CSPAN - Washington Journal 06/06/2025

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June 6, 2025 07:00-09:00 - CSPAN

01:59:42

Washington Journal 06/06/2025

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donald j trump

admin 05:39

greta brawner

cspan 31:02

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brian lamb

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glenn grothman

rep/r 03:31

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Speaker	Time	Text
unidentified		We'll take your calls and comments live.
		Then, GOP Representative Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin, a member of the Budget and Oversight Committees, discusses the GOP tax and spending bill and Elon Musk's latest efforts to stop it.
		And California Democratic Representative Judy Chu, a member of the Budget and Ways and Means Committees, discusses the tax cuts and spending bill and Democrats' strategy to counter President Trump's agenda.
		Washington Journal starts now.
		Join the conversation.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		In a very public feud that played out yesterday, the alliance between President Trump and Elon Musk appears to have shattered.
		We'll get your thoughts on the ramifications for the big, beautiful bill.
		Also, politics and financial.
		Your thoughts this morning on the feud between President Trump and Elon Musk.
		Here's how you can join us this morning.
		If you're a Republican, dial in at 202-748-8001.
unidentified		Democrats, 202-748-8000.
unidentified		And Independents, 202-748-8002.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		You can also text with your first name, city, and state at 202-748-8003.
		Or post on facebook.com/slash C-SPAN and on X with the handle at C-SPANWJ.
		Elon Musk began criticizing the bill earlier in the week, the GOP tax and spending cut legislation that was passed recently in the House.
		Yesterday, President Trump responded to the criticism from Elon Musk in the Oval Office with the German leader, saying this.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		I'm very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here, better than you people.
		He knew everything about it.
		He had no problem with it.
		All of a sudden, he had a problem, and he only developed the problem when he found out that we're going to have to cut the EV mandate because that's billions and billions of dollars.
		And it really is unfair.
		We want to have cars of all types.
		Electric, we want to have electric, but we want to have gasoline, combustion.
		We want to have different, we want to have hybrids.
		We want to have all, we want to be able to sell everything.
		And when that was cut, and Congress wanted to cut it, he became a little bit different.
		And I can understand that.
		But he knew every aspect of this bill.
		He knew it better than almost anybody.
		And he never had a problem until right after he left.
		And if you saw the statements he made about me, which I'm sure you can get very easily, it's very fresh on tape.
		He said the most beautiful things about me.
		And he hasn't said bad about me personally, but I'm sure that'll be next.
		But I'm very disappointed in Elon.
		I've helped Elon a lot.
unidentified		I just want to clarify: did he raise any of these concerns with you privately before he raised them publicly?
		And this is the guy you put in charge of cutting spending.
		Should people not take him seriously about spending now?
		Are you saying this is all source?
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		No, he worked hard and he did a good job.
		And I'll be honest, I think he misses the place.
		I think he got out there and all of a sudden he wasn't in this beautiful Oval Office and he's got nice offices too.
		But there's something about this when I was telling the Chancellor, this is where it is.
		People come in here, even from Germany.
		They come in and they walk into the Oval Office and it's just a special place.
		It's, you know, World War I, it started and it ended here.
		And World War II and so many other things.
		Everything big comes right from this beautiful space.
		It's now much more beautiful than it was six months ago.
		A lot of good things are happening in this room.
		And I'll tell you, he's not the first.
		People leave my administration and they love us.
		And then at some point they miss it so badly and some of them embrace it and some of them actually become hostile.
		I don't know what it is.
		It's sort of Trump derangement syndrome, I guess they call it.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		President Trump in the Oval Office with his criticism of Elon Musk and Mr. Musk appeared to be watching.
		As the reporters were asking the president in real time about his criticism, he went to X and posted this about the Big Beautiful bill, false.
		This bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it.
		Elon Musk went on to say this.
		Without me, Trump would have lost the election.
		Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51.49 in the Senate.
		How much did Elon Musk contribute in the 2024 campaign?
		The New York Times notes more than $290 million in federal spending, most of which went toward backing President Trump, about $20 million to help 20 frontline House Republican candidates, and more than $12 million to help Senate Republican candidates.
		Now, Punch Bowl notes that Musk is the richest man in the world with a fortune of $368 billion and he owns one of the most important social media platforms on earth, X. President Trump responded then to Elon Musk on his own social media platform, Truth Social, saying, Elon was wearing thin.
		I asked him to leave.
		I took away his EV mandate that forced everyone to buy electric cars that nobody else wanted, that he knew for months I was going to do, and he just went crazy.
		The president went on to say, the easiest way to save money in our budget, billions and billions of dollars, is to terminate Elon's government subsidies and contracts.
		I was always surprised that Biden didn't do it.
		Later on in the day, Elon Musk responds as well.
		Time to drop the really big bomb.
		Donald Trump is in the Epstein files.
		That is the real reason they have not been made public.
		Then he tells the president to have a nice day.
		He also says this, that the Trump tariffs will cause a recession in the second half of this year.
		This morning we turn to all of you as there are political, policy, and financial fallout from this public feud.
		Kevin and Frankfurt, Kentucky, Democratic caller, what do you think about this?
unidentified		I can't stand either one of them.
		Mr. Trump is a liar.
		Mr. Musk needs to be shipped back to South Africa.
		They are scum.
		The idea that you have a rapist as your president that is caught on female and there is no regard for any kind of punishment for him, he needs to resign immediately.
		Raping a 14-year-old girl.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right, Kevin, we're going to move on.
		Josie in Waterloo, New York, Democratic caller.
		We're talking about this breakup, it appears, between President Trump and Elon Musk.
		What do you make of it?
unidentified		Good morning.
		I never thought he belonged in there to begin with.
		And Trump, as far as he goes, I feel that he's destroying this country.
		I don't care what anybody else thinks.
		All these tariffs, he's causing enemies.
		And Elon Musk shouldn't have been in there.
		They're talking about being poor.
		He's a billionaire.
		They're talking about all this.
		It's all about money.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Josie, did you say?
unidentified		I wish just to take a look at the title.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		When you say he should not have been in there.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Josie, when you say he should not have been in there, you're referring to the work he was doing on this Department of Government Efficiency.
unidentified		He's not in this country.
		He wasn't elected.
		He shouldn't have been there.
		This is a country of democracy.
		We vote who goes into the White House.
		We vote.
		All right, Josie.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right, Josie, who's saying that Elon Musk should not have been there at the beginning of this administration because he was never elected to be there.
		Punchball News notes that because of his celebrity, his larger-than-life persona, and command of the media and unimaginable gobs of money, Elon Musk poses a potential challenge to President Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, and the Republican infrastructure both in Washington and beyond.
		We'll see how serious it ultimately becomes.
		He has contributed to campaigns for the Republicans.
		He claims it's now why the president is in the White House and Republicans control the majority in the House and the Senate.
		Could he refuse to contribute in the midterm election cycle in 2026 and beyond because of this public spat?
		Duane in Jamaica, New York, Independent.
		Dwayne, let's get your thoughts.
unidentified		Good morning, Greta.
		It's awfully funny how everybody's in an uproar about what's going on.
		They knew this.
		He's destroyed families, Elon Musk and Trump.
		You have federal workers who are now looking for other jobs.
		It's not fair that a man would come in and destroy a whole entire nation thanks to Trump.
		It doesn't make sense to me.
		So now that, and it was on an audio tape that how both of them was making fun of union workers.
		I'm a union worker.
		So my protection is my union.
		So everyone, you should be very happy that you put in two guys that have destroyed this country.
		Have a nice day, Greta.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Shirley in Newcastle, Pennsylvania, Republican.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Shirley, who do you agree with here on the tax and spending cuts bill by Republicans, Elon Musk or the president?
unidentified		You know, I thought they were working very well together because we, you know, President Trump is the one we, you know, elected.
		But I thought Elon, even though Elon was with the Democrats, then he came over and helped Trump.
		We thought.
		Now, what I want to know is, you know, the remark was made that should that we should get rid of Trump and bring our vice president in.
		Well, wait a minute.
		What does the vice president have to say about this?
		Where does he stand in all of this?
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, so you're referring to what Elon Musk had to say about impeaching President Trump and replacing him with JD Vance.
		That was also one of the comments that was made by Elon Musk.
		So you want to hear from the vice president on this?
unidentified		Yes, I would like to.
		I want to know what he has to say.
		What part does he play in this?
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		So do you think JD Vance is on the side of Elon Musk?
unidentified		Something's wrong.
		Something's wrong.
		And we all see it.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Well, what do you mean something's wrong?
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		You think that JD Vance is encouraging Elon Musk?
unidentified		Well, I'm wondering.
		I'm just wondering.
		Are they both have they teamed up to go against Trump?
		Because we know Trump can do the job.
		He doesn't need either one of them.
		But I just, you know, there's just always so much going on behind the scenes, and it just makes you angry.
		Okay.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Shirley's referring to this on X, a posting by Eon Miles Chong, who says, President versus Elon, who wins?
		My money's on Elon.
		Elon Trump should be impeached and JD Vance should replace him.
		And Elon Musk says yes, retweeting that post there by Eon Miles Chong.
		We'll go to Chris in Omaha, Nebraska, Democratic caller.
		Chris, good morning to you.
unidentified		What do you make of this breakup here?
		Bad MAGA voters.
		You know, I think this is just another shiny keys, you know, distract from the man behind the curtain.
		I think it's about as phony as the assassination attempt last summer.
		You know, if an AR hit somebody in the side of the ear like that, that would have torn that cartilage apart and it would have been burned on the side of his face.
		It looked like something out of the WWE.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right, Chris in Nebraska, Democratic caller.
		Now, there are reports this morning by Punch Bull and others that perhaps this fight is cooling already.
		And that is because billionaire hedge fund CEO Bill Ackman posted on X yesterday, I support President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, and they should make peace for the benefit of our great country.
		We are much stronger together than apart.
		Elon Musk followed that up saying, you're not wrong, tagging the president and Bill Ackman in his post.
		Peter in Reed, Pennsylvania, Independent.
		Peter, what do you think?
unidentified		I am just, you know, not surprised, you know, with this apartheid prime minister and this clown we have in the White House.
		All I can say to you, MAGA morons that we told you so.
		And it's going to be a long four years.
		You know, the rapists and the criminal that's in the White House, God help us all.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		So, Peter, you're an independent.
		How have you voted in the last few presidential cycles?
		Campaign section.
unidentified		I voted for W.
		I voted for various Republicans.
		My congressman was a Republican.
		And I don't care what party, as long as you help people food on there, you help people survive this.
		But this clown we have in the White House today, you know, he, you know, they walked around Make America great again.
		And I said to some people, I said, listen, my grandfather fought World War II and came back to a country that made him sit in the back of the bus.
		Was America great then?
		Was America great when my four little girls got blew up in Sunday school?
		And they don't want to talk about that stuff.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Peter, as an independent, have you ever voted?
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Did you ever vote for President Trump in any of the previous cycles?
unidentified		Oh, no.
unidentified		He was a nightmare from day one.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		All right.
		So, Peter, what did you think of Elon Musk posting this yesterday?
		Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?
		So he posted this on X, a poll.
		You can see the results that he received from his 200-some million followers and others.
		What do you think, Peter?
unidentified		I actually voted for John Anderson back in 1980 when I was stationed when I was in the Navy.
		I always thought there should have been a third party, you know, because they're all in the same boat.
		One's just going the same direction faster.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Wall Street Journal taking up Elon Musk's poll in the paper this morning saying Republicans overwhelmingly approve of Musk's work to cut the federal bureaucracy.
		Some 72% of GOP voters said so in an April Fox news poll.
		But Republicans give even higher marks to Trump.
		And so it's hard to see major defections from a Trump-led GOP on this question of whether or not Elon Musk could form a third political party.
		How about the Independents, who by definition don't see either of the two major parties as political home?
		Winning them over could be tough.
		Only 26% of independents in a Fox poll approved of Musk's budget cutting, and 56% of independents viewed Musk unfavorably in an economist YouGov poll in late May and early June.
		Tom in Illinois, Democratic caller.
		Tom, good morning to you.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Good morning.
		First of all, this has become so cartoonish at this point.
		It's ridiculous.
		We have two egomaniacs going first.
		They had like a mutual positive relationship where they were mutually going to benefit from each other.
		Elon was probably kissing up to Trump to get his tax breaks and stuff for all his different businesses, you know, being part of the 1%.
		And Trump, you know, has this dazzling billionaire that everyone's fascinated with by his side.
		And what it's turned into instead is two egomaniacs clashing and pulling the plug on each other now, throwing each other under the bus.
		And as for the Doge program, Department of Government Efficiency, a lot of people feel what I've heard out there is a lot of people feel that it was a long time coming in terms of how much bureaucracy and red tape there is in government, and also that we're 36 trillion in debt now.
		So maybe, you know, some departments and agencies needed to be cut back to save money.
		But what they've done is they're throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
		They've taken it to extremes.
		You know, they've taken lifelong public servants who made careers in Washington and fired them, threw them under the bus.
		And they're also doing this to vital programs that we count on, whether it's health care, education, what have you.
		So I'm just sick of it all.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Tom, can I pick up on the first point?
unidentified		That's definitely what people get when they vote for this type of leaders.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Tom, you called this cartoonish at you, you called this cartoonish at the top of your comments.
		And I want to pick up on that because the papers this morning talk about the consequences of this public feud and a possible breakup here between President Trump and Elon Musk.
		First, financial.
		Take a look at the Wall Street Journal.
		Tesla shares tumble.
		The car maker stock suffered its worst day decline, losing about $152 billion in market value.
		And then President Trump's meme coin also taking a hit backed by the president.
		That was down as well.
		Here's the Wall Street Journal.
		It wasn't just the president's meme coin, though.
		His truth media social website also falls.
		The Truth Social Parent Company, owned by the president, dropped 8% Thursday, extending declines as Trump and Musk feuded online in the afternoon.
		Trump memes coin, the meme current cryptocurrency backed by the president, was down 12% in afternoon trading.
		And then, Tom, let me just pick up, keep going here because newspapers reporting that, you know, this has a fallout on Capitol Hill as well as Republicans try to move forward on this so-called big beautiful bill.
		Now you've got people like Senator John Kennedy saying they agree with Elon Musk.
unidentified		It's going to make it more difficult to pass this bill.
		Well, I think that my thoughts are twofold on this.
		Number one, the media, in a lot of ways, loves this because it gives them more headlines, gives them a sexy, dazzling story that these two Titans, these two giants are going at it with each other.
		You know, it creates headlines.
		It creates attention.
		And people are looking up the stories on it.
		And I'm speaking as somebody who worked as journalists in the past, but it's yellow journalism in a lot of ways.
		But the second part of it is, like you were saying, there are real consequences to all this kind of behavior.
		And it's very reckless.
		And it's like these are two guys, two bulls in a china shop, you know, knocking over everything, just reaping destruction.
		So there are consequences to things.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right, Tom.
		Marshall, Brooksville, Florida, Republican.
		Let's hear from you.
		Morning, Marshall.
unidentified		First of all, Elon Musk didn't have to be elected.
		He can be appointed.
		I hope people understand that.
		Just, you know, it's like Harris, when they put her in to run for president, she was not voted on.
		They just put her in there, you know.
		And that's what people don't understand.
		But as far as Elon Musk goes, I think he did a very good job.
		These people saying that all these mega idiots and stuff like that, you know, what about, let me ask you this.
		You said that the people was donating so much money to the Republican Party.
		What about the Democrats?
		How much was donated to them or given to them?
		You bring up things about the Republican, but never anything about the Democrats.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right.
unidentified		The Democrats are one of the biggest problems in this country today.
		And that's my thing.
		Thank you for having me.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Before you go, what do you think of Elon Musk's criticism of the GOP spending and tax cuts bill?
		Is it legitimate, his concern, that it's going to increase the deficit and that they should kill the bill?
		Those were his words.
unidentified		Well, I think they need to refine the bill, not kill the bill, but refine the bill.
		In some things I agree, in some things I don't agree, but I really believe that they need to refine that bill and fine-tune it so everybody will agree.
		But you know, and I know that's not going to happen because the damn Democrats and the Republicans can't seem to get together.
		They're like two kids in first grade.
		All they want to do is fight against each other.
		And that's what's wrong with this country today.
		Nobody wants to, one side or the other side do not want to get along.
		And it's a shame for keeping this country a family.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		So, Marshall, do you agree with Elon Musk that there should be a third party for the 80%, he says?
unidentified		Yes, I do.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Don in Floyd, Virginia, Independent.
unidentified		Yeah, good morning.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Morning.
unidentified		I'm really enjoying watching this reality style government perform.
		It's fantastic.
		You know, I'm on Elon's side.
		That bill is a bunch of crap.
		And I wish somebody could girl set and stand up to the big orange guy.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		So, Don, why do you agree with Elon on the bill?
unidentified		Well, you know, for one thing, the defense budget's over the moon.
		And, you know, they're going to cut Medicare, Medicaid, and programs that people need.
		And this government's a total mess in my book.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Don, did you ever vote for President Trump?
unidentified		No, ma'am.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		So you voted for?
unidentified		I never would.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Did you vote for President Biden in the last two election cycles?
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Or, excuse me, in 2020.
unidentified		Yeah, kind of on a def, well, just vote against Trump, yeah.
unidentified		Because I didn't like him either.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Did you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024?
unidentified		Yep.
		But I'm an independent, and I'll tell you, we definitely need a third party.
		All right.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Don Swatz there in Virginia.
		Mark, Hamilton, New Jersey, Democratic caller.
		Mark, good morning to you.
		This public feud between President Trump and Elon Musk is our conversation this morning.
unidentified		Yes, good morning, Greta.
		How are you?
		And good morning, America.
		Welcome to the 10 Ring Circus.
		You know, Elon Musk, what he did with Doge, he hurt a lot of people.
		He lost jobs for people.
		There's going to be health care taken away from people.
		But now, I think there is something in that bill that is going to affect his business with his Teslas.
		And that's one reason he's furious.
		So, you know what?
		Karma comes around.
		He's going to get his dose.
		And as far as Donald Trump, this man's been in there only five months, and this country is going to hell in a handbasket.
		He lies.
		He uses people.
		And you know, Elon Musk has been used to another one that Trump is going to put out to the garbage now because he's used him just along just like Julie Giuliano and everybody else he has used.
		So I'm just speechless.
		Every day there's another act in the circus.
		Every day.
		I turn the TV on.
		I'm like, what's up today?
		What's up to?
		And it's not helping our country.
		And as far as the war in Ukraine, he's ignoring that.
		I can't believe what has been going on.
		I really can't.
		I'm speechless.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Well, what do you mean he's ignoring that, Mark?
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		What are you referring to?
unidentified		He's literally saying, let Putin and them fight.
		Just let him go.
		He's not even going to try to do anything about this war because I think they said the German chancellor was at the White House yesterday.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		That's right.
unidentified		And he did not want, he wouldn't even listen to that man.
unidentified		He was bringing up D-Day and how America got us out of that, help Europe get out of that war with the fascism and everything with, oh my God, Hitler.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
unidentified		And it's just, it's enraging watching this whole show of, I'm going to end the war day one.
		Remember that one?
		Day one, I'm going to end this war.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, Mark.
unidentified		Here we are in June.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Yep, Mark's talking about what the president said about ending the war between Ukraine and Russia.
		He said he would do it on day one.
		And Mark saying that the president should be focusing on that rather than this public spat between himself and Elon Musk.
		On what Elon Musk benefits from the government and the president saying that he's just mad because the EV mandates were cut in this big, beautiful bill.
		Elon Musk said, whatever on X, keep the EV solar incentive cuts in the bill, even though no oil and gas subsidies are touched.
		Very unfair.
		But ditch the mountain of disgusting pork in the bill.
		In the entire history of civilization, there's never been legislation that both big and beautiful.
		Everyone knows this.
		Either you get a big and ugly bill or a slim and beautiful bill.
		Slim and beautiful is the way.
		How many of you agree with Elon Musk that this bill should be revised and that there is too much, as he says, disgusting pork and adds to the nation's debts and deficit.
		Joey, Atlanta, Georgia, Republican, let's hear from you, Joey.
unidentified		Yes, hi.
		I just think I wish both President Trump and Elon Musk will understand that they both together can really make this country great.
		They need each other.
		They're both incredibly smart people.
		They're both businessmen.
		And sometimes you say things that you regret, but I think both of them should come together.
		They should make their friendship back and stop listening to the lies, especially the Democrats and the media trying to break them apart.
		Look, things happen.
		Sometimes you say things that you don't wish you have said, but I wish that both of them would sit together and just say, look, we've done things together.
		We can make our futures, both our futures after the presidency and during the presidency.
		That's going to benefit America.
		It's going to benefit Mr. Musk.
		It's going to benefit our country and our people.
		And I just think both of them just need to be friends as they were before.
		And I think that that would be the best thing they could do, just become friends again.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		How do you come back from what the Washington Times says is nuclear?
		Musk goes nuclear and feud with president and connects the president to the Epstein files in this post on X when he said it's time to drop the really big bomb.
		How do you come back from that?
unidentified		You know, sometimes when you say things, sometimes, you know, think about marriages.
		Sometimes you say the most awful things about your wife or your wife might say things about your husband.
		Things sometimes get out of line.
		They get, you know, you lose your temper.
		You say things you regret.
		And later on, you say, you know, I should have never said that.
		I apologize.
		And there's a lot of things that both of them could do that.
		Both Trump and Mr. Musk, they could both sit down and say, look, I apologize.
		I should have not said that.
		I didn't mean this.
		Our friendships are, you know, friendships could be forever.
		You know, you could be friends with someone for an entire lifetime.
		And there might be rough times in those years.
		You know, you might say things, you might do things, but at the end of the day, it's important that they don't fall for the traps, that they don't get on each other's throat based on other people say so.
		Mr. Musk is an incredible human being.
		He's done so much for this country.
		And both President Trump and him, both of them could do each other big favors by sitting down and really just going back to being good friends.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right, Joey, as a Republican, do we need to see the Epstein files now?
unidentified		Do they need to be made public?
		Well, you know, I think that that's something that let the courts go through that.
		I think there's a lot of things that Americans don't like about what happened with those files and with that Mr. Epstein.
		But I think let the courts do that.
		You know, if there's something there that needs to be put up front and the American people should know, I think just let the courts do what they do best.
		Let them do their job and let's see what happens.
		And if something comes out that's negative, that's either going to benefit or shame our president.
		But then, you know, unfortunately, that's what our courts are there for.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right, Joey.
		I'm going to leave it there at that point.
		7.30 a.m. here on the East Coast, and we're talking this morning, the first hour, about this public view between President Trump and Elon Musk.
		The president in the Oval Office defending the so-called big, beautiful bill.
		That is the Republicans' spending and tax cuts legislation that was passed in the House recently.
		It's now over in the Senate for consideration.
		Elon Musk began criticizing it earlier this week.
		Here's the president in the Oval Office yesterday defending it.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		We are doing things in that bill that are unbelievable.
		And when you look at what we're doing for small businesses, for people, for middle-income people, all of the things that we're doing, nobody's ever seen anything like it.
		And, you know, Elon's upset because we took the EV mandate, which was a lot of money for electric vehicles.
		And, you know, they're having a hard time, the electric vehicles.
		And they want us to pay billions of dollars in subsidy.
		And, you know, Elon knew this from the beginning.
		He knew it for a long time ago.
		That's been in there.
		That's been, I would say, JD, that hasn't changed.
		That's been right from the beginning.
		I think, Mr. Secretary, that hasn't changed at all, right from the beginning.
		But I know that disturbed him.
		He wanted, and rightfully, you know, he recommended somebody that he, I guess, knew very well.
		I'm sure he respected him, but to run NASA.
		And I didn't think it was appropriate.
		And he happened to be a Democrat, like totally Democrat.
		And I say, you know, look, we won.
		We get certain privileges.
		And one of the privileges, we don't have to appoint a Democrat.
		NASA is very important.
		We have great people.
		General Cain is going to be picking somebody with our, we'll be checking him out, seeing, but he wanted that person, a certain person, and we said no.
		And, you know, I can understand why he's upset.
		Remember, he was here for a long time.
		You saw a man who was very happy when he stood behind the Oval desk and even with the black eye.
		I said, you want a little makeup?
		We'll get you a little makeup.
		But he said, no, I don't think so, which is interesting and very nice.
unidentified		He wants to be who he is, so you could make that statement too, I guess.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		Look, Elon and I had a great relationship.
		I don't know if we're well anymore.
		I was surprised because you were here.
		Everybody in this room practically was here as we had a wonderful send-off.
		He said wonderful things about me.
		You couldn't have nicer.
		Said the best things.
		He's worn the hat.
		Trump was right about everything.
		And I am right about the great, big, beautiful bill.
		We call it a great, big, beautiful bill because that's what it is.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		President Trump on Thursday before the cameras for the first time responding to the criticism from Elon Musk on this GOP tax and spending cuts bill.
		Elon Musk watching and in real time posting on X, false.
		This bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it.
		The Washington Post and many of the national newspapers this morning with similar headlines, Trump and Musk trade threats as the alliance flames out.
		The criticism began on Sunday, CBS's Sunday morning.
		Elon Musk was on that program.
unidentified		This is what he had to say about the legislation.
		So, you know, I was like disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decrease it.
		And our reminds the work that the Doge team is doing.
		I actually thought that when this big, beautiful bill came along.
		I mean, like, everything he's done on Doge gets wiped out in the first year.
		I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful.
		I don't know if it could be both.
		My personal opinion.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		That was Elon Musk on CBS's Sunday show.
		Now, the Washington Post notes that this week the Congressional Budget Office projected that the overall price tag of this measure would be $3 trillion over the next decade, an estimate that the administration has disputed.
		We want to get your take this morning.
		Do you agree with Elon Musk about this piece of legislation?
		What about the political policy fallout of this spat, as well as financial?
		As we showed you, what happened with the companies owned by Elon Musk and the president?
		Cliff in Oklahoma, Independent.
		Let's hear from you.
unidentified		Yes, I have been an admirer of Elon Musk since before he ever got into politics.
		However, he is wrong on this one.
		This nation should be ruled by the elected officials that have been elected by the voters in this nation, not by people who have financed the elected officials running for office.
		Thinking that since they financed their campaigns, they should be calling your shops in Washington and ruling this nation with their money.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		And you think that's what Elon Musk is trying to do because of what he contributed in the 2024 campaign?
unidentified		He obviously is.
		He has stated it so.
		He said he had contributed to Donald Trump's campaign and he couldn't get elected without him.
		He said he got elect the Senate elected with a majority.
		He said he got the House elected with a majority.
		And now he is stating he's entitled to his opinion as a citizen, as you and I are.
		But he's trying to force, he's trying to demand that he run this nation, that he calls the shot on the bills that get passed and don't.
		I appreciate the things that he's done for this nation.
		I appreciate that he's things that he has accomplished.
		But nobody, regardless of their amount of money they have, should be ruling this nation.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right, Cliff, let's show the money.
		New York Times, with these figures, more than $290 million in federal spending, most of which went toward backing President Trump in the 2024 election cycle.
		He also spent about $20 million to help 20 frontline House Republican candidates and more than $12 million to help Senate Republican candidates.
		Now, on these EV mandates that the president says are out of this reconciliation bill, and that is why Elon Musk is upset.
		The Washington Post says that the administration's legislative package would slash subsidies for owners of electric vehicles, which have helped make Tesla's cars, which can cost upward of $80,000, more affordable for American consumers.
		Tesla is reeling from a 71% dip in profits and a double-digit slip in sales in the first quarter compared with the same time period last year.
		Milo in Louisville, Kentucky, Democratic caller.
		Morning to you.
unidentified		And good morning to you.
		Well, about the third parties you were talking about.
		We have third parties.
		Andrew Yang and the Forward Party just can't seem to get enough steam to make any big difference in the elections.
		And last night at our Thursday Night Social Club, I did my own poll and I questioned everyone about Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump.
		And the consensus was nobody cares.
		Nobody cares about their friendship.
		What we care about is our lives and the well-being of the country.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Well, Milo, if this spat were to kill the bill, as Elon Musk says, and the tax cuts that were put in place in 2017 were to expire and that impact people, then what do you think?
unidentified		Well, yes, yes, that would happen.
		I'm just talking about this personal feud between the two.
		It's just not, in two weeks it'll go away.
		We probably won't be talking about it in two weeks.
		It's just not that high on our list.
		You know, what's high on our list is surviving a decision that might be made by someone in this administration that might really affect our lives.
		You know, these feuds, they happen.
		So again, I think I always feel like we're being pranked by this administration.
		Every time they bring in somebody into the cabinet that is just totally not qualified and all these other appointments, I just feel like we're being pranked.
		I wish we could get back to serious government.
		And I don't understand how people can say this is the media's fault.
		What did you all have to do with it?
		All you're doing is reporting the news.
		All right, Milo.
		One man's opinion.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Gloria in Derby, Kansas, Republican.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Gloria, we'll get your opinion.
unidentified		Hi.
		Morning.
		I think that Elon Musk should apologize to Trump.
		I think that Elon Musk thought he was more important than he really is.
		Trump is the president.
		Jim Jordan said last night on TV that the bill is a good bill, and we know it's a good bill because every single Democrat is against it, and they're afraid that it'll pass.
		Another thing is Newt Gingrich said he's the last one that balanced the budget.
		And Newt Gingrich on TV last night said it was a good bill because it's just the first one.
		He said, give Trump time and let the other bills keep going along.
		So I agree with the bill, and I think it's a good bill.
		And I think Newt Gingrich knows a lot about balancing the budget, and he thinks it's good.
		And I think Elon Musk needs to apologize for what he's done.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Gloria, what do you make of the Congressional Budget Office and their figures about what this is going to do?
unidentified		$3 trillion.
		They don't count part of it.
		They were a half a trillion off or a trillion and a half off the last time Trump tried to do his stuff, his finance stuff the last time.
		And his finance stuff, they were way, way off, like $1.5 trillion.
		You can't go by them.
		They are a Democrat.
		They lean Democrat, and they don't count.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		How do you know that?
unidentified		Well, because, oh, what's his name?
		Jason Smith.
		He was talking about he's the one that does.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Jason Smith, Congressman from Missouri, Republican.
unidentified		Yeah, so that he said that the people you were talking about, they don't count the profits that come from the taxes being lowered and all that.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Why does that make them lean Democrat?
unidentified		What?
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Why does that mean then?
		Why is that proof?
		How is that proof that the Congressional Budget Office leaks?
unidentified		Because they don't count because they don't count it.
unidentified		They tried to make it, they tried to make it sound as bad as they can, like Democrats do.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		We'll go to Scott, who's an independent in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
unidentified		Scott.
		Yeah, good morning, C-SPAN.
		My take is I think, like the guy said being pranked, they're baiting.
		the Democratic Party.
		It's a reason to throw them off because they're being investigated so they can jump on top of this issue and pay attention to it and not pay attention to the investigation going on.
		So yeah, I think it's an overall throw-off.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Wait, I'm not following Scott.
unidentified		Who's throwing off who?
		Well, I think Elon Musk and Donald Trump is throwing off the Democrats because the Democrats are going to jump all over it like we, you know, you see the news meter and everybody else.
		But meanwhile, on the backside, Donald Trump just struck a deal with China.
		Donald Trump just, you know, he struck a deal with 12 different countries, Middle East, all over the world, Russia, and he just called Putin in Russia.
		So while we're all arguing about this, he's doing all these deals on the backside and prosecuting, getting prosecution ready for them.
		Now, let me just let everyone know.
		You want to know what's in the files of Jeffrey Epstein?
		I'm going to tell you about Donald Trump.
		Here it is.
		In the files of the Epstein, Donald Trump was found that Epstein visited Donald Trump's party, and Epstein's actions were not permitted, and he was thrown out of Mar-a-Lago.
		And that's it.
		That's why he's in there.
		That's it.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Why wouldn't that come out?
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		What's wrong with that coming out?
unidentified		Exactly.
unidentified		You're being pranked.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right, Scott.
		Scott talks about the president's phone call with the Chinese president.
		The headline in the Wall Street Journal is that that phone call yields progress on the trade war between the United States and China.
		We can talk about that coming up here at the top of the hour.
		We'll be an open forum.
		You can talk about trade and public policy, any other public policy issue or political issue in the open forum, which will come up at 8 p.m., 8 a.m., excuse me, Eastern Time.
		Lou in D.C., Democratic caller.
		Hi, Lou.
unidentified		Hey, good morning.
unidentified		Can you hear me there?
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Yes.
unidentified		Hey, yeah.
		You know, I don't know.
		You can go, you don't have a long enough segment to cover everything.
		But what I can say is this.
		You know, with that saying, you elect a clown, expect a circus.
		You elect a criminal, expect a crime.
		And I think, you know, what's going on right now is a reflection of those aphorisms.
		I think that we've got a massive security issue.
		You got Elon Musk, who is an unelected official, right, in the Oval Office.
		He's doing sick hires and allegedly a drug abuser, right, with ketamine and all the other different things.
		And without getting into the weeds of that, he's just an unelected official, but yet he controls billions in government contracts.
		And just the ethical implications of that, I mean, should be, you know, at the top of the list of what the Congress should be investigating and oversight.
		But they're not doing that.
		And they're not going to do that.
		Pretty much the Republicans that are in the House and in the Senate are sick offense of President Trump.
		They're part of that MAGA movement.
		So they're not going to do any oversight.
		Not going to do anything that's going to resolve or get into those issues.
		But that makes it a massive security issue, having Elon having those many levers at his disposal.
		And we're talking about one individual.
		And I just think it's astonishing.
		All right, Lou.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Well, let me pick up on that because the president had posted on True Social: the easiest way to save money in our budget, billions and billions of dollars, is to terminate Elon's governmental subsidies and contracts.
		I was always surprised that Biden didn't do it.
		Then Elon Musk volleys back saying, in light of the president's statement about cancellation of my government contract, SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.
		This bringing supplies and astronauts to the International Space Station, the Dragon spacecraft, then Elon Musk appearing to back off of that later on in the evening.
		We're talking about this back and forth between President Trump and Elon Musk and the fallout from it this morning.
		Michael in Bolivar, Pennsylvania, Republican.
		Hi, Michael.
unidentified		Hello.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Morning, go ahead.
unidentified		Okay, I'm not very good at this, but I'm going to give him a shot.
		First, we're all being manipulated.
		You have to look.
		Here's Elon.
		He sells electric cars.
		He goes and works for Trump.
		And now he's hated.
		So now he's got to go back and sell his electric cars.
		So what better way to get back in the graces of the Democrats and the Republicans than to pretend that him, I mean partly Republicans, pretend that him and Elon are having a battle.
		Elon and Trump are having a battle.
		I mean, it's so obvious.
		This is what everyone's calling in and saying about this.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		But the Tesla stock fell.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		It didn't rise yesterday.
unidentified		But they'll go down now, and then they're going to go back up.
		And then Elon's going to be okay again with the Democrats because who buys the electric cars mainly?
		Democrats.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		So you think that Democrats, even though he funded Republicans and the president in the 2024 cycle to hundreds of millions of dollars, think Democrats will then be okay with Elon Musk and start buying his cars again?
unidentified		That's what the manipulation's about.
		To bring him back online thinking, okay, well, look at the news.
		He was the worst, Elon was the worst man in history for so long, burning his cars, destroying his business.
		And now listen to the news.
		Elon's God for the Democrats now.
		He hates Trump.
		You see, Elon is on our side again.
		That's what it's all about.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right, Michael.
		Well, Roger's a Democrat in Kansas, Selena, Kansas.
		Roger, do you like Elon Musk now?
unidentified		I've always felt like both these people are big, big figures with big, big egos.
		And I think what Elon did was he exposed so much fraud.
		And what he's feeling bad about is Trump's not really acting on it as well as he hoped he would.
		But then again, he doesn't realize that Trump is a president.
		He has to get along with Democrats and Republicans.
		So he also has a fine line he has to walk.
		Certain senators I trust.
		And Ron Johnson, he does not believe in this bill.
		I trust him, but I also trust Newt Gingrich, who last night.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Roger, you're a Democrat?
unidentified		Yes, I'm a Democrat, but I'm a Democrat who could not stand Biden.
		The open borders.
		Every time I've been on this, I'm going to bring it up again.
		I am glad Trump closed those borders.
		This was something.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		And so that's why you voted for President Trump in 2020.
		And is that why you voted for him in 2024 as well?
		Roger, you still there?
		Oh, we lost Roger.
		Victor, Stone Mountain, Georgia, Independent.
		Victor, this feud between President Trump and Elon Musk.
		What's your take?
unidentified		Oh, Greta, I think it's just the circles up there.
		I think that, Greta, if we're not careful, if this country is not careful, it's going to all fall in.
		I think that when you have a foundation and administration with a foundation of lies and untruth and doing your people wrong and the poor wrong and all that kind of stuff, Greta, I just think that God is not pleased with that.
		I think that, like I said, if we're not careful, that it'll fall in on us.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right, Victor.
		Peter in Hollywood, Florida, Republican caller.
		Peter, who do you support here, Elon Musk or President Trump?
		What do you think?
unidentified		Put it this way: the marriage is over.
		Both were idiots.
		Before Trump was president, the market was great.
		Grocery was a little bit more expensive.
		Now, the groceries are more expensive.
		Donald Trump lies.
		He always lies.
		He makes up so many stories.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Peter, you're called on the Republican line.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Are you a Republican?
unidentified		Yes, I did vote for Trump because I didn't like what Joe Biden did.
		Everything got more expensive, but it wasn't so ridiculous with these tariffs.
		Come on, man, ma'am.
		When before tariffs came around, everything was a little expensive, but not as stupid as it is now.
		I'm going to become an independent because I got to tell you, both parties are idiots.
		But like I said, before Trump was president, grocery was a little expensive.
		But with the tariffs and everything, we get stuff from Mexico.
		When Donald Trump says, we don't get nothing, Canada, we don't need nothing.
		We used to buy beef from Canada.
		We get fuel from Canada.
		Both are idiots.
		And now, Musk, I'm glad he broke the divorce.
		Now he starts to realize, but it takes, look at the people that voted for Trump.
		You hit them in the head.
		They still believe in the moron.
		We have four and a half years, four or three and a half years with his moron as president.
		I was hoping he would change, that he would have an understanding for the people.
		But no, he's back of burning down the house.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right, Peter.
		Peter, a Republican who voted for President Trump in 2024 from Hollywood, Florida, talking about the economy.
		And we're going to get some economic numbers this morning.
		The job reports for May will be out, and the prediction is, we'll know those numbers at 8:30.
		The prediction is 130,000 jobs added and unemployment staying steady at 4.2%.
		Roger in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Independent.
		Roger, good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, Greta.
		How are you?
		Let's put the little personal feud aside.
		I think what has Elon Musk very upset, and it has me very upset, and it's what everybody's missing.
		And you had a lady on about four calls ago saying how this was a great bill.
		What Elon Musk is trying, is so upset about when he says it's going to bankrupt America, he's right.
		Because Trump is adding $2.4 trillion over the next 10 years.
		Well, they've forgotten that, and Elon hasn't, we're paying a trillion dollars in interest now.
		So if we don't pay down the debt, take the 2.4 plus 10 years of a trillion dollars plus in interest, you're looking at 10 years from now over $11 trillion in interest plus the 2.4.
		You're looking at a $50 trillion deficit in 10 years.
		And that's what I think has Donald Trump, has Elon Musk so upset because he was part of Doge.
		And that was a failure.
		But Doge itself had the wrong philosophy.
		In my business, which was a relatively large business, when you have a budget and you see the inefficiencies, in our business, at least, what we did is they just don't get a budget increase.
		If they had $100,000 in a budget and 15% of it got wasted, and they come back the following year and say, we need $110,000 now, we'd turn and say, well, 15% of that was wasted.
		So if you can become 10% more efficient, that $110,000 that you're asking for goes away because I'm going to make you $10,000 more efficient.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right, Roger.
		I'm going to leave it there.
		An update for you on this spat between President Trump and Elon Musk.
		Jonathan Carl, who is the ABC News Chief Washington correspondent, says that in a phone call this morning with the president, the president told Jonathan Carl Elon Musk is, quote, the man who has lost his mind.
		Trump did not, however, seem angry or even concerned about the feud.
		As for reports that there is going to be a Trump Musk call scheduled for today, Trump told me he is.
		So that is a post from Jonathan Carl this morning to ABC Chief Washington correspondent.
		Susan in Seattle, Independent.
		Susan.
unidentified		Well, listen, Samir people, summer is the season for breakup and divorces, okay?
		So this two, you know, high-polluted people, what did Elon Musk said about before the bill was, you know, voted in Congress?
		And he should have aired his thing.
		And now, you know, this story about tariff, you know, it's really terrific.
		I wasn't trade.
		I wasn't banking also.
		Okay, I know about trade here in Seattle.
		That is really a good thing because President Trump has to balance the trade.
		So come on, people.
		To me, this is like laughable like a three lion.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Susan, let me go back to Jonathan Carl's ex because there's more to it that you should know about.
		So on this phone call between Trump and Musk that's scheduled today, Trump told Jonathan Carl he's not particularly interested in talking to Musk, although he says Musk wants to talk to him.
		So that's Jonathan Carl's reporting this morning about a potential phone call between President Trump and Elon Musk after a public spat that played out on before the TV cameras and then on social media platforms yesterday.
		Tony in Southfield, Michigan, Democratic Caller.
		Hi, Tony.
unidentified		Go ahead.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right, morning.
unidentified		See, Elon Musk finally realized that he was the fall guy.
		Two months ago, when Elon Musk was going around the country chopping off heads of regular people, he thought he was doing a good trying to help Donald Trump balance this budget.
		But when he saw the big, beautiful bill and saw that he was going to add trillions, he knew that he was the bad guy for Donald Trump.
		He was con.
		And I don't blame him for being mad.
		So now he's going to tell all the little secrets, just like he said that Donald Trump was on that list.
		I forget the guy's name that passed away in prison, but supposedly messed around with kids or something.
		He's going to tell all the little secrets, so he's got to be friends with him real quick before it gets real nasty.
		All right.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Well, Punch Bowl News says that Musk took to X yesterday, as you know, which he owns, of course, to tell his 220 million followers that the reconciliation package is a pork-laden, deficit-swelling piece of trash.
		Musk asked his followers to call Capitol Hill to urge GOP lawmakers to vote no.
		Pat in Idaho Independent.
		Pat, good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Thank you for having me on.
		You know what?
		I see this whole thing as two billionaires, arrogant, powerful people.
		And I truly believe I think Musk must have overstepped his grounds with Trump.
		And I think he got an argument with his staff people, and one popped him in the head.
		And Trump wasn't there to defend him.
		And being that he's Musk, and you know, everybody bows to him, and Trump didn't.
		And I think that's what happened.
		I think he knew about the bill.
		I don't think that, you know, they're not into the money.
		They were more into power.
		And I think Elon Musk thought that he had a lot of power and probably wanted a position appointed to him.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right, Pat.
		Punch Bowl News notes that Musk is the richest man in the world with a fortune of $368 billion.
		We'll leave it there for the conference.
		This conversation this morning, we're going to take a break.
		When we come back later on the Washington Journal, Democratic Congresswoman Judy Chu of California will discuss Democrats' strategy to counter President Trump's agenda.
		The first Republican Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin, a member of the Budget and Oversight Committee, will discuss the future of this one big, beautiful bill.
		And that interview coming up during our open forum, which is next after this short break.
		There are the lines on your screen.
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		Washington Journal continues.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Welcome back to the Washington Journal.
		We are an open forum here for the next 30 minutes.
		Before we get to your calls, though, on any public policy or political issue, we're joined this morning from Capitol Hill by Congressman Glenn Grothman, who is a Republican of Wisconsin member of the Budget Committee, also sits on the oversight and government reform, and he's the chair of one of the subcommittees there.
		Congressman, let's begin with this dispute between President Trump and Elon Musk on the policy.
		Elon Musk saying that this is not one big beautiful bill, that it needs to be slimmer.
		He thinks there's too much spending.
		How do you respond to his criticism?
glenn grothman ▲ ● ▼		I think he's right.
		I don't think it's as bad as he says by any means.
		But I think Elon Musk perhaps is not used to dealing with Congress.
		And we're in a situation in which we have 220 Republicans.
		At any given time, four people can stand up and say, I'm not going to vote for it.
		Now you could say that Mike Johnson should have done a better job of managing these people, but because of this, all sorts of cuts or reductions that should be made were apparently not made.
		And you have to know going in on these things, when you have such a complicated bill, there are going to be some things you like and some things you don't like.
		It's certainly a big improvement for America overall, and that's what we have to look at.
		And we have to hope that people like Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin are going to improve it a little bit when it gets to the Senate.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Where do you think it can be improved by your Republican colleagues in the Senate?
glenn grothman ▲ ● ▼		Well, I personally have been outspoken on the low-income tax credit.
		We're spending over $12 million, $12 billion a year on something that primarily benefits property developers, not even low-income people.
		The salt deduction is way too big.
		There's so many possibilities for tax cuts here.
		I'd like an increase in the personal exemption to help out families with children, successful families with children.
		But some people want to encourage state and local governments to raise their income taxes, to raise their property taxes.
		I think that's foolish.
		It'd be nice if we found a more productive use for those tax cuts.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		You're talking about the Republican colleagues of yours, this so-called SALT caucus, the folks who want deductions on your state and local taxes, your mortgage deduction.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		As you said, though, if that's not in there, they've already said if the Republican senators take that out, your colleagues in the House have said they're not going to vote for it when it comes back.
glenn grothman ▲ ● ▼		Well, I think people have to stand up to these people a little bit more.
		I mean, I could say the opposite.
		I could say, and we have no problem getting together seven or eight people say, I'm not going to vote for that thing if we increase the salt deduction there, have any salt deduction at all.
		I mean, at the end of the day, people have to be reasonable.
unidentified		And I hope they're hearing from people, a lot of them are from New York.
glenn grothman ▲ ● ▼		Hopefully they're hearing from their constituents saying, hey, we want tax cuts that grow the economy.
		We want tax cuts that take care of people with children.
		We don't want tax cuts to encourage state and local governments to raise taxes.
		I was listening to the radio the other day.
		There's some guy, I think he's running for governor of New York.
		He wants to raise the income tax in New York to 11%.
		Why in the world are Republicans helping Democrats who want to raise state and local taxes?
		It makes no sense.
unidentified		These people should be the subject of ridicule.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		So, Congressman, what's your prediction then for this bill?
		Because Speaker Mike Johnson has said the Senate cannot make major changes.
		They can make some, some small changes and send it back to the House, but any big changes, he says that can't get through the House.
		Do you think there is a way forward?
glenn grothman ▲ ● ▼		Well, I tell you, I voted for the Bill of the House expecting some decent changes in the Senate.
		I expect them to pick up the ball because I don't think we were as aggressive as we should have been as far as keeping spending in line.
		So I'm hoping those guys, Ron Johnson, those guys, Senator Banks, I'm hoping we have some decent changes there.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		What about your thoughts on the political fallout between this fight between President Trump and Elon Musk, Elon Musk contributing hundreds of millions of dollars to Republican campaigns, taking credit for the president in the White House and control of the House and the Senate by Republicans, taking credit for that as well?
glenn grothman ▲ ● ▼		Well, I like both Elon Musk and President Trump.
		Obviously, we know over time, probably both of them have their ups and downs with individual personalities.
		I like to think for the good of America, and they've both done so much for America, for the good of America, they'll get back together and be good friends within a week or so here.
unidentified		And I think they can do that, by the way.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		How so?
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		When Elon Musk said that he was dropping the big bomb, the Washington Times calls it going nuclear and saying that President Trump is in the Epstein files.
glenn grothman ▲ ● ▼		Well, I think both individuals are inclined to say things, sometimes exaggerating, sometimes shoot from the hip.
		And I think President Trump has shown an incredibility, incredible ability to be forgiving in the past.
		So I still think they get together for the good of the country.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Congressman Glenn Grothman, member of the Budget Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, thank you for the conversation this morning.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		We appreciate it.
glenn grothman ▲ ● ▼		Thanks for having me on, Greta.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		And we'll go now to calls.
		We're in open forum this morning.
		You can respond to anything you heard there from the congressman on this so-called big beautiful bill.
		That is the House Republicans tax and spending cuts legislation or any political issue.
		You can continue talking about the public feud between Elon Musk and President Trump as well.
		There are the lines on your screen.
		Open forum.
		Republicans, your line is 202-748-8001.
		Democrats, 202-748-8000.
		And Independents, 202-748-8002.
		Sal in New Jersey, Republicans.
		Sal, good morning to you.
		What's on your mind?
unidentified		Good morning.
		Good morning, Greta.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		Greta, I just want to tell America, everyone listening, when will America wake up?
		We had 9-11, then we had Fort Hook, Fort Hood, then we had the Chanaya Brothers in Boston, then we had New Orleans when that man ran over people in New Orleans, then we had that recent tragedy in Boulder.
		When will we realize that Islam is at war with America?
		Not every Muslim is a threat, is a terrorist, but just about all terrorists are Muslims.
		And let's realize that Islam is a violent, evil religion.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Okay, we'll go on to Lancy in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina, Democratic caller.
unidentified		Yeah, so I just wanted to say, you know, like, okay, as far as that bill that they are talking about, you know, like I can't understand why we, you know, like, okay, you take from the poor in order to give to the rich because anytime you are giving the rich a tax break, you know, like, okay, and cutting program for the poor, you're actually doing Robin Hood in reverse.
		So, you know, so, and the biggest problem that I have with that is, you don't like that they talk about pass on the thing to the states.
		Most states are already in trouble.
		So, you know, so as for the conflict- You're talking about the Medicaid provisions, right?
		The Medicaid provision and also, you know, like as far as the SNAP and, you know, food stamp provision, all of that, you know, like, okay, so that's just robbing the poor to give to the rich.
		So, you know, so how did that, how would that make any sense?
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		And the Congressional Budget Office estimated that under the House passed reconciliation bill, 11 million more people will be uninsured over the next decade if provisions that affect Medicaid and disability health insurance are enacted.
		So that is from the CBO and their estimates that were put out this week.
		CBAO also saying that the bill would add $2.4 trillion to the nation's deficit over roughly the next decade.
		You can react to that as well this morning.
		Lancy in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina, Democratic caller.
		Let's go on to John, who's in Salem, Oregon, Independent.
		Hi, John.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, Greg.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Morning.
unidentified		Hi.
		I tend to agree with Elon Musk about this bill.
		I think any bill that's big, too big to read, I haven't heard anybody say how many pages this bill is.
		And I just think that when you have a bill that's so big, it has so much stuff in there.
		Do you know how many pages this bill is?
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		I'm looking it up right now, but you go ahead, continue.
unidentified		So my point is, I agree with Trump.
		I agree with Musk.
		I think they both have points.
		And I'd like to see them just, you know, knock this off and come back together and get along.
		All right.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Well, quick search, John, says that the legislation passed by the House exceeds 1,000 pages.
unidentified		Too big.
		Way too big.
		That's just ridiculous.
		Why can't, you know, people keep talking about two or three things in this bill.
		There's not two or three things.
		There's hundreds, probably thousands.
		And it takes a lawyer to read this thing to understand it.
		All right, John.
		Thank you.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		So also making front page news this morning is the president's comments in the Oval Office yesterday about a phone call that he was having with President, the Chinese President on trade.
		Listen what he told to reporters.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		We had a very good conversation with President Xi a little while ago, just before your arrival.
		In fact, we just hung up and they said, you're here.
		I said, that's pretty good.
		Two great leaders of the world in a very short period of time.
		We had a very good talk and we've straightened out any complexity.
		It's very complex stuff and we straighten it out.
		The agreement was we're going to have Scott and Howard and Jameson will be going and meeting with their top people and continue it forward.
		But no, I think we have everything.
		I think we're in very good shape with China and the trade deal.
		We have a deal with China, as you know, but we were straightening out some of the points, having to do mostly with rare earth magnets and some other things.
unidentified		Those reduced trade tariff rates, they remain in effect.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		We have the deal.
		I mean, we've had a deal.
		We announced the deal.
		And we'll be, I guess you could say, I wouldn't even say finalizing it up, Scott.
		I would say we have a deal, and we're going to just make sure that everybody understands what the deal is.
unidentified		Okay.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		We had a really good conversation.
		By the way, he invited me to China and I invited him here.
		We both accepted.
		So I'll be going there with the First Lady at a certain point.
		And he'll be coming here hopefully with the First Lady of China.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		President Trump in the Oval yesterday talking about his conversation with the Chinese president on trade.
		Let's go over to the White House live this morning.
		Peter Navarro, the president's trade advisor, talking to reporters.
unidentified		We have so much overcapacity of steel in the world because of China.
		China is by far the most massive steel producer.
		What China has been doing is dumping that steel in the market, and they do it directly, but they also do it through what's called trans-shipping.
		And if you know this term, it's basically when China uses other countries to ship and avoid tariffs and things like that into this country.
		In this case, one of the worst offenders is Vietnam.
		We saw the, this is like interesting math.
		We saw Vietnam's deficit with China go up by about $16 billion last year.
		It surged to the highest on record.
		And at the same time, its surplus with the United States surged up to $12 billion.
		So you can see kind of what's going on.
		And if you look at the different products, the rebar, the standard pipe, the oil country tubular goods stuff and steel, it's all coming in from Vietnam.
		It's coming in also from Korea, Taiwan, Japan.
		And so this action by President Trump is really important.
		Same thing with aluminum.
		We want to get our smelters back.
		I think one of the things we've already seen with respect to the aluminum industry is we've had the announcements of two new smelters.
		Great news, Century Aluminum and also a conglomerate from the Emirates.
		Okay, that's aluminum steel.
		I'm sure you want to talk about the Elon Musk issue.
		The only thing I want to talk about with respect to that, and again, I was on Fox Business and I like to talk to investors.
		I did a piece for The Hill this last week, which goes over the following numbers.
		What you do is when you look at the big, beautiful tax bill and you evaluate the claim by the Congressional Budget Office that has been widely disseminated by the press that the bill will add to the debt in the order of magnitude of several trillion dollars over the next 10 years.
		It's just dead wrong for two reasons, one of which the CBO has already confessed to.
		First of all, the CBO assumes a growth rate of 1.7% for the GDP, which is absolutely anemic.
		When you simply increase that by a point, which is consistent where we think that forecast is going to be, it's a $2 trillion swing in the amount of revenues you raise because when you grow faster, you generate more tax revenues.
		It's just simple math.
		And lest you think that we're speculating, we have history on our side, as we always do, because this is the second term.
		In the first term, the CBO did the same thing during the tax bill of 2017 when we got that tax bill passed.
		They underestimated growth by about a point and therefore underestimated how much money we would actually do.
		And it's a case of there they go again.
		So when you correct for that, you get halfway to the point where this $5 trillion swing happens.
		And then which was really heartening to me, and I don't know if my piece in the hill had anything to do with it, pointing out that when you count the tariff revenues, it's another $2 trillion.
		So it's a $5 trillion swing.
		So with respect to what Mr. Musk has been saying about the big, beautiful bill and overspending and things like that, I think that that dog won't hunt when you do the math properly.
		And that's all I want to say about that.
		So what?
		I'll take a few questions.
		Let's keep it.
		I'm here as an economist and an analyst, not a position would relate to the economy.
		Yes, ma'am.
		Yes, ma'am.
		I'm curious what you make of Elon Musk's comments that Trump's tariffs will send less to recession than they're addressing.
		Well, look, Elon Musk does not like tariffs, full stop.
		He's made that clear from day one and going back to the first term.
		He's not a tariff guy, which is fine.
		We can have disagreements about it.
		But I would simply say that everybody during our first term who said that the tariffs were going to be recessionary and inflationary were obviously, obviously and wildly wrong.
		All we got was price stability and growth.
		And again, if you do the numbers, if you understand how gross domestic product is calculated, okay, if you've ever gone through that math, it's four engines of growth.
		It's consumption, investment, government spending, and what we call net exports, net exports, which is the difference between what we sell to the world and what they sell to us.
		And when you have them selling us more than we sell them, in the math of the GDP, growth goes down.
		So every quarter when those numbers get reported, when you see what the net number is, that number would probably be about a point or more higher if we didn't run a trade deficit.
		So the idea that these tariffs are somehow going to be recessionary is wrong.
		I mean, there's two things going on.
		With the tariffs, we make more things here.
		We employ more people in the short run.
		And in the longer run, we get more capital investment and therefore we employ more people and produce more goods.
		So the math doesn't work there.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Peter Navarro, live at the White House this morning, talking to reporters on a possible continuation of a deal with China in the president's phone call with the Chinese leader yesterday.
		He heard him talk about CBO and Elon Musk's criticism of the president's, quote, big beautiful bill saying the CBO is dead wrong.
		And then also they're at the end talking about why Elon Musk is wrong on tariffs triggering a recession.
		We're an open forum.
		You can respond to what you heard there from Peter Navarro.
		Beverly in Bellwood, Illinois, Democratic Caller.
unidentified		Yeah, I am pondering this to myself.
		I'm saying, what have we gained under this presidency?
		And all I can say is that we've gained chaos, untruth, and uncertainty.
		This man has come in.
		He has not done anything about the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
		Everything seems like it's just up in the air.
		There's been massive layoffs on the federal government.
		There's been job cuts, deportations, tariffs implemented, TRIMA not funded.
		Department of Education is on the chopping block.
		Stock markets are unstable.
		There's fear about Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security cuts.
		So I don't see progress.
		All I see is chaos, uncertainty.
		What has he done to help the common person?
		I mean, my fear is that we won't even see the harm that he has done.
		It took maybe three to five years from now.
		And I fear he's going to mess with Medicaid, Medicare.
		I don't care what they keep saying over and over again.
		And he's not doing, he just, why?
		How do people trust what this man says?
		This is the same man that said that the election in 220 was not fair and went through all kinds of court systems.
		He disagrees with anybody that tells him the truth.
		He just calls him liars.
		I just don't have any faith in this man at all.
		And I just don't understand how we're being led like Pied Pipers, like the Pied Piper, led by this man.
		I do.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right, Beverly.
		Max is an independent in Silver Spring, Maryland.
		It's your turn, Max.
unidentified		Hi, thanks.
unidentified		Good morning.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		So I've been listening to C-SPAN for quite a while, and I do hear the Republicans talk about this big bill.
		And I think one of the talking points that doesn't get any pushback is the tax breaks.
		The other day I hear, the other day, it was just yesterday, I heard somebody say that the tax breaks in this bill will give the average taxpayer, a taxpayer, an average amount of like $1,700, or I heard up to $2,500.
		And there's no pushback against that.
		I'd just like to point out that that number is the amount of money that when you it's attributed to the tax breaks for the for the large corporations and the and the above 5% incomers and divided by people in the United States.
		And so that $2,000 per taxpayer is really a good measure of how much the average taxpayer has to cover for the tax breaks for the rich and the large corporations.
		And I would hope that more people would point that out when the Republicans talk about the tax break.
		The average person is not getting a tax break from this bill.
		I got zero tax break.
		I'm very middle class.
		I got zero tax break when Trump initiated it.
		And most people will not see anything change no matter what the bill gets passed or not.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		And that is my comment.
		All right, Max.
		Dan, Jonesboro, Indiana, Republican.
unidentified		Dan, good morning to you.
		Good morning.
		Well, I'd like to make a comment, too, of the lady, I hope she's listening that just said, what has Trump done?
		Like, he's done nothing.
		If Trump gets rid of this fentanyl we got with China, everybody listening knows somebody that's hooked on fentanyl died from fentanyl, 100,000 deaths from fentanyl.
		If you take that times all the family members that know him and then all the people that are addicted, nobody talks about that.
		Every big city has programs for addiction.
		The fentanyl is everywhere and they got to stop it.
		And Trump is doing something about it.
		I didn't see Biden, Sleepy Joe, do anything about it.
		Nothing.
		He just opened the borders and all these people ran across with backpacks of fentanyl.
		And look at what our country's doing.
		Half these people aren't even working.
		So that's maybe 600,000 hooked on it that aren't working right now.
		I mean, get real.
		What has Trump done?
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Okay, Dan.
unidentified		I can't believe people say that.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right, Dan.
		Paul in Kingston, New York, Democratic Caller.
		We're an open forum.
		Go ahead.
unidentified		Hi.
		I'm going to do something different this morning.
		This is the anniversary of D-Day.
		And I had a cousin who was at the D-Day landings in Normandy back in the day.
		And he's long gone.
		His name was Arthur Neese.
		He, of course, is long gone.
		I was born two years after World War II ended, and I'm 78 years old.
		So I'd like to take advantage of this opportunity to say hello to Arthur Neese up in heaven.
		I am absolutely sure that, I mean, they have everything else in heaven.
		They must have TV.
		So I'm quite sure that he's probably watching right now C-SPAN and Washington Journal.
		And just one more thing I'd like to add, and that is I am absolutely sure that all the children in heaven get TV too, and I'm sure that every one of them gets the Disney Channel.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Paul, you're pretty sure then that God provides C-SPAN in heaven?
unidentified		Absolutely.
		All right.
		It's a good show.
		It's a good channel, and God just loves good things.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Paul in New York, Democratic caller.
		Sonny in Chicago, Independent.
		Hi, Sonny.
unidentified		Hello, how are you doing today?
		Yeah, it seems like all the media and everybody seems to want to cover what Elon Musk is saying, but it seems like a few weeks before that, when they didn't believe that he, you know, had enough knowledge to know what he was doing, cutting all these, you know, all these jobs and everything else and cutting all these programs.
		But now they all want to listen to him as if he's some type of authority on every bill or some political policy.
		And I think they should just take a deep breath.
		And let's not think that Elon Musk should have the opinion of the world.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Sonny there in Chicago.
		We'll leave it there for open forum.
		We're going to take a break when we come back.
		Democratic Congresswoman Judy Chu joins us.
		Member of the Ways and Means Committee will discuss the GOP tax cuts and spending bill, as well as Democrats' strategy to counter President Trump's agenda.
		Stay with us.
		We'll be right back.
unidentified		Sunday night on C-SPAN's Q&A.
		Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the pro-peace feminist grassroots organization Code Pink, talks about her life as an activist and the nonviolent disruptive actions taken by Code Pink at congressional hearings and elsewhere to bring attention to their causes.
		We don't disrupt every hearing.
		The majority of hearings we go to, we don't disrupt.
		We sit through to learn.
		We use the opportunity to talk to the members of Congress when they're on their way in and when they're on their way out.
		So, you know, when you're there every day, you have developed a relationship not only with some of the members of Congress, but with the officers.
		And some of them are quite nice to us.
		They recognize that we are nonviolent people, that we are passionate about these issues, and that this is part of what a vibrant civil society should look like.
		Some of them don't like us very much and are meaner to us.
		We try to report them when they abuse our rights because, again, we go on this principle.
medea benjamin ▲ ● ▼		It is the people's house.
		They are no better than us.
		They are public servants and they should be listening to what we, the public, want to say.
unidentified		Medea Benjamin, Sunday night at 8 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN's Q ⁇ A. You can listen to Q&A and all of our podcasts on our free C-SPAN Now app.
brian lamb ▲ ● ▼		Kenneth Rogoff is professor of economics at Harvard University and former International Monetary Fund chief economist.
		In his most recent book, Our Dollar, Your Problem, he argues that America's currency might have reached today's lofty pinnacle without a certain amount of good luck.
		However, as Professor Rogoff nears the end of his 345-page book, he writes, quote, if rapidly rising debt is left unchecked and there seems to be little political appetite to rein in massive deficits, the United States and the entire world is in for a substantial period of global financial volatility, marked by higher average real interest rates and inflation, unquote.
unidentified		Harvard University professor of economics and former International Monetary Fund chief economist Kenneth Rogoff with his most recent book, Our Dollar Your Problem, on this episode of BookNotes Plus with our host, Brian Lamb.
		BookNotes Plus is available wherever you get your podcasts and on the C-SPAN Now app.
		Washington Journal continues.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		We are back up on Capitol Hill this morning with Congressman Judy Chu.
		She's a Democrat of California, a member of the Budget and Ways and Means Committee.
		Congresswoman, I want to begin with the latest economic data.
		The Labor Department issuing the job numbers for May.
		U.S. payrolls increased $139,000 in May, more than expected.
		Unemployment stays steady at 4.2%.
		Job growth continues for 50-plus months in a row.
		Does President Trump deserve credit?
unidentified		Well, I think we have to look at what is going to happen in the future.
		We have not yet seen the full effects of the tariffs.
		Of course, President Trump has to decide whether he is retaining or implementing more tariffs.
		And I believe that once the tariffs are implemented, we're going to see tremendous destruction to this economy.
		And we will see that Americans will have to pay more out of pocket to pay for the goods that will be affected by these tariffs.
		So the future is yet to be determined with regard to the economy.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		How concerned are you about the tariffs on the economy?
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Elon Musk says in a tweet yesterday in this public feud that he believes it will trigger a recession.
unidentified		I think that there is good reason to believe that that could happen.
		We still do not know the extent of the tariffs if he will re-implement these 145% tariffs on goods from China.
		So he could do that.
		And if so, then yes, I do think that there's a great possibility there could be a recession.
		Explain the economic argument there.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		For a recession.
unidentified		If the goods are at such a high level, of course, it will cause a tariff war to occur.
		And then we will see that goods will be out of reach for people and also that businesses will close down.
		You know, I heard story after story of businesses who have ordered goods.
		Just yesterday, I was at a wine event where people say they have to have a three-month lead in ordering wine.
		And now they are ordering wine.
		And with the tariffs, it could be many, many thousands of dollars more, making it impossible for them to make ends meet and they could go out of business.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Front page of the Wall Street Journal this morning, Congresswoman, trade deficit shrinks by more than half.
		The U.S. trade deficit collapsed in April, shrinking by more than half as tariffs took a huge bite out of imports.
		The trade deficit narrowed to a seasonally adjusted $61.6 billion in April.
		That was down sharply from the record $138.3 billion it hit in March when businesses were racing to bring in imports before Liberation Day tariffs that President Trump imposed April 2nd.
unidentified		Your reaction to this news.
		Well, of course, we have maybe the shrinking of the trade deficit now, but who is paying for that?
		Actually, my real reaction is who is paying for this.
		I think that the American people will be paying for this for all these goods that are coming in right now.
		And so it is yet to be determined in terms of what the prices will be and how Americans will suffer from this.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		You opposed, as all Democrats did, the so-called Big Beautiful bill.
		That's the GOP spending and tax cuts bill that was passed in the House.
		It's now over in the Senate.
		And you've heard the conversations Republicans are having over there about making changes to the legislation.
		Are there changes that you would agree with?
unidentified		I definitely think we have to take out the cuts to Medicaid.
		And I understand that certain senators are concerned about these cuts to Medicaid.
		These cuts to Medicaid and to the ACA will throw 16 million people off their health care coverage.
		That's the latest report by the Congressional Budget Office.
		That would be the largest cut to health care in this nation's history.
		So I certainly hope these senators make a change to that and that they do what is right in terms of the health care coverage to Medicare as well because these changes will cause a cut to Medicare of $500 billion.
		So we're talking about cuts to Medicare, to the Affordable Care Act, and to Medicaid.
		And in fact, the cuts to Medicaid are certain to shut down hospitals who are hanging by a thread right now as it is, especially our rural hospitals.
		And that cannot happen.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		We're talking with Congressman Judy Chu this morning.
		Democrat of California, you can join us this morning by dialing in at 202-748-8001 if you're a Republican.
		Democrats, 202-748-8000.
		And Independents, 202-748-8002.
		Steve is up first in Wisconsin and Independent.
unidentified		Go ahead.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		You're on the air with the Congresswoman.
unidentified		Yes, Congresswoman Chu.
		My understanding is that Big Beautiful, whatever you want to call it, that passed in the House is now up for debate in the Senate.
		Is it possible that the Senate could take just the money stuff and debate that?
		In other words, where the money's coming from, the taxes, where the money's going to go, the spending.
		Just work on that and remove everything that is policy related.
		In other words, I understand there's word or information in there where they're trying to consolidate power in the executive branch, make Trump immune from orders from the Supreme Court, things like that.
		All of that kind of stuff should be removed, I believe.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right, Steve.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Congresswoman.
unidentified		You are so correct.
		For instance, there is a 10-year moratorium on any action on artificial intelligence.
		What is that all about?
		That's a policy issue.
		Actually, I do have to tell you that there is a process where the Senate parliamentarian is going to examine these issues and will make a determination as to what is strictly policy-oriented, because that actually is not supposed to be in a reconciliation bill.
		That's the fancy term for this process, which can be done once a year, and where all the issues there are supposed to be only budget related.
		So, we will see which things this Senate parliamentarian takes out.
		It is called, there's a nickname for it, called the birdbath.
		And so, after the bird bath, we hope that these ugly policy matters indeed will be taken out.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		We'll go to Debbie, Branson, Missouri, Democratic caller.
unidentified		Hey, good morning.
		I was just wondering if the representative could let us know, you know, he's defunding so much stuff.
		You know, FEMA, SNAP, he wants to take away everyone's insurance.
		What is happening with the money that is in place for that, those programs?
		And how are the American people going to recover from any natural disaster or crisis without FEMA?
		Such a good question.
		Why the heck are there these very severe cuts to things that are so essential to us?
		Our health, for one thing, is the most precious thing that we can have.
		So, that's why we are so alarmed to these drastic cuts that are being made for Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, and to Medicare.
		And why?
		Well, the answer is quite simple: it is to give huge tax giveaways to billionaires and corporations that don't need it.
		Five trillion dollars of tax giveaways to them so that they can buy another yacht.
		This is ridiculous.
		This is tragic.
		This is devastating.
		They don't need it, and we should not be giving these tax giveaways, which would make the income disparities in our country even worse.
		In other words, the rich will get richer, and the poor will get poorer.
		And that's not right.
		What we need in this country is a strong middle class where people can have the essentials that they need.
		The ability to buy food, to pay for their rent, to pay for their children's future.
		Those are the essential parts that have made America strong in the past, and we need to go back to the time when that was the thing that made America so strong.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Congresswoman, I'll have you respond to Peter Navarro.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		A moment ago, he was in the driveway over at the White House talking to reporters, and he said this about Elon Musk's claim that tariffs could trigger a recession.
unidentified		Elon Musk does not like tariffs.
		Full stop.
		He's made that clear from day one and going back to the first term.
		He's not a tariff guy, which is fine.
		We can have disagreements about it.
		But I would simply say that everybody during our first term who said that the tariffs were going to be recessionary and inflationary were obviously, obviously, and wildly wrong.
		All we got was price stability and growth.
		And again, if you do the numbers, if you understand how gross domestic product is calculated, okay, if you ever gone through that math, it's four engines of growth.
		It's consumption, investment, government spending, and what we call net exports, net exports, which is the difference between what we sell to the world and what they sell to us.
		And when you have them selling us more than we sell them, in the Math EP, growth goes down.
		So every quarter when those numbers get reported, when you see what the net number is, that number would probably be about a point or more higher if we didn't run a trade deficit.
		So the idea that these tariffs are somehow going to be recessionary is wrong.
		I mean, there's two things going on.
		With the tariffs, we make more things here.
		We employ more people in the short run.
		And in the longer run, we get more capital investment, and therefore we employ more people and produce more goods.
		So the math doesn't work there.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Congresswoman, your response to Peter Navarro.
unidentified		Well, he is saying that Elon Musk doesn't like tariffs, but I can tell you, I have talked to small businesses throughout my district, and every single one of them doesn't like these tariffs.
		Now, tariffs can be used productively when it's a very selective tariff, but what is happening now is that these tariffs are being implemented worldwide on every country.
		And so, yes, the small businesses in my district are talking about, well, one woman said her family imports certain medicinal oils, and now because of the tariffs, they will be $15,000 more for their latest shipment.
		As a result, if it continues, then her business will shut down.
		I talked to another person who has a lighting business, and he cannot get all the materials from America, which is what Trump is saying that this will do.
		No, he combines the elements that go into his lighting.
		Some of that comes from China.
		Some of it comes locally, but he does make it here.
		Nonetheless, if those products, those parts that he gets from China go up drastically, his business will shut down.
		And then we see that Walmart already is increasing their prices.
		That is going to affect every single American.
		And the latest that I've seen is that every American will be paying $2,600 more per year for these tariffs.
		How does that make America's economy better?
		All right, we'll go to Somerville, South Carolina.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Mark's a Republican.
		Mark, good morning.
		Your turn.
unidentified		Yeah, I'm asking real quick about this tariffs and stuff.
		The rotation of everything going back to making jobs back here in the United States of America, where there's a way that Trump's been getting leverage to get these jobs back here with regulations and cutting up, you know, making these tariffs on there where they can actually get these jobs back here.
		And the one question that I always have to ask these people when I see these charts about these health care, about these millions of people going to lose their health care or die, they keep saying people.
		I wonder how many of those people are actually American citizens that these resources are being taken away from, especially the poor Americans, and given to these illegal immigrants coming in here.
		And I'm just curious how many of those millions are, why don't they cut that off so the poor people of this country can actually have some resources for themselves instead of going $37 trillion of debt even further, where future generations have to pay.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right, Mark, we'll have the Congresswoman respond to your point.
unidentified		Well, first of all, let me say who would be thrown off of their health care.
		Actually, undocumented persons cannot access Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, or Medicare.
		But you know the ones who will be affected?
		Your grandmother.
		Yeah, you know, who pays for long-term care for the elderly?
		It is Medicaid that is the vast majority of the payers for Medicaid.
		And let me say that Medicare and Medicaid go hand in hand.
		Medicare, which of course is the health care purveyor for the elderly, only pays for on the average 28 days of hospitalization.
		But you know that there are many illnesses that could go beyond 28 days.
		And guess where the payment for that comes from?
		Medicaid.
		So yeah, it is your grandmother, it is your grandfather, it is people who were born here and were here for, you know, whose families have been here for generations.
		They are the ones who will suffer from this.
		I want to be very clear about this.
		It's your neighbor.
		It's the person that is down the street.
		It's everybody that would be affected by this.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Congresswoman, let's get your reaction to the President's announcement of a travel ban against 12 countries, total of 17.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Your thoughts on that.
unidentified		Well, first of all, I believe it's a distraction from the explosive comments yesterday between Elon Musk and Trump.
		Things were going in a very, very bad direction and seem to continue to be going in that direction.
		And so, yes, all of a sudden there's this travel ban to distract us from that and the horrendous effects of this big, ugly bill and the fact that Jody Ernst could even say, yeah, we're all going to die, as though we should all accept the fact that so many people would die from the cutting off of Medicaid.
		I think this travel ban is racist and bigoted, actually.
		It goes against certain countries such as Afghanistan.
		Now, you know, look, Afghans, there were those that helped us during the war and Americans could not have survived in that country had there not been Afghans that helped us.
		Now, there's supposed to be an exemption for those who already have a visa to come here.
		But what about their families?
		Are they now banned from being able to come over because of this travel ban?
		That is not right.
		I think that these visas should be decided upon on a case-by-case basis and that people should not be banned just based on what country they're from.
		And in fact, What happens because of this ban, and we've seen it from Trump's last ban, is that now grandfathers and grandmothers are going to be prevented from seeing the birth of their grandchildren.
		Husbands will be separated from wives.
		People will be unable to tend to grandmothers and grandfathers who are very, very sick.
		Those are the kinds of things that will happen because of these travel bans.
		And that's why I actually introduced a bill called the No Ban Act, saying that these kinds of bans by presidents should not be done unless there is a vetting of the reasons for these bans.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right, Julie in Culpeper, Virginia, Democratic Color.
unidentified		Hi, I completely agree with so many points.
		Previous caller and the congresswoman, the destruction of our research labs is going to hurt our country so bad.
		They're studying peers for brain cancer, but their funding has been frozen for four months.
		And other countries want our scientific talent.
		And it's such a shame on the destruction that is going on.
		It's not waste, fraud, and abuse.
		It's just chopping off valuable things to our country.
		And that hurts.
		It's going to hurt everybody.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right, Julie's thoughts there.
		Let's go to Akiva, who's in Clifton, New Jersey, Republican.
		Morning to you.
		Caller in Clifton, New Jersey.
		Akiva?
		All right, I'll move on to Janice, who's in New York, an independent.
		Janice, your turn.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Congresswoman, I would like for you to explain why Congress is being quiet on the fact that JobCorp was suspended when the president has always been talking about he's trying to bring jobs back.
		He wants to see people do training.
		And no one's talking about JobCorp being suspended.
		And I understand that you keep talking about Medicaid, but at the same time, I will give Marjorie Taylor green this.
		She pointed to a page specifically talking about the AI.
		I need you to point to a page specifically in this bill where they're talking about people have to work for Medicaid, where they're talking about people who have to work for SNAP.
		Let us see it.
		Let's stop with the cold work for all those teens who were doing training and now everything was shut down and they were sent home and you guys are not talking about that.
		If this administration is talking about doing training and bringing jobs back, why would you shut this down?
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right, Janice.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Congresswoman.
unidentified		Well, I totally agree with you and we have been talking about it, but there is so much destruction in this big, ugly bill that sometimes certain parts of it don't rise to the top in terms of what you hear on the media.
		But absolutely, I totally agree with you.
		Why would we be cutting job core when it provides jobs and then say, yes, for SNAP and for Medicaid, you have to have work requirements.
		Actually, let me tell you that all of that is about red tape.
		It's about making it more difficult for people who are working.
		And by the way, most of those in Medicaid are already working, but what they're doing is making it harder for people to comply with the requirements.
		For instance, if you are working as an Uber driver, you would have to justify how much you are making every month.
		And if you miss a month, then forget it.
		You are off of Medicaid.
		That is what we call red tape, making it harder for you to even do the bureaucratic requirements that would prove that you are actually working.
		And that is why Republicans are saying, oh, this is only about work requirements.
		No, this is about using red tape to get people off of Medicaid and off of the Affordable Care Act.
		And talk about the Affordable Care Act.
		What they put in this big, ugly bill is that you have to reapply every year to get your ACA, your Affordable Care Act coverage.
		Where do we have to do that?
		I mean, just for our regular insurance or Medicare, we don't have to reapply every year.
		If you have to reapply every year, for sure, some people are going to be off of their ACA coverage because they may not have the time that particular year to reapply.
		That is what we call red tape.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Congresswoman, let's just go back to the GOP tax and spending cuts legislation that was passed in the House.
		As we noted at the top, it's over in the Senate for consideration right now.
		What are you watching for over there in that debate?
unidentified		I am especially watching their debate on Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.
		I am watching to see whether they lessen it.
		I think they should take out these cuts totally.
		And I know that there are senators who have enormous populations within their states that are dependent on Medicaid.

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