Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the Call Like I See it podcast. I'm James Keys here with Tundeo Gonlana and for this week's call out, we are taking a look at the President's so called big beautiful bill, which also can be referred to a big bloated bill because it's just so many things that they're trying to do in this thing, but also we're looking at the surprising amount of pushback that he's gotten from within his own party and on the right and from the right in general.
And this is despite the President seeming to have such a strong grip over the Republican controlled Congress that he can do whatever he wants. They won't look into it. They won't. They're like, hey man, you got it. Then you can tell them to do stuff. And so it's surprising to see that he's met some resistance in trying to get this big bloated beautiful bill through Congress so he can sign it and sign him into law. Now, obviously we've seen presidents struggle to get major parts of their agenda through Congress before. Like that happens almost all the time when you have either a divided Congress or you have a Congress that's controlled by the other party. And so what's surprising here is that not just that it's coming from in his party, but it's coming from in his party who up until now he's been able to have with an iron grip, control them with an iron grip. So Tunde, what do you think is happening here? Like, why do you, what do you think is going on with Trump getting. All of a sudden you got Republicans, I mean, and maybe in a couple of weeks this will all be gone because they'll all fall in line. Eventually he'll put the pressure on them. But right now, at least, this is kind of the most spying we've seen some Republicans have in a decade. What do you think's happening?
[00:01:38] Speaker B: I think there's a lot going on. So number one is I'll say these few things and then I want to get your thoughts on it. I think we've got an issue here between governing, between the oligarchy and what they want and what they've been working hard over the last 50 years to try and accomplish, which, you know, they have done a great job at it. And here they are at the finish line and, and so they're not going to, you know, go backwards.
And then I think we have an issue with a long time, decades, but definitely in the last decade, a lot like we talked about in the first section of this week's discussion, this information overload. But in where I'm going here is the disinformation overload. The disinformation about what really happens in the federal government, how the budget works, all this stuff where spending goes. And so a lot of American citizens don't understand anything like how the system works, all this. And so now I think that you have a big, beautiful bill which is contrary to what a lot of Americans were told was going to happen when this administration took office.
To me, I know I want to hit on a few of those in this conversation, but I'll hand it back to get your thoughts as well.
[00:03:00] Speaker A: Well, to me, what really stands out to me about this is that the bill itself seems to.
Yeah, you're talking about the things it's governing, it's public perception, all that other stu. But what it seems to be trying to do everything at once, you know, so it's. This is a budget reconciliation bill. This isn't even like, you know, like there are other. Like, this is something you could, you could just pass bills like, you don't have to. But this is something that's supposed to make it easier, you know, this stuff through. They can try to avoid filibusters and all this other stuff. So they're trying to slide something through. And the thing is, I call it bloated for a reason. Like, they got so much stuff in here, it's much more than dealing with just the budget.
And so what ends up happening is they try to jam so much stuff in here. Some of this stuff is, you know, the administration trying to repay favors.
Some of this stuff is, hey, we gotta, we also have to, we made some promises. We gotta stick it to certain people. So we gotta, you know, stick it to some people on Medicaid. We gotta stick it to some people, you know, on, you know, this and that. Like, there's all like, the student loans, snap benefits. We gotta stick it like, we got the. So they got the portions about it that are supposed to stick it to people. They got the portions about it that are supposed to repay favors. And then they got this other stuff in there where it's like, oh, yeah, hey, you know, we're going to do this national database of people and hey, we're going to stop. And, you know, that may be a repayment of a favor we got. We're going to make sure that nobody can make any laws against crypto or AI, you know, in the States, and that may be a repayment of a favor, too. But it's a lot of stuff in here beyond just how you were. Like, if it was just the tax cuts, I might not think that's a great idea, you know, in light of the deficit and all that stuff. But I probably go through pretty smoothly, you know, like. But it's all this other stuff that they're trying to jam in here. And so I think they're trying to do so much, probably because it's kind of like that, hey, I got these people in my grip. Let's not try to ask for a bunch of things in a trickle like, oh, let's do this. Okay, let's do this. Okay, let's do it. Like, let's just do it all. Let's get it all. So it seems like it's the effort to try to do it all at once that provides enough cover for different people to say, hey, I don't like this part. And then somebody said, oh, I don't like this part. And then that all you create. You create these people with alliances, basically, because they may not be objecting to the same thing, but they kind of give each other courage to speak. Once one person speaks up about part A, then somebody else is speaking up about part B, and then they become more comfortable kind of holding their ground. Because it's not just, you know, people that are upset about part A aren't just all by themselves, and everybody's looking at them like, come on, man. Like, there's other people that are kind of upset, too. And so I think that the, it may, the gambit may work ultimately, but I think that's why, mechanically, that we're seeing so much pushback is because the people that are mad about different stuff are kind of reinforcing each other.
[00:05:44] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think, like, this is a mess. And I think that, no, I mean, it's just because there's a lot of things going on here. One is the way that Congress operates, and I'm reading and preparing for today.
[00:05:57] Speaker A: I mean, you're being generous with operates anyway.
[00:06:00] Speaker B: Well, I'm just, but I'm just talking about the logistics of governing. Right. Yeah, you're.
[00:06:04] Speaker A: You're being, you're being jitter standing there.
[00:06:07] Speaker B: So it's a thousand. No, but let me just keep going. It's one 37 page bill.
1,037 pages is a lot. Right.
[00:06:16] Speaker A: And they dropped it on people in the middle of the night. Right.
[00:06:18] Speaker B: They dropped it at 10:40pm and Congress imposed its own deadline that they had to get this done by Memorial Day.
So that's What I mean by the logistics of it, first of all, why they imposing them on themselves.
I know why.
[00:06:31] Speaker A: Because the reason why. Yeah. They wanted people to vote yes without.
[00:06:34] Speaker B: Correct. The smart people in the room wanted to ram it through. Right. We know that. That's what I mean. That's the oligarchy part I'm going to get to.
But I'm just saying that to see. And this is where I just. I wish I could be the ruler of this country for a day, a dictator for a day. Like, like, like our friend in the White House said.
Because I would make it illegal for all elected officials to be on social media.
Like, I'm tired of seeing Marjorie Greene and a bunch of other Republican Congress people saying. Being surprised on what's in the bill a week after they voted yes.
[00:07:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:11] Speaker B: You know what I mean? Like, that's what I'm saying about the logistic, that the whole thing's broken. These people are voting on things they don't even read. And then the show we did last week is because they got their staffers out there making sure their social media accounts are flooded with bots and with likes and all that.
[00:07:25] Speaker A: They don't know what's in the bill they vote on, but they definitely know their mentions.
Yeah, exactly.
[00:07:31] Speaker B: They know what was said about them on YouTube.
[00:07:33] Speaker A: Right.
[00:07:34] Speaker B: Like, it's just. That's. So that's the one part of our issue is that. And I'm not even talking the administration. I'm talking about our leadership as a country of our elected officials in Congress generally is just dysfunctional. They're not reading the bills that they're voting on, period. So that's not good.
[00:07:49] Speaker A: Well, some of this. Well, let me just. Real quick, let me react to that, because some of that. I agree with you, by the way, in terms of. They are.
They're there for a job, but the other things that come along with that job seem to leave no room for the job. Because, remember, we're also in a time, especially in the House of Representatives, where they're perpetually campaigning. They get in, they got two years and then they got to run again. And. Or there. There's another election, I should say, because they got to start running months before the election. So there's never a time for people in the House that they're not campaigning. And that takes away from governing as well. They're always fundraising. They're always like. So the setup, to your point, the setup that they're in isn't conducive for them to produce thoughtful legislation.
[00:08:32] Speaker B: Yeah. And so, and so the next thing I'll go is my, my rant about the oligarchy and that word. I just want to say that I'm talking about extremely wealthy people, that their self interest is to lobby the government to continue like benefiting their self interest. That could be tax cuts, that could be government contracts for their businesses, so on and so forth. I'm going to read this because I like to look at the players in the room and John Thune, who's the Senate Majority Leader of the Republican Party, is a very serious guy. He's not one of these people that's on social media and all that.
And what he said is he quote the pedals to the metal when he said, when he was asked how's it going with this bill?
And basically they're pushing this through.
[00:09:15] Speaker A: Well, it's already through the House. And so now we're just looking at the Senate. And what, the Senate's gonna pass the same one or a revised one and then they have to reconcile the bills and all that. But it's already through the House, so at least they version it.
[00:09:26] Speaker B: Yeah. And so what I wanna get to is in spite of. So I'll re quote this article in spite of Musk's campaign to multiple government independent analyses that found at least 2.4 trillion in new red ink. Thune dismissed Musk this week by saying we're a long ways down this track and that his party is, quote, rowing in the same direction. So what I thought of is Musk got played. He was a useful idiot for the oligarchy because. And how do we get here, James, I want to discuss this. We got here because people thought a while ago that something like legislation from the or not legislation ruling by the Supreme Court called Citizens United about what over a Decade ago in 2012, I believe was a good idea. Remember, this was part of the 2012.
[00:10:13] Speaker A: Election, taking limits off of the ability to donate to campaigns. Correct.
[00:10:17] Speaker B: Remember Mitt Romney was saying corporations are people in that, in that election. And that was because that's what the narrative was, is that money is a form of speech. And so corporations should be able to spend unlimited amounts of money in elect in political elections in the United States.
Now we had a century of campaign finance rules and all that that were overturned in the last 20 years. And that's what I was thinking and preparing for today, James. I thought this is the logical conclusion. We had the richest man in the world seven, eight months ago doing a lottery in a swing state, paying people $1 million to vote it for the candidate he wanted. He Openly gave almost $300 million to a candidate that he favored, while at the same time owning one of the largest information media platforms in X, formerly Twitter, where he's got 200 million followers himself. And he put his thumb on the scale with the algorithms and all that. So the money, whatever they thought they were doing at the Supreme Court to let this happen in 2012 with Citizens United, the reality is the money bought him into the government. And this is what I'm saying, that he got played. He's over here crying, now he's out of the government. And what did John Thune, the leader of the Republicans in the Senate, say? We're full steam ahead.
So people like him, yourself, myself on the entrepreneurial class, are going to get tax cuts and unfortunately to pay for that. That's where Medicaid is getting cut and a lot of other things.
[00:11:47] Speaker A: But it's not really paying for it, though. It's just. They're just going to borrow.
[00:11:50] Speaker B: No, you're right. Part of this is still a $2.4 trillion deficit.
[00:11:54] Speaker A: And they're raising.
[00:11:55] Speaker B: It's not paying for it.
[00:11:55] Speaker A: Raising the debt limit by 4 trillion, I mean, and like, and that's, I think, doesn't get hurt.
[00:12:00] Speaker B: Doesn't get hurt.
[00:12:01] Speaker A: Part of this goes down to trust. And I don't think trust in government inherently is a bad thing. I think part of the problem that we have actually is that I don't know that we as citizens are better served hovering over our politicians with everything that they do. And I don't know that they are better served with us that now we do want accountability, but I think accountability has to be played out over a longer period of time. Like, one of the things that, like, I think what this hovering does is it makes everything so transactional. And that's what this bill really is. It's a transactional bill. Like, give these people some things. Give these people some things. Let's stick it to those people. And we can cobble together enough kind of people that. That don't. Maybe don't let. They don't like this part, they don't like that part. But I'm sticking it to somebody they want to get stuck to me that they want to get stuck so they'll still come along with it, you know, And I think that that transactional nature of it forces us and has led us to a place where we don't look for integrity in leadership anymore. Like, we're not looking for. We're just looking for the person that's going to do the thing that we want them to do, you know, and so it's like we put people in. They might be dishonest, they may be, you know, self. You know, self dealing, all that kind of stuff. And it will look past it because we're looking at all the. Looking at everything that they're doing, or at least that we can see and saying, okay, on this ledger, this transaction ledger, do they do enough of the stuff that's gonna help me or that maybe it doesn't even help me. It just hurts somebody that I don't like, you know, And I saw. So I think that we're kind of. We in this place now where. And that's the calculation a lot of these congressional people are doing. Like, I used to think, I genuinely thought. Cause people talked about it so much, that there were people in the Republican Party that cared about the budget deficit or the national debt. I genuinely thought that. And it's just not true.
They only care about when a Democrat's in power, you know, or the debt limit. Remember, when there's a Democratic president, we hear about the debt limit or. Yeah, the debt limit all the time.
[00:14:01] Speaker B: They'll shut the government down.
That's why Kevin McCarthy was booted out, because he agreed with the Democrats to raise the debt ceiling.
[00:14:09] Speaker A: You know, and so to me, it's this transaction. So we just don't care about any of that stuff anymore because we have other things that are on the ledger that it's like, okay, well, now what we want to do, we got to stick it to the SNAP benefit people, we got to stick it to the Medicaid people, and then we can give the rich people their tax cut. Or, you know, we got to do this. This military spending, you know, we'll spend enough on the military, and then, you know, we can. We can do. We can give, you know, some. Some contract on building a database of every American, you know, like to some private company. And it's like, all of this stuff is so transactional, man. Like, and it's like, so this doesn't lead anywhere good for the people is all I'm like, we need. And I think we'd be better served evaluating the character of these people, the integrity, you know, of these people, and then putting people in power, like. Because I said it all comes down to trust. The reason why these, these House of Representative people voted on this bill. Yes. Is because they had a level of trust and they found out that trust was violated, but they have no recourse because it's a transaction. It's like, look, you're not with me because you trust me. You're with me because it's a, it's a deal. I'm going to do this for you or I'm going to hurt that person you don't like. And then you got to ride with me. And so that's the way that, that's the way that our government's operating now. And so it doesn't leave any room for integrity or consistency. Like, Elon Musk looks crazy relative to other politicians saying, hold up, what's all this increase in debt? You know, what's all this increase in deficit spending? And they're like, what's wrong with you, Elon?
What do you mean? Who said they had a problem with all this deficit stuff? Nobody said they had a problem with that.
[00:15:39] Speaker B: Look, this is why it's such a mess. Number one. I mean, let's take this man who you just mentioned in point, Mr. Musk. He goes in there to cut waste and fraud. Starts with saying, I'm going to cut 2 trillion a month into it, I'm going to cut a trillion a month. After that, I think I'm going to cut 150 billion.
Now he's gone. They have the nice. He got his participation trophy last week in the White House or a couple, you know, whenever it was with the key that. And I actually want to give the President credit. I think he saw him out graciously in the Oval Office in that press conference.
But like you said, a week later, the guy's flipped his lid, meaning, Mr. Musk. And he's all complaining and all that, and it's like, and it opens him up for so much scrutiny. Like, number one, you were with this until a week ago. Number two, weren't you supposed to, One, where's all the fraud and waste that you said was there?
Where's, where's all the people, are the people being arrested or anything for doing all the fraud? There's no conversation about what money was actually saved with Doge in a serious way. And this to me was the misinformation part is I got to talk to people in my regular life and friends of mine who are on social media and they're telling me how much money we've brought in from tariffs and how much money has been cut from Doge. And when I look at what they send me, it's all just bs. There's no credibility behind it. It's just somebody who wrote a post, right?
[00:16:59] Speaker A: And so it's the COVID It's the COVID like because that's the information overload that allows you to do whatever you want and then just, just publicize anything. Nobody's like actually able to or not at least willing to go and say, hold on, is this true? Let me follow.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: That's what I'm saying.
[00:17:14] Speaker A: They're just, they see somewhat happy and then they move on.
[00:17:17] Speaker B: And so, and that's what I mean by the great misdirection with all this stuff. And that's why part of this is I do blame the American people that consume this stuff and want to believe it. I mean at some point, right, these actors are going to behave this way.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: Well, yeah, I mean as long as, as long as the behavior is rewarded, then you're going to see people continue to go this direction. You blame the American people in a sense because ultimately the buck does stop with the American people. The American people are getting a game played on them right now. And I think they're outmatched. You know, I just think, I think the technology thing.
[00:17:47] Speaker B: James, a lot of them want to be part of the game. I think a lot of them want to be. I think a lot of them want to be part of the game for whatever their emotions.
[00:17:54] Speaker A: No, I think that they're just asking for different stuff out of it. People have stopped. At least a lot of people, not all people. There are a lot of people who still are looking for a fair shake, but a lot of people aren't asking for a fair shake anymore. They're just saying, hey, can I just get slightly favored status? Like I don't need to be fair. You guys can have all the benefits, but at least make me better than this other guy or at least treat that person I don't like really poorly. And then, and then we can, we can be square because actually that's all James, but.
[00:18:17] Speaker B: Well, that's a great point because that, that's going to take me to where I was going because I was going to say the two things in the bill that I read. I'm looking at them here.
[00:18:23] Speaker A: Well, let me, let me.
[00:18:23] Speaker B: Are really unliked are the AI thing, right? Like you said, blocking states from being able to regulate anything to do with AI for the next 10 years.
Because if the kind of tech bros. Oligarchs have their way over the next 10 years, AI will become so good that even if you try and regulate it, you can't stop it. And then the first one was actually making it easier for the administration to defy the court.
So those are the things to me that like you said, as everyone's looking at who they could hurt in the society and who's the leader going to hurt and punish on my behalf, what they don't realize is that we're all about to be punished by.
[00:19:03] Speaker A: Well, but that's what I'm saying. They're not looking for a fair shake though. They're fine with being with not getting a fair shake as long as somebody else gets it worse is kind of that I think the deal that people have settled for, a lot of people have settled for in this and I mean it's not kind of the abandoning of the American ideal. Like these people have given up on the American ideal and just ran to comfort in, you know, like a strongman basically. And it's like, okay, yeah, you guys gave up on America. You just want, you know, you just want a favored status, you know, and I think that that's unfortunate. But I do think that the, the, the technological environment has people in over their head, just bottom line. And so I think that we're in a situation with that now. It is a well known principle I want to move us on. It's a well known principle that how you, how one spends their money reflects their principles. So in like we again we got all this stuff in here talking about, you know, these, these jabs at certain people or these, you know, laying out the red carpet for other things or other entities or whatever like you know, AI or whatever.
But what about like the money and what do you think this bill says about like where the President believes our American priorities are or should be?
[00:20:17] Speaker B: That's interesting, man. So on your, on your comment, the first one, when I was preparing, I realized we are truly in the information age because the AI nod and the spend there or the legislation to try and protect AI told me that this is what we saw in the 20th century with big oil or tobacco. Right. Like I was just thinking like, okay, these are the guys with the money now it really is the tech guys. They are actually influencing the government to do things for them in a way that you know, we haven't seen, we saw in other industries prior. So that to me was interesting. But it's a good point, James, that like I said, the, the wealth class is definitely benefiting. So the tax cuts amount to $3.754 trillion and that's coming a little bit at the expense of the people who qualify for Medicaid. So that would be the poor Americans who don't have health insurance and who have a net worth under $2,500 generally who qualify for Medicaid.
Then education cuts, Education including.
Yep. With pell grants is 349 billion. And we'll say Pell grants are for university and you know, higher education.
Then we have additional projected interest. And I want to be clear this is additional interest will be that this is adding is 551 billion. So that's going to come from the taxpayer.
And the increase in defense spending is only 144 billion. But we were already spending a lot. So now I think we're going to be officially over $1 trillion for the first time in a 12 month budget year for spending on our military. So if you want to ask me, James, the priorities are the wealth, class and entrepreneur class. So people like me, I would say I'm a poor one on that.
[00:22:07] Speaker A: Yeah, I was gonna say, I don't know that you're really the target of that.
[00:22:09] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I'm gonna ride their coattails and.
[00:22:11] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that would be better. That would be better.
[00:22:15] Speaker B: Obviously I don't want to say the military per se, but let's say the contractors and the people that own the.
[00:22:20] Speaker A: Whole Eisenhower military industrial complex.
[00:22:22] Speaker B: Correct, that so. And then the people that are losing out are the people at the bottom the Medicaid cuts and I would say the education and the generations going forward, that would be learning. So what I would say is there's a lack of investment in teaching younger people and, and supporting that financially in the future.
And we are doing what I learned about in stories like Robin Hood.
Right. But the opposite. Robin Hood stole from the rich to give to the poor and we're taken from the poor to give benefits and cuts to the rich. And it's, and it's. Maybe that's what the public needs to see is that this is the priority.
[00:23:01] Speaker A: But the public remember when that happens, then the public blames each other, you know.
[00:23:05] Speaker B: Yeah, we'll eat more pets.
[00:23:07] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And immigrants will have all the money, you know.
[00:23:09] Speaker B: Yeah, you're right. And so be given.
[00:23:10] Speaker A: But I think that what it reflects about to me the priorities and the principles of guiding because I don't think like, okay, you're talking about these cut tracks cuts, you know, multiple trillion. But what I see that lining up against honestly like is the increase in the deficit.
So they're not paying for the tax cuts, you know, like this. So what that is at its most like you can argue that taking from the quote unquote poor, whether it be SNAP benefits or Medicaid, that they weren't entitled to that money anyway. You can make that argument now, whether you think we should. You can make that argument even if you do think that we should do something to help people that are either in a hard place in their life or have, you know, just are less able to take care of themselves, you can believe that and still understand that they're not entitled to that. That's an accommodation. That's something we as a developed society would want to do. But there is no explanation or argument for why we should steal money from the future in order to give people tax breaks. Now, if our government is. If they're saying, oh, you know, the government, what was it? Tax and spend, you know, was the old thing in the 80s and 90s. This is borrow and spend. We're not even taxing it, you know, like, we're borrowing the money and then saying, hey, you guys who don't need anything else, you know, like, you got more money than you can ever spend, you get more. And so to me, so you're robbing from your children, robbing from your grandchildren.
And the really insidious part about it is, is why you're doing all this. You're, you know, hey, let's be mean to a lot of people. Let's be mean to immigrants. Let's be mean because, you know, they're changing the way America is. And it's like, well, at the same time, you're stealing money from your own children and your own grandchildren and all this other stuff so that you can. So somebody can buy a bigger yacht. So to me, the principles that we're living by now is something that I think that in previous generations, Americans would be very, you know, appalled about. You know, and that's. Americans of all stripes would be like, that's not how America operates. But I think that, again, this is about not having people have of character in leadership, people with principles in leadership. It's like, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme. That's what it is.
[00:25:26] Speaker B: But it's also.
[00:25:27] Speaker A: And well, let me just say this. It's gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, and hey, I won't give you any, but I'll be mean to somebody for you. And that's like, that seems to be the deal.
[00:25:37] Speaker B: Well, that's. That's. I mean, like, I've said it before, like the stories that came out of the Gilded Age, like Ebenezer Scrooge and the Grim Bench, and all this is for a reason, is because some people are wired like this. It's not, not everybody with money, but some people with money are in that horde mentality. They, they, they think.
[00:25:55] Speaker A: But I don't even blame them. I look around at my fellow citizens that support them and say, you guys are the, are the issue that we're having here because again, you, instead of getting a fair shake for yourself and other people, you would rather give that away for some other, say just be mean to somebody or just some other.
[00:26:15] Speaker B: They'd rather be misdirected and feel good, you know, like what happened in the last election. Right.
[00:26:19] Speaker A: Yeah. It's not much different than the whole psychic wage thing, you know, but this is bigger than that.
[00:26:24] Speaker B: Think about everything we were told. None of it's really being addressed post birth abortions, dei, you know, all this stuff. None of that matters anymore. Right. And so that's what I'm saying. People are choosing to go with that easy stuff because it feels good knowing. I mean, maybe they don't know, but maybe now they don't know.
[00:26:38] Speaker A: I don't know that they're choosing. And this is where you get, this is where it gets all convoluted because I don't know if they're choosing because that stuff is like, we both read righteous mind. That's the stuff that you can, that you can dang manipulate people. Certain minds become rabid dogs. They're just like, well, they can't. Well, here, let go of it.
[00:26:57] Speaker B: And here's what I'll say then. This is what happens when the guardrails have been removed. And that's why I go back to Citizens United. Yeah, because as you're talking, like that's what I'm thinking. As you're talking, I'm thinking, well, that's why we're here is because like I said, the richest man in the world spent $300 million in public last year. Just saying, I'm gonna buy this guy.
[00:27:14] Speaker A: And that's what's happened in public. Imagine what happened behind closers. And I wanted to ask when you said this, but I didn't want to touch over the time, but we're wrapping up now, so I got to get it there. And, and that is. You talked about how it un. It un. We unwound 3, 100. Excuse me, 100 years of constraints and guardrails with the Citizens United and things that came after that. Those guardrails and restraints weren't there for, for fun.
They were there.
[00:27:41] Speaker B: The biggest middle class in world history.
[00:27:43] Speaker A: When that stuff isn't in place, then your society will devolve to just Serving this oligarch class.
[00:27:50] Speaker B: And, James, that's what we're living through. You're right. I mean, think about it. In 12, 13 years, maybe, since that legislation we went from the last election in 2024, $16 billion was spent on it.
And you had. Elon Musk was the famous one you had the heir of. I think his name's Timothy Mellon from the Mellon, you know, bank of New York Mellon, that family. Yeah. He spent 165 million of what I saw.
[00:28:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:15] Speaker B: Miriam Adelson, remember Miriam Adelson, 100 million. So what happens is this is what this bill is. That's why I talked about John.
[00:28:22] Speaker A: That's why I said this is going all the way back for stuff. Yeah.
[00:28:25] Speaker B: It's payback and it's a transaction.
[00:28:27] Speaker A: Sticking it to other people, like. And you can see that those things line up. But, I mean, I'll tell you this, man, it says a lot about where we are as Americans and, you know, where our priorities are and what we find to be, you know, our principles now. And. And remember, James, because places that aren't the kind of places that the founding fathers tried to put in place, and they aren't the kind of places that. When the last time that the. Well, not the last time that the rich broke the country, because that was 2008, but the time before that, that the rich broke the country, that they put in these things to stop.
[00:29:00] Speaker B: Let's put it this way, James, where I say the last time they put in the things within a decade, and it really helped out this time in 08, it's like we're still living that one. Right. It's like this perpetual breaking that hasn't been corrected.
[00:29:15] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, this is the road we're gonna have to walk down. Society's learned the lesson before, and the American society actually, when it went through this at a previous time, actually reacted in a way that ended up building the largest middle class in the history of the world and a society where the spoils were shared.
Now, that shook up the world. You ended up, you know, that brought about, you know, a change in society where, you know, you had equality and you had, you know, suffrage and people voting and stuff like that. So when this happened before, America responded in a way unlike many places in the history of the world, they responded in a way to build a even better society. So we're going down this path now. You know, we'll see what happens this time. But, you know, America has a good track record in recovering from these things, but we'll see if the new information environment changes that. Because right now, like you said, there are a lot of ways to keep people's eyes off of the prize with that, and that's just kind of what we're living through. But we appreciate everyone for joining us on this episode of Call. I can see it, subscribe to the podcast, rate it, review it, tell us what you think, send it to a friend. Till next time, I'm James Keys.
[00:30:18] Speaker B: I'm Tundere Rona.
[00:30:19] Speaker A: All right, we'll talk soon.
