To be the iHeartRadio app. Take that wherever you want. You also stream it, but also podcast that. We're here for you, especially if you're driving and stuck in god awful traffic this morning. Yes, we had rain and we've had some significant rainfall today and tomorrow. And you know what that means. We're going to practice driving like morons. All of us are going to drive stupidly. So we have accidents and backups and all that stuff as well. So hang type, be patient, and it is what it is.
So we jump in this morning with news a governor a shutdown of course, approaching the thirty day mark, and it's starting to become a growing liability for both the Democrats and Republicans. So Republicans passed the Continuing Resolution, which is basically kicking the can down the road to fund government.
We do.
That's all we do now is continuing resolutions and then address it later on. And the threat a shutting the government will happen in another seven weeks. So Democrats have blocked it. They want enhanced Obamacare subsidies and want Medicaid funding. And now with forty two million people set to lose flo's assistance with snap benefits on Saturday. Is anyone feeling the pressure at all to get this thing wrapped up?
And I'll know too that congressional approval rating has plummeted from twenty six percent, which is awful, to fifteen percent in the past month. A fifteen percent approval rating. To put that in perspective, the Cincinnati Bengals defense has an eighteen percent approval rating. That's how bad it is. Kevin Burton is a political analyst at Crosstown Consulting in northern Kentucky. Kevin, welcome back.
How are you? Thanks for having me, sloney, appreciate it.
Before we get into the national politics of this, I want to put our local head on and I know you isn't a keen observer of both sides of the Ohio River. We have an election coming up in seven days. Mayor aft Ted Pureval has fired but not fired Chief Thiji Terry Thigi, the police chief. They're going to take until the end of the year. They've hired Frost Brown, Todd and Company to poke and prod and find out why they fired her. If that makes any sense, that
that doesn't have to make sense because it's politics. I suspect that Aftab will not pay political price for this, and he'll get re elected. But you wonder about members of council. Somebody's gonna have to pay the price, and not just Terry Thiji. I think would you agree or disagree?
So yeah, I mean for as mayor Aftabs going to win reelection. You you know, you have about as good as chances getting a date with halle Berry as Astappas is losing, like it's not gonna happen.
He's going to win.
The real question is going to be there's a lot of legacy family names on the ballot this time. Uh you know, you have a Mallory, you have a dree House, Uh you know, Lukita Cole is a well known name. So the question really is how many people vote, you know, let's say six incumbents, two or three of the you know, non incumbents, and is that enough to get someone like a Chris Smitherman or Liz Keating through the finish line.
So you know, we can all speculate, but I would say Chris Smitherman and Unless Keating are the two best to break the stronghold of the Democratic All Council.
And then you wonder who loses.
I think last time, it was council Member Anna Oldby is the one who I think she was just above the threshold, right the nine papose person to get it. And you wonder who it is going to be this time for sure, But somebody's going to pay some price. There's just too many people running and there's too much upheaval, and namely with this crime issue that's polarizing everybody. Aftab
will be just fine. But at the same time, politically speaking, in seven days and I think he's pretty much a lock at this point.
No such thing.
You never know, but I just don't see the demand by people who live in Hamlin County, specifically Cincinnati's saying, yeah, we got to get rid of him. I don't know if the alternative is better or not. I know a lot of people are lobbing, but I'm not sure that works in all blue Hamlin, deep blue Hamlin County. But I would think he's going to be on somewhat of a short lease with the new council coming in and
go correct. Isn't that what he's going to have to pay politically, is he's going to have to probably be a little bit more in tune with what's happening and doesn't have as much wiggle room as he used to.
Well, I mean, first off, the city of Cincinnati voted roughly seventy five to twenty five percent for Harris versus Trump, so they you can suffer a lot of defections and still be completely fine, you know. For Astab, I think the bigger issue is going to be the posturing of council candidates after this election, because he's term limited out for mayor and what's what's the number one thing politicians do?
They try to make themselves look better. So I think for the next you know, two four years, you're going to see a different council because now the stakes are you know, there's more at stake because all of them want to be mayor. So I think you're going to start seeing more pushback, more, you.
Know, different thought processes. So it'll be interesting to see does the dismissal of Terry Thiji play with the electorate. You know, we tend to be a little more newsy and news cycle. I can smell BS a mile away. Uh you can too.
I think most people listening have a good sense of that as well, because you look at this makes no sense whatever, But the typical voter doesn't pay that close attention. Do the optics of her dismissal or I guess her suspension while I investigate what is it she did wrong? Which is completely backwards? Does that actually play with voters?
Well, we will see in seven days. Historically, no, I mean, you know, everyone always talked about how they're tired of the status quo, you know, and all this. Ninety one percent of the time, the better finance candidates win, ninety percent of the time, you know, the incumbents win.
Right at the end of the day, it's up to the voters.
And time and time again, voters for just have apathy and they justn't keep voting for whoever's in office. Yeah, and no real change ever really happens.
Well then, and then, first of all, it's deep blue, so it favors after pure vol has incombatated favors in but also the the money. He's over three hundred thousand dollars and believe Corey Bowman, the challenger, has less than sixty. So that kind of tells you what he's up against there. Let's shift to what's going on the federal government. Kevin Burton, political analysts with Crosstown consultings upholster with the shutdown itself, and now we're As I said at the beginning, I
think I hate you on too. It's all theater. For the first few weeks of the shutdown, it's nothing but theater. Because eight percent of government is shut down. The other ninety two percent is doing just fine. It's like letting the receptionists go home early, turning the lights out in the front office. But people are still working behind the scenes. It's just you don't see the forward facing stuff like
parks and trash pickup and stuff like that. There are forty two million people, forty two million families set to lose food assistance with SNAP shutting down on Saturday because there's no funding. I asked, who's feeling the pressure at all? Fifty percent blame Republicans, forty three percent blame Democrats with independence.
It's about fifty one thirty four Republican.
And obviously the reason why is because Republicans controlled the White House, the Senate, and the House, so that makes them the more vulnerable party. But I remember starting to shift relative to people blaming Democrats with us.
So yes, in the last three weeks it was substantially more. It basically went from thirteen points now down to seven. You know, so the Republicans have closed the gaps, but at the end of the day, I don't know how much lower it's going to go because they do control both chamber, and you know, frankly, both parties are gambling with forty two million lives, which I mean, I think that's the bigger issue that we should be talking about. That Just get the job done. Like you guys are elected,
you are still getting paid. But if you're trying to fly with TSA or anything, it's a nightmare. I just think the American people just want it done. Just get the deal done. That's what you're elected, right.
Democrats will say, well, we're getting some traction here because you know, we're on the right side with healthcare. Americans favor us and our plans with healthcare. Republicans really don't have a plan. And we just had seven million people show up to attend a No Kings rally. Whatever the hell that was, that has no impact whatsoever for them to look at the No Kings rally go A million people showed up this week in the protest. They all protested Trump for different reasons.
Yeah, you know, no, and sometimes when you're the loudest, it doesn't mean anything. It's you know, it's an echo chamber. The real question is how many new people did you get? Because at the end of the day, Trump has figured out that his model of it's fifty plus one, So every single election is fifty percent of the vote plus one more person. And he knows his bass, he knows how to turn him out bigger than everything. And there
is a lot of silent Trump voters. So you know, at the end of the day, Democrats need to play this smart and frankly, you know, jakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer have looked kind of like a deer in a headlight. Regardless of what you thought of Nancy Pelosi, she stood on she was a fighter. Can you say the same about those two?
No?
No, The thing is if this shutdown extends in November, we're closing in thirty five days is the longest period we have with a shutdown. That's largely because of the real cuts. We start to see the theaters at the first few weeks. Now you're starting to see the real results of the shutdown. People not getting food, and food is instance, and like, if this extends into November and we see the Obamacare premiums hit millions of Americans, which
party's better position to capitalize on that. You want to say the Democrats, But with the leadership and lack of direction they have, I don't think that's necessarily true to you.
I would still favor the Democrats just because healthcare is kind of their number one thing. And frankly, you just said Obamacare. So if Obamacare goes up three you know, three times under a president, you're going to be like, well, under Obama was this.
But I just think it speaks.
More of just how in the last twelve years you can't get anything done anymore. No, it's so polarizing that, you know, frankly, both sides need to concede a little bit and if it's good for eighty five percent of the country, just get the deal done.
And if you're complaining and you're part of the no Kings movement, which I know, we have a king because he just does what he wants with executive order.
It's because of what we're talking about.
The Congress is so ineffective, so gridlocks and dead luck that they you know, we certainly Joe Biden had his share of executive orders. Now Trump has exceeded that for sure, but that that's the new reality. Congress isn't doing their job. They're not legislating anymore. They're just leaving it to the president and their guy via executive order.
And this is why we should have term limits in Congress. I mean, frankly, you have people in there who's been in all like their careers have been thirty plus years in Congress. Get out, you're too old, right, like sorry, Like I just you know, it boggles my mind that we have term limits for governors, we have term limits for presidents, but heaven forbid, senators and representatives have terms now.
Pilots, truck drivers, there's all sorts of occupations in the real world where you can't work past a certain age, and there's nothing wrong with that. But I don't understand how an eighty plus year old lawmaker is relevant. And you know, you've got to explain them how an iPhone works before you can actually address the issues of legislating what that looks like, and no idea whatsoever. They're completely clueless. And those are the most senior people in leadership positions.
The Shoomer's the world. There's just so many of them right now, and I think we can do better, and term limits are certainly part of that. Kevin, regarding this, at some point, do you think that there's going to be cool or heads like, is it really going to get to the fact that forty too many people won't get snap benefits starting on Saturday? I know it's kind of like overplayed, but that hits home for a lot of people, especially with you know, going to the grocery
store and seeing like the cost of beef. You know, I'm nowhere certainly near, thank god, receiving public assistance. I go to the store and I see ground beef. I go, yeah, you know what, I like ground beef. But I'm good I'm not paying those kind of prices right now. That that's really got to hit home for these lawmakers. Do you see this thing ending before Saturday that they're going to come to a conclusion and if so, let's get down the path of what that looks like.
Well, and that's that's the billion dollar question.
I mean, gambling with forty two million lives is a risky proposition for both sides. I don't have the data of where those forty two million you know, voters are.
But it's kind of like a kid.
You know, when you have an exam, you're going to push it off, push it off, push it off. Well, you know, Friday is kind of the date you have to get it done by, and if you don't, then there's actual serious consequences. And this keeps going longer in November. You know, the busiest time of the year to travel is during Thanksgiving, so you're going to create even more of a headache with TSA and the air traffic. So to your point, starting Saturday is when you know it really hits home.
And we're seeing a fifteen percent approval rating. Fifteen percent that has got to be close to an all time low for Congress.
Yet you know ninety percent of incumbents will still win. It is you know, it's the complete It's just amazing that, you know, we all agree that Congress isn't effective, but then you know everyone turns around and just rubber stamps them again. And I think the interesting thing is, and you're kind of seeing this with up in New York with Mindani and that in a lot of ways, the
Democrats are kind of going through what Republicans. Did you know ten years ago that they felt like, you know, they're hardy apparatus has sailed them, and there's kind.
Of a revolt.
You know, so like the neo liberals, I want to be shocked if he starts seeing maybe even Chuck Schumer and all these older ones get primaried because you know, because that's exactly what Trump and you know, the Maga movement kind of really did that, you know, simply they said that we are tired of the status quo and you kind of let us down the road and we've gotten nowhere.
Thomas Massy a great example of that where you are in Kentucky. To get out of this mess, they'd have to strike a deal to save face. And I guess if we're looking at the Democrats are talking about, you know, we've got seven million Americans losing their healthcare. We're trying to prevent that. We we forced Republicans to back down from gutting Obamacare, and this is what we're fighting for, Republicans to say, you know, we want a targeted relief,
we don't want more socialism, socialist expansion. We save hundreds of billions of dollars with you know, but by gutting this, by stopping this, and restored responsible governance and ended democratic obstruction cent So that's what both sides will say. Which is the winning messaging?
I mean, on paper, it should be the Democrats, but they've played everything wrong against Trump for the last decade.
However, So you know, if I.
Was the Democrats right now, I would say, aren't we raking in billions of dollars in tariffs? And then that helped pay for this? But they're incompetent. Their leadership is incompetent. So if you ask me, I think Republicans will come out of this probably, you know, absolutely, fine.
Yeah, I would think.
So.
It's just because the idea is and I think most people realize, like, well, we're subsidizing something. Okay, great, and I need it. I need it today. I don't care it's going to bankrupt the country because we're just borrowing more money. It's way too ex HEALTHA is way too expensive. We're subsidizing that. That's other people's tax money that you're
subsidized with. But you know, if you can't afford to get A, or your fear that you know, my chronic illness is going to come back and I can't get coverage, and I'm gonna fall between the quack cracks and what happens. Everything I work for is is gone right. I get the urgency, that's a different matter entirely, and I could see where both sides everything, but but yeah, I think
they just come to a conclusion. Go listen, this has been too you know, if you get the speakers together, the length and the pain of the shutdown, it's been too long. It's probably we're gonna we're gonna do something for thirty day, seven weeks, whatever it is. We proved our point. It's time to govern at some point. Somebody's got to do that, or both sides got to do that, don't they.
He would think, So go to your job. Everyone else has to do their job. I mean they're still collecting paychecks, so you know, it's the rule for the but not for me. And that's just the story of our Congress. Where they can do insider training, where they can basically do whatever they want and not actually have consequences. And yeah, I mean they need to get to work.
I know that today and all I there a meaning about the constitutional convention of all things, which is a whole political whole different matter entirely, but about getting control and our arms back around our government that they work for us.
Uh.
You know you talk about no kings, but that would apply to Congress as well based on what you just said. Kevin Burton is with Crosstown Consulting. He's a political Anamson polster in northern Kentucky. Kevin, thanks to the inside is always good stuff.
Thank you, Falney.
Appreciate it.
By the way, real quick, what if you're going to put odds on this thing as a political guy, the odds of this thing ending, the shutdown ending by Saturday is what what would you put money on?
I would say sixty five seventy percent?
Okay, so seven out of ten chance that this thing is done by Saturday, they fix it.
I just think that you know, there's elections, you know, in a week from now, so there's real consequences, and you know you're gambling with forty two million lives. I think both sides will blank.
You just have to.
Yeah, the opt on that are terrible. Kevin, all the best, Thanks again, brother, Yeah, I appreciate you. Let's get a time out in we got a news update. Traffic is an absolute disaster. Still in areas. Chuckle have an update for you a real time on that one as well, and it's going to just continue to be wet here
for the next couple of days. Weekend for the little trick or Treat is looking pretty good though full details in that in news in just about four here, and when we return, a case has been made with an untimely death. As far as talk about bodily autonomy, I'm going to make the case for being allowed to sell your organs, and it has something to do with the news happening over the weekend here. Local news for that matter, just add slowly seven hundred WLW