This week.

It is day ten of the federal government shutdown, and the Trump administration is making good on threats to fire federal workers.

This the day after dueling funding bills were rejected for the seventh time.

Russ vote.

The director of the Office of Management and Budget said on the social media site X that the risk have be gone.

That's referring to reduction in force plans aimed at shrinking the size of the federal government.

University of Kentucky political science professor Stephen Voss talked with us earlier today about the legality of those firings and the potential political fallout.

Well, we don't know the legal standing of the layoffs yet, so I guess we'll find out how wise it was.

After we see how it plays out.

It may have very limited impact.

It may, on the other hand, result in the federal government having to pay people a lot of money.

And so I really I think it's too early to know how that will play out.

We do know, though, also that's kicking in as we record this is that people are not getting their full paychecks.

And in about a week, if the shutdown continues, we'll get another batch of people getting even less of the paychecks they would have expected.

And those implications we know will kick in.

Right.

And we know that there are people who have been working without pay and etc.. The Congressional Budget Office said back in 2018, 2019, the shutdown cost the U.S.

economy $11 billion.

Now, some of that is because of those payroll issues.

There.

But that's a lot of money.

And that that shutdown was, what, 35 days?

Yeah.

And we could see that again.

We've had two fairly lengthy shutdowns in modern times.

We, some were shorter, but we had a big one under Trump's last presidency.

And then we had the big one with Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich standing off.

Back in the 90s.

And those were both very expensive.

They both had fairly widespread political implications, such as, well, the sort of conventional wisdom, and I think it's backed up by data, is that the Republicans paid for the shutdown in the 90s, that Bill Clinton just won, that a little less clear.

Who won when it was Trump versus the Democrats.

But again, it looks as though the Republicans came out on the downside of that government shutdown, which raises a puzzle.

Why would the Republicans pay, regardless of whether they're the ones in the white House or not, in the white House?

And one explanation is that since they're seen as the anti-government party, that when the government shuts down, the voters just kind of assume, you know, without any other information.

Probably the Republicans did it.

Right, right.

Even though they have some pretty strong messaging, Professor Voss, about how they are blaming the Democrats and about how this Affordable Health Care Act, you know, they can talk about that later.

So the Democrats are the ones who they say are shutting the government down for these prolonged times.

Well, sure.

But every time there's been that back and forth, I think what we forget is people who monitor public affairs is that that doesn't reach a lot of voters, including the people who tend to be swing voters.

What they know is, you know, I go to an office, it's not open.

I try to download something.

The web page isn't giving me data.

I've got relatives who aren't getting their paychecks, and they sort of make quick judgments or quick decisions of who's to blame, and they'll go with a stereotype.

Government shut down Republicans in government.

I'll blame them.

The shutdown will extend into next week as the Senate isn't expected to reconvene until Tuesday.

The House GOP leadership is extending the lower chamber's break until at least October the 20th.