
It's Monday and we are celebrating Emma's return from her honeymoon. On today's show we cover the devastation from flash flooding in central Texas. We continue to dig deeper in the SENR Bill. It will take a month to sort through this monstrous piece...
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Sam Seder
Hello ladies and gentlemen. Today's episode brought to you by my favorite sponsor sunsetlakeseba day.com and want to wish you a happy 4th of July. Belated but it's still relevant because you still have time to get in on the sunsetlakezeba day.com July 4th sale. Summer's here and if you want to decompress, enjoy some time with friends, lose yourself in a book for a few hours, give sunsetlake sabade.com a try. Our friends at Sunset Lake are running a site wide sale right now. 25% off a site wide. When you check out with the code July4, use the word July the number 4. No space in between folks. I indulged this weekend. Every now and then I'll have a pre roll after a nice dinner. Maybe I'll use it to chill out if the multiple kids I am juggling and the cat and the dog simultaneously are all getting on me. Maybe some of the animals poop inside the house.
Emma Vigeland
Oh lovely. That's stressful. But yeah, if you have Sunset Lake, there you go.
Sam Seder
And you can relax more easily knowing that Sunset Lakes have a Day.com is a movement partner. They have donated tens of thousands of dollars. Things like carceral reform, independent media outlets, strike funds, direct aid to folks living in poverty or Planned Parenthood, refugee resettlement. The list goes on and on. Don't let this summer pass you by. De stress and decompress. When you head to sunsetlakesabade.com use the coupon code July for the number of the word July, the number four to save 25% sitewide. This is the time to try all those different products. All third party tested, no pesticides. Sale ends tonight at midnight July 7th at midnight Eastern. See their site for additional terms and conditions. And in the meantime, now for the show the Majority Report with Sam Cedar. It is Monday, July 7, 2025. My name is Sam Seder. 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 in the wake of the Republican reconciliation package that passed last Thursday. A preview of the disaster that is to come. More than 80 dead, dozens missing in Texas floods, including dozens of children. Music Excuse me. Musk announces a new third party, the America party. Or is it American party? Whichever, the one was not the racist party from the 1950s. They've decided. Meanwhile, Tesla, Tesla socks, Pam Bondi reverses. Turns out there's no Epstein list, no suicide, nothing to see there oh, case closed. Maybe Netanyahu to meet Donald Trump in the White House today as talks have been going on about a Gaza Mediterranean beach resort by Tony Blair's outfit. Trump announces a new non den line extension extension to compliance with his new tariff structure. And he'll impose tariffs if they don't.
Emma Vigeland
Very well reason.
Sam Seder
Yep. Day 7 of Philadelphia Public workers strike. New York Times cites a race essentialist in its misfired hit piece on Zoran Mamdani and that supposed Social Security tax cut in the big reconciliation bill. Well, not really. Federal Judge OK's deportation of eight men to South Sudan. Only one of them has ever been there before. All this and more on today's Majority Report. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. It is Monday, but it's a special Monday. Guess who's back.
Emma Vigeland
I'm back. I'm back. Hello. Hello.
Sam Seder
Emma Viglin back. Whoa.
Emma Vigeland
Survived.
Sam Seder
Wow.
Emma Vigeland
Sounds like, yeah, it sounds like the subway or something. Foot traffic.
Sam Seder
All right.
Emma Vigeland
I'm back.
Sam Seder
Excited that you're back.
Emma Vigeland
I'm very happy to be back. You know, I couldn't believe that I.
Sam Seder
Didn'T miss any news.
Emma Vigeland
I know, I know. It's going to take me a second to get back into the swing of things here because there's just so much news that you miss. But thanks to everybody for the nice messages. It was fun to call in, fun to celebrate. I could, I got through customs. I was a little worried about that.
Sam Seder
Did you have a different phone?
Emma Vigeland
I didn't end up doing that. We talked about that before. But I did do some of the precautions, which I guess I'll tell people now or maybe I should have before. But some of the recommendations are turn off the face ID on your phone if you're going through customs and just turn your phone off because basically they can't unlock your phone with your pass code without a warrant. But, but they could put your phone up and the face ID could unlock it and they could see xyz, you know, pro Palestine tweet or image or something like that. So I was a little nervous. It was a total zoo though, there. It seems like not, not the most efficient process to ramp up all this immigration enforcement. But we had a great time. So.
Sam Seder
And we should also say today is a special day because Brian is flying solo today. And of course, the funny part is at the end of the show, we will announce to him that actually we had the day off today and this just been a hazing exercise that would actually relieve me.
Emma Vigeland
Yeah.
Sam Seder
So bear with us. Brian, first time flying the ship solo in Record time, though.
Emma Vigeland
I know you're up to speed.
Sam Seder
It's been three weeks he's been here. Yeah, I'm pretty good.
Emma Vigeland
Pretty insane flex on him.
Sam Seder
It's been a little bit or maybe.
Emma Vigeland
Wait a little early. My superstition is telling you, wait until the end of the show.
Sam Seder
Victory lap.
Emma Vigeland
Yeah.
Sam Seder
Emma predicts success.
Emma Vigeland
No. Dang it. So I've given you the failure.
Sam Seder
All right, let's get in on what's taken place in Texas. Just an absolute horrific calamity. Dozens of children at a camp, at multiple camps along this Guadalupe river, which apparently is one of the most dangerous rivers for flash flooding in the country. In Texas. The speed in which this thing goes from like almost a dry riverbed to a small lake is just astonishing here. Well, let's just give you a sense of. Of. This is a time lapse video. It starts at 5, 10, I guess, am on July 7th. And it goes so quickly.
Emma Vigeland
No, it's the 4th.
Sam Seder
On the 4th.
Emma Vigeland
They did the reverse.
Sam Seder
The.
Emma Vigeland
Yeah.
Sam Seder
And you can see, like within minutes, the thing just gets huge.
Emma Vigeland
I was reading also that it was particularly acute because there had been such little rain.
Sam Seder
That doesn't perk.
Emma Vigeland
It's so flat, it almost just like glides across.
Sam Seder
Well, the drier it is when the soil is that dry, it just does not absorb the water as easily. And so it just, like you say, just slides right off it. And just rather than actually sinking into the ground on some level, I mean, people can go, you know, just with your house plants, if you allow them to go that long, you can see the difference. Horrific tragedy. But the bottom line is we used to have. I think it was a longtime listener of this program studied catastrophes, and he said there was no. There's nothing. There's no natural catastrophes. Nature happens. The catastrophes happen when we as a society are incapable or have done things that make us more vulnerable to these things than we should be. And, you know, over time you learn, we don't build on marshes. We. We don't build on floodplains. But we also measure. We know how great a flood it's going to be. And we build commensurate to that. You don't build buildings in an earthquake zone unless you have built them in a way to sustain earthquakes. And there are other places where, you know, you don't. You. There are buildings that you can build in parts of the country that don't get hit by tornadoes or hurricanes on a regular basis that you can't build in other areas. And what we're dealing with now is a multi pronged catastrophe. One being that things like this are going to happen more and more and more because of climate change. Can we say there's a one to one relationship between this and climate change? Probably not, but we could probably say that there's a one to seven eights relationship because the odds of these one in a thousand, one in 100 year weather events begin to happen more and more and more and don't become one in 100 years or one in a thousand years, they end up becoming one in 50 years, one in 25 years, one in 15 years, et cetera, et cetera.
Emma Vigeland
We heard this about the Los Angeles fires. Oh gosh, this is once in a century and that's clearly not the case. Yeah, it's flooding here, but of course we're going to have increased intensity of wildfires and more flooding and hurricane season hasn't even hit.
Sam Seder
And the other aspect of that is the level of preparedness that we have for these things. And to be clear, you know, I've talked about this dynamic. 80% of healthcare costs are borne out by 20% of the people. There's also a dynamic where if you're going to protect 80 people from dying in Texas, you're not going to be able to pick and choose where around the country those 80 people might be vulnerable. Oh, it's Texas, it's on this river. Oh, it's, it's in Kansas on this tornado alley. It's going to be inefficient to protect people because you're going to be paying essentially like insurance. You're going to be paying to avoid the worst case scenario. And it very well may not happen in that one area in which you're paying for it. And the only way that you know is if you're paying for all the areas. Here are the local officials speaking about why campsites were not evacuated. Now again, this happened very quick, but listen to this so we can, we can recover those. Yes, of this morning. Mr. Rice, Mr. Rice, one more, one more question. Yeah.
Reporter
One of the questions that still hasn't been answered three days into this is despite TDM's warning on July 2 and July 3 that something like this could have happened, that the threat existed, why that information didn't get down to the camps and why they weren't evacuated. Can you answer that?
Sam Seder
Now that is a great question. But again, we want to make sure that we continue to focus. We saw the 11 missing children that we want to get reunited with our families until we can get, until we can get reunited with our fam, with the families.
Reporter
But was that a breakdown of communication?
Sam Seder
We are not going to stop until we do. But sir, there are a lot of.
Emma Vigeland
Families who question, sir, was any emergency alert given out on the 4th that.
Local Official
Morning of did anyone, sir, there are.
Reporter
Families who deserve better than that.
Emma Vigeland
Gosh, that reminds me so much of the UVALDI fallout and the complete down in Texas passing off of responsibility from official to official until basically the families had to be satiated with the horrible.
Sam Seder
Response that they got at other points those same officials were talking about. There was a failure to hear from the National Weather Service to predict this. This is a clip. We played this clip a month or I guess a month and a half ago when it first happened. This is South Florida weatherman. This is in early June. And he is basically warning his audience that he's not going to be able to do his job in the way that they have come to expect him to do it because he relied on the National Weather Service in a way that he realized he could not rely on anymore.
Reporter
Right. When is it going to turn, John? It's not turning. It's coming straight to us. It's going to turn.
Sam Seder
All right.
Reporter
The turn was never forecast to be on Sunday. The turn isn't even on Monday morning. The turn will come Monday afternoon, Monday evening into Tuesday. Remember that? That was about six years ago. That was Hurricane Dorian as it was absolutely devastating the northwest Bahamas as a Category 5 sat over that region for two days. It was headed straight west. Lots of people in Florida were concerned the hurricane was heading here. And as you've grown accustomed to my presentations over my 34 years in South Florida newscasts confidently I went on TV and I told you it's going to turn. You don't need to worry. It is going to turn. And I am here to tell you that I am not sure I can do that this year because of the cuts, the gutting, the sledgehammer attack on science in general. And I could talk about that for a long, long time and how that is affecting the U.S. leadership in science over many years and how we're losing that leadership. And this is a multi generational impact on science in this country. All right. But specifically, let's talk about the federal government cuts to the National Weather Service and to noaa. Did you know that Central and South Florida National Weather Service offices are currently basically 20 to 40% understaffed from Tampa to Key west, including the Miami office, 20 to 40% understaffed. Now, this type of staffing shortage is having impacts across the nation because there's been a nearly 20% reduction in weather balloon releases, launches that carry those radio stations.
Sam Seder
We don't need to see the whole thing, but you get the point.
Reporter
The quality of the forecasts is because.
Sam Seder
The point here, of course, is, is that it makes a difference what happens with the National Weather Service to local predictions of what's going to happen. Here is a clip. This is in the. This is the one I put in the. Yeah. Here's a clip that outlines the cuts to the local area National Weather Service offices in Texas.
Meteorologist
The head of local weather warnings will take an early retirement as cuts happen to the national oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, better known as noaa. The last day for the warning coordination, meteorologist Paul Urrah is April 30th. He coordinates the warning function of his office and is in charge of the skywarn program, spotter training and sharing information with the community. Yuro's retirement is part of an early retirement package offered to National Weather Service employees. He's worked with the service for 32 years and spent more than half that time at the office in Austin, San Antonio. Let's bring in our chief meteorologist, Nick Bananelle. And Nick, help us understand what this means for you and many people out there in the community.
Local Official
Yeah.
Weather Expert
More than any other meteorologist at our local National Weather Service Austin San Antonio office, we work with Paul more than anybody else. He is a great segue between the studies and the forecasting that the National Weather Service does as well as the warnings and watches that they put out. And he is a great connector to the media so that we can follow along with their thinking. We can help pass along those important warnings to you at home. And as he leads the warning section of the National Weather Service, he, of course, is plays a big role in determining issuance of watches and especially warnings in the local area. Even though the Storm Prediction center do the watches, they do coordinate with local National Weather Service on the watches eventually. And then the warnings are distributed by our local National Weather Service office office. But more importantly than his job description is his experience. He's been working with the national weather service for 32 years, as you mentioned, and more than half of that time in our local office.
Sam Seder
And. All right. And his position, can we say with 100% certainty that if these cuts, these slashing that had not happened on the national level by Doge and by the Trump administration. Project 2025 Project 2025 lays it out like rust.
Emma Vigeland
Vote still there. There's a lot of, I think the press is focusing on Doge a lot, which they should, but Elon Musk is out of the administration now. Russ Vote and Project 2025, they're executing this currently.
Sam Seder
They are currently doing this. And I think we may have even like a tweet in the. I think it's page 674 off the top of my head, if I recall correctly, where Project 2025 talks about these cuts. Because these agencies promote the idea that climate change is real and that we can do something about climate change. Now. At the very least, at the very least, what agencies like this do in terms of climate change is acknowledge its existence and say we have to change the way that we live. Ultimately, the problem is that when climate change becomes more and more extreme, the options available to us in how we are to live become narrower and narrower. You can't live in Miami because it's underwater.
Emma Vigeland
Yep.
Sam Seder
You can't rely on certain foods because there's not enough farmland that is, you know, capable of providing this food. You can't live in this area because of the storms. New York Times reported more on those cuts. According to the New York Times, the San Angelo Angelo office of the National Weather Service was lacking a senior hydrologist, staff forecaster and a top meteorologist. The nearby San Antonio office also had vacancies for a warning coordination. Meteorologist and Science offer roles that are designed to work with local officials to plan for floods. Times reports that the warning coordination meteorologists left after taking early retirement offer that the Trump administration had used across the agencies to try and shed staff. We just saw that news report. Times also reports that while some open rolls may predate the current administration, the current vacancy rates at both the San Antonio and San Angelino Angelo National Weather Service offices are roughly double what they were in January.
Emma Vigeland
I mean, that would make sense, right? Like there was the numbers are 24,000 employees at NOAA that were fired, reinstated, then refired. And that's, you know, that's just that one agency.
Sam Seder
And the bottom line is this. The Republicans have never cared about climate change. They have deployed all sorts of different things to argue that it doesn't exist, then to argue that it's not man made, then to argue that technology is going to take care of it. At the end of the day, it is because they do not believe it is the role of government to protect its citizens. That's it. They don't believe that it's inefficient because yes, of course it's inefficient. We don't know where the next flash flood is, which is why you need forecasters and warning systems in areas where you may never use them. We haven't used this warning system in 50 years. What's the point of it? I mean this is, this is fundamentally the ideology that they have and you could see it across the board. That is how they can go and kick millions of people off of Medicaid. They're going to, there's going to be $500 million worth of, excuse me, $500 billion worth of cuts to Medicare over the course of the next 10 years. This is how they can kick millions of people off of food assistance. It's because they fundamentally do not believe that it is the role of government to protect its citizenry, period. End of story. They just don't believe that's the function of government. What they think the function of government is is to have a massive military that puts money into their benefactors pockets and to have any other government expenditure that puts money into their government into their benefactors pockets. That's it. There's no other explanation. While every single Republican minus two Massie who has a libertarian ideology about he thinks it should be even less. The government should take care of people. And Fitzpatrick who's in a purple district in Pennsylvania and if his vote was needed, I guarantee you he would have voted for it. This is, this is the dynamic. There is no question about this. They're going to hopes and prayers. Sorry about your kids. Was the same thing with COVID same thing with Medicare, same thing with Medicaid, same thing with snap, same thing with college loans. It just goes on and on and on. That's it.
Emma Vigeland
Trump said they're going to get rid of FEMA by the end of the year.
Sam Seder
States can take care of it. They don't have the ability to tax. They don't have the ability to deficit spend. That's it. All right, we'll, we'll go through more aspects of that bill in just a second. Couple of words from our sponsors. Today it is extremely hot in New York City again.
Emma Vigeland
Yep.
Sam Seder
I do not sleep comfortably in the heat. However, one thing that has made it much easier for me is my cozy earth sheets. For a long time I was using just normal cotton sheets and amateur hour. Well, I like the feel of them. But the problem is that when it's hot out and I don't know if it's because of my mattress or what, but the heat gets absorbed and then all of a sudden it's like I actually remember, I think a key moment for me was when I had the air conditioning on. It was a couple years ago and I realized I'm still sweating.
Emma Vigeland
Right? Well, you're not alone. I mean, it seems like other people have this problem too.
Sam Seder
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Emma Vigeland
I did just get back from Europe. Yeah, it's in every hotel room. Yep, every. And even in some public restrooms. And you go this is why this is just a better place to live.
Sam Seder
It is. How has this country not advanced and caught up with the rest of the world? I want to thank Tushy for sponsoring this episode and for changing the way I approach going to the bathroom. And the thing I love about Tushy and I've gone through a couple of different versions now because I keep trying their different ones. I've had the Tushy one, then the three and the Wave. Now I love them all and they also now have. They have like. And the ones I've used have been no electricity because I don't have any electricity near my toilet. But they now have a wide range of hello Tushies. There's a bidet for every biohacking personality type. They have the Cloud pause which automatically deodorizes the air when you sit down. I think my family might appreciate that. And Aura which automatically opens the seat when you enter the bathroom. Installation is simple. It takes about 10 minutes to complete. Literally anyone can do it. Every hello Tushy bidet comes with a 30 day hassle free return and a 12 month warranty. Aura is Tushy's brand new electric bidet with an auto open lid and seat, instant warm water that never runs cold and UV sterilization for next level hygiene. Ora by Tushy easily attaches to your existing toilet without the need for additional plumbing. It's also easy to use. You sit, cleanse yourself and you dry using the built in dryer. Oh my God. I may have to do an upgrade here.
Emma Vigeland
Another upgrade.
Sam Seder
I just, I just got to figure out how to do the electrical part. That's right. Cleaning yourself after using the bathroom is now hands free. People who have made the switch to Tushy use it to 80% less TP. No more clogged toilets. No more wasting money on something that does an inferior cleaning job. Job cleaning your body. Elevate your comfort every day for life. For a limited time, our listeners get 10 off their first bidet order when they use the code TMR at checkout. That's 10% off your first bidet order at hellotushy.com promo code TMR. Again, that's 10 off your first bidet order at Hellotushy.com promo code tmr. If you got multiple toilets, I would, I would get both. Get that discount. All right, let's get into the this big bad bill that passed on Friday. Some of the most interesting features of it is that they have really backloaded the cuts to Medicaid. In some instances you're not going to see those until the end of 26, after the midterm election, some in the beginning of 27 and into 28. But it's going to be pretty devastating. The Medicare cuts are going to come quicker because that is part of sequestration. If you run a deficit, there are Rules that were set up in 2010, at 2011 called PayGo, where there's an automatic across the board cut and Medicare looks to be losing 50 million a year. It's unclear how they're going to get around this. And theoretically Republicans could say, all right, we're going to override the Paygo rules. I don't think they're going to do that. What you will see sooner is that if you're on the exchanges and you're on the low income part of the ACA exchanges, you're going to get hit with much higher rates because subsidies are going to get crushed. Let's get into some of the specifics. One of the things that people were talking about is people on Social Security got an interesting letter the other day.
Emma Vigeland
Yeah.
Sam Seder
An email we heard from maybe half a dozen to a dozen of our listeners sent me this, but I also saw it from other folks. Social Security sent out an email. Social Security applauds passage of legislation providing historic tax relief for seniors. Social Security administrator celebrating the passage of the one big beautiful bill. First of all, I don't know if this violates the Hatch Act. It sure feels like it. Yeah, but it's not even the one big beautiful bill.
Emma Vigeland
Yeah, they messed it up.
Sam Seder
Chuck Schumer had the name, that was his big accomplishment.
Emma Vigeland
But also like they're messing up the acronym because this was supposed to be, you know, making a joke out of Build Back Better.
Sam Seder
Yeah. A landmark piece of legislation that delivers long awaited tax relief to millions of older Americans. The bill ensures that nearly 90% of Social Security benefits beneficiaries will no longer pay federal income taxes on their benefits, providing meaningful and immediate relief to seniors who have spent a lifetime contributing to our nation's economy. Just scroll up for me, Brian, so I can read it a little more. Okay, that's it. Now here's the thing. It's lying or I should say it's misleading because the number of people who pay of Social Security beneficiaries who pay taxes, they're not getting it. They're not getting relief. Because first of all, the relief has nothing to do whether you're on Social Security, has to do with your age. Now, just so happens that everybody over the age of 65 gets Social Security or the vast majority older single filers are going to get a $6,000 deduction, 12,000 for couples as long as their income falls under a certain ceiling below 75,000 or below 150 for joint filers. But half of the people on Social Security receive income that is Too low to be taxed anyway. So lower income people are not going to be helped. The new tax break is expected to benefit middle and upper class households. Recipients who receive less than $63,000 in over the age of 65 owe an average of 1% of their Social Security benefits and taxes. So the bottom line is, is that this is going to help some people, not that many. And the story of there being no taxes on Social Security is a complete lie. That's just not the case. It's a tax break for middle and upper middle class taxpayers. That's it. Who are over the age of 65. If you had to retire at age 62 or age 64, you're not eligible. And so it's not quite the benefit that people say less than half of adults over the age of 65 who earn between 50 and 200,000 will get some benefit from the new deduction. So you still be paying taxes. You will get a tax break. 64% of beneficiaries did not own owe taxes on their Social Security benefit. It will add about 24% of people onto that up to 88%. So that's where they get that number. They're helping one quarter of seniors on Social Security pay a little bit less in taxes, which is not nothing, but it's not what they talk. Now let's go to the other aspect of the bill. This is on tips and overtime. Again, there's no tax on tips up to the first $25,000. Now most people who make tips and make virtually nothing in guaranteed wages.
Emma Vigeland
Yep.
Sam Seder
The minimum wage I think for if you're a server, you know, waiter in some way is I think like a couple of bucks.
Emma Vigeland
Yeah. I got to look for, for tipped workers. Hard to do, right on the fly. But it's very low. It's very low. They make a majority of their income with tips.
Sam Seder
Vast majority. Is there a federal minimum for.
Emma Vigeland
I'm not sure in New York. It's also incredibly low.
Sam Seder
Looking that up right now. But the bottom line is you get $2.13 per hour. I thought it was 235. That is the tipped minimum wage. So only the first $25,000. And I got news for you. You know, if you live In a city, $25,000 a year is not very much to live on. Tip workers will still face the 7 and a half, 7.65 combined payroll taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare. So it's basically Only the first $25,000 is free from income taxes. Let's play this clip it also incidentally now if you're in the 12% tax break it bracket and you that first $25,000 could provide for you close to three grand in tax savings. And to be fair that's a significant amount of money. 250 bucks a month. But it's not anywhere near what they have praised. And also to be clear, unlike the corporate tax and income tax cuts, these sunset in four or five years. Here is Mike Lawler talking about how that's just sort of the most natural thing ever.
Mike Lawler
Obviously the party came together today to pass one of the largest tax relief bills in American history. Increase domestic production of energy, secure our border, strengthen our military and start to rein in the size and scope of the federal government.
Sam Seder
Pause it for a second. I just want to remind you that.
Mike Lawler
We'Re projecting to spend 86 trillion in the next decade. This, this bill starts, ICE.
Sam Seder
Has a budget that's like 10 times larger than the FBI. It's the largest budgeted, I guess, you know, police force bounty hunter squad that we have in the country. It has a budget larger than some European nations military. And yet in the same breath he talks about shrinking the size of government. We added $100 billion annually. We now spend like a trillion dollars on defense, maybe more actually on defense. Hundreds of billions on ice and he's talking about shrinking government. Go ahead.
Mike Lawler
Trillion in debt. We're projected to spend 86 trillion over the next decade. This bill starts to make significant savings across the entirety of the federal government so that we can actually reduce spending and bring down the cost of living for Americans. This is a big win for Americans across the country. You look at the tax provisions, the doubling of the standard deduction, the enhanced enhanced child tax credit, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime.
Sam Seder
You see those will expire in 2028. Correct. Those provisions specifically within the tax code.
Mike Lawler
But that's normal. The tax code has always had expiration dates on many provisions. We come back and keep working towards it.
Sam Seder
That's normal objective here. That's normal.
Mike Lawler
Immediate.
Sam Seder
That's normal.
Emma Vigeland
Is it normal? Because wasn't, weren't they framing. And again I've been out for two weeks so I'm a little rusty. Weren't they framing the expiration of the Trump tax cut cuts as like a major tax increase on everyday people when they were trying to justify this ugly ass bill?
Sam Seder
They said it was normal to use that actually as a baseline. Which is why the deficit numbers came even remotely close to what they said they were because they're pretending like the tax cuts weren't supposed to expire.
Emma Vigeland
That's interesting.
Sam Seder
It's. I don't know who Mike Lawler thinks he's kidding, but I hope he enjoys his last 18 months in office.
Emma Vigeland
Well, yeah, no, it's why I brought up New York State and I guess gotta correct myself here because in 2024, I think there was that increase in tipped minimum wage to higher by many times over the rest of the country. But that was a part of what AOC was running on too. It's interesting because, yeah, New York State's economy not doing better than some other states that have that very low minimum wage. Same thing that happened in Seattle we were told that was going to bankrupt the city when they raised the minimum wage. Didn't happen.
Sam Seder
Oh, it's up to like 10 bucks an hour.
Emma Vigeland
Right.
Sam Seder
And 9 bucks an hour. And in New York city can be 12 or 10 bucks an hour somewhere around there for New York City.
Emma Vigeland
There you go.
Sam Seder
Here is a compilation of Republicans trashing this bill before voting for it. I know this is just like sort of run of the mill hypocrisy and cowardice, et cetera, and that we see this, we could run a similar compilation of people talking about what a fascist Donald Trump was and how they basically bent the knee to him. But here are the Republicans who are doing this. It includes some of the 18 or 20 who are going to be most targeted in the House for seat flipping. But let's just watch. This comes from msnbc. What the Senate did is unconscionable. What they did to our bill was unconscionable. I'll vote against it here and I'll vote against it on the floor. You're going to hear a lot about the tax cuts, but the deficit. Nobody's talking about the deficit. Nobody. I got it. The tax cuts are important. We are going to get the tax cuts done in some fashion, but we cannot settle our children, children and our grandchildren with an exploding national debt.
Emma Vigeland
Do I like this bill? No. Because I tried to take care of Alaska's interests. But I know, I know that in many parts of the country there are Americans that are not going to be advantaged by this bill.
Sam Seder
Incidentally, all three of them voted for it.
Emma Vigeland
Yeah, she voted for it because she got basically bought off by Donald Trump with like. It was the Alaska. David wrote about this, right? It was the. I guess Alaska has the number one amount of improper payments for things like snap.
Sam Seder
Yes.
Emma Vigeland
And he and the bill made it funding kind of contingent upon that as a way to get Murkowski to agree to the bill.
Sam Seder
What happened with the, with the, with the, the snap cuts was their improper payments as a way of doing a payoff to Alaska. Improper payments became a mechanism or justification for a waiver to snap cuts for two years. And to justify to the parliamentarian how they were giving this waiver, they couldn't just give it to Alaska. They did it to the top 10 states with improper payments. Or I should say, yeah, improper payments, which can include checks written to people who aren't there. Or a lot of this stuff gets clawed back. But it's basically an error rate. And what it does is it incentivizes states to have a high error rate because it, it will continually keep them from getting snap cuts from the federal government. And so it's a complete, I don't know, white elephant boondoggle, essentially.
Emma Vigeland
I mean, and Murkowski, honestly, the other Republican senator should have done what she did or pretend to hold out before selling out the rest of the American people because she got some, some, some goodies or at least some giveaways with, for, for her vote. She was bought off. That's how Trump's whole tariff policy is too, where he wants to create this, like, level of austerity and cuts so that individuals, whether it's, or the tariff policy, is about trade policy, obviously. But for people to come to him and then get corrupt carve outs, that's the entire way that he's operating here with Hawley, it was the same thing. And then I just saw this morning that Heat Map reported Ralph Norman, who was in that compilation, was brought onto the bill because Trump basically promised him that he wasn't going to just phase out the Inflation Reduction act, solar and wind subsidies. He was just going to end them immediately. So that's what he got in exchange for his vote. And I'm sure the more digging that's going to happen over the next few days, we'll uncover that all this was a mob boss thing by Trump.
Sam Seder
Yeah. And the reason why you have someone like Murkowski who's able to do that, it's because her vote was not as contingent upon her relationship with Trump as others.
Emma Vigeland
Yeah.
Sam Seder
So she has a little more latitude to pretend like she's gonna vote against it essentially for negotiation. Here is Tim Burkitt, give you a sense of what he got.
Emma Vigeland
Wasn't he one of the guys that was so enamored by the signed hats? Did he get, did he get.
Sam Seder
Okay, this is Tim Burton. This is Tim Burkett leaving the White House after his big negotiation, where Tim Burkett essentially bragging about. Here it is.
Emma Vigeland
This is embarrassing.
Sam Seder
Hey, everybody.
Local Official
Tim Burton just leaving the White House. Everybody say hey. Byron Donald's next governor of Florida.
Sam Seder
It's great to be here.
Local Official
Scott Perry, my number one man. General. I got Norman over here. Got us all, baby. President was wonderful as always. Informative, funny, sexy. Told me he liked seeing me on tv, which is kind of cool. Hey, Commissioner. Look at there, Commissioner, wearing purple.
Sam Seder
Purple.
Local Official
That's a color of royalty.
Sam Seder
Are we getting it done?
Local Official
Yes, ma'.
Emma Vigeland
Am.
Sam Seder
Good to see y'. All.
Local Official
I'm a happily married man. She clipped me, man. She clipped me.
Sam Seder
Did y' all see that? Anyway, I'm good.
Local Official
Big day today, folks. Hopefully we get this thing worked out all right.
Sam Seder
I'm gonna fast forward to the.
Emma Vigeland
The very end.
Sam Seder
Yeah, we'll see what the payoff. What did he get from Trump?
Local Official
And thank you all so much for sending me. Yeah, he signed a bunch of stuff.
Sam Seder
It's awesome. Cool.
Local Official
Anyway, thank you all for sending me.
Sam Seder
Oh, I got a bunch of souvenirs.
Emma Vigeland
Thank y' all for sending me here so I could have this experience. That's all that matters.
Sam Seder
Let me see what I got to do to get these signed souvenirs. Let's play number 11, where Tim Burkett, just a couple of days later, like, some of the deep, deep information he got in these negotiations which allowed him to vote for this bill. Here's one of them right now.
Local Official
Well, that's one thing that the CBO and any of the bean counters never really take into consideration is the incredible economic outlook for our country. I mean, can you imagine energy if we remove a lot of bureaucracy? Our Nuclear facilities take 8 to 10, maybe 15 years to get. To get online. You've got a new man at the EPA that's turning them over pretty quick, and. And we're going to end. People are talking about coal again, which I think is great. God, put it in the ground. Let's use it. Everybody across the world using it, and they're passing us by. And the President wants to get out of bed with stuff that doesn't matter, like. Like solar and wind. You know, we haven't had a major discovery in Solar in over 20 years. And wind is. Is very subjective, and it's very expensive. And there's a reason, as President Trump told me, I believe it was Thursday, that, you know, there's no. There's no windmills in China, but 99% of them that are sold are made in China. So I think There's a lot of things in there that are going to happen, and it's going to be great for this country.
Sam Seder
You're known as. Yeah, about those windmills in China. Almost, almost 200,000 windmills deployed in China.
Emma Vigeland
What does he. There's been no significant advancements.
Sam Seder
What.
Emma Vigeland
What is the reason behind that?
Sam Seder
Well, first off, I don't even think that's true.
Emma Vigeland
Right. It's not true. But they're basically what the underlying claim he's making there is that it's not necessarily very profitable, because when you install solar panels or when you install. Install windmills, it's not like oil where you have to get another gallon or another, you know, gallon of gas at the, at the gas station.
Sam Seder
The cost of solar panels has gone down dramatically over 20 years. I mean, that is the, the technology and the battery technology has also changed dramatically into. I mean, first of all, he's lying. Yeah, he's lying and he's an idiot because he obviously doesn't even bother Googling what. I mean, look at China's, what we have in terms of wind capacity. In 2022, they. In 2022, their growth in wind capacity grew by double what ours did. Now, even at that time, our wind percentage of total was. Was 10%, a little more than China's. But they're growing at a rate I would imagine by now they have surpassed us.
Emma Vigeland
I mean, we've essentially ceded this whole technology over to them, despite. I don't know, when I was growing up, we were talking about solar and wind and the creation of that technology here in the United States.
Sam Seder
Here's an interesting thing about what God has been doing, too. Oh, God's not only been putting coal in the ground, but here's the amazing thing. Wind and sun are not even buried. We don't have to even dig to get them. They exist. That's the devil. Right.
Emma Vigeland
But that's what I was about to say is the devil's technology. You don't know where the wind's gonna blow.
Sam Seder
And I guess that's true.
Emma Vigeland
Well, when it comes to the National.
Sam Seder
Weather Service, that's true. I mean, God also put arsenic in peach pits, so maybe he should be eating more arsenic. That was for Eve. Oh, right. Exactly. I mean, of course it's stupid. And to be clear, the reason why we haven't built nuclear power in this country has been a function of the desire for people to invest in it. We could have a program where we actually build publicly funded nuclear power plants. But when he says nuclear power, what he's really saying is we're giving subsidies to oil. Yep, that's what he's talking about. All right, we're going to take a break, head into the fun half. We will have more as people start to dig more out of this bill in the coming days, but it's a real disaster. Over the next couple days we'll talk about the part from my perspective which is the most problematic and that is the expansion of ice. The Medicaid stuff theoretically can be rolled back. The snap things theoretically can be rolled back. The pullback on the subsidies in the Affordable Care act can be rolled back. Frankly, there's a solution for all that. The $500 million cuts to Medicare and it's called single payer health care. I think it's, you know, more and more likely in the event that, you know, we have future elections and they're not canceled because of a state of emergency or whatever it is in the event that Democrats take hold of power again. It's quite clear that if we head on this trajectory, there's going to be an increasing call for massive change in the way that the country does business. But the ICE thing, I look at all the things that were created in the wake of 9 11.
Emma Vigeland
Including ice.
Sam Seder
Including ice. Those expansions are really, really dangerous. And it is unclear to me what's. Where are you going to get 10,000 more washouts from the police department? It's going to come from, you know.
Emma Vigeland
It could be like pardon January six.
Sam Seder
Oath keepers. Yeah, January sixers. It's still not 10,000 people and there's no apparatus to hire those. There's going to be all sorts of graph. There's going to be, they're going to be throwing money at building detention centers and it's basically just like a brown shirt expansion program that I think is going to be really, really disturbing. And of course, you know, stuff like the enormous brain drain that we're going to have in this country, the capital flight, there's going to be a problem. The capital flight is not going to be because of taxes. It's going to be in terms of investing within this country. I mean, just sort of like it's so backward ass right now, this destruction.
Emma Vigeland
Too of these, these subsidies from the inflation Reduction Act. Why would anybody invest in this country if they were using like this for these subsidies and the promise of this for new construction.
Sam Seder
And to be clear, let's also remember the, the IRA was giving subsidies to forward looking technologies.
Emma Vigeland
Yes.
Sam Seder
So the subsidies get pulled back. They realize this country is, you know, you could get, you know, you get AOC as president for four years and they're still, you'd be an idiot not to think, like, how do we know we don't get Trump Jr. The next year? Like, anybody who's building these technologies that are forward looking, that involve a 5, 10, 15 year, 20 year horizon.
Emma Vigeland
Right.
Sam Seder
For profitability, for wide, you know, adoption, they're going to look at this country and go, it's just too high of a risk.
Emma Vigeland
Same thing with the, the tariff policy.
Sam Seder
Yep.
Emma Vigeland
Like, we're also going to see because of immigration and like cities like Las Vegas. I don't know what their, the projections are going to be for their tourism this year or how much revenue that they take in because there's, there's like, I'm hearing anecdotes already of tourism being down in New York City. Why would you come to this country if you think that? Like, because you tweeted out free Palestine one time, you could get detained at the border and sent to a concentration camp.
Sam Seder
I got a text from a friend, thought you might be interested in this story. Her son has a friend of a friend that was denied an entry visa to the US from Norway after she allowed her social media to be searched. She had reposted anti Trump and pro Palestine tiktoks.
Emma Vigeland
That's not shocking. Not shocking at all. This is the Free Speech Administration, right.
Sam Seder
Oh, the good news is the tax on silencers was abolished.
Emma Vigeland
That's amazing.
Sam Seder
So also, huge tax break for those of you who buy a lot of gun silencer.
Emma Vigeland
As a hobby. Why else would you do that?
Sam Seder
Assassin lobby.
Emma Vigeland
Yeah.
Sam Seder
Yes.
Emma Vigeland
Oh, cool.
Sam Seder
All right, we're gonna head into the fun half. Just a reminder, it's your support that makes the show possible. You can become a member by going to jointhemajorityreport.com when you do, you not only get the fun half, you also get the free half. Free of commercials. Like I say, you can IMs in the fun half. Occasionally we also have other benefits. I don't know what they are. Oh, right. Now you know what we're doing? We're cataloging the deep, deep archives. The deep archives from Air America Radio.
Emma Vigeland
Wow.
Sam Seder
Yep. I think we're probably the only show from that, that, that network that probably has these things archived because the morons who ran the company decided, oh, we should sell the server for 600 bucks. Probably cost more to wipe it clean. Also just coffee, co op, fair trade coffee, hot chocolate. Use the coupon code, majority get 10% off. Don't forget we got Merch got some new hats. I should have taken them out of the box, but. Yep, Powder blue trucker hat. Left reckoning. Who's Matt doing left reckoning this week? Do we know? I have no idea. We'll get an update on that.
Emma Vigeland
That's on vacation, David Griscom.
Sam Seder
That's doing it regardless. Yeah.
Emma Vigeland
Yeah. So check out left reckoning.
Sam Seder
You just killed a lot of suspension. About Matt's absence. What do you mean by saying he was on vacation? Oh, I was enjoying letting that hang. Oh, that. He was suspended. No, no, there was tension about where Matt is. Oh, he wasn't suspended. He was suspended.
Emma Vigeland
Oh, he was.
Sam Seder
He was suspended.
Emma Vigeland
Oh, sorry. What was that for? What did he mess up? When?
Sam Seder
Well, he tweeted something rude to one of the Weinstein brothers three or four years ago, and I have been very, very behind my disciplinary actions of our employees. And, you know, usually it's easy for me to do the reduction in the commissary privileges, but then I. I gave him a suspension with pay.
Emma Vigeland
That's very nice of you.
Sam Seder
Learn his lesson. I meant suspense. Kind of suspense. Exactly. In the chat. Oh, it was suspenseful. Well, he's been suspended.
Emma Vigeland
Yeah. There you go. There's your answer.
Sam Seder
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. Matt. Boo. Fun hack. What is up, everyone? Fun hack. Nomi, Key. You did it. Fun hack.
Emma Vigeland
Let's go, Brandon.
Sam Seder
Let's go, Brandon. Fun hack. Bradley, you want to say hello? Sorry to disappoint everyone. I'm just a random guy. It's all the boys today.
Emma Vigeland
Fundamentally false. No. I'm sorry.
Sam Seder
Women. Stop talking for a second. Let me finish.
Emma Vigeland
Where is this coming from, dude?
Sam Seder
But. Dude, you want to smoke this? 7A.
Emma Vigeland
Yes.
Local Official
Hi me this week.
Sam Seder
Yes. Is this me? Is it me? It is you. If it's me. Hello, it's me. I think it is you who is, you know, sound every single freaking day. What's on your mind?
Reporter
We can discuss free markets and we can discuss capitalism.
Sam Seder
I'm gonna go Snow white. Libertarians. They're so stupid. Though common sense says. Of course.
Emma Vigeland
Gobbledygook.
Sam Seder
We bailed him.
Emma Vigeland
So what's 79 plus 21?
Sam Seder
Challenge.
Local Official
Matt, I'm positively quivering.
Sam Seder
I believe 96. I want to say. 8, 5, 7, 2, 1 0, 85 0, 11 half. 3, 8, 9, 11. For instance.
Emma Vigeland
$3,400. $1,900. 5, 4.
Sam Seder
$3 trillion. Sold. It's a zero sum game, actually.
Emma Vigeland
You're making me think less.
Sam Seder
But let me say this. You call it satire.
Emma Vigeland
Sam goes to satire on top of it all.
Sam Seder
Yeah. My favorite part about you is just.
Emma Vigeland
Like every day, all day, like, everything you do.
Sam Seder
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 Seder
Yeah. Sun's out, guns out. I. I don't know. But you should know, people just don't like to entertain ideas anymore. I have a question. Who cares?
Reporter
Our chat is enabled, folks.
Sam Seder
I love it.
Emma Vigeland
I do love that.
Sam Seder
Gotta jump. Gotta be quick. I gotta jump. I'm losing it, bro. Two o', clock, we're already late, and the guy's being a dick. So screw him. Sent to a gulag.
Emma Vigeland
Outrageous.
Sam Seder
Like, what is wrong with you? Love you. Bye. Love you. Bye. Bye.
Podcast Summary: The Majority Report with Sam Seder
Episode: 3532 - Texas Flood and Republican Governance: You're on Your Own
Release Date: July 7, 2025
In Episode 3532 of The Majority Report with Sam Seder, host Sam Seder delves into the devastating Texas floods and critiques the recent Republican reconciliation package. The episode highlights the intersection of natural disasters exacerbated by climate change and the Republican Party's governance strategies that, according to Seder, exacerbate societal vulnerabilities.
[07:45] Sam Seder:
"More than 80 dead, dozens missing in Texas floods, including dozens of children."
Sam Seder opens the episode by addressing the catastrophic floods in Texas, emphasizing the significant loss of life, including children at multiple camps along the Guadalupe River. He underscores the rapid escalation from a nearly dry riverbed to a flooded disaster zone, attributing the intensity partly to climate change.
Emma Vigeland adds:
"It's so flat, it almost just glides across."
The conversation highlights how Texas's geography and recent dry conditions have exacerbated the flood's impact, making water runoff swift and unmanageable.
[07:36] Sam Seder:
"The Republicans have never cared about climate change. They have deployed all sorts of different things to argue that it doesn't exist..."
Seder criticizes the Republican Party's recent legislative actions, particularly the reconciliation package passed the previous Thursday. He argues that the package diminishes government support systems, thereby increasing societal vulnerability to disasters like the Texas floods.
[26:17] Emma Vigeland:
"Trump said they're going to get rid of FEMA by the end of the year."
This remark ties into the broader critique of the Republican approach to governance, highlighting proposals to dismantle federal support structures like FEMA, which are crucial during natural disasters.
A significant portion of the episode focuses on the Republican-led cuts to essential government agencies responsible for climate preparedness and disaster response.
[13:31] Reporter:
"Why that information didn't get down to the camps and why they weren't evacuated."
Highlighting the communication failures during the Texas floods, Seder points to systemic issues exacerbated by reduced funding and staffing in agencies like the National Weather Service (NWS).
[15:20] Sam Seder:
"Hostile bureaucratic attacks on science... have prevented us from effectively preparing for and responding to natural disasters."
Seder emphasizes that the Republican cuts to the NWS and NOAA have significantly impaired weather forecasting and emergency response capabilities, thereby increasing the risk and impact of natural disasters.
Cuts to Medicaid and Medicare: Seder outlines how the reconciliation package includes substantial cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, which will disproportionately affect low-income and elderly populations. He explains that these cuts are either immediate or backloaded, extending their impact well into the next decade.
Social Security Tax Relief Misrepresented: Seder scrutinizes the claim that the legislation provides "historic tax relief for seniors," arguing that the benefits are misleading. He clarifies that only a small percentage of Social Security beneficiaries will actually benefit from the tax relief, as many already fall below the income threshold where Social Security is taxed.
[34:47] Emma Vigeland:
"Social Security sent out an email... but it's not even the one big beautiful bill."
This segment reveals the discrepancy between Republican claims and the actual benefits provided by the legislation, emphasizing that the tax relief is limited and does not equitably support the majority of Social Security recipients.
Seder criticizes Republicans for claiming to reduce the size of government while simultaneously expanding agencies like ICE and increasing defense spending.
[43:46] Mike Lawler:
"Increase domestic production of energy... strengthen our military and start to rein in the size and scope of the federal government."
Seder juxtaposes Lawler's statements with the reality of increased spending on defense and immigration enforcement, highlighting what he perceives as hypocritical governance aimed at benefiting certain interest groups rather than genuinely reducing governmental scope.
[44:15] Sam Seder:
"The Republicans have fundamentally no belief in the government's role to protect its citizens."
He argues that this ideology is evident in policies aimed at dismantling social safety nets and environmental protections, further endangering vulnerable populations.
Seder discusses the long-term economic implications of the reconciliation package, including increased national debt and reduced subsidies for sustainable technologies.
[60:14] Sam Seder:
"If climate change becomes more extreme, the options available to us in how we live become narrower and narrower."
He warns that the Republican approach will lead to greater financial instability and hinder efforts to combat climate change, ultimately resulting in more frequent and severe natural disasters.
Sam Seder concludes the episode by advocating for systemic changes, such as single-payer healthcare, to counteract the damaging policies introduced by the Republican reconciliation package. He emphasizes the need for robust government support systems to protect citizens and mitigate the effects of climate change-induced disasters.
[62:17] Emma Vigeland:
"That's not shocking. Not shocking at all. This is the Free Speech Administration, right."
The closing remarks reinforce the podcast's stance against the Republican policies, emphasizing the urgent need for action to safeguard public welfare and environmental stability.
Episode 3532 of The Majority Report with Sam Seder presents a critical examination of the Republican Party's recent legislative actions, particularly in the context of climate change and disaster preparedness. Through detailed analysis and poignant commentary, Seder underscores the detrimental effects of reduced government support systems on vulnerable populations and advocates for comprehensive policy reforms to address these challenges.