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Ron Filipkowski
In the midst of a catastrophic war in Iran, Donald Trump has announced his catastrophic 2027 budget. And folks, this is not getting enough attention. Donald Trump is demanding that he receive $1.5 trillion as the 2027 military budget. Now, Donald Trump's prior military budget, which was a massive increase of former President Biden's $800 billion military budget, was $1 trillion last year spent on military spending. And now Donald Trump essentially wants a full 42% increase year over year to make that number 1.5 trillion. Meanwhile, non defense spending would be cut by $73 billion, or 10%, perhaps even more. Folks, this would be the largest year over year increase for military spending since World War II. And you all recall that Donald Trump held a press conference at the end of last week where he said, our country's too big. We're involved in too many wars now where we can't spend money on social programs, on Medicaid, Medicare, on Social Security. Those should all be destroyed and eliminated. Donald Trump basically said, and instead all the money should go to funding wars. I'll show you that in a moment. But I want to dig deeper into this disastrous budget because here in the Midas Touch Network, we get into the weeds, we reveal the secrets, we talk about things that aren't getting enough attention anywhere else. So let's do that right now. Donald Trump is demanding spending close to $200 million, technically 152 million, but lots of people believe that will be increased to rebuild Alcatraz and to turn Alcatraz, which is a museum right now, into a super prison, as Donald Trump is calling it. And what else is Donald Trump spending? What else does he want your taxpayer dollars to go to? Well, you know how Donald Trump's been saying, oh well, we're spending no money at all on the ballroom or White House renovations. It's all of my rich billionaire friends who are the ones for the ballroom BS. Donald Trump plans to spend $377 million on what's being referred to as executive residence renovations, plus $174 million more in miscellaneous funding. And that doesn't even include potential classified funding, which could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions of your taxpayer dollars for the secret bunker that the Midas Touch Network was the first to report about it under the east wing that was demolished. We reported about it five months ago. You dig in, you can see in these line items, and we've analyzed them. Potentially a billion to $2 billion when you add up what could be going down in the underground bunker. Plus the 450, $500 million in White House renovations that taxpayers are paying for right now. Just take a look. Remember, five was five months ago. We were the first to report this secret bunker exposed underneath the ballroom. And then we did a report three months ago. It's under the ballroom. And I just remember there were so many people who were like, okay, you're being hyperbolic. Secret bunkers. That's what they're doing. Secret bunkers. That's my voice of people mocking us. But we were right. It's just funny because 12 hours ago, the New York Times did a story on this. What to know about the massive military bunker beneath Trey Trump's ballroom. Trump's been talking about the emergency facility beneath what was once the east wing. Details which are usually kept secret as he tries to justify his renovation. So that underneath portion as well.
Jake Levine
Yeah.
Ron Filipkowski
Who do you think's paying for that? Also, the 2027 budget proposal calls for spending close to $650 million. Technically 605, but again, based on some of the ways this is written, it seems like it'll be closer to 650, but 650 million dol. National Guard mobilization in Washington, D.C. also, 75 billion more dollars to ICE, including these massive concentration camp facilities they call detention spaces. These 100,000 single adult bed factories that look like these Amazon factories. 30,000 family unit beds. $15.4 billion for transportation to move people to concentration. 67% increase in ICE staffing through 2029. What's being cut in this disastrous budget? Well, the 2027 budget proposes steep cuts to the EPA funding by 52%. This reduces the EPA's budget to the lowest level since the 1980s. Trump's 2027 budget fully eliminates sexual risk avoidance programs and teen pregnancy prevention programs. Donald Trump is a sicko, of course, and he's part of the Epstein class. Trump's 2027 budget proposal cuts over $15 billion in funding for renewable energy projects and removing carbon dioxide from the air. It cuts $240 million from the McGovern Dull Food for Education program. This program is strongly supported by US agriculture groups and trade organizations. The budget cuts $2.3 billion from the Department of Education. It cuts significant amounts of money to small businesses. Specifically, it eliminates multiple SBA Entrepreneurial Development Programs that provide small businesses with quality training, counseling and access to resources. Trump's 2027 budget proposal cuts $1.1 billion in NASA funding for the International Space station. It cuts $297 million for space technology. It cuts 3.4 billion in other NASA science research programs. It cuts $204.5 million for a community Development Financial Institution Fund, which stimulates growth in economically disadvantaged communities. It cuts $2 billion in humanitarian assistance. The budget proposal fully eliminates the Food for Peace program, which would otherwise provide $2 billion in support for the US farm economy each year. It cuts 234 million dol in funding for worker protection agencies. It fully eliminates Job Corps Job Corps, as you probably know, provides free education and vocational training to young Americans. It fully eliminates hud, the Housing and Urban Developments Fair Housing Initiative program, which assists victims of housing discrimination and also fully eliminates HUD's pathway to removing Obstacles Pro Housing program. These grants remove restrictive zoning regulations and promote the construction of affordable housing housing. Also it fully eliminates HUD's community development block Grant program. The program develops housing and expands economic opportunities for low income families. The 2027 budget proposal includes $40 million in cuts to the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction. It fully eliminates HUD again, Housing and Urban Development's Native American programs, a Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grant, which provides affordable housing and community developments for Native Americans and Native Hawaiians. It also fully eliminates HUD's home investment partnerships program, which creates affordable housing for low income families. The budget includes 354 million in funding cuts for HBCUs and other similar institutions. It includes $1.3 billion in cuts to FEMA disaster preparedness programs. It cuts $5 billion to the National Institutes of Health. It fully eliminates low income Home Energy Assistance LIHEAP liheap, which helps struggling families with energy bills and energy during an energy crisis. It also includes $1.6 billion in cuts to the national oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which monitors predicts national natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes and floods. Trump's 2027 budget includes 82 million in cuts to the USDA's Rural Business Service. This program supports economic development, boost farms and creates job opportunities in rural communities as well. And just so you remember, I mean, here's what Donald Trump said at the end of the week. We don't have money for these programs. We only have money for war right now. Here's what Donald Trump said. Let's play this clip.
Donald Trump (clip)
We're a big country. We have 50 states. We have all these other people. We're fighting wars. We can't take care of daycare. You got to let a state take care of daycare. And they should pay for it, too. They should pay. They have to raise their taxes, but they should pay for it. And we could lower our taxes a little bit to them to make up. But it's not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. They can do it on a state basis. You can't do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing, military protection.
Ron Filipkowski
I want to bring on right now. Jake Levine, running for California's 32nd congressional district. Very competitive primary right there. Incumbent Brad Sherman. Lots of people know him. You know, he's been in that district, entrenched in that district for a very long time. I've interviewed him. I've had him on my show before. I would be remiss if I didn't bring you on, though, because your campaign is gathering a lot of attention. You and I are about the same age. You've worked in the Obama administration, had a big role there, worked in the Biden administration. And lots of people are looking to you and your campaign as kind of a model for the next generation. And, you know, in my view, you know, I don't think, you know, it's not a, no offense taken to other people out there who have worked hard in the districts. I do think that there is a lot of people saying, what does the future look like of a Democratic Party? And this race is one that people point to. So talk to us about that a little bit. But let's, I want to get to you and I are about the same age. I went to Georgetown. You went to Harvard. You worked in the Obama administration, though, right after, you know, undergrad. Talk to us about this journey, though, so people get to know you a little bit.
Jake Levine
Jake well, Ben, I think I'm a little bit older than you, unfortunately, I have to admit that. But I'm glad. I'll take a couple years here.
Ron Filipkowski
We look the same age. You look younger than me.
Jake Levine
Look, I think a lot about the young people who are getting involved in my campaign. These are people in college. We've had some, some high schoolers out on the doors with us. You know, we're knocking thousands of doors and I think about the moment that they're. That they've come up in where, you know, they lived through 9, 11, then the Great Recession, then Trump 1, then Covid, then Trump 2. They have not had a model for hope or inspiration or success. And a big part of why I'm running is because within our own district, we've had no model for hope and success and effectiveness for 30 years with our incumbent member of Congress. This was something that I came to appreciate very recently after losing my childhood home in the LA fires and watching the ineffectiveness of our incumbent member of Congress. But we have got to demonstrate across the government as a whole that we can actually deliver on important things. I mean, you mentioned after I graduated college, I had the opportunity of a lifetime to go work on the Obama campaign. I started in 2007. Actually, my very first real job on that campaign was as Michelle Obama's driver, and I shuttled her around New Hampshire, and we were barnstorming the state after Iowa, before the New Hampshire primary, and there was something hopeful. And then we delivered on health care, on financial regulatory reform. I worked in the first ever White House climate policy office. We delivered a bipartisan bill that we got out of the House called Waxman Markey. These folks coming up now have no models for success, and that is the fundamental reason why I'm running. We need a refresh. We need dynamic leaders with new ideas and who are capable and have a track record of getting things done.
Ron Filipkowski
People are looking at this current moment and they're seeing, I know this teaching college students at usc. They're like, we were prompt. It's incredible to me that people believe some of the stuff that Trump was selling, because I've always known the guy as a con artist his entire life who bankrupted this, that and the other thing. And so, for whatever reason, there are some group of people, oftentimes young men as well, you know, who bought into some of this stuff and said, you know, I believe that he's going to do this and that. I tried telling people in 2024 and 2023, and, you know, since we started this, no, he's not the guy. You know, just look at the facts and the data. But what's been fascinating for me to see is the shift recently as well, and the feeling of this betrayal a la all the other people Trump has come into touch with. But, you know, I think about Trump's statement that he made in the past 24 hours, where he goes, we don't have the ability, right, as a wealthy big nation to deal with Medicare, Medicaid and other social services, we need to focus just on war. That's the direct quote from the guy. And people are like, what? So talk to us about kind of your priorities, but also this moment where, especially with you working for Obama and Biden, to even hear somebody or say that out loud to me is like, how is that not disqualified?
Jake Levine
Well, obviously Trump is totally out of touch with what people actually are going through. But the sad truth is that so are a lot of Democrats. So are a lot of people who have held onto office decade after decade and have not delivered. When Brad Sherman was first elected to Congress, you could rent a one bedroom apartment in our district for $700. Today it's $2,800. So, you know, we're putting a renter's tax credit on the agenda as part of our core housing agenda. We're also fighting for a national housing development bank to help create the supply of new housing that we desperately need, not just here in L. A, but across the state to bring down prices. We're going to support first time homebuyers with mortgage assistance and young people, whether they're dreaming of buying a home or whether they're dreaming of having a family and they want support on childcare and education, insurance, they deserve leaders who are actually in touch with those needs. So that's at the top of our agenda. And I hear that knocking doors is folks even still in their 30s and 40s paying off $1,000, $2,000 a month of student debt. People who are dreaming of buying a home but just can't do it. They're still living at home. People who don't feel safe in their communities, whether it's from fire or from crime. And they've had a government that has said to them, well, there's not that much that we can do. And now you've got the ultimate contrast with a president that has taken us into yet another forever war with no clear objectives, no set of strategic goals, no transparency as to what's happening, never making the case to the American people and spending a billion dollars a day asking for 2 billion more to finance this when we actually need a whole host of other things on the home front. We got to bring prices down and we got to support the things that people need. And I will say my opponent, Brad Sherman, has not been on the record as to where he would be on funding this war. I want to be very clear that I would not support funding this war at a moment when we have enormous economic challenges and needs for everyday working families here in our district. And we deserve a member of Congress who will fight for that and be clear about where they stand on everything else.
Ron Filipkowski
You know, I think an important point and what I think a lot of people point to your campaign that you're doing that perhaps some other people who have kind of young, fresh campaigns don't fully appreciate. And I think this is your background with Obama and Biden and being in these rooms though lots of people think that just saying what you're going to do to stop Trump and block Trump and anti Trump, you know, is, is enough. Because people despise and hate Trump. Sure. Like, I think people granted, you know, he's the least popular. His approvals like, like historically low. Awful human being. So stipulated. I still think, and, and I want, I want to hear from you on this though, is okay, well, what is the forward looking affirmative agenda?
Jake Levine
Yeah.
Ron Filipkowski
And, and people are like, just don't use the word affordability. Tell me, like at a very specific and granular level, like, what are you going to do actually to make my life, you know, better without speaking like a politician? And I think some of the voices right now that have really broken through in this moment at a granular level are talking about this specific thing, this specific thing and people like, yeah, that's actually going to make my life better. So talk to us about that before we.
Jake Levine
Yeah, well, I wanna also stipulate to everything you had to say about Trump. But that's the table stakes, right? I mean, we'll all stipulate to that. And I think what will distinguish Democrats, and we'll see this in the presidential election debates coming up, is what are we articulating that is an affirmative message for what people need. That is not about purely opposing Trump. What we're focused on is three things fundamentally. One is on bringing the cost of living down so that people can afford to live where they work here in la. Number two is making a safer Los Angeles and I'll talk about that in a second. And number three is electing effective members of Congress, people who can build coalitions and get things done. So bringing costs down. I mentioned housing, where we're really focused on supply side and also supports for mortgage support and renters support. But we're also focused on bringing down the cost of utilities like I did when I helped start a tech company called Opower that has saved people billions of dollars on their electric bills. We can do this by deploying cheap, affordable, clean energy. We're focused on bringing down the cost of childcare and education by providing support through federal programs that can be improved through streamlining and additional funding in those areas. And we're focused on bringing down the cost of insurance. And I've got an opponent who's taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from the very insurance companies that are denying claims to survivors in the Palisades and in Malibu when we actually need to be providing accountability on the insurance industry to be ensuring that prices are affordable and that coverage is provided. But we also have to address the concerns that people have around safety, whether that's the mayhem that ICE and CBP have created in our communities. And so we're fighting for a pathway to citizenship for the hardworking, tax paying, law abiding members of our community who are here without status but really driving our economy forward. In construction, agriculture, services. We're fighting for accountability around the overreach and unconstitutional conduct that ICE and CBP demonstrated during their raids and continue to demonstrate. And we're fighting for resources around fire and public safety. This is the basics of government. People. You know, people experience burglary, they call the police here in LA and the police tell them get a dog, because the police is not going to be here fast enough. We've got to, as Democrats, pay attention to our shortcomings there. And finally, Ben, we need members of Congress who can actually perform the job. My opponent has passed four bills in 30 years. Two of them are to rename post offices. I didn't wait to become a member of Congress to start an organization helping survivors in the Palisades in Malibu get the resources that they need. I didn't wait to become a member of Congress to launch the California Climate Action Corps, which has put 20,000 young people to work doing the resilience and climate security that they need in their communities. I didn't wait to start a petition to make sure that this city was not allowing ICE to conduct unlawful raids on city property. And we shouldn't have to wait any longer for a member of Congress to actually perform their job in this district. And I think that's what voters are looking for, is someone who has the urgency and the plans and the experience to actually address these urgent issues.
Ron Filipkowski
Jake, where can people learn more about the campaign and when is the primary?
Jake Levine
The primary is June 2. Ballots will drop actually like a month from now in early May. So this thing is off to the races. People can check us out on our website. Jake levineforcongress.com we're constantly posting to Instagram and TikTok and Facebook. Please follow. There are opportunities to get involved. We have 50 volunteers out on the doors. Last weekend were knocking on thousands of doors. And we really, you know, this is a campaign that young people are responding to because I think they feel that for too long the needs that they have have gone unanswered. And we want to get more young people involved. So join us.
Ron Filipkowski
Jake Levine, running for Congress out here in Cali. Thanks for joining us.
Jake Levine
Thanks be everybody.
Ron Filipkowski
Hit subscribe let's get to 7 million subscribers. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our substack@midasplus.com you'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski ad free episodes of our podcast and more exclusive content only available@midasplus.com Group chat Getting
Jake Levine
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Podcast: The MeidasTouch Podcast
Episode: Jake Levine On Midterms and Fighting for American People
Date: April 4, 2026
Theme:
The episode centers on the unveiling and critique of Donald Trump’s 2027 budget proposal and features an in-depth interview with Jake Levine, a new-generation candidate running for Congress in California's 32nd district. The hosts, known for their sharp, comedic brotherly banter and unapologetically pro-democracy stance, explore the threats to social programs, unpack the role of government, and spotlight Levine’s vision for energizing and serving younger voters.
Speaker: Ron Filipkowski
Timestamps: 02:43–12:15
Massive Military Spending Increase:
Controversial Allocations:
Expanding Homeland Security & Detention:
Severe Cuts to Social & Humanitarian Programs:
Trump’s Public Statement:
Interview Host: Ron Filipkowski
Guest: Jake Levine (Candidate, CA-32)
Timestamps: 12:15–25:21
Three Policy Pillars:
Accountability on War & Budget Priorities:
Concrete Accomplishments (Pre-Congress):
Timestamps: 24:29–25:21
On Military Spending vs. Social Programs:
On Stagnant Leadership and Vision:
On What’s at Stake:
On Youth Engagement:
For more about Jake Levine and to get involved:
Website: jakelevineforcongress.com
Social: Instagram, TikTok, Facebook
Primary date: June 2, 2026 (ballots drop early May)