Congressman Jake Auchincloss on GOP Blunders

Summary

The MeidasTouch Podcast Summary
Episode: Congressman Jake Auchincloss on GOP Blunders
Release Date: February 27, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, hosts Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas engage in a robust discussion with Congressman Jake Auchincloss, focusing on the recent and proposed actions of the GOP that they argue are detrimental to the United States. The conversation spans a range of topics, including catastrophic budget cuts, Medicaid reductions, GOP's unexpected endorsements, Trump's economic and immigration policies, and public health responses.

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GOP's Devastating Budget Cuts

Ben initiates the conversation by highlighting the GOP's proposed budget, which he characterizes as potentially the most devastating in U.S. history. The proposed cuts include:

• $880 Billion in Medicaid Reductions: Ben emphasizes the severity of these cuts, suggesting they will cripple essential health services.

  Ben (02:01): "We're talking about $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid."

• $19 Trillion Deficit Over 10 Years: The significant increase in the national deficit is another major concern.

  Ben (02:01): "We're talking about adding $19 trillion to the deficit over the course of 10 years."

• Infrastructure and Agricultural Resources: The budget also plans to gut infrastructure and crucial resources for farmers, further straining the economy.

Ben criticizes the GOP for their prioritization, observing that while they are cutting essential services, they are strangely praising figures like Elon Musk and endorsing the Dogecoin cryptocurrency.

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MAGA Republicans' Focus on Elon Musk and Doge

The conversation shifts to the GOP's support for high-profile individuals and unconventional assets:

• Elon Musk's Twitter Endeavors:

  Congressmember (02:47): "Think about what Elon did with Twitter. He fired 80% of people when he took over Twitter. He changed the name of it. And it's still."

  Ben counters this by arguing that Musk's management has devalued Twitter rather than increased its worth.

  Ben (03:04): "Yeah, it's not worth twice as much. I think it's worth a fraction of it. He ran it into the ground, essentially."

• Support for Dogecoin (Doge):

  The hosts and Congressman Kloss express confusion and concern over the GOP's endorsement of Doge, viewing it as a distraction from more pressing issues like Medicaid cuts.

  Ben (02:01): "They are just outrageously glazing Elon Musk and Doge in like, the weirdest way possible."

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Congressman Jake Auchincloss on Medicaid and GOP Policies

Congressman Jake Auchincloss provides a detailed critique of the GOP's stance on Medicaid and its broader implications:

• Impact on Kentuckians and Vulnerable Populations:

  Congressman Jake Alkin Kloss (04:50): "All 30% of Kentuckians are on Medicaid. And I'm going to be sure they're going to be thrilled with Andy Barr's viewpoint that what they really need is to be kicked off the rolls."

  He emphasizes that Medicaid is a lifeline for various groups, including new mothers, families with children who have intellectual or developmental disabilities, and seniors requiring home care.

• GOP's Misdirection Tactics:

  Jake (06:23): "Doge is a magic trick. It's not saving money, as you know, it's misdirection. It's trying to direct Americans' attention spans towards what one hand is doing so that they're not going to be paying attention to what Congressional Republicans are doing, which is taking an ax to Medicaid."

  Kloss argues that the GOP is distracting the public with high-profile endorsements to hide the detrimental effects of their budget cuts.

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Trump's Economic Policies and Their Impact

The discussion delves into President Trump's economic strategies and their repercussions on everyday Americans:

• Egg Prices and Household Costs:

  Ben criticizes Trump for blaming the administration for rising egg prices while failing to deliver on his promises to make housing more affordable and manage inflation.

  Ben (07:38): "Donald Trump is blaming the egg prices on the administration, but he was acting like he wasn't in charge."

• Rising Insurance Costs:

  Congressman Kloss warns of impending increases in home and car insurance premiums due to Trump's policies.

  Jake (08:42): "I want everyone who's listening right now to go and take a picture of their most recent home insurance bill and their most recent car insurance bill... those bills will go up by double-digit percentages."

  He attributes these rises to added taxes on materials like steel and lumber and a diminished workforce due to aggressive immigration policies.

• Healthcare Inflation:

  The Medicaid cuts are expected to lead to higher health insurance costs as hospitals compensate for increased ER visits from uninsured individuals.

  Jake (08:42): "When he kicks millions of Americans off the rolls of Medicaid, those Americans don't stop getting sick. They just go to emergency rooms... individuals who are getting their health insurance through their employers will be paying more higher prices on health insurance."

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Trump's Immigration Policies and Public Health Response

The conversation addresses Trump's controversial immigration proposals and the administration's handling of public health crises:

• Gold Card Immigration Plan:

  Ben critiques Trump's proposal to sell immigration visas, equating it to offering a "gold card" for $5 million, which he views as exploitative.

  Ben (10:21): "He's going to sell immigration. It's 5 million a pop... he's like, I'm going to give you a gold card."

  Congressman Kloss sarcastically suggests integrating cryptocurrency with immigration policies, highlighting the absurdity of the proposal.

  Jake (11:26): "What he should have done is require these gold card applicants to buy his meme coin."

• Response to Measles Outbreaks:

  The episode touches on the mishandling of measles outbreaks, with RFK Jr.'s ineffective responses being criticized.

  Jake (15:06): "When he got measles. As a kid, he took vitamin A and had chicken soup. And that is the preferred approach for dealing with these outbreaks."

  Kloss condemns Congressional Democrats for deflecting responsibility and Republicans for their inadequate oversight.

  Jake (15:06): "Congressional Democrats just said to congressional Republicans, hey, should we bring RFK to Congress to explain to us what exactly he plans to do about a measles outbreak? Congressional Republicans laughed and voted down the proposal."

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Conclusion

Ben wraps up the episode by commending Congressman Jake Auchincloss for his leadership and fact-based approach in highlighting the GOP's detrimental policies. He encourages listeners to subscribe and engage with the podcast's additional content.

Ben (16:39): "Your leadership on the Hill has been a great thing for us to watch... thanks, Congressmember."

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Notable Quotes

• Ben (02:01): "We're talking about $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid."

• Congressman Jake Alkin Kloss (04:50): "All 30% of Kentuckians are on Medicaid."

• Jake (06:23): "Doge is a magic trick... it's trying to direct Americans' attention spans towards what one hand is doing."

• Jake (08:42): "Those bills will go up by double-digit percentages."

• Jake (11:26): "What he should have done is require these gold card applicants to buy his meme coin."

• Jake (15:06): "Congressional Republicans laughed and voted down the proposal."

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Final Thoughts

This episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast serves as a critical examination of the GOP's current policies, emphasizing the potential long-term consequences of their budgetary decisions and political strategies. Through incisive dialogue and expert insights from Congressman Jake Auchincloss, listeners gain a comprehensive understanding of the challenges facing American democracy and the importance of informed political advocacy.

Transcript

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[Ben]

The MAGA Republicans are pushing forward what may be the most devastating budget in the history of the United States of America. We're talking about $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid. We're talking about adding $19 trillion to the deficit over the course of 10 years. We're talking about gutting infrastructure. We're talking about gutting important resources to farmers. And so what are they doing, though? I mean, they are just outrageously glazing Elon Musk and Doge in like, the weirdest way possible. I mean, you got this MAGA Republican Senator Roger Marshall out there saying, go, Elon, go, go. Here, watch whatever the hell this is, play.

[Congressmember]

If I was Elon, I'm asking him to double down, not go slower, double down. And we're going to correct the pieces as we go along as well. Think about what Elon did with Twitter. He fired 80% of people when he took over Twitter. He changed the name of it. And it's still. And now today, it's worth twice as much as it was before.

[Ben]

Yeah, it's not worth twice as much. It's, I think, worth a fraction of it. He ran it into the ground, essentially. Then you've got MAGA Republican Congress member Andy Barr on the Medicaid cuts. They're like, yeah, we need these Medicaid cuts. People are lazy. You know, lazy people. You don't deserve your Medicaid. This is what the MAGA Republicans are going with. Play this clip coming up with the offsets.

[Congressmember]

So when you look at mandatory spending, and this is the point that I've been making recently, is some of this, quote, unquote, mandatory spending not mandatory at all. No, look, I mean, Medicaid is a big mandatory spending program, but what we need in this country is for the American people to get back to work. Work capable adults need to get off of the taxpayer roles, and they need to get into private health insurance in private employment. This is what Secretary Besson and President Trump are talking about when, say, reprivatize the economy. This is good for people who are currently on Medicaid in Kentucky and around the country.

[Ben]

It's good for you. We're taking away your Medicaid. You want this. It's good for people in Kentucky. While the MAGA Republican Congress members do things like this, Republican Congressmember Joe Wilson has announced a proposal for a new $250bill featuring Donald Trump's face on it. Quote, I'm drafting legislation to direct the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to design a $250 bill featuring Donald J. Trump. The most valuable bill for the most valuable president. This is cartoonishly clownish. I got to get the take of Congressmember Jake Alkin Kloss, who's been very outspoken about how disastrous Doge has been, and these cuts are in this horrific budget. Congressmember, what do you make of this?

[Congressmember Jake Alkin Kloss]

All 30% of Kentuckians are on Medicaid. And I'm going to sure they're going to be thrilled with Andy Barr's viewpoint that what they really need is to be kicked off the rolls. Those new moms who are just so darn lazy they don't want to go back to work during that 12 weeks of maternity leave. Or those families raising children with intellectual or developmental disabilities who rely on Medicaid as a lifeline. Those seniors who are at home getting care that only Medicaid provides.$60 out of every hundred spent in this country and not home care comes from Medicaid. They're not lazy, they're not shirking responsibilities. They're individuals who need access to primary care and preventative care and at home care and Medicaid provides it. These Republicans are touching a hot stove in slow motion and they are going to get burned.

[Ben]

The Congressmember, I mean, you're telling me that people in red states are not rooting for things like this, like Trump Gaza. They're not focused on whatever this image is of. I don't, I don't even know what I'm looking at. That Donald Trump is posing, telling me that they're not focused on Elon Musk at a beach, throwing money in the air and seeing Donald Trump post that. You're telling me that the American people are getting pissed that their Medicaid is getting taken away, that essential services are being gutted, that they're waking up feeling less safe.

[Congressmember Jake Alkin Kloss]

Ben, I'm glad you raised the chaos, the corruption of Doge and the attempts by the president to pay to play fetch with our attention span, because Doge is a magic trick. It's not saving money, as you know, it's misdirection. It's trying to direct Americans attention spans towards what one hand is doing so that they're not going to be paying attention to what Congressional Republicans are doing, which is taking an ax to Medicaid. Donald Trump doesn't have to face the voters again. So I understand what he's doing. He's trying to hook up all these tech billionaires who invested in his campaign, who probably bought all of his meme coins that he issued. He owes them tax cuts. But for the life of me, I can't understand why Congressional Republicans are allowing Donald Trump to frog march them off the gangplank. Because when they go home to their town halls and they have to explain to new mothers and to kids and to seniors that they cut off their lifeline to health care in exchange for Elon Musk firing, some Federal Aviation Administration staff or FDA staff, they're going to get thrown out of town.

[Ben]

You know, Donald Trump is, he was saying today he was blaming the egg prices on the administration, but he was acting like he wasn't in charge. He was just saying, you know, these egg prices are going up. I gotta go speak to the head of the Department of Agriculture and just see what's going on here. I'm pissed about this. But wasn't he the one who promised that on day one he was gonna bring down prices, housing was gonna be more affordable, there was gonna be all of these. There's so many jobs, you aren't gonna know what to do with all of the jobs. And you know, I think what we're seeing in the kind of consumer sentiment and as Donald Trump's approval is plummeting, that despite Donald Trump's efforts to try to distract and corporate media kind of buying into the distraction framework, I think it's hitting people hard and they're going, wait a minute, I can't even find eggs. My grocery prices up. What are you seeing across the country in town halls, in your district? Is this Democrats, Republicans, independent, what are you seeing?

[Congressmember Jake Alkin Kloss]

I want everyone who's listening right now to go and take a picture of their most recent home insurance bill and their most recent car insurance bill. Save that in your photo library. And then a year from now, I want you to look at the bill that you get. I will sit here and virtually guarantee you that those bills will go up by double digit percentages. Why? Well, homes and cars are basically bundles of steel, aluminum, semiconductors and lumber. And President Trump wants to add taxes to all those things indiscriminately. And then he's going to harass or deport the workforce, particularly for housing that constructs them and our home and our car insurance. What they are, is their messages from the future. They are messages saying, here's what it will cost to rebuild or repair your home or your car in the future. And that's why Americans insurance bills are going to go up now for the actions that Donald Trump is taking that will affect the economy later. We're going to see not just inflation and insurance costs for home and auto, but also insurance costs for health care. Because when he kicks millions of Americans off the rolls of Medicaid, those Americans don't stop getting sick. They just go to emergency rooms. And those hospitals have to cross subsidize the cost of those ER visits by raising the rates they charge commercial insurers. So individuals who are Getting their health insurance through, their employers will be paying more higher prices on health insurance along with car and home insurance. This economy under Donald Trump's current direction will see inflation.

[Ben]

But Congressman, I got to push back on you because one of the things that Trump is saying, in addition to Trump Gaza with giant golden statues of him and him and Benjamin Netanyahu with their shirts off, hanging on the beach and whatever the heck again those, those photos were that he's been posting. He's got, he's, doesn't he, he's got gold cards. He's going to change the immigration system. He's going to replace what we have. And he's, he says he's going to sell immigration. It's 5 million a pop. Like people have a black card because a lot of Americans can relate to having an American Express black card. He's like, I'm going to give you a gold card. So he said this word for word. Russian oligarchs, for example, you Chinese oligarchs, you buy in 5 mil, you become, you get your visa, you become an American Citizen and Bang, $50 trillion. 50 trillion is what he's saying.

[Congressmember Jake Alkin Kloss]

But Ben, he missed a clear business opportunity because what he should have done is he should have required these gold card applicants to buy his meme coin. That is the key is you got to buy Trump coin. And when you show him the crypto wallet with Trump coin in it, then you can come into this country. Because monetizing citizenship goes hand in hand with monetizing the presidency, which he's already done on day one in office. In seriousness, this gold card idea, it's typical Trump in that he takes this kernel of legitimate bipartisan policy, whether it's the NIH and saying, hey, we need more research efficiency or, you know, it's, it's the DOD and saying we need more procurement efficiency or it's immigration and saying we need to figure out a way to fix our high talent immigration system. And he takes it to this weird and cruel and unproductive place. We absolutely do want to attract people who create jobs, who are entrepreneurs or engineers or scientists. We have a system for that. It's called the H1B visa system. We should expand it, we should improve it. There's bipartisan support to do that. What we shouldn't do is have people spend $5 million so that they can go play golf with Donald Trump at Mar A Lago and commiserate with Vladimir Putin.

[Ben]

You know, one of the areas where we're seeing a lot of cuts in as well, is health, nih, cdc. And, you know, the same way. I feel like Republicans tried to normalize and like school shootings and just be like, it's the Second Amendment. So, you know, that's what. That's just what happens. I saw the Secretary of Transportation, Secretary Duffy also, you know, doing this with the. The plane crashes and a lot of the things, you know, planes, Planes crash. That's just. You get used to it like that. Like, that's what happens. And I saw you had RFK Jr today, basically trying to say, you know, there was that death with. Caused by measles in Texas, which. That doesn't happen. Measles outbreaks like this because of low vaccination, that's not normal. But you have the secretary of HHS going up there and saying this always. This is. This is normal measles outbreaks. This is. This is what we're used to hear. Just play this clip if we have it, because it was a shocking moment.

[Secretary Kennedy]

We. Bobby, you want to speak on that? We are following the measles epidemic every day. I think there's 124 people who have contracted measles at this point, mainly in Case County, Texas. Mainly, we're told in the Mennonite community. There are two. Two people who have died, but they were watching it. And There are about 20 people hospitalized, mainly for quarantine. We're watching it. We put out a post on it yesterday, and we're going to continue to follow it. Incidentally, there have been four measles outbreaks this year in this country. Last year there were 16. So it's not unusual. We have measles outbreaks every year.

[Ben]

You sound a little under the weather yourself right now.

[Congressmember Jake Alkin Kloss]

I just.

[Secretary Kennedy]

I have a permanently bad throat.

[Ben]

What do you just make of all of it?

[Congressmember Jake Alkin Kloss]

There are measles outbreaks right now in Texas and Georgia. I'm on the committee of jurisdiction for Health and Human Services. And just yesterday we were in a hearing about our oversight responsibilities for the next two years. And Ben, Congressional Democrats had this outlandish idea that one of the things that we should be overseeing was Secretary Kennedy's viewpoints on vaccines. Given the fact that for the first time in 20 years, a child in the United States has just died of measles, that we have measles in at least two states and outbreaks elsewhere, and that the top public health official in this country believes that chicken soup is more effective than the MMR vaccine for preventing and treating measles. And in RFK's own words, when he got measles. As a kid, he took vitamin A and had chicken soup. And that is the preferred approach for dealing with these outbreaks. He refuses to tell parents to get their kids vaccinated, even now that the outbreak is spreading. So congressional Democrats just said to congressional Republicans, hey, should we bring RFK to Congress to explain to us what exactly he plans to do about a measles outbreak? Congressional Republicans did two things. First, they laughed. And second, they voted down the proposal. They are just as accountable as Donald Trump and RFK is for any more children who die of measles.

[Ben]

I think we'll leave it on that note. We'll bring you back as well and keep checking in with you. Your leadership on the Hill has been a great thing for us to watch. And I just like that you're bringing the facts. You're going on Republican territory also. And you're, you know, you're speaking, you're speaking to their voters and their turf also. And you're doing a great job. So thanks, Congressmember.

[Congressmember Jake Alkin Kloss]

Thank you, Ben.

[Ben]

Everybody. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 5 million subscribers. Can't get enough Midas. Check out the Midas substack for ad free articles, reports, podcasts, daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski and more. Sign up for free [e-mail].

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