Loading summary
Transcript111 lines
- [00:01]
Joe Matthew
If you're the purchasing manager at a manufacturing plant, you know having a trusted partner makes all the difference. That's why hands down, you count on Grainger for auto reordering. With on time restocks, your team will have the cut resistant gloves they need at the start of their shift and you can end your day knowing they've got safety well in hand. Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.
- [00:33]
Paul Sweeney
Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts Radio news. You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch us live weekdays at noon and 5pm Eastern on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app. Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts or watch us live on YouTube.
- [00:55]
Tyler Kendall
I'm Tyler Kendall here in Washington alongside Joe Matthew and we are counting down to a critical vote in the on a potential so called clean a three year extension of the expiring Affordable Care act premium subsidies. In fact, Joe Matthew is going to be headed to the hill later tonight, 5pm Eastern for the late edition of Balance of Power, where we'll have all of the coverage. The thing is, is that there's big questions if this does pass, what ends up happening in the Senate since lawmakers in that chamber already rejected a very similar piece of legislation. But if you listen to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer earlier today, he says lawmakers are putting together some sort of.
- [01:34]
Jason Smith
Democrats are going to make health care and other high costs, the high cost.
- [01:41]
Joe Matthew
Of living the number one issue for.
- [01:44]
Jason Smith
All of 2026, the average American family.
- [01:49]
Joe Matthew
There are millions of them discussing this right now. How are we going to pay the bills?
- [01:54]
Mike Durning
And every day Americans are saying to.
- [01:58]
Jason Smith
Their elected officials, do something about it.
- [02:03]
Joe Matthew
Well, they're going to have a chance to do something a little bit later on today. But as Tyler mentioned, this is a House effort right now. And while there are some pieces of legislation in the Senate, but they haven't gathered any momentum yet, what happens today could change that. And that's where we start ahead of our conversation with Congressman Jason Smith. Mike Dawning is with us from our Capital Influence team at Bloomberg. And it's good to see you, Mike. You've been through a few rounds on Capitol Hill and I'm wondering what you're thinking about this now, especially when you put these two together. The war powers vote that drew five Republicans to a yes in the Senate. Yeah. Will likely be followed by this health care vote in the House that brought nine Republicans to yes in a procedural vote yesterday has Has Donald Trump found the line on some of these issues on the Hill?
- [02:45]
Mike Durning
Well, these are two different issues, but very, potentially very problematic. The health care issue is the one that scares the people who are going to be up for election next year the most because we've seen constantly people are concerned about the cost of living. These health care spikes are going to be doubling premiums for people who are on the Affordable Care Act. And this is a signal that the Republicans are worried about these surge in health care premiums. Nowadays. Actually, Republican areas are more dependent on Obamacare policies than Democratic areas. And that's because the party, the Republican Party's changed. It's more working class. So that's a leading indicator of an election worry. The Venezuela thing is separate. That's people are worried about a quagmire. Remember, a lot of the support for Trump was partly Republicans who were upset that felt like Bush misled them on Iraq and they went into that and that became a quagmire. Now Republicans in Congress, when they hear Trump saying we'll run Venezuela, we have to be open to boots on the ground, they're thinking, no, we're not open to that. And it's amazing to see this level of opposition before there's been a single American killed in combat.
- [04:14]
Tyler Kendall
So let's go maybe backwards in order. Health care. I have a question on first, when it comes to this plan in the House, not expected to pass the Senate, what does movement look like right now on a potential Senate deal? Because it seems like they could be coalescing around something that might get enough support to then kick back down to the lower chamber.
- [04:34]
Mike Durning
Yeah, they're sort of wrestling with a couple of different issues, something about how abortion is handled in this. And Republican wishes to move the system more towards something called a health savings account, which is essentially less an insurance policy and more just a tax protected pot of money that you can use to spend on health care. And it's just balancing. The Democrats don't want to do either of those two things. The Republicans do want to do both of those things and they're kind of back and forth on it. They haven't gotten there yet, but they're kind of circling around a possible deal. This vote in the House will probably put a little bit more political pressure on the Republicans in the Senate to try to come up with something, as.
- [05:23]
Joe Matthew
You like to say, Mike, you've been flipping a lot of burgers today and one of the other ones is actually funding the government. And before we talk to the chairman, I'm wondering your thoughts on this? Because while we talk about some of these more controversial items very quietly, there's been something maybe resembling or at least closer to regular order happening on Capitol Hill in a way that might help us avoid a government shutdown without, you know, a year long CR or whatever the other option might be. How close are we to getting a budget?
- [05:52]
Mike Durning
There's definitely a wish not to have a year long cr, but there's some complications and they're kind of technical, like conservatives not wanting to do earmarks and various other things. But the important thing to look at if you're bottom lining this is the Democrats don't want to do another shutdown, the Republicans don't want to do another shutdown, and Trump doesn't want to do another.
- [06:14]
Joe Matthew
That's a good combination.
- [06:15]
Mike Durning
So they're all trying to find a way to avoid a shutdown. So the risk of a shutdown at the end of the month is low because everyone wants to figure out a way to avoid it. Whether we'll actually be able to get budgets passed and appropriations bills. They're kind of hitting off some, a lot of bumps on the road there, but it's looking like they're going to try to find some way of avoiding it.
- [06:39]
Tyler Kendall
We keep hearing cautious optimism. Yeah, we're going to have to wait till the end of the month to see. All right. Probably one of the busiest people in our bureau today, Mike Durning, who helps run our Capital Influence team. Thanks so much for being here. We're going to extend the conversation now, bring in one of the lawmakers that will have a say in all of this. That's Congressman Jason Smith, a Republican representing Missouri's 8th district and chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. He joins us now from Capitol Hill. Congressman, thanks for being here. Let's start with this vote that's happening in your chamber later today. Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm assuming that you're going to vote against it based off of the procedural vote we saw yesterday. Let me know on that. And if so, do you have any appetite for an extension down the road if we do get something different from the upper chamber, maybe a shorter extension with some structural changes?
- [07:29]
Jason Smith
What we have an appetite for is to lower the cost of health care for all Americans. That's 347 million Americans. Unfortunately, what is on the floor today is only addresses 7% of the population. And what's quite unfortunate, that that 7% is part of the Obamacare exchanges that is just littered with so much waste, fraud and Abuse. The Government Accountability Office just came out with a report a couple weeks ago that cited 59,000 dead people. The insurance companies were being subsidized for one Social Security number was tied to 125 plus different policies. We need to make sure we fix the system, get out the waste, fraud and abuse. We saw what's going on in Minnesota with fraud. We need to do that. And just extending current status quo is unacceptable to the taxpayers.
- [08:25]
Joe Matthew
Well, Mr. Chairman, it's good to see you and welcome back. I wonder, in that case, if you might warm up to the idea of what's in this Senate bill. The Bernie Moreno bill would cap eligibility at 700% of the federal poverty level and require a minimum premium payment. Is that closer to what you're looking for?
- [08:44]
Jason Smith
It's definitely a step in the right direction. But what we have to understand is as of January 1st of this year, those extended Covid era subsidies expired. The Democrats created them in the American rescue plan and they made them temporary. They extended them the Inflation Reduction act, and they're the ones who set the date for December 31st of this year. When you look at that, they. In those subsidies, they allowed an unlimited amount of income to be subsidized. So, like a husband and wife making $600,000 a year subsidized, it now reverts to 400% of federal poverty level. So anyone below 400% federal poverty level will have substantial subsidies.
- [09:31]
Tyler Kendall
Is this vote happening today? Reflection on Republican leadership in your chamber? Because, Congressman, the only reason why it's happening is because some of your colleagues crossed the aisle to force that discharge petition.
- [09:45]
Jason Smith
This vote's happening because Republicans are standing for all Americans to make sure that we lower health care costs for all Americans. All that the Democrats have been holding out for is just 7% of the population, 24 million people. That's on the exchanges. But let's talk about those 24 million people on the exchanges. Last year alone, 12 million. 12 million people on those exchanges didn't file one medical claim, not even a prescription. You cannot tell me those people did not have health care expenses. They just simply didn't know that they were automatically enrolled. But guess what? Those insurance companies, they were all being subsidized.
- [10:25]
Susan Del Bene
Hmm.
- [10:25]
Joe Matthew
Well, last time we had you here, Mr. Chairman, we talked about the possibility of a government shutdown, or on the other side of that coin, maybe an actual budget by the end of this month. I know at one point you were in favor of just clearing the decks. As you told us, in doing a year long CR that was ahead of what became the longest government shutdown in American history. Now that we're seeing minibuses start to move, I'm wondering where your level of optimism lies and, and whether these votes have something to do with it. If the health care vote in the House doesn't pass the Senate and vice versa, are we at greater risk of shutting down?
- [11:01]
Jason Smith
We have three of the 12 appropriations bill signed into law. We have nine more to do. Three more will be attempted this week. I believe that those will pass. Go to the Senate and get the job done. We're not. I hope that all of my colleagues have learned that a government shutdown is not the answer. And then we're going to come together. And it appears, it appears so far from every indicator that I've seen, that no one wants a government shutdown. They want to work together, they want to fund government. And I think that we'll. We'll get the job done.
- [11:33]
Tyler Kendall
Well, sticking with the budget, President Trump is calling for a record $1.5 trillion defense budget in a post yesterday. He wants to see this massive $500 billion increase. Are Republicans ready to get behind that?
- [11:49]
Jason Smith
So, I don't know exactly what you're talking about. It's not something that I have, have seen. But what Republicans are focused on is getting our fiscal house in order, I can tell you. And so is the president. If you just look at last year, last year alone, out of 12 months, three of the 12 months, for the first time in decades, did we have more revenues coming into the country than we had expenditures in the months of April, June and September. That hadn't happened in decades. So that's a step in the right direction, but we need it for 12 months, not just three.
- [12:26]
Tyler Kendall
Well, we'll show you the post. Congressman, yesterday, this coming from President Trump saying, in part, quote, after long and difficult negotiations with senators, congressmen, secretaries and other political representatives, I have determined that for the good of our country, especially in these very troubled and dangerous times, our military budget for the year 2027 should not be $1 trillion, but rather $1.5 trillion. Does seeing this post now change any of what we just heard from you in terms of your answer and the viability for this?
- [12:59]
Jason Smith
One of the most important responsibilities of the federal government is national security, and that's making sure that our citizens are safe. And that is a huge focus of this administration. Unfortunately, the prior administration, they were out to lunch when it came to protecting the homeland. That's why, under President Trump's leadership, we have record lows in violent crime in the United States, actually the lowest in five years and just all across the board, record lows. So the President is all about law and order. He was investing in law and order and that should be a priority for Congress and it's a priority of the American people.
- [13:36]
Joe Matthew
We wanted to ask you about that because, my gosh, a one and a half trillion dollar budget would have to probably have to be managed by raising some revenues or cutting a significant amount of spending. But, Mr. Chairman, we've only got a couple of minutes left and I'd like to ask you about what appears to be a looming decision by the Supreme Court on tariffs. This could come tomorrow. We know it's a decision day. It might involve other decisions as well. But at some point, the Court's going to have to rule in the near term on this. And I'm wondering, if they do strike it down as tariffs are the purview of the Congress, will there be legislation to back up the President to do what he's trying to do through legislative form? Has that bill been written?
- [14:17]
Jason Smith
There is no question that whatever the, whatever the decision is from this upcoming Supreme Court are going to have huge consequences and Congress will have to act appropriately. It's why that is the first and only time that I've ever set before the oral arguments and I did during that case a few months back. And I think it rests within just a couple different, different justices, actually, two would be my guess. And, and I, I'm hopeful that though they'll make the right decision, I believe the President has the authority, authority to do what he's been doing, clearly under ipa. And let's see if the courts will, will decide on that. If, if the courts rule the other way, Congress will act appropriately.
- [15:01]
Joe Matthew
Okay, there you have it from Jason Smith, Chairman, House Ways and Means. Congressman, thank you. It's good to have you back. As always on Bloomberg TV and radio, that's a tape that we might be playing back at some point, Tyler, and it could be as soon as 10 o' clock tomorrow morning.
- [15:14]
Tyler Kendall
Well, and it's also really interesting if we look at how the administration has talked about using tariff revenue and how that could impact some of President Trump's ideas for the future, like a tariff revenue rebate check. I mean, you mentioned it in this post on military spending. The President said that some of that could come from tariff revenue.
- [15:29]
Joe Matthew
That's true. And if you're adding a half a trillion dollars to the defense budget, that might require some work at Ways and Means, which is why we wanted to get to that with Jason Smith. Stay with us on Balance of Power. We'll have much more coming up after this.
- [15:46]
Paul Sweeney
This is Scarlet Fu and I'm Paul.
- [15:47]
Jason Smith
Sweeney inviting you to join us for the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast.
- [15:51]
Paul Sweeney
Every day we harness the power of Bloomberg Intelligence to bring you deep dives into the companies that are moving markets from publicly traded companies like Apple to those that are privately owned but known by everyone on Earth like OpenAI.
- [16:02]
Jason Smith
Now I helped to build Bloomberg Intelligence to what it is today, Scarlett. And now our analysts are the best in the world, covering more than 2,000 global companies.
- [16:10]
Paul Sweeney
That is your legacy, Paul. And we speak to those in house experts every day. They are Bloomberg's go to authorities on sectors, companies and legal processes and we.
- [16:18]
Jason Smith
Do it all live each weekday. Then bring you the best conversations in our daily podcast.
- [16:23]
Paul Sweeney
So be sure to search for Bloomberg Intelligence on YouTube, Apple, Spotify or anywhere else you listen.
- [16:28]
Jason Smith
Listen in the afternoons on your way home from work to catch up on the market news you missed during the.
- [16:32]
Paul Sweeney
Business day that is the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. I'm Scarlet Fu.
- [16:36]
Joe Matthew
And I'm Paul Sweeney.
- [16:37]
Jason Smith
Subscribe today wherever you get your podcast.
- [16:43]
Paul Sweeney
You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power Podcast. Catch us live weekdays at noon and 5pm Eastern on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app. Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts or watch us live on YouTube.
- [16:59]
Joe Matthew
Already been an interesting day here in West Washington, hasn't it with this war powers vote. A procedural vote, granted, passing the Senate with five Republicans earlier sets up a floor vote for next week. We'll be talking about that more as the day goes on. Working our way toward a health care vote in the House. We're going to be up on Capitol Hill for the late edition of Balance of Power. That's supposed to happen around 430 or 5 o' clock Eastern Time. This is the vote to extend Obamacare subsidies. And very much like the war powers vote, we'll be watching closely to see how many Republicans might want to vote for this. Nine voted for the procedural vote yesterday. So just keep all of that in your pipe. You can smoke that later as we consider what's happening in Minneapolis today. There's a lot of plates that we're spinning here and this one is the most recent political Rorschach test that we've had put before us here. This is of course the shooting that brought hundreds of people to vigils and protests last night in Minneapolis. An ICE agent shooting and killing a 37 year old woman who they say was trying to run them over. Now, this is delicate stuff. Nobody's gonna be happy with the outcome of this conversation because nobody agrees on it. And when I talk about the Rorschach test, everyone's doom scroll this morning was the same, right? You get on Twitter, maybe you're healthier than I am and don't do that in the morning. But you get on social media and you start scrolling and you don't have to look at the names of the people who wrote the posts to understand whether they're Democrats or Republicans. Because your take on this, having seen one video or another, is probably going to ride on what you think about this administration. That in itself is probably a problem, but it's where we start our conversation with our political panel today because everybody's got a hot take on this. And as I mentioned, about 15 minutes from now, Vice President J.D. vance is going to be in the briefing room at the White House, having spent a good chunk of his evening last evening talking about this on social media. The administration is calling this domestic terrorism before anyone has a chance to investigate anything that happened in the street yesterday. And for a sense of the rhetoric here, we can start with the locals, if you will. In Minneapolis, Jacob Frey or Fry, the mayor of Minneapolis, spoke about this, as did Tim Walsh, the governor. Listen, they don't tell us they're coming. They don't say why. They're sending the largest deployment in American history to Minneapolis. They're not making us any safer. We don't have any of that coordination. They should be talking to us when we do these things.
- [19:34]
Matt Terrell
What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust. They're ripping families apart. They're sowing chaos on our streets and in this case, quite literally, killing people.
- [19:49]
Joe Matthew
Enter Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security obviously sees this a lot differently. She's been speaking as well. Listen to her from a briefing yesterday.
- [19:59]
Tyler Kendall
ICE agents repeatedly ordered her to get out of the car and to stop instructing obstructing law enforcement, but she refused.
- [20:06]
Susan Del Bene
To obey their commands.
- [20:08]
Tyler Kendall
She then proceeded to weaponize her vehicle and she attempted to run an law.
- [20:12]
Joe Matthew
Enforcement officer over it.
- [20:15]
Susan Del Bene
This appears as an attempt to kill or to cause bodily harm to agents.
- [20:22]
Joe Matthew
Now, I want to be clear. We're not going to solve this today and we're not going to debate what actually happened there yesterday. This is not cnn and we are not forensic analysts. And by the way, if you've seen the videos that everyone's making these lofty conclusions on, they're not great. They're all from weird angles and they're grainy and you can't really tell who's saying what or doing what with some exceptions, get a sense of what happened there. But to actually make a ruling on this is pretty difficult. Right now I'm more interested in the political reaction and the lack of patience with this whole thing. And it's where we start with our political panel today. Adam Hodges with us, Democratic strategist, Bloomberg Politics contributor and managing partner at Bully Pulpit International. And Matt Terrell's back, Republican strategist, managing partner at Firehouse Strategies. Gentlemen, welcome and I appreciate your grace in dealing with a very sensitive issue here. Adam, give me your take on this. First of all, even the president was quick to weigh in here. In fact, he had a New York Times reporter in his Oval Office yesterday and had a laptop set out here with a video on it to prove what he thought happened. How dangerous is this moment that we're in?
- [21:37]
Adam Hodges
Well, Joe, I think you are giving us the right guidance here. And it's where I start. Three kids woke up this morning in Minneapolis without their mom. And that's sobering for anybody. Regardless of the circumstances, regardless of your political views, their lives are changed for forever because they're not going to grow up without their mom. I think you take a step back from a political standpoint. There's no question that the raids that ICE has been conducting around the country has poisoned the political well, but it's also actually hurt the president's standing on this issue. He took office and immigration was one of his strongest issues. He was well above 50% approval for his handling of immigration issues. You look at polls today, that's not where he is. He's underwater on this issue. And so I think that incidents like today are only going to further stink his standing on this issue because the American people can look with their video with, as you said, with their own eyes and come to their own conclusions. But there's no question that the broader chaos and theme around on American streets is not something that the law and order president claimed he was going to put in place. Quite frankly, it seems there's more chaos. You have American citizens being gunned down on their own streets.
- [22:57]
Joe Matthew
Matt, this is not something I was looking forward to talking about, and I'm guessing that goes for all three of us here. I want to keep this to the reaction that we've seen so far. And I wonder if this says more about us as political animals here in this country or some other phenomenon that is causing us to reach for blame. So Quickly.
- [23:19]
Matt Terrell
Well, first of all, whenever you have loss of life, it's never a good thing. And you know, what you are seeing, though, just talk about the politics of it to. Your point in question is that this is largely falling along partisan lines. Obviously, you're seeing the Democrat mayor of Minneapolis, you're seeing Democrat Governor Tim Waltz come out with their statements on this. It's clear where the White House and the administration stands are doubling down on the notion that this was somebody who was using a vehicle as a deadly weapon, standing behind this law enforcement officer and what he has done. And look, the American people to make their own judgment. But here's what we do know. We know that the issue of immigration and border security was top of mind among voters in the last presidential election. That issue of security and safety, I think, still is top of mind among Americans right now. You're seeing recent polling that shows that roughly 80% of Americans view crime as a major problem in large US Cities. You're seeing obviously, the issue border security is still top of mind. So as we look to the next election, look, no question affordability, prices, the economy be top of mind. Obviously, the safety and security of Americans will as well. But it's clear that the administration is to stand with this law enforcement officer. I think at the end of the day, Americans have to make their own conclusions, but that's where this lands right now.
- [24:30]
Joe Matthew
In some cases, people feel less safe when they see these masked ICE agents. The optics here are very difficult. Is there another way for the administration to approach this?
- [24:42]
Matt Terrell
Well, I do think it is along partisan lines. You're seeing the criticism here. But with that said, I think. I think in terms of optics here, it's important for the administration to message what they are doing and make it clear that with every situation that they're engaged on, that they're putting the interest of the American people first. Obviously, you have a situation here where you had an individual who was killed. But again, based on the administration's stance on this, this is somebody who's using that vehicle as a deadly weapon. And this administration is going to stand with long enforcement on this. There is no question about that. You saw that in the Secretary Noem's statements just yesterday as well. In the end, it's going to come down to where the American people stand on this. And I think the thing that President Trump is going to point back to is what is really being conducted here, and that is trying to shore up and secure our border. Obviously, President Trump campaigned on the notion you have people in this country who were brought to this country illegally under President Biden over a wide open border. That's one of the issues that he ran on one on. He has a political mandate right now, having won the electoral college in the popular vote in the last election, to conduct what he is doing. When it comes to border security and immigration, obviously loss of life is never something you want to see. Thoughts and prayers, obviously with the family member.
- [25:51]
Joe Matthew
Well, you have a, you have a tragedy like this, Adam, and you know, starts to raise obviously a lot of questions that we're asking here today. If this were an accident, we'd be waiting for a reconstruction crew though, right there. There is much more to follow here. There's, there will be a forensic investigation and I'm sure that police right now are gathering tape from everybody who is there. They're going to have a 360 degree angle of everything that happened. They're going to reconstruct what happened. They're going to interview people that could take months or even years. Tom Holman, at one point yesterday, the president's border czar said we should wait for the results of that election before he changed his statement on that. Adam, at some point somebody's going to be wrong here. To what extent will that bring political liability?
- [26:40]
Adam Hodges
I mean, Joe, unfortunately, I think you're already, already seeing it, right? I mean, it didn't take the reporters who doing their jobs to find this woman's ex husband who said she's not a political activist, doesn't have an activist bone in her body. She's a mom of three kids and was had just dropped one of her kids off at school. So, you know, that, that undercuts this idea that they've tried to spin over the first 24 hours about her being some sort of domestic political terrorist. You know, but Matt, and the point before, I think was onto something though, on the broader political atmospherics here. You know, President Trump didn't win the election. He campaigned on these issues. He said he was going to solve these problems. We're now a year in and people are going to ask did you do the job you said you were going to do? And he famously said he'd solve it overnight like that. And we're looking at the midterms and people his support on immigration has softened and people are going to rightly ask, okay, you said you were going to do this. Are our streets safer or do we feel safer with masked agents kidnapping people and throwing them moving vehicles or unfortunately, some people losing their, their lives. And so that is, I think, where Democrats if you're thinking about it again, I hate to make this turn into political, but whereas this is a political show, the Democrats have a way to articulate an offensive message on this issue. It is that the Republicans and President Trump are not actually making our streets safer, that we would have a more humane way of dealing with the immigration crisis. And we have to politically find a way to be smarter about talking about these issues where we are solving the immigration problem without creating chaos on American streets.
- [28:23]
Joe Matthew
We were talking about Minneapolis a lot for a lot of reasons recently. And we were all struck to learn this is, I think, a mile away from where George Floyd died. Should President Trump go to Minneapolis? Would that have an impact to show up in person and talk to the people there?
- [28:35]
Matt Terrell
Well, it's up to the president to make the decision. I think it was smart to have Secretary Noem there yesterday. And look, I think one thing that matters here is not just the record of politicians. We're going to protect the American people. I think many would argue those who voted for President Trump, that he's been trying to do that day in and day out as president, but their rhetoric as well. And one thing I think you see right now is obviously rhetoric. And many would argue that the rhetoric that Democrats, for example, been putting out there as relates to law enforcement or relates to ICE agents has not been helpful here. People would point to many what the mayor of Minneapolis has said about ICE agents, about law enforcement, that that only incites violence here. And I'm not suggesting that that's what occurred in this situation. We need to let the investigation take its course. Yeah, but the rhetoric matters right now when it comes to law enforcement.
- [29:20]
Joe Matthew
Well, I appreciate both of your views on this, Matt and Adam. Like I said, this isn't easy stuff to talk about and I appreciate an intellectual conversation about it. We're going to deal with other matters. Stay with us on balance of power. We'll have much more coming up after the this. You can get the news whenever you want it with Bloomberg News now. I'm Amy Morris.
- [29:41]
Susan Del Bene
And I'm Karen Moscow, here to tell you about our new on Demand news report delivered right to your podcast feed. Bloomberg News now is a short 5 minute audio report on the day's top stories. Episodes are published throughout the day with the latest information and data to keep you informed.
- [29:58]
Jason Smith
Yes, there are other products like this.
- [30:00]
Joe Matthew
From a variety of news organizations, but.
- [30:02]
Paul Sweeney
They usually rerun their radio newscasts throughout the day. That's not what we do.
- [30:08]
Jason Smith
We create customized episodes that can only.
- [30:10]
Joe Matthew
Be heard on Bloomberg News.
- [30:12]
Jason Smith
Now.
- [30:12]
Susan Del Bene
And we don't wait an hour to publish breaking news. When news breaks, we'll have an episode up in your podcast feed within minutes. So you're always getting the latest stories and developments.
- [30:22]
Jason Smith
Get the report and the context from Bloomberg's 3,000 journalists and analysts. We're all over the world. Listen to the latest from Bloomberg News.
- [30:30]
Paul Sweeney
Now on Apple, Spotify or anywhere you listen. You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch us live weekdays at noon and 5pm Eastern on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app. You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flight flagship New York station. Just say Alexa play Bloomberg 11:30.
- [30:54]
Tyler Kendall
Thanks so much. I'm Tyler Kendall here alongside Joe Matthew in Washington, where yesterday quite a few announcements from President Trump move stocks across the board, including that President Trump is demanding a record $500 billion increase in annual defense spending. We apparently broke that news to the House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith on this program earlier this hour. But it is clear that the markets, we're definitely watching it. And to bring in all of that reaction, we're going to have Norma Linda, Bloomberg Television's market correspondent, because, Nora, this could be a potential big boost to weapons makers. But at the same time, didn't we hear President Trump threatening some of these companies that could be poised to profit from this?
- [31:33]
Norma Linda
Absolutely. So you're really seeing the market trying to digest how to feel about this because you did mention the fact that we got some news that's positive, of course, course, for the space, when you think about the idea of boosting the budget, of course, to about $1.5 trillion by 2027. But on the other end of the coin, you also have the fact that there's a threat to a lot of the companies that are poised to benefit from this potential boost. So it's interesting as you're trying to see the trade and how people are thinking about this, they're really trying to decipher what this means for the space. Of course, when we think about the United States defense companies in comparison to maybe their international players in Europe, we have been seeing European defense names really outpacing the ones that we have here in the US So people are really just trying to figure out what this means, will it pass through Congress and the implications here for the US Defense contractors.
- [32:25]
Joe Matthew
So what are we actually seeing here, Nora? And I know this is important because used to cover the defense space here, that that whiplash we saw yesterday, first it was the announcement on dividends and buybacks, defense stocks Went straight down. Then the president floats a trillion and a half dollar defense budget and they just go to the moon. Was that a short squeeze or are these new buyers going long because they think there's a windfall ahead?
- [32:52]
Norma Linda
Well, certainly when you think about the space, what really moves a lot of these stocks is the contracts, the government contracts. That still remains paramount when we think about this industry. So you're going to see any sort of move that indicates an increase to the defense budget that is substantial or one that is a percentage, potentially a slash to the budget, really, really swinging stocks and really booing them one way or the other. Joe.
- [33:16]
Adam Hodges
Mm.
- [33:17]
Joe Matthew
How about the housing stocks, Nora, that were also moving on the president's rhetoric yesterday? He doesn't want institutional buyers of single family homes. We even saw some confusion on this. I mean, what's it like to, to be BlackRock when you're dealing with the negative implications of Blackstone?
- [33:34]
Norma Linda
Yeah, it's interesting because you start to see a lot of people confusing BlackRock with Blackstone, especially when we think about the major player, the largest US Company that's involved in a lot of real estate asset management, that is Blackstone. But we did see the negative implications that came with people who continue to confuse the two companies. But when we think about the companies more broadly, both Blackstone and a lot of the real estate companies that we were keeping an eye on yesterday, Invitation Homes, Homes, American homes for rent. We are seeing them paring their declines. We are seeing them in the red right now, but not nearly as far of a decline as we did see yesterday. But of course, people are really just trying to think about the implications for this sector. But it is important to note, as I've been talking to my sources, that a lot of institutional investors only represent about roughly less than 1% of the single family housing stock that we have in the United States. So there is some discussion as to whether or not this is. Is overstated when we think about the risks to this market.
- [34:31]
Joe Matthew
Yeah. Nora, thank you so much, Norma. Linda with us live from New York watching Wall Street. And we'll have another check on the markets with Charlie Pellet coming up at 2pm Great opportunity as we look ahead to some important votes today on Capitol Hill, namely one in the House of Representatives, as we've been discussing throughout the program, on potentially reviving the enhanced Obamacare subsidies beyond the cliff that we've already gone over. Congresswoman Susan Del Bene is with us, Democrat from Washington, also chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. It's her job to get Democrats elected and take power in the midterms. And Madam Chairwoman, it's great to have you back. As always on Bloomberg TV and radio, we want your take on health care. But I have to ask you just quickly about what we were just discussing. President Trump wants to ban institutional buyers of single family homes, which is something that we tend to hear from the left. Will President Trump spend his second year in office taking a page from the liberal playbook?
- [35:31]
Susan Del Bene
Well, let's be clear. Democrats have been fighting for working families. Republicans have been focused on the wealthy and well connected. We've been fighting to make sure housing more affordable to help address the cost crisis that American families are feeling with food, health care, childcare, energy costs all going up because of direct actions from this administration. There has been an outcry across the country. If Republicans would listen, they would be hearing that outcry. It's important that we stand up and that's why this vote today is so important in terms of making sure that people have affordable health care.
- [36:08]
Tyler Kendall
Well, let's continue with this vote happening today, a so called clean three year extension on the Affordable Care act premium subsidies. We spoke to Senator Jean Shaheen yesterday who said that this could be used as a vehicle for the Senate's plan which would then get kicked back to your chamber. How would you vote if we see that plan materialize as the reporting indicates, a shorter extension, maybe two years and it would include structural changes like anti fraud protections and an income cap.
- [36:37]
Susan Del Bene
Well, let's be clear. My focus is on the vote that we have today, a three year extension making sure that millions of people have affordable health care right now. Their premiums are up right now. This should have happened a long time ago. Republicans are late to the game. But we are going to keep pushing. This vote today is important because it's because of House Democrats pushing being united on this issue that we are getting this vote and we'll have a piece of legislation to push the Senate to move because the efforts in the past hadn't been going forward. So this is really because of the strength of House Democrats standing up for the American people.
- [37:17]
Joe Matthew
Well, but of course, this probably won't be the bill that becomes law, correct? Should Democrats brace themselves for a negotiation that might bring these two bills together, Congresswoman, or are you simply counting on Republican frontliners to cross the aisle and help you make this happen? We got nine on board yesterday. How many do you see tonight?
- [37:39]
Susan Del Bene
Well, I think folks should understand that this is good policy. This helps families across the country. Republicans created a health Care crisis. They did their big ugly bill slashing Medicaid. It has had impacts across country and on rural health care, rural hospitals impacted services being cut. So this, their refusal to extend the tax credits has only made it worse. So this is an important step forward. And absolutely, people remember, should be voting for legislation to keep these tax credits in place. I think yesterday was an important vote. We haven't a couple of votes today. The final vote later today to make sure we extend the tax credits, that is critically important. And then we will tackle how we move forward in the Senate.
- [38:30]
Tyler Kendall
But this is exactly what we're outlining here. It's an extension. Of course, you have a key role when it comes to getting Democrats elected. Is there any talk about a more sustainable plan? Are you hearing that from voters out on the campaign trail as we gear up for November? Because this is just basically kicking the can down the road, right? We're going to have to have another discussion about health care moving forward.
- [38:55]
Susan Del Bene
Absolutely we are and we should be. We should be talking about how we move forward, making sure that people have affordable, quality health care across the country instead of moving forward. Republicans have been ripping things apart, moving backward with no plan whatsoever. They don't have any idea what they want to do except take health care away. We need to continue to be looking at what's working, what's not working, and making sure our ongoing goal is affordable quality health care everywhere in this country. That has been our goal. Republicans just want to repeal with no idea how to go forward. And we're going to continue as we fight for the majority, when we have the majority. That's our goal. Continue to make, move us forward to make sure our focus is on affordable quality health care for the American people and frankly, affordable cost of living for the American people.
- [39:45]
Joe Matthew
Are you optimistic about government funding, Congresswoman? A lot of folks think that the potential for a shutdown or not might ride on the outcome of this very issue when it comes to ACA premiums. Can you tell our viewers and listeners the government will not shut down down at the end of this month?
- [40:02]
Susan Del Bene
Well, you know, the way that we make sure that we have funding bills that work is they're bipartisan and Republicans weren't interested in coming to the table, working with Democrats to move forward bipartisan legislation. I think we're in a path where some bipartisan bills are moving and that's critically important because as these bills move, they actually create a long term budget that is important. Long term budget being for the rest of this fiscal year. This should have been done before the fiscal year started. It should have been done before October 1st. There's no reason we have to be in this place. It's because Republicans weren't interested in putting together funding. We are very much interested in doing that. And my hope is that as long as we continue on a bipartisan path, we will get bills done.
- [40:49]
Tyler Kendall
All right. Some cautious optimism there. Sticking with the budget. Wanted to also get your response to President Trump calling for an increase in the defense budget. He's asking for $1.5 trillion for the 2027 fiscal year. Is that something that you think has an appetite in the House of Representatives?
- [41:08]
Susan Del Bene
Well, I think first of all, the president owes members of Congress a detailed description of exactly what he thinks he's doing with this money. The power of the purse lies with Congress. Congress should make a decision on how money is appropriated and allocated. I think that's critically important. And so there's much, much more information that folks need to have to understand how that's going to work. Unfortunately, the president has not respected and worked with Congress on funding that's going to be critically important moving forward.
- [41:40]
Joe Matthew
It's interesting the president was talking about defense contractors yesterday as well, and I know you're saying State is no stranger to them as we consider the likes of Boeing and others. Congresswoman, what do you think of this idea of limiting defense contractors ability to buy back their own shares or deliver dividends to shareholders, knowing that they're making the bulk of their revenue off of taxpayer money? Is that something you'd support?
- [42:05]
Susan Del Bene
Well, I think, again, these are topics that we should be discussing. Congress, we should be bringing people in, talking about what we can do to make sure that our focus on taxpayer dollars is they're used to the best interest of the American people. That's our job, oversight, understanding where dollars are going and how we maximize the use of taxpayer dollars to benefit the American people. That's what the Congress's role is. That's why we need to have robust hearings and the appropriations process, something that in Mike Johnson's Congress he's been under interested in doing uninterested in bringing folks in, even folks from the administration not willing to come to testify in front of committees and Congress. All of that's critically important so we can talk about the policies that are going to make a difference and talk about the right path to move forward.
- [42:55]
Tyler Kendall
Sticking with defense. In the final minute, we have you. There's movement in the Senate on this War Powers Resolution. I'm curious what you think the bigger question is for Congress right now? Is it what happened this last weekend in Venezuela or is it questions about what could happen moving forward?
- [43:12]
Susan Del Bene
Well, I think that it's been clear that there is no plan going forward from the administration. Maduro is a violent dictator. There's no disagreement on that. But we need to know what the plan is going forward. What does it mean for the American people? What does it mean for the Venezuelan people? The administration has not provided any answers. We need a full plan. And yes, Congress needs to be part of this process. The administration should be consulting with Congress. I think that's critically important, especially as we continue to hear the president talk about, you know, other places in the world that that he's interested in. That's absolutely. Congress has an important role to play. We are co equal branch. And I think it's very important in a bipartisan way that folks speak up.
- [44:05]
Tyler Kendall
All right. Congresswoman Susan Del Bennett, a Democrat from Washington and chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Thanks so much for being here with us.
- [44:15]
Joe Matthew
Thanks for listening to the Balance of Power podcast. Make sure to subscribe if you haven't already at Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your PO podcasts. And you can find us live every Weekday from Washington, D.C. at Noontime Eastern@Bloomberg.com I'm Carol Massar. And I'm Tim Stanwack inviting you to join us for the Bloomberg businessweek Daily podcast.
- [44:36]
Paul Sweeney
Now every day we are bringing you reporting from the magazine that helps global leaders stay ahead.
- [44:41]
Joe Matthew
We've got insight on the people, the companies and trends that are shaping today's complex economy.
- [44:45]
Paul Sweeney
That's right, Tim. We're all over global business, finance, tech news, all as it is happening in real time. And we've got complete coverage of the US Market close. Got to say, basically, if it impacts financial markets, if it impacts companies, if it's impacting trends and narratives that are out there, we are on it.
- [45:00]
Joe Matthew
We also have a lot of fun doing it. Bloomberg businessweek also brings you the analysis behind the headlines through conversations with our expert guests.
- [45:07]
Paul Sweeney
And we are doing this all live each weekday. And then we bring you the best analysis in our daily podcast.
- [45:13]
Joe Matthew
Search for Bloomberg Businessweek on YouTube, Apple, Spotify or anywhere else you listen.
- [45:17]
Paul Sweeney
Check it out on your way home from work to catch up on the conversations that you miss during the business.
- [45:21]
Joe Matthew
Day and on the weekend. Check it out for a complete wrap up of your business week.
- [45:26]
Paul Sweeney
That's the Bloomberg Business Week Daily Podcast. I'm Carol Massar.
- [45:29]
Joe Matthew
And I'm Tim Stanovec. Subscribe today wherever you get your podcasts.