the 2024 election was won and lost.

on illegal immigration, among other issues. Democrats are proposing another $349.8 billion to make permanent the expanded premium tax credit under the 2021 American Rescue Plan and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act that substantially increased the Affordable Care Act premium subsidies. $40.3 billion to repeal a 2025 Department of Health and Human Services regulation that removes deferred action for childhood arrivals, we call it DACA, from the Affordable Care Marketplace, and $271.8 billion to repeal sections of the one big, beautiful bill. You know, they just Don't understand. This is a bill that cut waste and fraud and abuse from Obamacare, specifically repealing sections 71301, 71302 and 303 and 304 and 305 of the one big, beautiful bill act, which explicitly bars illegal aliens from receiving taxpayer-funded health care. That's according to estimates by the CBO. President Trump ran on deporting illegal immigrants and would never sign such a bill, creating not merely incentives, but benefits for those who violated our borders to remain in the country. It's nuts. And then Democrats claim they're not shutting down the government over the very grievances they just put forth. Just read the bill. Their opening bid in this fool's errand that won't accomplish anything other than proving that Democrats simply don't have the votes to enact their plan, and even if they did, they wouldn't have the votes to overcome a presidential veto. Democrats can't get to 218, and they can't get to 51 or 60, and most importantly, and they can't get across President Trump's desk. That's all that matters. Those are the thresholds that are required to command policy and law in this country. You can only do so much with 41 senators led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the Democrat from New York, the man who tried to abolish the filibuster. They are blocking a bill that's bound to pass at the end of the day. It's just a question of how long the posturing will go on. These are the kinds of differences that generally can only be overcome with elections, which will not be for another year in Congress and not for another three years for the presidency. That is, if normal order is going to be maintained. Democrats tried to abolish the constitutionally unnecessary filibuster in 2022, and now they wield it as if it were sacred. But the longer the shutdown goes on, the more likely it is that the equation might ultimately change. Democrats are tempting fate and the outcome might not be what they expect. That's just the truth. And it's time for the American people to understand that these are consequences of behaviors that we've been pointing out for literally over three

decades and to which the ignoring of the same has really cost them what I believe is any integrity for the Democrat Party in this country. That's just the reality and we can slice and dice it any way we want to or we can well I hate to say this we can watch them implode. And that is not my desire. I'd like to have a two-party system, a minimum of two parties. That seems to me to give us a way of representing values, and not everyone's values are going to be the same as mine. And there should be a way for us to duke it out in the electoral college, in small municipal elections. And yet... They've done everything they can, not just the Democrats, but the Republicans as well, to just mess it up. This system, which was so cleverly designed by the founding fathers, is a mess right now. And if you are not interested in fixing it, well, then is it probably not the show for you? So I've got to take a break right now. But I don't want you to touch that dial. It's Friday. You stay right where you are because I'll be right back. Welcome back. And I have to tell you that the Democrats in Congress, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, demanded lavish government spending on projects run by all their friends some $1.5 trillion worth during a few weeks of budgeting addressed in a proposed continuing resolution. The administration of President Donald Trump said the government couldn't and wouldn't afford that, so Chuck Schumer, working with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, assembled votes to kill the resolution, leaving the government in partial shutdown. And now the layoffs are coming. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary on Thursday said, thousands will be laid off if Democrats don't work to reopen the government quickly. It's likely going to be in the thousands, she said, and that's something that the OMB, the Office of Management and Budget, and the entire team at the White House here again, is unfortunately having to work on today. These discussions and these conversations, these meetings would not be happening if the Democrats had voted to keep the government open. The President already has confirmed a meeting is scheduled with OMB Director Russ Vought to finalize the total number of layoffs.

The House Speaker Mike Johnson, the Republican from Louisiana, has explained the process and the fact the president has the authority to lay off employees. This is the way the system works, Johnson said. The president takes no pleasure in this. The president did not want to shut down. Trump has mentioned the possibility of federal worker layoff several times, warning Democrats before they pushed for the shutdown that it could happen. He repeated the warning. I have a meeting today with Russ. He in Project 2025 fame, he literally is of their fame, to determine which of the many Democrat agencies, most of which are political scams anyway, he recommends to be cut. And whether or not these cuts will be temporary or permanent. And he posted the plans on truth social. Johnson said Democrats in their shutdown of the government abandoned their responsibility to you and me, to the people. When Congress turns off the funding and the funding runs out, it is up to the commander-in-chief, the president of the United States, to determine how those resources will be spent. Mm-hmm. You know, this is what you asked for. They're already... has been confirmation that the president could use the time during a shutdown to make changes in government that can be irreversible. A report at Fox News said Trump charged, I can't believe the radical left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity. They're not stupid people, so maybe this is their way of wanting to make America great again. Trump has underscored the report said that he and his allies did not want the government to shut down, but that it opened the door for some good that could come from it. Levitt explained to put this all into perspective, the Democrats refused to keep the government open over health care to illegal aliens and now have jeopardized critical health care programs for American citizens. Instead, the women, infants and children program, WIC, Community Health Center funding, Medicare treatment options, and some other health programs are now all at risk because of the Democrats rejecting the clean CR, the continuing resolution. Think about it. This is not going to end well for the Democrats. Not that I care, because to be honest, when you walk into a whirling buzzsaw, what do you think is going to happen? Yeah.

this is what's going to happen. And it's fascinating because I've been watching that historically no one really wins in a government shutdown, but JD Vance might. In the 24 hours after Senate Democrats voted against a continuing resolution to keep the federal lights on, the vice president quickly became the face of the White House counter argument. JD Vance began the day on Fox and Friends to blast Democrats for taking the government hostage. By mid-morning, he was rallying the MAGA base during an appearance on the Ben Shapiro, where he predicted that Democratic resolve was cracking. In the afternoon, the vice president made a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room. Reporters were only tipped off moments before when an advanced staffer set up the ceremonial flag of the vice president behind the podium. According to sources familiar with the day's planning, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt invited JD Vance to meet the press in person. The shutdown may amount to the first real crisis of the second Trump administration. The White House feels they have the upper hand because they are not the ones who caused it and because they have an ace up their sleeve in JD Vance. Another source, familiar with the strategy, told real clear politics that the vice president is widely known as the administration's bulldog, a natural excellent messenger who maintains a good relationship with his former Senate colleagues and served in the Senate. throughout the multiple government funding debates. It only makes sense for JD Vance to help President Trump drive this fight home, they added. And if JD Vance succeeds as the administration's point man in this debate, it could go a long way towards further cementing the expectation that Trump's apprentice will become the MAGA hero. Or even more importantly, the MAGA air. But the squabble in question is a little different than the normal brinksmanship over government funding, in large part because of who currently occupies the Oval Office. At the heart of the battle is a policy dispute over extending Obamacare subsidies and restoring Medicaid cuts that Republicans made in the one big, beautiful bill. but the president's marquee domestic policy achievement that one big, beautiful bill will stand. Trump alleges that in exchange for keeping the government open, Democrats are demanding that the federal government provide health care for illegal immigrants. Democrats counter that Republicans are lying because illegal immigrants cannot receive Medicare or Medicaid as part of the... OBBB, the one big beautiful bill, Republicans put up additional barriers to ensure, in large part, that non-citizens do not receive those benefits. They say that if the subsidies were restored, then millions of immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally but were paroled by the Biden administration would again have access to taxpayer-funded health care.

Listen to me, citizens have access to health care and are willing to have that conversation. But it's important to bracket the health care policy conversation because it's separate from the government shutdown. Listen, for now, the vice president is front and center in the shutdown conversation. Democrats have concluded as much, and that includes California Governor Gavin Newsom, a potential JD Vance opponent in the coming 2028 presidential election. A sign of the current digital discourse, Gavin Newsom posted a deep fake video of JD Vance dressed like and sounding like an umpah lumpa. This is what we've come to. Lord have mercy on the United States of America. Quick break, don't touch that doll. You stay right where you are because I'll be right back on this Friday as we wrap up the week. Obviously, by now you've noticed that my voice is shot. It's shot because I have my usual returning from California. cold, which my grandsons always seem to get and keep a cold when I'm coming, and then they transfer it to their grandmother with all the loving and hugging and kissing. And if you think I'm going to back away from the hugging and loving and kissing so I don't get the cold, you can forget about that. Any grandmother or grandfather out there knows exactly what I'm talking about, especially if you're long distance like I am and you're trying to make memories in the rare occasions when you're there. and I was in San Francisco and I brought back my usual. But on top of that, I went to a concert last night at the America Amarant. stadium where the Florida Panthers play, which is like a happy place because the Panthers have been doing extraordinarily well. And I sat in a section called The Vault, which I'd never done before. And when there's like spiritual or gospel concerts, they set aside, I'm sure there are boxes that during... the regular season of Panther games, you know, companies with lots of money pay so that the person who's going to the event not only has a great seat at the event, but also... will be served like a lot of good food. It was incredible. I'd never been there before, and there was all this food that was extraordinarily good, and I indulged, you know, because I figured I'm going to kind of have a cold anyway, so I need to build up my strength. You know, I can always come up with a good excuse for why I want to eat, or in the case of the last night, overeat.

But then what happened in there was absolutely amazing. And when I say this... I'm really not interested in those of you who go, oh, I certainly wish that Joyce wouldn't talk about these things or spiritual matters or, you know, church or her faith or anything like that. You can, I don't know, find something else to listen to then because it's an important part of who I am and it certainly was an important part of my day yesterday, which ended up at this Amarant... stadium. It's not a stadium. It's an arena. It's indoors. And great seats. And we were there for the Brandon Lake concert. And if you don't know who Brandon Lake is, okay, I get that. But he's like my favorite. And a number of my friends from church, the ladies, he's our favorite. His songs are incredible. He is really, really, really good to look at. The band was great. But when I tell you, there were. I believe 14,000 people inside of there. And it was like a revival. The singing, the raising of hands, it was an incredible night. And he talked, Brandon Lake talked about how he had been one of the worship leaders at the Charlie Kirk Memorial in Salt Lake City and how it wasn't in Salt Lake City. It was in Salt Lake City. It was in Arizona. He was really surprised at how the entire day, and it was a long memorial, was devoted to spiritual matters and that, you know, he was saying that he believes there is a revival coming on. And I've been saying this for a long time. There's only two ways that we can go now. You know, one of them is that we can forget about God and try to keep doing this on our own. How's that working for us? It's not working at all. Or... The other side is that we could embrace the idea that maybe if we just returned to a spiritual basis, if we actually felt like we had to answer to a God, we might behave better. That's what I saw last night. Families, young people, singing and praising God, whatever that means to you or however you see that in your mind's eye, I was absolutely stunned, and it didn't help that my barely there voice was singing at the top of my lungs. So I have to accept some responsibility for this crummy voice I have today, but I wouldn't have done it any other way. And I hope that you...

forgive me and that you understand in my show it's never been about my voice it's always been about the content and one of the things that had occurred to me was you know we talk about the violence that's out there and the families that are disintegrating and the young people that are doing terrible things and some of those things came back to haunt me when I got home last night. Like for instance, the friends and family of a 60-year-old guy named Joey Alexander are grieving because he came to a violent end at the hands of a drug user in San Francisco, where I just came back from. He worked for urban alchemy, which is a nonprofit that the city uses to prevent crime and drug abuse. through these sort of community-based initiatives rather than always using law enforcement officers. He was the first of the non-profits workers to die on the job, but he was the third to get shot. Workers are sent into dangerous places of the city without any law enforcement training. And on Friday, he confronted a man outside the library in Civic Center Plaza just before 5 p.m. and just asked him to stop using illicit drugs in front of children. Now, I've gone to that park with my grandson, Benjamin Netanyahu, since he was a... since he was born and he's going to be 13 this month and the man pulls out a shotgun and shoots the peace street worker in the gut and he died four days later at the hospital when i was there this was all going on and police arrested 43 year old edmund bowen and booked him into jail Urban Alchemy is a group, an organization that recruits people with criminal past who are trying to fix their lives and pays them to be street ambassadors and help deter crime as well as, you know, kind of deter drug abuse. And he reportedly served 23 years in prison. prior to working for the non-profit for the last two years. That was his beat in front of the main library. He showed up to work every day when it was his shift, said Jess Montahano, a spokesperson for the urban alchemy. You know, these are people. trying to do some good in their communities. He went on to say that the incident has scared the other workers. It's a tight-knit team. There's definitely some fear amongst urban alchemy practitioners right now. It's very easy to see themselves in Mr. Alexander, he said. Montejano told KQED TV that Alexander was the first of the non-profits workers to die on the job, but he was the third one to get.

shot. He said workers were sent into these dangerous places and they don't have any law enforcement training. They're trained with their lived experience, he said, to bring more peace and safety and cleanliness onto the streets. It's an unfortunate reality. They do experience hate and sometimes violence in the line of work that they're doing. And the nonprofit won contracts from a lot of cities to operate homeless shelters and implement this sort of community. community-based solutions, but it's been plagued with criticism about, you know, some financial mismanagement, as well as improper conduct by some of the workers. And on Tuesday, about 100 workers were laid off by the group in Texas. And they're mourning this loss, but they said, I'm grateful for all of our ambassadors, including those from Urban Alchemy, this according to the mayor. Daniel Lurie every single day they work alongside our city outreach workers and law enforcement to help those on the street and keep all of us safe. You know this is decent work being done by decent people and the saddest thing of all is that we are so unappreciative and that's why I trust me when I hear a story like this and then I have been at an event like I was last night I hold on to this glimmer of hope that somehow, some way, there's still enough good. in the American people, there's still enough desire to do the right thing in the American people that we can actually succeed and maybe pull off a revival, not just a spiritual revival, which I believe is totally necessary, but also a revival of a patriotic spirit, you know, the kind of thing that Charlie Kirk certainly talked about. And if we don't, well... This country won't survive in the current path that we're on. We're going to end up blowing this incredible opportunity that the Founding Fathers gave us to create a country that, in fact... stood up for all the right things. And I still believe in it. I know you do too. So we just got to keep on, keep it on. Don't forget, coming up after me is Guy Benson followed, though I believe someone's sitting in for him. It was Tom Shaloo yesterday, did a great job. Then comes Will Kane, followed by...

Joe Pags, Lars Larson, the overnight guys, and then we officially enter the weekend. But the weekend won't last forever. I wish that it could, and I'll be back as will Jennifer Ross and Stephen Deiner on Monday. They'll be back at 6 a.m. Brian Kilmeade will be back at 9. Eric. Erickson will be back at noon and I'll be back Monday at 3 o'clock. But I still have a segment left in this program. I'm not going to be talking with Derek today, but I still have some things to say. So don't touch that dial. I'll be right back. Well, let's face it, the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk on September 10th. started a lot of conversations in this country, a lot of politically charged conversations, not only about the frightening increase in political violence, but about the suspected killers associations with these non-heteronormative relationships and so-called furries. I didn't even know what that was, but on September 12th, just hours after investigators revealed that an engraving on one of the bullet made reference to an online meme mocking gay furries. The suspect, this Robinson character, who got apprehended, and it's amazing to me. He's in a relationship with a roommate who is transgendered or believes he's a woman. And this... motivated the killer to go after Charlie Kirk. Now, I have a hard time drawing a straight line from one thing to the other, but I'm getting a little bit concerned about all of these so-called gender reformatives. I don't even know what to refer to them as anymore, committing violent crimes and really showing psychopathology like we've never seen before. you know, over romance. You know, there was a photo of his roommate online. The dude is wearing an animal costume, and that photo went viral. And the New York Post and some other outlets reported that an account name associated with the killer appeared on this website. It's a sexual fetish called fur affinity.net, prompting speculation that... He has a furry fixation. I mean, give me a break here, guys. You know, you think you're trapped in a body of the opposite gender, or you think you're trapped in a human body when you're actually some kind of animal? This stuff is weird. It's not amazing to me that weird... Thinking leads to weird behavior. And that's what we're seeing. In general, furries are people known to put on animal costumes and exhibit animal behaviors, which once was the sort of topic that if you talked about it at all, you like whispered.

and only in like private company with your closest friends but this furry culture has gone mainstream and it's all over the place even in k through 12 public education systems across the country reports are indicating that since 2012 furry like groups have sprung up in school districts in Arizona California Colorado Kentucky and Texas In April of 2024, the Blaze News exposed a growing furry problem at Mount Nebo Middle School in Payson, Utah, about 20 miles or so south of Utah Valley University, where Kirk was murdered. This is just beyond weird now. Students, parents, and even a former staff member at the school shared a bunch of disturbing stories about students who identified as furries wearing animal-like costumes, barking at each other, chewing on sticks in class, playing fetch in the halls, and even biting classmates who invaded their territory. Despite extensive video and photographic evidence of furries at the school, Novo School District initially denied the existence of a furry problem, repeatedly insisting to Blaze News that the issue was akin to kids occasionally dressing up as their favorite baseball player or basketball star. That's just the thing that kids at this age do, according to district spokesman Seth Sorenson. who said at one point, these rumors are unfounded and are not occurring in our schools. Well, days later, the district moderated those denials, claiming to take any and all harassment very seriously and pledging that no group of students would be permitted to target and harass each other. Oh, really? You know, think about this. We have kids out there right now who either think they're trapped in the wrong gendered body or that they're actually animals. And they should behave like animals. And that's what you're seeing. None of this should come as a surprise to us anymore. We have tolerated the intolerable. We've accepted the unacceptable. And we continue to do that. And my friends, you're seeing the results. You have homegrown terrorism, which isn't even terrorism. It's just demented behavior. And we've been allowing this for so long. I don't know.

whether or not we're going to be able to stem the flood of insanity that I see coming down the pike. I did want to end on this note. Ron DeSantis says that we are the first county that has recognized Charlie Kirk. It's been installed in Florida. A county commission voted unanimously to approve a memorial. Republican Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis announced that the first county recognition of the life and legacy of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who could be or would be installed in this state. Kirk, of course, struck and killed by an assassin's bullet. I was just talking about the fact that the assassin was a furry. I mean, I never even heard of these. things and now we talk about them every single day in every single way. Ron DeSantis said on Thursday in a statement on social media that a highway in Florida would bear Charlie Kirk's name. The Charlie Kirk Memorial Highway has been approved by the Lake County Commission. The road is a section of Wellness Way from U.S. 27 to the Orange County line. Lake County's dedication of the highway represents the first County to memorialize Kirk in the aftermath of his assassination. And on September 23rd, the Lake County Commission voted unanimously to support the name change that was proposed by Commissioner Anthony Sabatini. The section of highways located west of Orlando. It's amazing. I love how fast this happened. That's what the spokesman for Turning Point USA, Andrew Colvitt, said. Every city and county in America should follow the lead of Lake... County Florida and name a road or a highway or something in honor of Charlie Kirk and you know there was some contentious going on in that meeting but they stuck to it and they did Sabatini indicated that there would be a naming ceremony for the memorial and I'm going to try to get there I know Erika Kirk has you know she's taking over the Turning Point USA and she'll be there. It's just time. It's time for conservatives to come out of the closet. Take your rightful place at the table. That's my opinion. So I thank you for your time this time until next time. And my plan is to be back here on Monday at 3 p.m. if it be his will and he delays his coming. Remember that what lies ahead of us and what lies behind us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. So wherever you are, just be yourself. Everybody else is taken. And then as I always like to say, may God bless you.

May God bless Israel and may God bless the USA. Stay safe. Don't stop worshiping God. Don't stop going to church. It's going to be all right. And I will see you all on Monday. This has been the Joyce Kaufman podcast. Available everywhere you get your podcasts.