February 21, 2025 • 28 mins
Join us as we break down the Senate’s recently passed budget reconciliation bill—the first budget bill to clear either chamber. We discuss the bill’s key provisions, the strong opposition from Democrats, and the Senate’s unconventional approach to passing the budget in a bifurcated manner.
We also dive into another major legal win for the Trump administration as a district court upholds its mass layoffs of federal employees. We examine the balance of power between Congress, the executive branch, and the judiciary when it comes to federal spending. This leads us to a deeper discussion on federal spending authority—how Congress creates different “pots” of money and decides how much goes into each, how the executive branch has discretion over how much of each pot to spend, and how the judiciary ensures funds aren’t moved between pots in ways that violate the law.
Finally, in "This Day in History," we reflect on the assassination of Malcolm X and its lasting impact.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:21):
All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back here to The Full Story on WYAB
103.9. As we get to our next story.
Sorry, I had to take a double break there.
I had to get the we had the issue with the with the live stream,
but we are back on the live stream, of course, live streaming on YouTube and Rumble.
You can find us on both of those platforms.
It's probably a little bit easier to find us on Rumble.
(00:42):
We get most of our views on that on that site.
Just search for the full story.
Follow it. Although it's fun stuff that the people ask you to do these days.
But the main story I want to talk about today
is the I've talked before that
unless they want a blue wave in two years.
(01:04):
The Republicans have to get through Donald Trump's agenda.
Otherwise, there's no way that his policies can be put to the test.
And Democrats are definitely afraid of this because if he's successful,
that is the worst thing that could ever happen to them.
Now, if he fails, that's also a pretty good thing for them.
(01:25):
But they're more scared of his success than they are his failure.
But the Republicans have to get in line, have to also support that.
And yes, last night, finally, the Senate,
after an hours and hours and hours long voting,
finally gets a House, the budget resolution passed.
(01:49):
And that's the first one. They've done it over the House first.
After officially passing the preferred budget resolution
to tackle some of President Trump's priority, such as securing the southern border.
After hours of back to back voting on Democratic amendments,
the bill to fund border security, energy and defense
finally got its vote on the chamber floor.
The measure passed by a vote of 52 to 48,
(02:12):
with Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, the only Republican to oppose.
Of course, all Senate Democrats voted against it as well.
The Senate voted on various amendments and points of order for nearly 10 hours,
considering dozens of them on the floor.
Ultimately, two Republican led amendments were adopted.
(02:33):
John Thune, who is the Senate majority leader from South Dakota, said,
This particular budget resolution addresses the president's top priority,
which is securing the border and implementing and putting in place
his immigration policies, rebuilding our military and creating energy dominance for this country.
(02:54):
The leader and Republicans in the upper chamber started to move forward
with the all important budget reconciliation process earlier this month,
pushing their preferred plan through a key committee and clearing a procedural hurdle.
The move came despite House Republicans being expected to take the lead on passing a budget bill first.
Thune and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham also pressed on
(03:16):
even after Trump came out in support of the House's proposal,
endorsing it earlier this week on True Social.
After its passage early Friday morning, Graham said in a statement,
As Senate Budget Committee Chairman, I am incredibly pleased by the discipline shown by my Senate Republican colleagues
to ensure that the most transformational border security bill in history can soon become a reality.
(03:44):
He added, I hope the House can pass one big bill that meets President Trump's priority,
but this approach provides money that we needed yesterday to continue the momentum on securing our border,
enforcing our immigration laws and rebuilding our military. Time is of the essence.
The decision to move forward with the Senate's alternative budget plan, which is two-pronged,
(04:04):
as opposed to the House's effort to pass one large bill, was blessed by Vice President J.D. Vance on Wednesday.
Trump himself did not seem bothered by their effort either, posting on True Social,
Thank you to Majority Leader John Thune and the Republican Senate for working so hard on funding the Trump border agenda.
We are setting workers, the likes of which have never been seen before,
(04:27):
on stopping criminal illegal aliens from entering our country.
Criminal illegal. That's kind of a double positive there, the criminal illegals.
That's so like the ultra-dead guy, right?
So put simply, or the stupid idiot is saying the same thing, but put simply,
this is a continuing Donald Trump statement, put simply, we are delivering for the American people
(04:51):
far faster and more successfully than anyone thought possible.
Your work on funding this effort is greatly appreciated.
The Senate's procedural vote earlier in the week triggered a 50-hour debate clock that ended on Thursday night.
Then a marathon of votes known as a Votorama began.
Senators were able to introduce an unlimited number of amendments, of which many received floor votes.
(05:15):
The process forced Republicans to take many potentially uncomfortable votes teed up by their Democratic counterparts.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement,
quote, tonight, one amendment at a time, Democrats expose Republicans' true colors here on the Senate floor.
For the first time this year, Senate Republicans are forced to go on record
(05:36):
and defend their plans to cut taxes for Donald Trump's billionaire friends.
What happened tonight was only the beginning.
This debate is going to go on for weeks and maybe months.
Democrats will be ready to come back and do this over and over again because Americans deserve to know the truth.
Again and again, Republicans sent a clear and consistent message from the Senate floor.
(05:57):
Under their agenda, billionaires win and American families lose.
Here's the thing, you know, Chuck Schumer, you can say that, you know, that's the thing with the Democrats.
You know, they keep saying these things, right?
You tell me, you know, Donald Trump, he's going to be a fascist.
He's always out for his billionaire friends.
But if you don't let the thing pass, how will we ever know?
(06:17):
Right? You keep doing this and there is no way of ever, it's almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
You can say it all the time and then make sure nothing happens and then we'll never,
it's just what you said is the only evidence that there is.
And these, you know, procedural votes are just there to slow down the process,
to try to prevent the process from happening.
(06:38):
Again, it's just political grandstanding, which, you know, in the last, especially, I don't know, the last 30 or 40 years,
that's what Congress is being boiled down to.
It's just political grandstanding after political grandstanding.
That's why we almost have just continuing resolution after continuing resolution for most of the budget process.
So ever instead of actually passing budgets, because it's just everybody wants to have their, you know, 30 seconds on the floor where they can talk about how bad the other people are,
(07:09):
instead of actually working together to get something passed.
And it's, and you know, it seems like more and more, all we have are bills that are passed only by the majority.
And, you know, it just to me shows that both sides are further and further dividing apart.
(07:29):
And it's up to the Americans to choose which ones.
And Chuck Schumer should realize that the American people picked Donald Trump this last time.
They picked that agenda.
As I said yesterday, Donald Trump has not done anything in his agenda that he didn't talk about on the campaign trail.
He's not, everything he's doing right now is has it hasn't is not nothing that's it's not like he's surprising anyone.
(07:54):
I mean, if he's surprising you, it's surprising you because he's actually following through.
That's probably a little surprising for a politician to do.
But again, the Democrats, they cannot, they just cannot have Donald Trump successful.
A successful Donald Trump is the worst thing that can ever happen to the Democratic Party.
It's better for them to just try to stop it and let nothing happen.
(08:16):
So you say, look, you voted in Donald Trump and nothing happened.
Yeah, because of you.
But, you know, they're not going to see that that part.
And that's why it's very important.
As I said before, we got two years.
That's all you really got.
Donald Trump has four years in the presidency.
But really, you only have two years to get this stuff through.
And hopefully they can show that Republicans can show that they can actually govern because
(08:40):
Republicans have had that problem before.
Republicans have shown they can be a great minority party,
but haven't been a really great majority party when it comes to Congress,
because they infight.
They can't agree on things and nothing ends up getting done.
And the Democrats are saying, all right, isn't it time to let the adults back in the room?
(09:00):
And that's a very effective argument you can make if they're not getting stuff done.
And that's exactly what's been happening.
And so the Republicans have to show that this stuff can get done.
And this is only, you know, one part of it.
So the Senate's passed theirs.
And it's got to get up.
(09:23):
You know, this reconciliation is going to get back to the House.
It's still got to come to an agreement here.
And so in the Senate Republicans budget plan, the first reconciliation bill includes Trump's
priorities for border security, fossil fuel energy and national defense.
The second bill, as I said, they're doing it in a bifurcated process to be drawn up later in the year,
would focus on extending Trump's tax policies from the tax jobs, sorry, tax cuts and jobs acts
(09:48):
as the cuts begin to expire at the end of 2025.
And to me, that's more important than almost any of them, because that's what's going to extend
that the doubled standard deduction that affects a lot of, you know, a big chunk of the,
I would say the majority of Americans.
So by lowering the threshold for Senate passage from 60 votes to 51 out of 100,
(10:12):
reconciliation allows the party to empower to skirt its opposition and advance to advance its agenda,
provided the items include relate to budgetary and other fiscal matters.
The House of Representatives already has a simple majority threshold.
And this process is crucial for Republicans, like I said, who have now a trifecta in Washington
(10:34):
to get Trump's key goals accomplished.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has claimed that the Senate's first budget bill,
along with its two pronged approach, should be dead on arrival in the lower chamber.
However, as I said, it's got to go through both.
He has remained committed to including tax cuts in the bill with border security and other priorities.
The House has managed to move their version through the appropriate committee,
(10:59):
but a floor vote has yet to be scheduled.
And I'm more in agreement with that, with what Johnson is trying to do.
It's a good thing that they get one, but the whole bifurcated bill thing just tells me that
you didn't have people who could agree on everything at one time, which is a little bit worrisome.
So you want to do a bifurcated bill, and then we get to 2025, or we get to near the end of 2025,
(11:20):
and then that second part of what the tax cuts for hundreds of millions of Americans
doesn't get passed because you can't agree with someone.
And then that's going to hit people next year, and that would be devastating.
That would be absolutely politically devastating for that to happen.
And then that is really good fodder for Democrats.
(11:42):
Say, look, we told you about the billionaires.
We told you about them.
And look at your taxes.
Your taxes almost doubled this year.
Guess who's didn't?
The billionaires.
That's very easy for them to say.
Very easy argument.
So I agree with Johnson that this needs to be done all at one time.
(12:03):
So the House is going to be working to get theirs through.
So again, there can be a...
Because both, they have to pass it, and of course it goes up to the president for signature.
But they have to have a bill where they both vote on it.
(12:25):
And that's what Trump has preferred too, is the one bill.
And he's called the big, beautiful bill.
That's just Donald Trump for you.
That's what he says.
But again, the White House really, at the end of the day,
they got to get past whatever they can get past.
So if it has to be the bifurcated one, they'll do it.
But again, I think everybody's preference, like, let's go ahead and get this thing done now.
(12:47):
Now.
And not wait for, like I said, this bifurcated thing where the second one may not get past, right?
Which is a very scary thing.
So again, so this budget resolution, that's what I said sets up the reconciliation process.
(13:13):
So that's where both the House and the House passes their bill.
They haven't done it yet.
They're working on it.
The Senate passes their bill, which they just did.
And then they come together to reconcile those two to get it to a thing where they can have one single bill that they both vote on.
(13:33):
So hopefully this gets through and we can, like I said, start getting Donald Trump's agenda through,
because this is the stuff where he needs it on, right?
He can do a lot by executive action.
(13:54):
But again, we do have a three-pronged government, right?
Equal powers.
And he needs the Congress to continue to go through.
You know, Donald Trump, he's going to push through on a lot of things.
And one of those things that he has pushed through, of course, has been the mass firing of federal workers.
(14:15):
And now a federal judge has allowed that to go forward.
And that was a federal judge in Washington.
So U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper decided yesterday he could not grant a motion from unions.
Representing the workers to temporarily block the layoffs.
He found that their complaint amounted to an employment dispute and must follow a different process outlined in federal employment law.
(14:42):
Cooper acknowledged that the Republican president's second term, quote,
has been defined by an onslaught of executive actions that have caused disruption,
even chaos, in widespread quarters of American society.
But Cooper, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, wrote that judges are duty-bound to decide legal issues based on even-handed application of law and precedent,
(15:04):
no matter the identity of the litigants or, regrettably at times, the consequences of their rulings for average people.
Man, he's at least, you know, he can give jabs all he wants, but at least the guy understands to follow the law.
And again, you know, disruption and chaos in American society is exactly what's been needed, right?
That disruption is what's been needed in the federal government.
(15:27):
That's what people have wanted, to say, hey, this bureaucracy has gotten out of control.
It doesn't even follow normal.
It's just it's gotten almost to the point of ridiculousness to how large the federal government has grown.
And yeah, maybe it's time to upset the apple cart.
(15:48):
And it takes extreme measures to do so because we've gotten so far from what needs to happen, right?
And how the federal government should look, because it's been such and such a bureaucracy
that it takes immediate disruptive action to try to get us back on the right course.
(16:09):
And, you know, unfortunately, you know, especially like the firing of all the probationary workers, right?
People get hurt along the process, right?
People who, you know, really of no fault of their own, right?
They just got the federal job or what have you.
And the fact is, though, unfortunately, we got to the country has to country has to come first.
(16:34):
And it's unfortunate that it has to come to that.
But again, it's the growth of the federal government in past administrations.
And again, Republican administrations right up in there, right?
The federal government grew quite a bit under General General President George Bush.
(16:55):
It grew substantially.
We added more departments and everything like that.
And it's just been growing and growing and growing.
And the Republicans have had a pretty heavy hand in that growth.
And so it takes action, drastic action to try to immediately draw that down,
to try to get it to a reasonable level.
(17:15):
And it's unfortunate that again, you know, it hurts to me.
Like I've always said, the people really need to get rid of those who've been there for 15, 20 years,
just, you know, sucking the teeth of the of the American people,
more so than the probationary workers who, to me, are the ones I'd want to keep more than any of them
because they're coming in with new ideas.
(17:36):
They're not quite especially as they're just coming into the Trump administration.
They're new enough to maybe get in line with that with that agenda.
But the, you know, to me, it's those career people that are the worst,
but the career people, it's a little bit harder to fire them than it is the probationary.
And I'm hoping, you know, to that, you know, right now we're having
(18:01):
all of these mass firings and these payouts and everything like that for these federal workers
to kind of gut the system, not gut it,
but trim a lot of the fat and then see where we need to make back up.
Right. Always can do that.
And then they can work on hiring the people that they want to hire.
(18:21):
And they can set their own, they can set their own agenda or their own policies or criteria
that they want for the new people.
They could always just do it that way as well.
So the, like I said, the, the ruling comes as thousands upon thousands of federal workers
have been shown the door during the first month of the Trump's administration.
(18:44):
The administration argued in court that unions, that the unions failed to show
that they were facing the kind of irreparable immediate harm
that would justify an emergency order stopping layoffs.
And I've talked about this before with these types of judicial rulings,
is that it is not the job of courts to get into policy.
(19:05):
It is straight up law.
The court can disagree with the policy all at once.
It can say it's the worst policy ever.
Like I said, as we, as they always like to say about policy and passing laws that
you can pass something that's legal, but stupid, not saying this is stupid,
but that's not what I'm saying is not the job of the courts.
(19:26):
Just like to me, it's not the job of the courts to get in the issues of morality either.
That should be left up to the politicians.
That should be left up to the people through their politicians to pass laws.
So again, things like abortion, right?
It's an issue of, it's an, abortion is an issue of morality, not really an issue of law.
(19:48):
There's no right to an abortion, but there's nothing preventing abortions either.
So leave that up to the people.
And same thing with policies like this is that, hey, if Donald Trump was elected by the people
and this is the, this is the policy that the people want, then that's the way,
that's the way it's going to be.
(20:08):
But I'm not going to stop it as a judge is because I disagree with it.
That is not my role as a judge.
And you know, this judge here, Judge Cooper, definitely got a lot of support from the
people in the United States, but I'm not going to stop it, but I'm not going to stop it.
And again, those are the kinds of things that Donald Trump is going to be.
So I'm going to stop it as a judge here, Judge Cooper, definitely get a lot of jabs
(20:33):
about the policy and how much he disagrees with it, but at least he, at least he understood
and could, could separate those two things in making a ruling.
workforce conflicts with Congress's power to shape the size and direction of agencies
through funding decisions as well as laws detailing how such layoffs must be carried
(20:55):
out."
And I think that's a key thing there that they're missing is that yes, Congress can
appropriate money, but it's up to the executive branch to spend it.
We've talked about that here several times.
Now in essence, Congress can limit the size of federal government by not appropriating
(21:16):
their money.
They can just say, hey, this agency has a budget of let's just say $300 million.
Most of them have a whole lot more than that, but I'm just doing it for easy math.
And their budget last year was $600 million.
(21:36):
And so that means, okay, they're probably going to have to cut people this year because
they're not going to be able to pay that many people on their current budget.
So that is a way to reduce the federal government, but they could also do, hey, we're going to
give you $300 million.
And then the executive says, okay, thank you for that $300 million.
We're only going to spend $150 of it, and we're going to hire enough people to spend
(21:57):
$150.
They could easily do that.
Now what they can't do, what the executive can't do is that we're going to hire people
where it costs over $300 million.
That they can't do.
So yes, Congress has a hand in, essentially has a hand in the size of federal agencies
through the budget process, but the ultimate decision on the actual makeup of that federal
(22:21):
agency is left to the executive branch because they fall under executive authority.
So that is the key difference that I think they're missing.
And they're not quite grasping is that it's not that Congress is not involved, is that
it's just a different way in how they do it.
(22:43):
But the ultimate makeup of it is up to the executive branch within the confines that
Congress has given.
So Congress gives you a box and you can't go outside that box, but you can definitely
stay much smaller within that box.
(23:05):
And by saving, and this is where the budget process is very, very important.
By saving in some of these departments that they're taking money out of, by making these
other departments smaller, like the Department of Education, for example, by making that
smaller, they can divert that money to other agencies.
(23:26):
Now again, that has to be done through Congress.
That the president can't do.
He can save money and not spend the money, but unless that money is allocated to certain
things or to other agencies, then that money is just saved and it can't be spent elsewhere.
So the executive doesn't have the one big pot of money.
(23:49):
It's best way to think about it is that the executive branch is given several pots of
money, all these different pots from Congress.
And they can spend as much or as little money out of those pots.
So in this pot I have $10 and I spend $8 out of it.
(24:10):
This pot I have $12.
I spend all 12.
This pot I have $9.
I only spend $1.
But if I have a pot with, let's say I have two pots with $10, and one I spend $10 of
and the other I spend $3 of, I can't take the $3 from the pot that I didn't spend the,
(24:33):
well the $7 I didn't spend from that pot and put it in the other one.
Because again, those are just different pots of money.
And again, that's where Congress comes in is making the pots bigger or smaller or completely
getting rid of the pot.
They can do that too or create a new pot.
(24:54):
It's essentially how it happens, but it's not one big pot of money that they can do
with that the executive can do with as they please.
But again, they can't transfer from different pots and they can't add more to a pot, but
they don't have to spend the whole pot of money.
There's a lot of pots being said there.
But I hope that makes sense on how the Congress interacts with the executive.
(25:23):
And then the judiciary, Article 3 of the Constitution comes in there and says, hey, if the executive
or them created a legal pot, they can say, hey, that pot doesn't belong here and you
need to take it out.
That was not done through the proper process.
(25:43):
That's what the judiciary comes in.
But what the judiciary can't say is, hey, I think that pot's too big.
They can't really say that.
Or you didn't spend enough out of that pot.
That's something the judiciary cannot do.
That's not within the judiciary's authority.
It's just there to say, hey, you transferred money from two pots and you're not supposed
to do that.
That they can do.
That's what the judiciary comes in.
(26:05):
There's no like the referee.
Okay.
I hope that makes sense on a great discussion on a Friday of pots of money in the federal
government.
We're going to take our last break right here.
We get back.
We'll do this day in history, but keep it tuned to the full story on WYAB 103.9.
All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back here to the full story on WYAB 103.9 as we
(26:31):
get to this day in history.
So on this day, February 21st, 1965, Malcolm X, the civil rights leader and former nation
of Islam minister, was assassinated while preparing to speak at the Autobahn Ballroom
in New York City.
Malcolm X had just taken the stage to address a crowd of 400 people when suddenly a decision
(26:53):
disturbance broke out in the audience, drawing attention.
In the chaos, three gunmen rushed forward and opened fire.
Malcolm X was struck multiple times, including a fatal shot to the chest.
He was rushed to the Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, but was pronounced dead at 3.30
PM at the age of 39.
Three men, Talmadge Heyer, Norman 3X Butler, and Thomas 15X Johnson.
(27:19):
So nation of Islam people at the time would put X's behind their name like Malcolm X.
So that's why you see 15X and 3X were arrested and convicted of his murder.
However, decades later, Aziz and Islam were exonerated in 2021 with evidence showing they
were wrongly convicted.
Malcolm X had just split from the nation of Islam in 1964 and founded the Organization
(27:41):
of Afro-American Unity, which is a shift towards a more inclusive civil rights vision, which
made him a target of the more militaristic nation of Islam.
And he had already received multiple death threats, including firebombing of his home
just a week before his murder.
Later, his autobiography, co-written by Alex Haley, remained one of the most influential
(28:03):
books on civil rights.
And that's what happens when he tried to turn more peaceful is that the nation of Islam
decided to kill him.
Alright, that's all I have for you guys today.
Hope you guys have a great weekend.
We'll see you on Monday.
Until then, my name is Matthew Bishop and you've heard the full story.
All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back here to The Full Story on WYAB
103.9. As we get to our next story.
Sorry, I had to take a double break there.
I had to get the we had the issue with the with the live stream,
but we are back on the live stream, of course, live streaming on YouTube and Rumble.
You can find us on both of those platforms.
It's probably a little bit easier to find us on Rumble.
(00:42):
We get most of our views on that on that site.
Just search for the full story.
Follow it. Although it's fun stuff that the people ask you to do these days.
But the main story I want to talk about today
is the I've talked before that
unless they want a blue wave in two years.
(01:04):
The Republicans have to get through Donald Trump's agenda.
Otherwise, there's no way that his policies can be put to the test.
And Democrats are definitely afraid of this because if he's successful,
that is the worst thing that could ever happen to them.
Now, if he fails, that's also a pretty good thing for them.
(01:25):
But they're more scared of his success than they are his failure.
But the Republicans have to get in line, have to also support that.
And yes, last night, finally, the Senate,
after an hours and hours and hours long voting,
finally gets a House, the budget resolution passed.
(01:49):
And that's the first one. They've done it over the House first.
After officially passing the preferred budget resolution
to tackle some of President Trump's priority, such as securing the southern border.
After hours of back to back voting on Democratic amendments,
the bill to fund border security, energy and defense
finally got its vote on the chamber floor.
The measure passed by a vote of 52 to 48,
(02:12):
with Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, the only Republican to oppose.
Of course, all Senate Democrats voted against it as well.
The Senate voted on various amendments and points of order for nearly 10 hours,
considering dozens of them on the floor.
Ultimately, two Republican led amendments were adopted.
(02:33):
John Thune, who is the Senate majority leader from South Dakota, said,
This particular budget resolution addresses the president's top priority,
which is securing the border and implementing and putting in place
his immigration policies, rebuilding our military and creating energy dominance for this country.
(02:54):
The leader and Republicans in the upper chamber started to move forward
with the all important budget reconciliation process earlier this month,
pushing their preferred plan through a key committee and clearing a procedural hurdle.
The move came despite House Republicans being expected to take the lead on passing a budget bill first.
Thune and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham also pressed on
(03:16):
even after Trump came out in support of the House's proposal,
endorsing it earlier this week on True Social.
After its passage early Friday morning, Graham said in a statement,
As Senate Budget Committee Chairman, I am incredibly pleased by the discipline shown by my Senate Republican colleagues
to ensure that the most transformational border security bill in history can soon become a reality.
(03:44):
He added, I hope the House can pass one big bill that meets President Trump's priority,
but this approach provides money that we needed yesterday to continue the momentum on securing our border,
enforcing our immigration laws and rebuilding our military. Time is of the essence.
The decision to move forward with the Senate's alternative budget plan, which is two-pronged,
(04:04):
as opposed to the House's effort to pass one large bill, was blessed by Vice President J.D. Vance on Wednesday.
Trump himself did not seem bothered by their effort either, posting on True Social,
Thank you to Majority Leader John Thune and the Republican Senate for working so hard on funding the Trump border agenda.
We are setting workers, the likes of which have never been seen before,
(04:27):
on stopping criminal illegal aliens from entering our country.
Criminal illegal. That's kind of a double positive there, the criminal illegals.
That's so like the ultra-dead guy, right?
So put simply, or the stupid idiot is saying the same thing, but put simply,
this is a continuing Donald Trump statement, put simply, we are delivering for the American people
(04:51):
far faster and more successfully than anyone thought possible.
Your work on funding this effort is greatly appreciated.
The Senate's procedural vote earlier in the week triggered a 50-hour debate clock that ended on Thursday night.
Then a marathon of votes known as a Votorama began.
Senators were able to introduce an unlimited number of amendments, of which many received floor votes.
(05:15):
The process forced Republicans to take many potentially uncomfortable votes teed up by their Democratic counterparts.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement,
quote, tonight, one amendment at a time, Democrats expose Republicans' true colors here on the Senate floor.
For the first time this year, Senate Republicans are forced to go on record
(05:36):
and defend their plans to cut taxes for Donald Trump's billionaire friends.
What happened tonight was only the beginning.
This debate is going to go on for weeks and maybe months.
Democrats will be ready to come back and do this over and over again because Americans deserve to know the truth.
Again and again, Republicans sent a clear and consistent message from the Senate floor.
(05:57):
Under their agenda, billionaires win and American families lose.
Here's the thing, you know, Chuck Schumer, you can say that, you know, that's the thing with the Democrats.
You know, they keep saying these things, right?
You tell me, you know, Donald Trump, he's going to be a fascist.
He's always out for his billionaire friends.
But if you don't let the thing pass, how will we ever know?
(06:17):
Right? You keep doing this and there is no way of ever, it's almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
You can say it all the time and then make sure nothing happens and then we'll never,
it's just what you said is the only evidence that there is.
And these, you know, procedural votes are just there to slow down the process,
to try to prevent the process from happening.
(06:38):
Again, it's just political grandstanding, which, you know, in the last, especially, I don't know, the last 30 or 40 years,
that's what Congress is being boiled down to.
It's just political grandstanding after political grandstanding.
That's why we almost have just continuing resolution after continuing resolution for most of the budget process.
So ever instead of actually passing budgets, because it's just everybody wants to have their, you know, 30 seconds on the floor where they can talk about how bad the other people are,
(07:09):
instead of actually working together to get something passed.
And it's, and you know, it seems like more and more, all we have are bills that are passed only by the majority.
And, you know, it just to me shows that both sides are further and further dividing apart.
(07:29):
And it's up to the Americans to choose which ones.
And Chuck Schumer should realize that the American people picked Donald Trump this last time.
They picked that agenda.
As I said yesterday, Donald Trump has not done anything in his agenda that he didn't talk about on the campaign trail.
He's not, everything he's doing right now is has it hasn't is not nothing that's it's not like he's surprising anyone.
(07:54):
I mean, if he's surprising you, it's surprising you because he's actually following through.
That's probably a little surprising for a politician to do.
But again, the Democrats, they cannot, they just cannot have Donald Trump successful.
A successful Donald Trump is the worst thing that can ever happen to the Democratic Party.
It's better for them to just try to stop it and let nothing happen.
(08:16):
So you say, look, you voted in Donald Trump and nothing happened.
Yeah, because of you.
But, you know, they're not going to see that that part.
And that's why it's very important.
As I said before, we got two years.
That's all you really got.
Donald Trump has four years in the presidency.
But really, you only have two years to get this stuff through.
And hopefully they can show that Republicans can show that they can actually govern because
(08:40):
Republicans have had that problem before.
Republicans have shown they can be a great minority party,
but haven't been a really great majority party when it comes to Congress,
because they infight.
They can't agree on things and nothing ends up getting done.
And the Democrats are saying, all right, isn't it time to let the adults back in the room?
(09:00):
And that's a very effective argument you can make if they're not getting stuff done.
And that's exactly what's been happening.
And so the Republicans have to show that this stuff can get done.
And this is only, you know, one part of it.
So the Senate's passed theirs.
And it's got to get up.
(09:23):
You know, this reconciliation is going to get back to the House.
It's still got to come to an agreement here.
And so in the Senate Republicans budget plan, the first reconciliation bill includes Trump's
priorities for border security, fossil fuel energy and national defense.
The second bill, as I said, they're doing it in a bifurcated process to be drawn up later in the year,
would focus on extending Trump's tax policies from the tax jobs, sorry, tax cuts and jobs acts
(09:48):
as the cuts begin to expire at the end of 2025.
And to me, that's more important than almost any of them, because that's what's going to extend
that the doubled standard deduction that affects a lot of, you know, a big chunk of the,
I would say the majority of Americans.
So by lowering the threshold for Senate passage from 60 votes to 51 out of 100,
(10:12):
reconciliation allows the party to empower to skirt its opposition and advance to advance its agenda,
provided the items include relate to budgetary and other fiscal matters.
The House of Representatives already has a simple majority threshold.
And this process is crucial for Republicans, like I said, who have now a trifecta in Washington
(10:34):
to get Trump's key goals accomplished.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has claimed that the Senate's first budget bill,
along with its two pronged approach, should be dead on arrival in the lower chamber.
However, as I said, it's got to go through both.
He has remained committed to including tax cuts in the bill with border security and other priorities.
The House has managed to move their version through the appropriate committee,
(10:59):
but a floor vote has yet to be scheduled.
And I'm more in agreement with that, with what Johnson is trying to do.
It's a good thing that they get one, but the whole bifurcated bill thing just tells me that
you didn't have people who could agree on everything at one time, which is a little bit worrisome.
So you want to do a bifurcated bill, and then we get to 2025, or we get to near the end of 2025,
(11:20):
and then that second part of what the tax cuts for hundreds of millions of Americans
doesn't get passed because you can't agree with someone.
And then that's going to hit people next year, and that would be devastating.
That would be absolutely politically devastating for that to happen.
And then that is really good fodder for Democrats.
(11:42):
Say, look, we told you about the billionaires.
We told you about them.
And look at your taxes.
Your taxes almost doubled this year.
Guess who's didn't?
The billionaires.
That's very easy for them to say.
Very easy argument.
So I agree with Johnson that this needs to be done all at one time.
(12:03):
So the House is going to be working to get theirs through.
So again, there can be a...
Because both, they have to pass it, and of course it goes up to the president for signature.
But they have to have a bill where they both vote on it.
(12:25):
And that's what Trump has preferred too, is the one bill.
And he's called the big, beautiful bill.
That's just Donald Trump for you.
That's what he says.
But again, the White House really, at the end of the day,
they got to get past whatever they can get past.
So if it has to be the bifurcated one, they'll do it.
But again, I think everybody's preference, like, let's go ahead and get this thing done now.
(12:47):
Now.
And not wait for, like I said, this bifurcated thing where the second one may not get past, right?
Which is a very scary thing.
So again, so this budget resolution, that's what I said sets up the reconciliation process.
(13:13):
So that's where both the House and the House passes their bill.
They haven't done it yet.
They're working on it.
The Senate passes their bill, which they just did.
And then they come together to reconcile those two to get it to a thing where they can have one single bill that they both vote on.
(13:33):
So hopefully this gets through and we can, like I said, start getting Donald Trump's agenda through,
because this is the stuff where he needs it on, right?
He can do a lot by executive action.
(13:54):
But again, we do have a three-pronged government, right?
Equal powers.
And he needs the Congress to continue to go through.
You know, Donald Trump, he's going to push through on a lot of things.
And one of those things that he has pushed through, of course, has been the mass firing of federal workers.
(14:15):
And now a federal judge has allowed that to go forward.
And that was a federal judge in Washington.
So U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper decided yesterday he could not grant a motion from unions.
Representing the workers to temporarily block the layoffs.
He found that their complaint amounted to an employment dispute and must follow a different process outlined in federal employment law.
(14:42):
Cooper acknowledged that the Republican president's second term, quote,
has been defined by an onslaught of executive actions that have caused disruption,
even chaos, in widespread quarters of American society.
But Cooper, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, wrote that judges are duty-bound to decide legal issues based on even-handed application of law and precedent,
(15:04):
no matter the identity of the litigants or, regrettably at times, the consequences of their rulings for average people.
Man, he's at least, you know, he can give jabs all he wants, but at least the guy understands to follow the law.
And again, you know, disruption and chaos in American society is exactly what's been needed, right?
That disruption is what's been needed in the federal government.
(15:27):
That's what people have wanted, to say, hey, this bureaucracy has gotten out of control.
It doesn't even follow normal.
It's just it's gotten almost to the point of ridiculousness to how large the federal government has grown.
And yeah, maybe it's time to upset the apple cart.
(15:48):
And it takes extreme measures to do so because we've gotten so far from what needs to happen, right?
And how the federal government should look, because it's been such and such a bureaucracy
that it takes immediate disruptive action to try to get us back on the right course.
(16:09):
And, you know, unfortunately, you know, especially like the firing of all the probationary workers, right?
People get hurt along the process, right?
People who, you know, really of no fault of their own, right?
They just got the federal job or what have you.
And the fact is, though, unfortunately, we got to the country has to country has to come first.
(16:34):
And it's unfortunate that it has to come to that.
But again, it's the growth of the federal government in past administrations.
And again, Republican administrations right up in there, right?
The federal government grew quite a bit under General General President George Bush.
(16:55):
It grew substantially.
We added more departments and everything like that.
And it's just been growing and growing and growing.
And the Republicans have had a pretty heavy hand in that growth.
And so it takes action, drastic action to try to immediately draw that down,
to try to get it to a reasonable level.
(17:15):
And it's unfortunate that again, you know, it hurts to me.
Like I've always said, the people really need to get rid of those who've been there for 15, 20 years,
just, you know, sucking the teeth of the of the American people,
more so than the probationary workers who, to me, are the ones I'd want to keep more than any of them
because they're coming in with new ideas.
(17:36):
They're not quite especially as they're just coming into the Trump administration.
They're new enough to maybe get in line with that with that agenda.
But the, you know, to me, it's those career people that are the worst,
but the career people, it's a little bit harder to fire them than it is the probationary.
And I'm hoping, you know, to that, you know, right now we're having
(18:01):
all of these mass firings and these payouts and everything like that for these federal workers
to kind of gut the system, not gut it,
but trim a lot of the fat and then see where we need to make back up.
Right. Always can do that.
And then they can work on hiring the people that they want to hire.
(18:21):
And they can set their own, they can set their own agenda or their own policies or criteria
that they want for the new people.
They could always just do it that way as well.
So the, like I said, the, the ruling comes as thousands upon thousands of federal workers
have been shown the door during the first month of the Trump's administration.
(18:44):
The administration argued in court that unions, that the unions failed to show
that they were facing the kind of irreparable immediate harm
that would justify an emergency order stopping layoffs.
And I've talked about this before with these types of judicial rulings,
is that it is not the job of courts to get into policy.
(19:05):
It is straight up law.
The court can disagree with the policy all at once.
It can say it's the worst policy ever.
Like I said, as we, as they always like to say about policy and passing laws that
you can pass something that's legal, but stupid, not saying this is stupid,
but that's not what I'm saying is not the job of the courts.
(19:26):
Just like to me, it's not the job of the courts to get in the issues of morality either.
That should be left up to the politicians.
That should be left up to the people through their politicians to pass laws.
So again, things like abortion, right?
It's an issue of, it's an, abortion is an issue of morality, not really an issue of law.
(19:48):
There's no right to an abortion, but there's nothing preventing abortions either.
So leave that up to the people.
And same thing with policies like this is that, hey, if Donald Trump was elected by the people
and this is the, this is the policy that the people want, then that's the way,
that's the way it's going to be.
(20:08):
But I'm not going to stop it as a judge is because I disagree with it.
That is not my role as a judge.
And you know, this judge here, Judge Cooper, definitely got a lot of support from the
people in the United States, but I'm not going to stop it, but I'm not going to stop it.
And again, those are the kinds of things that Donald Trump is going to be.
So I'm going to stop it as a judge here, Judge Cooper, definitely get a lot of jabs
(20:33):
about the policy and how much he disagrees with it, but at least he, at least he understood
and could, could separate those two things in making a ruling.
workforce conflicts with Congress's power to shape the size and direction of agencies
through funding decisions as well as laws detailing how such layoffs must be carried
(20:55):
out."
And I think that's a key thing there that they're missing is that yes, Congress can
appropriate money, but it's up to the executive branch to spend it.
We've talked about that here several times.
Now in essence, Congress can limit the size of federal government by not appropriating
(21:16):
their money.
They can just say, hey, this agency has a budget of let's just say $300 million.
Most of them have a whole lot more than that, but I'm just doing it for easy math.
And their budget last year was $600 million.
(21:36):
And so that means, okay, they're probably going to have to cut people this year because
they're not going to be able to pay that many people on their current budget.
So that is a way to reduce the federal government, but they could also do, hey, we're going to
give you $300 million.
And then the executive says, okay, thank you for that $300 million.
We're only going to spend $150 of it, and we're going to hire enough people to spend
(21:57):
$150.
They could easily do that.
Now what they can't do, what the executive can't do is that we're going to hire people
where it costs over $300 million.
That they can't do.
So yes, Congress has a hand in, essentially has a hand in the size of federal agencies
through the budget process, but the ultimate decision on the actual makeup of that federal
(22:21):
agency is left to the executive branch because they fall under executive authority.
So that is the key difference that I think they're missing.
And they're not quite grasping is that it's not that Congress is not involved, is that
it's just a different way in how they do it.
(22:43):
But the ultimate makeup of it is up to the executive branch within the confines that
Congress has given.
So Congress gives you a box and you can't go outside that box, but you can definitely
stay much smaller within that box.
(23:05):
And by saving, and this is where the budget process is very, very important.
By saving in some of these departments that they're taking money out of, by making these
other departments smaller, like the Department of Education, for example, by making that
smaller, they can divert that money to other agencies.
(23:26):
Now again, that has to be done through Congress.
That the president can't do.
He can save money and not spend the money, but unless that money is allocated to certain
things or to other agencies, then that money is just saved and it can't be spent elsewhere.
So the executive doesn't have the one big pot of money.
(23:49):
It's best way to think about it is that the executive branch is given several pots of
money, all these different pots from Congress.
And they can spend as much or as little money out of those pots.
So in this pot I have $10 and I spend $8 out of it.
(24:10):
This pot I have $12.
I spend all 12.
This pot I have $9.
I only spend $1.
But if I have a pot with, let's say I have two pots with $10, and one I spend $10 of
and the other I spend $3 of, I can't take the $3 from the pot that I didn't spend the,
(24:33):
well the $7 I didn't spend from that pot and put it in the other one.
Because again, those are just different pots of money.
And again, that's where Congress comes in is making the pots bigger or smaller or completely
getting rid of the pot.
They can do that too or create a new pot.
(24:54):
It's essentially how it happens, but it's not one big pot of money that they can do
with that the executive can do with as they please.
But again, they can't transfer from different pots and they can't add more to a pot, but
they don't have to spend the whole pot of money.
There's a lot of pots being said there.
But I hope that makes sense on how the Congress interacts with the executive.
(25:23):
And then the judiciary, Article 3 of the Constitution comes in there and says, hey, if the executive
or them created a legal pot, they can say, hey, that pot doesn't belong here and you
need to take it out.
That was not done through the proper process.
(25:43):
That's what the judiciary comes in.
But what the judiciary can't say is, hey, I think that pot's too big.
They can't really say that.
Or you didn't spend enough out of that pot.
That's something the judiciary cannot do.
That's not within the judiciary's authority.
It's just there to say, hey, you transferred money from two pots and you're not supposed
to do that.
That they can do.
That's what the judiciary comes in.
(26:05):
There's no like the referee.
Okay.
I hope that makes sense on a great discussion on a Friday of pots of money in the federal
government.
We're going to take our last break right here.
We get back.
We'll do this day in history, but keep it tuned to the full story on WYAB 103.9.
All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back here to the full story on WYAB 103.9 as we
(26:31):
get to this day in history.
So on this day, February 21st, 1965, Malcolm X, the civil rights leader and former nation
of Islam minister, was assassinated while preparing to speak at the Autobahn Ballroom
in New York City.
Malcolm X had just taken the stage to address a crowd of 400 people when suddenly a decision
(26:53):
disturbance broke out in the audience, drawing attention.
In the chaos, three gunmen rushed forward and opened fire.
Malcolm X was struck multiple times, including a fatal shot to the chest.
He was rushed to the Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, but was pronounced dead at 3.30
PM at the age of 39.
Three men, Talmadge Heyer, Norman 3X Butler, and Thomas 15X Johnson.
(27:19):
So nation of Islam people at the time would put X's behind their name like Malcolm X.
So that's why you see 15X and 3X were arrested and convicted of his murder.
However, decades later, Aziz and Islam were exonerated in 2021 with evidence showing they
were wrongly convicted.
Malcolm X had just split from the nation of Islam in 1964 and founded the Organization
(27:41):
of Afro-American Unity, which is a shift towards a more inclusive civil rights vision, which
made him a target of the more militaristic nation of Islam.
And he had already received multiple death threats, including firebombing of his home
just a week before his murder.
Later, his autobiography, co-written by Alex Haley, remained one of the most influential
(28:03):
books on civil rights.
And that's what happens when he tried to turn more peaceful is that the nation of Islam
decided to kill him.
Alright, that's all I have for you guys today.
Hope you guys have a great weekend.
We'll see you on Monday.
Until then, my name is Matthew Bishop and you've heard the full story.
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