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The Lowdown on the Shutdown

2013-10-01 · explainer · Hank · 3:29 · watch on YouTube

Topic: US politics & society · mode: News analysis · tags: timely hook, self promotion

In a 'special edition of Let's Understand the News', Hank explains the October 2013 US government shutdown: the Republican-led House tied the continuing resolution to delaying Obamacare and the Senate refused; he blames gerrymandered, radicalized districts and calls the shutdown embarrassing but survivable.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting; 'special edition of Let's Understand the News'; questions about the shutdown; hair-in-mouth gag; Congress's two chambers and the budget

  • ★★ Hank explains that America has two chambers of lawmakers that must agree for something to become law, and they approve the budget, the law that makes it legal for the government to spend money. — 00:00:21 · United States Congress, United States

00:00:38 — Continuing resolutions; Obamacare in full swing; the Republican-led House adds a one-year Obamacare delay, the Senate refuses; root-beer skit

  • ★★ Hank says Congress handles the president's budget like any other bill, often so slowly that it must pass a continuing resolution keeping the old budget for a few more weeks; these are usually easy to pass. — 00:00:38 · United States Congress
  • ★★★ Hank says Obamacare, passed in 2010 and upheld by the Supreme Court, went into full swing that day, and the Republicans are not done fighting it. — 00:00:56 · Republican Party
  • ★★★ Hank says the Republican-led House voted on the continuing resolution with an added one-year delay of Obamacare; the Democrat-controlled Senate refused, saying a stopgap is not for sweeping changes to the most significant domestic policy in 50 years. — 00:01:02 · Republican Party

00:01:40 — Obamacare takes effect anyway; plug for the new Healthcare Triage channel; Republicans don't expect to stop Obamacare

  • ★★ Hank says the health-care system is funded separately, so Obamacare went into effect despite the shutdown. — 00:01:40
  • ★★ Hank announces 'we just launched' a new channel, Healthcare Triage, with a video on what Obamacare is about, and tells viewers to watch it. — 00:01:50
  • ★★ Hank says the Republicans don't actually think they will stop Obamacare, which he finds weird. — 00:01:57 · Republican Party

00:02:01 — Root cause: redrawn, radicalized districts make Congress uncooperative

  • ★★★ Hank says the deeper problem is that politicians redrew district lines to be ever more partisan, making elections easier to win but radicalizing districts so representatives must be uncooperative; not easy to fix. (hedged) — 00:02:01 · United States Congress

00:02:29 — What closes and what keeps running; about 800,000 people out of work including a friend; prediction it will be resolved; embarrassing and dangerous; sign-off

  • ★★ Hank says museums, national parks, the EPA and NASA basically close, while defense, transportation security, border patrol, food inspectors and emergency readiness staff are exempted and keep working. — 00:02:29
  • ★★ Hank says the self-funded Postal Service is fine, and Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are separate and keep operating. — 00:02:44
  • ★★★ Hank says that starting today about 800,000 people are out of work until Congress acts, including a very good friend of his, which makes him mad. — 00:02:51 · United States Congress
  • ★★★ Hank says no one knows how quickly it will be resolved, perhaps three days or three weeks, but it will be, because he trusts Congress wants the country to exist. — 00:02:57 · United States Congress
  • ★★★ Hank expects lost pay, probably the loss of good employees to the private sector, and international ridicule; he calls the shutdown embarrassing, stupid and a dangerous game, but survivable. (hedged) — 00:03:03

In the description and comments

  • ★ Hank's description says John had a special video planned for this day, but the government shut down, so the brothers switched and Hank stayed up until 3 a.m. to make this video. — video description · John Green

Humor (significant)

  • Hank opens by noting that yesterday America had a government. — 00:00:06

    “Today...a little less so.”

  • Listing serious questions about the shutdown, Hank breaks off mid-list. — 00:00:18

    “What is in my mouth? It is a hair, there was a hair in my mouth.”

  • Hank acts out the House inviting the Senate to talk over root beer and the Senate calling the hostage-taking not cool. — 00:01:28

    “And I don't even like root beer”

  • Continuing the skit, the House complains the Senate is too cool for school and wants the shutdown. — 00:01:40

    “who doesn't like root beer?”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: 2013 United States federal government shutdown · Affordable Care Act · Continuing resolution · gerrymandering · political polarization · United States Congress

Also: Projects: Healthcare Triage

Organizations: Democratic Party · NASA · Republican Party · Supreme Court of the United States · Transportation Security Administration · United States Environmental Protection Agency · United States House of Representatives · United States Postal Service · United States Senate

Places: United States

Policies: Medicaid · Medicare · Social Security

Also centred on Affordable Care Act: Adorable Puppy Explains Health Care Bill · Bigger Pizzas: A Capitalist Case for Health Care Reform · Applying for Health Insurance: Then and Now · Is Obamacare Working? The Affordable Care Act Five Years Later · Understanding Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton's Health Care Reform Proposals · Why Can't America Have a Grown-Up Healthcare Conversation?

Also centred on gerrymandering: Why Does Congress Suck? · Understanding the Primaries: Delegates, Democracy, and America's Nonstop Political Party

Also centred on political polarization: Idiotic Governance: How Our Political Discourse Hurts Our Economy · Policy and Politics: Brotherhood 2.0 Week Begins · Thoughts from the Edge · The Politics of "Parks and Rec" · Brazil's Government is Falling Apart...and it's Good News? · Coming Out, Goats, Government, and Attack Ads with Denise Juneau

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