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Heley Lions in Washington, where it has been an exhausting couple of days as lawmakers have been racing to beat the clock, which runs out just about eleven hours from now. They have until midnight tonight to avert a government shutdown, or at the very least a technical one as we are heading into a weekend. And of course there's a lot of voices at play. There's what House Leadership wants,
led of course by the Speaker Mike Johnson. Then there's what Donald Trump, the President elect, and Elon Musk, who's coming in to help lead the Department of Government Efficiency, want to see, including apparently a lifting of the debt stealing, but it's unclear whether or not that can get through
on this day of days. In fact, what we understand House Leadership is talking about is breaking up a package that failed on the House floor last night with thirty eight Republicans voting against it into multiple parts, perhaps easier to digest for lawmakers who were reluctant to vote for the whole thing. But a Republican conference meeting is underway as we speak, so we want to get more details on what exactly we know, intern to Bloomberg Politics editor
Laura Davison. So, Laura, obviously this has been a fast moving story. It's literally changing as we speak at this hour. Where do we stand?
So House Republicans are literally in a room right now. Mike Johnson, the Speaker, is going through the options of what they can do, and what that looks like is having separate votes on sort of the key elements of the bill. So one just a straight bill to extend current levels of government funding through March. One hundred billion
dollars for disaster aid. That's exceptionally important for people in North Carolina, Georgia, Florida who have said that they are not going to vote for this bill unless that is part of the mix, as well as a farm Aid also important for a lot of different states. The question is will there be a vote on this debt ceiling piece.
This is really where Republicans in Congress and Donald Trump are really at odds, and we saw that play out last night when that bill really failed spectacularly on the floor. Republicans in Congress don't want to deal with this right now. It is clear there is not the votes to do what Trump wants to do. He originally said he thought a two year suspension the debt sealing was good. Then he came back at one o'clock in the morning said
how about four years? And it's not really how the negotiation works, you know, theoretically he should be moving in the opposite direction. So this is really going to be a test of will for him. Is he going to say no, seriously, guys, this is what we're doing, or does he back down and avoid what will be a very chaotukt at the start of his presidency, a Christmas week shutdown, which really doesn't look good for anyone in this process.
Well, it also becomes a question of how Mike Johnson is going to navigate this with the President elect. Is he willing to defy Trump's wishes when he knows he has to abide not just by them, but also what Elon Musk wants, also, what the will of his Republican conference is knowing he wants to still be gavel in hand in the one hundred and nineteenth Congress, he has to stand for reelection a speaker in just a few weeks.
Yeah, and we saw, you know, Trump say, look, Mike Johnson can keep his job if he's quote tough. What is tough mean? Tough generally means that you're defending whatever Trump wants to get done, which is not what Johnson's members want to get done. So this is a he's in a really tough spot. And this is really where we found, you know, most Republican speakers you know, over the in the past decade or so, it's these spending fights that really test their ability. This kind of fight
is what ultimately led to Kevin McCarthy's ouster. And so this is where you're going to see, you know, Mike Johnson, you know, does he you know where where does this priority lie. Is it's staying loyal to Trump? Is it making sure to keep his members happy and sort of providing that top cover for members of Congress who don't want this, or is it keeping his job? Probably not all of those things are going to be possible. Well, especially when you consider that the House is only one
part of this equation. This has to be a package ultimately that can get through the Senate and be signed into law by President Biden for a shutdown to be averted. Where are the Democrats in this conversation right now? Because they're first bipartisan agreement died, they had nothing to do with what failed on the House floor last night.
Are they at the table now?
So as of just a couple hours ago, there was at least conversations between House Republicans and House Democrats. Hackeing Jeffrey says that they're at you know, they're at the table, they're talking. What that deal ultimately looks like and what can come to pass isn't clear. It's not clear that that House Republicans even really have their preferred path forward yet.
Johnson is in the room presenting options to members, not a you know, here's what we're going to do, which really just signals, you know, it's less than twelve hours until a shutdown. The risk of a shutdown just increases every little bit. And whether this is a you know,
short term thing, that's not a huge deal. But if this turns into a multi day or multi week situation, this is going to be, you know, not bode well for Republicans getting things like taxes or immigration or all of their big policy priorities done in twenty twenty five.
It's a good reminder though, that even if this does laps beyond midnight, it takes them the weekend to figure this out. Because it is a weekend, you aren't necessarily going to feel any dramatic impacts of a shutdown right away. Correct, all right, Bloomberg's Loaura Davison, Bloomberg Politics Editor, keeping busy as we keep track of all of the news here from Washington. Much appreciated, and we want it to next to someone who spent many days in the halls of
Congress dealing with battles like this one. He is former Republican Congressman from Texas and former chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. Kevin Brady is joining me now. He's now spokesperson for the Alliance for Competitive Taxation. Congressman,
welcome back to Bloomberg TV and Radio. It's always good to have you, sir, And I know that what's going on on Capitol Hill probably isn't all too surprising to you given history, but I do still wonder what you make of the events of the last several days.
So one, it is great to see you again, Thank you so much. Secondly, yes, I have lived these hours many times, and I think, you know, one thing that sticks out is that I think both President Trump and Elon Musk, who have very strong support among Republicans in the House, I think our learning what Speaker Johnson's challenges are. You know, there are two hundred and twenty plus Republicans.
They are smart and hard working, they understand the issues, and you know, you've got to find a way if you're going to unite them, you've got to find the right policy to do that. And certainly that's what the Speaker is trying to do in that conference meeting as we speak. I don't think there may be a technical shutdown.
I don't foresee any lengthy one at all. They are Republicans are working toward keeping this government open one because they don't want the distraction heading into President Trump's inauguration. They are moving fast because they're determined not to make the mistakes of twenty seventeen, where they they feel squandered the first six or seven months of that President Trump's first term. Now they're moving and secondly, the Republicans have learned that if you shut the government down, you just
abdicate the power of the purse. You give more power to the existing president to decide which agencies are open, which are not, which workers are essential, which are not. And so clearly that's not something Republicans want to do at a time not everyone ensure you know how this government's running, right.
Yeah, Well, I wonder what you make serve specifically the request of Donald Trump, that is, raise the debt sealing until I'm out of office or just abolish it entitled entirely. Does that make sense to you, especially knowing the tax reform that Donald Trump would like to pursue shortly after he takes office.
Well, I think Republicans have long believed that the debt ceiling, as dramatic and theatrical as sometimes is, which is always helpful, that's been where history shows the most progress has been made in creating some fiscal responsibility, and so Republicans have traditionally believed there should be some type of debt sealing, some type of trigger that forces Congress, you know, to pretty regularly look at the financial condition of the country
in the government and try to find a path forwards. So that was going to be a very, very tough lift in the best of circumstances. But there are many Republicans House and Senate who've never voted for a debt ceiling bill. If they have, it's been with significant spending cuts. That wasn't part of that proposal at all last night.
And so I think this is a chance again for the President in Elon Musk on the saving side of this, to really sit down internally work with the incoming class Republicans, because I think the field in twenty twenty five where they hold the House and Senate is so much better field to find on than the one they have right now where Democrats run the Senate in the White House.
All right, Former Congressman Kevin Brady, I do want to get to what this future Congress is going to look
like with you. If you wouldn't mind sitting tight for just a few minutes, we would greatly appreciate your patients, because we do want to go live to Capitol Hill joining us from his office right now, as Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, Sir, thank you so much for your time on what is obviously a very busy week in Washington as it stands now, with the reporting we have out of the House about their proposed path forward splitting a bill up essentially into a number of different
ones to be voted on, can this shut down be avoided? Can your cheap vote on this before midnight tonight?
Well, but first of all, we have seen I say, this is somebody that was in business longer than been in politics. This was incompetence at a spectacular level. You know, I'm looking forward to working with Donald Trump where I can, But he prides himself on art of the deal. There was a yeah, days and days, and I believe my senate Republican friends who are all ready for the deal. I think his team was told. But then to pull the rug out from under the feet of the speaker.
I mean, is this a preview of what's going to happen over the next four years? And you know, and with all due respect to your your former guest, when I was coming back on you know, the debt ceiling is we've already wrung up those bills and it's basically saying, are you going to pay your credit card bill on things you've already expended? So I am concerned. I'm concerned about if we go through this shut down, the signal
it sends to our adversaries around the world. I'm concerned about if you know a lot of Bloomberg viewers, I'm sure going to climb on an airplane in the next few days to go visit family. You know, you got a shutdown with TSA and air traffic controllers not getting paid. This is crazy and you know, chopping it up into three bits and it again, as we all know, the idea that some of these extreme members on the House Republican side are never going to vote for anything, whether
it's debt seeing or continued resolution. You know why they are dictating some of the terms. As a business guy, kind of goes makes me scratch our head.
You know.
Last point just is like, you know, the Senate Republicans, the Senate Democrats, the House Democrats, we were all on the same page. This was a bipartisan agreement and it doesn't go poorly for what's coming next.
Well, of course that bypart is agreement is no longer on the table. So what messaging have you gotten from your leadership from Chuck Schumer as to what the Democrats in the Senate will be willing to vote for here, what is the very lowest bar that you're willing to jump over to a vote a chef.
If anybody can predict what the House Republicans can pass, particular if they're going to just try to pass it with their own members, they can't. I mean the reality is, as people know, there are a whole group of members that will never vote for a continuing resolution. So the notion that you can do this without working with the Democrats is the math doesn't add up. So I remember the pottery barn expression, if you break it, you own it. Well, these guys broke it. So let's see what will come
out of this afternoon. But to put our put the in jeopardy all of these families right in the holidays. You depend upon these paychecks or the businesses that are adjacent around tourism that will never get recouped. It is just playing cruel, sir.
I'd like to ask you as well, how you see this being foreboding or what you think this might signals to the battle's still ahead, specifically in twenty twenty five, when there will be expirations of tax cuts that have actually led to more money in the pockets of some of these very same people you are referring to who could be hurt by a shutdown. Given how difficult this funding battle has proven to be, does that suggest to you that Democrats will have to step in to extend
those twenty seventeen tax cuts. It's your votes that will ultimately be required for that to happen.
That's what I like this. There is over the last year, I'm not sure there was a single bill that came out of the House that didn't have to have Democrats help. And listen, I'm I'm part of every bipartisan gang that's taken place anything that's happened out of the last couple of years in terms of infrastructure or the Chips Bill, Orctoral or not at they're a bipartisan group of us that put that together. I think, frankly that ends up with better legislation and both parties have to own the
good and the bad. And I think again, with the margin what one or two at the first couple of months in the House, and some people who will find an excuse to vote against anything, I think if they try to do this in a bipartisan way, you know, I want America to be stay competitive. I want us to have the best business climate in the world. But the signal that sends if we go into this shutdown, it's it's you know, I thought, we've all seen this movie many times before, and there may be that final
chapter where you know there's a way out. But this is not a way to govern the greatest country, the most powerful country in the world. And it does make me worried about next year. And again I say this with somebody who I disagree with President Elect Trump on a number of things, but I'm more than have to work with. And I probably voted for more of his cabinet nominees last time, and I will vote for many of them this time. So I'm not here to kind
of just throw stones at the other side. But gosh, you know, how do you negotiate in good faith with somebody going forward, particularly when I believe that at least the Trump team was aware of what the speaker was doing. If after a handshake, somebody who a Niggs at the eleventh.
Hour, Well, sir, finally, is it really only Donald Trump that will have to be worked with, negotiated with? Or do we have to have Elon Musk's name on this list as well as to who's sign off is going to be required to get any real legislating done.
I have huge respect for Elon musk business acumen, but the idea that he is now you know, outside of his lanes. And I've worked with Elon Musk and I want to work with him going forward. I think there's a lot of efficiency that we can bring to the government. But the idea that he's suddenly calling the plays for how the government is going to he funded or not, He'd be like putting me in as a as the coach for the you know, Washington commanders. The team would
lose and a lot of people would get hurt. So I think we all need to acknowledge you we all bring different skill sets to the table and inefficiency.
You know.
Again, I was a big supporter of Elon Musk a decade ago as was getting SpaceX up and operating breaking up in the monopolies that controlled that arena. But I do hope that you know, he understands the power he has. He's got more followers on Twitter than Donald Trump and candidly and don't take my work talk to any Republican. What he was tweeting on you know, whatever day was when the deal came out. Half of the tweets were just factually not true.
All right, Senator, thank you very much for hopping on to join us here on Bloomberg TV and radio. That was Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, Your time is much appreciated, sir.
You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast kens just live weekdays at noon Eastern on Apple CarPlay and then royd Otto with the Bloomberg Business App. You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station Just Say Alexa playing Bloomberg eleven thirty.
The former Congressman Kevin Brady who has been standing by for us. He of course used to represent Texas and was chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. Now he's spokesman for the Alliance for Competitive Taxation. Congressman, thank you very much for sticking with us here. I'm sure
you heard the words of Senator Warner. They're just talking about, frankly, the fact that it has required Democrats to get a lot of legislating done in this one hundred and eighteenth Congress and the one hundred nineteenth when the House majority is daven narrower. That may be true. So how much are you catering your messaging as well? At the Alliance for Competitive Taxation two Democrats who may be required to get any kind of tax package over the finish line next year.
Yes, well, well, our messaging more important. Sort of the solutions we're advancing to keep America competitive, to make sure our companies can compete when and where around the world, economic growth with a low corporate tax rate, in continuing to incentivize innovation in the US, those are really bipartisan messages and bipartisan provisions I think within the tax code as Congress looks at it next year, in addition to keeping this growth and being able to counter China's super
aggressiveness around the world. Certainly the middle class tax cuts the Republicans put in place, the new small business tax deduction so important to main street main Street, the child tax credits in some of those business provisions like research and development they've already voted on in a biparson way. There is plenty of common ground for Congress if Democrats are willing to work with President Trump. They haven't on tax matters in the past. We'll see if they will
or if it's needed. I think again, a lesson from this early effort right now on passing a continuing resolution is that in a super thin majority, the President and Republicans, whichever parties in Franklin power, has to work very carefully, very deliberately to make sure they've got those policies right and can advance them well.
And it's also a matter of sequencing here, sir, the man who now has the gavel that you once held in ways and means, Jason Smith has been pretty adamant that he thinks of tax reform is going to pass, it needs to be included in one big budget reconciliation package, inclusive of other measures around the border, immigration, and energy as well. That that's really the only way that this
thing is going to get through the House. I wonder your thought on that, knowing that Donald Trump and the Senate incoming Senate majority Leader John Thune seemed to still be advocating for trying to do two hard things at two separate times.
Yeah, so I think one. I think President Trump at some points can waiy in to sort of break the tie on the sequence. He certainly from holding that gave al ways and means Committee, as you're doing the tax bill, you want all the factors that could be a leverage in bringing people to the table together. You want them in that single bill. So certainly Chairman Smith's proposal is
a rational one. But regardless of whether it's one or it's two, I think one thing everyone needs to understand is it's a little like Mike Tyson's comments about heading into a fight. You know, everyone's got a plan until
you get punched in the mouth. Well, reconciliation is difficult in it's complex, and you can have the best plan in the world on paper, but until you sit down with your members of Congress on your committee and your conference in the House and the Senate together, you know, you don't really know where that sequencing is going to lead. And so I think, you know, it's good to have the conversations they're having right now about which strategically would
work best. But at the end of the day, as they begin to meet with the these new members coming in as well as existing comments, I think they'll get it. They will find a path. It'll become clear as they have those conversations.
Well, and as we have the conversation about kind of the government ledger here, if you will, with the spending on the one side, the revenue on the other side, with this tax conversation. We've had this conversation many times before, Congressman about the notion that Donald Trump does think some of that revenue can be supplemented by revenue coming from tariffs. And I know you aren't all four that idea, but he did introduce a new tariff idea into the discussion.
Early this morning, he posted on true Social that he told the European Union that to help make up for the deficit, the trade deficit with the United States, they have to purchase large scale purchases of our oil and gas. Otherwise, he says, it is tariffs all the way. And so, while I know you aren't a big fan of using that kind of income to increase revenue, are you a fan of it as for using it as leverage in a negotiation? Is that ultimately what you think this is?
Well, I'm hoped so in the sense that I think it is clear the present president home is very clear he believes tariffs worked our advantage in moving people to the table to have these conversations, and in his priorities obviously border security, stopping drugs and fannyl, stopping unfair trade packed UH practices, rebalancing trade, and getting the world to buy more US oil, buy more US products, help US
stop Chinese transshipments, put pressure on Iran. I think he has a whole host I think of priorities, and he sees tariffs, or at least the threat and leverage of them, as a way to bring countries to the table. And I think we're all hopeful because tariffs can be so damaging, usually more to the host country like America than it
is to the other countries you're applying it to. And so yeah, I think people are hopeful that that that these conversations and this approach works to bring countries to the table and we can find.
Some all right, Sorry, I know we've gone overtime with you. So I just have one more question for you. As a former member, a former leader within the House of Representatives, if you had a piece of advice for Speaker Mike Johnson now and as he heads into another speaker election just weeks from now, what would it be.
Well, I'll say, as a conservative, I will tell you I'm I'm a big admirer of Speaker Johnson. Again, I think he's taken the right approach. He listens very carefully, certainly his word is good, and he's again one of the most conservative speakers the ouse has ever had, who respects the views of the entire conference. He knows how then this margin will be not just today but in
the future. I will just tell I don't know that I have advice except to continue to be you because the principal's integrity you bring, that office, that leadership, I think is what we exactly what we need right now.
All right, Congressman Kevin Brady of Texas now spokesman for the Alliance for Competitive Taxation, thank you for being generous with your time today. Serve very hoppy holidays to you and years, and we'll look forward to touching base with you again in twenty twenty five.
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As Republican lawmakers search for a planned se which they are hoping could be successful in averting a government shutdown when the clock strikes midnight tonight. What this plan see will include kind of looks like what Plan B was, though Plan B failed in spectacular fashion on the House floor yesterday because it was a bill that put a lot of these things together. Didn't go so well because it included a two year extension of the debt limit. Instead,
they want to split it up. Our understanding, at least at this hour things could always change, as we've learned over the course of the last few days, is to dippy things up into three packages. One being a continuing resolution, a stopgap measure that will keep the government funded until mid March. That's what needs to happen to avert a shutdown this weekend. Second part aid for natural disasters, a lot of that targeted at the American Southeast, which is
still recovering from multiple hurricanes that we're devastating this year. Again, pretty popular measure. Then there's a one year extension of the Farm Bill, so aid for farmers and the agricultural sector. The question is going to be, if it is indeed going to be three bills, how quickly could they come to the floor and under a rule or under suspension of it, because that's what will dictate how many members need to vote for it for it to pass and get set sent to the Senate. So here with me
now is our political panel today. Brittany Martinez is a Republican strategist and founder of a Spina and Company. She's also a veteran of the House of Representatives, alongside Genie shanzeno democratic strategist and senior Democracy Fellow for the Center of the Study of the Presidency and Congress. So, Brittany, we have an understanding of plan set at least at this hour. What we don't yet know is how exactly lawmakers are receiving it inside the conference room at this time.
But a lot of lawmakers obviously have expressed upset with how Mike Johnson has handled it thus far. Can he put Humpty Dumpty, which is the Republican conference back together again with this plan?
I mean he's going to have to or otherwise the government's going to close in just a few hours. Here. I think that you know, the first this is what sort of I'm hearing pushback from some folks are saying he should have just put up that first bill and bucked Trump. The problem with that, though, is that you despite the Democrats being supportive of it and not whipping against it, it would have frustrated Trump and you know,
the Republican Party. And though it would have passed and we wouldn't be in the situation right now, Trump's bill that he wanted yesterday also didn't pass. So though I think it's good to have individual bills, that's always republic can tell and want to do. In reality, when we're getting down to the eleventh hour and I don't think we literally have even eleven hours left before the government shuts down, that's not the best policy, But at this point,
what choice do we have. I think that it might be successful, but you're probably going to have folks like members of the Freedom COUCKUS who still aren't satisfied, and I think we will probably hit a government shutdown, even if it only lasts for a day or two.
Well, if you're with us on Bloomberg TV, you see we got the shutdown clock up, so it's about ten and a half hours left until the deadline right now for those listening on Bloomberg Radio. But Genie I was just speaking a few moments ago with Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginian And when I asked him, Hey, what are you willing to vote for here to avert a shutdown? He basically said, we can't predict what's coming out of
the House. I just wonder how you take that answer or what you're expecting really is the thinking from the democratically controlled Senate, which would be the next stop on this continuing resolution train.
Yeah, and it was such an important conversation you had with Senator Warner, and in particular, he echoed what we've been hearing from Democrats, which was his pottery barn theme. You break it, you buy it, and that's what Democrats feel that the Republican Party has done. And so they've got to own that in terms of this three step process. If that does indeed come out, it's going to depend
on what's in there. You know, Donald Trump tweeting in the middle of the night that maybe the debt ceiling should be raised for four years as opposed to two is going in exactly the opposite direction. If they're planning on something like that, Democrats won't go along with it. And quite frankly, they can't move forward Republicans because their own Republicans won't go along with it. And this speaks
to a huge problem that the Republicans have. They have talked about fiscal responsibility, and yet they are supporting somebody who the Committee for Responsible Budget Estimated has put forward plans during a campaign to raise the debt by seven point seventy five brillion dollars. That was the moderate estimate that the committee put forward. How is that physically responsible? It is not, and that is what has driven this divide in the Republican party. That is why you see
Republicans very very interesting. Donald Trump's not in office yet, yet thirty eight Republicans last night, without fear, stood up and voted against him and Elon Musk, and that is a precursor of what is to come in this all Republican Washington d c.
Well on the debt and deficits specifically and the debt ceiling, which Donald Trump has said he wants to raise or abolish before he takes office. Genie, I would point out that Democrats have been calling to repeal the debt ceiling for a long time. Just last week there was I believe seventeen co sponsors on a piece of legislation in the Senate that would have gotten rid of the debt ceiling.
So is it really appropriate to be changing the two nour Is this actually an area in which Democrats and Donald Trump might be able to work together.
Well, they may be able to work together, but I'm so glad you raised that because the difference is when Democrats want to raise or abolish the debt ceiling, which is fiscally sound and should happen, it is not for the narrow prospects that Donald Trump and Elon Musk put forward yesterday, which is so they can ram through an extension of the corporate and billionaire's tax cuts. That is what is adding to the deficit. That's why they can't get the support of people like Chip Roy and so
that is the problem they have. Yes, we need sound fiscal management in this country, and Elon Musk is absolutely right when he says we don't have it. The way to get it is not to shut down a bipartisan agreement hours before it goes through to keep the government open, and it is.
Not to do so.
You know, let's ask Elon Musk he didn't oppose the defense spending bill the other day. Why not? Because he benefits from that he did support the second bill that came forward the CER yesterday once they stripped the China components out of that, because he benefits from it. So we have to think very carefully about who's benefiting from what. Yes addressed the debt ceiling. But this is not the
way to do that. And Donald Trump knows that, or at least the more you know, fiscally responsible members of his party do, and they have said they won't go along with this plan.
Well, as Genie alludes to Elon Musk here, Brittany, it does raise the question, as we've considered over the course of the last several days, whether or not Mike Johnson is going to be able to stay in the job as Speaker and keep the gavel in hand, how powerful the gavel really is, or if the Speaker of the House at this point is effectively someone who just has to act on behalf of the wishes of not just the president but of the world's richest man.
I think that Speaker Johnson is a good guy. I think he's pretty common sense, you know, he is a pretty conservative guy. But he also is able to come to the negotiating table and work with Democrats. And we've seen that time and time again this Congress. It's going to be tough if you know, Trump every time is
trying to stop what he's doing. We saw that earlier this year, specifically with that immigration bill in the Senate with Langford, how that was bipartisan and then that got tanked because Trump said no. So I think that Trump is going to continue doing that sort of thing throughout his presidency, and it's going to make it really tough not only for Senator Senator Thun but also especially for Mike Johnson because he's got a slimmer majority.
Yeah, I think he's not exactly the envy of a lot of people in Washington right now. It's a pretty tough job that he's dealing with. It does raise the question why he even still wants to keep it, But we don't know anyone else who could get the vote, So I guess that's where we are at this moment. Brittany Martinez, founder at a Spin and Company and Republican strategist, veteran of the Kevin McCarthy team in the House, thank
you so much for joining me. One half of our political panel, of course, the other being Genie Shanzeno, Democratic strategist and Senior Democracy Fellow at the Center for the Study of the President and Congress. Thank you very much to you both for joining.
Thanks for listening to the Balance of Power podcast. Make sure to subscribe if you haven't already, at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and you can find us live every weekday from Washington, DC at Noontimeeastern at Bloomberg dot com.