Rep. Janelle Bynum Discusses Impact of Trump’s Disastrous Shutdown

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1:28Ben Meiselas:A new week and more MAGA Mike humiliating himself. He goes through this humiliation ritual every morning now. Donald Trump puts him up to it. He goes and does these horrific press conferences where he makes things worse for the MAGA Republicans as they're on vacation during this disastrous government shutdown. So MAGA Mike goes on to say that the reality is, is that the Republicans don't control government. It's the Democrats who control government right now. That's why this is taking place. Democrats are running government. Here, play this clip. The Democrats are required to open the government.

2:07They keep saying Republicans are in charge of government. We aren't, not in the Senate. 60 votes control the Senate, not a bare majority.

2:15Ben Meiselas:Oh, so you don't run, wow, wow. All this time, Donald Trump ruling like a dictator, But the MAGA Republicans claiming they control everything now during the shutdown. Democrats are the ones. I mean, you can't make this stuff up. Then MAGA Mike Johnson says that he's asked by Manu Raju. So why not just bring the Republicans back to the House? Why not just bring them there so there could at least be discussions or you can at least pretend to be working in Washington, D.C.? You know, these members are getting paid. How about you just show up to your job in D.C.? Here's what Megan Mike says. Let's play it.

2:51Yeah. So we're evaluating this day by day. The House did its work. I've said it over and over and over. And the most important thing is to get the government open. It's the number one priority and number one responsibility of Congress. And the Senate Democrats have chosen not to do it. We think that is paramount and of paramount importance to everything else. There is plenty of time in the remainder of the calendar year to do all the things that are the must pass pieces of legislation and all the negotiations that I referenced earlier today. And we are anxious to get everybody back to regular legislative session.

3:21But there cannot be a regular legislative session so long as the government is closed and Americans are feeling so much pain. We won't do that. Now, in the meantime, Republicans, I don't know what the Democrats are doing other than publicity stunts. But I can tell you the House Republicans are doing some of the most meaningful work of their careers. They are in their districts working around the clock with their constituents.

3:43Ben Meiselas:They're doing the most meaningful work on their vacation. they're negotiating the crisis with their constituents what they're negotiating with their constituents there and by the way they are able to show up to work in Washington DC at least the Republicans in the Senate I'm not trying to give them credit for at least at least they showed up to Washington DC and there have been some hearings taking place like at least I see them in Washington DC and then Magamite goes on to say but here's the deal Republicans we are the party of health care. We alone are the ones who can fix it. On vacation and not coming up with a plan?

4:24What we're doing right now, what we have been doing, what we were already doing, because we knew we were coming up to the end of the year, and we know that health care is a major burden for the American people. We've been working on it since day one of this Congress. We worked on it in the years prior, and we've already demonstrated this is not talking points for us. When we say the Republican Party is the only party that has any chance at fixing health care for the American people, we've demonstrated it. We put it into the one big beautiful bill, the working families tax cut.

4:52Ben Meiselas:Oh, everybody knows that disastrous budget bill was what delivered health care to the American people. That's why the Affordable Care Act subsidies are about to expire and the price of health care is about to go up like$20 ,000 a year for Americans. I want to bring in Democratic Congresswoman Janelle Bynum to talk about that and more. Congresswoman, you see Magamike doing that shtick every morning. And it's an SNL skit if it wasn't Saturday Night Live, if it wasn't so serious, and they weren't ripping away healthcare from tens of millions of Americans while doing that weird Soviet-style propaganda routine.

5:33Ben Meiselas:What do you make of it, Congresswoman? Reminds me of Bojangles. He's just tap dancing his little heart out. I don't understand why they're attacking Democrats when they control the House, they control the Senate, and they control the White House. So, you know, garbage in, garbage out. And they know that their backs are up against the wall. they don't have a plan other than to rip away i'd be interested in what i mean to me there's different buckets you can go universal health care make it free for everybody tax the rich more figure out that you could try to make the affordable care act better more subsidies figure out a way to bolster it and strengthen the existing program do what biden did with kind of single payer negotiations for older people, or you go back to pre Obamacare, which was 20 million Americans uninsured die.

6:32Ben Meiselas:And insurance companies can discriminate on the basis of preexisting it. Like, it's not a complicated one, but like we need to, they don't have anything other than they cite the budget bill as their plan. There's nothing in there about it. We've heard Mike Johnson say with his own mouth that they don't have a strategy. And we also know that Republicans have been trying to gut health care and strip health care from the American public ever since we had the Affordable Care Act. We know that as well. For me, it's about how do we get to the table and agree on the what, meaning every American should have access to health care when they need it at an affordable price and however they need it.

7:14So we get to the what and then we may disagree on the how, but you've got to be at the table. And the fact that he hasn't brought the House back into session to even have these table conversations, that's the problem. They're not willing to negotiate and they're not willing to take health care for the American people seriously.

7:33Ben Meiselas:You know, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which 42 million Americans rely on, you know, lots of people in Oregon and throughout the world, I mean, throughout the country rely on it, is about to expire on November 1st. So Maga Mike was asked, what are you doing when it comes to snap? You've seemed to have figured out ways to break every law to destroy the East Wing of the White House or to send ICE agents to disappear human beings in concentration camps and to literally go to war with American cities. So can you figure out how to address snap? I mean, you know, there's an emergency fund for it.

8:11Ben Meiselas:So Mike was asked about it. Let me show you what he said. Then I'll have you respond to it. Let's play the clip of what Mike said on snap. And the SNAP benefits is a unique situation. I got a summary of the whole legal analysis, and it certainly looks legitimate to me. The contingency funds are not legally available to cover the benefits right now. The reason is because it's a finite source of funds. It was appropriated by Congress. And if they transfer funds from these other sources, it pulls it away immediately from school mills and infant formula. So it's a tradeoff. So it's a there. It's a trade off.

8:47Ben Meiselas:It's a trade off, Congress. When we see it pulls it away. The guy's just the liar, huh? I wonder I've often wondered how you can dig so deep into your faith and then look yourself in the mirror and say you're OK with not feeding children. You're OK with not feeding seniors like that. I have a problem with that as as a person of faith. You know, I'll go toe to toe with Mike Johnson on that. And I think that that is that's what gets me like in my in the deepest parts of my heart. The other challenge for us is that we have to make sure that the American people are being served. If you can find money to send 40 billion dollars to Argentina, but you can't find money for food for kids and seniors.

9:32I have a problem with that. You can find money for an airplane, for two airplanes, for Kristi Noem. Then you can find money to feed American children and seniors. It doesn't math.

9:42Ben Meiselas:So I got to ask you, you hold the congressional seat that was previously held by the labor secretary. Now, Lori Chavez Dreamer, you beat her in the election. She pretended that she was pro union when she was there and that she supported workers. And then during her confirmation hearing, she wouldn't even agree that she supported the pro act like she was like it was a total mask off. And now this Department of Labor, I mean, they were the first to put the weird, like, massive propaganda poster of Donald Trump's face on the bill. Dear leader. Dear leader. And then they, if you've looked at their social media account, they post these weird, like, 1950s photos of, like, white families together and, like, white, you know, like, you're Lori Chavez, Doremer, you know, and.

10:32Ben Meiselas:No, no, no. She's Lori Doremer around here. We didn't find out the Chavez until I started running against her. And just to be very clear, I beat her not once, not twice, but three times. So let's just be very clear. She's Lori Doremer. And you look at these photos that they post. The American dream belongs to the American people. And they post this one. There's another one. Restoring the American dream with the... You knew exactly who she was when you ran against her and you beat her. I know her up and down, in and out. I know her better than she knows herself. And I don't think she knows herself other than whatever Donald Trump tells her to do.

11:13Ben Meiselas:So what do you make of what the Department of Labor is doing right now? Yeah, it's signaling, right? It's signaling a return to the good old days. And I would say this. Everyone in America is entitled to the American dream. The people of this country invest in it. We are enriched by the immigrant story, the immigrant grit, the immigrant contributions to this country. And we are also enriched by the contributions of the African-American community. We're enriched by the contributions of a whole variety of people. And so to bring back this idea of going back to the 50s when we know things were not right in this country and to not try to move us further along, I think is just a dog whistle for white supremacy.

12:06I'll call it just like I see it.

12:10Ben Meiselas:And talk to us before we go about what you're seeing right now in your state, in Oregon, with the ICE obviously targeting the state. We've seen the agents terrorize Portland, but the whole state's being affected. What do you see in there? And what's the reaction amongst your constituents? So to be clear, we didn't ask for the National Guard to come. We don't need the National Guard to come. Nobody is excited about any prospect of that. What we see is Portland and Oregon fighting back in its very own way, inspiring people around the nation to meet frivolity with frivolity, inspiring people to tell the truth.

12:54I mean, I even have a constituent, Frank Miranda, who was detained at work, U.S. citizen, held for hours, released with no explanation. And so we're not accepting that as normal. That's what I've been telling my constituents. Do not accept this status quo that we have right now as normal. Continue to fight back and continue to stand up for the people of Oregon and for the people of this country.

13:20Ben Meiselas:How are your constituents handling everything right now? I mean, whether it's SNAP being cut off, whether it is health care premiums about to reach a level where people could be going medically bankrupt and losing their insurance. On top of that, a military invasion by Donald Trump, war crimes, chemical warfare. I mean, they're throwing gas canisters and people choking, sending people to camps. How do people hold up when your state and your constituents have been targeted? I mean, it's hard to say, are they targeted more than everyone's suffering in their own ways, but particularly, you know, serious stuff going on in your district.

13:59So everybody knows there's really heavy times right now. And even one of my Republican state representatives that's in my district reached out to me and said, hey, can we do something about SNAP? And I was like, oh, OK. So you all recognize that this is an American program that is intended to help people. It's not, you know, something that we give out at our own whim. It's something that we do to provide the American safety net. So so people are feeling anxious about that. Again, I've said do not normalize this chaos. And it feels very heavy. But people are very, very motivated to stand up to this president who is acting as if he's a tyrant.

14:40And oh, by the way, all of the people who are supporting him and bending at his knee. That is the issue that we're facing here. We need more people to stand up, more people to speak out, including Republicans.

14:53Ben Meiselas:Well, Congresswoman, we're glad that you're standing up, speaking out for democracy and for everything you do. We appreciate you, Congresswoman Janelle Bidem, Oregon's 5th Congressional District. Thanks. Good seeing you. You too. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad-free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.

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