Panicked MAGA Mike Hides at 1 a.m. Disaster Hearing

Summary

The MeidasTouch Podcast: Detailed Summary of "Panicked MAGA Mike Hides at 1 a.m. Disaster Hearing"

Release Date: May 21, 2025

In this episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, hosts Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas delve into the tumultuous proceedings surrounding the recent Republican-led budget bill. Titled "Panicked MAGA Mike Hides at 1 a.m. Disaster Hearing," the episode offers a comprehensive analysis of the internal conflicts within the Republican Party, the implications of the proposed budget, and the broader impact on American democracy.

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1. Introduction to the Budget Bill Controversy

Ron Filipkowski opens the discussion by highlighting the contentious nature of the current Republican budget proposal. He criticizes MAGA Mike Johnson for his evasive tactics regarding the bill, emphasizing the timing of a 1 a.m. hearing intended to bypass media scrutiny and public awareness.

Notable Quote:

“MAGA Mike Johnson is refusing to even take questions from the press about this disastrous budget bill.” [00:00]

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2. MAGA Mike Johnson's Tactics and Public Relations

The hosts examine Johnson's strategy of scheduling a late-night hearing to expedite the budget bill through the Rules Committee without adequate public oversight. This move is portrayed as an attempt to push the bill through while minimizing media coverage and public dissent.

Notable Quote:

“Why are you debating it at one o' clock in the morning? I think that's prime time in Guam.” – Jim McGovern [03:50]

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3. Democratic Criticism and Transparency Issues

Democratic Congressmember Jim McGovern criticizes the Republicans for their lack of transparency, questioning the necessity of holding a significant budget debate at such an inconvenient hour. He accuses the Republicans of undermining nonpartisan institutions like the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and prioritizing tax cuts for the wealthy over the welfare of the poorest Americans.

Notable Quote:

“Your big, beautiful scam is a historic giveaway to those at the very, very top, financed and paid for by the rest of America.” – Jim McGovern [03:50]

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4. Internal Republican Dissent: The Case of Thomas Massie

The episode highlights dissent within the Republican ranks, focusing on Congressman Thomas Massie, who vehemently opposes the budget bill. Massie challenges President Trump’s optimistic projections about the bill’s impact on the deficit, asserting that it will actually increase the national debt by $20 trillion over the next decade.

Notable Quote:

“It’s going to add $20 trillion to the debt over the next 10 years.” – Thomas Massie [05:55]

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5. Factions Within the GOP: Chip Roy and the Freedom Caucus

Chip Roy emerges as a pivotal figure representing the hardline faction within the GOP that demands deeper cuts to Medicaid and SNAP benefits. He criticizes the ongoing negotiations, emphasizing the need to adhere strictly to the Freedom Caucus's parameters without compromising on fiscal austerity.

Notable Quote:

“We have met the parameters that Chip Roy and the Freedom Caucus set. They can't keep moving the goalposts along the way.” – Chip Roy [06:58]

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6. The Salt Cap Controversy: La Lota vs. Petronas

A significant point of contention is the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap. Congressman Petronas criticizes fellow Republican La Lota for opposing the cap increase, arguing that it negatively impacts high-earning districts like New York. La Lota retorts by attributing the problem to the governors of states like New York and California, rather than the federal legislature.

Notable Quote:

“Why should someone like Congressman La Lota vote against the interests of their constituents?” – Petronas [11:12]

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7. Senate Stance and Future Prospects

The hosts discuss the anticipated resistance from the Senate, citing influential Republican senators like Rand Paul, Susan Collins, Ron Johnson, and Josh Hawley, who are unlikely to support the House’s version of the budget bill. This internal division underscores a broader struggle within the party to reconcile fiscal responsibility with their policy objectives.

Notable Quote:

“When you work hard to get an agreement and the committees pass stuff out and then people come in and want to undo them.” – Warren Davidson [09:53]

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8. President Trump's Assertions on the Deficit

A contentious segment features President Trump defending the budget bill by claiming foreign nations, specifically Middle Eastern countries, are contributing trillions to the U.S. deficit. The hosts debunk these claims, noting the unrealistic nature of such contributions given the GDP sizes of the mentioned countries.

Notable Quote:

“They have tremendous economic power. They have more money than anybody.” – Donald Trump [14:37]

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9. Conclusion: The Path Forward for the GOP

The episode concludes with reflections on the fractured state of the Republican Party, highlighting the challenges of passing a unified budget bill amidst internal disagreements. The hosts express concern over the potential long-term impacts on American democracy and the effectiveness of partisan politics.

Notable Quote:

“It's such a wild concept to me that these Congress members from the red states whose entire states are subsidized by the blue states, they wouldn't exist without the blue states are so punitive and attack the blue states the way they do.” – Ron Filipkowski [12:02]

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Key Takeaways

• Lack of Transparency: Republicans' attempt to expedite the budget bill through late-night hearings raises concerns about transparency and democratic accountability.

• Internal GOP Conflicts: Significant disagreements within the Republican Party, particularly between hardline fiscal conservatives and those advocating for targeted spending cuts, hinder unified legislative action.

• Impact on Vulnerable Populations: The proposed budget is criticized for disproportionately affecting the poorest Americans by cutting essential services like healthcare and nutrition assistance.

• Deficit Concerns: Contrary to proffered optimistic claims, the budget bill is projected to substantially increase the national deficit, sparking debate over its fiscal responsibility.

• Presidential Narratives vs. Reality: President Trump's assertions regarding foreign contributions to the U.S. deficit are factually inaccurate, undermining the credibility of the administration's fiscal policies.

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This episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast offers a critical examination of the current Republican budget bill, shedding light on the internal struggles, policy implications, and the broader impact on American society. Through incisive analysis and engaging discussions, the Meiselas brothers provide listeners with a nuanced understanding of the challenges facing American democracy today.

Transcript

[Ron Filipkowski]

More pathetic behavior from MAGA Mike Johnson and Donald Trump. So now MAGA Mike Johnson is refusing to even take questions from the press about this disastrous budget bill. Also, MAGA Mike set a hearing in the rules committee at 1am this morning or 1am in the night, however you want to characterize it, hoping that the media would not cover what was taking place at all to try to push through this budget bill through the Rules committee, literally at 1am While Americans Republicans are sleeping. And I previously showed you how MAGA Mike was handing out talking points to his fellow MAGA Republican Congress members to try to discredit the nonpartisan CBO Congressional Budget Office by calling it a leftist, radical, extremist organization that hates Donald Trump, despite the fact that MAGA Mike Johnson and other members of Congress previously cited to the Congressional Budget Office's nonpartisan reports when it suited them to try to attack former President Biden when what would have been added to the deficit under some of the proposals by Biden are way smaller than what's being caused by this disastrous Trump budget plan, which on the small side would add about 4 to 5 trillion dollars to the deficit. But a MAGA Republican Congress member who is not happy at all with this bill says it's gonna add about $20 trillion. That would be MAGA Republican Congressmember Thomas Massie saying it'll add $20 trillion. So let's just go through what's taking place here. We have the Congressional Budget Office's recent score that just came out yesterday where they're saying that the GOP bill would hurt the poorest 10% of Americans while benefiting the top 10% of Americans. And at least 8.6 million people are going to lose their health insurance on the end. 7.6 million people will be dropped from Medicaid right away, and 1 million people will lose their Affordable Care act plans. I mean, this is one of the biggest wealth distributions from not wealthy people, from poor people to the richest Americans. As Brendan Duke explains, the official CBO analysis confirms the obvious. The House Republican tax and budget bill isn't shared sacrifice. It makes poor people poorer and rich people richer. It does this by cutting healthcare and nutrition to help finance tax cuts skewed to the very, very, very wealthy. It's a really horrific, horrific budget. It's just, frankly, cruel. So let's go through the data points now. First, let me show you MAGA Mike Johnson yesterday refusing to answer any questions at all regarding this budget plan. Here, play this clip.

[MAGA Mike Johnson]

Now, we're not gonna take a lot of questions this morning because we've already done a ton of media with you in the halls. The President gave you a lot. We gave you a lot of what. What we're leaving to do right now is gather up the small subgroups in the, in the House Republican Conference and tie up the remaining loose ends. I'm very confident that we'll be able to do that. There's a great esprit de corps in the room this morning because everybody knows what's at stake. All the things we've talked about here this morning, we are going to get this done. So I'm gonna, this is a rare thing I'm gonna say. Hold the questions and let me go get back to work so we can finish this thing up.

[Jim McGovern]

Okay?

[MAGA Mike Johnson]

Thanks for being here this morning. Thanks for doing this morning.

[Ron Filipkowski]

So Democratic Congressmember Jim McGovern from Massachusetts raised a very simple point. So if this bill is so great, if you all think this is really, really good, why are you debating it at 1am why are you trying to literally hide it while Americans are sleeping? Here, play this clip of Congressmember McGovern.

[Jim McGovern]

What I do want to talk about is the fact that this morning after midnight, actually, Republicans told us that we would be considering their budget reconciliation bill at 1 o' clock in the morning on Wednesday. If Trump's big, beautiful bill is so great, why not debate it when people are still awake? Wouldn't you want everyone to know how great it is? Why are you debating it at one o' clock in the morning? I think that's prime time in Guam. Any person with half a brain cell can immediately figure out why you want to notice a meeting for 1am is because you don't want people to know what's in your bill. Remember what Trump said, Close your eyes and vote for it. That's exactly what you're all doing, because you all know exactly what the bill does, how unpopular it is, and what regular Americans think of it. It's going to give a huge, massive, historic tax cut to billionaires paid for by stealing, stealing from the American people, ripping away Medicaid from parents and grandparents, ripping away food assistance from kids. This is not hyperbole, my friends. We're not fear mongering. And no matter how many times you use the word, that doesn't make it true. Your big, beautiful scam is a historic giveaway to those at the very, very top, financed and paid for by the rest of America. So again, I ask, if this bill is so great, why debate it at one o' clock in the Morning. We all know the answer.

[Ron Filipkowski]

So then you have the MAGA Republican Congress members who are against this bill and who have said that they will not vote for it despite Donald Trump showing up on Capitol Hill and attacking them and threatening them. So here you have MAGA Republican Congress member Thomas Massie, and he's asked by Manu Raju from CNN what he thinks about the Trump claim that this is not going to add to the deficit. To which again, Thomas Massie, MAGA Republican he says this is going to add $20 trillion to the debt over the next 10 years. Play this clip.

[Thomas Massie]

Are you worried about the rollback Trump allies for the MAGA base for letting them know?

[Chip Roy]

No, actually I've got a lot of people in the MAGA base who realize that we could have done this differently. We could extend the tax cuts and pay for them, but instead we're not. I mean, over here, the people in favor of this bill say that under the policies of this bill, we're going to add $20 trillion to debt over the next 10 years, which is three and a half to $5 trillion more than would have been deficit control.

[Ron Filipkowski]

Now, here's what MAGA Republican Chip Roy warns about the discussions that are underway. And specifically, you have a number of kind of factions taking place. Let me just show you Chip Roy, then let's talk about these factions. Let's play it.

[Manu Raju]

And if they increase the saw cap, then my price for yes just goes up. I fundamentally reject that. We have met the parameters that Chip Roy and the Freedom Caucus set. They can't keep moving the goalposts along the way.

[Ron Filipkowski]

So you have people like Chip Roy who want even more cuts to Medicaid, more cuts to snap. They think that there's not enough cuts. They also don't like this idea of blue states either, significantly raising the salt cap, state and local tax cap, which Donald Trump artificially put at $10,000 state and local tax deduction back in 2017, really punitive against blue states, you know. And some of these other blue state members of Congress either want the cap raised or eliminated. You have MAGA Republican Congress members who want the cap remaining at $10,000. You've got other MAGA Republicans who think it's bad optics to take away people's Medicaid. And then you have other MAGA Republicans who say it adds too much to the deficit. Those are the fights taking place right now. This was yesterday on Capitol Hill where you have MAGA Republican Rep. Burleson and MAGA Republican Congressmember Self and others criticizing this bill Here, play this clip.

[Thomas Massie]

This bill comes to the floor. You're a no right now. I'm a no. I want to get to a yes. I absolutely want to get to a yes. But I just, I, I ran on balancing the budget. I don't know that I could sleep at night if, if I, if I don't stick to that. It's already very expensive. We've tripled it with no negotiations. Everybody just assumed the 30,000. Now they're asking for more.

[Ron Filipkowski]

Are you still enough?

[Thomas Massie]

Nothing's changed.

[Ron Filipkowski]

Don't work for the Freedom Caucus. They just need to get over themselves. So then you have MAGA Republican Congress members like Warren Davis, Warren Davidson, a New York MAGA Republican Congress member, La Lota. And again, La Lota was basically yelled at by Donald Trump yesterday for requesting that the salt deduction cap either be significantly higher or just removed entirely. Let's play this clip right here.

[Thomas Massie]

But if this bill came to the floor right now, could you vote yes?

[Ron Filipkowski]

I couldn't vote for this bill right now. I mean, it grows deficit spending right now. So it does raise the debt limit. We need to do that, but it doesn't cut spending.

[Thomas Massie]

So it sounds like Trump didn't change your mind.

[Ron Filipkowski]

We'll see if he changes the bill.

[Thomas Massie]

You sound pretty frustrated right now. I'm fired up, Manu. I'm here to fight for Long Islanders, regular middle class people who are just.

[Ron Filipkowski]

Trying to make a living.

[Thomas Massie]

Those are the people who need to be included in this bill. He said, we're done negotiating with you guys. Did you not what I took? That is, hey, everybody, figure it out. Everybody get in the room and figure it out for the country and for your district.

[Ron Filipkowski]

And here we hear more from MAGA Republican Congress members as well, like Mike Lawlor, who says this was all pretty stupid, waiting until the last minute. MAGA Republican Congressmember Bacon. And another clip here of MAGA Republican Chip Roy. Play this clip.

[Manu Raju]

They chose to wait till the last minute.

[Thomas Massie]

And why is that? What's the reason?

[Manu Raju]

You'll have to ask them. It was pretty stupid exercise, frankly.

[Warren Davidson]

When you work hard to get an agreement and the committees pass stuff out and then people come in and want to undo them. Makes us mad. You got an angry group of folks out there.

[Thomas Massie]

Can you support it? No. We've got lots of work to go, lots of, lots of miles to put in on this thing. Should they have this 1am meeting on Wednesday?

[Manu Raju]

No, they're trying to run it in through the jeb teams and I just don't agree with that. I mean, I'll keep working in good faith to try to make the dole as good as it can be and then decide where things stand. I think it's not the way we should do business.

[Ron Filipkowski]

Here's MAGA Republican Congressmember, Ogles and bacon. Here they are right here.

[Thomas Massie]

Does the speaker not bring this to the floor by Thursday?

[Manu Raju]

Well, that's up to the speaker, but I would say that if the vote were held right now, it dies a painful death.

[Thomas Massie]

You're concerned about what the Freedom Caucus is pushing for right now?

[Warren Davidson]

Yeah, we have to defend against it because they're in a sense, you're putting poison pills in that won't pass. That's what the President's saying. So I hope they heed the President.

[Ron Filipkowski]

And you can see this is all Republicans fighting Republicans right now. Right. So you have MAGA Republican Petronas attacking MAGA Republican lalota over the salt issue, saying, you know, lalota, you know, he's losing his constituents to Florida from New York. So why are we trying to help New York in any way raise the state and local tax deduction cap? Play this clip.

[Petronas]

Let's talk about one of those, which is something that concerns Congressman lalota and others. The state and local taxes, this deduction cap, that's a huge issue in higher earning districts like New York, as we certainly understand. Why should someone like Congressman lalota vote against the interests of their constituents?

[La Lota]

I get it. But you know what? Every single day, Congressman lalota is losing constituents to the state of Florida because we have no state income tax. So again, this is failed leadership in New York's Albany's capital. You've got governors in Illinois and New York and California that just do not know how to get their financial house in order. So this problem is not his problem. This is the Governor of New York's problem and their inability to control their own finances.

[Ron Filipkowski]

I just want to say this, okay? Blue states by and large are donor states and red states are taker states. It's such a wild concept to me that these Congress members from the red states whose entire states are subsidized by the blue states, they wouldn't exist without the blue states are so punitive and attack the blue states the way they do. And there are some Congress members who are still Republican from these blue states. Even if this thing gets through in the House of Representatives, the next hurdle is going to be in the Senate. And from what we're hearing from all of these senators, whether it's Rand Paul, Susan Collins, Ron Johnson, Josh Hawley, they're saying they're not going to support this bill in the way that the House of Representatives is trying to push this forward. Play this clip.

[Manu Raju]

I don't think, I don't think people who voted for President Trump thought that we would continue spending at President Biden's levels.

[Warren Davidson]

My objection is still raising the debt ceiling by either 4 or 5 trillion dollars.

[Ron Filipkowski]

I think what that does is basically.

[Warren Davidson]

Show that conservatives are Republicans are concerned with the deficit.

[Manu Raju]

Yes.

[Ron Filipkowski]

You know, I've been very wary of.

[Manu Raju]

Having it is wrong to cut health care for the working poor. And that's what we're talking about here with Medicaid. My state is a Medicaid expansion state.

[Ron Filipkowski]

So that's the dynamic on Capitol Hill right now with maga Mike Johnson refusing to take questions. And then I'll just leave you with this fraud that Donald Trump is engaged in, where Donald Trump is saying, I'm not worried about the deficit. He said, because he claims that he brought in $7.1 trillion in his middle east trip, which in the same sentence he says 5 trillion or 5.1 trillion. Then he says 7 trillion. He adds 2 trillion. In the same sentence, he has not brought in 7 trillion. He's not brought in 1 trillion. Okay. The entire GDP of Qatar is 1 point, is 200 billion. So Qatar can't give 1.2 trillion. Their entire annual GDP is 200 billion. The entire GDP of the United Arab Emirates is 400 million. The entire GDP of Saudi Arabia is 1.1 trillion. They're not giving their entire annual GDP to the United States and they're not giving it immediately to the United States. It would take them, you know, 20, 30 years if they were going to do that, and they would bankrupt their own countries. But here's Donald Trump saying that in order to justify this bill, which I agree with Massie, this is, I've always said this number. It's going to add $20 trillion. Here's what Trump said. Play.

[Donald Trump]

They respect our country. Again, they were going to go to China. China was going to take over those countries 100%. They were dealing with China because they weren't treated right by the last administration. And they have tremendous economic power. They have more money than anybody. We probably have more money, but we have other things like this. They are very, very, they are very cash rich, to put it mildly. And they're spending 5.1 trillion. Probably it's going to be 7 trillion by the time we stop. And you know, somebody said every other president goes and leaves and spends money, gives other countries, money. I'm the only one that goes and takes money back.

[Thomas Massie]

You know, when you think of it.

[Donald Trump]

I said, that's an interesting statement. I never thought of it that way. But we have this is really just a pep talk. We have a very unified house, and we have a very unified center.

[Ron Filipkowski]

Well, there you have it, folks. Let me know what you think and 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] Sam.