Rep. Brendan Boyle on Trump's Budget and the House Recess

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1:00Ben Meiselas:Hi, Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Are you looking for a beach read this summer? May I suggest your big wireless bill? It's got suspense, mystery, a slightly flat emotional arc, and a shocking twist where you realize you've been overpaying the entire time. Fortunately, though, Mint's story is better. Every plan,$15 a month, even unlimited. That's it. Happy ending. Zero tears. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of $45 for three months,$90 for six months, or$180 for 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent taxes and fees extra initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy c terms this podcast is sponsored by talkspace last year i went through many different life changes i needed to take a pause and examine how i was feeling in the inside to better show up for the ones who need me to be my best version of myself when you're navigating life's changes talkspace can help talkspace is the number one rated online therapy bringing you professional support from licensed therapists and psychiatry providers that you can access anytime, anywhere.

1:58Living a busy life,

1:59Ben Meiselas:navigating a long-distance relationship, becoming a first stepfather, Talkspace made all of those journeys possible. I could speak with my therapist in the office. I could speak with my therapist in the comfort of my home. I was never alone. Talkspace works with most major insurers and most insured members have a$0 copay. No insurance, no problem. Now get$80 off your first month with promo code SPACE80 when you go to Talkspace.com. Match with a licensed therapist today at Talkspace.com. Save$80 with code SPACE80 at Talkspace.com. MAGA Mike Johnson is now shutting down the House of Representatives for the rest of the summer.

2:37Ben Meiselas:August recess is now beginning, and MAGA Mike is spiking the football like he did the best job imaginable. He said, it couldn't be done, they said. They said that MAGA Mike was on the ropes. But the MAGA Republicans delivered. Now that the House is being shut down, they don't work. They're shutting down for the rest of the summer. MAGA Mike was spiking the football about everything that he accomplished. What the hell did they do? What are you talking about? You literally did nothing. What? You stole more money from the American taxpayers to send to the military industrial complex? You took away money that should be going to healthcare and bringing down the cost of living to buy more bombs in Pete Hegsett's hands to kill little girls in Iran and to engage in more war crimes, you psychotic war criminals.

3:29Ben Meiselas:Here, play this clip of MAGA Mike Johnson. Here, play this clip. A sample of the headlines. Quote, House Republicans face final week gauntlet. Another said Johnson's rocky sprint to recess. Another said it was Johnson's make or break week. Despite nearly every Democrat voting against everything I just read you, House Republicans delivered. Many of you like to say that major legislating can't happen in an election year. We just proved you wrong. This week, we continue to deliver for the people, and we're going to continue that streak all the way through the end of this year and into the next Congress.

4:02Ben Meiselas:We're increasingly confident that we will hold and grow this majority in the House. We must, because you're seeing a demonstration of the two sides, the divergent views for America. We had been saying that this was an election that was shaping up as a contest between common sense and crazy. And now it is literally in many sectors around the country, common sense versus communism. I told you, they're a real sicko regime, Megamikes like. And now we thought it would be us against crazy, but it's us against communism. Dude, what are you talking about? You've destroyed the lives of tens of millions of Americans so Donald Trump can piss on the walls of the White House and turn it fake gold.

4:47Ben Meiselas:What are you talking about? By the way, the Midas Touch Network, as you know, our D.C. Bureau was on Capitol Hill. We were trying to ask these MAGA Republicans questions before they all went on their vacation. Must be nice. You've got MAGA Republican Congress Member Keene from New Jersey, the guy who disappeared for like three or four months, right? No one knew where this guy was. oh, well, he was stock trading during all of those months. He's like Trump. Trump did 21 ,000 stock trades last year. This guy's like, they're all doing stock trades, these MAGAs. Here, play this clip. Congressman Cain, why did you trade stocks while you were missing votes for more than three months?

5:28Ben Meiselas:No response, sir.

5:42Ben Meiselas:whoa and then you had maggie republican congress member zach nunn attacked the cameraman right here just struck a person asking a very simple question about rural hospital closures hey maggie nunn that's the guy's name maggie republican nun what do you why are you shutting down all of these hospitals to buy more bombs to blow up iran what are you doing and he's like i'm with a constituent. Can't you see him? No, you weren't. You were with a reporter from Notice. We all know who that guy is. It's not a constituent, you freaking liar. You were with a reporter probably leaking stuff. And then he punches the camera.

6:18Ben Meiselas:These MAGAs are unhinged lunatics. They're unhinged lunatics. Here play this clip. Congressman Nunn, do you still think that rural hospital closures are a myth? No response there? No, I said I'm with a constituent. You should protect their privacy. Careful.

6:43Ben Meiselas:Speaking of unhinged lunatics, did you see Donald Trump at that speech last night? You know, as MAGA Mike and Congress is recessing, what the hell was that national correspondence dinner thing? I don't even know what the hell it was when Donald Trump was talking about the big race in Texas, James Tolerico against Ken Paxton, like Ken Paxton, a literal criminal, a crook, someone who lets out sexual abusers, someone who's engaged in the most heinous personal conduct, like Paxton and Trump and Epstein. There's a reason they all hang out together, right? James Tallarico, a nice normal guy. They're like, he's a tallafrico.

7:24Ben Meiselas:He hates sex. He hates sex. He's not going to do well because he doesn't like sex. He doesn't like sex? What What are you even talking about? Watch what Trump said. Play this clip. Well, in Texas, the Democrats are running a candidate named James Telefrico, who hates guns, hates oil, hates sex, hates women. And he said he is, quote, a Christian who hates Christianity. Other than that, I think his platform is quite good. And that means that he's not going to do very well against Ken Paxson, who hopefully in Texas is going to win. but tell the freak out he's alpha you know what it looks like to me alfred e newman you remember alfred e newman mad magazine i said that guy is alfred e newman can't imagine he'd win well i have all of the press here in one place i have to see and you can just take a look at donald trump the way he looked when he was sitting next to his chief propagandist caroline levin oh then before trump went to the white house correspondence dinner uh some members of the press who were in the Oval Office, we're able to get this video right here of Natalie Harp.

8:31Ben Meiselas:That's Donald Trump's human printer. And lots of people say she's Donald Trump's other things as well. But there she is in the White House, just like people, there's like a zombie, he's like zombie humans. And, you know, she's attached to Donald Trump at the hip. Look, but while all of this is going on, there's real serious things happening too. I mean, it's serious that the president's demented, psychotic human being. But he's getting our service members killed. He's destroying the lives of millions of Americans, all while he's doing his stupid YMCA dance. CNN spoke with the wife of U.S. Army Sergeant Michael Swinton, who was recently killed in action as a result of Donald Trump's catastrophic war.

9:11Ben Meiselas:And this is one of the individuals, brave, courageous service members killed in action. Donald Trump deleted his name and deleted the fact that he was killed in action from the war because Trump says we're not in a war. Epic Fury is over and we won it, according to Donald Trump. And so you have Michael Swinton's wife. So while you have Maga Mike Johnson shutting down Congress, refusing to hold Donald Trump accountable with a war powers resolution and actually asserting what Article 1 is all about, you have the power. It's your power, not Trump's, to declare war. And what the hell is Maga Mike doing turning our Congress into something even more servile than the Russian Duma.

9:51Ben Meiselas:You have real people who are having their lives destroyed. Listen to the wife of U.S. Army Sergeant Michael, Sergeant Michael Swinton play this clip. Mia, something happened this week that we don't really understand the full details here. You may know more. The Pentagon, you know, removing Michael and the three soldiers who also died this past weekend from the public casualty count of soldiers and troops who have died during the war. Now, the Pentagon does say it's a glitch. Has anyone spoken to you about this or told you anything about it?

10:26Nobody has reached out yet. Wow.

10:37I kind of don't have words for that. Yeah, I can imagine.

10:44Ben Meiselas:And the world's on fire right now as a result of Trump's psychotic, weak, pathetic behavior. He and Netanyahu invading Iran. You take a look at the black columns rising this morning from the city of Jizan in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia attacked the Houthis in Yemen. Yemen responded with a vengeance and they started striking hard in Saudi Arabia as they warned they were going to. You also have Iran striking hard in Bahrain, striking these PAC-2 Patriot interceptor facilities, attacking the fifth fleet of the United States. You'll see here in this video, I'll show you the B-roll, the PAC-2 Patriot interceptors malfunctioning, not working, and Iran getting direct hits on US air bases over there in Bahrain.

11:27Ben Meiselas:Meanwhile, Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz. The Houthis control the Bab al-Mandab Strait. Both are being choked out. They have Iran and the Houthis have control of the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab, respectively. While Donald Trump had said, come on, everything's okay. Use the route. And really, when a ship goes and uses the route, they get blown up and they get blown up. And so with all of that as background, great to know that MAGA Mike saying everybody gets to go home. It's August recess after, again, MAGUS pushed forward a budget and took away our taxpayer dollars to fund this catastrophic and unlawful war.

12:06Ben Meiselas:I want to bring in right now Democratic Congress member Brendan Boyle. He's the ranking member of the House Budget Committee. Let me bring in ranking member of the Budget Committee, Brendan Boyle. Here's my interview with Brendan. Now I want to bring in Democratic Congress member Brendan Boyle, ranking member of the House Budget Committee. Congressman Boyle, great to see you again this week. There was a lot of budget talk and it was often very confusing and I think intentionally so by the sloppiness of the MAGA Republicans. I think the big takeaway is that they want to take away trillions of dollars that could actually go to the American people and be used for things like health care and services that people rely on and help the cost of living and move all of the money to wars and never ending wars that people don't want to be involved in.

12:59Ben Meiselas:And for whatever the hell and for bailouts, because Donald Trump has utterly failed this economy and for Donald Trump's personal projects and putting Trump's name on everything. But it is, I think, purposefully confusing to try to make things complicated so people don't know what the hell is going on. But look, I think people get it. What I just said, people are livid right now. And so talk to us about this moment, Congressman. Yeah. And also on top of that, let's face it, the language around the budget process is almost, you know, it's different, a different arcane language that no normal person can understand between reconciliation and CRs.

13:39and then you throw in the NDAA. So let me attempt to explain this in plain English. The big thing that happened this week is what Republicans are calling their reconciliation 3.0. The House Budget Committee approved last week, despite my opposition and the opposition of every Democrat. And then on Wednesday, the full House of Representatives approved on a party line vote, their reconciliation plan, which is just under$100 billion. Now, considering most polls, in fact, I think every single poll shows by far the number one issue on voters mind is the affordability issue. Frankly, life in America is just too expensive today.

14:22Some of the worst polling that we've seen since the Great Recession in terms of the views of the American people on the economy and specifically inflation. So it would only be natural and you would be wise to think that, of course, Republicans in their reconciliation bill is going to attempt to do something to at least even pretend to speak to this issue. While you would be reasonable, you would be wrong to think that. Not one dime, not one word of their over 6 ,500-page bill is about affordability or lowering costs, most of the$95 billion is going to defense and intelligence in order to fund Trump's reckless Iran war.

15:10There's a little bit of money in there as well as an incentive to the states to do something on the SAVE Act. This is probably going to get kicked out by the Senate parliamentarian because reconciliation, if you recall, is all of these funky rules over on the Senate side. But be that as it may, this is largely, in the end of the day, a defense bill to fund the Iran war to the tune of almost$100 billion. And not one penny of this will actually help the pocketbooks of the American people.

15:44Ben Meiselas:Yeah, that's why the American people know this stinks and that our money is being taken from us and given to a military industrial complex for wars that we don't want to be involved in at that level. But this follows to me, you know, back when I was a litigator and I would follow and prosecute in a civil basis these Ponzi schemes, the idea of, you know, these businesses that would use this language that really wasn't accessible. and they would start off with a special purpose vehicle one and special purpose vehicle two and special purpose vehicle three. And then, you know, they would use special purpose vehicle two to pay off some of the people from one who are getting a little worried and they would create three to pay off people from two if they were getting worried.

16:31Ben Meiselas:And then the insiders would take all of the money for themselves. So then they would say, aha, look at all the money the investors are making, though. Don't worry. You're going to get it because we've made billions and billions of dollars. You just have to wait for it. Don't worry. Give us a few weeks. Give us you're going to you're going to get it. And so to me, we're at reconciliation 3.0 when they told us the so-called big, beautiful bill was going to cover everything and everything we needed and more. Donald Trump is out there saying I got 19.2 trillion dollars right now and we've made everybody so rich with this number.

17:06Ben Meiselas:But we're going to get there. We're going to get there. but we just have to get, just give me a little more time. That's literally what he said in Georgia. Give me a little more time. We got to pass these reconciliations now. And then the factories will all happen because all this 19 trillion, it's there. It's just, we got to wait for it. It just, it's a, it seems like an obvious Ponzi scheme, Congressman. Yeah. I mean, we've talked before about the 18, 19 trillion figure that Trump just totally creates, which to give everyone an idea, the entire federal budget, Everything that we spend on everything, whether it's defense, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, roads, bridges, all of it combined, annually is between$6 and$7 trillion.

17:48So the idea that Donald Trump suddenly added$19 trillion to people's wallets is so absurd, but it's a typical Trump. You know, you say a lie that is big enough and bold enough and repeat it, and that way your followers will believe you. Donald Trump is the most, and I give him credit for this actually, give the devil his due, he is the most successful con man in American history. But here's why I'm pretty optimistic and confident about the midterm elections this November. As effective as a con man as Donald Trump has been throughout his life, he can't convince people, most people anyway, that their financial situation is any better than it actually is because they're the ones who are having to pay their own bills.

18:39They're the ones who are pumping up the gas station and know they're now paying more than$4 a gallon when just five, six months ago, it was under$3 a gallon. They're the ones who are seeing food prices jump 20%, 25%. They're the ones who see inflation back out of control after it was coming down. month after month, every single month in 2024, inflation was coming down. Donald Trump gets elected and becomes president in January. And almost immediately inflation begins to jump back up first with Trump's tariff taxes, which is essentially a national sales tax on almost every imported good. And then he compounds it with the so-called big, beautiful bill in which he makes healthcare more expensive for almost every American in order to fund tax cuts for the rich.

19:26and then that you fast forward to this year and you have trump's reckless iran war which has uh driven the cost of gasoline and so many other costs through the roof this is a failed economic president it's a failed presidency in so many other ways but it is especially glaring on the economy because that actually is a real contrast in the minds of voters to trump 1.0 trump 1.0 his approval rating on the economy never fell below 53%. Well, guess what? It is now in the low 30s, which is the lowest approval of any president on the economy since George W. Bush at the height of the Great Recession 20 years ago.

20:10Ben Meiselas:You know, and he's making things so much worse. I mean, we have the escalation of the war and things are getting really, really bad. And first and foremost on our minds are our service members who are getting killed and injured as a result of this. It does have a massive financial impact to people here at home. And we're seeing that while that's going on, what has he done in this past week, which isn't getting nearly enough attention? Well, first last week, he did 25 % tariffs on Brazil in the dark of the night. This week, 50 % tariffs on Canada. Granted, there are some exclusions, but it still is 50 % on a lot.

20:49Ben Meiselas:And And then on Friday, he does so-called Section 301 tariffs on 60 countries, saying that they're involved in forced labor, including the European Union. So any purported deal, you know, the deal guy with the European Union, which is supposed to avoid this, Trump goes, you know what? We just did an investigation. And in the European Union, you support forced labor. So now we're going to tariff you more than even the Supreme Court basically said we couldn't before. And then the Trump regime says, we here in the United States don't engage in any of those practices. And European Union, they're like, y 'all, we have like living wages and people are living here.

21:30Ben Meiselas:What are you even talking about? And Trump's like, well, you buy from countries that have forced labor. And it's like, you're offering nuclear weapons to Saudi Arabia and you're giving our semiconductor chips to the UAE. Are you crazy? I just think people are seeing what's going on right now with all that yeah you know specifically on trump's uh tariff taxes um and i always make sure to call them exactly what they are taxes a tariff is a type of tax it's a it's a tax on a good that you get from abroad this is something that i am confident that once in power democrats will be able to reverse after all the power to tariff the power to tax is in article one of the constitution it is an inherent power of congress problem is we have a Republican majority right now who just bows down to Donald Trump and refuses to stand up to him.

22:20Well, guess what? We win back the House in November. We win the Senate. We will be able to kill these tariff taxes once and for all. That will begin to bring down costs for the American people. It will begin to reverse the enormous damage that Trump has inflicted on the American people. So I have to say, you know, in the medium term, provided we win in November, I'm pretty confident that's something that we're going to be able to do something about.

22:45Ben Meiselas:Every good con man, I don't mean that in a applaud way, I mean it in a negative way. It ultimately, at some point, time catches up though, and people go, you promised me this, where is it? Where is it? And it does feel like we're at that moment right now where even the ardent MAGA people are like, we stuck with you for a long time. And now you're out here talking about communism and all of this stuff. Like, you know, maybe that works in 2024. Maybe you got, you told us you were gonna make our lives better. You wanna talk about all this other stuff? Make our lives better first. Let us have healthcare, let us do that.

23:31Ben Meiselas:And then you wanna talk about your dogs. And this is the ultra MAGA, But you want to talk about dogs and cats and and sports and and and all your crazy stuff that you want to lead us down that path. It feels like the art of MAGA supporters even like you screw in our lives right now. And you're pretending that we're doing great and we're not. I'll give you the final word. Yeah. I mean, I really laughed this past week when we were having a press conference. I say we on the Democratic side, I as ranking member was joined by the chair and vice chair of our Democratic caucus. We were having a press conference about affordability and the need to lower costs for the American people and our plan to do that.

24:09The Republican press conference, the one that Republican leaders had that was right before us, was all about defeating communism. That is a great political slogan for 1956. But for here and now, by the way, I have good news for my Republican leader friends. We defeated communism. The Berlin Wall came down in 1989. Um, we won that one folks. What voters actually care about today is who is going to make their lives better. Who is going to put more money in their pocket? Who is going to finally bring down costs? Democrats have a plan on this. Republicans have only raised your costs and they aren't even attempting to lower them because they're talking about anything and everything except for the main issue affecting the lives of the American people.

24:57Ben Meiselas:I mean, it's, it's so obvious and it's so, I mean, if it wasn't so damn serious and people weren't suffering, you would say that this is like a parody. You know, it's like people like I'm suffering. I'm sorry. I need help. I need help. But the communists are doing it. It's like, guys, Trump, you did you did this in 2024. We don't believe we don't believe you right now. Just stop it. Stop it. Congressman, thanks for everything. You know, we do look forward one day. We can go from ranking member to chairman of that committee and hold real hearings and bring in Russ Vogt and, you know, and do the type of oversight and work that I think the American people really want to really want to see.

25:38Ben Meiselas:And you can go through that balance sheet with Vogt and see where that$19 trillion is. Thanks, Congressman. Thank you. I'm looking forward to being back when I'm chairman and holding those hearings and finally holding these people accountable. A great way to leave off this interview with hope at this juncture. time. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million. Hey, if you want the full story, how democracy got here and how we take it back, pre-order our new book, WTF America today. Just scan the QR code or click the link in the description. Let's do this.