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Oct. 29, 2021 - The Muckrake Political Podcast
21:01
Is Pelosi Losing Her Grip On The Democratic Party?

Co-hosts Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman discuss whether the progressives in the Democratic Party will ultimately allow the establishment to completely strip the reconciliation bill of all its forward-thinking initiatives.  To access the full-episode and support the pod, head on over to http://www.patreon.com/muckrakepodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Time Text
Hey, everybody.
Welcome to the Muckrake Podcast, Weekender Edition.
I'm Jared Yates-Saxton.
It pains me to say that I'm here with my beloved podcast host, Nick Hausman, who is under the weather.
You know, I did it to myself, though.
I am suffering from the booster, I suppose, the effects.
You have sacrificed your own momentary well-being.
Yes, although I don't recommend, like, I had a sore throat the morning of the booster shot and I kind of just ignored that.
You're supposed to tell them if you're not feeling well.
And I just, you know what, I need the booster so I got it.
So I have this feeling that I've, you know, accentuated any kind of ill feelings I might have already had with the booster.
But I'm on my way back.
I feel better already from yesterday.
Well, don't let anybody say that Nick Hausman does not play hurt.
He does, and thank God that he does, because we have an absolutely jam-packed show today.
Obviously, we have to talk about what's going on in Congress right now.
I actually just got off the phone with a staffer.
Do you have like a red phone on your desk that you can pick up?
- Shit went down today.
Shit went down.
- Do you have like a red phone on your desk that you can pick up?
Is that how that works?
- No, but I do have an iPhone.
And let me tell you, when something like what happened today goes down, the staffers and the people around these politicians, they do enjoy getting on the phone.
And we'll talk about this later.
And by the way, if you want, here's where we do it.
This is the hard sell.
And apologies, because we've got to do the hard sell, because this is the show for our Patreon subscribers.
This is what they're investing in the show for.
Thank you, as always.
If you want to hear about what happened today within the Progressive Caucus, if you want to hear about the conversation that I just had, you're going to need to go over to patreon.com.com.com.
And take care of the show.
Also, what are you waiting for?
Take care of the show.
Nick plays Hurt.
We bleed for you people.
I'm doing the breaking news music in the background, too.
I mean, come on.
I love it.
We need some sort of a segment.
But before we get into what happened during the progressive caucus today, First things first, we have to talk about this development in terms of Biden's agenda, this legislation, which Nick, according to my notes, this thing has been going on for 25 years.
Oh, is that right?
It feels like it, does it not?
Oh, no.
OK.
I had to do the math to figure out, OK, what was 25 years ago?
What was the touchstone?
It has, especially because they have control of all the elements of government.
And you would think that that would, you know, look out.
Actually, when did the tax cut go through with Trump?
He got it done in 2017, right?
Yeah.
Although there was hiccups even then for him.
So it wasn't so smooth.
But this is definitely much more of a shit show without question.
This all sucks, and listen, I wish that this wasn't even something that we have to talk about anymore, but this is a quickly developing situation.
The bill as it stands, basically today we got Biden's Build Back Better Agenda Redux, is what we got today, and this new director's version that has been just absolutely It's the mansion cut, if you will.
The mansion cut at this point weighs in at 1.85 trillion dollars, which is a significant cut.
At this point, we've lost a lot of investment in fighting climate change.
Federal paid leave is more or less gone.
Expansion of Medicare, gone.
Free two years of community college, gone.
What we are left with is still one of the most significant modern investments in the social safety net and infrastructure.
It is all needed.
I still think it needs to pass.
I still have to say that it's an absolute embarrassment that we've reached this moment.
But I also hate to report that this is anything but a done deal.
Right.
I mean, it felt like for a little while there they were treating it like a done deal no matter what.
Like, I know that's sort of the language that politicians like to use anyway.
But the reason why it feels like a done deal to me now is that, yes, they're willing to cut everything just to, like, say they got something done.
And we had seen this about two weeks ago when people started to prepare us saying, you know, something is better than nothing.
And the progressives started to wring their hands severely over that.
And we're seeing that even now with how they were reacting to all this.
But it's really just, you know, we can't say this enough on the show or just anywhere about how the benefits of these programs and the popularity of these programs is so immensely high that it's just mind boggling that they can't we can't say this enough on the show or just anywhere about how And get this thing done, especially because they don't have to sell it to the people.
Like I mentioned last time, you know, Biden should go to West Virginia in Manchin's backyard and do a couple rallies.
But what you realize is that it doesn't necessarily matter if he convinces the entire population of the United States.
It's because these assholes in Manchin and Sinema are not going to be persuaded to keep these programs.
You know what I'm saying?
That's why our democracy is broken, or it's not even a democracy anyway.
It's the whatever republic that we have.
And that is why we need to get them the hell out of there as quickly as we can.
The damnedest thing about this is that Manchin and Sinema at this point have both gained the system and held so much sway over the process that they can both claim victories.
Joe Manchin became the de facto president of the United States of America for like two and a half, three months.
Right.
Kirsten Sinema, God knows how much money she has raised, how much goodwill she has inspired among the corporate class that wanted to gut this thing.
I mean, if she gets primaried or if she gets voted out of Senate, she is going to make so much money based on, you know, facilitating that goodwill and undoubtedly lobbying or sitting on these corporate boards.
They have pushed this thing to the breaking point.
We have reached the place.
And here's the really sad part about the calculations here.
They have pushed this so far, and they have dominated the spotlight so much, that they have driven Joe Biden's numbers down, the Democratic Party's numbers down, undoubtedly fundraising as well.
They have pushed all of those things to the breaking point.
To the point where the President of the United States of America, and you and I were talking about this before we started recording, this is a quote from a meeting.
Biden basically went to the Democratic Party today, hat in hand.
More or less, and he said to them, and this is a quote that came out of that meeting.
We have a framework that will get 50 votes in the United States Senate, Mr Biden told the group, which by the way, you'll notice, Nick, that he chose one part, the Senate.
Yeah.
And he's saying we can get the votes in the Senate, which by the way, Nick, who's that a message to?
That's a message to the House, is what it is.
And he says, I don't think it's hyperbole to say that the House and Senate majorities and my presidency will be determined by what happens in the next week.
And we were talking about, there's no need to say that.
There's no need whatsoever to ever say that out loud and to create this time frame.
If you were the President of the United States of America and you create an artificial time frame, you are begging for disaster.
But that's where we're at.
They have bled this to the point where there's no more time.
They're up against the wall and at this point you either pass this thing or you walk away and you basically jump into the abyss.
Sure.
Well, you know, Biden is no stranger to shoving his whole entire foot in his mouth or a couple feet.
So, you know, we're used to seeing him say things that are like... Why would you do that?
Why would you do it?
Why would you say that?
It was great to have Sudeikis back on Saturday Night Live, although the show probably wasn't great, but to have him do his Biden, although he didn't do the best lines he used to do back when he was a vice president, which was he'd say something ridiculous and then Sudeikis would be like, oh, did I just Did I just say that?
And that's what Biden just did here.
But I think obviously the reason why the clock is ticking is because the longer it takes to get these programs installed, the longer it'll take for people to feel it, and then you're past the elections.
And that's the whole point of this.
And they might already be beyond that as it is now.
And here's the thing.
We all remember that Hillary was going to win the 2016 election within even like 10 days before the election.
And we know what happened there.
In 10 days things could turn on a complete dime in politics.
And so what you're saying is definitely true as far as, you know, there's no reason to put an artificial deadline on this thing and just make yourself look bad.
And it gives the Republicans a chance to claim victory if it doesn't happen in the next, you know, 10 days.
Well, and let's look at the circumstances.
Joe Manchin has realized that, you know, it's like one of those things, you ride a hot streak until you can't ride it anymore, which is what he did.
I mean, he dominated the politics in the United States of America for two and a half months.
He knew what he was doing.
He's gotten to the point where he, and by the way, he can go back to big energy, big coal, big oil, all of them, and say, look what I did.
Congratulations to me, right?
Like, even though there are still provisions in here that will help combat them, you know, we have millions in here that will help to move our cars into the electric era.
Which, by the way, Nick, how long ago should we have had electric cars?
We had them in like 1917 or something like that.
Yeah.
One of the first cars made was electric.
They had it.
We had this for a long, long time.
So yes, it should have been.
And by the way, the entire reason that we're not already on electric cars is because Big Oil totally said, no, that's not going to happen.
I mean, that's what occurred there.
I know in Discord, there's going to be the people who are going to fact check that, but it's true.
Which, by the way, all hats off to them.
Get into the history of the electric car.
I love, though, that 1917.
I'm gonna look into this.
This is fascinating.
I feel like there's a near steampunk situation here.
Wait, let me push back on one thing because I know you're...
It sounds right that Manchin was the president and had that kind of power for two and a half months, but honestly, I'm much more cynical than that.
I just think that he simply insured his family's wealth for an extra generation or two.
That's all he did.
That's all he was concerned with.
Oh yeah, absolutely.
So he just made sure his great-grandkids are now going to have enough money to not have to work.
Oh, which, by the way, I think his great-grandkids would have been just fine.
You know what I mean?
That generational wealth would have still gone on.
And on top of that, we've talked about it a little bit.
I think Big Oil and Big Coal, they've got a big payout coming down the road whenever we finally start to try and do something on this.
Which, by the way, all of those companies are doing the same thing that Joe Manchin is doing, which is bleed it out until the last possible moment, getting as much power, as much profit as they possibly can.
Kirsten Sinema has absolutely just filled her war chest and coffers with tons of donations from these people and undoubtedly has created for herself a golden parachute if she ever walks out of the Senate.
She now is citing quote unquote significant progress.
Which, for the people at home keeping track, is like the first thing that she said about anything.
She didn't tell anybody at any given time what she wanted out of any of this.
She knew, though, that she could grow her political profile and make a ton of money by standing near Joe Manchin and being, you know, part of the opposition here.
Let me ask you this.
Is it safe to say that the Senators are probably pretty busy these days and they should be working pretty hard?
Is that safe to say?
I mean, they should be.
Okay, okay.
So, do you think that, and then this is reminding me, you know, that Mitt Romney really should have had time to be wandering around with a Hitler mustache looking thing pretending to be Ted Lasso and getting his film and editing, literally editing things.
Because let me ask you this, I sent it to you.
Wait, time out, time out, time out.
What?
You didn't see Mitt Romney dressed up like Ted Lasso all over the place?
With a Hitler looking mustache?
I have to tell you, and because we're doing The Weekender, I can sort of pull back the curtain here.
I saw a glimpse of it, but I didn't know that that's what it was.
Is that what happened?
Now, but I sent you a gif and I'm like, he's giving... Oh my god!
Oh my god!
What?
This is what it means.
I'm looking at this in real time.
Are you kidding me?
The mustache?
He presented biscuits to Kirsten Sinema?
So that is Sinema, right?
Yes!
Oh my God!
So he's reenacting a scene if you didn't watch Ted Lasso where every day he brings in these homemade biscuits to the boss, the head of the soccer or the football club in the show.
So they're doing this scene.
So Christian Cinema has now agreed to like be in a scene with Mitt Romney all cutesy like whatever in the midst of the biggest battle we've had to like get social programs done and you know this is life or death for a lot of people and he's fucking doing Ted Lasso with a Hitler mustache.
I'm done.
This podcast is done.
I'm done being a political analyst.
I'm done talking about politics.
I knew it was going to be something I said, too.
I am going to move into a shack in the middle of the wilderness, and you're going to see me.
I'm going to show up in some news bulletin, and they're going to be like, Jared Yates Sexton, former Twitter and political personality, and my beard is just going to be ZZ Top Levels.
I can't do it.
I didn't know that that existed until this very moment.
And this is not a bit.
No.
I did not know that that was real.
Right.
I mean, you know, compound that with Sinema disparaging the chamber of the Senate by wearing this awful... She looks like a roadie.
I'm borrowing this from Twitter, but a roadie for R.A.T., the rock band, the heavy metal band.
But, like, what is that?
Like, there should be... She could jump into the Senate in a potato sack, for all I give a damn.
Just, just...
I moved to LA because I didn't want to have to dress, you know, so formally when I go out to dinner or whatever.
Because, you know, in the Midwest, like, there was still some sense of, like, you had to dress a certain way.
My dad always yelled at me.
So that's why I moved to LA.
Meanwhile, I still feel like when you go to the chamber and you're sitting with a gavel, because she's a freshman senator, they throw her a bone or whatever, but you should be dressed appropriately, and it's just another finger to the establishment, or the norms, or whatever you want to call them, and it's disgusting.
So I will say that now that... Man, I cannot believe.
I cannot believe that Mitt Romney Ted Lasso thing with cinema.
But there's more.
He got pictures all over the place.
He spent time on this.
That's what I asked in the beginning.
Shouldn't they be a little bit more busier than that to be able to have a Halloween field trip in the middle of all this?
What I loved is that the only thing that he apparently took time off to do was to go on TV and say, if you tax millionaires and billionaires, they might stop.
Making money.
It's as Ayn Randian as possible.
But I will say, and to go ahead, and by the way, because we're doing the hard sell at this point, I'm just gonna say.
What is happening here has everything to do with the phone call that I had with a staffer of the Progressive Caucus of the Democratic Party.
And what I will say is this.
Now that the senators have gotten the meat off the bone, They've gotten everything that they've wanted out of this entire process and they have hoarded all of the attention and all of the power.
You notice in all of the statements they're pointing out that they quote-unquote have the votes in the Senate.
And what we're looking at right now, and our free preview of this episode is getting ready to end, we are noticing that a new front in the battle over this legislation is now coming to the forefront.
This is like the West Wing when they don't realize that they don't have the votes they thought they did in the House, which is, you know, you got to keep those people in line.
And Nancy Pelosi is having a little bit of trouble with that.
Before we get to that, I do want to, you know, I did a little bit of research.
Can we at least just dispel the notion that when you raise taxes on the wealthy or corporations, the conventional wisdom from the Republicans is that people, they'll stop hiring.
Oh, my God, they're just going to stop hiring.
Yeah, and it's just, it's nonsense.
There's so much evidence to the contrary throughout history that, you know, it's complicated.
Listen, a lot of things affect a lot of different stuff, so I get it.
But like, I cannot stand it anymore.
It's kind of like saying you shouldn't shoot the three-pointer because it's too far away.
So what ends up happening, for people who want a little bit of the inside baseball and what happens whenever quote-unquote the wealthy stop hiring because of taxes or fear of taxes, That's not what they do.
They always need workers because they need to exploit them in order to make profit.
So what do they do?
They announce that if you're going to tax them, or if this legislation is possibly going to move forward, that they might not hire, they might not circulate money.
And then what do they do?
They don't for a little while.
And they hoard money for just long enough that the media starts telling these stories, right?
It's like, oh my God, we've had half a quarter Of downturn of spending.
And all of a sudden the media that carries the water for these people, they start showing up and they say, Oh, I think these taxes are a bad idea.
Oh my God, you're going to scare away the job creators.
Quote unquote.
Thanks Mitt Romney.
And what it is, is it's a total fake.
You're exactly right.
Like it's a total lie.
There's no truth to that whatsoever.
Well, here's the other thing is that when you see these tax rates for either wealthy people or corporations, we have to understand they never pay that much.
Never!
There are loopholes up the wazoo that they're able to deduct and not pay that much.
So it's never what, like they say, which is why they have to probably raise that percentage higher because they know they're never going to recoup anywhere near that.
Your best friend and mine, Steve Mnuchin, was out in the sphere yesterday.
We're like, yeah.
He had to say, well, they're just going to convert all their income into a charity or they're going to get creative because they have the money to invest with these unscrupulous accountants and whatever money they have to pay them is worth it because they'll recoup more in the savings and the taxes that they're going to be able to write off.
And that's a really great point as well.
Again, these people who are rich are able to protect their wealth to the nth degree because they have enough money to spend to then protect it.
So, it's such a, what's the word, disingenuous argument whenever they say, well you can't raise these taxes, it's going to hurt business, whatever, when we know they don't pay it anyway.
So, just a quick preview for a future segment that is going to happen on this episode.
Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos hovering right around half a trillion dollars.
Amazing.
Half a trillion dollars.
Half a trillion.
That's more money than we had in circulation for almost the whole history of America.
Alright, we'll get to that in a minute, but before we do, and again, hard to tell, you know, the preview is getting ready to end.
I hope you've enjoyed it, but it's going to end right about...
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