Friday evening’s weekly news roundup featuring PBS News Hour host William Brangham, New York Times columnist David Brooks, and MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart was full of bizarre government shutdown-related hot takes. In addition to Obamacare subsidies, Brangham and Capehart added rescission packages to the list of Democratic demands, which they falsely claimed take away Congress’s spending power. Meanwhile, Brooks lamented that by shutting down the government, Democrats are forcing themselves to talk about something other than supposed threats to democracy.
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Eventually, Brangham turned to Brooks and wondered, “David, do you think that the Democrats are making a coherent, resonant argument as to why they are holding the line here?”
Brooks wasn’t enthusiastic, “I think it's okay. I mean, they're emphasizing the subsidies. Frankly, if it was up to me. I might have mentioned a once-in-a-nation's-history threat to democracy as the core problem here. But they're making coherent case on the health subsidies. I think it's not the legitimate case that should be made at this moment in American history.”
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