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- [00:00]
Host or Moderator
More lunacy this morning as Europeans apply retaliatory tariffs against the United States. The MAGA Republicans in the Senate and the House of Representatives are trying to just justify everything here is normal. This also as they gut the Department of Education firing over half of their staff and doing it also so cruelly, they like faked a security emergency to get people to like evacuate the building so that once they were fired, they couldn't get back in. And Linda McMahon basically confirmed that on Fox. The new secretary. It just, it's just cruel talking about cruelty. Take a look at MAGA Republican Senator Jim Banks when he's asked like, you know, the Department of Education like it, it's tasked with protecting like disabled students in red states. Also watch the response.
- [00:52]
Jamie Raskin
The Department of Education is tasked with protecting disabled students across America. And Jamie Raskin, for example, is all out there saying, how are you going to defend. Let me ask you why.
- [01:05]
Jim Banks
I think it's simple. That will be done at the state level. A federal bureaucrat who's in Washington, D.C. can't protect schools, schools and kids in Indiana. That has to be done at the local level. And that's why get, get getting the federal government out of the way and letting, letting schools take care of these issues with those tax dollars that will be spent. More tax dollars spent. The local level will help that happen in a much better way than anything that happens in Washington.
- [01:31]
Host or Moderator
Jim, they don't even know what the Department of Education is. The states do run their education and the Department of Education helps with things like helping with disabled students and poor students in their red states. I mean, they're quite literally voting against their constituents. So then you have that combined with what Trump's Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick then goes on and talks more this morning about conquering Canada here.
- [01:55]
Howard Lutnick
Play the split the end game here. Could you eventually get to a point where there's no that you've got a huge economy, you've conjoined, have merged the economies of Canada and the United States. Can you get to that point?
- [02:08]
Unnamed Commentator
You think the best, the best way the president has said it, the best way to actually merge the economies of Canada, the United States is for Canada to become our 51st state. If they want to merge it, that's how you make it the 51st state. But think about this for a second. Why are American cars made in Canada? Why are they made in Canada? The president just doesn't make sense. Why are American cars made in Canada? Those jobs should be in America.
- [02:35]
Host or Moderator
And that call in Democratic Congressmember Boyle Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from Philly. Congressmember Boyle. What do you. It's like some, like, weirdo cosplay. Like, maybe we, like, did this in high school where we were told to take contrarian opinions, and you were still looked at as like, what the heck are you doing? Like, this is what they're doing in our government.
- [02:58]
Congressmember Boyle
Yeah. You know, hearing Howard Lutnick talk about cars. Actually, he does remind me of the first guy I bought a used car from 25 years ago, and it turns out it was a lemon. So let me along those lines. You know, this is so crazy. It's nuts. I come from, as you pointed out proudly, the city of Philadelphia, the home of the super bowl champions, by the way. Biggest city in the biggest battleground state. I was inundated with nonstop campaign TV ads for all of 2024. About 70% of them were about inflation and getting costs down. That's really more than any other issue, what the campaign was about. It was the number one issue for voters. Trump ends up winning by one and a half points, or as the other side likes to say, the greatest landslide since George Washington, as those of us who like math say, the second closest election of the last 50 years. And what does Trump do? Does he attempt to lower costs? No. Still, to this point, not one piece of legislation has been introduced in Congress by Republicans to reduce costs. Instead, he's focusing on attacking our closest ally and literally has members, senior members of our government, talking about taking over Canada. It is nuts. It achieves nothing. And I don't know really what the end game for this stupid tariff strategy is. And I do fear things will get significantly more expensive for most Americans and Canadians before it ends.
- [04:40]
Host or Moderator
Even the Wall Street Journal opinion page today. How do you like the trade war now? Trump is furious that Canada won't take his tariffs lying down. And then you had that photo of Donald Trump and Elon Musk selling. Selling Teslas in front of the White House. I mean, what are your. I mean, Philly's tough. Philly's tough. I mean, your constituents have to look at the. Show that. Show that photo one more time. Salty. I mean. I mean, if you go around like that in Philly, what are people saying there?
- [05:20]
Congressmember Boyle
As you pointed out, those of us from Philly are not exactly known for being shy or polite, so we'd have no problem letting Donald Trump know exactly what we think and feel. But it's just. I wish that all of this. That we could just laugh at it. And it was a bad reality TV show, unfortunately. Real damage is being done though, to the American people and real damage is being done to the standing of the United States around the world. If I had said six months ago to you that we would be in an all out trade war with Canada, threatening to physically take it over, inspiring Canadians of all different political ideologies to boo the American national anthem. To see the approval rating of the United States in Canada now around the 10% level. We're polling about where China and Russia do. In terms of what Canadians think of us, it's truly disastrous and tragic.
- [06:27]
Host or Moderator
When you hear a clip like I played at the outset of Senator Jim Banks of Indiana saying that we don't need the Department of Education, it doesn't matter what they do with disabled students, the states will just deal with it anyway. I mean, it fundamentally misunderstands the dynamic of the way education works. But you're someone who's always, from the day you arrived in Congress, you've been fighting for, you know, the best education and to avoid cuts. And now you're seeing the entire Department of Education essentially get gutted. What's your response to all that?
- [07:02]
Congressmember Boyle
You know, my wife is a public school teacher. She's an elementary school teacher, has been for 25 years. Very dedicated person that could be making a lot more money than she chooses to make because she's so committed to what she does teaching right now, teaching second grade kids. The war on education that we're being seen, that we're seeing being waged by Donald Trump and Musk and the Musketeers, it is disgusting. And you know what Chimbanks wanted to confuse people about? The reality is most of the funding for K12 education in this country comes from the state and local level. And that's already where those decisions are made. Nonetheless, the federal Department of Education plays a crucial role in our overall education system, while still primarily most of the funding and the decisions are made at the state and local level, especially as it relates to higher education and student loans. So to see so many people committed to education, committed educators, literally thrown out of their offices and not allowed to come back in after years, sometimes decades of real service to our country, it just disgusts me.
- [08:24]
Host or Moderator
Let's talk about how, in addition to attacking education, seems that Doge and these MAGA Republicans and Trump are always attacking the most vulnerable or the people who have also given the most to the country. I mean, they're attacking veterans, getting rid of what, 70,000 jobs at the VA, attacking the Social Security Administration, 7,000 jobs there, attacking over and over again Medicaid what are you hearing from your constituents there? And you know, and again, that, that Contrast as people's 401ks and pensions are being destroyed, as people are being cruelly fired. Trump in front of the White House with Elon Musk selling, selling Teslas and talking about buying, buying fancy cars.
- [09:12]
Congressmember Boyle
Yeah. Let's just be clear. What happened in the 2024 presidential election is perhaps the greatest con of Donald Trump's long career as a con man. And this was the con. He was able to convince a lot of working class people that he and his party were on their side. And then in office. What was his number one agenda item, his bill to extend the Trump tax cuts, most of which go to the top 1% of Americans. The majority of the money literally goes to billionaires. And it is funded, it is paid for by the largest cuts to Medicaid in American history, $880 billion worth of cuts to Medicaid. That Trump gets on TV and he lies about it. He lies as easily as he breathes. He said, oh, I promise to, in his words, love and cherish Medicaid. Well, anytime Donald Trump promises to love and cherish anything or anyone, you know that that commitment is about to be broken. And that is the reality of what they're pushing. We had that vote a couple weeks ago in the House. I hope that it gets more attention than I think it's currently getting. With all of the madness that's going on, it shouldn't distract people from one of the most significant votes of my time in Congress, and that is the largest cuts to Medicaid in American history to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. That, in the end of the day, is what Donald Trump and the Republican Party is actually about.
- [10:49]
Host or Moderator
Let's talk about finally, what's the plan right now, though? I mean, obviously Democrats don't control the House, the Senate, or the executive branch, so you can't really set the committee agendas or issue subpoenas or whatever. But what are you doing to fight back right now? What are you doing in your district and what are you urging others to do in this very difficult moment?
- [11:11]
Congressmember Boyle
Yeah, look, I think a lot of Democrats throughout the nation are frustrated and angry right now. I know I'm one of them. Because the reality is, while it was a very close election, the Republicans ended up winning the House and winning the Senate and have the White House. And so as a result, they'll be able to do a lot of damage. That said, I'm not giving up. And I don't think Any one of us should give up. I believe in a three pronged strategy, a legislative strategy, a litigation strategy, and a people mobilization strategy. On the first point, even though we're in the minority, we do have leverage. You do have enough senators on the Democratic side in the Senate that they can filibuster most bills if they choose to do so. You also have in the House the closest. While Republicans are in the majority. It's the closest margin between the two parties since 1930. That means that if every Democrat sticks together the same way basically we did on the budget vote yesterday, it forces every Republican but one to vote for any piece of legislation that they want to pass. We have to make sure that we stay unified as House Democrats and continue to force Republicans to reach total unity for them to achieve anything, something that historically they've really had a tough time doing. Second, on the litigation front, we've already seen initial success in trying to block what Elon Musk and his Doge crew are doing. A lot of our outside groups have really been successful in courts, even, I have to say, with Republican appointed judges. And I think you're going to continue to see more of that. And then third, and finally, on the people mobilization front, the model is exactly what happened eight years ago. You know, at this point, eight years ago, it was Republican President and Donald Trump, Republican House, Republican Senate, and their number one priority, if you recall, was to repeal and replace Obamacare. They got it through the House, but then what happened in the Senate? Enough Republican senators voted with Democrats to block the repeal of Obamacare. They did that in part because so many people mobilized throughout the country. They had protests, they made their voices heard. The repeal effort you saw in the polls became very unpopular. That was enough to sway wavering Republicans in Congress to vote against the repeal, including the moment ultimately that John McCain gave the final thumbs down. So I look at that as a real model for us to follow that. We know that if enough people mobilize and speak out and pressure Republican members of Congress, then hopefully just enough, we'll be more afraid of the American people than they are afraid of Donald Trump.
- [14:05]
Host or Moderator
Democratic Congressmember Boyle from Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Thanks, Congressman.
- [14:10]
Congressmember Boyle
All right, thank you, everybody.
- [14:12]
Host or Moderator
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