Tangle - Democrats split after short-term funding bill passes.

Episode Date: March 17, 2025

On Saturday, President Donald Trump signed a stopgap bill to fund the government through September and avert a government shutdown. The bill — called a continuing resolution (CR) — was sent to Trump’s desk after the Senate voted 54–46 on Friday to pass it, with two Democrats voting in favor and one Republican voting against. Prior to the final vote, the Senate invoked cloture 62–38. Refresher: The Senate’s cloture rule outlines the procedure of ending debate on proposed legislation and forcing a floor vote. The rule requires a three-fifths majority, normally 60 senators, to bypass a filibuster, which would extend debate indefinitely. Once brought to a floor vote, bills require a simple majority to pass. Ad-free podcasts are here!Many listeners have been asking for an ad-free version of this podcast that they could subscribe to — and we finally launched it. You can go to ReadTangle.com to sign up!You can read today's podcast⁠ ⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠, our “Under the Radar” story ⁠here and today’s “Have a nice day” story ⁠here⁠.Take the survey: What do you think of Senate Democrats’ decision? Let us know!You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here. Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.This podcast was written by Isaac Saul and edited and engineered by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Senior Editor Will Kaback, Hunter Casperson, Kendall White, Bailey Saul, and Audrey Moorehead. Our logo was created by Magdalena Bokowa, Head of Partnerships and Socials.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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And if you're not getting rewards like extra data and dollars off with your mobile plan, you're not with FIZ. Switch today. Conditions apply. Details at fizz.ca. From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening. And welcome to the Tangle Podcast, the place we get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking and a little bit of my take. I'm your host, Isaac Saul. Today is Monday, March 17th, and we are covering the government funding bill. That's right.

There was a big standoff. We talked about it on Thursday. We are covering the government funding bill. That's right. There was a big standoff. We talked about it on Thursday. We're covering it again today because the bill passed. Obviously I talked a bit about it on the Sunday podcast too for those of you listening there. But a lot of interesting stuff happened in the wake of this bill passing.

So we're gonna break down exactly what that was. Before we do though, a quick reminder that on Friday, we publish a members only reader listener mailbag. If you did not get a chance to go listen to that, you should definitely go do it. I thought it was a pretty expansive piece in the podcast and on the newsletter. That was just, you know,

a good way for us to cover all the stuff going on in the country right now. So you should definitely check it out. With that, I'm going to send it over to John for today's main topic and I'll be back for my take. Thanks Isaac and welcome everybody. Hope you all had a refreshing and joyful weekend. Before we get started, I wanted to make mention of something I noticed that happened in the

comments section. In response to our Friday edition, a Tangle reader wrote that she finds herself as someone who is in favor of the president and she believes in Tangle's mission, but finds it difficult at times to reply in the comments section that she had one lighthearted interaction, but overall some of her interactions had been snarky and hostile. A lot of other readers saw that comment and replied to let her know that even though they disagree on things,

they need to do a better job of being kind and treating each other with respect. One commenter said, I'm glad people like you are here. I joined Tangle because I want to know people who disagree with me. I'm sorry some people are unable to have civil discussions."

I just wanted to highlight this because this is one of my favorite things about our community. It's good to see that people come out and support each other, especially when they're taking a moment to be vulnerable about how difficult it can be to feel like there's no one who understands their perspective, but they're making an effort to try and understand everybody else as well. So I just wanted to give a shout out to those of you who are continually supporting each other and trying to lift each other up. And it's an admirable and inspiring thing to witness and makes me so excited

to be a part of this community every day. Again, my biggest thank you to all of you who make this space a welcoming place to be. All right, with that, here are your quick hits for today. First up, the Trump administration deported over 250 alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador, citing the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which empowers the president to deport citizens of countries considered an enemy of the United States during a war or invasion. The administration carried out the deportations despite a ruling by a federal judge that temporarily blocked them from using the law to deport non-citizens in U.S. custody.

Number 2. The United States carried out a series of aerial and naval strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen, targeting air defenses, drone systems, and missile stockpiles. At least 53 people have been reportedly killed in the strikes. Defense Secretary Pete Haiksef said the strikes were in response to Houthi attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, adding that the strikes would continue until the group stops. Separately, U.S. Central Command forces announced that they had conducted an airstrike in Iraq

that killed a top ISIS leader and another operative. 3. At least 40 people were killed by severe storms in the Midwest and South. Over 100,000 people remain without power as the storm systems shift east. 4. The Department of Homeland Security said it had arrested a second student involved in the protests at Columbia University last year, alleging that she had overstayed her visa and broken the law while participating in the protests at Columbia University last year, alleging that she had overstayed her visa and broken the law while participating in the protests.

Additionally, the agency said another student involved in the protests self-deported. And number five, President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for the elimination of seven federal agencies, including the US Agency for Global Media and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. This morning, the federal government is still open for business after the Senate went down

to the wire to pass a Republican spending bill on Friday. Democratic votes were needed to keep things running, and that has opened up a new round of in-fighting. There are 54 senators voted to ultimately pass the bill. It's the House Republican Stop Gap Spending Bill, known as a Continuing Resolution, or CR for short. It funds the government for six months, essentially extending the Biden-era budget, but it does increase defense spending slightly and includes cuts to other programs, including medical research and housing.

On Saturday, President Donald Trump signed a stopgap bill to fund the government through September and avert a government shutdown. The bill, called a continuing resolution, was sent to Trump's desk after the Senate voted 54 to 46 on Friday to pass it, with two Democrats voting in favor and one Republican voting against. Prior to the final vote, the Senate invoked cloture 62 to 38. For context, the Senate's cloture rule outlines the procedure of ending debate on proposed legislation and forcing a floor vote.

The rule requires a three-fifths majority, normally 60 senators, to bypass a filibuster, which would extend debate indefinitely. Once brought to a floor vote, bills require a simple majority to pass. You can read our previous coverage on the funding bill, which passed 217 to 213 on Thursday, with a link in today's episode description. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the Democrat from New York, initially signaled that Democrats would block the CR, but he later changed course and led nine other members of the Democratic caucus to vote in favor of cloture. Schumer said that while he opposed the CR, the government's shutdown

would have been a worse outcome. Schumer and other Democrats expressed concerns that the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOJ, could significantly reduce the size of the federal government during a shutdown, as funding lapses give the president wide latitude to decide which agencies to keep open and which workers to furlough. For instance, the White House could have designated DOJ's activities as essential while temporarily closing other departments, allowing DOJ to operate more freely within those departments' systems. However, Schumer's decision to help advance the bill drew widespread criticism from House Democrats, who voted against the CR for its funding priorities that supported President Trump's agenda.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, this false choice that some are buying instead of fighting is unacceptable, while Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the bill would lead to the evisceration of the federal government. Furthermore, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries declined to answer a reporter's question about his support for Schumer. Today, we'll explore reactions from the right and the left about the CR's passage and the response from both parties. And then, Isaac's take. We'll be right back after this quick break. FanDuel Casino Daily Jackpots guaranteed to hit by 11pm with your chance at the number one feeling winning, which beats even the 27th best feeling saying I do. Who wants this last

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All right, first up, let's start with what the right is saying. The right lauds President Trump and Republican leaders for passing the bill. Some say Democrats underestimate Speaker Johnson and paid the price. Others say the Democratic base's demands are increasingly unreasonable. In Fox News, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich praised the Trump-Johnson-Thune budget victory. After the 2024 election, many supposed experts said that President Donald Trump would have a hard time getting legislation through the extraordinarily narrow House Republican majority or past the Senate's 60-vote threshold, Gingrich wrote. If you had told any so-called expert on January 20th that Republicans could get a seven-month

continuing resolution to keep the government open through the House with only Republican votes, he or she would probably not have believed you. If you had then told them the bill would be difficult for Senate Democrats to undermine, they would have thought you were dreaming. When the Democrats failed to stop Speaker Johnson, they had only two choices. Both were painful. They could all vote no. If the Senate Democrats did this, the Republicans would not be able to get past the filibuster

and so the government would shut down. Then the Democrats realized President Trump could cut more programs and reshape the bureaucracy even more under a shutdown scenario than he could if the bill was passed, Gingrich said. President Trump, Speaker Johnson, and Majority Leader Thune played this round brilliantly and won a huge victory. They also proved that they could pass tax cuts, deregulation, and other priorities on which President Trump and the Republicans campaigned on in 2024.

In MSNBC, Susan Del Perccio wrote, Chuck Schumer underestimated Mike Johnson. Last December's funding bill was always a temporary stopgap measure that would only fund the federal government through March 13, 2025. More surprising was that Johnson was able to get the House to pass its budget outline last month with only losing a single vote. This should have served as a canary in the coal mine moment for Democrats, Del Percio said. The real blunder Schumer made was miscalculating just how good Johnson had become at playing political hardball. The thought of Johnson passing a six-month continuing resolution with just Republican votes

seemed highly unlikely last year, and that was what both Jeffries and Schumer were counting on. Johnson defied the odds and passed the CR, losing just one Republican vote and picking up an extra yes vote from Maine Democrat Jared Golden. That left Schumer floundering with only one option to keep the government open, Del Percio wrote. There is a lesson to be learned here and now would be a good time for Democratic leadership as well as Senate Majority Leader John Thune, to recognize Johnson's skills.

They don't have to like him or agree with him, but going forward, they should respect him and maybe even fear him. In National Review, Noah Rothman said activists demand that Democrats set themselves on fire. Democrats spent the past 24 hours arguing with themselves about how much voters would reward their party for shutting down the government. But Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, after what seems to have been a contentious and anxiety-fueled meeting with his fellow Senate Democrats, put the kibosh on the activist shutdown gambit. As a result, Schumer has become an object of contempt within the activist class, a cohort

that includes more than a few congressional Democrats, Rothman wrote. Theater, not strategy, is what Democratic partisans now demand of their elected officials, and they're not getting nearly enough of it. For weeks, the minority party's leadership has pleaded with their voters to take stock of how little leverage Democrats have following their mediocre performance at the polls in 2024. They have tried to placate the rest of left with interpretive dances, uninspired 1960s style protests, songs and chants, and the unbecoming deployment of a lot of four letter words, Rothman said. Democratic elected officials are only responding to their voters' demand for enthusiasm. It is now abundantly clear, though, that the current cast of Democrats cannot

give their base what it wants. That tension seems set to come to a head far sooner than Democrats had probably anticipated. Alright, that is it for what the right is saying, which brings us to what the left is saying. The left criticizes Schumer for his ineffective approach to the budget fight. Schumer himself defends the outcome as taking the better of two bad options. Others say this episode will incentivize Trump to continue bullying Democrats. In Bloomberg, Nehomaleeca Henderson argued Schumer had no plan for this budget fight.

Nothing sums up the fecklessness of the Democratic Party more than Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's decision to back House Republicans' plan to fund the government. In many ways, Schumer had only bad options and no real choice. But Schumer, 74, also had no real plan. It was as if he was caught by surprise by the possibility of a government shutdown, Henderson wrote. Initially, he suggested that Democrats would block the six-month spending bill hatched by House Republicans and rejected by all but one House Democrat.

The next day, he backed down, delivering a floor speech laying out why he would support the measure. This is no way to lead a party. Progressive groups have been galvanizing angry voters who have flooded town halls to express their discontent with the current course. And Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has been packing arenas in Republican districts as part of his fight oligarchy tour, Henderson said. But Democrats got nothing in this fight, picking the better position yet hardly advancing their messaging and rebranding agenda. That's a missed opportunity at a time Democrats

have a huge amount of work to do. The midterms offer little hope, not only as they are months away, but once again the Senate map looks daunting for Democrats, particularly as incumbents retire. In the New York Times, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote about his decision to avert a shutdown. Over the past two months, the United States has confronted a bitter truth. The federal government has been taken over by a nihilist. President Trump has taken a blowtorch to our country

and wielded chaos like a weapon. Most Republicans in Congress, meanwhile, have caved to his every whim. The grand old party has devolved into a crowd of Trump sycophants and MAGA radicals who seem to want to burn everything to the ground, Schumer said. There are no winners in a government shutdown, but there certainly are victims, the most vulnerable Americans who rely on federal programs to feed their families, get medical care,

and stay financially afloat. For sure, the Republican bill is a terrible option. It is deeply partisan. It doesn't address the country's needs. But even if the White House says differently, Mr. Trump and Elon Musk want a shutdown. We should not give them one. The risk of allowing the president to take even more power via a government shutdown is a much worse path, Schumer wrote. Right now, Mr. Trump owns the chaos in the government. He owns the chaos in the stock market. He owns the damage happening to our economy.

The stock market is falling and consumer confidence is plummeting. In a shutdown, we would be busy fighting with Republicans over which agencies to reopen and which to keep closed instead of debating the damage Mr. Trump's agenda is causing. In New York Magazine, Ed Kilgore said, Schumer brings a white flag to a gunfight. Democrats have so little actual power and Republicans have so little interest in following laws in the Constitution, much less precedence for fair play and bipartisanship. So it really makes no sense to accuse the powerless minority party of allowing the assault of the federal government and the separation of powers being undertaken by the president, his OMB director, and his tech-bro sidekick, Kilgore wrote.

Having said all that, Senate Democrats did have a strategic choice to make this week, and based on Chuck Schumer's op-ed in the New York Times explaining his decision to get out of the way and let the House-passed spending bill come to the floor, he made it some time ago. This doesn't just look bad and feel bad for Democrats demanding that their leaders do something to stop the Trump locomotive. It also gives the supreme bully in the White House incentive to keep bullying them, Kilgore said. The reality is that his spending measure was the only leverage point congressional Democrats

had this year, unless Republicans are stupid enough not to wrap the debt limit increase the government must soon have in a budget reconciliation bill that cannot be filibustered. If a government shutdown was intolerable, then Democrats should have taken it off the table long before the House voted on a CR. Alright, let's head over to Isaac for his take. All right, that is it for it with the left and the right are saying, which brings us to my take. So in our modern political duopoly, rarely will one party be put between such a rock and a hard place. But the Trump-led Republican Party just pulled off

one of the most cunning legislative maneuvers that I've seen in recent memory. To just put it simply, Democrats got totally outplayed here. By Friday afternoon, Republicans had given Democrats a choice between two very bad options. The first option was to reject the continuing resolution and invite a government shutdown. This carried both political and real world risk.

Politically, Republicans in the House and Senate could say Democrats blocked a funding bill that they were ready to pass, which would have not only been true, but also novel. Democrats have only forced the government shutdown once since 1990. The real world risk was even more stark. If the government were to shut down, the Trump administration would have had carte blanche to decide what government employees to furlough, what programs to continue funding, and what arms of the government to shut down.

For Democrats worried about Doge, this shutdown would have effectively given the group unfettered access to do whatever they wanted. The second option, the one Democrats took, was to swallow the Republican-crafted CR and keep the government open. This carried political and real-world risk, too. Politically, Democrats would be immediately caving on their promise to stand up to the Trump administration when their base was eager for a fight. Many writers, including me, have been criticizing the Democrats as feckless, helpless messengers, and this path is another retreat. More importantly, though, this path has real-world risk for Democrats, too.

The CR gives Republicans more spending power to rest away from Congress and Democrats few legislative options for future obstruction. Voting no on this CR was a chance, perhaps one of their last, to stand up. In a few months, Republicans will have an opportunity to pass a much larger, further reaching omnibus bill that will require zero Democratic votes in the Senate. I saw option two is bad enough that last week, I suggested in our newsletter and on our Sunday podcast, the Democrats should reject the bill and risk a shutdown.

But today, I'm much less sure. The best case scenario for rejecting the short-term funding bill looks a little different than it usually does for a forced shutdown. Since President Trump could have benefited from a shutdown, Democrats couldn't use it as leverage to force Republicans back to the table on the bill. Instead, a shutdown would have driven the media into a tizzy, and Democrats would have taken their PR war against Musk and Doge more directly to the public.

In some ways, the case for rejecting the bill seems easy. Republicans get elected, and in two months we get a stock market sell-off, a government shutdown, and disruptive layoffs across the federal government. Democrats could have made the point that this CR was effectively creating a slush fund for Trump and Musk, while also hammering Republicans for passing another CR after promising over and over not to. You could even argue, as I have, that this was one of their last chances to put the legislative brakes on this administration. Plus, the party's base has been demanding Democrats do something meaningful, and voting

no would be something meaningful. But if you're a Democrat, Schumer's argument feels more compelling than my initial instincts, and it's a longer, more mature look at the situation. Maybe a shutdown gets you a week or two of plaudits for fighting, but then the government is still shut down. Services start to decay, Republicans rightly blame you for not passing their bill,

and Trump and Musk can genuinely ramp up their cuts to the federal programs you claim to be trying to defend. That's a bigger loser politically end in real results. Under a shutdown, the best case scenario for Democrats is winning a messaging war over whether Republicans are right to do exactly what they want to the federal workforce, but it wouldn't stop them. By avoiding a shutdown,

Democrats can say they dodge more pain for the American people while hammering Republicans and Trump over their budget, tariffs, and doge, and any of his failed promises. Better yet, they put the ball back in Republicans' court for this September, forcing them to find a compromise that may not exist. Obviously, the whole situation is still emblematic of the kind of democratic fecklessness that I've been criticizing.

As it turns out, they just didn't have a plan. They thought Trump and Speaker Johnson were not capable of getting Republicans with their slim majority on the same side to pass this short-term funding bill. Well, turns out they were very, very wrong. Once the bill passed the House, Republican alignment was a foregone conclusion in the Senate, and Democrats could only throw the Hail Mary of Senator Patty Murray, the Democrat from Washington, trying to negotiate a different bill with Senate Republicans, which went absolutely nowhere. Then it was time to shut the government down or fold.

At the same time, Democrats are also doubling down on their initial bet that Republicans won't be able to pass a much larger spending and immigration bill in a few months. Meanwhile, the fractures this debate has drawn out within the Democratic Party might be more important than Schumer's decision to support the CR. Democrats have largely been ignoring their very real ideological divisions for two decades,

falling in line behind leaders like Nancy Pelosi while Republicans have been fighting, clawing, and sorting themselves out. The Tea Party uprising, the formation of the House Freedom Caucus, the battle between Trump and establishment Republicans, all of it led us to today, where the party has suddenly unified behind their leader enough to get bills like this across the finish line. Now consider the distance between some of the most well-known Democrats in the party right now.

From representatives, Alon Omar from Minnesota and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York, to senators, Chuck Schumer and Patty Murray. From Bernie Sanders in Vermont to Alyssa Slockin in Michigan. From Ashita Kleib in Michigan to John Fetterman in Pennsylvania. From Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts to Jared Golden in Maine. The list goes on and on and on, and that's just Congress,

not even talking about the gubernatorial members of the Democratic Party. The party reminds me of some kind of dysfunctional family that swallows all their real feelings and can never say what's actually on their mind for fear of confrontation and reprisals, and it simply can't go on like this forever. At long last, Democrats might have some fighting to do. Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries refusing to back Schumer

even for a day is a sign that things might be moving in a more confrontational direction. I wouldn't downplay the significance of that moment, especially not with rumors already swirling about Ocasio-Cortez throwing her hat in the ring for a New York Senate seat. I have no idea where we are headed, but it's clear one arm of the party

wants to meet the base where they are, the kind of belligerent and dedicated obstruction that has defined popular grassroots Republican House members in the past? Can Democrats reunify under the pressure of Trump's onslaught of action? Or are these early fractures paired with historically low approval for the party the beginning of a major fight and title shift? I genuinely don't know, but I would bet that we're closer to the latter.

We'll be right back after this quick break. Fandual Casino's exclusive live dealer studio has your chance at the number one feeling winning, which beats even the 27th best feeling saying I do. Who wants this last parachute? I do. Enjoy the number one feeling winning in an exciting live dealer studio, exclusively on FanDuel Casino, where winning is undefeated.

19 plus and physically located in Ontario. Gambling problem? Call 1-866-531-2600 or visit connectsontario.ca. Please play responsibly. With the Fizz loyalty program, you get rewarded just for having a mobile plan. You know, for texting and stuff. And if you're not getting rewards like extra data

and dollars off with your mobile plan, you're not with Fizz. Switch today. Conditions apply, details at fizz.ca. All right, that is it for my take, which brings us to your questions answered. This one's from Rick in Homesassa, Florida. Rick said, week after week, your survey results show consistent and usually fairly strong disagreement or disapproval of pretty much every Trump action. You've told us in the past, you believe the group of people who read Tangle were somewhat reasonably balanced

with a caveat that there had been a huge surge of readers added after exposure on one of the more liberal platforms. How do you reconcile that with slightly over half of the people who chose to vote for Trump? Is the Tangle audience more left skewed? So first of all, yes, you are right that our recent surveys have shown strong disapproval of the Trump administration.

It's also true that we've received an influx of new readers from a November episode of This American Life that featured Tangle and that many of those readers likely hold left of center views. It stands to reason, then, that Tangle's audience has begun to skew left. A couple important caveats, though. First, our readership growth has also coincided with a new Republican president, a particularly polarizing one at that. So readers on the left are naturally going to feel more animated about the issues we cover and are therefore more likely

to use our surveys to voice their displeasure. We saw the opposite of this during the Biden administration, though not to the same degree. Second, our reader survey is not a scientifically representative sample of our audience. We offer it as a way to engage with the arguments shared in the daily newsletter and solicit feedback, but it should not be confused with a professional poll. Third, I suspect many of our self-identifying conservatives or Republican readers are moderates

who often find themselves misaligned with this administration. That said, Tangle's mission is to be a big tent news organization that is trusted by people of all political persuasions. And if our audience starts to drift too far in either direction, it's a sign we need to do a better job reaching out to the other side. Critically, this does not mean changing our philosophy or currying favor with conservative readers

by disingenuously taking right-leaning editorial stances. Instead, we're advertising on right-leaning platforms, seeking to share our work as widely as possible, and doubling down on editorial practices that ensure we consider a full range of views on every issue we cover. Reader survey responses are just one way to gauge the balance of our audience over time, but we don't think they're an effective tool to evaluate the bias of our work itself. All right, that is it for today's listener question. I'm going to send it back to John for the rest of the pod and I'll see you guys tomorrow.

Peace. Thanks Isaac. Here's your under the radar story for today, folks. All 40 of the unauthorized migrants who are being held at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba have been transferred back to the United States and are now being detained in Louisiana. In January, President Trump directed the Pentagon to prepare 30,000 beds to house detained migrants

at the base, saying it would hold those who pose the greatest public safety threat. However, the operation to expand the facility's capacity was paused a few weeks after it started, and the government has not provided further clarity about its decision to transfer the migrants back to the US. Fox News has this story, and there's a link in today's episode description.

All right, next up is our numbers section. The number of Democrats and Senator Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with Democrats who voted to invoke cloture on the continuing resolution, is 10. Of those 10, the number who voted against the CR in the final vote is 8. The percentage of Democratic voters who say they want Democrats in Congress to make compromises with President Trump and gain consensus on legislation is 32%, according to a March 2025 NBC News poll. The percentage of Democratic voters who say they want Democrats in Congress to stick to

their positions, even if it means not getting things done in Washington, is 65%. The percentage of Democratic voters who say they wanted Democrats in Congress to make compromises with President Trump in April 2017 was 59%. The percentage of Democratic voters who said they wanted Democrats in Congress to stick to their positions even if this meant not getting things done in Washington in April 2017 was 33%. The percentage of Americans with a favorable view of the Democratic Party is 29%, according to a March 2025 CNN-SSRS poll, the party's lowest favorability rating in CNN polling history. And Senator Chuck Schumer's net favorability rating as of March 17th is minus 18.9%, according

to a RealClear real clear politics polling average. And last but not least are Have a Nice Day Story. The prevalence of high interest rates in the debt industry often lock borrowers into spirals of debt. Welsh actor Michael Sheen decided to step in to help strangers caught in this system. Using 100,000 pounds of his money, Sheen bought one million pounds of Stranger's debt, 10 times

the value of what he paid for it. The story has been released as a documentary on BBC's Channel 4 titled, Michael Sheen's Secret Million Pound Giveaway. The Guardian has this story and there's a link in today's episode description. Alright everybody, that is it for today's episode. As always, if you'd like to support our work, please go to reetangle.com where you can sign up for a newsletter membership, podcast membership, or a bundled membership that gets you a discount on both.

We'll be right back here tomorrow. For Isaac and the rest of the crew, this is John Law signing off. Have a great day, y'all. Peace. Our podcast is written by me, Isaac Saul, and edited and engineered by Duke Thomas. Our script is edited by Ari Weitzman, Will Kavak, Kelly Saul, and Sean Brady. The logo for our podcast was made by Magdalena Bikova, who is also our social media manager. The music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.

And if you're looking for more from Tangle, please go check out our website at www.reedtangle.com. That's www.reedtangle.com. FanDuel Casino Daily Jackpots, guaranteed to hit by 11pm with your chance at the number one feeling. Winning. Which beats even the 27th best feeling saying, I do. Who wants this last parachute? I do. Daily Jackpots, a chance to win with every until jackpot is awarded or 11 p.m. Eastern. Research and supply.

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Switch today. Conditions apply. Details at fizz.ca.