Brendan Boyle (5:39)

Well, great to be back with you. And yeah, the bill passed the House a couple weeks ago and is now sitting in the Senate. Although we have had some updates from Congressional Budget Office on the full impact of this bill. And what they have found is originally they were saying 13.7 million Americans would lose their health care because of Republican cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. However, their previous estimate actually wasn't reflective of the last minute changes Republicans made to the bill in order to win the votes of some real Freedom Caucus hardliners. The change is now 16 million Americans in total will lose their health care coverage as a result of the Republican cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. So that's the first big news kind of breaking this past week. The other big item, and again, this is also from the Congressional Budget Office, just came out two days ago. They did what they call the distribution tables. Basically, who's gonna get what based on where you are in terms of household income, it turns out the bottom one third of the United States income distribution, basically every household making under $55,000 a year will actually lose money as a result of this Republican tax cut. It is a tax cut for the top 1%, but for the bottom third of Americans, they will actually be poor off due to all of the cuts actually being greater in total amount than any sort of pittance of a tax cut. And for the middle class in this country, you'll be held flat. So the poor will be poorer, the rich will be richer and nothing for the middle class of this country.

Gavin Newsom (7:32)

So I saw some of these Republicans who I think like to think of themselves as moderate. My own opinion, there's nothing moderate about them. At least 13 of them wrote this letter to the Senate asking for help. I mean, these are people who voted for the budget bill in the House. They voted for these provisions. Then they send a letter to the Republicans in the Senate and they attack the bill. Like you would think that the dear colleague letter to the Senate was written by Democrats criticizing the thing, but it's written by the Republicans to the Republican senator saying this is a bad bill. This is going to hurt our districts. This is going to result in tens of thousands of jobs in our congressional districts. We hope you will take your solemn response. This is for real. I'm like almost quoting it. We hope you will take Your solemn responsibility, serious as this goes to the Senate and make these corrections. And I'm reading this thing and I said, y' all passed it. This is, this is your thing. Why don't you do your damn job? What do you make of that, Congressman?

Brendan Boyle (8:34)

Yeah, you can't make this up. You know, when I was growing up, I grew up in a little row home in a blue collar neighborhood of Philly. And we had a very small front porch and there was always this folding chair that the minute you touched it, it immediately folded. And I think of that old folding chair on our front porch. Whenever they talk about the Republican moderates going to stand up and actually vote no on something. I have never once ever seen so called House Republicans stand up and vote against what their leadership is telling them to vote. And the fact that they know that this bill is so bad that they would write the Senate, basically asking Senate Republicans to have the courage that they lacked is really comical. The reality is, however, I will be quite surprised if we see Senate Republicans do anything different than House Republicans did. They're afraid of Donald Trump. They may privately grumble about him. They may send press releases or tweets expressing concern about the Medicaid cuts, concern about the cuts to the Affordable Care Act. They're always so concerned. But when push comes to shove, they will vote for it because they will do whatever Donald Trump tells them to do.

Gavin Newsom (9:57)

It's weird. I mean, it's just a strange thing. It's dangerous. But as I just watch it, I just, I, I, I can't understand it. I mean, I see Donald Trump, this weirdo guy, he, you know, and by the way, I like Gavin Newsom going after Donald Trump's cognitive issues as well. Because I'm seeing a guy who can't put together sentences. Like, I'm seeing it every day. He's speaking, he's speaking gibberish. He says one thing this day, one thing the next day, you know, whatever happened to Alcatraz? That, you know, it's the most ridiculous things that this guy is saying. This whole title, that, the fact that we're even calling big beautiful bill, like what are we like 8 year olds? And the fact that this is going on in Congress and you see people, I mean, some of these Republicans in Congress are educated and know better, and I'm not suggesting all of them are, but then they just, they fold for the guy. I mean, do they just, you know, are they so fearful of just losing the job? They love the proximity to power. They, they love the whiff of that orange turd. I mean, I just. I don't understand. When you're a co Equal branch and you have power to help people, it's why you're doing this job. You seed it and you don't protect it. What's the point of the job?

Brendan Boyle (11:25)

Yeah, I have to say, I often have exactly the same question. I really don't get it. A lot of them are afraid. For most of them, of course, they live in districts that are deeply red, and so they're worried about the primary, not the general. So they live in fear of Donald Trump bashing them or tweeting against them. But I'll tell you what, as more and more Americans find out about the awful things in this bill, just the health care cuts alone, the biggest cuts to health care in American history. And, you know, 16 million people losing their health care because of Medicaid cuts, because of cuts to Obamacare, that's bad enough. But the reality is all of our healthcare, even those of us who aren't on Medicaid or the Affordable Care act, all of us will have our health care negatively impacted because we will see closures of hospitals, especially in rural areas as well as urban areas. We will see longer lines in the ER. So 16 million Americans losing their health care is awful. It's historic. But it actually will be all 340 million of us in this country who will be worse off. And the more and more people find out about this, the worse the polling gets for Republicans. Right now it's showing 2 to 1 opposition. But I think once this really fully seeps in with the American people, we will see those numbers get even worse. From here.

Gavin Newsom (12:53)

Let's do this exercise before we close this interview. Let's actually kind of walk through in a real world way and help me kind of write the script. I'm an American and I'm watching this, and let's say I'm making under $125,000 a year and this budget bill passes, the Senate passes it, the House passes it, they go and they do the signing on the White House lawn. This is big. This is beautiful. Everybody's whatever. The next day, the next week, the next month. Just put yourself as Jane and John Doe, a husband and wife who are married. Pick your state, spell out the scenario of what that. Of what they go through so we can make it in real terms.

Brendan Boyle (13:43)

Yeah. So let's say, you know, obviously if you're on Medicaid, you're really vulnerable now to these cuts, and a certain number of people will lose their Health care. I mean literally 11 million according to the Congressional Budget Office. If you're on, if you get your health care through one of the ACA exchanges, you're at risk of losing your health care. Some 5 million Americans will, let's say you're in a student loan repayment program. Now suddenly your repayment program is actually going to go away and be totally changed. You'll have a higher payment every month. Let's say you have a kid who's in a pre K program maybe involved or getting their education through Head Start. Pretty dramatic cuts in that. Let's say you're helped through a nutrition assistance program. Devastating cuts there. But let's say you're someone who none of what I just said touches you. Guess what we all are impacted by Interest rates, mortgage rate, auto loan rate, student loan repayment rate. Well now because of the massive increase in the deficit and debt that is absolutely 100% in this bill. And by the way, on that point, right wing groups, left wing groups, centrist groups, nonpartisan groups have all reached the conclusion this will be the biggest increase in our nation's debt in American history. Now how does that affect John Q. Public? Well, it turns out the bond market is not exactly enthusiastic about the idea that the US Is really ever seriously going to repay this debt. It is now so large and projected to go larger and so they are charging a higher interest rate in order to buy our bonds. That impacts all of us. Next time you go to buy a car, next time you go to refinance your mortgage or buy a new home, suddenly now your interest rate, by the way, I mean 7% interest rate right now on a 30 year mortgage, that's going to be creeping up. It could be 7 and a half and 8% after this bill passes. It could be even larger still. So those are the concrete ways and there are many others in which basically every American is going to be impacted in some way or another.

Gavin Newsom (16:03)

Congressmember Boyle, we appreciate you coming back on what can that, what can an American do? What do you do right now? I mean, educate other people I think is helpful. As you said, there's still like 20% of people with no opinion. I saw on that kind of Quinnipiac poll. So get them to have an opinion one way or the other. But they should have an opinion on this and it should be strong. But what else do you tell people to do right now?

Brendan Boyle (16:26)

Yeah, you're exactly right. I mean the good news is for the 80% or so people who know about this bill, it's deeply unpopular, 2 to 1 unpopular, overpopular. But there's still a 20% chunk who aren't aware of it. And look, people are busy. There's a lot going on. Trump creates a different spectacle every day. This is actually the ballgame. This is what matters most. This will have the biggest impact on people's lives for the next several years, really over the next decade. So if you are of that 80% and you know of the bill and you are concerned about it, as you should be, please inform the folks in your networks in your household. The reality is most people get their information from their social peers, kind of their own informal networks. You actually have a lot more credibility with your family and friends than anyone on TV or anyone on the Internet or anyone in elective office. So making sure that you help spread the word is vital. That's number one. And then number two, turning up the heat on these Senate Republicans. I mean, there's a small margin over there. It's also a small margin in the House. Remember the bill it passed a few weeks ago? It only passed by one vote. That bill is going to be changed in the Senate. It's going to have to come back to us for another final vote. If we can literally just sway one or two House Republicans, that's 1% of the House Republican Conference, just 1%. Growing a backbone or perhaps becoming more afraid of the American people than they are afraid of Donald Trump, that could make the difference in stopping this big, ugly bill from becoming law.

Gavin Newsom (18:10)

Congressman Brendan Boyle, appreciate you. Thank you, everybody. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 5 million subscribers. The truth is more important than ever. Check out our new Truth over lies collection@store.midas touch.com all 100% USA union made.