The Senate Surrenders on Spending, and Trump’s New Epstein Strategy

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0:32Colby Smith:From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Thursday, July 17th. Here's what we're covering.

0:42Colby Smith:At the Capitol overnight. On this vote, the yeas are 51, the nays are 48. The bill is amended as passed. Republican senators voted to claw back billions of dollars of federal funding that Congress had already approved for public media and foreign aid. For lawmakers to override their own spending decision is extremely rare. This kind of vote hasn't passed in more than 25 years. But President Trump urged Republicans to make the cuts, and lawmakers in his party bowed to that pressure. This is a dark day for this chamber. Everyone here knows this is not how the Senate should function. Democratic senators sharply criticized the move, saying Congress was basically ceding one of its constitutional powers, the power of the purse.

1:31Colby Smith:Historically, lawmakers have closely guarded their control of federal spending. GOP leaders, however, dismissed those concerns and said they were delivering on their promise to cut what they see as wasteful government spending. The vast majority of the bill's cuts will affect humanitarian programs overseas. It also rolls back funds for the Corporation for public broadcasting, which would deal a blow to NPR, PBS, and their local stations. The bill now goes to the House, which is expected to pass it quickly. Meanwhile, the White House says that moving forward, it intends to send Congress more requests like this that would slash funding lawmakers had previously approved.

2:16Colby Smith:Now, two updates from the White House. The Times has learned that in the Oval Office this week, President Trump waved around a draft of a letter firing the chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, a move that even some inside his administration think could undermine confidence in the U.S. economy. Trump's been raging at Powell for months over the central bank's decision not to lower interest rates. He's claimed that they're a drag on economic growth, and he's called Powell a numbskull and a stubborn mule. The Fed has long acted independently of the White House, and by law, the chair can only be ousted for cause, like gross misconduct.

2:56Colby Smith:No president in modern American history has ever fired a Fed chair. For now, Trump says he has no plans to follow through on his threat. But today on The Daily, my colleague Colby Smith explains how the president, even just talking about it, is setting off alarm bells for economists and investors. I think it's a really worrying development and it's something that people are already grappling with today. The idea here is that a central bank that's independent is going to put the economy on the best footing possible because they're not worried about the whims of a political party. If you have someone leading the Fed who is being influenced by the White House, that really changes your perception about the decisions that that person is trying to usher through.

3:42And one investor I spoke to was like, I don't even know who the next Fed chair is, and I already don't trust him.

3:51Also. He's dead. He's gone. And all it is is the Republicans, certain Republicans got duped by the Democrats, and they're following a Democrat playbook.

4:03Colby Smith:President Trump is shifting strategies as he continues to face intense frustration over how his administration has handled the Jeffrey Epstein case. He's now blaming Democrats. Many in his base have been upset since the Justice Department announced it was closing the Epstein investigation without any new revelations, contrary to what some of Trump's allies had promised. According to a poll released yesterday, more than a third of Republicans disapprove of how the administration is handling the case. One GOP lawmaker told The Times she's been bombarded by angry constituents who are demanding more transparency.

4:39Colby Smith:The outrage has Trump turning to a move he's used many times in the past, claiming it's all a Democratic smear campaign and a hoax. On social media yesterday, he called his supporters who are upset over Epstein, quote, weaklings, and said he doesn't want their support anymore.

5:01Colby Smith:In recent years, meth use has been spreading rapidly in the U.S., stumping health officials who are trying to fight it. Unlike opioid addiction, which can be treated with medication, there's nothing available like that for meth, which works differently on the brain. One doctor told the Times that to understand how powerful meth is, you have to think about dopamine, the feel-good chemical in your brain. If the best day of your life puts your dopamine levels at 100, and using a drug like crack puts them at 300, on meth, your dopamine could skyrocket to 1 ,000 and stay there for hours. The doctor said, quote, no medication can safely compete with that.

5:42Colby Smith:So addiction clinics across the country have been trying something else. They're paying people to stop using the drug. Usually a patient will come in twice a week and have their urine tested. If the urine tests negative for meth, they immediately get a reward. It could be a small amount on a debit card. It could be a gift card. It could be a voucher. Jan Hoffman covers addiction and health policy at the Times. She says the longer a patient stays clean, the more money they can earn. Over the course of the program, the rewards typically add up to about$600 total. The exhilaration that you get from essentially a very nice little pat on the back is something people look forward to.

6:26It gives them reason to pause for a moment before they take that hit of mess to think, wait, wait, wait. And that pause begins to build on itself and people become slowly more used to hesitating before they get high to try to get that reward. And the success rates of this program are really unusually good compared to other forms of treatment for meth addiction, such as counseling, such as cognitive behavioral therapy. some of the studies show that the program or the strategy has a success rate of about 50 percent compared to like a typical success rate of 30 percent.

7:10Colby Smith:Jan says that while the pay to stop strategy isn't new, for example, the VA has been using it for years, it's getting more and more traction. Hundreds of clinics are now offering it. Insurance companies are beginning to cover it And new telehealth apps are incorporating it to reach patients in rural areas. The federal government under President Biden also took steps to expand this kind of program. But Jan says it's unclear if that will continue under the Trump administration. And finally. Island getaway turned disaster. It became very barbaric. The words FIRE Festival bring back all kinds of memories.

7:50People started to have breakdowns. People started to have panic attacks.

7:53Colby Smith:Eight years ago, the world followed along as what had been hyped as a luxury music festival crumbled spectacularly. Camping tents were set up on the beach. Catered food consisted of bread and cheese and security was slim to none. People who'd paid thousands of dollars for tickets ended up stranded on an island in the Bahamas, sleeping on soggy mattresses and plastic shelters. The whole thing looked a lot more FEMA than the high end event that had been promised. The organizer, Billy McFarland, ended up serving nearly four years in prison for fraud. But McFarland was not done trying to cash in on the FIRE brand.

8:28Colby Smith:I've done a lot of crazy things, but this might be the craziest thing yet. This week, he put the branding rights for the FIRE Festival up on eBay. According to the listing, quote, FIRE isn't just a name, it's a global attention engine. We are just under 24 hours in, and I am sorry to report that we are absolutely ripping. We've already had 101 bids. While McFarland was enthusiastic early on, bidding eventually topped out at$245 ,000. Not quite what he'd hoped. It's so low, McFarland reportedly said during a live stream of the sale. This sucks. While I know we all have a lot of questions about what the buyer is thinking, they remain unidentified for now.

9:11Colby Smith:eBay did note that this particular item is not eligible for the site's purchase protection programs.

9:21Colby Smith:Those are the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.