Government shutdown averted | The Excerpt
On Saturday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: A government shutdown has been averted. Paste BN Economy Reporter Rachel Barber takes a closer look at what's actually going on amid economic uncertainty. Elon Musk's 'Hitler didn't murder millions' repost draws outrage. Paste BN National Correspondent Trevor Hughes talks through data that shows more foreign-born people call the United States home today than ever. Diddy pleads not guilty again.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more Paste BN podcasts right here
Taylor Wilson:
Good morning, I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Saturday, March 15th, 2025. This is The Excerpt. Today's Shutdown Averted, plus we take a closer look at the economy amid spooked markets and consumers and more foreign-born people call the US home today than ever in history. The government shutdown has been avoided. Senate yesterday evening passed a bill to keep the government funded through September, a partial shutdown otherwise would've begun at midnight, 10 Democrats joined with all but one of their GOP colleagues on a key procedural vote to advance the bill yesterday afternoon, but far fewer Democrats joined Republicans to vote for the bill itself, which shifts some money toward President Donald Trump's priorities and increases his power over spending. The vote came amid a brewing trade war between Trump and international allies and the administration's mass layoffs of federal workers, and where any additional signs of US political dysfunction would have only added to economic uncertainty. Still, consumer confidence is sinking as that economic uncertainty continues. I spoke with Paste BN economy reporter, Rachel Barber, to help make sense of where things stand right now. Hey there, Rachel.
Rachel Barber:
Hi Taylor.
Taylor Wilson:
Thanks for hopping on this, Rachel. So lots of, I think concerns and anxiety around some of these economic points right now, but let's start by talking about the markets. I know stocks inched back up on Friday, but it was really a nightmare week beforehand, Rachel? What happened here was this, I guess, mostly a reaction to uncertainty?
Rachel Barber:
It's complicated, but it seems that way. One of the sources that I spoke to said that markets are like people, they like stability and certainty, and right now investors are worried what tariffs will mean for their supply chains and their businesses overall. As we know, tensions have been rising between the US and its top three trading partners, Canada, Mexico, China, and this week Trump escalated the risk of a trade war with the European Union. He threatened to impose a 200% tariff on alcohol coming to the US from Europe unless the EU drops its plans for a tax on American whiskey, which by the way itself, was part of an EU retaliation strategy after Trump put a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports to the US.
Taylor Wilson:
All right, so what about inflation? This was something Trump promised to lower on day one, has he made good on any of that promise?
Rachel Barber:
I'm not an expert on inflation, but I can tell you that it eased more than was expected in February, but economists told my colleague, Paul Davidson, that the reprieve will probably be short-lived because those import tariffs we just spoke about are expected to drive prices up.
Taylor Wilson:
Well, as I said at the top, Rachel, consumers, just average Americans, are clearly worried in this moment or at least puzzled know we have some new indicators on consumer confidence. What can you tell us here, just how spooked are consumers right now?
Rachel Barber:
Well, first to add some context, really simply put, consumer sentiment is a measure that we and economists use to understand how people are feeling about their finances and the economy, both in the short and the long term, and it matters because how people feel about the economy affects how much they spend and how much they save. So now we have some new data according to a new University of Michigan study, consumer sentiment in the US has fallen three months in a row, meaning people are feeling more pessimistic. The survey reported consumer sentiment is at 57.9, which is the lowest it's been since the end of 2022, and it's down 22% from December last year before Trump took office.
Taylor Wilson:
Wow. All right, so we've had this recession where it's swirling around for a few weeks now, Rachel. Considering all of this, what we've been talking about, how likely is a recession in the coming months? What does that word actually mean and how would that land with Americans?
Rachel Barber:
Well, yeah, honestly Taylor, I'm not in a position to make that call, if we're headed into a recession but I can tell you who is. For the last several decades, it's been up to eight economists who serve on something called the Business Cycle Dating Committee, which is within the National Bureau of Economic Research to formally decide when the US is in a recession. And that organization defines a recession as a, "Significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy lasting more than a few months." So it's a pretty broad definition, but the committee considers several factors when making that determination. Consumer spending is one of them, but they also look at real income, employment, industrial production, and GDP. So far they have not made any decisions that we are in a recession and Trump and his administration say that we are rather just in a period of economic transition. When he was asked on Fox News Sunday about whether the US would experience a recession in 2025, he didn't exactly rule it out, instead he just said that he hates to predict things like that.
Taylor Wilson:
All right, it feels like a critical next few weeks. Rachel Barber covers the economy for Paste BN, thank you, Rachel.
Rachel Barber:
Thank you so much, Taylor, have a good one.
Taylor Wilson:
Elon Musk this week reposted a message on X, formerly Twitter, writing, "Stalin, Mao and Hitler didn't murder millions of people, their public sector employees did." Musk's repost, which now appears to be deleted, drew furious reactions from a labor union and the Anti-Defamation League. Lee Saunders, for instance, president of the American Federation of State County and Municipal employees said that America's public service workers chose making communities safe, healthy, and strong over getting rich, adding they are not, as the world's richest man implies, "Genocidal murderers." The Anti-Defamation League, a non-profit that seeks to combat anti-Semitism said the post was deeply disturbing. Musk's repost comes at a time when his crackdown on the federal government has spurred Tesla takedown protests with Tesla owners being harassed and multiple dealerships vandalized across the country. Back in January, Musk also sparked controversy with a gesture that drew comparisons to the Nazi salute while speaking at an inaugural event for President Donald Trump.
♦
More foreign-born people call the US home today than ever in history according to new federal data. I spoke with Paste BN national correspondent, Trevor Hughes, for more. Hey there, Trevor.
Trevor Hughes:
Hey, how's it going?
Taylor Wilson:
Good, good. Thanks for hopping on, Trevor. So let's just start with the numbers. What did you find here about foreign-born folks in the United States?
Trevor Hughes:
What we're seeing, this is reflected in frankly in the election, but the new results from the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggest that there are now something like 53 million foreign-born people living in the United States. That's almost 16% of the overall population. Now, that's a combination of people here legally and people who cross the board illegally or people who have overstayed their visas.
Taylor Wilson:
How does this compare with past eras of foreign-born Americans? Do we have any numbers on this?
Trevor Hughes:
This is actually the highest level of foreign-born Americans that we've ever had in this country, at least in modern history, going back to the late 1800s when we started keeping good statistics on this, and again, this is self-reported by the BLS and the Census Bureau. It reflects, I think a thing that many Americans thought about when they were making a decision in the presidential election, president Trump campaigned very strongly on this idea of closing the border, and what we are now seeing from the statistics is that there are more people who are from somewhere else than have ever been in this country.
Taylor Wilson:
And you touched on this, Trevor, but does this survey distinguish between people who arrived with or without legal authorization? Do we know the breakdown here and in terms of how many foreign-born residents have received documentation?
Trevor Hughes:
This is a long-running sort of issue in America, which is that we don't actually have a really good sense of how many people are living here without legal permission. That is something the Trump administration actually plans to address. They have been trying to push this on the census for a number of years, and I expect that you're going to see stronger efforts in the coming years to really put a number on those folks so that the Trump administration can follow through with its campaign promises to deport people who are living illegally here in the United States.
Taylor Wilson:
Trevor, we hear a lot about how immigrants impact the economy. Where do the arguments here stand at this moment in time on I guess either side of the aisle, and what do the numbers tell us about the impact of foreign-born workers on economics?
Trevor Hughes:
This is the thing, Americans aren't having kids, and our population growth at this point is almost entirely because immigrants are coming to this country. That means more people to work, which actually keeps wages down, especially in industries that immigrants are traditionally employed, especially if you're unskilled, landscaping, labor, farming, fishing. And so that helps keep wages down, which is obviously good for employers, and is good for consumers. But if you're an American-born worker, you may not feel that way, you may be frustrated that people who are willing to work for less than you are working alongside you and that depresses your wages.
Taylor Wilson:
This is another interesting piece from you, Trevor. Listeners can go find the full version with a link in today's show notes. Trevor Hughes is a national correspondent with Paste BN. Thanks, Trevor.
Trevor Hughes:
You bet, good to be here.
♦
Taylor Wilson:
Former hip hop mogul, Sean Diddy Combs appeared in court once again yesterday pleading not guilty, this time for a new indictment, stating that he had forced employees to work long inhumane hours and threatened to punish those who did not assist in his alleged two decade long sex trafficking scheme. The indictment follows numerous lawsuits and allegations of rape, sexual assault, physical abuse, and similar claims over the course of three decades, all of which Combs has pleaded not guilty to. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.
♦
On the campaign trail, President Trump pledged to once and for all, dismantle the Department of Education, a longstanding goal of conservative Republicans. That promise took shape this past week with the layoff of 50% of the department staff. The question is, will that lead to better education in America?
Zach Schermele:
Tracking educational progress going forward in order to test the hypothesis that these cuts that the Trump administration has moved forward with are working, that's going to be a challenge because the folks who are in charge of engaging in that research are no longer going to be at the department.
Taylor Wilson:
That's Paste BN Education Reporter Zach Schermele. Listen in tomorrow beginning at 5 A.M. when my colleague, Dana Taylor, sits down with Zach to talk through the impacts of these latest moves by the Trump administration to rein in Washington's footprint in the lives of millions of Americans.
♦
And thanks for listening to The Excerpt, you can get the podcast wherever you get your audio, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, and I'll be back Monday with more of The Excerpt from Paste BN.