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[00:08]
A
It is Wednesday, August 5th, 2026. 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, Stephanie Minamser staff reporter Mother Jones washroom bureau on to discuss her piece. The IRS is imploding. But meanwhile not a romp but a big night for progressives in Michigan as Abdul El said wins in dramatic fashion the 13th district Donovan McKinney wins and will be the seventh DSAer sent to Congress. In Michigan, seventh Will Lawrence will win or has won and will be facing a Republican incumbent. Meanwhile, bad news in Missouri. Cori Bush handily defeated by Wesley Bell and his APAC money Herzl Gray in the fourth didn't cross the finish line but came very close teeing up a 2028 run in my opinion. Kansas voters reject the idea of an elected Supreme Court. Missouri voters reject making referendums harder for people to call for. And out of the White House, supposedly a new deal on the opening of the Strait of Hormuz because it's Wednesday and the stock market is still open until Friday. Meanwhile, as the deadline is looming for Max Miller to drop out of Ohio's 7th District re election, he remains defiant. He's a fighter. He'll smack you around. ICE arrests reach record highs in July. New report more than 50 detainees are either parents or spouses of active US military. And good news if you're a corporation. Trump administration refunds $100 billion to corporations in Liberation Day tariff refunds. However, if you're one of the consumers who paid for that, you're screwed.
[03:16]
B
I'm sure they'll pass those savings along.
[03:17]
A
Oh, of course. Federal appeals court bars the Trump EPA from canceling $20 billion in climate change grants. Private companies hiring comes in way below expectations. And a piece of SpaceX rocket crashes into the moon.
[03:37]
C
Ah,
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A
sneaks up on you. What are you gonna do? All this and more on today's Majority Report. Welcome ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for joining us. Emma is out today. We were here rather late this last evening. Brian was in here like what, 7:15? And I slept here cleaning up the place. Exactly. When we left, the race had not been called by anybody except for me. And first.
[04:14]
C
You heard it here first, folks.
[04:16]
A
Exactly. The race was a lot tighter than most of the polling would have had us believe. I think it's down to one point now or somewhere around there. But it has been called by the apartment. Haley Stevens has conceded. NBC had called it Late last night, maybe at 3 or 4 in the morning, but nobody else had. But it appears it is really clear. I know that Emma was upset when I called it based upon just gut instinct and wanting to troll her. Yes.
[05:01]
B
Hopefully it was a moment of growth.
[05:03]
A
I think everybody understands that. I mean, according to Emma, I would have caused the win.
[05:10]
B
Right.
[05:11]
A
If I could have caused the loss, then I certainly could have caused the win. I should tell you all though, it's not magic. People had already voted and so it had nothing to do with my, my premature calling of the race. But this is a big victory. A couple of things just to keep in mind. We don't know yet. We probably will, but we don't know yet how many Republicans voted in this. It's an open primary. Anybody could have voted in there. I don't think there's substantial numbers of Republicans who voted but it wouldn't surprise me if there was some. It's a tight race. Rural areas went with Stevens. Concentrated areas where there are black voters, particularly older black voters went with Stevens as well. There's going to be a challenge for El Said obviously in running against Rodgers. I think he has a better shot than Haley Stevens would have had because she didn't seem to motivate anybody without huge gobs of money. I mean really, you're talking almost 10 to 1. He spent $1 on every vote. She spent $10 on every vote is a way to look at it. It's actually the numbers are more inflated than that, obviously.
[06:44]
C
And she had all the establishment endorsements too.
[06:47]
A
Right. I mean we're going to see. And also I would also imagine that part of Haley Stevens vote was a function of we don't think El Said can win. And those people now move from pundits and back into the I'm just voting for the person I want to win in this race. But it's going to be an all hands on deck but moment in Michigan in that general because the implications of Abdul Al Said winning are huge for the progressive movement. There's really no other way to put to argue that. And you know, it's not hard to imagine the Senate caucus we could have whether the Democrats take the Senate or not. But folks like Troy Jackson, folks like Abdul Said Talarico, you know who's not going to be as progressive as we want on a whole host of issues. Undoubtedly Dan Osborne, the same. But they're going to be able, they're going to create a voting bloc. But we will, we'll see. Here is Steve Kornacki and we should. You know, we were leaning heavily on Kornacki last night. We did miss the part where he poured water all over his computer, which I saw in retrospect, which was sort of funny. But here he is calling the race. I don't know what time this was last night. Do we know exactly? It was late. Late.
[08:26]
D
This is an NBC News Special Report. I'm Steve Kornacki. American voters in five states hit the polls on Tuesday, and I've got some major results to share with you. Starting in the state of Michigan. We're where Abdul El Sayed has won the Democratic primary for the United States Senate. He defeats Congresswoman Haley Stevens. This was a very close race. Here you can see there are still a scattering of votes to be counted, but El Sayed currently leading Stevens by 2.0.
[08:53]
A
There you go. That was the call. And then Mallory McMurrow came out with an endorsement. This is number two. I mean, she came out with this before he actually gave his speech.
[09:11]
C
She might have had drafted for both, depending on which.
[09:13]
A
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind, but she was very, very.
[09:21]
E
Welcome aboard.
[09:22]
A
Yep. And congratulations to Abdul El Sayed on winning the Michigan Democratic primary to be our nominee. Abdul has my full endorsement and support. This is a brutal primary. Believe me, I know. And Trump. That was her parenthetical. And Trump and Micah Rogers are counting on us staying divided. Let's prove them wrong by beating Mike Rogers and taking our country back. It's good to see. I don't know what. I haven't heard from Haley Stevens, although she did call to concede. Here is Abdul Al Said this morning, giving a victory speech. And we should say that McMurrow introduced him.
[10:09]
B
And she's standing behind him here.
[10:12]
A
And no sign as to where Hasan Piker is. But I'm gonna wait to condemn her for being on stage with Piker. I'm gonna wait for that. I joke. Look, now's the time for unity. Here is let's all get away.
[10:31]
E
Mike's a guy who spent 14 years in Congress with one goal. To figure out how to cash out the day he left. And guess what? He did as soon as he left Congress after having taken corporate check after corporate check after corporate check to empower the corporations to pick your pockets, he went and he cashed out. Not in Michigan? No. Winters are too cold for him. He's got thin skin.
[10:57]
A
After all,
[10:59]
E
he went to Florida. So, Mike, if you want to be a Florida man, go be a Florida man. If you want to golf in Florida, go golf in Florida. But I promise you, in November, we are going to send you back to Florida. Mike Rogers is the guy who wants to put a data center in your backyard so he can make himself feel a little bit more manly by making an AI video. Mike Rogers is the guy who has never shied away from a DTE check so he could turn his face in the direction of Florida. Mike Rogers is a guy who will do anything Blue Cross Blue Shield wants him to do, including raise your rates. Mike Rogers is a guy who introduced legislation to increase the flow of opioids. He did that while I was in high school. Mike Rogers is a guy whose politics and vision and perspective are old. Mike Rogers is a guy who has never shied away from a corporation he could do a favor for. Mike Rogers is a guy who, believe it or not, went back to Florida so he could lick every single boot Donald Trump owns to beg for his endorsement. I'm so sorry. If you want a senator who's going to lick some boots, fine, go vote for Mike Rogers. But if you want a senator who's going to stand up to Donald Trump, then you got your option right here.
[12:20]
A
I don't even get the sense that that speech was written.
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B
It ends with him shoving Mike Rogers
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C
into a locker wedgie.
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B
What's a DTE check, by the way? Is that something I'm supposed to know?
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A
I don't know what that is. Here is. Let's play this clip. This is a number four.
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C
This is energy company dt this is
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A
this a different victory speech, this one, same one in Detroit. And this is a separate part of it.
[12:50]
E
I want to speak specifically to an issue that has been focused on in this race to my Jewish American sisters and brothers. One of the most indelible memories of this campaign will have been the opportunity to break bread with you at Seder, to worship with you at Shulem, to be embraced by you and listening to sisters and brothers who said, you know, I want to join this movement because AIPAC doesn't speak for me. Because I understand that self determination for one people does not require the quenching of self determination for another people. That unless all of us are free, none of us are free. I want to tell you the great gift that you've given me and to all of my sisters and brothers of the Jewish faith or any faith at all, or no faith at all. I want you to know that my commitment to your safety, my commitment to Jewish safety is the same commitment that I have to the safety of my own daughters. Because if there is one question of a Political philosophy that ought to animate us all is what would we build, what would we do if we treated all of our kids like they were all of our kids?
[14:08]
A
Good stuff there. And you know, I would love to see the data of really how many people we're talking about who had, who had those concerns that needed to be ameliorated. I mean, there has been a ongoing campaign to paint him as anti Semitic by those people who want continued support of Israel with our tax dollars and our basically being accomplices in the genocide that continues to be ongoing in Gaza. I don't know, we don't have hard numbers of how many people voted against El said because they had heard, you know, secondhand that he's anti Semitic or assumed or just straight on Islamophobia. But comments and constructions like that are helpful for people to reach those people. But again, we don't know how many Republicans voted in that election. I don't think it was a huge amount. But we'll start to see those numbers and we'll see how much Haley Stevens is going to be supportive of the Democratic nominee. I would think a decent amount still wants to have a career in Democratic politics. And we should also just note an absolute disaster if you are someone looking to Chuck Schumer and Christian Gillibrand to lead the party because either A, they're incompetent or B, they also have absolutely no idea where the Democratic Party is. I mean, both things can be true, but your perspective may vary depending on where you are at politically. If I was one of these, you know, Democratic establishment types, I'd be very concerned that we have the two most incompetent people in charge of finding candidates. I don't know who else, you know, who else was on the bench in Michigan for the establishment, but it must have been pretty thin. Pretty thin. And I wonder if there aren't like some APAC and crypto and AI billionaires who are just kicking themselves today. Like maybe if we just dumped another $30 million into that race, it would
[17:11]
C
have been worth it.
[17:13]
A
I think another $30 million would have maybe pushed her over the edge. $90 million, 1/10 what is spent in the past couple of presidential campaigns.
[17:28]
C
We need to raise taxes.
[17:31]
A
Indeed. Also, let's turn. We don't have a Donovan McKinney speech because I think it was just called this morning. But that's big news. That is a guaranteed. Another DSA are in the House.
[17:53]
C
Yeah, he just posted his first victory tweet 11 minutes ago. So. But very excited. We can put this up here, I suppose.
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A
Here is that tweet, Detroit. He writes, I am honored beyond measure to be your Democratic nominee to represent our mighty 13th in Congress. Taking back our seat, taking back our power has always been the core of our movement. I am so excited for all our community we'll accomplish together. Thank you. Michigan 13th.
[18:26]
C
That's exciting.
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A
I mean, that is. That was a long shot race. And lastly, William Will Lawrence, one of the founders of the Sunset Movement. Sunrise Movement, sorry. Speaking of Sunrise Movement.
[18:45]
C
Sunset Movement was Joe Biden.
[18:47]
F
Exactly.
[18:48]
A
I was gonna say. I actually have my Sunset Movement card.
[18:57]
B
Sam's a Sunset Movement partner.
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A
Yep. Here's Will Lawrence in. Is this East Lansing?
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C
Yeah.
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E
This is the truth.
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F
Everybody here in the 7th district, regardless of your political persuasion, we share so much more in common. We share so much more in common. And now what separates us, we share so much more in common than these billionaires in Silicon Valley, Wall street and these insiders in D going to find that common ground. We're going to build on it. We're going to build on it. And I tell you that on data centers, on war, on housing and healthcare, and on elite accountability, we are going to bring people together into a new way of politics beyond these older bodies.
[19:54]
A
Exciting wins there again. In Missouri, Cori Bush lost. She did not have much by way of fundraising. Wesley Bell had millions more than she did. And Hartzell Gray lost in the 4th district. But he came close. And he also, I think, was overlooked. And I think he was considered a long shot. But had there been resources there this time around, we could have seen a different outcome. I suspect there'll be more resources next time.
[20:30]
C
Well, because he got redistricted into a less favorable district and we had him on left reckoning shortly after that. And he's like, I still think we have a chance. And he was right. They had a chance. Yeah. Yeah. Good effort and I hope to see him again.
[20:42]
B
And for Will Lawrence's chances, he's facing a Republican incumbent who squeaked out one election so far and that was to replace Alyssa Slotkin. So he's not, he's only a one term incumbent who barely eked out in 2024.
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A
And speaking of, of losers last night, it's not just Chuck Schumer and Kristen Gillibrand, who, who, who took it on the chin last night. Elisa Slotkin, I think had supported against Lawrence.
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B
Was it,
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A
I gotta check my notes here. But her preferred candidate, and I think it was in that Lawrence race, came in third, the one that she endorsed. Now she did her endorsement on endorsed Mazdim. Yeah. And that was in the Lawrence race, right?
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C
Yep.
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A
Now, to be fair, she, she did her endorsement on with invisible ink that she got from the CIA.
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C
The guy was a Navy Seal.
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A
It was a.
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C
She endorsed.
[22:01]
A
Yeah, it was one of those dead drop endorsements. And if somebody didn't actually look in the. Underneath the mailbox, you have to squeeze
[22:08]
B
lemon juice on it and then gently put a flame below it and it
[22:11]
C
will reveal the secrets of the deep state Democrats.
[22:15]
A
Exactly. So that's good news. There's going to be a lot, there's
[22:21]
E
a lot of work.
[22:22]
A
And it also, I think, like, look, next week is Minnesota and you should ignore polling.
[22:33]
C
Yep.
[22:35]
A
If we have a lesson from this, it is ignore polling particularly. Look, it's very difficult to get quality polling from a primary. It's just nobody wants to spend the money on it and get, you know, quality polling. And it's just, it's very difficult to predict. But before we go to commercial, in a moment we're going to be talking to Stephanie Minamser. I think we need. We cannot close out the Michigan primaries without one last time and. Oh, we should say it's not going to be the last time.
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C
No, no.
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A
We're going to be playing this clip probably for well past my retirement. But we just needed. I want that Michigan fist. Yep, you got it. I want the Michigan fist.
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C
And we got it.
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A
You got it. Michigan has been fisted. Extra, extra.
[23:50]
B
Read all about it. Michigan fisted.
[23:56]
A
We just have this one. Is that it? Okay, like I say, in a moment we're going to be talking to Stephanie Minamser on her piece about the implosion of the irs. Everything we hear about Trump's corruption is bad. But the stuff that really is going to have a lasting impact on, on a material basis on people for years to come is the utter destruction of nearly all of our government agencies. The one that gives the government revenue is a really important one. Not just because it gives it revenue, but also it is a way of limiting wealth inequality. We'll be talking to her in a moment about that. First, I want to thank ZOCDOC for sponsoring today's episode. Super easy to put off doctor's appointments, right?
[25:03]
B
I had a hard time biting into a pickle today, so.
[25:06]
A
And dentist appointments. Zocdoc can't take away the psychological blocks that you have, Brian. I'm just reading the copy and. But it can get rid of some of the major hassles and obstacles to finding a great doctor. Booking an appointment with a great doctor and Making sure that your insurance covers it. I've used ZOCDOC on the road once when I had an emergency, a dental emergency, needed a dentist. Sock doc found me a local dentist where I was at the time and I was able to book the appointment. I was able to get the appointment the next morning. It was easy peasy. Zocdoc lets you search and compare local in network doctors. They have over, I think 150,000 doctors. It is listed in over 200 different specialties. You can search by your symptoms or by the specialty that you're looking for. And the great thing about it is they have, their interface basically connects with the doctor's schedule. So on top of being able to figure out is this doctor in network or out of network, Take my insurance. They don't take my insurance. You're able to book an appointment right on the website without having to call and haggle the receptionist. You can see what's available, you can book it. Bookings generally happen pretty fast. Sometimes it gets same day, usually within 24 to 72 hours. Your health matters, Brian, and taking care of yourself shouldn't be complicated. Find and book the right doctor with Zocdoc. Head to zocdoc.com majority to get started and check that appointment off your to do list. That z o c doc.com Majority we will put the link in the podcast and YouTube descriptions and at Majority FM. Quick break. When we come back, we'll be talking to Stephanie Minamser. Sam, We are back. Sam Cedar on the Majority Report. Emma Viglin is out today. Want to welcome back to the program Stephanie Mensimer. She is a staff reporter in the Mother Jones Washington bureau. And Stephanie, I've been waiting for someone to write a piece about this and it's we're in a hard sort of like temporally hard time to sort of fully get a full picture of just how bad it is. But I was saying before the break that as, as bad as like Trump's corruption is the real story is how this era of the Trump Republican rule has undermined all sorts of government agencies and of course the IRS they have been gunning for. This has been a Republican project for decades and decades. And I mean maybe 100 years, I mean not quite, but close. Tell us, let's start with sort of like anecdotally how you stumbled onto this story. But we had seen, you know, the attacks were blatant. But just give us like your, your first anecdote and then I want to go into what the Biden administration had done some of the history of. Of the IRS funding.
[30:01]
G
Sure. Well, I had gotten a letter from the irs, and they. After I'd done my taxes, and they
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F
said,
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G
we've corrected or we've changed your return, and now you owe us a whole bunch of money. And I looked at it, and the numbers were all weird. And I realized as I went through it, I'm like, I don't actually owe them any money. I paid all of this, and they just don't seem to have credited me for my payments. And so I thought, this should be easy enough to fix. Right? Just call them, and I'll send them my records, and that should be it. But calling them proved to be impossible. I spent hours and hours and hours on hold with the IRS getting disconnected. Sometimes I'd be on hold for two hours and then get disconnected. Sometimes you call and they say that the phones are so overwhelmed, you can't even be put on hold. And I realized. So then I asked my accountant. I was like, is there something I'm missing? I'm like, is there some other way to get in touch with them and resolve this? And she said, I don't know. I can't get through either. And there's, like, a special line for tax practitioners to be able to help, you know, their clients resolve stuff, and they can't get through that either. And that's when I realized, oh, wow, it's finally broken. And part of the reason I realized that is that last year, I did a story on the IRS about all the layoffs and the job cuts, because I'm from Ogden, Utah, and there's a giant IRS service center in Ogden. And so, like, my relatives had worked there. Everybody works at the IRS if you live in Ogden long enough. And so I was there as they were laying off all these people. And people warned last year that, like, oh, they're doing all this during tax season, and it's going to be a disaster. The tax season is going to implode, whatever. But it didn't really, because they hadn't fully finished getting rid of everybody because they put all these workers on, like, administrative leave. They paid them not to work, but they were still there through tax season. And so a lot of those people didn't actually leave the IRS until, like, October. So we're just now starting to see the impact of what all those job cuts meant for, like, customer service functions at the irs. And as I discovered, it was really bad.
[32:19]
A
Let's just go back a little bit. The underfunding. The IRS seemed to Be a bipartisan project, really, in the, you know, I'm thinking the aughts and even the teens. If you look at the graph of funding for the irs, it just sort of slowly goes down. And simultaneously, what we saw is the percentage of audits of people making not much money went up relative to people making a lot of money because it's just more expensive. You need more manpower, person power to go after wealthy people because they have more sophisticated sort of tax dodges. And then during the American Rescue act and I guess the IRA under Biden, we saw a big bump in IRS funding. How much of that money landed before it was all sort of, like, stripped away?
[33:32]
G
Well, they took it away in phases. So I think that initially it was something like $80 billion they were going to invest in the IRS, and that was going to go to, like, hiring customer service people and auditors and investigators and also upgrading the technology, which is really out of date. And then Congress clawed it back in kind of chunks. And I think in the end, maybe it was like 10 or 13 billion that they did actually get to hang on to. But you probably remember there were people like Ted Cruz were warning that, you know, Biden was going to h 87,000 jackbooted thugs, the IRS, to go and torture American citizens over their taxes. And so they really politicized this really basic function of just collecting revenue for the government and turned it into something nefarious, when, in fact, it's just the way things have to work if you want to have a functioning democracy.
[34:24]
A
And if I remember correctly, the data came in and we started seeing the audit rate for people making over $400,000 went up, but everything else stayed essentially static. And we also know that for every dollar you spend on IRS enforcement, you make like $7. I mean, this is the biggest,
[34:57]
D
one
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A
of the best return on investments we could have in the government.
[35:00]
G
It seems it all pays for itself. It really does. And it's, you know, there's some, you know, they measure, and I think I forget what they call it, but there's a gap between how much people actually owe and what they actually pay. And it's getting wider and wider because people on the upper end of the income scale just aren't paying and they know they can get away with it. So as long as that's the case, you know, there's all kinds of revenue that the government should have that's going uncollected.
[35:26]
A
And what we're looking at now, though, is sort of a, like, almost another tier level of a problem that it's just completely dysfunctional. They got rid of the. I can't remember what they called it, the Freedom File, or whatever it was that they had piloted. Will you tell us just a little bit about that? Because that seems like they're really trying to ruin the irs. Like they, they want it to just, it seems like just completely go away.
[36:01]
G
Well, I think that they just also want to punish, like normal people. That's my. You know, when I was trying to. When I was sitting on hold for hours trying to get through. I mean, the direct pay. My understanding is that it was basically so that you don't have to pay TurboTax to file your really simple 1040 form. You should be able. That was the idea, was you should be able to just file your taxes online, especially if they're not too complic. And it should be free. Like, you shouldn't have to pay these companies to buy their software and then have to pay to submit it when you're doing something that you have to do. And the government is happy to have you do it online because also getting people to file their taxes online is good for less paper. They don't have to hire as many people to open the mail and stuff like that. So it was a win win all the way around. But TurboTax, I think, had fought this for years. And so I think the Trump people just caved and said, yeah, okay, we'll get rid of that. And, you know, God forbid the government should actually work, right, and help people do something that they need to do.
[37:02]
A
It was, it was piloted, I think, in the first year of the Biden administration. And then by last year, I think it was available to just about everybody. And then it was abruptly cut off. I'm not even sure I would characterize it as a cave as much as it is like we just got around to getting rid of it for you guys. What have you heard? There's a lot of anecdotes in your piece, but what have you heard in terms of actual data to suggest that there is a tremendous amount of dysfunction at the irs? I mean, it's a brilliant look, it's a brilliant plan, right? If you want to turn the American public against the IRS and they're doing the same thing with Social Security, as far as I can tell, you just make it really difficult for people to deal with them. And the harder you make it, the more people are going to resent the agency and not necessarily realize it's because it's woefully underfunded.
[38:09]
G
Right? And I think, you know, there. So the data that you're talking about is the IRS own data says that they are not responding to phone calls. It's remarkable. Like, you know, millions of people call the irs. And this data actually, I think mostly comes from during the tax filing season and which is bad because the numbers were bad during the tax filing season, even though the Trump administration actually tried to keep that from being a total disaster or they moved a lot of people around to make sure that they answered more phones. Like, so they, they cut 40% of the IT department at the IRS. And the people that were left, they didn't keep them doing it. They had some of them like answering the phones just because they didn't have enough people to do customer service. And so they had this kind of, you know, triaging during tax season. But as one of the former taxpayer advocate told me, she said, where I, you know, measure the effectiveness of the agency is on April 16th. It's the day after everybody files their returns. And that's when the IRS start sending all these letters like the one I got, say, you know, you did it wrong or actually you owe us way more money than you paid or whatever. And that's when people actually need to interact with the agency because like 99% of taxpayers never need to talk to the IRS. They just send their taxes in, everything is fine, they get their refunds and they go about their business. But for the other people who have a problem, they really do need to talk to somebody. And it's not always, there's not always a technological fix for this. And so that's where you start to see that, you know, the cracks and that things are really imploding. Because I talked to all kinds of lawyers who represent low income taxpayers and people who just practice tax law. And they said some of them. There's one guy I talked to, he's been doing this for 50 years and he said, I've never seen it this bad. I have like five or six cases. I'm just completely stymied on because I can't get through to anybody at the irs. There is nobody there. And you know, as the former HR director from the IRS who got pushed out early last year by Doge, she told me, she said, well, you can't expect to get rid of 30% of your workforce and still function. And that's, I think what we're seeing
[40:19]
A
it is that the 30% do we have a breakdown of like you say, was it 40% of the IT department was gotten rid of that Seems like a bad idea to me. But how much do we know what the percentages are in the different sort of like aspects of the way they operate?
[40:40]
G
You know, I don't have all that right in front of me, but it was, it was across the board. I mean, obviously they took aim at stuff like, you know, anybody who audited rich people, money laundering, that all went out the door. I actually talked to, you know, people who had, had been involved in money laundering operations that those people are gone. They're all the tech people, customer service, the people who do non profit work because you know, God forbid you should audit like a tech, you know, a tea party group or something or you know, some political non profit. So they're not really auditing political non profits, but pretty much it's across the board, everybody there, all the way from the mailroom and up to upper management. I mean they haven't had an IRS commissioner since Trump took office. They've gone through a bunch of people, I think, I guess maybe they confirmed Billy Long, but they haven't had, they've made up a fake job to be the CEO of the IRS because they can't get anybody confirmed in this position because Trump hasn't picked anybody who's competent.
[41:43]
A
We should say Billy Long, who was the first nominee, he had come up with some type of like commercial scheme about taxes, hadn't he? Or something to that effect or he was pitching like a plan to, to evade taxes like, like a. Prior to this. Just a couple of things that you wrote here. You cite the A report to Congress from the Taxpayer Advocate Service, which was an independent agency within the IRS, found that live humans answered 20% fewer calls during the tax season. Hold times jumped anywhere from 81 to 161%. Only 17% of the calls handled by the voice bot system were completed. The worst service came on phone lines dedicated to people who owed money to needed help, such as an installment plan. Live operators answered only 30% of more than 3 million calls over the first like four months of the year. It goes on and on. Where did like, did, did you get any comments from like the administration or people working in the IRS to the extent that they like showed that they cared that this was considered a problem? I imagine they're still un, a lot of people working at the IRS who are pulling their hair out about this, but any of the people who are in a position to make like decisions like is there a plan or is it just to literally let this thing sort of just like fall apart?
[43:28]
G
Well, I think they finally have realized that they went too far, and they're trying now to scramble to hire people. They're having these hiring fairs, and I think they got authorized to hire like another 8,000. But I don't think it's going very well because after what they did to the federal workers, I don't think a lot of people are rushing to go back there. But I tried asking. Well, it was funny. While I was writing the story, weirdly enough, I started getting press releases from the irs. They must have gotten a new. They must have hired a new press person. And so they started sending me these press releases about IRS holding Saturday hours and, you know, in its Taxpayer Assistance center. And this is so great, and we're going to be helping people. And so I emailed the woman back, said, hey, I just happen to be writing a story about this. And also these Taxpayer Assistance Centers, which, you know, you've closed all of them mostly this year. And I had to send them my questions. And then she never responded. But she sent me a new press release yesterday about something from the IRS was doing. And so I have no idea what the strategy is. I mean, I don't think there was one. I think that Doge just came in and they wanted the data. You know, there were those guys who walked out of there with, with us, you know, with us, drives full of Americans personal information. I think they thought they would be able. They were so smart, they would just be able to whip the place into shape with some easy technological fix. And it turned out that it wasn't that easy. And I think there's also just some sort of nihilism involved, that they just wanted to destroy the place and that's what they've done.
[45:03]
A
Have you, are you aware of any members of Congress or that presumably Democrats who are like, creating a dossier or like, this is what we need to do on day one. We need to have legislation that rebuilds the irs. I mean, I wonder if this is happening for any agencies, but, I mean, it should be. But have you heard of anybody?
[45:35]
G
I have not. You know, I think that members of Congress are aware, actually, some of them are probably painfully aware that this is happening, because when I talk to advocates and lawyers who work with people who've got tax problems, they said they now, when they can't get through the phone lines, they just go straight to their representative. So all these people have tax problems, are trying to use their Congress people as a back door to get through and solve these issues. And so I, you know, I haven't dug too deep into that. But members of Congress are definitely hearing from their constituents that they can't get to the irs. So I don't know what they plan to do about that. And you know, just generally as a revenue problem, like the cuts that they made, I think that, you know, the, they're not going to collect something like $900 billion in taxes. So that's a huge hole in the budget. You know, it's like they're going to keep spending all this money on the Iran war and you know, they're spending 3 million dol day to have the National Guard march around in front of my office, you know, doing nothing. And so all that's going to add up and they're not bringing any money. So I think we're headed for a pretty decent crisis that Congress is going to have to do something about.
[46:47]
A
I couldn't agree more. I just wish there were somebody, there was somebody out there starting to. I mean, hopefully there's somebody who's got a plan, but. Stephanie Menzemer, the peace is in. Mother's Jones the IRS is imploding. Thanks for coming on today. Really appreciate it.
[47:07]
G
Thanks for having me.
[47:08]
A
All right, folks, that's it for the first half of the program. This is, I mean this is honestly. Well, there's a lot of things that keep me up at night, but one of the things that keeps me up at night is just this sort of like the irs, the epa, the fda, the cdc, I mean it would just keep going on. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the ftc, like all of these agencies. Like our science research nih, all of these government funded agencies have been so decimated in terms of, particularly in terms of like just institutional knowledge and they're going to be just as dysfunctional. Probably worse, Frankly. You know, January 21, 2029, when President Buttigieg is sworn in or President AOC, or Sarah Nelson, or Sarah Nelson, Shawn Fain gets, you know, sworn into presidency. These have to be repaired. And it's very difficult to do that when the American public doesn't have a story about how they're destroyed. I mean, you think about how long conservatives have dined on the idea that the DMV is bad to explain like why you wouldn't give funding to government. And the fact of the matter is that, you know, more often than not, I think the DMV is actually pretty good. Everybody who's interacting with the IRS right now is like, this agency sucks. And it sucks because it's been so disempowered and defunded. And it's going to make it that much harder. We need to start hearing Congress and hopefully we'll get this. If Democrats take the House and God willing the Senate will hear Will. He will have hearings to create these narratives, essentially these very truthful narratives about what's been going on at these agencies and what needs to be done to fix them them and why they're important to the American public. Hopefully I can go to sleep tonight. Now that I said that at least
[49:51]
C
I got to worry about the sciatica. What's that? Still got to worry about the science.
[49:55]
A
I got to worry about the sciatica and then the cat. I mean everything broken. Ac. Oh, good. This is important. After 12 years in this office. The air. The air conditioning unit has been fixed.
[50:23]
B
It was. Did.
[50:25]
A
Did I tell you? What? You saw it, right?
[50:28]
C
It was installed incorrectly.
[50:29]
A
Apparently the air conditioning unit is a built in unit. We have been in this office, and by we I mean me because nobody else here has been here that long. Since 20. Early 2014. And was it 2014?
[50:48]
C
Yeah, I mean I got here 2015.
[50:50]
A
Maybe it was actually late 2013. And during that entire time the air conditioning did not work. And apparently the heat must not have been working. It's just like was getting. Bringing in vaguely cooler or vaguely warmer
[51:07]
C
air sort of placebo.
[51:10]
A
Yeah, exactly.
[51:11]
D
It's on.
[51:12]
A
Must be warm in here.
[51:13]
C
Yeah, you can hear the motor running.
[51:15]
A
Exactly. And apparently the two like the input and the output tubes, I didn't see how they were fixing. Were improperly installed and they were reversed.
[51:28]
D
Oops.
[51:30]
C
The one thing you don't want to happen.
[51:37]
B
I'm actually a little chilly.
[51:39]
C
No, it's a bit chilly.
[51:40]
A
That's what, that's what they're wearing 5 inch shorts. Guys downstairs said they're like, you guys are gonna need a sweater now. Meanwhile, what are we gonna do with that freaking thing there? That extraordinary uniform? Oh, he brought that down the basement. Will you take that?
[52:04]
B
Can I? I'd love.
[52:05]
A
I think we can work something out.
[52:14]
B
If you give it to me, I'll go to the dentist.
[52:16]
A
That might be worth it because
[52:20]
E
then
[52:20]
A
it's just gonna be like, I need six weeks off for all the dental surgery I need. Folks, it's your support that makes this show possible. It's your membership keeps this show surviving and thriving and subsidizes Brian getting a new air conditioner.
[52:42]
B
And some wooden teeth.
[52:43]
A
And some wooden teeth. Go to jointhemajorityreport.com again. Join themjorityreport.com Become a Member Support the show. When you do, you not only get the fun half, but you also get to Imus during the fun half and watch me read. Just a small percentage. I have even, I would say, based upon where the IRS is now. I have a similar response rate on the IMs, but we just get so many.
[53:19]
B
We also need a 40% of our IT crew.
[53:22]
A
Exactly. Also just coffee, co op, fair trade coffee, hot chocolate. Use the coupon code. Majority get 10% off. Hey, donate your Twitch prime subscription to us. You can just do it for a month. Doesn't cost you nothing.
[53:40]
C
No, actually you're already paying for it if you pay for Amazon Prime.
[53:44]
A
Exactly, exactly. Also give us a review on Apple podcasts or Spotify or whatever it is. Give us a like on YouTube. Tell your friends, tell your family.
[53:58]
C
We have had to go to subscriber only chat on YouTube because we got hit with a massive spam bot thing yesterday. So good time to subscribe to Majority.
[54:07]
A
Is that right?
[54:07]
C
Yeah, it was crazy. It's like hundreds of accounts tweeting like, don't try to silence us. So our mods had to switch to subscriber only.
[54:16]
A
Who were they? Were they bots?
[54:17]
C
Yeah, it was like hundred or so of the same kind of bot with
[54:21]
A
who were we gonna try to silence the bots?
[54:24]
C
I guess it's like, don't, because I was trying to, like, individually ban them and it was just way too much crazy.
[54:34]
B
That was during the night stream last
[54:35]
C
night, or it might have been Monday. Yeah, who.
[54:39]
A
But who do you think is sending those bots? It was like ads or
[54:45]
C
probably. That's a good question.
[54:49]
B
Maybe poker and sushi with the bots.
[54:51]
C
I don't know. I don't want to accuse Jillian Michaels joking. It's probably not Jillian Michaels.
[54:57]
B
Do you see how I coded mine?
[54:58]
C
You did.
[54:59]
B
I said poker and sushi with the bots.
[55:07]
A
Somebody should look into whether or not Jillian Michaels sending bots after us.
[55:11]
C
Yeah, I mean, it's just a weird coincidence, but Matt left Reckoning yesterday before our stream. Last night put up a show with Griscom where we talked about Vivek Ramaswamy talking to a bunch of young fascists at the Young Americans for Liberty conference. You know, the liberty lovers who want to deport hundreds of millions of people with the feds. They booed Vivek for not being American despite being born in Cincinnati, where the
[55:43]
A
event was in his hometown.
[55:46]
C
And it's one of those situations where like, man, this is both. These sides. Can they both lose? And we also talk about Bill Maher and how he's always been a horrible. I guess you could call them liberal reactionary. So, yeah, check out left reckoning. Patreon.com left reckoning.
[56:06]
A
Quick break. We'll be right back. 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 gonna look back and go like, wow.
[56:29]
C
What?
[56:31]
A
What is that going on? It's nuts. Wait a second. Hold on. Hold on for a second. Emma, welcome to the program. What is up? Everyone find the path.
[56:49]
E
No.
[56:49]
A
Me key.
[56:50]
G
You did it.
[56:51]
A
Fun hat.
[56:53]
G
Let's go, Brandon.
[56:54]
E
Let's go, Brandon.
[56:54]
A
Fun hat. Bradley, you want to say hello?
[57:00]
F
Sorry to disappoint everyone.
[57:01]
A
I'm just a random guy. It's all the boys today.
[57:04]
G
Fundamentally false.
[57:05]
D
No.
[57:05]
C
I'm sorry.
[57:06]
F
Women.
[57:06]
A
Stop talking for a second and let me finish.
[57:09]
G
Where is this coming from?
[57:10]
C
Dude?
[57:10]
B
But.
[57:11]
A
Dude, you want to smoke this? 7A.
[57:14]
G
Yes.
[57:18]
F
Hi. Me?
[57:19]
A
Is this thing. Yes. Is this me? Is it me? It is you. Is this me? Oh, it's me. I think it is you. Who is you. No sound. Every single freaking day. What's on your mind? We can discuss free markets and we can discuss capitalism.
[57:44]
E
I'm gonna go snow white.
[57:45]
A
Libertarians.
[57:46]
E
They're so stupid.
[57:47]
A
Though common sense says, of course.
[57:49]
G
Gobbledygook.
[57:50]
E
We bailed him.
[57:51]
G
So what's 79 plus 21?
[57:53]
A
Challenge.
[57:54]
G
Man, I'm positively quivering.
[57:55]
A
I believe 96. I want to say 8, 5, 7, 2, 1 0, 35. 5, 0, 11 half.
[58:01]
C
3, 8, 9, 11. For instance.
[58:03]
G
$3,400. $1900.
[58:05]
A
5, 4, $3 trillion. Sold. It's a zero sum game.
[58:11]
G
Actually. You're making me think less.
[58:13]
A
But let me say this. You can call it satire. Sam goes with satire.
[58:18]
G
On top of it all, my favorite part about you is just like every day, all day, like everything you do.
[58:24]
A
Without a doubt. Hey, buddy. We see you. All right, folks, folks, folks.
[58:35]
G
It's just the week being weeded out. Obviously.
[58:37]
E
Yeah.
[58:38]
A
Sun's out, guns out. I, I, I don't know.
[58:44]
G
But you should know,
[58:47]
A
people just don't
[58:48]
C
like to entertain ideas anymore.
[58:49]
A
I have a question. Who cares?
[58:53]
C
Our chat is enabled, folks.
[58:55]
A
I love it. I do love that. Gotta jump. Gotta be quick. I gotta jump. I'm losing it, bro. Two o'.
[59:05]
B
Clock.
[59:06]
A
We're already late and the guy's being a dick. So screw him. Sent to a gulag?
[59:12]
G
Outrageous.
[59:13]
A
What is wrong with you?
[59:16]
F
Love you. Bye.
[59:18]
E
Love you. Bye.
[59:20]
A
Bye.

Summary6 min read

Podcast Summary: The Majority Report with Sam Seder

Episode 3703 - Abdul Beats AIPAC; Trump's IRS is Imploding w/ Stephanie Mencimer
Date: August 5, 2026

Main Theme / Purpose

This episode of The Majority Report with Sam Seder is split between two major threads:

A deep dive into an upset progressive victory in Michigan’s Democratic Senate Primary, marking a significant win for the left wing of the Democratic Party over the well-financed AIPAC-backed candidate.
An extended interview with Mother Jones reporter Stephanie Mencimer on the catastrophic state of the IRS, how we got here, and what this means for government functionality and tax fairness in the United States.

Throughout, the tone is characteristically irreverent, highly engaged, and wonky, mixing sharp political analysis with trademark Majority Report banter.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

I. Progressive Primary Wins in Michigan

(00:08–23:55)

A. Election Night Rundown

Abdul El-Sayed's Win:
- Abdul El-Sayed narrowly defeats establishment-backed Haley Stevens in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan, despite being heavily outspent and facing attacks from AIPAC.
- "He spent $1 on every vote. She spent $10 on every vote is a way to look at it." – Sam Seder (05:00)
Other Victories:
- Donovan McKinney wins and becomes the seventh DSA member sent to Congress from Michigan.
- Will Lawrence, Sunrise Movement co-founder, wins his primary and will face a GOP incumbent.

B. Analysis of the El-Sayed Victory

The victory is seen as an existentially important win for the progressive left.
Open primary rules, regional divides (rural vs. urban), and the mobilization of progressive voters are discussed in terms of electoral strategy.

"The implications of Abdul Al Said winning are huge for the progressive movement. There’s really no other way to put to argue that." – Sam Seder (06:44)
Monetary disparity and establishment endorsements failed to secure Stevens' victory. Discussion about how future primary spending from AIPAC/crypto “may just need $30 million more” for next time.
Mallory McMorrow’s quick endorsement of El-Sayed is highlighted as a key moment of party unity.

C. Notable Clips and Quotes

Kornacki Calls the Race: Steve Kornacki’s NBC News announcement is played, emphasizing how close and unexpected the result was. (08:25)
Abdul El-Sayed’s Victory Speeches:
- Rips into opponent Mike Rogers over privatization, corporate ties, and “bootlicking” Trump:
  
  "If you want a senator who's going to lick some boots, fine, go vote for Mike Rogers. But if you want a senator who's going to stand up to Donald Trump, then you got your option right here." – Abdul El-Sayed (12:11)
- Addresses Jewish voters directly, countering smears and affirming solidarity:
  
  "I want you to know that my commitment to your safety, my commitment to Jewish safety is the same commitment that I have to the safety of my own daughters. Because if there is one question of a political philosophy that ought to animate us all is what would we build, what would we do if we treated all of our kids like they were all of our kids?" – Abdul El-Sayed (13:43)

D. Additional Election Analysis

Losing efforts for Cori Bush in Missouri and Hartzell Gray in the 4th, but optimism for future attempts given near-miss performances.
Criticism of Democratic leadership (Schumer, Gillibrand) for failing to assess and address voter sentiment and candidate strength.

II. IRS Implosion – Interview with Stephanie Mencimer

(29:53–47:06)

A. Personal Encounter and Bigger Picture

Stephanie shares her personal tale of being unable to resolve a basic tax issue due to IRS dysfunction, segueing into broader systemic failures:

"Calling them proved to be impossible. I spent hours and hours and hours on hold with the IRS getting disconnected. ... That's when I realized, oh, wow, it's finally broken." – Stephanie Mencimer (30:10)

B. The Roots of IRS Dysfunction

Decades-long bipartisan underfunding turned into outright sabotage in the Trump era; sudden, large-scale layoffs and administrative leave interrupted core functions.
Congress partially clawed back Biden-era infusions meant to rebuild the agency (from a promised $80 billion to only $10–13 billion received).

"They really politicized this really basic function of just collecting revenue ... and turned it into something nefarious, when, in fact, it's just the way things have to work if you want to have a functioning democracy." – Stephanie Mencimer (33:57)

C. Real World Impacts

Wealthy individuals increasingly dodge audits due to complexity and loss of specialized IRS staff.
Breakdown of customer service: Only 17% of calls completed through the IRS phone bot, live operator answer rates plummeting to 30% for debtors, massive hold times.

"If you want to turn the American public against the IRS ... you just make it really difficult for people to deal with them. ... The harder you make it, the more people are going to resent the agency and not necessarily realize it's because it's woefully underfunded." – Sam Seder (37:01)

D. The Death of Direct File

The end of the IRS's free direct-filing option for simple returns, due to industry (TurboTax) pressure and Trump administration action, is discussed as a deliberate move to hinder accessible public services.

E. Lack of a Congressional Plan

No evidence of a robust Democratic legislative or procedural effort (a "dossier for day one") currently exists to repair the IRS or any other decimated government agencies. Members of Congress are getting direct constituent pressure due to IRS unresponsiveness.

"You can't expect to get rid of 30% of your workforce and still function. And that's, I think, what we're seeing." – Stephanie Mencimer (40:18)
Enormous implications for revenue collection and future fiscal crises; $900 billion in uncollected taxes forecast, placing further strain on the federal budget.

F. Broader Institutional Decay

Sam laments the destruction of institutional memory across various federal agencies, warning this will hamper progressive governance for years to come.

"It is honestly ... one of the things that keeps me up at night is ... all of these agencies ... have been so decimated ... particularly in terms of just institutional knowledge and they're going to be just as dysfunctional. Probably worse, Frankly." – Sam Seder (47:08)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

El-Sayed on Mike Rogers: "If you want a senator who's going to lick some boots, fine, go vote for Mike Rogers." (12:11)
On Democratic establishment: "If I was one of these, you know, Democratic establishment types, I'd be very concerned that we have the two most incompetent people in charge of finding candidates." – Sam Seder (15:00)
IRS as Public Scapegoat: "If you want to turn the American public against the IRS ... you just make it really difficult for people to deal with them." – Sam Seder (37:01)
Stephanie on Agency Collapse: "You can't expect to get rid of 30% of your workforce and still function." (40:18)
Sam’s sardonic Michigan recap: "Michigan has been fisted. Extra, extra." (23:39)
Stephanie on TurboTax lobby: "TurboTax, I think, had fought this for years. ... the Trump people just caved and said, yeah, OK, we'll get rid of that." (36:00)

Timestamps for Key Segments

00:08 – 08:25: Election night recap, Michigan and national primary outcomes.
08:25 – 14:07: Kornacki calls race; El-Sayed’s victory speech excerpts.
14:07 – 23:55: Analysis of the primary's implications; DSA and Sunrise victories; party unity.
29:53 – 47:06: IRS discussion/interview with Stephanie Mencimer (Mother Jones).
47:08 – 49:51: Sam’s reflections on wider government agency destruction.
Throughout: Characteristic banter, digressions on Michigan “fisting,” office air conditioner woes, and community shoutouts.

Structure & Tone

The episode maintains the familiar Majority Report mix of serious analysis, irreverent humor, and crowd-sourced election coverage, with clear progressive framing. The IRS discussion is illuminating and sobering, shifting to a more earnest tone as the magnitude of federal institutional decay is outlined.

For New Listeners

This episode provides:

A front row seat to the “post-AIPAC, DSA-surge” progressive electoral moment in Michigan.
Essential context on why the IRS (and broader bureaucracy) is failing, and what that means for tax fairness and democracy.
A string of laugh-out-loud moments and sharp political critique—definitely worth catching up.

End of Summary

Loading summary

Transcript206 lines

[00:08]
A
It is Wednesday, August 5th, 2026. 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, Stephanie Minamser staff reporter Mother Jones washroom bureau on to discuss her piece. The IRS is imploding. But meanwhile not a romp but a big night for progressives in Michigan as Abdul El said wins in dramatic fashion the 13th district Donovan McKinney wins and will be the seventh DSAer sent to Congress. In Michigan, seventh Will Lawrence will win or has won and will be facing a Republican incumbent. Meanwhile, bad news in Missouri. Cori Bush handily defeated by Wesley Bell and his APAC money Herzl Gray in the fourth didn't cross the finish line but came very close teeing up a 2028 run in my opinion. Kansas voters reject the idea of an elected Supreme Court. Missouri voters reject making referendums harder for people to call for. And out of the White House, supposedly a new deal on the opening of the Strait of Hormuz because it's Wednesday and the stock market is still open until Friday. Meanwhile, as the deadline is looming for Max Miller to drop out of Ohio's 7th District re election, he remains defiant. He's a fighter. He'll smack you around. ICE arrests reach record highs in July. New report more than 50 detainees are either parents or spouses of active US military. And good news if you're a corporation. Trump administration refunds $100 billion to corporations in Liberation Day tariff refunds. However, if you're one of the consumers who paid for that, you're screwed.
[03:16]
B
I'm sure they'll pass those savings along.
[03:17]
A
Oh, of course. Federal appeals court bars the Trump EPA from canceling $20 billion in climate change grants. Private companies hiring comes in way below expectations. And a piece of SpaceX rocket crashes into the moon.
[03:37]
C
Ah,
[03:39]
A
sneaks up on you. What are you gonna do? All this and more on today's Majority Report. Welcome ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for joining us. Emma is out today. We were here rather late this last evening. Brian was in here like what, 7:15? And I slept here cleaning up the place. Exactly. When we left, the race had not been called by anybody except for me. And first.
[04:14]
C
You heard it here first, folks.
[04:16]
A
Exactly. The race was a lot tighter than most of the polling would have had us believe. I think it's down to one point now or somewhere around there. But it has been called by the apartment. Haley Stevens has conceded. NBC had called it Late last night, maybe at 3 or 4 in the morning, but nobody else had. But it appears it is really clear. I know that Emma was upset when I called it based upon just gut instinct and wanting to troll her. Yes.
[05:01]
B
Hopefully it was a moment of growth.
[05:03]
A
I think everybody understands that. I mean, according to Emma, I would have caused the win.
[05:10]
B
Right.
[05:11]
A
If I could have caused the loss, then I certainly could have caused the win. I should tell you all though, it's not magic. People had already voted and so it had nothing to do with my, my premature calling of the race. But this is a big victory. A couple of things just to keep in mind. We don't know yet. We probably will, but we don't know yet how many Republicans voted in this. It's an open primary. Anybody could have voted in there. I don't think there's substantial numbers of Republicans who voted but it wouldn't surprise me if there was some. It's a tight race. Rural areas went with Stevens. Concentrated areas where there are black voters, particularly older black voters went with Stevens as well. There's going to be a challenge for El Said obviously in running against Rodgers. I think he has a better shot than Haley Stevens would have had because she didn't seem to motivate anybody without huge gobs of money. I mean really, you're talking almost 10 to 1. He spent $1 on every vote. She spent $10 on every vote is a way to look at it. It's actually the numbers are more inflated than that, obviously.
[06:44]
C
And she had all the establishment endorsements too.
[06:47]
A
Right. I mean we're going to see. And also I would also imagine that part of Haley Stevens vote was a function of we don't think El Said can win. And those people now move from pundits and back into the I'm just voting for the person I want to win in this race. But it's going to be an all hands on deck but moment in Michigan in that general because the implications of Abdul Al Said winning are huge for the progressive movement. There's really no other way to put to argue that. And you know, it's not hard to imagine the Senate caucus we could have whether the Democrats take the Senate or not. But folks like Troy Jackson, folks like Abdul Said Talarico, you know who's not going to be as progressive as we want on a whole host of issues. Undoubtedly Dan Osborne, the same. But they're going to be able, they're going to create a voting bloc. But we will, we'll see. Here is Steve Kornacki and we should. You know, we were leaning heavily on Kornacki last night. We did miss the part where he poured water all over his computer, which I saw in retrospect, which was sort of funny. But here he is calling the race. I don't know what time this was last night. Do we know exactly? It was late. Late.
[08:26]
D
This is an NBC News Special Report. I'm Steve Kornacki. American voters in five states hit the polls on Tuesday, and I've got some major results to share with you. Starting in the state of Michigan. We're where Abdul El Sayed has won the Democratic primary for the United States Senate. He defeats Congresswoman Haley Stevens. This was a very close race. Here you can see there are still a scattering of votes to be counted, but El Sayed currently leading Stevens by 2.0.
[08:53]
A
There you go. That was the call. And then Mallory McMurrow came out with an endorsement. This is number two. I mean, she came out with this before he actually gave his speech.
[09:11]
C
She might have had drafted for both, depending on which.
[09:13]
A
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind, but she was very, very.
[09:21]
E
Welcome aboard.
[09:22]
A
Yep. And congratulations to Abdul El Sayed on winning the Michigan Democratic primary to be our nominee. Abdul has my full endorsement and support. This is a brutal primary. Believe me, I know. And Trump. That was her parenthetical. And Trump and Micah Rogers are counting on us staying divided. Let's prove them wrong by beating Mike Rogers and taking our country back. It's good to see. I don't know what. I haven't heard from Haley Stevens, although she did call to concede. Here is Abdul Al Said this morning, giving a victory speech. And we should say that McMurrow introduced him.
[10:09]
B
And she's standing behind him here.
[10:12]
A
And no sign as to where Hasan Piker is. But I'm gonna wait to condemn her for being on stage with Piker. I'm gonna wait for that. I joke. Look, now's the time for unity. Here is let's all get away.
[10:31]
E
Mike's a guy who spent 14 years in Congress with one goal. To figure out how to cash out the day he left. And guess what? He did as soon as he left Congress after having taken corporate check after corporate check after corporate check to empower the corporations to pick your pockets, he went and he cashed out. Not in Michigan? No. Winters are too cold for him. He's got thin skin.
[10:57]
A
After all,
[10:59]
E
he went to Florida. So, Mike, if you want to be a Florida man, go be a Florida man. If you want to golf in Florida, go golf in Florida. But I promise you, in November, we are going to send you back to Florida. Mike Rogers is the guy who wants to put a data center in your backyard so he can make himself feel a little bit more manly by making an AI video. Mike Rogers is the guy who has never shied away from a DTE check so he could turn his face in the direction of Florida. Mike Rogers is a guy who will do anything Blue Cross Blue Shield wants him to do, including raise your rates. Mike Rogers is a guy who introduced legislation to increase the flow of opioids. He did that while I was in high school. Mike Rogers is a guy whose politics and vision and perspective are old. Mike Rogers is a guy who has never shied away from a corporation he could do a favor for. Mike Rogers is a guy who, believe it or not, went back to Florida so he could lick every single boot Donald Trump owns to beg for his endorsement. I'm so sorry. If you want a senator who's going to lick some boots, fine, go vote for Mike Rogers. But if you want a senator who's going to stand up to Donald Trump, then you got your option right here.
[12:20]
A
I don't even get the sense that that speech was written.
[12:23]
B
It ends with him shoving Mike Rogers
[12:25]
C
into a locker wedgie.
[12:28]
B
What's a DTE check, by the way? Is that something I'm supposed to know?
[12:32]
A
I don't know what that is. Here is. Let's play this clip. This is a number four.
[12:39]
C
This is energy company dt this is
[12:41]
A
this a different victory speech, this one, same one in Detroit. And this is a separate part of it.
[12:50]
E
I want to speak specifically to an issue that has been focused on in this race to my Jewish American sisters and brothers. One of the most indelible memories of this campaign will have been the opportunity to break bread with you at Seder, to worship with you at Shulem, to be embraced by you and listening to sisters and brothers who said, you know, I want to join this movement because AIPAC doesn't speak for me. Because I understand that self determination for one people does not require the quenching of self determination for another people. That unless all of us are free, none of us are free. I want to tell you the great gift that you've given me and to all of my sisters and brothers of the Jewish faith or any faith at all, or no faith at all. I want you to know that my commitment to your safety, my commitment to Jewish safety is the same commitment that I have to the safety of my own daughters. Because if there is one question of a Political philosophy that ought to animate us all is what would we build, what would we do if we treated all of our kids like they were all of our kids?
[14:08]
A
Good stuff there. And you know, I would love to see the data of really how many people we're talking about who had, who had those concerns that needed to be ameliorated. I mean, there has been a ongoing campaign to paint him as anti Semitic by those people who want continued support of Israel with our tax dollars and our basically being accomplices in the genocide that continues to be ongoing in Gaza. I don't know, we don't have hard numbers of how many people voted against El said because they had heard, you know, secondhand that he's anti Semitic or assumed or just straight on Islamophobia. But comments and constructions like that are helpful for people to reach those people. But again, we don't know how many Republicans voted in that election. I don't think it was a huge amount. But we'll start to see those numbers and we'll see how much Haley Stevens is going to be supportive of the Democratic nominee. I would think a decent amount still wants to have a career in Democratic politics. And we should also just note an absolute disaster if you are someone looking to Chuck Schumer and Christian Gillibrand to lead the party because either A, they're incompetent or B, they also have absolutely no idea where the Democratic Party is. I mean, both things can be true, but your perspective may vary depending on where you are at politically. If I was one of these, you know, Democratic establishment types, I'd be very concerned that we have the two most incompetent people in charge of finding candidates. I don't know who else, you know, who else was on the bench in Michigan for the establishment, but it must have been pretty thin. Pretty thin. And I wonder if there aren't like some APAC and crypto and AI billionaires who are just kicking themselves today. Like maybe if we just dumped another $30 million into that race, it would
[17:11]
C
have been worth it.
[17:13]
A
I think another $30 million would have maybe pushed her over the edge. $90 million, 1/10 what is spent in the past couple of presidential campaigns.
[17:28]
C
We need to raise taxes.
[17:31]
A
Indeed. Also, let's turn. We don't have a Donovan McKinney speech because I think it was just called this morning. But that's big news. That is a guaranteed. Another DSA are in the House.
[17:53]
C
Yeah, he just posted his first victory tweet 11 minutes ago. So. But very excited. We can put this up here, I suppose.
[18:03]
A
Here is that tweet, Detroit. He writes, I am honored beyond measure to be your Democratic nominee to represent our mighty 13th in Congress. Taking back our seat, taking back our power has always been the core of our movement. I am so excited for all our community we'll accomplish together. Thank you. Michigan 13th.
[18:26]
C
That's exciting.
[18:27]
A
I mean, that is. That was a long shot race. And lastly, William Will Lawrence, one of the founders of the Sunset Movement. Sunrise Movement, sorry. Speaking of Sunrise Movement.
[18:45]
C
Sunset Movement was Joe Biden.
[18:47]
F
Exactly.
[18:48]
A
I was gonna say. I actually have my Sunset Movement card.
[18:57]
B
Sam's a Sunset Movement partner.
[18:59]
A
Yep. Here's Will Lawrence in. Is this East Lansing?
[19:09]
C
Yeah.
[19:11]
E
This is the truth.
[19:13]
F
Everybody here in the 7th district, regardless of your political persuasion, we share so much more in common. We share so much more in common. And now what separates us, we share so much more in common than these billionaires in Silicon Valley, Wall street and these insiders in D going to find that common ground. We're going to build on it. We're going to build on it. And I tell you that on data centers, on war, on housing and healthcare, and on elite accountability, we are going to bring people together into a new way of politics beyond these older bodies.
[19:54]
A
Exciting wins there again. In Missouri, Cori Bush lost. She did not have much by way of fundraising. Wesley Bell had millions more than she did. And Hartzell Gray lost in the 4th district. But he came close. And he also, I think, was overlooked. And I think he was considered a long shot. But had there been resources there this time around, we could have seen a different outcome. I suspect there'll be more resources next time.
[20:30]
C
Well, because he got redistricted into a less favorable district and we had him on left reckoning shortly after that. And he's like, I still think we have a chance. And he was right. They had a chance. Yeah. Yeah. Good effort and I hope to see him again.
[20:42]
B
And for Will Lawrence's chances, he's facing a Republican incumbent who squeaked out one election so far and that was to replace Alyssa Slotkin. So he's not, he's only a one term incumbent who barely eked out in 2024.
[20:54]
A
And speaking of, of losers last night, it's not just Chuck Schumer and Kristen Gillibrand, who, who, who took it on the chin last night. Elisa Slotkin, I think had supported against Lawrence.
[21:21]
B
Was it,
[21:24]
A
I gotta check my notes here. But her preferred candidate, and I think it was in that Lawrence race, came in third, the one that she endorsed. Now she did her endorsement on endorsed Mazdim. Yeah. And that was in the Lawrence race, right?
[21:47]
C
Yep.
[21:49]
A
Now, to be fair, she, she did her endorsement on with invisible ink that she got from the CIA.
[21:58]
C
The guy was a Navy Seal.
[22:00]
A
It was a.
[22:00]
C
She endorsed.
[22:01]
A
Yeah, it was one of those dead drop endorsements. And if somebody didn't actually look in the. Underneath the mailbox, you have to squeeze
[22:08]
B
lemon juice on it and then gently put a flame below it and it
[22:11]
C
will reveal the secrets of the deep state Democrats.
[22:15]
A
Exactly. So that's good news. There's going to be a lot, there's
[22:21]
E
a lot of work.
[22:22]
A
And it also, I think, like, look, next week is Minnesota and you should ignore polling.
[22:33]
C
Yep.
[22:35]
A
If we have a lesson from this, it is ignore polling particularly. Look, it's very difficult to get quality polling from a primary. It's just nobody wants to spend the money on it and get, you know, quality polling. And it's just, it's very difficult to predict. But before we go to commercial, in a moment we're going to be talking to Stephanie Minamser. I think we need. We cannot close out the Michigan primaries without one last time and. Oh, we should say it's not going to be the last time.
[23:24]
C
No, no.
[23:25]
A
We're going to be playing this clip probably for well past my retirement. But we just needed. I want that Michigan fist. Yep, you got it. I want the Michigan fist.
[23:38]
C
And we got it.
[23:39]
A
You got it. Michigan has been fisted. Extra, extra.
[23:50]
B
Read all about it. Michigan fisted.
[23:56]
A
We just have this one. Is that it? Okay, like I say, in a moment we're going to be talking to Stephanie Minamser on her piece about the implosion of the irs. Everything we hear about Trump's corruption is bad. But the stuff that really is going to have a lasting impact on, on a material basis on people for years to come is the utter destruction of nearly all of our government agencies. The one that gives the government revenue is a really important one. Not just because it gives it revenue, but also it is a way of limiting wealth inequality. We'll be talking to her in a moment about that. First, I want to thank ZOCDOC for sponsoring today's episode. Super easy to put off doctor's appointments, right?
[25:03]
B
I had a hard time biting into a pickle today, so.
[25:06]
A
And dentist appointments. Zocdoc can't take away the psychological blocks that you have, Brian. I'm just reading the copy and. But it can get rid of some of the major hassles and obstacles to finding a great doctor. Booking an appointment with a great doctor and Making sure that your insurance covers it. I've used ZOCDOC on the road once when I had an emergency, a dental emergency, needed a dentist. Sock doc found me a local dentist where I was at the time and I was able to book the appointment. I was able to get the appointment the next morning. It was easy peasy. Zocdoc lets you search and compare local in network doctors. They have over, I think 150,000 doctors. It is listed in over 200 different specialties. You can search by your symptoms or by the specialty that you're looking for. And the great thing about it is they have, their interface basically connects with the doctor's schedule. So on top of being able to figure out is this doctor in network or out of network, Take my insurance. They don't take my insurance. You're able to book an appointment right on the website without having to call and haggle the receptionist. You can see what's available, you can book it. Bookings generally happen pretty fast. Sometimes it gets same day, usually within 24 to 72 hours. Your health matters, Brian, and taking care of yourself shouldn't be complicated. Find and book the right doctor with Zocdoc. Head to zocdoc.com majority to get started and check that appointment off your to do list. That z o c doc.com Majority we will put the link in the podcast and YouTube descriptions and at Majority FM. Quick break. When we come back, we'll be talking to Stephanie Minamser. Sam, We are back. Sam Cedar on the Majority Report. Emma Viglin is out today. Want to welcome back to the program Stephanie Mensimer. She is a staff reporter in the Mother Jones Washington bureau. And Stephanie, I've been waiting for someone to write a piece about this and it's we're in a hard sort of like temporally hard time to sort of fully get a full picture of just how bad it is. But I was saying before the break that as, as bad as like Trump's corruption is the real story is how this era of the Trump Republican rule has undermined all sorts of government agencies and of course the IRS they have been gunning for. This has been a Republican project for decades and decades. And I mean maybe 100 years, I mean not quite, but close. Tell us, let's start with sort of like anecdotally how you stumbled onto this story. But we had seen, you know, the attacks were blatant. But just give us like your, your first anecdote and then I want to go into what the Biden administration had done some of the history of. Of the IRS funding.
[30:01]
G
Sure. Well, I had gotten a letter from the irs, and they. After I'd done my taxes, and they
[30:11]
F
said,
[30:13]
G
we've corrected or we've changed your return, and now you owe us a whole bunch of money. And I looked at it, and the numbers were all weird. And I realized as I went through it, I'm like, I don't actually owe them any money. I paid all of this, and they just don't seem to have credited me for my payments. And so I thought, this should be easy enough to fix. Right? Just call them, and I'll send them my records, and that should be it. But calling them proved to be impossible. I spent hours and hours and hours on hold with the IRS getting disconnected. Sometimes I'd be on hold for two hours and then get disconnected. Sometimes you call and they say that the phones are so overwhelmed, you can't even be put on hold. And I realized. So then I asked my accountant. I was like, is there something I'm missing? I'm like, is there some other way to get in touch with them and resolve this? And she said, I don't know. I can't get through either. And there's, like, a special line for tax practitioners to be able to help, you know, their clients resolve stuff, and they can't get through that either. And that's when I realized, oh, wow, it's finally broken. And part of the reason I realized that is that last year, I did a story on the IRS about all the layoffs and the job cuts, because I'm from Ogden, Utah, and there's a giant IRS service center in Ogden. And so, like, my relatives had worked there. Everybody works at the IRS if you live in Ogden long enough. And so I was there as they were laying off all these people. And people warned last year that, like, oh, they're doing all this during tax season, and it's going to be a disaster. The tax season is going to implode, whatever. But it didn't really, because they hadn't fully finished getting rid of everybody because they put all these workers on, like, administrative leave. They paid them not to work, but they were still there through tax season. And so a lot of those people didn't actually leave the IRS until, like, October. So we're just now starting to see the impact of what all those job cuts meant for, like, customer service functions at the irs. And as I discovered, it was really bad.
[32:19]
A
Let's just go back a little bit. The underfunding. The IRS seemed to Be a bipartisan project, really, in the, you know, I'm thinking the aughts and even the teens. If you look at the graph of funding for the irs, it just sort of slowly goes down. And simultaneously, what we saw is the percentage of audits of people making not much money went up relative to people making a lot of money because it's just more expensive. You need more manpower, person power to go after wealthy people because they have more sophisticated sort of tax dodges. And then during the American Rescue act and I guess the IRA under Biden, we saw a big bump in IRS funding. How much of that money landed before it was all sort of, like, stripped away?
[33:32]
G
Well, they took it away in phases. So I think that initially it was something like $80 billion they were going to invest in the IRS, and that was going to go to, like, hiring customer service people and auditors and investigators and also upgrading the technology, which is really out of date. And then Congress clawed it back in kind of chunks. And I think in the end, maybe it was like 10 or 13 billion that they did actually get to hang on to. But you probably remember there were people like Ted Cruz were warning that, you know, Biden was going to h 87,000 jackbooted thugs, the IRS, to go and torture American citizens over their taxes. And so they really politicized this really basic function of just collecting revenue for the government and turned it into something nefarious, when, in fact, it's just the way things have to work if you want to have a functioning democracy.
[34:24]
A
And if I remember correctly, the data came in and we started seeing the audit rate for people making over $400,000 went up, but everything else stayed essentially static. And we also know that for every dollar you spend on IRS enforcement, you make like $7. I mean, this is the biggest,
[34:57]
D
one
[34:57]
A
of the best return on investments we could have in the government.
[35:00]
G
It seems it all pays for itself. It really does. And it's, you know, there's some, you know, they measure, and I think I forget what they call it, but there's a gap between how much people actually owe and what they actually pay. And it's getting wider and wider because people on the upper end of the income scale just aren't paying and they know they can get away with it. So as long as that's the case, you know, there's all kinds of revenue that the government should have that's going uncollected.
[35:26]
A
And what we're looking at now, though, is sort of a, like, almost another tier level of a problem that it's just completely dysfunctional. They got rid of the. I can't remember what they called it, the Freedom File, or whatever it was that they had piloted. Will you tell us just a little bit about that? Because that seems like they're really trying to ruin the irs. Like they, they want it to just, it seems like just completely go away.
[36:01]
G
Well, I think that they just also want to punish, like normal people. That's my. You know, when I was trying to. When I was sitting on hold for hours trying to get through. I mean, the direct pay. My understanding is that it was basically so that you don't have to pay TurboTax to file your really simple 1040 form. You should be able. That was the idea, was you should be able to just file your taxes online, especially if they're not too complic. And it should be free. Like, you shouldn't have to pay these companies to buy their software and then have to pay to submit it when you're doing something that you have to do. And the government is happy to have you do it online because also getting people to file their taxes online is good for less paper. They don't have to hire as many people to open the mail and stuff like that. So it was a win win all the way around. But TurboTax, I think, had fought this for years. And so I think the Trump people just caved and said, yeah, okay, we'll get rid of that. And, you know, God forbid the government should actually work, right, and help people do something that they need to do.
[37:02]
A
It was, it was piloted, I think, in the first year of the Biden administration. And then by last year, I think it was available to just about everybody. And then it was abruptly cut off. I'm not even sure I would characterize it as a cave as much as it is like we just got around to getting rid of it for you guys. What have you heard? There's a lot of anecdotes in your piece, but what have you heard in terms of actual data to suggest that there is a tremendous amount of dysfunction at the irs? I mean, it's a brilliant look, it's a brilliant plan, right? If you want to turn the American public against the IRS and they're doing the same thing with Social Security, as far as I can tell, you just make it really difficult for people to deal with them. And the harder you make it, the more people are going to resent the agency and not necessarily realize it's because it's woefully underfunded.
[38:09]
G
Right? And I think, you know, there. So the data that you're talking about is the IRS own data says that they are not responding to phone calls. It's remarkable. Like, you know, millions of people call the irs. And this data actually, I think mostly comes from during the tax filing season and which is bad because the numbers were bad during the tax filing season, even though the Trump administration actually tried to keep that from being a total disaster or they moved a lot of people around to make sure that they answered more phones. Like, so they, they cut 40% of the IT department at the IRS. And the people that were left, they didn't keep them doing it. They had some of them like answering the phones just because they didn't have enough people to do customer service. And so they had this kind of, you know, triaging during tax season. But as one of the former taxpayer advocate told me, she said, where I, you know, measure the effectiveness of the agency is on April 16th. It's the day after everybody files their returns. And that's when the IRS start sending all these letters like the one I got, say, you know, you did it wrong or actually you owe us way more money than you paid or whatever. And that's when people actually need to interact with the agency because like 99% of taxpayers never need to talk to the IRS. They just send their taxes in, everything is fine, they get their refunds and they go about their business. But for the other people who have a problem, they really do need to talk to somebody. And it's not always, there's not always a technological fix for this. And so that's where you start to see that, you know, the cracks and that things are really imploding. Because I talked to all kinds of lawyers who represent low income taxpayers and people who just practice tax law. And they said some of them. There's one guy I talked to, he's been doing this for 50 years and he said, I've never seen it this bad. I have like five or six cases. I'm just completely stymied on because I can't get through to anybody at the irs. There is nobody there. And you know, as the former HR director from the IRS who got pushed out early last year by Doge, she told me, she said, well, you can't expect to get rid of 30% of your workforce and still function. And that's, I think what we're seeing
[40:19]
A
it is that the 30% do we have a breakdown of like you say, was it 40% of the IT department was gotten rid of that Seems like a bad idea to me. But how much do we know what the percentages are in the different sort of like aspects of the way they operate?
[40:40]
G
You know, I don't have all that right in front of me, but it was, it was across the board. I mean, obviously they took aim at stuff like, you know, anybody who audited rich people, money laundering, that all went out the door. I actually talked to, you know, people who had, had been involved in money laundering operations that those people are gone. They're all the tech people, customer service, the people who do non profit work because you know, God forbid you should audit like a tech, you know, a tea party group or something or you know, some political non profit. So they're not really auditing political non profits, but pretty much it's across the board, everybody there, all the way from the mailroom and up to upper management. I mean they haven't had an IRS commissioner since Trump took office. They've gone through a bunch of people, I think, I guess maybe they confirmed Billy Long, but they haven't had, they've made up a fake job to be the CEO of the IRS because they can't get anybody confirmed in this position because Trump hasn't picked anybody who's competent.
[41:43]
A
We should say Billy Long, who was the first nominee, he had come up with some type of like commercial scheme about taxes, hadn't he? Or something to that effect or he was pitching like a plan to, to evade taxes like, like a. Prior to this. Just a couple of things that you wrote here. You cite the A report to Congress from the Taxpayer Advocate Service, which was an independent agency within the IRS, found that live humans answered 20% fewer calls during the tax season. Hold times jumped anywhere from 81 to 161%. Only 17% of the calls handled by the voice bot system were completed. The worst service came on phone lines dedicated to people who owed money to needed help, such as an installment plan. Live operators answered only 30% of more than 3 million calls over the first like four months of the year. It goes on and on. Where did like, did, did you get any comments from like the administration or people working in the IRS to the extent that they like showed that they cared that this was considered a problem? I imagine they're still un, a lot of people working at the IRS who are pulling their hair out about this, but any of the people who are in a position to make like decisions like is there a plan or is it just to literally let this thing sort of just like fall apart?
[43:28]
G
Well, I think they finally have realized that they went too far, and they're trying now to scramble to hire people. They're having these hiring fairs, and I think they got authorized to hire like another 8,000. But I don't think it's going very well because after what they did to the federal workers, I don't think a lot of people are rushing to go back there. But I tried asking. Well, it was funny. While I was writing the story, weirdly enough, I started getting press releases from the irs. They must have gotten a new. They must have hired a new press person. And so they started sending me these press releases about IRS holding Saturday hours and, you know, in its Taxpayer Assistance center. And this is so great, and we're going to be helping people. And so I emailed the woman back, said, hey, I just happen to be writing a story about this. And also these Taxpayer Assistance Centers, which, you know, you've closed all of them mostly this year. And I had to send them my questions. And then she never responded. But she sent me a new press release yesterday about something from the IRS was doing. And so I have no idea what the strategy is. I mean, I don't think there was one. I think that Doge just came in and they wanted the data. You know, there were those guys who walked out of there with, with us, you know, with us, drives full of Americans personal information. I think they thought they would be able. They were so smart, they would just be able to whip the place into shape with some easy technological fix. And it turned out that it wasn't that easy. And I think there's also just some sort of nihilism involved, that they just wanted to destroy the place and that's what they've done.
[45:03]
A
Have you, are you aware of any members of Congress or that presumably Democrats who are like, creating a dossier or like, this is what we need to do on day one. We need to have legislation that rebuilds the irs. I mean, I wonder if this is happening for any agencies, but, I mean, it should be. But have you heard of anybody?
[45:35]
G
I have not. You know, I think that members of Congress are aware, actually, some of them are probably painfully aware that this is happening, because when I talk to advocates and lawyers who work with people who've got tax problems, they said they now, when they can't get through the phone lines, they just go straight to their representative. So all these people have tax problems, are trying to use their Congress people as a back door to get through and solve these issues. And so I, you know, I haven't dug too deep into that. But members of Congress are definitely hearing from their constituents that they can't get to the irs. So I don't know what they plan to do about that. And you know, just generally as a revenue problem, like the cuts that they made, I think that, you know, the, they're not going to collect something like $900 billion in taxes. So that's a huge hole in the budget. You know, it's like they're going to keep spending all this money on the Iran war and you know, they're spending 3 million dol day to have the National Guard march around in front of my office, you know, doing nothing. And so all that's going to add up and they're not bringing any money. So I think we're headed for a pretty decent crisis that Congress is going to have to do something about.
[46:47]
A
I couldn't agree more. I just wish there were somebody, there was somebody out there starting to. I mean, hopefully there's somebody who's got a plan, but. Stephanie Menzemer, the peace is in. Mother's Jones the IRS is imploding. Thanks for coming on today. Really appreciate it.
[47:07]
G
Thanks for having me.
[47:08]
A
All right, folks, that's it for the first half of the program. This is, I mean this is honestly. Well, there's a lot of things that keep me up at night, but one of the things that keeps me up at night is just this sort of like the irs, the epa, the fda, the cdc, I mean it would just keep going on. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the ftc, like all of these agencies. Like our science research nih, all of these government funded agencies have been so decimated in terms of, particularly in terms of like just institutional knowledge and they're going to be just as dysfunctional. Probably worse, Frankly. You know, January 21, 2029, when President Buttigieg is sworn in or President AOC, or Sarah Nelson, or Sarah Nelson, Shawn Fain gets, you know, sworn into presidency. These have to be repaired. And it's very difficult to do that when the American public doesn't have a story about how they're destroyed. I mean, you think about how long conservatives have dined on the idea that the DMV is bad to explain like why you wouldn't give funding to government. And the fact of the matter is that, you know, more often than not, I think the DMV is actually pretty good. Everybody who's interacting with the IRS right now is like, this agency sucks. And it sucks because it's been so disempowered and defunded. And it's going to make it that much harder. We need to start hearing Congress and hopefully we'll get this. If Democrats take the House and God willing the Senate will hear Will. He will have hearings to create these narratives, essentially these very truthful narratives about what's been going on at these agencies and what needs to be done to fix them them and why they're important to the American public. Hopefully I can go to sleep tonight. Now that I said that at least
[49:51]
C
I got to worry about the sciatica. What's that? Still got to worry about the science.
[49:55]
A
I got to worry about the sciatica and then the cat. I mean everything broken. Ac. Oh, good. This is important. After 12 years in this office. The air. The air conditioning unit has been fixed.
[50:23]
B
It was. Did.
[50:25]
A
Did I tell you? What? You saw it, right?
[50:28]
C
It was installed incorrectly.
[50:29]
A
Apparently the air conditioning unit is a built in unit. We have been in this office, and by we I mean me because nobody else here has been here that long. Since 20. Early 2014. And was it 2014?
[50:48]
C
Yeah, I mean I got here 2015.
[50:50]
A
Maybe it was actually late 2013. And during that entire time the air conditioning did not work. And apparently the heat must not have been working. It's just like was getting. Bringing in vaguely cooler or vaguely warmer
[51:07]
C
air sort of placebo.
[51:10]
A
Yeah, exactly.
[51:11]
D
It's on.
[51:12]
A
Must be warm in here.
[51:13]
C
Yeah, you can hear the motor running.
[51:15]
A
Exactly. And apparently the two like the input and the output tubes, I didn't see how they were fixing. Were improperly installed and they were reversed.
[51:28]
D
Oops.
[51:30]
C
The one thing you don't want to happen.
[51:37]
B
I'm actually a little chilly.
[51:39]
C
No, it's a bit chilly.
[51:40]
A
That's what, that's what they're wearing 5 inch shorts. Guys downstairs said they're like, you guys are gonna need a sweater now. Meanwhile, what are we gonna do with that freaking thing there? That extraordinary uniform? Oh, he brought that down the basement. Will you take that?
[52:04]
B
Can I? I'd love.
[52:05]
A
I think we can work something out.
[52:14]
B
If you give it to me, I'll go to the dentist.
[52:16]
A
That might be worth it because
[52:20]
E
then
[52:20]
A
it's just gonna be like, I need six weeks off for all the dental surgery I need. Folks, it's your support that makes this show possible. It's your membership keeps this show surviving and thriving and subsidizes Brian getting a new air conditioner.
[52:42]
B
And some wooden teeth.
[52:43]
A
And some wooden teeth. Go to jointhemajorityreport.com again. Join themjorityreport.com Become a Member Support the show. When you do, you not only get the fun half, but you also get to Imus during the fun half and watch me read. Just a small percentage. I have even, I would say, based upon where the IRS is now. I have a similar response rate on the IMs, but we just get so many.
[53:19]
B
We also need a 40% of our IT crew.
[53:22]
A
Exactly. Also just coffee, co op, fair trade coffee, hot chocolate. Use the coupon code. Majority get 10% off. Hey, donate your Twitch prime subscription to us. You can just do it for a month. Doesn't cost you nothing.
[53:40]
C
No, actually you're already paying for it if you pay for Amazon Prime.
[53:44]
A
Exactly, exactly. Also give us a review on Apple podcasts or Spotify or whatever it is. Give us a like on YouTube. Tell your friends, tell your family.
[53:58]
C
We have had to go to subscriber only chat on YouTube because we got hit with a massive spam bot thing yesterday. So good time to subscribe to Majority.
[54:07]
A
Is that right?
[54:07]
C
Yeah, it was crazy. It's like hundreds of accounts tweeting like, don't try to silence us. So our mods had to switch to subscriber only.
[54:16]
A
Who were they? Were they bots?
[54:17]
C
Yeah, it was like hundred or so of the same kind of bot with
[54:21]
A
who were we gonna try to silence the bots?
[54:24]
C
I guess it's like, don't, because I was trying to, like, individually ban them and it was just way too much crazy.
[54:34]
B
That was during the night stream last
[54:35]
C
night, or it might have been Monday. Yeah, who.
[54:39]
A
But who do you think is sending those bots? It was like ads or
[54:45]
C
probably. That's a good question.
[54:49]
B
Maybe poker and sushi with the bots.
[54:51]
C
I don't know. I don't want to accuse Jillian Michaels joking. It's probably not Jillian Michaels.
[54:57]
B
Do you see how I coded mine?
[54:58]
C
You did.
[54:59]
B
I said poker and sushi with the bots.
[55:07]
A
Somebody should look into whether or not Jillian Michaels sending bots after us.
[55:11]
C
Yeah, I mean, it's just a weird coincidence, but Matt left Reckoning yesterday before our stream. Last night put up a show with Griscom where we talked about Vivek Ramaswamy talking to a bunch of young fascists at the Young Americans for Liberty conference. You know, the liberty lovers who want to deport hundreds of millions of people with the feds. They booed Vivek for not being American despite being born in Cincinnati, where the
[55:43]
A
event was in his hometown.
[55:46]
C
And it's one of those situations where like, man, this is both. These sides. Can they both lose? And we also talk about Bill Maher and how he's always been a horrible. I guess you could call them liberal reactionary. So, yeah, check out left reckoning. Patreon.com left reckoning.
[56:06]
A
Quick break. We'll be right back. 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 gonna look back and go like, wow.
[56:29]
C
What?
[56:31]
A
What is that going on? It's nuts. Wait a second. Hold on. Hold on for a second. Emma, welcome to the program. What is up? Everyone find the path.
[56:49]
E
No.
[56:49]
A
Me key.
[56:50]
G
You did it.
[56:51]
A
Fun hat.
[56:53]
G
Let's go, Brandon.
[56:54]
E
Let's go, Brandon.
[56:54]
A
Fun hat. Bradley, you want to say hello?
[57:00]
F
Sorry to disappoint everyone.
[57:01]
A
I'm just a random guy. It's all the boys today.
[57:04]
G
Fundamentally false.
[57:05]
D
No.
[57:05]
C
I'm sorry.
[57:06]
F
Women.
[57:06]
A
Stop talking for a second and let me finish.
[57:09]
G
Where is this coming from?
[57:10]
C
Dude?
[57:10]
B
But.
[57:11]
A
Dude, you want to smoke this? 7A.
[57:14]
G
Yes.
[57:18]
F
Hi. Me?
[57:19]
A
Is this thing. Yes. Is this me? Is it me? It is you. Is this me? Oh, it's me. I think it is you. Who is you. No sound. Every single freaking day. What's on your mind? We can discuss free markets and we can discuss capitalism.
[57:44]
E
I'm gonna go snow white.
[57:45]
A
Libertarians.
[57:46]
E
They're so stupid.
[57:47]
A
Though common sense says, of course.
[57:49]
G
Gobbledygook.
[57:50]
E
We bailed him.
[57:51]
G
So what's 79 plus 21?
[57:53]
A
Challenge.
[57:54]
G
Man, I'm positively quivering.
[57:55]
A
I believe 96. I want to say 8, 5, 7, 2, 1 0, 35. 5, 0, 11 half.
[58:01]
C
3, 8, 9, 11. For instance.
[58:03]
G
$3,400. $1900.
[58:05]
A
5, 4, $3 trillion. Sold. It's a zero sum game.
[58:11]
G
Actually. You're making me think less.
[58:13]
A
But let me say this. You can call it satire. Sam goes with satire.
[58:18]
G
On top of it all, my favorite part about you is just like every day, all day, like everything you do.
[58:24]
A
Without a doubt. Hey, buddy. We see you. All right, folks, folks, folks.
[58:35]
G
It's just the week being weeded out. Obviously.
[58:37]
E
Yeah.
[58:38]
A
Sun's out, guns out. I, I, I don't know.
[58:44]
G
But you should know,
[58:47]
A
people just don't
[58:48]
C
like to entertain ideas anymore.
[58:49]
A
I have a question. Who cares?
[58:53]
C
Our chat is enabled, folks.
[58:55]
A
I love it. I do love that. Gotta jump. Gotta be quick. I gotta jump. I'm losing it, bro. Two o'.
[59:05]
B
Clock.
[59:06]
A
We're already late and the guy's being a dick. So screw him. Sent to a gulag?
[59:12]
G
Outrageous.
[59:13]
A
What is wrong with you?
[59:16]
F
Love you. Bye.
[59:18]
E
Love you. Bye.
[59:20]
A
Bye.