‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Passes | The ‘America Party’

(Friday 07/07/25)
Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ passed… what does it mean? California’s film tax credit boost was officially signed into law to lure back Hollywood jobs. Elon Musk claims he has launched a new party, will it work?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty Yeah, beautiful. This is KFI AM six forty
handle here on a Monday morning, July seventh, and coming
back from the weekend. The President, no surprise, got his
bill signed by the July fourth holiday, precisely as he

(00:25):
asked it to be signed. It was very close, and
the reason it was so close is because the Senate
and the House are so close. The margins are so
thin in terms of the number of votes or the
number of Republicans versus Democrats. So the Republicans are in
power in both houses. The presidency is the same party,

(00:49):
which means president gets anything he wants. Not like this,
I mean, this is incredible with President Trump controlling the
party and beyond that, controlling the economy of the world
or influencing the economy of the world. And at the
same time, for example, the Peace accords, if you will,

(01:13):
the peace talks going on right now, and the President said,
we're talking about Gaza, and the President said there should
be a deal at the end of the week. And
both parties we're talking about both parties within the fight
have said it's the President's call. President Trump is going
to control all of this. I mean, the influence is

(01:33):
just insane that he's been able to pull off. So
he got the Big Beautiful Bill passed. By the way,
who do you think came up with that name? Usually
it's you know, the Americans for a Better Tax Bill Act,
you know, it was something along those lines. But this

(01:53):
is the Big Beautiful Bill. I wonder who he was
talking about. And it coincided with a July fourth weekend
where you had parades and in Washington, d C. The
annual White House Fourth of July picnic, fighter jets overhead,
the stealth bomber. It was. Let's just say that this president,

(02:15):
you know, I don't hold him, you know, too much negatively.
He just likes a lot of pomp and circumstance. I mean,
you've seen pictures of his residence in Trump Tower. I
don't think you would ever use the word understated elegance
in describing how he lives. Okay, So with that nine

(02:39):
hundred page big Beautiful bill, massive tax cuts and spending
cuts affecting mainly social programs. Now, as people bitch and moan,
the president came into his presidency saying this is what
he was going to do, and he was elected. When

(03:00):
you have democratic presidents and they can get bills passed,
much like Obama did his first two years until he
got nailed in the first midterms. You get what the
president wants. And social programs are more important to democratic
presidents and social programs are not that important to Republicans.

(03:21):
And in this case, social programs are basically being decimated.
And the argument is, for example, Medicaid being cut. Eleven
million people will not have coverage under this bill under Medicaid,
and the administration said, it's waste and fraud that we're cutting.
And what we're doing is adding simply, we're adding requirements

(03:44):
that people have to work or attempt to work. Otherwise
you don't get medicaid if you are able bodied and
can work. And I guess on the surface, yeah, I mean,
I don't think i'd argue with that. But here's the problem,
and that is who gets swept up. The President said
when they started sweeping up the illegal migrants, remember when
he said, we're only going after the bad people. We

(04:07):
are only going after the felons and people who are
a risk, a security risk. Who do you thinks getting
caught up in the net? I mean, it's how many
people do you see? I mean they're stopping people. The
immigration is literally going to factories. I mean, how are

(04:27):
they negative people? How are they threats to the United States?
Some guy working in a factory or somebody picking strawberries,
or someone waiting at a home depot. Boy, there's a
threat to the United States. And so it's changed. It
has changed. We're only going after bad people now means
anybody we can get our hands on. And when you

(04:48):
talk about the fair social programs, we're only going after
people who are not working and who should work well.
Even the Congressional Budget Office has said eleven million p
people going to be caught swept up, and that's going
to cost a lot of food stamps have been decreased substantially.

(05:09):
It's gonna not be the same country. And for those
of us who I have a hard time with what's
going on, and I know people who just can't stand
at Lindsay, for example, won't listen to the news anymore.
I mean just and she's not alone, totally devastated by
what's going on, totally will not do social posting anymore,

(05:33):
will not look at the news. And she was a
news junkie because she is deeply affective about what's happening.
I always come back with, hey, this is who the
American people elected. There's no secret agenda here. He said,
this is what we're going to do, and that's exactly
what he does. Are the wealthy going to be better off? Yeah?

(05:53):
According to the Budget Office, nonpartisan, the wealthiest families twelve
oul dollars and saying savings, the PORUS will pay an
additional sixteen hundred dollars a year and overtime. When he
first said overtime pay and tips were not going to
be taxed, I thought he was out of his mind.

(06:16):
I go, what is that? I get taxed on every
dime I make, as most people do, all of a sudden,
if you're in the serving department, if you're a waiter person,
if you're a waitress, whether male or female, you're not
taxed on your tips and that's the majority of your money.
So they don't. They're not paying taxes anymore, effectively paying

(06:37):
taxes on a minimum wage which is nothing. And then
overtime pay. Really he calls for it. It is done.
He said, this is have you ever seen the King?
And I I say it. It is done, and that's

(06:58):
what happening with the three hundred Well, I'm gonna put
it this way, three hundred and fifty billion dollars border
in national security, one hundred thousand migrant detention beds ice
Department of Defense, a billion dollars in new funding for
border security alone. By the way, have you noticed that
there is no fraud in the Department of Defense? That

(07:20):
doesn't exist. Fraud only exists in social programs. Absolutely no fraud.
With an eight hundred billion dollar Department of Defense budget,
the big beautiful bill is upon us. And again keep
in mind, we voted. We not I because I didn't
vote at all, because between Kamala Harris and the President

(07:44):
Trump boy, there was a vote no. Thank you, all right.
I don't know if you live in a neighborhood that
has a house or an area where a film crewis
are there. When I lived in the Persian Palace, the
main road going up to my house and at least
once a week I had a film crew filming. There

(08:06):
was a house and it was being used either for
a TV show or commercials, and it just drove me
completely crazy. And so I am a big fan of
film companies filming in southern California except my Street Bastards,
and what ended up happening in California, Southern California Hollywood,

(08:28):
which of course where the movie industry didn't actually physically start,
but it grew up in Hollywood for all kinds of reasons.
Is didn't have to worry about companies going overseas or
going to other states except when they were doing location shots.
But they've always come back, and the sound stags were

(08:51):
here and the skilled people were here. Well, other states
really woke up and said, you know what, a lot
of money is being paid to these people. I mean
people that work in films are paid a chunk of money.
They're not minimum wage people. And they eat and the
film companies have these crafts table where they feed everybody
lunch and dinner, and they spend a lot of money locally.

(09:15):
And so what they did is try to lure film
companies to their various states and cities and created these
film bureaus these departments to lure people over and they
advertise weather, and they advertise mountains, and they advertise locations.
We have all of that, no issue, we have all

(09:37):
of that. So what they did is set of tell
you what, we're going to give you tax breaks. In
some cases it's not just tax breaks. They write checks
and will pay thirty percent of a budget, and all
of a sudden, what happens. Film companies start flying these

(09:57):
other locations and California to realize, is pretty late in
the game. Ooh, this is a problem. So we are
going to match them. And the governor just signed a
build that more than doubles the amount of money allocated
to California's film and television tax credit program. Now, I
don't think these are checks that are written to the companies,

(10:20):
but to what extent they pay taxes, it is reduced substantially.
And there are two ways of looking this. Number One,
it's a great investment because every time a film is shot,
or a video or a commercial is shot here in
southern California, a pile of money is being paid and

(10:43):
spent local services, the dry cleaners, the drivers, the repair shops,
the food, I mean all of it. And so a
lot of money is being spent. So it makes a
lot of sense. Now there are some people go, no,
it doesn't make sense, and it's just a question numbers.

(11:03):
I think, how much taxpayer dollars do you pay or
does the state pay to have a film company here
and to give up tax credits which we would normally get,
And is it financially feasible? And I have no problem

(11:24):
standing up and believing fervently that we have to spend money,
give tax credits and in some cases just underwrite films
and commercials except on my street, because that one. There
should be a lot saying that you can't video on
my street. Do you know that the only time that

(11:44):
LAPD cops, which are usually used for security on film sets,
they're allowed to wear their LAPD uniforms on sets. It's
the only place where they can do that. I mean,
you can hire a cop moonlighting a security and they
have a weapon because obviously they're licensed to carry weapons

(12:05):
as police officers, but they can't dress up as their
police officer uniforms. On TV and movie sets they're allowed
to do that, And so does it make sense? There's
a lot of controversy each way. Have you ever seen
those crafts tables? You know how they feed people? Oh

(12:26):
my goodness, especially with a video or commercial with any
kind of budget. I'm trying to sneak onto those sets constantly.

Speaker 2 (12:36):
I've been on many shoots and it's spectacular. And then
we have all the snacks as well, for oh, it's
all terrific snickers or something.

Speaker 1 (12:46):
But yeah, yeah. The one film that I did, one
one that I did a million years ago, Wag the
Dog with Dustin Hoffmann. I had a tiny little part
and it was a b role where I wasn't with
anybody and it was just at Lax for a little
part of it. And because it was a major film,

(13:08):
there was a crafts table there and because it was
only me that was being shot, it was pizza and
shasta coola. I am not exaggerating either. How low on
the food chain can you go?

Speaker 2 (13:28):
Did you play a big, fat loud mouth?

Speaker 1 (13:32):
Yeah? I did. I played a reporter actually in the film,
and I did it badly, Okay, I saw Yeah, no surprise. Now,
So the big beautiful bill has been passed by the
President and it's exactly what he wanted. For the most part,
he got what he wanted. There wasn't a whole lot

(13:52):
of negotiations going on, and there were a lot of
people that were upset because, if you remember, the deficit
was going to be cut and the national debt was
going to be cut. Nope, it's going to add to
the national debt. Congressional Budget Office says by three point
three trillion dollars over the next ten years, and completely

(14:15):
contrary to what the president says. But any argument that
it is not a big, beautiful bill, which is terrific, wonderful,
there's never one been better, is immediately met with fight
from the administration and it becomes fake news. And if
you notice that the signing of the bill, the people
around the president, the one I like best is Mike Johnson,

(14:39):
who Speaker of the House. And did you notice at
any point when the bill was being signed by the president,
he turned to Mike Johnson and said heal and Johnson
immediately went on his haunches. That is the relationship that
Mike Johnson has with the bill, all right. So with

(15:00):
that being said, I've always wondered about that phrase that
being said, I just said it, and who what does
it say? It says absolutely nothing. So with that being said,
the fight back on the bill, and there are a
lot of people that are upset about the bill because
it isn't what it promised to do in terms of

(15:22):
the cuts do not equal the expenditures, and the cuts
are massive in social programs, because that's as I said earlier,
that's simply the philosophy of this administration. The administration to
this administration, the invasion of illegal migrants, which is effectively

(15:46):
Pearl Harbor is the way it's being described by the President.
It's a foreign invasion that is destroying or will destroy
the entire United States, which I think is a croc.
I mean, not that there is an issue there, but
let me ask you, as the President said, your jobs
are being taken away by illegal migrants. I don't know

(16:07):
of anybody whose job has been taken away. Haven't heard
of anybody whose job has been taken away. I have
asked people on the air, has your job been taken away?
I have yet to have one person say, yes, my
job has been taken away by an illegal migrant. Neil,
do you know anybody a job has been taken away?

Speaker 2 (16:30):
I will tell you when you say this, we do
get talkbacks in the like of people in the construction
industry and in hospitality. Okay, so I will tell you
that I'm just passing that along.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
Do I know? I haven't, But then again I haven't
heard about it because mainly people don't talk to me.
But for the most part, let's say that in the
construction industry and hospitality, illegal migrants have taken away some jobs,
and not massive numbered. With some jobs, what kind of
thread is that to the United States and the economy

(17:05):
of the entire country. Not much, but it's being portrayed
as this massive invasion, and for political purposes, by the way,
I mean, does the president really believe that? Who the
hell knows, but it certainly resonates. And then the issue
of defense is critically important, Social programs not so much so.
The pushback on the bill is among those that are

(17:31):
upset about the social programs. There isn't a lot of
ammunition there, and there's not a lot of gravitas to
what they're doing. There's just talking, and it's just opposition
which is steamrolled by the administration. Now, there are some
people who really have some influence who said this bill sucks,

(17:57):
and one in particular, one person in particular is taking
some incredible wealth, has switched sides and said I'm going
to do everything I can to undo what the president
has done. And of course, who has that kind of money.
The richest man in the world, Elon Musk and his

(18:21):
no longer delightful relationship with President Trump, and they were
best buddies. They were bff. There's no question about it.
As Dodge as Doge was created and Musk was a
head of Doze and cuts were made like crazy throughout
the government. And then the big beautiful bill comes in
and Elon Musk fought that like crazy, and based on

(18:45):
that the President Musk have become well enemy certainly in
the extent to the extent of this bill. And what
Elon must did in reference to this, he goes, Okay,
you're not passing the bill, or you were passed seeing
the bill, and the deficit is going to increase as
opposed to well decrease as you promised. So he threatened

(19:10):
to form a new political party. Now, in America, it
is impossible to form a new political party because you
have the Federal Election Commission and all kinds of requirements
have to be met. Every state has different requirements, either

(19:31):
number of signatures one gets or forming a party and
getting x number of votes in the previous primary or
previous election. And it really just can't be done. It
just cannot be done. We are a two party system.
That's the US. There has been one attempt that was
considered legitimate in the sense there were real numbers in

(19:55):
terms of a third party, and that was nineteen twelve,
and it was Teddy Roosevelt with the It's the Bull
Moose Party. He was elected where he wasn't elected. He
became president in nineteen oh one when assassinated when McKinley
was assassinated, and so he ran in nineteen four through
nineteen eight, and then he had promised not to run

(20:19):
for president. He wanted to run. So comes nineteen twelve
and he tries to run for president again. And what
happened is he split the Republican Party. He was a
Republican and that guaranteed that Wilson was going to come in.
And incidentally, if Elon Musk is successful in forming a party,

(20:42):
which he won't be, that would split the Republican Party,
which guarantees that a Democrat would go into office. It's
not going to happen. So what does he do. He threatens,
But what does he do? Here's his philosophy, here is
his strategy. Okay, we won't go for national but what
we will do. What I will do is take those

(21:04):
districts and those Senate seats that are vulnerable, and these
are people who voted in favor of the big beautiful bill.
Read every single Republican and the vulnerable seats I'm going
to go after. So we're talking about a district or

(21:25):
a state, which is much easier to dominate to bring
your own new party in. Certainly a district, a congressional district.
So keep in mind that right now Congress has the
Republican majority is two eighteen versus two fourteen, So all

(21:46):
he really needs is three Republicans to go the other way.
And considering you spent almost three hundred million dollars to
get Trump elected, how much do you think Let's say
decides he chooses five districts, two Senate seats, and is

(22:07):
prepared to spend fifty million dollars on each one. Well,
let's say a congressional seat twenty five million dollars. You
have bought every vote. That's not to say that every
vote there's a paper sack, that someone has paper bags,
someone has hands out a hundred dollar bills, although a

(22:29):
lot of Republicans take their lunches in paper bags these days.
Not saying anything, not making accusations, but let's just say
I don't even want to go there. The point is
that he thinks, and I think rightly. So if he
goes after those individual Congress people, and there are some

(22:50):
Republican seats that are vulnerable, then you know what, he's
going to get it, and he may overturn the majority
of Congress. Now he may not even have to, because
this big beautiful bill really screws a lot of people
if you happen to be on that side. But here

(23:11):
the Republicans were very smart because if you look at
the big beautiful bill it was designed. Let me tell
you how clever this is. And people aren't really paying
much attention to this. Let me tell you how clever
this is. The tax breaks come immediately, tax on overtime,
tax on tips happened this year. The problems that those

(23:37):
that are opposed to the bill, those start kicking in
after the midterms. So, for example, we talk about overtime, well,
the overtime is happening this year, but let's talk about
people being removed from Medicare. That doesn't actually kick in
until after the midterm. And so the positive is front

(24:00):
loaded and the negative is backloaded. The politics are a
lot more sophisticated and a lot more strategic than we think.
I mean, we look at this and really don't understand
the tactics and the strategy involved. By the way, that's everybody.

(24:22):
That's not just the Republicans, that's everybody. So we're looking
at the cuts that are being made, which are massive
food stamps. There was a story I read over the weekend,
I think it was New York Times. I talked about
how some scientists at the national scientific organizations NOAH and

(24:45):
the CDC and the NIH have gotten their budgets cut
like forty percent. So it's not just social programs, it's
the belief in science. And frankly, this administration doesn't believe
in science a whole lot. That's long term hurt. All Right,

(25:08):
this is KFI AM six point forty. You've been listening
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