← 10 Minute Drill
10 Minute Drill
Debunking Myths about the Big Beautiful Bill; Unpacking cautionary tales from Europe
00:11:02
In this sharp and fast-moving episode of the 10 Minute Drill, we break down the latest political flashpoints and policy debates reshaping America — all in just 10 minutes. 🔹 Big Beautiful Bill (BBB) Showdown – Democrats are pushing popular...
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- [00:00]
Host or Commentator
The latest on the Big beautiful bill in President Trump's agenda. Also, what's the deal with Europe? All of that and more today on a post Memorial Day 10 minute drill. Everybody get up. Get up. The story of America is the story of an adventure.
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Donald Trump
I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. We are a nation under God and I believe God intended for us to be free.
- [00:30]
Host or Commentator
On this vote, the yeas are 215. The nays are 214 with one answering present. The bill is passed. Now the Republicans in the House of Representatives have passed President Trump's big beautiful bill. A massive victory for Speaker Johnson and leaders in the House that will move on to the Senate. But what we want to talk about today is, is some of the political dynamics around that bill. One thing that we talked about last week is the fact that pieces in this bill are overwhelmingly popular. Everyone believes it is time for a tax cut. They see the cost of living, they have a little bit of economic anxiety and they believe they should get a tax cut. We've seen polling that shows about 60 to 70% of people agree with that point. We also know that there's major support for shoring up our immigration system and providing more funding for, for deporting illegal immigrants, particularly those who have a criminal record. Another part of the Big Beautiful bill program. But the third component of this that is particularly important is the popularity of cutting, waste, fraud and abuse. We have seen polling from the beginning of the Trump administration that people believe there is major fraud, waste and abuse in government. And one of the places where that is most prominent is in these programs like Medicaid and snap, the food assistance programs. We've talked a lot about Medicaid. We've talked about the fact that over a million illegal immigrants are currently getting Medicaid benefits, actually slowing down and harming that program. We've also talked about the fact that 6 to 8 million more people are currently getting Medicaid who are ineligible for the program. And what this bill will do is institute work requirements and other state level checks to ensure that people are not getting Medicaid benefits who should not be getting Medicaid benefits. That's an incredibly important part of this. You cannot say you support Medicaid and you want Medicaid to serve future generations. If you're also arguing that those benefits need to go to illegal immigrants and need to go to people who are able bodied who should not be getting those benefits. SNAP is another program with similar eligibility issues. According to the House Agricultural Committee during the Pandemic SNAP rules increased by 6 million people. States make $13 billion a year in erroneous payments. Only 28% of able bodied adults without dependence on SNAP have earned income from work. It's so important to remember that these safety net programs began as a widows and orphans program. They are intended for the most vulnerable. But over the years under President Obama, but also during the pandemic, rules around them were relaxed to make it easier for people to get around those eligibility requirements and to get around work requirements so that this program began serving millions and millions of able bodied people who are making the program more bloated, more expensive, but also less able to to provide those services for the widows and orphans they were built for. One analogy I think of when I look at these programs that do provide a critical resource. Consider if you are on a desert island with four friends and you've got one pizza to survive and one of your four friends says we can only eat that pizza if we also throw a portion of it into the ocean so nobody can get it. That's the same thing that Democrats are arguing right now with SNAP and Medicaid. This program can only serve the widows and orphans and people who actually need it. If you also put a portion of it, two people who should not be on the program at all, whether it be illegal immigrants, ineligible people, things like that. You cannot say you support SNAP or Medicaid serving widows, orphans, low income children, anyone who needs it. If you're also arguing that it has to go to illegal immigrants, able bodied young men who should be working and get insurance and SNAP food benefits through any other programs, it just doesn't work. You have to pick one, one or the other. And that's gonna be Democrats challenge as they message against this. People overwhelmingly have concerns about fraud, waste and abuse even in Medicaid and snap. And if we don't address this now, when do you think another president's gonna come along who can say let's take an ax to the fraud, waste and abuse. And I also think it's important to look at all the forces that are working against making those simple cuts to fraud, waste and abuse. Look at CBO who has worked now for decades to against any effort to cut fraud, waste and abuse. Every time that there's an effort to reform or cut spending on anything, CBO's specific data is positioned to work against those reforms. But look at the media, look at Democrats and look at every left wing group that lines up to say they're hurting the poorest among us. When these reforms are actually intended to help the poorest among us by making sure that these small resources available to them are not being divvied up among people that shouldn't have access to them, like illegal immigrants and able bodied young adults. Take a look at this clip from Ayanna Pressley.
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Dana Perino
I mean seriously, the only people who benefit from this bill are toy spaceship billionaires like Elon Musk and Donald Trump himself.
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Host or Commentator
As you hear Democrats try and frame their arguments about Republicans only helping billionaires, consider the last four years what Democrats did when they were in power. One thing that we have tracked really closely here is their efforts to divert your tax dollars not to lower income Americans but to their own donor class of millionaires and billionaires, particularly like solar companies. I will until the day I die. Continue pointing to the AP article on a company called First Solar. First Solar worked with Chuck Schumer to get access to the rulemaking process. First Solar had investors tipped off about secret negotiations going on in the Senate about the Inflation Reduction Act. Those investors who are Democrat donors then bought up shares of First Solar that made them billions of dollars. That's what Democrats spent the last year. Four years focusing on inflation went no lower income American benefited by anything that Democrats did for the last four years. On the contrary, they saw the biggest tax hike of their lives because of the inflation that Democrats wrought upon them. So when you hear Democrats say Republicans are only looking out for the rich, it is so important to look at what Democrats did for the last four years and try and find anything they did for lower income Americans. Their agenda entirely focused on enriching their donors and helping wealthy liberals with things like tax credits to buy electric vehicles or student loan repayments that overwhelmingly went to higher income people like doctors and lawyers. So again, this is projection and it's so, so so important to remember the fact that the core tenets of this bill, tax cuts, shoring up our immigration system and getting rid of fraud, waste and abuse that's destroying these safety net programs are overwhelmingly popular. What's the deal with Europe? That's a topic that has gotten a lot of coverage in these last few months. In the beginning of the Trump administration, the Wall Street Journal had a very interesting report. The tech industry is huge and Europe's share of it is very small. I want you to take a look at this graphic that they used showing the number of privately held companies valued over $1 billion by select country and region in the US. Look at that gigantic orb. China. Smaller but still much bigger than EU there sadly in yellow. What Wall Street Journal is examining. Here is how over regulation and insane rulemaking has destroyed innovation in Europe. This article focuses largely on tech. Europe has instituted rules like the digital Services tax that have crushed their own tech industry, but also made it more difficult for them to benefit off of American tech innovation. Take a look at this clip from Dana Perino.
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Dana Perino
They did leave out the digital services tax and they said they're going to deal with that separately. I think that needs to be dealt with. In addition to that, they need to say to the Europeans, enough going after our tech companies. Just because you are so jealous you cannot innovate and come up with your own technology and social media.
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Host or Commentator
The digital services tax is one key agenda item that Secretary Bessen and others have talked about needing to sort out as we deal with our trade relationships with Europe. But another area where Europe overregulation has really crushed them is more biopharmaceuticals. Look at this from Robert F. Kennedy.
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Donald Trump
One of the disadvantages is there's a lot of drugs that are just unavailable in Europe and you have a lot of medical tourism to the United States because people can get drugs here that just aren't available in Europe. You're going to pay a lot more. The drugs are here and in Europe, they restrict them so they can say to the drug company, we're not going to allow you to sell that drug in our country unless you give us basically the cost of manufacturing it. Yeah. And those are the bargains that they drive. And it's really, it's a form of price fixing.
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Host or Commentator
I'd note that RFK actually made this statement about Europe's shortcomings the same week that he and President Trump announced their own plans for European style price controls in America, which a lot of experts in the medical industry are warning are going to reduce American access to innovative, important drugs, but also limit research and development for future cures. But that's a separate topic. But another core issue where European overregulation has destroyed their own industry and ability is energy. We have talked here quite a bit about how Europe's over regulation of particularly fossil fuels has made them incredibly vulnerable to the point where while they're trying to defend Ukraine, they're buying Russian oil and gas because they have killed their own energy production, whether it be coal, natural gas or any other resource they need for so many other parts of their industry. So when we talk about what's the deal with Europe, so much virtue signaling and overregulation has hindered their ability to produce and be a productive part of the world economy. A new poll from our friends at Defending Education is revealing how parents feel about current college campus cultures. According to defending ED's polling, 82% of parents want foreign funding to universities disclosed 60% oppose biological males participating in women's sports 57% oppose hiring decisions being made with a racial preference. This comes as President Trump has made it a focus of his administration to get out any foreign influence over education and to ensure that any universities receiving federal government funding are free, safe, and places where free speech can thrive. That is all the time we have for today. Thanks so much for joining us. I hope you had a great Memorial Day. Please tell your friends. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts like subscribe all the things. Have a great day.