The US could face a government shutdown at midnight on Saturday, and Elon Musk is pushing for it. President-elect Donald Trump followed his calls to reject a bill that would have kept the government funded through March. Without it, some public services could be put of hold… So what’s it all about and how serious would it be? Justin, Anthony and Marianna explain. Plus, Walker Watch returns! HOSTS: - Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter - Marianna Spring, Disinformation and Social Media Correspondent - Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent GET IN TOUCH: - Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB - Send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 9480 - Email Americast@bbc.co.uk - Or use #Americast This episode was made by Chris Flynn with Rufus Gray, Catherine Fusillo and Claire Betzer. The technical producer was Ben Andrews. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham. If you want to be notified every time we publish a new episode, please subscribe to us on BBC Sounds by hitting the subscribe button on the app. You can now listen to Americast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Americast”. It works on most smart speakers. US Election Unspun: Sign up for Anthony’s BBC newsletter: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68093155 Americast is part of the BBC News Podcasts family of podcasts. The team that makes Americast also makes lots of other podcasts, including The Global Story, The Today Podcast, and of course Newscast and Ukrainecast. If you enjoy Americast (and if you're reading this then you hopefully do), then we think that you will enjoy some of our other pods too. See links below. The Global Story: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/w13xtvsd The Today Podcast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0gg4k6r Newscast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/p05299nl Ukrainecast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0bqztzm
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Okay, folks, it's that time of year again.
Exactly.
Stockings are hung by the chimney with care.
And we're getting ready for a possible government shutdown here in Washington, dc.
Okay, so in very, very brief, what's happening is that Donald Trump doesn't think much of the money arrangements that are about to pass through Congress.
They need to have the votes of Republicans, obviously, in the House of Representatives, who are in the majority there, and he has put pressure on them not to say yes to it.
So it doesn't go through.
And what doesn't go through, and we've discussed this loads of times on the program, when there isn't the money to fund the federal government, then various things done by the federal government are, at least in theory, closed down.
And as ever, because it wouldn't be an episode of AmericasT if I didn't mention Elon Musk.
Elon Musk has got very, very involved, including on X, where he shared dozens and dozens of posts about this.