Brett Meiselas (65:13)
Benji. I also don't want us to get distracted. We can walk and chew gum at the same time. We can cover this all. I don't want us to get distracted. About the disastrous budget bill that will kick over 10 million Americans off of health care, literally rip the lunches out of the mouths of school children. Massive education cuts, massive agriculture cuts, massive cuts to food stamp program, supplemental Nutrition Assistance program, massive cuts to housing and rental assistance, attacks on women's reproductive rights. I could go on and on and on. I mean, there was a recent CBO report and other independent groups basically, you know, saying that if this Republican budget bill passes, 40% of the country becomes poorer in order to pay essentially for a 270,000 tax cut. $270,000 tax cut for the wealthiest Americans. I mean, they're literally ripping 1,000 to $2,000 out of the hands of people who make less than $50,000 to give people who are making more than $4.2 million a 270,000 to $500,000 tax cut or higher, depending on what your income is in a given year. I unapologetically say tax the rich and tax the rich more. I'm not afraid to, To. To say that that's where the people are and that's where you should be. Look, I think that I believe in capitalism. I don't believe the Republicans in MAGA believe in capitalism. I think they believe in a crony oligarchism that actually is an affront to capitalism. I also believe that, you know, we should have compassion. And, you know, back in the, back in the day, you know, CEOs weren't making 2,000 or 5,000 times what workers were making. I believe that if you work a job, you should be paid with dignity. You shouldn't have to work multiple jobs to be able to afford a home. Every American should be able to afford a home. Housing, housing. Housing should be talked about over and over again. Housing is dignity. And we shouldn't have people who can't afford homes, can't afford rent in the United States of America, live paycheck to paycheck and are experiencing the psychological torture of if they can feed their kids or pay their rent or pay their bills. That should never be the case in America. I believe everybody should have health care. Everybody should have education. I believe it should be free and available to everybody. And I think it can be paid for if you tax the rich more. I'm not afraid to express that opinion loudly and proudly. That's how I feel about the issues. I believe that diversity is a strength. I don't think that we should punch down on gay people or trans people. They're humans. We should treat them with respect. We should uplift. We should be allies always, not just when it selfishly helps us us. We should be there always. Period. Full stop. To me, these concepts should not be something that Democrats or people who care about humanity grapple with. And when I see somebody who's been here in the United States and they're working hard and they're at a factory and they're living their American dream, and they're not criminals, I'm not trying to disappear them to countries that they've never even stepped foot into or. Or deport them without any process, or deport them or separate them from their families at all, Period. These are people who contribute to our country, who contribute to our economy. You want the biggest proof in the world? You know how Donald Trump likes to say the United States subsidizes Canada? Because Trump doesn't understand what a deficit is. And even though there's not really a trade deficit between the United States and Canada, Trump just doesn't understand the relationship at all. It's actually significantly advantageous to the United States. Well, the United States isn't subsidizing Canada, but let me tell you who's subsidizing who. California is subsidizing basically all of the red states. All of the red states, as Brett alluded to earlier in the show, would be complete and utter failures. Failed states. They're the worst in education. They've got mortality rates that are disastrous. People die much younger in these red states. They have the worst health care. They're the poorest states, by far the worst quality of life, the highest homicide rate rates and violent crime rates by multiples of California. And by the way, even when you look in California sometimes and you see where the highest homicide rates are, they tend to be in the areas that voted Trump and had Republican leadership. But I don't think that's coincidental at all. But California is the fourth largest gdp, not in the United States, in the world. If California was a country, California would have the fourth Largest gdp. It is a donor state where most of these red states are taker states. They take from mostly the blue states, where there's the best education, the highest quality of living, the highest paying jobs, the best quality of life. So the red states, kind of like Trump is about all these things too. There's a jealousy factor of it. And while they depend literally their taker states, as they take from California, they attack the strengths of California that make California strong, which is our diversity. And there's a lot of immigrants in California. And yes, there are undocumented migrants in California. They're also contributing to California and the country. And there should be a pathway to citizenship. We should open up pro. And most Americans agree with this. We should open up a pathway the same way Obama did the Dreamers Act. And Obama was tough on immigration, was very tough on immigration, but he had the Dreamers Act. That type of program should be expanded to people who are paying their taxes, who check in, who have been contributing, who have been here. And there should be pathways to citizenship. And absolutely, we should go after the criminals. No doubt. Former President Biden was going after the criminals. Trump is sending all of these resources to attack school children and factory workers, and he's moving the resources away from going after the criminals, and he's taking our military away from doing the important thing that's needed. I'll even give you an example. There's a. Did you know there's wildfires happening in California and San Bernardino right now? You know, who helps with, you know, as Donald Trump likes to say, you gotta deal with the forest. You know, who actually helps, you know, we do a good job of that in California. And Donald Trump says, you know, the forest nations like Austria, they tell me all the time, how, how is California so bad? He used to make up that story about Finland, then he changed it to Austria. And he says that Austria refers to itself as a forest nation. Austria does not refer to itself as a forest nation. He's absolutely just completely making that up. So Trump's removed the National Guard who would otherwise. And he isn't paying them, by the way. They don't have health care because he's activated him. So sloppy. They're sleeping on the floor without pillows. There's like 100 or 200 of them who are like standing around a building, a federal building, because they don't really know what the hell they're doing. The LAPD chief is saying, I don't really know what they're even doing there. I mean, they're standing around in a building, we have to shift our LAPD resources to watch them because we, they don't know what the hell they're doing. And we're removing National Guard troops groups away from dealing with wildfire prevention, which is something that's absolutely necessary. And so going back to what Newsom said, that's weakness masquerading a strength. And for all the talks of Doge, what did Congress do? Congress passed a bill today, basically enacting until, you know, at least the House did a bill for what, $9 billion of doge cuts after all of this Doge, the bill they did was $9 billion, you know, and it was like attacking PBS, like attack, attacking Oscar the Grouch, like the, the strangest and most deranged things that's hurting the country, that's making us weaker. And then you had, on top of all of this, you had Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban refugees. The same way a lot of these MAGA Republican Congress members and state senators are sons and daughters of Venezuelan refugees, are sons and daughters of Cuban refugees as they bring in their own Chavez, as they bring in their own Maduro, as they bring in their, as they bring in their own Castro. You have Marco Rubio saying happy Russia Day and wishing the Russian Federation well in this we hope to do business with you. And if it says we hope to do business with the Russian Federation again in, you know, in the future, that's weakness masquerading as strength. And Donald Trump on the red carpet carpet going to lay Miz as he, like, weirdly holds Melania's thumb. But as I said, don't get distracted. The budget bill is an absolute disaster. Donald Trump has still not released the Epstein files. And remember, you had Elon Musk saying, he's in the Epstein files, he's in the Epstein files. And then all of a sudden, you have a lot of. We start activating the National Guard pretty quickly and federalizing them unlawfully. So don't be, we're not going to get distracted here about all of that. And when you talk to people, let people know about all of these things that are going on, it's why on this episode, we cover trade, we cover what Trump is doing in the Middle east, we cover what's going on domestically with the bill, we cover Epstein, and of course, we cover the news of the day. We have a special, special announcement right now, though, for everybody as well. So right after this, I'm doing a town hall. I guess you're putting me to more work. Let's go as soon as this ends, I'm going to be speaking with Kansas Governor Laura Kelly. And I'm going to be speaking with Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. And we're going to do a small little town hall. I'm gonna. You guys are working me hard.
