| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
| Does it for today's Washington Journal? | ||
| We'll be back tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. Eastern, 4 a.m. Pacific with another program. | ||
| Until then, enjoy your day. | ||
|
unidentified
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Coming up Monday morning, Punchbowl News congressional reporter Max Cohen talks about the latest developments as Congress considers the President's Big Beautiful bill. | |
| And then Christian Science Monitor Washington Bureau Chief Linda Feldman on the White House News of the Day and a preview of the week ahead. | ||
| Also, documentary writer, producer, and correspondent Martin Smith on the new PBS frontline film, Syria After Assad, C-SPAN's Washington Journal. | ||
| Join the conversation live at 7 Eastern Monday morning on C-SPAN, C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, or online at c-SPAN.org. | ||
| On Monday, the UN Security Council will meet for a briefing on the Israel-Palestine conflict. | ||
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| This is Washington Journal for Sunday, June 29th. | ||
| As we start today's program, here's a live look at the Senate floor where clerks are reading through all 940 pages of the chamber's version of President Trump's spending bill. | ||
| Yesterday, senators narrowly voted to advance the legislation despite the opposition of two GOP lawmakers, with more debate and votes expected to take place soon as Congress races to meet a July 4th deadline. | ||
| For the first hour of today's show, we're asking, do you support or oppose the One Big Beautiful bill? | ||
| Here are the lines. | ||
| Republicans 202-748-8001. | ||
| Democrats 202-748-8000. | ||
| And Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| You can text your comments to 202-748-8003. | ||
| Be sure to include your name or city. | ||
| You can also post a question or comment on Facebook, facebook.com slash C-SPAN or on X at C-SPANWJ. | ||
| Good morning, and thank you for being with us. | ||
| We'll get to your calls and comments in just a few minutes. | ||
| But first, we want to get an update on the latest with Riley Rogerson. | ||
| She's a congressional reporter with notice. | ||
| Riley, thank you for being with us early this morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks for having me. | |
| Early is relative, depending on who you ask. | ||
| Senate clerks have been reading through the bill for about seven hours now. | ||
| The Senate press gallery, they've been posting updates on the status of where the reading is, and their most recent posting at about 5:40 this morning, Eastern, says that they are on page 355 of 940. | ||
| Explain to us why this is happening, why clerks are reading through this. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| So last night, in a huge win for Majority Leader John Thune, Senate Republicans were able to advance this legislation. | ||
| It was considered a huge, huge vote that was really taking the temperature of where Senate Republicans were at, but it was not actually final passage. | ||
| So Senate Democrats are doing everything in their power to put up some form of opposition to this bill and delay it as long as possible. | ||
| So part of that process was requiring the Senate clerk to read the entire bill. | ||
| That's a process that was projected to take about 15 hours. | ||
| And that delays when debate can occur and ultimately the final vote will take place. | ||
| They started reading the bill last night a little after 11 Eastern time. | ||
| When are they expected to wrap up and what will happen after that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I saw early projections are looking like Monday morning around 2 a.m. or 3 a.m., which would tee up a midday Monday morning vote. | |
| Again, we'll see if the votes are there to actually pass it and send it over to the House. | ||
| That'll mean the House has to consider this. | ||
| There's been major changes to the bill. | ||
| So Mike Johnson will have his hands full to try to meet this July 4th deadline at that point. | ||
| Yesterday's vote was a procedural vote to continue advancing. | ||
| There'll be more votes coming after they finish reading the bill, as you mentioned. | ||
| How many could we see in this in what they call a vote of Rama? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think a few dozen. | |
| A lot of them will be submitted by Democrats, again, looking to make this as hard as humanly possible for Senate Republicans and to hand themselves as much ammo as possible to be able to run against some of these vulnerable Republicans in the midterm. | ||
| So they're submitting a lot of amendments. | ||
| Other amendments to watch here that are going to be absolutely key are Medicaid provisions that have been put forward by conservatives. | ||
| Last night, a lot of the holdup had to do with a block of four conservative senators. | ||
| I'm thinking Senator Ron Johnson, Senator Rick Scott. | ||
| And it's being reported this morning that they extracted from leadership a commitment to put conservative Medicaid provisions onto the floor via amendments. | ||
| So we're going to see what happens. | ||
| Senator Ron Johnson told reporters last night that he thinks that those or that amendment will have the votes. | ||
| I have a hard time seeing some of these more moderate members like Senator Lisa Murkowski or Senator Tom Tillis backing that, but we'll see. | ||
| So it could be a long process getting through each of these individual amendments and there's probably a few dozen to get through. | ||
| And you mentioned that Senator Jon Thune, the majority leader, it was a win for him yesterday. | ||
| The vote, he and Vice President Vance cut a deal with some of the senators, some of the holdout senators. | ||
| What other changes were made in addition to that Medicaid? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, that was the big thing that conservatives were looking for. | |
| But there was a lot of jockeying happening all throughout the day to try to get more moderate members on board as well, particularly Senator Lisa Murkowski. | ||
| And if you look at the legislation, there's a lot of very specific Alaska, of course, that being her home state, carve-outs, things related to, for example, a tax deduction for people who hunt whales for subsistence purposes, which is something that applies most directly to Alaska. | ||
| So that's a big piece of kind of what ultimately made its way in here in order, apparently, to win over Senator Lisa Murkowski. | ||
| And then, yeah, mostly the changes made deep into the night last night had to do with deeper Medicaid cuts, with making it ultimately harder for some people to be able to access Medicaid. | ||
| You mentioned Senator Lisa Murkowski. | ||
| You covered her previously at a job you were at. | ||
| What was the reaction to her ultimately voting to advance the legislation? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think there's complicated feelings about Murkowski. | |
| Last night, there were plenty of Democrats, you know, more moderate people out there who were really, really counting on her to vote no and saw her as like kind of the last hope to tank this legislation. | ||
| For about an hour and a half last night, she had that power. | ||
| Three Senate Republicans had already voted against this bill. | ||
| She would have been the fourth. | ||
| That would have been, you know, that would have been it. | ||
| And she chose not to do that. | ||
| So I think there's frustration with people who see her as an ally, as a more moderate Republican, and as a bulwark against President Donald Trump's agenda. | ||
| But at the same time, it's clear that she's extracted some concessions here that are going to benefit her home state. | ||
| And for other senators out there who didn't play hardball in the same way, at least publicly, at least she can go home and campaign on, hey, it's an imperfect bill. | ||
| I had concerns, but look at what we got done for Alaska. | ||
| So we're going to see how it plays out. | ||
| The reaction to her from Trump World was definitely more positive than Senator Tom Tillis, who's very vulnerable. | ||
| And he ultimately voted no. | ||
| And that resulted in President Donald Trump posting a lengthy social post against Tillis last night. | ||
| So she avoided that kind of wrath. | ||
| When the Senate does get to the final vote, final passage, what are the expectations in terms of passage? | ||
| And do you foresee any other potential sticking points when they get there? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, this is not all done yet. | |
| Senate Republicans feel cautiously optimistic that now that this motion to proceed is done, that they're going to have the votes ultimately when this all wraps up. | ||
| A lot of senators use that as kind of their moment to register concerns and like lay down the marker for where they're at, but it's not done. | ||
| Senator Susan Collins, the other famous moderate in the Senate, she has said it's not a done deal for her, that she's ultimately going to support passage. | ||
| We're going to have to see kind of what happens with these amendment votes. | ||
| If some of these more conservative measures do pass, that's going to be a problem for people like Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski. | ||
| And if some of these, for whatever reason, that Democratic votes go well, that's going to be a huge issue for these conservatives. | ||
| So it's been a seesaw this entire time. | ||
| And as things proceed here, we're going to have to watch if that balance is upset. | ||
| We're watching the Senate today, probably tomorrow, as it advances and works its way through that. | ||
| Chamber, when and if it gets through the Senate, remind us what happens after that when it gets to the House. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| So, Speaker Mike Johnson held a Republican conference call yesterday where he explained that they'd likely have initial conversations about the bill on Tuesday and teeing up a final vote on Wednesday. | ||
| Whether he has the votes to pass the Senate version of the bill through his chamber is really the question at this point about whether Republicans are gonna meet President Trump's July 4th deadline. | ||
| A lot of moderates are, you know, in the House are looking over at what's happening in the Senate and they're not happy with some of these Medicaid provisions. | ||
| I'm thinking as Congressman David Valladeo from California, he has been very vocal and concerned about Medicaid. | ||
| He says he's voting no. | ||
| What he's seen is in the Senate is enough for him to vote no. | ||
| He voted yes on the House version. | ||
| So the question now is how many Republicans are in his boat that they were comfortable with the House's version that passed about a month ago and are very uncomfortable with the Senate version. | ||
| And Speaker Mike Johnson, he's been in this position before. | ||
| He's been able to wrangle both the conservative faction of his conference and the moderate faction of his conference to be able to advance very challenging legislation time and time again, a lot of that being because of President Donald Trump working the phones. | ||
| But we're going to see up against this deadline if he can get it done. | ||
| And Riley, one last question for you. | ||
| The Senate, the clerks began reading this at a little after 11 p.m. last night. | ||
| It's largely seen as a procedural protest from Senator Schumer to read it aloud. | ||
| After the House voted, we saw several stories about members not knowing what was in the bill. | ||
| Are senators sitting in the chambers right now, have they been in there listening to this readout? | ||
| Are they aware of what's in the bill? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think this was a huge, huge frustration for Senate Democrats that they did not have adequate time to read the bill. | |
| Like you said, it's 940 pages, and the bill text only came out on the scale of hours before the ultimate motion to proceed vote took place. | ||
| So yeah, I think that staff is absolutely scrambling for senators in both parties to fully break down and understand what is in this legislation. | ||
| Senators absolutely have their hands full in trying to figure out exactly what made it in here. | ||
| Riley Rogerson is a congressional reporter for Notice. | ||
| You can find her work online at notice.org. | ||
| Riley, thank you so much for spending some time with us. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, thanks for having me. | |
| We are talking about support or opposition to the one big beautiful bill as it works its way through Congress. | ||
| Senate is working on it as we speak. | ||
| We'll get to your calls. | ||
| We'll start with Jeffrey in Greensboro, North Carolina on the line for Republicans. | ||
| Hi, Jeffrey. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| Can you hear me, please? | ||
| Yes, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| Thank you for taking the call. | ||
| This is a very disturbing issue that America is going to have to deploy at least, pay the price. | ||
| It is sad. | ||
| It is devastating that you would take the initiative and try to hide certain information that it should be. | ||
| This is so important that's going to change dramatically a lot of lives. | ||
| That why is it not something what the lady just was discussing? | ||
| They're trying to read the bill out loud. | ||
| This is something that is going to affect everyone. | ||
| And it's not fair that knowing that so many people of power or people in this position will think that what a person is struggling right now economically wise or going for medical period, that they're going to make a cut that's going to devastate in so many small rural communities, hospitals. | ||
| And the point that I'm trying to address is we're looking at this as it's not a non-factor, but we didn't look at an outrageous matter when we spent millions of dollars for a military parade on his birthday that that's taxpayer money that is accountable. | ||
| And we're not talking about the hungry, the poor, the homeless that's laying on the streets right now in America as we speak this great make America beautiful again. | ||
| It is absurd that this can get passed. | ||
| It should not. | ||
| People should be in an outrageous mindset to say this is not fair for everyone in America that needs this. | ||
| This is just too much of a person that could just say, if you do not do this, your future as a Republican, Democrat, Senator, Congress, I'm going to say, I don't want you to vote for this person no more. | ||
| They're being selfish right now. | ||
| They're really thinking about after he is, if he wants to run again, I think that's what he's going to plan in the next three years, that some law is going to come up and he doesn't have to leave. | ||
| But I hope this bill, for the sake of justice for people that are struggling, that is in dire need of medical treatment, services, it would not justify. | ||
| Can you explain to me would it justify having this bill passed? | ||
| That was Jeffrey in North Carolina. | ||
| Dan in Michigan, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Dan. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I'm really thankful for the coverage that I'm seeing through C-SPAN because the information available is so limited and it's always been limited. | ||
| I kind of look forward to using AI in the future to possibly make this type of legislation more available to all the citizens of the United States so that we can really get realistic feedback on what the people would prefer their representatives to do. | ||
| I don't really know what's in the bill. | ||
| You know, I've heard of the generalizations about all the things about Medicaid, and I wouldn't support many of those, but I think we need massive improvement in the way health care is delivered and paid for in the United States. | ||
| I hope that if the Medicaid problems that have been spoken about come into effect after this bill is passed, that that creates some kind of response that leads to a better health care system for Americans sometime in the future. | ||
| That was Dan in Michigan. | ||
| Kevin in Windsor, Connecticut, line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Kevin. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Man, I agree with those last two callers. | ||
| Okay? | ||
| You know, you hear the mega Republicans. | ||
| Every able-bodied family on Medicare should get a job. | ||
| Well, what about every able-bodied billionaire and millionaire pay their fair share of taxes? | ||
| You know, there's the airplanes, Mike Lee is trying to sell government land out in Utah. | ||
| You know, they're all out to make a money for themselves. | ||
| But when it comes to midterms, boy, you know, if you guys move on these, you guys are going to lose your job to midterms because, man, the billionaires are getting breaks every decade, every spending bill. | ||
|
unidentified
|
All these billionaires are getting breaks, man. | |
| And if you don't pass and the poor don't get a break whatsoever on no Trump at all. | ||
| And that's all I have to say. | ||
| That was Kevin in Connecticut, Melvin, Richmond, Virginia, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Melvin. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, C-SPAN. | |
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| Being a Democrat, of course, I am opposed to this bill and quite surprised that some Republicans actually have calling in and are against this bill. | ||
| I wonder how they voted in the last election. | ||
| But anyway, that's not, that doesn't really matter now. | ||
| Trump is in there. | ||
| Of course, I oppose this bill because it's at the heart of it. | ||
| We are already in $37 trillion worth of debt, and this bill, of course, is going to add another $4 trillion. | ||
| We cannot keep printing money and spending it like it has no consequences. | ||
| There's going to be a consequence, and it's going to be very soon that the world is not going to put up with America just adding more and more debt. | ||
| Now, at $37 trillion, we already have twice the debt of any other country in the world. | ||
| And yet, it's because we have this dollar, which everybody thinks is so glorious and that no one can touch, that it kind of gives us the freedom to just print, print, print, you know. | ||
| But the world, of course, is going to reject that very soon. | ||
| And when the dollar crashes, the economy is going to crash. | ||
| We're going to, before Trump is gone, we're going to end up in a depression that's going to make 1929 look like a house party because it's just not sustainable. | ||
| Now, Trump's, of course, his whole thing is about money. | ||
| That's what he really wants. | ||
| These other little social issues that come up, like with immigration and abortion and DEI, those things he do just to placate his base. | ||
| But what he really wants is to have the ability to rob America of its resources. | ||
| Now, he's going to give $4 trillion worth of tax cuts to rich, and they're going to kick everything back via his meme coins. | ||
| So Trump is all about money. | ||
| When you hear him talk, if there's any subject that he's talking about that deals with money, then those are his favorites. | ||
| He wants this bill passed so badly because he knows that he'll be able to line his pockets with bribe money, if you will, that he'll get from these rich Republicans whose taxes will all go down. | ||
| That was Melvin in Virginia. | ||
| Let's hear from Betty Jean in Baltimore, Maryland, on the line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Betty Jean. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you for taking my call. | |
| I'm voting for Trump because of abortion, but he's making an ass out of the American people. | ||
| As far as Medicaid is concerned, my daughter was on Medicare. | ||
| She developed multiple sclerosis and she lost her job. | ||
| She went to Medicaid. | ||
| How is somebody sitting in a wheelchair who can't even feed themselves supposed to go out to work? | ||
| Trump is a disgrace. | ||
| People wake up. | ||
| He's making a fool out of you. | ||
| He's enriching the coffers of the rich and take it from the poor. | ||
| He's balancing the budget on the back of the pool. | ||
| He's a fool and a dog. | ||
| Wake up. | ||
| That was Betty Jean in Maryland. | ||
| A couple callers mentioning that they did not know what was in the bill. | ||
| This is a headline from Politico. | ||
| It says fresh mega bill text overnight. | ||
| What's in, what's out. | ||
| And it was updated just before or just yesterday afternoon, talking about some of those changes. | ||
| It says a roundup of what's new. | ||
| Mentions rural hospital, orphan drugs, physician fees, SALT, that is state and local taxes, changes to SNAP, as our guest earlier Riley mentioned, Alaskan whaling. | ||
| It also talks about energy, changes to energy, land sales, federal pensions, and more. | ||
| If you would like to find out more about that, you can find the article in full online at politico.com. | ||
| Let's hear from Jerry in Livingston, Tennessee, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Jerry. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| Well, here we go. | ||
| This is the end of Medicare, Medicaid, and the whole nine yards. | ||
| And first, Lisa McCowski, she just whimps out every time. | ||
| People, this right here is going to kill people. | ||
| And look at, we all want to talk about a mortar. | ||
| We're not going to feed kids. | ||
| You know, whenever we're taking the staff, which is food stamps away, we're going to wait with 10 care in our state, which, you know, for people who can't afford insurance don't have it, or unhealthy enough to be insured. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, this is nursing homes, this is going to abolish nursing homes, go close hospitals. | |
| And, you know, go to church this morning, have you preacher to pray not to cut this? | ||
| That's what this bunch of MAGA religious people, whatever you want to call them, are, they're the ones that push this. | ||
| So have you preacher to pray this morning not to cut your Medicare and ten cared stuff off? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Now, thank you for taking my call. | |
| That was Jerry in Tennessee. | ||
| Kelly in Clemens, North Carolina, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Kelly. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, Timmy. | |
| Well, I want to tell that man right there that his prayers have already been answered because they're not cutting Social Security and they're not cutting Medicare and they're not cutting Medicaid. | ||
| They are reforming Medicaid and the way the cuts would be are not real cuts. | ||
| They are no more illegals being able to use them. | ||
| That's where the cuts are coming from. | ||
| Okay? | ||
| All you people who are American citizens, you will still be getting everything you were getting. | ||
| And as far as the poor lady that's in the wheelchair, bless her heart, she's not an able-bodied person, so she doesn't have to go to work. | ||
| And as far as Tom Tillis goes, being from North Carolina here, I want to say to him, I pray he's listening, you will not be senator again, sir. | ||
| You are out of here. | ||
| Just be ready. | ||
| Find the proper job. | ||
| And I just want people to know there's nothing to worry about. | ||
| Y'all are listening to propaganda, and it's all propaganda from the left. | ||
| Stop listening to it. | ||
| You're hurting yourselves. | ||
| They are trying to make you in fear. | ||
| Have faith, not fear. | ||
| And God bless you all. | ||
| That was Kelly in North Carolina. | ||
| She mentioned Senator Tillis, one of the senators who opposed the bill from the Hill says that President Trump went after Senator Tom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, in a Saturday night Truth Social post threatening that he would back a primary challenger running against the North Carolina senator after Tillis came out against the GOP's sprawling big, beautiful bill. | ||
| It says, quote, numerous people have come forward wanting to run in the primary against Senator Tom Tillis. | ||
| Trump wrote, I will be meeting with them over the coming weeks, looking for someone who will properly represent the great people of North Carolina and so importantly, the United States of America. | ||
| Also from the Hill, we showed you started the show with a live look at the Senate floor where clerks are currently reading through 940 pages of that Senate bill, the Senate version of that bill, the Hill headline, Schumer to force reading of that 1,000-page GOP mega bill, delaying it by a day and a half. | ||
| It was yesterday on the Senate floor that Senator Schumer spoke out about the bill. | ||
| Here is a clip of that. | ||
| So what did the Republicans do late last night? | ||
| Hard to believe this bill is worse, even worse than any draft we've seen this far. | ||
| It's worse on health care. | ||
| It's worse on SNAP. | ||
| It's worse on the deficit. | ||
| At the very last minute, Senate Republicans made their bill even more extreme to cater to the radicals in the House and Senate. | ||
| Republicans are about to move forward with a radical thousand-page bill just made public in the last several hours without knowing how many trillions it will cost. | ||
| They don't even want to know a CBO score. | ||
| They're afraid to show how badly this will increase the deficit. | ||
| On this bill, a major bill that affects every part of American life, hiding the bill hiding the CBO scores in defiance of their own promises to cut the debt. | ||
| Deficit hawks out there on the Republican side in the House and Senate. | ||
| This bill makes the debt worse and the deficit worse, even worse than before. | ||
| Generations, future generations will be saddled with trillions in debt. | ||
| Debt is abstract, but what does it mean for the average American? | ||
| Raising your costs, raising your cost to buy a home, raising your cost to buy a car, raising your costs on credit card bills. | ||
| And why are they doing all this? | ||
| Why are they doing the biggest Medicaid cuts in history? | ||
| Now it's getting close to a trillion dollars just in Medicaid alone. | ||
| All to cut taxes for the ultra-rich and special interests. | ||
| And they did it while most Americans were asleep. | ||
| It is astounding that this is the product Senate Republicans have to have come up with. | ||
| Because for weeks, they kept saying they were going to somehow strengthen Medicaid, that they'd moderate, quote unquote, the House clean energy cuts, that nobody would lose benefits. | ||
| Well, all of that has gone out the window. | ||
| We are asking you, do you use support or oppose the one big, beautiful bill? | ||
| We're taking your calls. | ||
| Also getting reaction on social media. | ||
| Bob put this on Facebook. | ||
| Support this bill, which will be great for small businesses, further secure our borders, strengthen ICE, and will increase working family income by thousands of dollars. | ||
| And Jersey Girl in an ex-post says, I oppose because it's going to spike the national debt to horrific levels, increase income inequality, and harm the least among us. | ||
| And all that said, with the knowledge that this bill will benefit my family, but the reason I'm a Dem is because I believe in the collective good. | ||
| Back to your calls. | ||
| We'll hear from Lattell in Georgia, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Lattelle. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, how are you doing, madam? | |
| Doing well, Lattelle. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Yes, I was looking at the fact of in the 1960s and the 1970s, the minimum wage was at $2 an hour, and canned good was like maybe 30 cents off of that hour or taken away from that $2 an hour. | ||
| Now, the beautiful bill, I guess people are not looking at the parameters. | ||
| It says real wages will increase $7,200 per year, and then you have an after-tax take-home pay that's roughly calculated to $10,900 per year. | ||
| And then real estate investment will, of course, increase 10% based on the mere fact that your children will grow up. | ||
| And in most cases, I grew up in the environment that at the age of 18, you got to get out of the house. | ||
| So that 10% and the three factors that I just explained, kind of like from a polynomial standpoint or equation, it will amount to a significant increase of everything, meaning not a significant increase of burden, but it will be an increase to afford a salt and pepper shaker. | ||
| It will be an increase to afford a blender. | ||
| It will be an increase to afford an extra generator. | ||
| And I think Mr. Trump is strategically trying to embrace an economic package or a stimulus that will not result to the $1,200 two years ago that caused so many fights and discretion. | ||
| However, if you look at both sides of the coin, you have African Americans who can't afford certain cell phones nor generators, but you have certain Caucasians who are mediocre to such purchases and can afford Enkinisteen generators. | ||
| And I think Mr. Trump is looking at the bias there, and he's trying to incorporate the two without a racial clash. | ||
| But in general, it's a beautiful bill. | ||
| In general, it's something that will benefit the homemakers, the homeowners, as well as afford the cost of more canned goods or vegetables or sustainable staples and home improvement. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was Lattell in Georgia. | ||
| Let's hear from Joe in Sandusky, Ohio, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Joe. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, how are you doing? | |
| Doing well, Joe. | ||
| I, Johnson and Tillis and Paul, joined the Democrats' ugly bill because the ugly bill should not go, you know, for July 4th because | ||
| it's not a good bill. | ||
| I'm on Social Security Disability. | ||
| I get Medicare and Medicaid, and I can't afford to lose that. | ||
| And people, you know, people that have that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, you better wake up because you are going to lose your Medicare and Medicaid. | ||
| And just look at the bill. | ||
| Just realize that. | ||
| And Trump's a con man. | ||
| Have a good day. | ||
| That was Joe in Ohio. | ||
| Amal in Wisconsin, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Amal. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I'm from Abbotsford, Wisconsin. | ||
| And let me tell you, when you talk about abortion, and it simply states this, that a woman holds her baby above anything else in this world. | ||
| So it doesn't matter if it's her baby or somebody else's baby. | ||
| That baby is sacred. | ||
| So when you take the life of your baby and you try to destroy it, you are doing totally wrong. | ||
| And the other thing with Trump trying to make America right, how can you be so blind you can't see that he's doing it right for America? | ||
| Amal, our topic for this hour is we're asking if you support or oppose the one big beautiful bill. | ||
| Do you have thoughts on that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm definitely in favor of the bill because it is making America right again. | |
| And making America right means doing it the Christian way. | ||
| If you're not. | ||
| That was Amel in Wisconsin. | ||
| We'll go on to Rick in North Dakota, line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Rick. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| How are you this morning? | ||
| Doing well, Rick. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks. | |
| Hey, two things. | ||
| So Schumer wants the bill read, and I think that's a good thing. | ||
| We don't need a repeat of the Nancy Pelosi. | ||
| We got to pass the bill and then sign it, right? | ||
| And then the second thing is I dug up an old article that I had archived on my computer, published in the AARP magazine, and it's on their website in March 7th of 2018. | ||
| And it gives five scenarios where the new tax plan substantially reduces most people's income tax, anywhere from $200 for a woman that's 80-some years old and living in an assisted care facility, | ||
| various small business owners that don't have monstrous incomes, $100,000, $120,000 gross annual. | ||
| And the guy that's making a big city executive that has knocking down a half a million a year, his taxes actually go up by $6,300 a year. | ||
| So, I mean, these are numbers that were laid out by AARP, which is hardly a Bastion of MAGA thoughts. | ||
| So, just to throw that out there, I think people should really look at the numbers and not listen to all the verbiage that's being thrown out there and just look at the facts. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's about all I got. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| That was Rick in North Dakota. | ||
| Jay in Tennessee, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Jay. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| How are you? | ||
| Doing well, Jay. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I want to praise that lady that called in earlier about the pill mongeries. | |
| That's what they're doing. | ||
| This bill is going to help Americans across the board. | ||
| It's going to get the problem and beasts out of Medicaid. | ||
| These people are worrying about America losing their Medicaid and Social Security. | ||
| Oh, yeah, they will lose it if they don't pass the bill and get these illegals off of it and get the problem in the beasts out of it. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| And then Americans better wake up. | ||
| They're trying to get this stuff straightened out. | ||
| He's Democrats. | ||
| I'm a Democrat. | ||
| But I'm ashamed of how they act here lately and how they, you know, go get everything, which God president in there is trying to do the best he can. | ||
|
unidentified
|
He came in in a mess. | |
| I didn't vote for Biden last time. | ||
| I didn't vote for him. | ||
| We're going to vote for him because I'm a black man. | ||
| When he said, if he ain't black, I mean, what is wrong with these Democrats here lately? | ||
| I mean, they ain't got no common sense, and they're afraid they're going to lose their Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security. | ||
| Well, they will if we don't get these legals off of them, off of it, and start that was Jay in Tennessee. | ||
| This from the Associated Press, it says the 940-page, one big beautiful bill act was released shortly before midnight Friday. | ||
| Senators are expected to grind through all-night debate and amendments in the days ahead. | ||
| The Senate is able to pass it. | ||
| The bill would go back to the House for a final round of votes before it could reach the White House. | ||
| We have been showing you the live shot from the Senate floor where clerks are currently reading through that 940-page bill. | ||
| It was yesterday on the Senate floor that Senate Majority Leader John Thune praised the legislation. | ||
| Here is a clip from that. | ||
| Mr. President, we seldom have an opportunity to take the kind of action that we're taking, that we're planning to take on just one of these priorities, let alone all of them. | ||
| When was the last time we considered legislation like this to give a $150 billion boost to our defense spending? | ||
| Any serious declines in our military readiness, I should say after serious declines in our military readiness, we are on the verge of notable investment in a number of critical military priorities: shipbuilding, missile defense, defense manufacturing capacity, critical munitions, drones and counter-drone technology, an expanded Air Force fighter fleet, nuclear modernization, U.S. infrastructure in the Pacific, and more. | ||
| And while it's no substitute for robust yearly defense funding, our bill represents a real chance to start to turn our readiness deficiencies around. | ||
| There is no time, Mr. President, in which we can afford to let our military readiness slide. | ||
| But above all, at this time of increased global instability, it is especially vital that we ensure that our military has the resources it needs to deter our enemies and defend our country. | ||
| So just by itself, the national defense section of our reconciliation bill represents a historic opportunity. | ||
| And that's just one section of the bill. | ||
| We're also looking at historic investment in border security. | ||
| $160 billion. | ||
| Yeah, that's right. | ||
| $160 billion to undo the damage done by the Biden border crisis and secure our border for the long term. | ||
| More border patrol agents. | ||
| More immigration and customs enforcement agents. | ||
| Funding to complete the border wall and implement critical border technology. | ||
| Mr. President, it's all there. | ||
| We have the opportunity to take the gains the Trump administration has made in securing our border and deporting criminals and make that progress permanent. | ||
| Like the defense section, the border security provisions of this bill would be an impressive and historic piece of legislation all on their own. | ||
| But again, they're just one section. | ||
| We're also looking at the chance to increase our energy independence, making us safer and more prosperous. | ||
| And we're looking at an exceedingly rare opportunity to root out waste fraud and abuse, including the first real entitlement reform in decades. | ||
| Reform that will put these programs on a more sustainable path for today's recipients and for tomorrow's. | ||
| The Senate voted 51 to 49 yesterday to advance the legislation. | ||
| Final votes in both the Senate and the House are still expected in the days to come. | ||
| More from the Associated Press says with the narrow Republican majorities in the House and Senate, leaders need almost every lawmaker on board. | ||
| A new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the Senate bill would increase by $11.8 million the number of people without health insurance in 2034. | ||
| Another estimate from the Congressional Budget Office, it was last month that they released this. | ||
| It says the Congressional Budget Office and staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation previously reported that H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, as passed by the House of Representatives on May 22nd, would increase the primary deficit by $2.4 trillion over the 2025-2034 period. | ||
| That estimate reflects a 3.7 trillion reduction in revenue and a 1.3 trillion reduction in non-interest outlays. | ||
| It does not account for how the bill would affect the economy. | ||
| Just about 15 minutes or so left in this first hour of today's Washington Journal asking, do you support or oppose the One Big Beautiful Bill? | ||
| Let's hear from David in French Lick, Indiana, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, David. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| Thanks for taking my call. | ||
| I agree with the majority of the bill. | ||
| As a lot of people have mentioned on the air, a lot of vitriol coming from the Democrats and basically just missed truth. | ||
| You just mentioned the 11.8 million that are going to be removed from medical coverage. | ||
| Well, who are they? | ||
| Are they naturalized citizens going to be removed? | ||
| Are they illegal immigrants? | ||
| I think that's who's going to be removed from it, partially. | ||
| I grew up in a very rural area. | ||
| I started working when I was a young man. | ||
| I knew back then that Social Security wasn't going to be my only retirement plan. | ||
| I worked, I'm 66 years old, I worked all my life, raised a family, I have an acreage, I have a home, I saved money. | ||
| But at the age of 18, I knew that government was not going to support me. | ||
| And Medicare is very helpful. | ||
| I'm at the age of 65 where I can receive Medicare. | ||
| My Social Security is maxed as much as I could get it. | ||
| I have retirement plans. | ||
| People need to be educated in their own finances and not just wait for the government to hand them something. | ||
| Now, I know everybody doesn't have an opportunity. | ||
| I grew up in a poor rural area, and I've succeeded. | ||
| Everybody can succeed. | ||
| And this tax bill will eliminate a lot of people's taxes, bring it down. | ||
| It raises a standard deduction for seniors for those who have to pay taxes on Social Security. | ||
| It raises that. | ||
| Many people can't itemize, so they can use the standard deduction. | ||
| I believe it raises another $1,200 or $1,500, and that can help eliminate taxes for individuals. | ||
| So get more into the detail and not the fear and anger. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| That was David in Indiana. | ||
| Ronald in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Ronald. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I've been watching the bill reading, and it's very disturbing to listen. | ||
| For one thing, they ought to have the senators read the bill and not employees of the government. | ||
| That's just their bill, not the employees. | ||
| And they had water boys delivering water. | ||
| They only bring their own water to the office. | ||
| But during this reading, I got disturbed over the educational part, some of it. | ||
| Up to $500,000 deduction for primary, elementary, secondary, private schools, religious schools for tuition. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The normal people do not have money like that. | |
| They get to write that. | ||
| That's another tax break they got for their children. | ||
| That we, as hardworking, lower-income people, don't have that benefit. | ||
| We have to use the standard deduction, but they get that. | ||
| It's very disturbing in this area. | ||
| And people say is it a beautiful bill? | ||
| They should not, should not say that until they listen to some of this stuff. | ||
| It is very disturbing. | ||
| That was Ronald in South Carolina. | ||
| Let's hear from Margo in Easton, Pennsylvania, line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Margo. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Sorry, good morning. | ||
| I don't support this bill, and one of the many reasons is my grave concern about the part of the bill which attempts to stop states from passing any laws which regulate AI or automated decision-making for the next decade. | ||
| And it's not just that it's an affront to states' rights, which it is, but it's profoundly dangerous for everyday Americans and the stability of our industry and financial systems. | ||
| And I'm disturbed that it's not being talked about. | ||
| Legislators seem to either not understand what they're signing into law or they don't care. | ||
| It has nothing to do with the budget. | ||
| It's a piece of pork crammed into a monster bell to avoid detection. | ||
| Thank you very much for your time. | ||
| That was Margo in Pennsylvania. | ||
| Let's hear from Joe in Ella J, Georgia, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Joe. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I am 100% for the bill. | ||
| I think Trump is the best leader in history. | ||
| I think it's great for the stock market. | ||
| I predict that when the bill passes, it'll bring the stock market to an all-time highs. | ||
| And there are a bunch of us down here in LAJ that meet at Pooh's Barbecue. | ||
| And we love Trump, and we definitely feel like Trump's the best in history. | ||
| And that with him in there, we're going to have the best economy and stock market in the history of America. | ||
| So we're really fired up for Trump. | ||
| I love C-SPAN. | ||
| Y'all do an incredible job. | ||
| That was Joe in Ella J, Georgia. | ||
| Let's hear from John in Summers, Connecticut, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, John. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, how are you doing? | |
| Just got out of bed. | ||
| Can I ask you a question? | ||
| Is this bill on computers? | ||
| Because I don't have a computer. | ||
| So all my information I get is from television. | ||
| Are people reading this bill on the computer? | ||
| The text is probably out on a website on the Senate's website. | ||
| They usually release it once it's out to senators. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So the general public has read it. | |
| I don't know that the general public has read it, but it should be available if you have maybe a library close to you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Do you know or do you know? | |
| Go ahead, John. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Huh? | |
| Go ahead. | ||
| Is it on it or isn't it? | ||
| I will check right now. | ||
| I don't see why they wouldn't have put it, why the Senate wouldn't have put it on its website. | ||
| Are you trying to read it? | ||
| Are you going to try to find a place to read it if it is? | ||
| Oh, we lost him. | ||
| We'll go to Michael in North Carolina, line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Michael. | ||
| Michael, are you there? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, can you hear me? | |
| Yes, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| Yeah, I just wanted to state that I'm totally opposed to the budget as proposed. | ||
| It's fiscally irresponsible for one thing. | ||
| You can see Rand Paul, for example, he can point out how this country does not have the money to finance the bill. | ||
| I see it as two basic provisions. | ||
| One, the military budget is around a trillion dollars as proposed. | ||
| And, you know, that amount of money represents the eight next countries' military budgets combined. | ||
| The Constitution says a common defense, not a common offense. | ||
| And, you know, so I think it's way out of proportion. | ||
| You know, the military has never been able to pass a budget. | ||
| And I think a lot of that money represents kickbacks to congressmen and other people. | ||
| So, you know, that's like a big taco to them. | ||
| And, you know, we've got to be responsible here. | ||
| The other thing is, you know, the tax cuts, you know, are way out of proportion. | ||
| They're not linear across the board. | ||
| They're weighted towards the, you know, the billionaires and the rich. | ||
| And I can't personally help, you know, but think that maybe that's why Donald Trump wanted to become president so that he could get a tax cut. | ||
| That was Michael in North Carolina. | ||
| Samuel in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Samuel. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Just need you or your support or people to call in to correct me. | ||
| I'm trying to, I'm reading what you put up on the board that this bill will increase the deficit by $2.7 trillion over a 10-year period. | ||
| Are you there? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Go ahead, Samuel. | ||
|
unidentified
|
All right. | |
| And I think that's what it said. | ||
| So over 10 years, the bill's going to increase our deficit by $2.4 billion. | ||
| This goes back to my elementary school. | ||
| Now, I'm understanding that we take in $5 trillion a year and spend $7. | ||
| So that means right now, and what's been going on is every year we're down $2 trillion. | ||
| They're saying this bill is only going to increase it by $2 trillion for 10 years. | ||
| That's amazing, considering our spending pattern. | ||
| The other thing is that they're saying that our revenues are going to decrease in the next year, 10 years by $3 trillion. | ||
| I believe that. | ||
| What do our revenues usually go up in a 10-year period? | ||
| Why is it going to decrease? | ||
| Just help me out here. | ||
| I guess I'm missing something very simple. | ||
| But I mean, I learned this in third grade. | ||
| Five, seven, ten years divided by two trillion isn't even close to what we've been doing. | ||
| That's some nuts. | ||
| Thanks. | ||
| That was Samuel in Pennsylvania. | ||
| Michael in New York, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Michael. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, good morning to C-SPAN and everybody. | |
| It's a beautiful Sunday. | ||
| I noticed that they're trying to pass this big, beautiful bill. | ||
| And what I'm seeing in it, there's a lot of hidden different pork that's been put into the bill to get voted on. | ||
| And I believe that there's a lot of people that they supplement their health insurance also with plans like through the Medicaid programs and Medicare programs. | ||
| It's going to affect the elderly and the children and people that are looking for health coverages that are on it and have been on it. | ||
| You know, mind you, there needs to be some trimming down to what they're doing. | ||
| But I think if they're going to take that many people out of health care, it's going to affect all our local hospitals and stuff like that. | ||
| They had stuff on it. | ||
| I was watching on C-SPAN a while back here about how this bill will affect local small rural hospitals and their budgets because they depend on some of that revenue that comes through. | ||
| And that kind of concerns me because we've got a rural hospital here. | ||
| So how's our funding going to be impacted locally? | ||
| And that's definitely, it's hitting across America. | ||
| So this, in essential, this bill, I'll lay it right out to you, is definitely going to be putting more money in the pockets of billionaires and the wealthy. | ||
| Don't get the misconception that everyday working American citizens are having their taxes cut. | ||
| It's the billionaires and the 1% class that's going to get their taxes cut. | ||
| Not us working people and retirement people that are coming into retirement. | ||
| We're going to be paying more in taxes. | ||
| They're going to increase more of our tax rates for the people that work, like I explained to you. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| But I'm going to tell you right now, if we don't shoot this thing down, this bill doesn't get shot down. | ||
| A lot of these politicians are going to be doing a disservice to Americans. | ||
| And we've already had, been lied to about going into war. | ||
| We know you promised we weren't going to war, and here we are. | ||
| We got thrashed into a battle with Iran now. | ||
| You know, this guy is not telling the truth to anybody. | ||
| That was Tyrone in New York. | ||
| We have been showing you the live shot of the Senate floor where they have been reading the 940-page bill. | ||
| Latest update from the Senate press gallery about 20 or about 15 minutes ago says that reading of the substitute amendment to HR 1 began at 1108 p.m. | ||
| Saturday evening at 735 a.m. | ||
| After eight hours and 27 minutes of reading, we are at page 470 of 940. | ||
| Halfway there, Just a couple minutes left in this first hour asking, do you support or oppose the one big, beautiful bill? | ||
| It's here from Jim in South Carolina, Line 4 Independence. | ||
| Good morning, Jim. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Hi, Jim. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| I'm against the present Senate bill. | ||
| A lot have been cut out of the House bill. | ||
| And I got this information off the Hill yesterday afternoon. | ||
| I don't know if anything has been changed since then. | ||
| But one thing I'm concerned about is illegal immigrants. | ||
| The House bill cut them out from Medicaid. | ||
| It was cut out of the Senate bill. | ||
| Illegals are eligible for Medicaid, even gender treatments. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Also cut out. | |
| The Amber Road, President Trump signed an executive order to reopen it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
President Biden has closed it. | |
| It's cut out. | ||
| Now for the taxes, in 2017, your standard deduction was raised from $6,350 to $12,000. | ||
| A child credit, $1,000 was raised to $2,000. | ||
| In the new House bill, your child credit would be $2,500. | ||
| The Senate version cut it down to $2,200. | ||
| And for the no tax and overtime, that's just for two years. | ||
| The SALT tax for wealthy counties is $40,000 for five years. | ||
| That's $200,000. | ||
| And it drops down to $10,000. | ||
| I'm totally against it. | ||
| I hope the House votes it out. | ||
| I'm going to call my representative and tell them to vote no because a lot of things have been taken out of the original bill, which I think is wrong. |