
It's Newsday Tuesday™ and Trump is on Capitol Hill trying to push his Big Beautiful Bill today. Sam and Emma will dig into what's in it and why. Suffice to say, when the dust settles, poor and working class people are sure to get the short...
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Sam Cedar
Hey folks, today's episode brought to you by one of my favorite sponsors. Sunsetlakeseba.com they've got a special Memorial Day weekend sale. Can you believe that it's almost Memorial Day, Unofficial start of the summer. Our friends at Sunset Lake know that even though the weather is nice, it doesn't mean that our stress and anxiety magically go away. No, not at all.
Emma Vigeland
Definitely not.
Sam Cedar
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The stress of aggressively saying I need to be nicer to him in the ad read.
Sam Cedar
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Emma Vigeland
Yuck.
Sam Cedar
Federal judge says Doge's takeover of the U.S. institute of Peace null and void. DOJ charges Democratic Congresswoman McIver over her immigration detention facility protest. Judge forces Trump administration to reinstate some grants under the IRA Act. And Missouri Republicans repeal the new paid sick leave bill. Or I should say law show me state the take me away of take away stuff from you. State US will no longer routinely approve Covid shots for non seniors. So it's your choice. We just won't make it available.
Brandon
Why would you do it for seniors then if it's so unimportant?
Sam Cedar
Well, it just. Believe me, you're fine. I swam in sewage and didn't get sick. So Booker sold Democrat to vote for Jarage Kushner's dad to be ambassador to France.
Emma Vigeland
Oh, yeah, the one that went to prison for two years.
Sam Cedar
Well, it was just for trying to get his brother in law on tape with a prostitute so he wouldn't testify against him in another criminal case. Whatever. Cory Booker, his dad at the time said. Salavi. Yeah, Ergo, that belongs in France. And Trump no longer calling on Putin to declare a ceasefire. Just not yet in it for it.
Brandon
I thought it was gonna happen day one.
Sam Cedar
All this and more on today's Majority Report. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for joining us. It is indeed Newsday Tuesday. Newsday Tuesday.
Emma Vigeland
I said is.
Brandon
What?
Emma Vigeland
Yeah.
Sam Cedar
Did you say I said is or it is?
Emma Vigeland
I said yes, it is.
Sam Cedar
Okay. Thank you.
Emma Vigeland
You're welcome.
Sam Cedar
I'm sorry.
Emma Vigeland
You're really, really ornery with me today. I feel like I need to show the straws now.
Sam Cedar
Yeah. This is weird.
Emma Vigeland
Okay.
Sam Cedar
It's not distracting when. Okay, like, what's going on?
Brandon
Some kind of like, balancing act with it.
Emma Vigeland
Earlier I was trying to find another pen, but I save these because the paper ones often fall apart. And I have backups now. I have many backups, so it's a little bit.
Sam Cedar
Why are you hoarding them on your desk? I just don't understand. Well, just put them over in the.
Emma Vigeland
Kitchen area because someone else will take them.
Sam Cedar
Oh, okay. You are actually hoarding them.
Brandon
The paper straws are fine also.
Emma Vigeland
I mean, how can I hoard something that I have proactively collected? Anyway, what's up?
Sam Cedar
I'm sorry, I. Now I'm distracted because the Bill Mars on Club Random Studios has Been shut down.
Emma Vigeland
Raidish.
Brandon
Oh, I thought you can say they get copyright for all the content we've mined out of them.
Sam Cedar
I don't know. I got to read that later, but I don't actually care. But it's interesting. A lot of stuff going on today, particularly on the House. Tomorrow is the day that the Republicans had set for themselves to vote on the one big, beautiful bill. It already is starting to look like a train wreck because we have multiple senators now, including John Thune, who are starting to, like, mumble about, we got to break this bill up. You recall four months ago, Johnson and Thune wanted to do separate bills, and then Trump said, I want one big beautiful bill, and everybody capitulated. And now they're thinking we're going to have to do multiple bills because the tax cuts expire at the end of the year. And the Republicans are going to try in the Senate because it's going to be under reconciliation, which means it's subject to the Byrd rule. And the Bird rule has two parts. The. Oh, let's go into this later. I went down the wrong path.
Emma Vigeland
That's okay.
Sam Cedar
We'll talk about that in a bit. Yeah, you were looking at me like, what are you talking about? I'm like, oh, right, we're going to do this later. In the meantime, we're going to get into this bill stuff and I will go through that same thing again.
Emma Vigeland
Deep dive.
Sam Cedar
But right now, Kristi Noem, now she is. Remind me again, she was a governor.
Brandon
South Dakota. Yes.
Sam Cedar
Okay. So that is South Dakota Dakota. Matt says, but South Dakota is still. It's, it's an official American state. Yes. Okay.
Brandon
One of the later ones admitted, but yeah.
Sam Cedar
Okay. All right. I just want to double check on that because if, if it was like just a place that happened to be in America and not subjected to things like the Constitution. All right, now we're getting into some mitigating factors for what we're about to see. She is now the head of the Department of Homeland Security, which My understanding is a very, very big agency and deals with things like keeping the homeland secure. A lot of criminal, or I should say federal law enforcement officers from a bunch of different agencies work under the Department of homeland security, including ICE.
Emma Vigeland
It was created after 9, 11.
Sam Cedar
That's right. One of the big issues right now is whether the president has the authority under the Alien Enemies act to round people up and deport them. But even if he does, it's unclear whether you can suspend habeas corpus in this instance because they're Trying to argue that they're the country's being invaded by trend agua or somebody. Nobody's quite sure who's doing the invading or where the invasion is or what the implications of this invasion is, other than, like, you know, there's a lot of Spanish speaking going on. So habeas corpus is in the news.
Emma Vigeland
Yeah.
Sam Cedar
And it's caused a lot of people to Google it and find out what's going on. But it appears that one of those people was not Kristi Noem. Here is a clip from this morning. This is Senator, Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing.
Emma Vigeland
Maggie Hassan asked her this very simple question. We should use more of these.
Brandon
Probably one you'd want to be able to answer at a committee like this.
Emma Vigeland
Define this. Go ahead.
Maggie Hassan
So, Secretary Noem, what is habeas corpus?
Kristi Noem
Well, habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country and their rights.
Maggie Hassan
Let me.
Sam Cedar
Wrong.
Emma Vigeland
All right, I'm sorry.
Sam Cedar
Okay.
Emma Vigeland
It is not a constitutional right. That is. That is afforded to the President. It is an Article 1, Section 9 that is supposed to be applicable to the legislature.
Sam Cedar
Now, I want to just add here. Good for Senator Hassan for making her answer this. Or Hassan, answer this question, but let her talk. Let her talk. Don't cut her off when it becomes clear she has no idea what she's talking about. Let her talk. Go back to the beginning. This is stunning.
Emma Vigeland
Yeah.
Maggie Hassan
So, Secretary Nome, what is habeas corpus?
Kristi Noem
Well, habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country, suspend their rights.
Maggie Hassan
Let me. Let me stop. Excuse me. That's. That's incorrect.
Kristi Noem
President.
Maggie Hassan
Excuse me.
Sam Cedar
President. She just did. She watched Tim Pool talk about this. President Lincoln did not use a right in the Constitution to habeas corpus.
Emma Vigeland
No.
Sam Cedar
Which meant that they didn't need due process.
Brandon
It's like a student like that gets the answer wrong, but tries to just throw in a detail they remembered from study.
Sam Cedar
It's just a bunch of different words.
Emma Vigeland
But this is. But. But why? It's a complex cobweb of. Or maybe it's not that complex. And we'll talk. We can talk about it, actually, after the clip, I guess. But like. Or maybe I'll just say it now. They're using this Lincoln excuse because it bolsters their invocation of the Alien Enemies act to deport these people without due process, which has only been invoked three times in our nation's history, and all three times were in wartime, including the latest Two before this, the first and second world wars. And so they're trying to basically say that they can suspend habeas corpus in the way that Lincoln did during the Civil War, which was obviously an emergency. And they were worried. Worried about Confederates subverting their military operations.
Brandon
They were taking over the forts and stuff.
Emma Vigeland
So they want to be able to detain people. So that's why Lincoln did it. They're trying to use those two justifications, which all. Both rest on the bedrock lie of this being an invasion or a war.
Sam Cedar
But she doesn't even know what habeas corpus is.
Emma Vigeland
Right.
Brandon
Literally in Latin or whatever. Like you. Like you have your body, which doesn't mean you isn't the government. It's you, the owner of the body.
Sam Cedar
It is the right of citizen. Of anyone to question the ability of the government to arrest them. Yes, and in a formal manner.
Brandon
It's not, oh, I get to have your body. I'm the king.
Emma Vigeland
She reversed it.
Sam Cedar
I pretty. I'm pretty sure it's like prima nocte, but for prima nocte for everybody. The king gets to sleep with everyone. Everyone. Not just the bride, but the entire.
Brandon
Wedding party to have your body.
Sam Cedar
Oh, all right. So go back and just. Well, now.
Emma Vigeland
Now I can see why this administration's into that kind of thing.
Maggie Hassan
So, Secretary Noem, what is habeas corpus?
Kristi Noem
Well, habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country.
Maggie Hassan
Let me. Let me stop. And. Habeas corpus. Excuse me.
Brandon
That's.
Maggie Hassan
That's incorrect. Excuse me. Habeas corpus is the legal principle that requires that the government provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people. If not for that protection, the government could simply arrest people, including American citizens, and hold them indefinitely for no reason. Habeas corpus is the foundational right that separates free societies like America from police states like North Korea. As a senator from the live free or die state, this matters a lot to me and my constituents and to all Americans. So, Secretary Noem, do you support protection that habeas corpus provides, that the government must provide a public reason in order to detain and imprison someone?
Kristi Noem
Yeah, I support habeas corpus. I also recognize that the president of the United States has the authority under the Constitution to decide if it should be suspended or not.
Maggie Hassan
It has never.
Kristi Noem
Let us be clear.
Maggie Hassan
It has never been done. It has never been done without approval of Congress. Even Abraham Lincoln got retroactive approval from Congress.
Emma Vigeland
That's true. In 1863, she trotted out the Lincoln explanation in this questioning with Andy Kim, if we want to get to that too.
Sam Cedar
Oh, yeah, let's do it.
Emma Vigeland
Because he followed up. This was after.
Sam Cedar
Well, because Andy Kim, somebody must have realized like, holy crap, she doesn't know what she's talking about.
Emma Vigeland
Yep.
Andy Kim
That from you. I wanted to just go back to something that was raised earlier by habeas corpus. Can you confirm to us that you understand that any suspension of habeas corpus requires an act of Congress?
Kristi Noem
President Lincoln executed habeas corpus in the past with retroactive action by Congress. I believe that any president executed habeas corpus.
Emma Vigeland
He suspended it. Know what it is? She thinks that habeas corpus is the ability of the president to detain people.
Sam Cedar
There's a real opposite. She is. There's a real quality of like. The reason why these characters in the book are important is you should have just repeating what you just heard.
Brandon
If she was a North Dakota public school educator, she would have started off the ultimate fluffer way of saying habeas corpus is a land of contrast.
Andy Kim
To something that was raised earlier by habeas corpus. Can you confirm to us that you understand that any suspension of habeas corpus requires an act of Congress?
Kristi Noem
President Lincoln executed habeas corpus in the past. She doesn't know by Congress. I believe that any president that was able to do that in the past, it should be afforded to our current day president. This president has never said he's going to do this. He's never communicated to me or his administration that they're going to consider suspending habeas corpus. But I do think the Constitution allows them the right to consider it.
Andy Kim
When we saw what happened with. How many times has habeas corpus been suspended in our.
Kristi Noem
Once. That I know of.
Andy Kim
Four times.
Kristi Noem
I'm not certain if those are.
Andy Kim
The instance that you were referring to was one where the courts subsequently showed that Congress is the one that has the ability. Do you know what section of the Constitution. The suspension clause of habeas corpus.
Kristi Noem
I do not. Nope.
Andy Kim
Do you know which article it is in?
Kristi Noem
No, I do not, sir.
Andy Kim
Okay, well, it is an article 1. Do you know which.
Sam Cedar
Well, pause it now. Wait a second. Now wait a second. To be fair, isn't there like 10 sections or 11 sections to article one?
Brandon
She's only been there for a few months.
Sam Cedar
Always get through the whole thing.
Emma Vigeland
It said section nine. She had probably skimmed that.
Sam Cedar
The way I like to do it is I. When I start a new job, it's like they give you that manual I take one or two pages a week. That's it. I'm not gonna. She may not get all the way to Section nine.
Brandon
She has to dress up and go to El Salvador.
Sam Cedar
Or sometimes, you know what you could also do? She might start at the end and read backwards, and then you wouldn't get the section one, Article nine for weeks. You know, it's also sort of like, striking about this is just to see a Democratic congressman, or I should say, senator, who looks like they're under the age of like, 100.
Emma Vigeland
Yes.
Sam Cedar
It's like to see anybody as young as Andy Campbell. It's probably not that young.
Brandon
He doesn't remember Lincoln doing that.
Emma Vigeland
40, probably in his 40s. I mean, it's like an oasis.
Sam Cedar
It honestly, it's like, who left these kids? Who let these kids in there?
Emma Vigeland
Yeah.
Brandon
This is a staffer.
Sam Cedar
Where did they find this young. Young whipper. Young whippersnapper. He's not using a cane. I just go. Go back a little bit. This is. This is just plain gotcha politics.
Brandon
South Dakota can do better once.
Kristi Noem
That I know of.
Andy Kim
Four times. The instance that you were referring to was one where the courts subsequently show that Congress is the one that has the ability. Do you know what section of the Constitution. The suspension clause of habeas corpus.
Kristi Noem
I do not.
Sam Cedar
This is why people voted for Trump.
Andy Kim
It is in.
Kristi Noem
No, I do not, sir.
Andy Kim
Okay. Well, it is in Article 1. Do you know which branch of government. Article 1 outlines the tasks and the responsibilities for.
Kristi Noem
Yes.
Andy Kim
Which one?
Kristi Noem
Congress.
Andy Kim
Yes. Stephen Miller has said that he is actively considering. Considering that there is active consideration of habeas corpus. Have you had a conversation with Stephen Miller about suspending habeas corpus?
Kristi Noem
I have not.
Andy Kim
When it comes to fema, this is something I'm concerned.
Emma Vigeland
Yeah, that's. That's that. Although the FEMA stuff is also.
Sam Cedar
Yeah, this FEMA stuff is very disturbing. There's been obviously huge storms in Kentucky, Mississippi, Kansas, Missouri. And we had a clip of. I think it may be in the thing where you've got people begging FEMA to show up. Maybe we'll play that later. But they. It's unbelievable.
Brandon
Of course, the government. That's what the government's here to do, is to help people in situations like that. It would be nice to have some other Republicans who were saying, do we need to help California? These fires reflect a little bit.
Emma Vigeland
Yeah. And also, it's amazing how the Doge cuts that were supposed to be about efficiency are actually making the government not function at all. So I guess it's more efficient if the government isn't doing its job. That's one way to look at it.
Sam Cedar
We've got a lot to talk about in terms of this big beautiful bill.
Emma Vigeland
And you know, he's doing the build back, better thing with it, right? This is his little troll. It's bbb.
Brandon
They have, they don't have a original idea. No, it's just like the first time around when it was like, remember Ivanka was like plagiarizing Michelle Obama's speech.
Sam Cedar
Right.
Emma Vigeland
And instead of going after.
Sam Cedar
I forgot about that.
Emma Vigeland
Well, they're, they're targeting the aca, but all but Medicaid, but it's still just tax cuts for the rich. We'll talk about it. I know.
Sam Cedar
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Emma Vigeland
You did?
Sam Cedar
Yeah. Check out the podcast in YouTube description for links and codes, etc. Meanwhile, the right now Donald Trump is, or I should say this morning was Donald Trump was on the Hill trying to get Republicans to vote in favor of their version of the reconciliation bill. And this vote is scheduled for tomorrow. Supposedly, you know, Mike Johnson had set as a deadline Memorial Day. And of course they all want to go on vacation on Thursday and Friday, take that off, head out for the long weekend, the five day weekend so they can go to the barbecues and find out how much their constituents hate them back in their home districts. And meanwhile, remember, it's got to go to the Senate and then the Senate essentially makes their own bill and then they go into, they reconcile the two bills. That is a separate thing from the notion of reconciliation. But the Senate seems to be very unhappy with all of these things, which is amazing since the House is also different factions seem to be unhappy with it. But here's Donald Trump ostensibly up there to twist some arms. Here, play this.
Emma Vigeland
You campaigned on lowering the price of groceries. How do you justify cutting food assistance?
Donald Trump
Let me, let me just tell you. The cut is going to give everybody much more food because prices are coming way down. Groceries are down. Eggs, you told me about eggs. You asked me a question about eggs my first week. You said eggs. I said I just got here. Tell me about eggs. And it was going through if you know that. Eggs now way down. Everybody's buying eggs. Groceries down, Energy's down. Gasoline is now buying. Nip buying Gasoline now for a $90, 99. When I, you look back, you'll see $354. This country, we're going to lose this country, our country now is respected all over the world. All over the world were respected. We were a laughingstock. The entire.
Emma Vigeland
Yeah. The national average as of today on fuel prices is $3.17. So.
Brandon
But respected by France.
Sam Cedar
There's some places where it's down. But remember the question was you talk about dropping food prices and inflation and of course we're just about to now see massive bumps in costs of consumer goods because of, of the tariffs. Long story short, you've got big companies that bought a bunch of stuff and kept it in their warehouses in anticipation of these tariffs. Smaller businesses are going to go out of business, but we're going to run out of those lower priced goods and you're starting to see it in Target and Walmart and in other places, prices are starting to pop up.
Emma Vigeland
And if you check your email inbox for maybe some subscription services that you're a part of, I've been already getting some notices that prices are going to have to go up in the coming months. So that's happening all across the country.
Sam Cedar
With all that said, the question was how can you cut food assistance? They are cutting SNAP by As of now, $300 billion. And in practice, what that means, the way they're going about doing it is to put work requirements on people who are over the age of 54 to qualify for SNAP.
Emma Vigeland
The hardest time to get a job if you're unemployed.
Sam Cedar
And it, and also more likely to be physically incapable of working as much as they require.
Brandon
Just go move some boxes around for Jeff Bezos.
Emma Vigeland
And most likely to be the people who are most affected by the stock market crashing because like the Great Recession, if you're closest to retirement, you, Your 401ks do not have the ability to recuperate. The end to, to themselves if they need to retire by 65, most of.
Sam Cedar
These people are not going to have 401ks.
Emma Vigeland
Well, Trump is plunging us into a recession, most likely.
Sam Cedar
But I'm saying like they don't even have them. I mean, as a, as a, as an entity, for one case, the, the Venn diagram of people who are going to get food assistance and have 401ks. I would imagine you're rather narrow. Yeah, but, but the, but the point is still the same. I mean, you're basically at a time where there is like sort of pressure on seniors. You're increasing it. But let's go to other aspects of what's happening with this bill. Understand that. And here's the other thing. The top line biggest numbers that they're cutting and they only apparently can get to like close to 1.5 trillion over the course of 10 years. The other big number in the reconciliation bill is $715 billion from Medicaid. And I'm looking at the top of CNN now and the headline is Trump warns House Republicans not to touch Medicaid.
Emma Vigeland
Yeah.
Sam Cedar
So the problem is they have shoot it with a gun instead several trillion dollars worth of tax cuts that they want to push through. They want to extend the Trump tax cuts. They want to get rid of the estate tax. They want to get rid of it completely because right now it's not generous enough that you only get the first $11 million without any tax. They want to get rid of the estate tax completely. They want to add no tax on tips. Now understand their definition of tips is extremely wide. Like this isn't just no tax on waiters tips. It's like, wait a second. Thank you for being such a good stockbroker. I have a tip for you because your fees are so low. Could be. Thanks for being such a real, a good real estate developer. I can't believe how cheap your prices are. But I will of course give the traditional tip.
Emma Vigeland
Yeah, like, and this is going to incentivize more businesses to offset wages into tipping. Another way for these corporations and billionaires and business owners to get out of paying a living wage to their employees. That's what this is designed to engender and what it would do if they're able to do it.
Sam Cedar
No taxes on Social Security, of course, is another giveaway to just wealthy people. Wealthy people also get Social Security after working a lifetime, but they're subject to higher taxes because they have other sources of income, even in retirement.
Emma Vigeland
But also you get, you stop getting taxed on Social Security when you're making $177,000 a year.
Sam Cedar
No, no, no. Oh, on the re on.
Emma Vigeland
On the return.
Sam Cedar
Yes. When you're a 65 or older, you get Social Security and thousand dollars security. And if you're only making in retirement $40,000 a year from your Social Security payments, you're not going to get taxed anyways. But if you're making $250,000 after age 65 or 62 or 70 when you've taken it, because maybe you're also getting capital gains, maybe you have big payouts from your 401k, maybe you have investments that you're starting to liquidate. Whatever it is, you pay taxes because you're making a lot of money Still. Social Security is supposed to be an insurance program insuring you against poverty and being able to, you know, to live a quality life when you are in retirement, all of this is going to end up just benefiting wealthy people. Now if you are a low wage earner, you're going to get a tax break. But understand this. The whole dynamic here is that wealthy people are going to get a bigger tax break. And that means the cost of housing is going to continue to rise. When there are people, when there is this level of wealth inequality, it creates an inflation both because you've got people bidding stuff up on the high end in a way that they can afford to because they have so much extra income.
Emma Vigeland
Right.
Sam Cedar
I mean, we have a limited supply of housing.
Brandon
I have enough money to buy one and flip it and still live in.
Sam Cedar
The one I live in and I have enough money to buy multiple ones. But I also can drive up the market. I mean, you know, because, you know, money's not an object for me.
Emma Vigeland
Right.
Sam Cedar
So the relative value of that tax cut is a function of the tax cut of the wealthiest people. And take a look at this. Let's start at the bottom. The first 20th percentile of income would lose 100 bucks because of course, the least the, the people living in poverty essentially will lose $100, which is a lot of money for that. I don't know what the bottom 20th percentile is, but I bet you it's somewhere around, you know, 14 grand a year.
Emma Vigeland
Yeah.
Brandon
You'll feel that.
Emma Vigeland
Bottom 20% of household incomes, $30,000 or less.
Sam Cedar
I imagine for an individual it's about.
Emma Vigeland
I wrote down around.
Sam Cedar
But we were going to lose our country.
Emma Vigeland
I want to make sure that that's correct. But I think around 17, we were going to lose.
Sam Cedar
The second 20 percentile will get a tax cut of 0.6% and it will gain them about 260 bucks. The middle 20% will get a tax cut of 1.2% and it'll gain them 860 bucks. You see the direction we're going in, the wealthier you are, the more of a tax cut you're going to get.
Brandon
Fourth 20% here, that would be the 80th percentile, right?
Sam Cedar
Yes. So for 80% of the people in this country, you will get a tax cut. The biggest size of your tax cut will be 1.8%. And if you're in that fourth, that, that 60 to 80%.
Emma Vigeland
Yeah, yeah.
Sam Cedar
You will, will save $2,000. Now mind you, you're going to end up spending that at Walmart anyways because of the raised prices. But put that aside for the moment. The real. Then the big jump starts to happen as you go further up the, I mean it's, it's, it's just so obvious. And so if you are in the 80 to 90 percentile of income earners in this country, you're playing the game called capitalism. Your tax cut is $3,380. You get a 2.1% tax cut.
Brandon
It's pretty good, right?
Sam Cedar
That's 2.1%. So that must be somewhere like, I don't know, around. You make $150,000 or so. 100, 120 to 150,000. Maybe somewhere around there. If you were in the 90th to 99th percentile, you will get a 3.4% tax cut that is almost three times what the middle 20% get in terms of percentage. And so you get, but you get, of course, because of the amount of money that you make, you're getting $9,000 instead of $860, actually 9,500. If you were in the top 1%, you get a 3.4% tax cut. The two biggest percentage of tax cuts come from 90% to 100%. But if you're in that top 1%, you get a $52,000 tax cut.
Donald Trump
Jeff Bezos came, Bill Gates came, Mark Zuckerberg came.
Sam Cedar
That is of course not. You know, you can't get a Bugatti for that.
Emma Vigeland
No.
Sam Cedar
But you can get a nice. And then if you are making over a million dollars, it's a function of like, who knows. But it's a 3.3% tax cut. So if you're making like, I don't know, $100,000,000, 3.3%, that's 3,300,000.
Brandon
Well, they're going to invest it all and make our economy better.
Sam Cedar
Yeah, they're going to, they're going to buy a couple of Bugattis. And now here's the good news though.
Emma Vigeland
Yeah.
Sam Cedar
With Trump's tariff relief for the UK your Bentley is actually going to be cheaper than a US made car.
Emma Vigeland
Oh, lovely.
Sam Cedar
Yep. Or I should say at least dollar for dollar less tariffs. Let's put up that other chart so people can get a notion of this and then we'll go through some of.
Emma Vigeland
This is popular info. Did this chart here showing something similar. So this is where I got that 17k number from. I was trying to double check that, but it's hard to, to cross reference.
Sam Cedar
First quintile.
Emma Vigeland
Yep.
Sam Cedar
Is 17,000.
Emma Vigeland
They're showing that dollar change in after tax income would be minus a thousand dollars for.
Sam Cedar
I wonder if that's a mistake.
Emma Vigeland
17K.
Sam Cedar
Because I wonder if that is a mistake and if it shouldn't be 100. But, but maybe, I don't know. Second quintile, you'll lose $705. Middle quintile, you will.
Emma Vigeland
This is the Penn Wharton budget model.
Sam Cedar
Okay. So there's a different, I guess calculation.
Emma Vigeland
Yep.
Sam Cedar
The top point one percent, which is 4.3 million or more will see their after tax income go up by almost $390,000. That's nuts. You get a new house, I mean.
Brandon
A really nice one.
Sam Cedar
Not that they would live. Not that they would, not that they would live in a house for 400 grand.
Emma Vigeland
Right.
Sam Cedar
But you get a, you get a new you know, a multi car garage for your multi cars.
Emma Vigeland
Renovate the kitchen.
Sam Cedar
Exactly. That is a sweet ass kitchen. Renault.
Brandon
That's like double what that's like WNBA players make.
Sam Cedar
But you gotta pay for this if you want to get it through reconciliation. And you gotta do it in a 10 year window where it's more or less revenue neutral. And the way they do that is, is like I said, to cut $715 billion from.
Emma Vigeland
Medicaid, which is an $880 billion annual program. That's basically killing the program in terms of what is being asked of the.
Sam Cedar
Republicans by no, this is over 10 years. So, okay, so they're cutting 10% of it more or less annually. But here is, here's how they're going to do it. They're going to impose work requirements and they know work requirements don't actually function in the way that people think they do.
Emma Vigeland
Gotcha.
Sam Cedar
We have two experiments with work requirements in this country in Arkansas and Georgia. And Arkansas had to be reversed by a judge because it was such a disaster. But it basically followed the same thing as what happened in Georgia. Georgia two years ago allowed an expansion of Medicaid low income adults under the condition that they work or train for a job. And what happened was they anticipated 50,000 people joining Medicaid based upon knowing the level of poverty that people working in and who didn't have health insurance. Just 12,000 of the nearly 250,000 newly eligible Georgians ultimately received Medicaid. This is according to the Washington Post, well short of the state's initial 50,000 goal administrative costs because now you have to check if everybody has a job. Yeah, you've got to create a new bureaucracy to supposedly save you money. Far outpaced spending on medical care. Some who do work had a tough time provide proving it to state officials or their work, such as caring for ailing relatives, didn't qualify. This is a quote from Mary Beth Musemi, an associate professor of health and policy management at George Washington University Public School of Health. It's going to be creating this administrative bureaucracy and devastating amount of poor people who despite being eligible are going to lose coverage so that Congress can fund tax cuts for the wealthiest. That is it in a nutshell. The legislation, this reconciliation bill will require adult Medicaid beneficiaries to spend at least 80 hours a month working or training for a job, in school or volunteering. It exempts people who are disabled, pregnant or in postpartum care. It is estimated to save. I love the way that the $300 billion in the same way that like if I don't eat food, I save all the money I would have spent on food. Medicaid advocates say work requirements are unnecessary because most recipients already work. I love the way they said it. Work requirements really should be rephrased. Work requirements may be unnecessary because most recipients already work, often in low wage or informal settings with no health insurance. Of the 26 million working age adults who use Medicaid in 2023, 64% had jobs. Of the remaining 36%, 8% don't work because they're retired or cannot find jobs or have some other reason. Most others don't work because they're caring for a relative, have a disability or are in school.
Emma Vigeland
Yep.
Sam Cedar
And undoubtedly I am sure there are people who get on Medicaid and are like I'm not going to work. I have no plans to work. I got free health insurance and I get my 150 bucks a month in food and I'm just chilling. I am sure there are at least a dozen people in the country who do that. But all of these other things you're larding on to keep those people from getting health insurance are going to prevent millions of people from getting health insurance. One example, Heather Payne, 52 year old former travel nurse who stopped working after suffering strokes. See, part of it is also you get these like takers, takers woke. She said she's been caught in a bind trying to get back into the workforce while addressing medical expenses from her recovery. Of course, the resident of Dalton, Georgia went back to school for a master's degree to become a nurse practitioner, but can't afford to earn enough credits hours to qualify for pathways to coverage. Georgia's expanded Medicaid program. They don't call it Obamacare, but it's Obamacare.
Emma Vigeland
Yeah.
Sam Cedar
The degree offers only nine credit hours per semester. The state requires at least 11.5. Because students must be insured, Payne has been forced to use a school insurance plan with limited coverage and high co pays. I feel, it feels like I tripped and fell. I picked myself back up and I started to walk and someone's sticking out their foot and trying to trip me again. As a former emergency room nurse, Payne said she saw the occasional patient who seemed to be taking advantage of Medicaid system. But you don't design a system to punish everyone for the small number of people that are fraudulent, Payne said. The real fraudulent, and we know this, we know this in Medicare and Medicaid is not by the patients but by the providers. It's by People who are pretending that they have Medicaid patients. Arkansas was one of two states, Georgia being the other, that got waivers from the Trump administration in the, during the Trump term, first term, to allow them to impose work requirements. Arkansas saw 18,000 people lose their coverage.
Emma Vigeland
The states that did expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care act, we finally got to 40. They, their insurance rates were halved compared to the 10 states that refused to do that.
Sam Cedar
Because people are going in and getting health care on a day, on a, on a weekly basis basis, on a basis in which they need it. They're not putting off care. It's like, I'm not going to, you know, it's as if, it's as if you're like, oil change in your car cost 2500 bucks. And you're like, I think I'll wait right before I go and do that.
Emma Vigeland
People are not. Yeah, exactly. But it's also. So 20 million Americans were given Medicaid under ACA expansion under the Affordable Care Act. And if this is gutted, it's those are the people that are going to be on the front lines, most likely in states that expanded, and those are usually the poorer states in the country already. But this is a double or it's a triple hit if they're going after Snap, which feeds around 40 million people a month on average. And there's already these require these insane guardrails where you can, can't buy hot food with it in many places. And then they're gutting Medicaid, which there's probably a significant overlap in terms of Medicaid recipients and people who are on snap. And then they're also cutting taxes for the rich, where there's going to be some increase over time in the amount of taxes that people who are in the bottom 20th percentile pay. This is a triple attack on the poorest Americans to justify taxes for the rich. Because the Republicans have exploded the deficit every time they've been in power. They pretend that they care about the deficit, so they have to create that fiction. But that's just because they don't want to address the easy solution to reducing the deficit if they were earnest about it, which would be raising taxes on the wealthy. So they have to pretend like the only thing they can do is immiserate people and cut our already threadbare social safety net.
Sam Cedar
In addition to the massive cuts to Medicaid and snap, they also want to cut the Lower Income Home Energy Assistance program because Americans need to toughen up and not worry about so much about Being cold in the winter. The good news is though, in this bill, they're going to be boosting the annual budget of the Pentagon by $150 billion.
Emma Vigeland
Is that the largest increase ever recorded? I mean, it increases.
Sam Cedar
That's the longest one that I have remembered in at least a decade.
Emma Vigeland
I mean, and in terms of the proportion of our budget, I was reading that this is at World War II levels where we were all someone's got.
Sam Cedar
A fight trending agua.
Emma Vigeland
I forgot. Yeah, we were, I forgot we were being invaded. I'm sure people.
Brandon
Ms. 13, wait, I just remember from a couple months ago, he was going to slash the budget for the Pentagon. What happened to that?
Emma Vigeland
I know we were told that that was the earnest right wing population.
Brandon
Should we have credited him more with, you know, floating that and maybe we actually wouldn't end up with where we're at now.
Emma Vigeland
We should have given Trump preemptive credit and then he would have not tried to go for the largest Pentagon increase in the history of the country of.
Sam Cedar
These majority progressives and whatnot.
Emma Vigeland
Max left really gave me credit, credit.
Sam Cedar
For cutting the defense budget. And then if I didn't do it, then I feel bad. Okay, look at. They didn't say anything. $150 billion, incidentally, that's not all that's in this package. And to be clear, this is an 1100 page bill. I remember back when the Affordable Care act was passed, the right wing cry was no bills over 10 pages. And then the other one was Nancy Pelosi saying we're not going to know what's in the bill until we pass it. Which was her saying that, well, we got to go through negotiations. In the meantime, they're literally not even going to get a CBO score for this. So these deficit hawks, these proud members of the Freedom Caucus, are really going to have no idea what the bill is because all they care about is the numbers. They're not going to know what those numbers are until after they vote for it on Wednesday, if they end up voting for it on Wednesday. On top of which there's some other features to it. The death tax, like I say, gets essentially repealed. The estate tax, excuse me, the estate.
Emma Vigeland
Frank Lawn's gone to your brain.
Sam Cedar
Exactly. The estate tax. Also, there is a provision in there to inhibit the ability of states from regulating AI. There was a great line from who's a Bernie Moreno, senator from Wisconsin, in the story I read.
Emma Vigeland
Ohio.
Sam Cedar
Ohio.
Emma Vigeland
So he's the one who took all the crypto money and unseated Sherrod. Brown he said crypto.
Sam Cedar
Is, it's not state specific. We should not. We should have the federal government do this. Moreno incidentally, strong supporter of allowing states to ban abortion as opposed to the federal government. Sort of fascinating. This is going to be a 10 year ban on US states regulating AI. 10 year ban.
Emma Vigeland
They want just 10 years of no holds bar. Go ahead, unleash crypto industry.
Sam Cedar
It is tucked into the House Energy and Commerce Committee's markup which according to the AP would be a boon to the AI industry which is lobbied for uniform and a light touch regulation as tech.
Emma Vigeland
Yeah I really, I blame Gillibrand for this frankly. She's maybe the number one Democrat that has led the charge in terms of saying that we need to regulate crypto as a posed to make it this kind of speculation basically illegal. She's normalized this and then the industry has gotten a bunch of friends in the Democratic party.
Brandon
Don't forget Booker either.
Sam Cedar
This is a one, two punch. They passed the so called, you know, genius act and they basically wrap it up. Okay, we have now brought it in. We've all, we legitimized it. We're not going to regulate the crypto. There'll be enough crypto, you know on a. The touching up against AI. Everything, every techno, every technology is going to have some element of AI which is probably going to be the way that they avoid. If they can get the states to be not allowed to in any way regulate for 10 years, you, you will effectively essentially give all this technology carte blanche to do whatever they want. Now if you hear what the tech people say about where AI is going to be in six years, they're talking about it going to. What do they call it?
Brandon
Super advanced generative intelligence.
Sam Cedar
Yes, exactly.
Brandon
Gorkavoice.
Sam Cedar
Where, where it's going to be able to be smarter than the smartest of any lawyer, scientist, whatnot. And it's going to be able to start to build its own AI that's going to be within six years. You're basically left to the whims of whoever's the president. You don't have that fallback of a state saying we need to add more regulations. Like California for instance, drove CAFE standards for many years because they would require higher standards and it just became economically unviable to make a car for California and then the rest of the country. So they just made it up to California standards. You see that with emissions. Now the Bush people did a similar thing. They did that with emissions. Their Clean Skies initiative literally forced some states to raise the cap that they had on the release of things like mercury in the air. And that's what's also embedded in this bill. And I can do this for you. There's going to be a dozen of these type of things we don't know yet. We don't have access to the bill and the reporting's not there there yet. But there's going to be a dozen of these things. They're all going to put their goodies in and we will find out as time goes on the different things that are going to be in this really horrible bill.
Emma Vigeland
And what's terrifying is so 16 Democrats joined, almost every Republican Rand Paul and then another who I'm blanking on in the Senate signed on to this, John.
Sam Cedar
To the genius act.
Emma Vigeland
Yeah.
Sam Cedar
But I'm still talking the reconciliation.
Emma Vigeland
Okay. But yes. Right. So that's separate, a separate bill. But there's also then this element in reconciliation, the ten year ban too.
Sam Cedar
Yep. And there's going to be a lot more of provisions like that that we're going to find out about. Right now we're just hearing about it from people who are a little queasy on the Republican side. But when Democrats get a good look at this bill, it's going to be, it's going to be a real problem. Now again, they're going to pass it in the House tomorrow or they're going to try. And even if they pass it then it's going to go to the Senate and the Senate is going to have a lot of problems with this and they'll cut it up now. But they're still going to end up getting their big tax cut. They just got to figure out a way of doing it. All right, we get to head into the fun half, folks. Just a reminder, it's your support that makes this show possible. You can become a member and join the Majority report by going to join the MajorityReport.com when you do, you not only get the free show free of commercials, you get the fun half. And you can IM us in the fun half. Also support the show by getting just coffee, Just coffee co, op, fair trade coffee, hot chocolate, use the coupon code, majority get 10% off. You can buy the majority report blend, you can buy the WTF blend or you can buy a bunch of different like single origin coffees, great co op out of Madison, just coffee.co op again. Also check out our merch shop shop. Majorityreportradio.com and the AM Quickie@am quickie.com Get the news five minutes worth of a read every morning in your email box. Amquickie.com also see you in our discord@majoritydiscord.com Matt. Left Reckoning.
Brandon
Yeah. Tonight at 7:00 clock Eastern Time on the Left Reckoning YouTube channel where we're closing in on 50,000 subscribers. Glad to have Chip Givens on one of my favorite guests who's over at Defending Rights and Descent, the rights organization in D.C. the one that I donate monthly to has a new article in Jacobin talking about Trump's war on Palestine. And free speech hits a new setback on the release of Batakhan Surrey. So check that out tonight at 7 o' clock Eastern Time.
Sam Cedar
See you in the fun half three months from now, six months from now, nine months from now. And I don't think it's going to be the same as it looks like in six months from now. And I don't know if it's necessarily going to be better six months from now than it is three months from now, but I think around 18 months out we're going to look back and go like wow. What? What is that going on? It's nuts. Wait a second. Hold on. Hold on for a second. Emma. Welcome to the program.
Emma Vigeland
World A Fun Half.
Sam Cedar
Matt. What is up everyone? No m. You did it. Fun Path.
Emma Vigeland
Let's go, Brandon.
Sam Cedar
Let's go, Brandon. Fun path. Bradley, you want to say hello?
Brandon
Sorry to disappoint everyone. I'm just a random guy.
Sam Cedar
It's all the boys today. Fundamentally false.
Emma Vigeland
No. I'm sorry.
Sam Cedar
Women's talking for a second. Let me finish.
Emma Vigeland
Where is this coming from? Dude.
Donald Trump
But.
Sam Cedar
Dude. You want to smoke this? 7A. Yes. Hi, me. Is it safe? Yes. Is this me? Is it me? It is you. Is this me? Hello, that's me. I think it is you. Who is you? No sound. Every single freaking day. What's on your mind?
Kristi Noem
Sports.
Sam Cedar
We can discuss free markets and we can discuss capitalism. I'm going to go start one. Libertarian. They're so stupid.
Emma Vigeland
Though.
Sam Cedar
Common sense says of course.
Emma Vigeland
Gobbledygook.
Sam Cedar
We nailed him.
Emma Vigeland
So what's 79?
Sam Cedar
21 challenge? Man. I'm positively quivering. I believe 96. I want to say 8. 5. 7.
Emma Vigeland
2.
Brandon
501.
Sam Cedar
1/2. 3, 8, 9.
Brandon
11. For instance.
Emma Vigeland
$3,400. $1900. 5 4.
Sam Cedar
$3 trillion. Sold. It's a zero sum game.
Emma Vigeland
Actually. You're making me think less.
Sam Cedar
But let me say this. You call it satire. Sam goes satire. On top of it all. My favorite part about you is just like every day. All day, like everything, without a doubt. Hey, buddy. We see you. All right, folks, folks, folks.
Emma Vigeland
It's just the week being weeded out, obviously.
Sam Cedar
Yeah. Sun's out, guns out. I. I don't know.
Emma Vigeland
But you should know.
Sam Cedar
People just don't.
Brandon
Like to entertain ideas anymore.
Sam Cedar
I. I have a question. Who cares?
Brandon
Our chat is enabled, folks.
Sam Cedar
I love it.
Emma Vigeland
I do love that.
Sam Cedar
Gotta jump. Gotta be quick. I gotta jump. I'm losing it, bro. 2 o' clock, we're already late, and the guy's being a dick. So screw him. Sent to a gulag.
Kristi Noem
Outrageous.
Sam Cedar
Like, what is wrong with you? Love you. Bye. Love you. Bye. Bye.
Podcast Title: The Majority Report with Sam Seder
Episode: 2501 - Trump Tries to Ram Through His 'Big Beautiful Bill'
Release Date: May 20, 2025
Host: Sam Seder
In episode 2501 of The Majority Report with Sam Seder, Sam delves deep into the ongoing political maneuvers surrounding former President Donald Trump's attempt to pass his highly anticipated tax reform known as the "Big Beautiful Bill." The episode, recorded live from downtown Brooklyn, provides an incisive analysis of the legislative battles, the bill's implications, and the broader socio-economic impacts.
Sam Seder opens the discussion by outlining the current status of Trump's tax cut legislation. The bill, characterized by its substantial size and scope, seeks significant tax reductions, primarily benefiting the wealthiest Americans. Sam emphasizes the Republican Party's internal conflicts and the Senate's reluctance to support the bill in its current form.
Notable Quote:
“Tomorrow is the day that the Republicans had set for themselves to vote on the one big, beautiful bill. It already is starting to look like a train wreck because we have multiple senators now, including John Thune, who are starting to, like, mumble about, we got to break this bill up.” (05:00)
As the bill moves towards the Senate, skepticism grows. The Senate's concern revolves around the reconciliation process, which requires the bill to adhere to the Byrd Rule, limiting the inclusion of unrelated provisions. This creates uncertainty about the bill's future, with potential fragmentation into multiple pieces of legislation.
Notable Quote:
“The Senate seems to be very unhappy with all of these things, which is amazing since the House is also different factions seem to be unhappy with it.” (07:12)
A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to dissecting the tax cut's benefits across different income percentiles. Sam and his co-hosts highlight how the bill disproportionately favors the wealthy, exacerbating income inequality.
Notable Quote:
“If you're in the top 1%, you get a $52,000 tax cut.” (41:25)
“The wealthier you are, the more of a tax cut you're going to get.” (39:38)
Conversely, middle and lower-income earners receive minimal benefits, with some even facing reduced after-tax incomes. The discussion underscores the regressive nature of the tax cuts, which offer negligible relief to those most in need while significantly aiding the affluent.
Notable Quote:
“The first 20th percentile of income would lose 100 bucks because of course, the least the, the people living in poverty essentially will lose $100, which is a lot of money for that.” (38:32)
“Most of these people are going to lose their country if they need to retire by 65...they don't even have 401ks.” (32:30)
The bill includes a $715 billion cut to Medicaid over ten years. Sam explains that this reduction will impose stringent work requirements on beneficiaries, effectively reducing coverage for millions of low-income individuals.
Notable Quote:
“The legislation, this reconciliation bill will require adult Medicaid beneficiaries to spend at least 80 hours a month working or training for a job, in school or volunteering.” (45:03)
“This is a triple attack on the poorest Americans to justify taxes for the rich.” (52:54)
In addition to Medicaid, the bill proposes a $300 billion cut to SNAP, implementing work requirements that are unlikely to be effective and will likely disenfranchise eligible recipients.
Notable Quote:
“They're trying to basically say that they can suspend habeas corpus in the way that Lincoln did during the Civil War.” (13:56)
“Work requirements are unnecessary because most recipients already work, often in low wage or informal settings with no health insurance.” (46:20)
The bill includes a controversial provision that bans U.S. states from regulating artificial intelligence technologies for the next ten years. This move is seen as a way to create a uniform regulatory environment favorable to the tech industry, potentially stifling state-level innovations and protections.
Notable Quote:
“There's going to be a 10-year ban on US states regulating AI.” (56:22)
“You will effectively essentially give all this technology carte blanche to do whatever they want.” (58:52)
Aligned with the AI regulations, the bill also favors the cryptocurrency sector by preventing states from imposing stringent regulations, thereby encouraging rapid growth without adequate oversight.
Notable Quote:
“We should not. We should have the federal government do this.” (57:08)
“They passed the so-called genius act and they basically wrap it up.” (57:22)
Contrary to previous proposals to cut the defense budget, the bill includes a substantial $150 billion increase in the Pentagon's annual budget. Sam criticizes this as an excessive allocation of funds, reminiscent of World War II levels, without clear justification in the context of current threats.
Notable Quote:
“They're going to be boosting the annual budget of the Pentagon by $150 billion.” (52:54)
“And in terms of the proportion of our budget, I was reading that this is at World War II levels.” (53:39)
The episode also touches on international tensions, particularly actions by the UK, France, and Canada against Israel over ongoing conflicts in Gaza. The discussion highlights the geopolitical instability and its implications for U.S. foreign policy.
Notable Quote:
“uk, France and Canada threaten actions, concrete actions against Israel over its slaughter in Gaza, which again continued overnight.” (05:16)
Sam Seder and his co-hosts argue that the bill's approach is fundamentally flawed, prioritizing tax cuts for the wealthy while undermining essential social services. They predict that the bill's passage will lead to increased economic inequality and social unrest.
Notable Quote:
“But they're trying the real fraudulent... it's by the providers.” (60:47)
“They’re like oil change in your car cost 2500 bucks, and you're like, I think I'll wait right before I go and do that.” (50:59)
Looking ahead, Sam anticipates that the bill will have lasting negative effects on the U.S. economy and social fabric. He urges listeners to stay informed and engaged, emphasizing the importance of resisting policies that favor the few over the many.
Notable Quote:
“We are going to run out of those lower priced goods and you're starting to see it in Target and Walmart and in other places, prices are starting to pop up.” (31:08)
“When Democrats get a good look at this bill, it's going to be a real problem.” (60:34)
Episode 2501 of The Majority Report with Sam Seder offers a comprehensive critique of Donald Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill," highlighting its regressive tax policies and detrimental cuts to vital social programs. Through detailed analysis and incisive commentary, Sam and his co-hosts elucidate the bill's far-reaching consequences, advocating for policies that support economic equity and robust social safety nets. The episode serves as a clarion call for listeners to remain vigilant and proactive in their political engagements to counteract measures that disproportionately benefit the wealthy at the expense of the broader population.
Note: Timestamps provided correspond to the moments where notable quotes were mentioned in the transcript.