
News Day Tuesday! More discussion of Trump's Big Billionaire Bill and the ongoing horror in Gaza backed up by our government. In the fun half, Jordan Peterson gets destroyed by Atheists and Trump has reasons to thank god. Become a member...
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Sam Cedar
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Producer
The Majority Report with Sam Cedar.
Sam Cedar
It May 27, 2025. My name is Sam Cedar. This is the five time award winning Majority Report. We are broadcasting live steps from the industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America, downtown Brooklyn, usa. On the program today, Trump calls for all federal contracts to Harvard to be canceled. Still in his peak of fit because Harvard wouldn't bend the knee in wake of a major attack on Ukraine. Trump says he's just realized Trump is, I mean, Putin is crazy.
Matt
What Knock me down with a feather.
Sam Cedar
As details emerge about the Republican Billionaire Enhancement act that they passed in the House last week. Senate looking to pass it by July 4th. Meanwhile, NPR sues the Trump regime over its funding ban. Pete Hegsett, remember that dude? He's in hot water again. As his leak investigation story starts to spring. Some leaks of its own.
Emma
Things are going great over there.
Sam Cedar
Former IDF revealed that the IDF has used Palestinians as human shields. This emits more fire bombing of civilians. And the supposed aid plan appears to be a military honeypot. Turning domestically, Americans credit scores plunge in the wake of the Trump regime's new moves on student loans. New report, federal government covered up deadly E. Coli outbreak because that means it doesn't exist. That's the way we do things now. Philly Whole Foods Union certified first in the nation. Trump punts the European tariffs until July because they're nice people despite that Volvo to cut 3,000 jobs because of those very same tariffs in this country, I should say. And Utah commissioned a report on youth trans care after they banned it. And it turns out that report they commissioned on trans healthcare supports repeal of their ban. Lastly, new poll, Chuck Schumer trails AOC in New York with Jewish New Yorkers. All this and more on today's Majority report.
Emma
It is news day Tuesday.
Sam Cedar
I hope everybody had a happy or a fun weekend. Took some time to consider people who have, who lost their lives in defense of this country and in some instances many frankly sent by civilian leadership that really didn't have their interest in their best interest in mind on the va.
Emma
That's the lesson from Memorial Day.
Sam Cedar
Yes, unfortunately, that is not the lesson that the Republicans have learned. And they are, they are planning massive cuts.
Matt
Look at the flag.
Sam Cedar
Yeah, just pay attention to the flag.
Matt
I'm gonna hug the flag again. Remember I did that.
Sam Cedar
Meanwhile, I just want to repeat that Chuck Schumer headline. He trails AOC with New Yorkers.
Emma
Jewish New Yorkers, but all New York. I mean, I don't know why that's surprising to people.
Sam Cedar
It's. It's not surprising, except for, you know, Chuck Schumer has stated that his number one goal is to make sure that he is. Make sure that the left, I guess, or the Democrats know, continue to embrace Israel. The thing that. I do think that it's surprising to people who equate anti Semitism with anti Zionism and think that. That you have a Senate minority leader who has said his number one job is to protect Israel and Jewish New Yorkers still would rather have aoc. Now, I know we all know Schumer's retort. The Baileys are not Jewish.
Emma
That's a good point.
Sam Cedar
So that's. I'm. I'm Senator for all the people.
Emma
But, yeah, I guess I didn't have these. These assumptions about Jewish New Yorkers in the same way that some of the most rabid supporters of Israel do, who, coincidentally seem to be able to stereotype Jewish voters while calling everybody else anti Semitic.
Sam Cedar
The Baileys love Israel.
Emma
Are they Jewish?
Matt
Are they. Are they Israeli?
Emma
In fact, the Baileys of Tel Aviv, Yes.
Sam Cedar
Well, they love Havla and Nassau County. Spokesperson on the IM says Zoran's closing the gap on Cuomo. There's still plenty of time.
Matt
There's about to be a large canvassing presence. I understand. I've already seen Zoran people out all over Brooklyn. I think, from what I hear, there's gonna be a lot.
Sam Cedar
I'm sure there's a lot of people who are so juiced about Cuomo running that they're gonna get out there and volunteer. Honestly, like, I would love to meet a Cuomo volunteer.
Matt
I saw two Cuomo people in front of Barclays center, and they look very much like their lifelong politics. People climbing a ladder. Yes.
Sam Cedar
I want to just see two. Just Normie, Like, I've just been so inspired by Cuomo, I want to get out there and volunteer for him.
Emma
You're looking at one. Well, I mean, back in, when I was, like, 16 years old, I interned and I canvassed. I'd stand on the street corner looking for signatures for Cuomo. So basically, if you are like me and you wanted college credit, that's okay.
Sam Cedar
Well, you're getting paid for it.
Emma
No, I was getting paid. I wanted on my application, like, oh, I did this, and now I know better.
Sam Cedar
It's a good thing you didn't put it on your application when you applied here.
Emma
That's a good point. That's a good point.
Sam Cedar
I can cut both ways.
Emma
Exactly.
Sam Cedar
Before we get into it more. I just wanted to point this out. We headlined this but this is a big deal because as you know, the National Labor Relations Board has been basically kneecapped by the Trump administration. On March 26th we had a guy named Maze Venney on Veney on who was one of the spokespeople is for employees at a Whole Foods in Philadelphia. Well this Whole Foods had voted in January about 130. I think it was like 130 to 100 or something somewhere around there to unionize. And then when we spoke to them in March they were in this sort of like holding pattern because there was no National Labor Relations Board to certify the election. And however, the regional director for the National Labor Relations Board backed the union overruling objections from Whole Foods. The decision tees up a legal battle. This according to Josh Adelson writing in I think it's Bloomberg. We strongly disagree with the conclusion and we will appeal. Said Whole Foods in a statement saying the union is illegally interfered with our team members rights to a fair vote at the store. Highly dubious claim in my estimation. But they have voted to unionize with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. This is Whole Foods owned by Amazon.
Emma
Yeah.
Sam Cedar
And so this is a big deal. And you can go back. It was the second interview we did on March 26th that was a Wednesday. Maybe we do have just a picture of that. We can just pop that up so people can go. Go back. Listen to this interview because this is a big deal. I am not sure but it's conceivable this is one of the first unions to be certified in the wake of Trump sort of deep sixing the National National Labor Relations Board. So you can just check this out here. I thought I put a picture in there. Yeah, right there. So the second interview if I remember correctly because I can barely remember these things but Mace was a good interview. So check that out. Also, you know these interviews of folks unionizing their workplace. If you have any interest in organizing, go back and look at these interviews. We do most of them on Wednesday on Wednesdays. And just a great resource because just people, just regular people one day decides like I don't like the way the boss is treating us and they find somebody else there who feels the same and it's off to the races. So check that out.
Matt
Yeah, I had two other members of the Philly Whole Foods union on left reckoning on the same episode I had Eric Blanc on which I'd recommend people to check out that as well. Like really inspiring the I Mean, going toe to toe with Jeff Bezos and coming out on top.
Sam Cedar
Well, we'll see. I mean, hopefully, but certainly getting very.
Matt
Far into getting their team members on the same page.
Emma
Yeah, right.
Sam Cedar
There. Over the past couple of weeks, I mean, aside from the fact that Israel has ramped up its attacks on civilians, you have Israeli officials openly saying now that they're targeting civilian infrastructure. I mean, obviously they have already targeted all civilian infrastructure in Gaza in terms of buildings, but they're targeting civilian infrastructure. And it's been quite clear they've been doing this for a long time. But they're now explicitly saying they're going after nurses and doctors and aid workers and EMTs. They are now unabashedly sort of embracing the genocide. You hear some former Israeli politicians and officials calling it genocide. They're accusing Netanyahu of, you know, going off the rails, as it were. Of course, very conveniently ignoring the fact that polls in Israel now show the general population is in favor of ethnic cleansing. They're in favor of the brutality that their government is engaging in. And during his trip to the Middle East, Trump apparently got some pressure from some of the Arab leadership. Doesn't seem like much though, but enough for him to say there should be food going in. Israel said, okay, we will send some food aid in. Insisted on being control of the program. The number of trucks that they brought in, not even woefully insufficient. I mean, clearly just for show, they barely reached any of the people there. And there. This is a picture of crowds at an aid distribution site.
Emma
Yeah, So I mean, they initially had, just after that visit with Trump, let in like something like half a dozen trucks, which was basically a troll. It was to say it's like literally.
Sam Cedar
1% of what they need on a daily basis.
Matt
And Ben GVIR was saying, or maybe a Smotrick saying, this is literally just for show optics.
Emma
Yeah, yeah, they're, they're. There was mockery. It was about, you know, haha, we'll give you a taste. And then there was more backlash. And then now this effort has ramped up for the United States and Israel to control humanitarian aid that's going into Gaza, being via something called the Gaza Humanitarian foundation, which has been decried by the United nations as not essentially a sincere effort to get aid in and basically using food as a weapon of war. And then you see images like this. So there are still crowds of people in Gaza still desperate for food. So even if the United States via their military contractors are handing it out, people are gonna flock to it. And they're being fenced in. What does this image like? Seriously, what does this image remind you of?
Sam Cedar
It's, it's, it's like cattle. And the, the head of the executive director of the Humanitarian foundation stepped down just yesterday, I think it was when I think even from, for his perspective, it became clear that this is just a mechanism in which the military is going to start to at some point pick people off were unclear.
Emma
Do you remember that there were in the past accusations that Israeli drones had been playing in Arabic, cries of help me, help me. Maybe this was a year or so ago to draw Palestinians out so that they could kill them. This is a bit of a version of that where it seems like this is a honeypot, as you were saying, to get Palestinians in one place and corral them for slaughter. And Jeremy Scahill reported this morning that there's already been a report of a Palestinian who's been kidnapped when they were going to pick up boxes of food. And Al Jazeera was reporting that there's been gunfire, presumably from the Israeli side at these aid checkpoints. So we still have inadequate information, but it stands to reason that given it was, I think two resignations now from this Gaza humanitarian Foundation that basically they're.
Matt
No one wants this on their resume.
Emma
Right. That they're. This is not a sincere and earnest effort to get food to people.
Sam Cedar
And remember, you know, Wood made it clear when he took on this project that this was not going to be a mechanism to ethnically cleanse Gaza. And now he's resigned.
Matt
The Flower Massacre.
Sam Cedar
But yeah, right, listen to this complete left wing nut job where she gets on and talks about how, what's actually going on in terms of the, the, the humanitarian aid. I give you Cindy McCain, former OR wife, I should say, of the late neocon John McCain.
Cindy McCain
Catastrophe occurs.
News Anchor
Your organization announced at least 15 of your trucks were looted when they entered southern Gaza en route to bakeries. Israel has consistently said that the looting is being carried out by Hamas. Have you seen evidence that it is Hamas stealing the food?
Cindy McCain
No, not at all. Not, not in this round. Listen, these people are desperate and they see a World Food Program truck coming in and they run for it. This, this doesn't have anything to do with Hamas or any kind of organized crime or anything has simply to do with the fact these people are starving to death. And so we will continue to go in. We will continue to go in with food and the kinds of supplies we need to help the bakeries operate and make sure that we can continue to do that. And hopefully be able to do more of it. But again, we can't do this unless the world community puts pressure on this. We can't be allowed to sit back and watch these people starve to death with no outside diplomatic influence to help us. These, these, these poor souls are really, really, really desperate. And, you know, having been in, in a food riot myself some years ago, I understand the desperation very well.
News Anchor
Well, five days ago, Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed to take control of all of Gaza, which seems to be a shift from going in, carrying out raids and then withdrawing.
Emma
No, it doesn't.
News Anchor
We've seen the Pope speak out. We've seen the leaders of France, of Canada, of the UK Calling the cutting of aid egregious. Netanyahu said criticism like that is feeding Hamas and really feeding anti Semitism. What do you make of, of that pushback from him that criticisms of the state are feeding hate?
Cindy McCain
What I do know is you're not feeding people. And the most important part of this is that's what we're supposed to be doing. I'm very grateful for anyone, the Pope, any of the folks that did, did shout out and say, listen, we need to get more in. But I can't tell you as to what exactly what Netanyahu is thinking or anything else. What I do know for a fact is that we need food to get into Gaza to avoid an utter catastrophe.
Emma
We already know thousands have starved to death. You just need to see the images of the children that are, you know, if they're not, half of their head is blown off, then some of them are just completely emaciated. It's good that the news is starting to pick up on this, you know, because this quote, it just shows that the Israelis don't take human life seriously. They say, this is a top Israeli official. We are fighting human. Animals. Animals. And we act accordingly. We are imposing a complete siege on Gaza. There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything will be closed.
Matt
Was that Galant, like, early?
Emma
Oh, right. That was two days after October 7th. So everything that this sounds like, Netanyahu's not earnest about not wanting to ethically cleanse the Gaza Strip. That sounds like they actually are interested in starving these people to death.
Matt
Maybe the students were right.
Emma
Maybe just have some sort of reflection on this. But as you know, with the Iraq War stuff, it seems like many of our members of the media will just go about unscathed after just completely midwife in this genocide.
Sam Cedar
Oh, the end. And then, you know, two or three years later, there'll be some type of, you know, mild mea culpa. And you know, we're going to need to see that, I think with, with politicians as well. Or we will, I imagine we got more to talk about. We'll go through some more of the finer points of that reconciliation bill in a moment. First, a couple words of from our sponsors. Well, me reading the sponsorships. It's spring still, right? When does summer start?
Matt
I call summer once kids start graduating. Yeah, I think it's summer.
Sam Cedar
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Emma
Right.
Sam Cedar
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Emma
Yes, that's, that's great.
Sam Cedar
I feel like my kids would be happy if I said something once a month that was even remotely interesting to them. It's just, I mean that's just the way that that's their attitude.
Emma
I don't know what to tell kids these days.
Sam Cedar
Kids these days are get more into the Harvard thing. I mean I, you know, just briefly, the idea that this is sort of some type of working class hero assault on Harvard is one of the dumb mistakes that someone could have. Understand that the money they're cutting back from Harvard goes into research. Now I would have no problem if we had government research facilities that could supplant universities, but part of why universities exist are to do this type of research that doesn't necessarily have a clear payoff.
Emma
Right.
Sam Cedar
And it's not 100% government funded. Harvard puts money in there too because it bolsters their reputation and their prestige as a university. So the only thing that's going to come out of this, and I would love it if this country funded vocational schools more than they do, which is barely at this point. I would love that. I would love it if the government provided funding for all colleges to provide some vocational training, frankly, in high schools too. I think it should be mandatory shop class or whatever. But that aside, Donald Trump is not going to pump all this money into vocational schools. 100%. They're not going to do it. Now I could see, would he give a grant to like, you know, some for profit university that I can imagine.
Emma
Or some religious university liberty.
Sam Cedar
Exactly.
Emma
They must be at the top of the list. The Jerry Falwell.
Sam Cedar
Don't they learn how to beat plowshares? I mean swords into plowshares. Okay. The, the money that Harvard, that they would cut from these contracts and these grants to Harvard is going to mean that down the road there's just going to be less science. We're just going to know less about the human condition or the condition of nature or whatever it is. This is just like the stupidification of the country, which is consistent with the entire Trump thing. But the idea that this is somehow like some attack on elites is just, you want to attack elites, tax them.
Emma
But, but that's what the entire Republican populist, faux populist branding is, right. Where it's not a systemic critique of billionaires or capitalism. It's the wrong elites.
Sam Cedar
The.
Emma
That are usually black or Jewish or female or gay or trans. It's the wrong elites.
Sam Cedar
Glasses wearing or.
Emma
Yeah. Woke in some way that they decided. Or just not somebody, not a university that decided that they were going to bend the knee to Trump because Harvard has such a level of like, financing and such a deep endowment pocket that they have the ability to say no.
Matt
Yeah, do DEI for us conservative freaks or we're going to attack your school.
Emma
Yeah.
Sam Cedar
It really does make it sort of more clear that so much of this, of this Trump movement is built on social resentment as opposed to, you know, some type of economic populism. Now, I think there is an argument that when you don't provide people material benefits, it's much easier for them to slip into this type of social resentment because that's all that's left.
Emma
Yep.
Sam Cedar
Right. This, you know, if anybody saw welcome.
Emma
To the Dollhouse or it's like a more like Marxist, like, kind of vision. And you can correct me if I'm wrong, Matt, of like, say, like, how to combat misogyny. It's also, if men feel more disempowered in the workplace, they're more likely to take it out at home too. That kind of thing.
Sam Cedar
Yeah.
Matt
I mean, the problem is, like, we had a pie that was growing. Like, we talk rivalry and non rivalry stuff. Well, wages have been stagnating for decades now, and people no longer see the workplace as the type of empowerment it was. We need to figure out a way to, you know, empower people. And instead what we're getting is messages about how feminism stole something from you.
Emma
People want to feel empowered and they looked for villains or they. And they look for people to step on to achieve that. And so it's not to say that, like, those individual views aren't repugnant. It's just to say that they become more mendacious and they spread more quickly when people's material needs are not met.
Sam Cedar
All right, with all that said, the reconciliation bill that just passed in the House is. It's hard to overstate how much this is a giveaway to the rich in this country. We have shown you the charts in the past days of the distribution of the tax benefits. The biggest distributions of tax benefits go to the wealthiest 20th percentile. And it's 3.3% tax breaks to the top 1% to the 1%, 3.4% tax breaks to the top 10%, 3.4 tax breaks. And then it just gets smaller and smaller the less money you make in terms of percentages, I'm not even talking obviously real dollars. There are also corporate tax breaks which are another way of providing tax breaks for wealthy people. There are all sorts of other provisions in there. We know that it kicks anywhere from 8 to 12 million people off of Medicaid. We know that it's going to kick millions of people off of food stamps or a snap. And it's also going to get rid of the automatic stabilizer that when we hit some type of financial crisis or recession, it's going to inhibit the ability of people to get on food assistance. We know that it's going to cut $500 billion from Medicare because of automatic sequestration, because of how out of sync it makes the budget. We know that it adds trillions upon trillions of dollars in debt. This is all because of $4 trillion worth of tax cuts. We know that it gets rid of the estate tax exemptions. So if you were worried about, you know, that 12, that last million on the 12 million that you are going to get from your folks, well, you're not going to have to worry about that being taxed anymore. I think it was the exemption was somewhere around 11 million for a couple.
Emma
Insane level of inheritance. Insane. Insane.
Sam Cedar
Just a little bit of a level. Sorry.
Matt
You hate generational wealth, right?
Emma
I'm sorry. They should have supported all the hard work that those grandkids did. Sucking up to grandpa.
Sam Cedar
It gets rid of terms of tax breaks. It does cut back on some tax breaks. So things like clean energy tax credits for geothermal and tighten their belts. Yeah, we got to tell you, we can't do the giveaway for the stuff to protect the planet. Solar EVs, scraps as a part of the savings, existing repayment options on student loans. If you went into public service, it narrows Pell Grant eligibility. Also, here's a couple of things that have been were sort of buried in there that we're only now starting to get a clearer picture of. I'm sure there's some people who, you know, follow this explicitly, but what it also does is it cuts federal employee retirement benefits. And it also has another provision in addition to cutting some of those retirement benefits across the board, it has another provision which doesn't really save much money. Maybe a little, a little bit, but nothing terribly relevant right now. Federal Workers get retirement benefits through what is known as fers, or the Federal Employees Retirement System. They are paid a pension based upon their length of service, which is funded through contributions both from federal workers and their agencies. Current federal workers put in a percentage of their paycheck into this system, either nearly 1% or almost 4 and a half percent, depending on when they were hired. Government covers the rest. This measure tucked into this bill would add 5% surcharge. So you'd either be, you know, some of these contributions would go up to 9.5% unless they agree to forego civil service protection if they become at will workers. So this is basically an extortion play. They're going to offer you like it's going to cost you 5% essentially to get civil service status. Understand that we've had civil service status in this country for about 100 years, maybe more, so that you would not have corrupt patronage deals. So simultaneously, there's another attack on, you know, via that whole Schedule F thing and maybe we'll talk about that tomorrow because there's an opportunity for you to put public comment into this. But this is tucked into that reconciliation bill. Essentially, the typical federal worker would give up about $3,500 annually if they want civil service protections.
Emma
And we know because of Project 2025 and DOGE why civil service protections are such a threat to the, what they're trying to do here. So they're basically saying leave yourself open to being fired for any reason or take a pay cut to your benefits. That's what it is.
Sam Cedar
Take a pay cut, period. Yeah.
Emma
Yeah.
Sam Cedar
Well, that's basically it. They'll take it out of your, they'll put it into your benefit. That's it.
Emma
Yeah.
Sam Cedar
That'S one fun provision. There's another that they're going to be touting and I think we touched on this briefly, but it really is just a boondoggle and one of those things that sounds good until you read like to the third paragraph of the proposal, which at this point it's a bill that has passed the House. This is also tucked into the reconciliation bill. It was originally known as MAGA accounts Money account for growth and advancement. And now they're just called Trump accounts.
Emma
Oh, good.
Sam Cedar
And what it is for babies born. This is just hilarious. For babies born from the beginning of 2025 through the end of 2028, the government will put $1,000 into an account for every child born in this country.
Emma
Right.
Sam Cedar
And that in and of itself doesn't sound like a, a bad thing. But then you start to hear some of the details and you realize this is just like an attempt to basically provide rich people with another way of having a tax Advantage account. So $1,000 goes in and experts are looking at this going like this seems like a joke. And it really is. After that, parents can contribute up to $5,000 annually for the kids. And then all of a sudden you've already said like, oh, okay, this isn't. The extra money is not available for what, 60, 70% of the, of of America.
Matt
The people who really need that one k aren't going to be the type of people that are going to also contribute five, $5,000 annually.
Emma
Right. Wait, so is the contribution of $5,000 annually annually required to maintain the account?
Sam Cedar
No. No.
Emma
Okay.
Sam Cedar
But the money can grow tax free until it's withdrawn. It must be invested in a broad stock index. So it's a way of juicing the, the stock market.
Emma
Nice. Like we didn' 401ks.
Sam Cedar
And here's the thing. Once it's cashed out, the investment returns will be taxed as long term capital gains, which have a low tax rate, but only if the funds are used for one of the approved purposes. So one can be paying for higher education. Now, if you have the ability to put $5,000 into your child's account, you already have a 529, which unless you're absolutely convinced that your kid's not going to go to college, you would put it in there because that's going to give you. That's uncapped.
Emma
Right.
Sam Cedar
It can be used for other job training purposes. So that thousand dollars is going to end up being after, I don't know, by the time you're 18, 3000, I don't know. It can be used for starting a small business or making a down payment on a first home. Anything else, it'll be treated as ordinary income. But here's the thing. Children can begin taking it out once their savings turns 18, but can't use more than half before age 25. Then at 31, all the cash is automatically dispersed. So presumably if you're going to use it for a down payment, you'd have to take it out at age 31. It's not going to be even remotely close to enough. Right. According to Yahoo, the Trump account could theoretically be useful for families who are already comfortable with their retirement savings and whose children don't plan to pursue college, since the money could be used with other purposes like home buying without a penalty. But even then, there might be pitfalls. If a Child ends up.
Emma
Can you pause it there for a sec? So, theory. Can you read that sentence again? Theoretically, that could be used for parents.
Sam Cedar
Okay, so if you're already set with your own retirement.
Emma
Right, right, right, exactly.
Sam Cedar
And your kid is clear, they're not going to use it to go to college. Go to college when they're 2 or 3 or 5 or.
Emma
So you're a person who said with your retirement, you have the money to be set for your retirement and you think that your kid's not going to go to college. I'm just trying to say how specific this instance is.
Sam Cedar
But the problem is if the child ends up spending the money on anything other than an education or a business or a house, they get hit with the higher ordinary income rate and then it actually takes out more. And the family would have been better off investing in a normal brokerage account. In other words, it is. One financial advisor said a family would need to be shockingly sure that their child wasn't going to college before it would make sense to invest in a Trump account instead of a 529. And the thing is, 529s are only available for wealthy people anyways. So what basically happens is this is $1,000 giving to rich people and they'll take it out and put it towards the private school that they're gonna send their kid to and it'll argument augment their 529. It's just basically. Exactly. But you're not going to hear a description of it beyond like, everybody's getting $1,000 from Donald Trump. That's why they call it a Trump account. Now, there are new spending elements of the reconciliation bill, and the vast majority is towards building wall.
Emma
Huh.
Sam Cedar
Pursuing immigrants and putting them into private prisons.
Emma
That's good.
Sam Cedar
Yep. 46.5 billion for border construction. That is adjusted for inflation. That's almost three times what the Trump administration spent building 400 miles of wall in the first term.
Emma
This has got to be in the form of an invoice to Mexico, right?
Sam Cedar
I mean, they'll pay us back. It is a quarter of the cost of the entire Apollo space program. Just to give you a sense. It is almost two times the value of all USAID programming. It could operate one almost one and a half years of a universal free pre K program for all children. Or you could give each immigrant or each migrant, I should say, who the Border Patrol apprehended during the entire Biden administration. You give them 6,300 bucks. That's a build a wall. You just Hand out, I don't know, 2500 bucks and say just, you know, come back in three years. It provides $45 billion for adult and family detention.
Emma
That's heartwarming.
Matt
Yep. Evil. Just the Apollo space program, you know, obviously the going to the moon and all that. Really cool. Also spin offs from that research, that public research include innovative materials, heat resistant fabrics, insulation, things like athletic shoes, miniature circuits and digital computing technology. Anybody use any digital computers or miniature circuits?
Sam Cedar
Computers.
Matt
That's because of the Apollo freeze drying food. So I'm sure, I'm sure building a giant wall on the Rio Grande will have the same sort of scientific benefits.
Sam Cedar
Oh, Matt, how about considering the wall building technology improvements that we'll have.
Matt
Yeah, bring in some Missouri.
Sam Cedar
Okay.
Emma
Well, hello, to be fair, they're probably because they're funding so much into this, perhaps if they are also funding like, you know, research and other ways for us to advance technologically in this country.
Matt
We do a golden dome here too.
Emma
Yeah. No, just kidding. They're. If it sounds woke, they're cutting it mean.
Sam Cedar
Honestly, we could just light the money on fire.
Emma
Yeah.
Matt
Be better.
Sam Cedar
Honestly, you could have people actually study like how much heat does it put off to light that much money on fire.
Matt
And even the climate change effects would be better than the incarcerating humanity and preparing for dystopia effects.
Sam Cedar
$15 billion for ICE to deport migrants and another 16 to hire new ICE agents.
Matt
People to sit on their iPhone while people are in cages 15ft away from.
Sam Cedar
But I mean, look at the work that these guys do. Did you see, like, I've seen them round up a couple of different women in Massachusetts and honestly, like all it takes is about 12 to 15 of these guys.
Matt
It's like going after El Chapo and.
Sam Cedar
They'Re totally on it. I mean, it is really the way they move, how quickly they can move and surround women with babies is incredibly impressive because, you know, touchables.
Matt
Yeah.
Emma
Listen, for.
Sam Cedar
You have to worry. What if the kid projectile vomits?
Matt
What if he doesn't at you?
Sam Cedar
Exactly.
Emma
On that note, I was encouraged.
Sam Cedar
I think we all know the pen is mightier than the sword. So there's a lot of danger.
Matt
Scarier.
Emma
But just as an aside, AOC had a campaign email that went out yesterday that mentioned abolish ICE for the first time in quite a while. We saw Bill Kristol even saying maybe AOC was onto something about abolishing ice. You know, it's not something that was enshrined in our constitution. It was created after 911 and it's now basically functioning as this kind of secret police for the Trump administration. So let's put that back on the table, please.
Sam Cedar
It still amazes me that we have not heard a single story of a gunfight from all these dangerous immigrants that were rolling up. Not a single injury. Not like you know, the, the most amount of action they had is like tackling a 16 year old girl is trying to protect her mom having to.
Matt
Do some cardio because a judge, you know, gave you weird directions.
Sam Cedar
Exactly. The, the big danger is like is getting dehydrated because of their, all the gear that they're wearing around. This bill is headed to the Senate. They want to do this by July 4th. Here is a quick rundown of some of the things you should pay attention to. And I wish we actually had a mechanism in which we could bet on who's going to cave out of these.
Emma
Polymarket.com not legal in the United States.
Sam Cedar
Oh yeah, it sounds like a cue for a sound drop. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski and Josh Hawley are supposedly concerned about the Medicaid cuts because again it's kicking anywhere from 8 to 13 million people off of their health insurance and will be responsible for closing tens upon tens of rural hospitals.
Emma
50% of rural hospitals, half of rural hospitals operate with negative margins. These rural hospitals need Medicaid to sustain themselves. It is estimated that over 60% of rural hospital or no, no, I'm sorry, that's not the, that's not the exact statistic but it is estimated that hundreds of rural hospitals are going to close and the 60% one is that Medicaid expansion states. Rural hospitals in states that expanded Medicaid are 62% less likely to close than states that didn't expand Medicaid which are primarily located in the southeast. And that's also where uninsured rates are higher. This is really going to impact rural hospitals and if a rural hospital closes and it was already 45 minutes away from you, what the hell are you going to do?
Sam Cedar
We will also see I imagine some urban hospitals close but I mean that's.
Matt
The thing about these attack on universities and foreign students and the NIH funding or whatever is the blue dots in the red areas are also where a lot of hospitals are and those are going to be impoverished too by all these things.
Sam Cedar
The it could be up to 300 hospitals, rural hospitals but about 750 are like at risk. So you got Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Josh Hawley. They're concerned about the Medicaid Stuff. I'm going to bet Murkowski will vote against this bill also because there's a lot of federal workers up there. Now. We don't know what the bill is going to look like coming out of the Senate. So we'll see. Josh Hawley. It'll be interesting to see if this guy caves. Susan Collins F her.
Emma
Although she's up in 26, so that is interesting.
Sam Cedar
We'll see.
Emma
Yeah.
Sam Cedar
Mike Crapo wants to make the tax breaks permanent. Let's see who else? Oh, a lot of the Republicans in the Senate, they don't care about that salt deduction because essentially it is, it's big. It's a big tax giveaway to wealthy people on the coasts in blue states.
Emma
And if there's like not really many deep blue state Republican senators, I can't think of any off the top of my head because it's a statewide race.
Sam Cedar
They don't care.
Emma
Yeah.
Sam Cedar
Apparently Murkowski and John Curtis, Thom Tillis, who is also up for reelection, and Jerry Moran are concerned about getting rid of tax credits for wind, solar, geothermal. People were banking on this stuff and you had companies that invested with the idea that they're going to get a certain amount of revenue over the course of the next 10 years because of these tax breaks, are going to be encourage more and more people to adopt things like geothermal or, or solar, etc.
Matt
Have you ever looked at the top states for wind energy? It's states like Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas.
Sam Cedar
Oh, really? Kansas. Jerry Moran, you mean?
Matt
Yeah.
Sam Cedar
Now on the other side, there are some lunatics who want more cuts than we have seen. Ron Johnson, who will definitely cave, Roger Marshall from Kansas and Ted Cruz. I would also keep an eye on Joni Ernst. There was a new poll that came out where there was one Democrat who in a head to head poll put out by data Progress didn't. Ernst was still in the lead. But when they started to provide biographies like a hypothetical campaign almost, if you will, Ernst was down and that's going to change her perspective on things.
Emma
She was worried about the Elon Musk money earlier on in the year with all of those votes shifted a little bit since Wisconsin.
Sam Cedar
I also said Rand Paul from Kentucky, but Ron Johnson.
Emma
Right, but that. And now I recall as I'm speaking, it was over the Hegseth vote. Remember Joni Ernst, survivor of sexual assault?
Sam Cedar
Yep.
Emma
And there was a question as to whether or not she'd vote for Hegseth. But the Elon Musk money was looming large and now that dynamic has changed. Since it seems like his money's more of a negative, I think I've done enough.
Sam Cedar
So understand what the dynamic is here. They want to get this bill. They want to. They want to come up with the Senate bill by July. They need this process to be wound up and done by September because the closer it gets to early November, the bigger problem they're going to have. Because in November, we're going to see elections in Virginia. And just like Wisconsin put a scare into a lot of these Republicans, Virginia is going to put an existential fear into them because they're going to lose bad in Virginia. And then people like Collins and Ernst and Tillis, they all.
Emma
Murkowski, but also federal workers. A lot in Virginia and a lot in Alaska. Yes, that's the connection I'm drawing.
Matt
Yes.
Sam Cedar
Yeah, they're going to all start getting a little bit weak in the knees because they're up for reelection. I don't know if Murkowski is, but she's, I think, like more concerned about just, you know, down the road. She's got federal workers up there. And so this is gonna be, this is gonna be a big issue for them. They need to get this done and they probably will. This is gonna be a disastrous bill for the country. But, you know, and Democrats are just basically waiting and doing nothing with the hopes that it'll be disastrous for them politically. They may be right, but certainly they're not gonna be maximizing anything because they're just gonna let it all happen without really doing anything. Meanwhile, you got Trump out there trying to salvage the House by, you know, trying to convince people to run again. People like Mike Lawler don't run for governor.
Emma
He wants Stefanik to run, which is another, another instance of him setting her up to fail, which is hilarious.
Sam Cedar
Well, she already, I mean, like, she's just the odd person out. And so we got to get her out of here, just get her to do something in New York.
Emma
But there was internal reports that he thinks the UN Ambassador job is really crappy. That's why he stuck Mike Waltz on it now, too. And so now he's giving her another thankless sure fire loss job, or at least by like pushing her and not run from governor.
Sam Cedar
Maybe you'll win.
Emma
Yeah. And 26. Good luck.
Sam Cedar
TRUMP has also apparently gone out and endorsed a bunch of swing state Republicans to basically clear the field from any primaries. Now he can pull those. I changed my mind because Elon told me to, but we'll see. But that's basically where we are with the state of play of this reconciliation bill. It's a disastrous bill and it's only going to get more problematic for them as it goes forward. We'll see what happens. We're going to start over the next couple of weeks to see them work in earnest. They have five weeks essentially to do this in the Senate and then they go on recess, I think for several weeks over the summer. So we'll see. Now it's time for us to take a break and head into the fun half of the program.
Emma
Wow. Yes. Yes, it is.
Sam Cedar
I am picking up a tone in your voice saying like, oh, you thought we were going to go early and in fact, it's past one.
Emma
No, no. I was surprised that we didn't go longer. In fact, there you go.
Sam Cedar
I mean, I was determined. Like we're supposed to be doing 45 minutes in the front half of the show. Sort of like a mission creep.
Matt
Yeah, we haven't done that since Emma joined here. I think we basically weren't doing that once Trump became president the first time.
Sam Cedar
Well, it's okay. So it's gotten a little bit, it's gotten very interesting. Yep. Folks, it's your support that makes this show possible. You can become a member@jointhemajorityreport.com when you do, you not only get the free show free of commercials, but you get the fun half, which is like also had mission creep. That was supposed to be another 45 minutes. It's grown and grown. Join the MajorityReport.com it's your support that makes this show possible every day, day in, day out, except for Memorial Day, the one day we take off. Maybe there's one other day I think we take off, but that's about it. Also, just coffee.co op, fair trade coffee, use the coupon code. Majority get 10% off. Matt, left reckoning.
Matt
Yeah. Big show tonight on Left Reckoning. Not only do I have Representative Ro Khanna on talking about things like Gaza and the political economy relative to China and the Truman Committee and Doge, we also have I'm excited to have straightaway on who is a streamer who people might remember from the whatever podcast where two times she was on with Dave Rubin asking Dave why he won't debate Sam Cedar. So we're going to hear the, we're going to hear the story behind that tonight. So 7 o' clock Eastern Time, full show for y' all. Check us out patreon.com reckon also we're only 2000 under 2000 shy of a hundred thousand for Twitch. So if you're following us on Twitch. Or if you're not following us on Twitch but watching poggers give us a follow.
Sam Cedar
Hi train. Oh, we got some fun clips in the fun half. I forgot to play that clip. We'll have to play it. And when we get back. All right, folks, see you in the fun half. You are in for it. All right, folks. 6, 4, 6, 2 5, 7, 3, 9, 2 0. See you in the fun.
Caller
Are you ready?
Sam Cedar
Who sent us this?
Producer
Alpha males are back, back, back, back, back Boy is back and the alpha.
Sam Cedar
Males are back, back Just as delicious.
Producer
As you could imagine the alpha males are back, back, back, back, back Boy, back And the alpha males are back.
Caller
Back, back, back Just wanna degrade the.
Producer
White man Alpha males are back, back.
Sam Cedar
I take all of it to my.
Producer
Throne Alpha males are back, back, back, back Snowflake says what? The alpha males are.
Sam Cedar
You are a madman.
Producer
And the alpha males are back, back.
Sam Cedar
Oh, no. Sam Cedar. What a. Whoa, whoa. A nightmare. Nightmare. Yeah, or a couple of them. Just put them in rotation.
Caller
DJ D. Well, the problem with those.
Matt
Is they're like 45 seconds long, so I don't know if they're enough breaks.
Sam Cedar
That's nonsense.
Caller
See, white people doing drugs that look worse than normal white people. And all white people look disgusting.
Producer
And the alpha males psych them, them.
Sam Cedar
Oh. Snowflake says, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what? What?
Producer
A hell of a lot of bank. A hell of a lot of bank. A hell of a lot of bank.
Caller
Okay, I'm making stupid money.
Producer
Hell of hell of a hell of a lot of black.
Sam Cedar
All lives matter.
Matt
Have you tried doing an impression on a college campus?
Caller
I. I think that there's no reason why reasonable people across the divide can't all agree with this. Psych.
Producer
And the alpha males are back, back, back, back, back, back and the Africans are black, black, black, black, black, African. And the alpha males are black, black, black, black, black, black and the Africans are back, back, back, back when you.
Caller
See Donald Trump out there, doesn't a little part of you think that America deserves to be taken over by jihadists? Keeping it 100. Can't knock the hustle. Come on. Things I do for the bigger game plan. By the way, it's my birthday. My birthday. Happy birthday to me, Jew boy.
Sam Cedar
I have a thought experiment for you.
Producer
And the alpha males are back, back Africa are black, black Alpha males are black black Africans are back, back Come.
Caller
On, come on, come on. Someone needs to pay the price for blasphemy around here.
Sam Cedar
I. I am a total force. Pussy, pussy, pussy, pussy, pussy, pussy, pussy, pussy.
Podcast Summary: The Majority Report with Sam Seder
Episode 2505 - "House Passes Billionaire Enhancement Act"
Release Date: May 27, 2025
In Episode 2505 of The Majority Report with Sam Seder, host Sam Cedar delves deep into the recent legislative developments in the United States, focusing primarily on the House's passage of the Billionaire Enhancement Act. The episode examines the implications of this act, the political maneuvers surrounding it, and its broader impact on various sectors, including healthcare, education, and immigration. Additionally, Cedar discusses international issues, notably the escalating conflict between Israel and Gaza, and the challenges faced by unionization efforts within major corporations like Whole Foods.
Passage and Implications:
Tax Breaks and Economic Impact:
Cuts to Social Programs:
Federal Contracts and Harvard:
NPR's Legal Action:
Philadelphia Union Vote:
Challenges Faced:
Escalation of Conflict:
Humanitarian Aid Concerns:
Political Repercussions:
Tax Provisions:
Impact on Federal Employees:
Trump Accounts for Children:
Border Wall Funding:
Sam Cedar (37:32): "We know that it kicks anywhere from 8 to 12 million people off of Medicaid."
Emma (22:04): "We already know thousands have starved to death. You just need to see the images of the children..."
Cindy McCain (21:51): "These people are desperate and they see a World Food Program truck coming in and they run for it."
Sam Cedar (35:00): "The biggest distributions of tax benefits go to the wealthiest 20th percentile... a 3.3% tax break to the top 1%."
Emma (34:22): "People want to feel empowered and they looked for villains or they..."
Episode 2505 of The Majority Report with Sam Seder offers a comprehensive analysis of the House's passage of the Billionaire Enhancement Act and its far-reaching consequences. Sam Cedar and his panel critically examine how the legislation favors the wealthy while undermining essential social programs and healthcare infrastructure. The discussion extends to international issues, highlighting the severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the controversial actions of the Trump administration. The episode underscores the challenges faced by unionization efforts in major corporations amidst political adversities and provides insights into the potential long-term impacts of the reconciliation bill on various sectors of American society.
Note: This summary excludes advertisements, intros, outros, and non-content segments to focus solely on the substantive discussions of the episode.