What do I tell 663,000 people in two years or three years, when President Trump breaks his promise by pushing them off of Medicaid, because the funding is not there anymore. [00:00:16] When the white House advising the president are not telling him that the effect of this bill is to break a promise. Republicans are about to make a mistake on health care and betraying a promise. [00:00:32] North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis will not be seeking reelection, mostly because of what you just heard him say on the Senate floor. He crossed Daddy Trump, and I guess that's not allowed when you're in the Republican Party. This news comes after the senator essentially pushed back against provisions [00:00:49] in Trump's so-called big, beautiful bill that would essentially cut Medicaid to the tune of $1.1 trillion. Now, The New York Times reports that Tillis had been privately critical of this provision, and even warned his colleagues about the political ramifications [00:01:06] of kicking vulnerable Americans off of Medicaid rolls. But over the weekend, he decided to go public and become a lot more overt in regard to his disdain for that provision. And in a post on X, Tillis explained that he has a problem with the changes to Medicaid, saying that I cannot support this bill in its current form. [00:01:24] It would result in tens of billions of dollars in lost funding for North Carolina, including our hospitals and rural communities. This will force the state to make painful decisions, like eliminating Medicaid coverage for hundreds of thousands in the expansion population, [00:01:41] and even reducing critical services for those in the traditional Medicaid population. Tillis also notes that there are provisions in the bill that he's on board with. Of course, he loves the tax cuts and more. He says there is a lot for North Carolinians to love about the rest [00:01:57] of the one big, beautiful bill, including extending the historic Trump tax cuts, increasing the child tax credit, which I personally favor for as well providing historic funding for border security and ending wasteful spending. Now, I just want to be clear. [00:02:12] The bill, as it stands right now, would add to the national debt to the tune of $3.4 trillion. But he does want to try to accomplish all the provisions that he likes without the Medicaid cuts. He says we can and must accomplish this without hurting our rural communities [00:02:29] and hospitals, and without jeopardizing access to care for hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians who need it the most. Now, Tillis told reporters that he had a nice, friendly civil chat with Trump about his concerns. He says that this conversation took place on Saturday. [00:02:46] I had a very good discussion with President Trump last night. I told him at that point that I had problems with the Medicaid implementation, and I said, the House bill, I think would be a good mark. By the way, the House bill, of course, also cuts Medicaid. It's just that it cuts Medicaid a little less than the Senate version. [00:03:03] He says, I do believe the president is really focused on getting the tax portion of the bill done, and I support that full stop. But it has evolved from a tax bill to one that includes health care and other things. And I said that in no non-tax areas, we have a problem. [00:03:20] Now in return of saying that he had a pleasant conversation with Trump. Trump basically, rewarded him by threatening him with primary challengers. He writes on Truth Social. Numerous people have come forward wanting to run in the primary against Thom Tillis. [00:03:37] I will be meeting with them over the coming weeks, looking for someone who will properly represent the great people of North Carolina and so importantly, the United States of America. Thank you for your attention to this matter. And literally the next day, Tillis announced that he will not be seeking reelection in 2026. [00:03:54] Yeah. So first of all, you know, Republican senators are retiring when he wears a Native American bolo tie. And a t shirt. That's him saying sayonara, guys. Now he's more of a traditional Republican, so don't give him too much credit. [00:04:09] I'll come back to that in a second. First, some fun polls for you guys on wkyt.com. What do you think will happen to Trump's budget bill? A it won't pass. B it will pass with huge tax cuts and huge deficits. C it will pass and have a balanced budget. Laugh along with me. D it will pass because they'll take out the tax cuts. [00:04:26] Laugh along with me. Okay so that's on t.com. Curious what you guys think about that. During the live chat we also have a poll up on the live chat. Is Thom Tillis leaving the Senate good for Democrats or Republicans? Or or no one. [00:04:41] It's clearly good for Democrats, in my opinion. Because but there's a asterisks in there because it's a Republican held seat. North Carolina is a purple state at this point. Thom Tillis is being considered and labeled by mainstream media as more moderate, has a better chance of holding that seat. [00:04:58] They'll probably pick a radical in their primary, and, and then have an excellent chance of losing it. But even if they don't pick a radical, they still stand a pretty good chance of losing that seat once you remove the incumbent. So that definitely helps the Democrats. Now back to the Republicans. I don't mind Trump doing these primaries, and this one is actually [00:05:17] a perfectly legitimate one because normally he does it. If he feels offended for whatever reason, personally, like, oh, that guy said something about my hair or my orange tan. That's it. Primary him. Right? Or the slightest little provocation. No, this is him trying to pass his bill and saying, if you don't vote for my bill, [00:05:34] I'm going to primary you. That is normal politics. Democrats should do that a lot more often on their side. Okay, so I don't begrudge him that. That none of those are the issue. What's the issue is what's in the bill. Right. So you could tell that Thom Tillis is no angel either. [00:05:53] He says, oh, I only want 800 million, I'm sorry, 800 billion in Medicaid cuts. Not 1.1 trillion in Medicaid cuts. The 800 billion is already disastrous. It is would have already kicked off 10 million from having health care [00:06:08] instead of 12 million Americans. Right? It's still a terrible disaster. And what does he say? Just like Ron Johnson, just like Rand Paul. Okay. They always say the same thing. I mean, the tax cuts for the rich. I would definitely keep the tax cuts for the rich. Okay. The tax cuts are the most important thing. [00:06:23] But brother, if we did it your way, you would. The bill would add even more to the debt. Right. So because you keep the tax cuts, you don't have as many spending cuts. Good. I don't want those particular spending cuts. By the way, notice in all of this nobody's cutting almost any corporate subsidies. [00:06:41] They cut from renewable energies because they have the giant amount that the big oil gives them. And plus they got a grudge against anything that's renewable or goes to the future. They always want to go backwards, right. But outside of that 17 billion in oil subsidies, 150 billion more to defense [00:06:57] contractors, 34 billion in Golden Dome, and adding and adding and adding corporate pork on top of corporate pork. Thom Tillis doesn't find any of that. Josh Hawley doesn't mind any of that. None of the Republicans mind any of that. So what's going to happen at the end? It doesn't. All these objections are junk. [00:07:14] - It's all theater. - It is all theater. I've seen it play out so many. Every time a Republican president gets into office, we have this fake, fake, fake theater. And at the end, they pass a bill with giant tax cuts for the rich that cuts from the poor in the middle class, and at the end adds 2 to $8 trillion to the debt. [00:07:35] In this case, it looks like it's going to be around 3 to 4 trillion. So I actually want to tie this story. And the fact that you're literally robbing from the poor to give to the rich, and how this is the type of behavior in Congress that leads to a constituency [00:07:51] that is a little more open minded to someone like Zoran Mandani. Right? Someone who comes out, identifies as a democratic socialist and talks about, you know, policies that seem radical to, you know, politicians in Congress. [00:08:07] But to the American people, it's like, all right, well, we've been dealing with neoliberalism for how long? Okay. Nothing's trickling down on us. They keep robbing from us. Taxpayers see their resources go toward endless wars in the Middle East, endless weapons to Israel with no debate whatsoever. [00:08:24] Right. We're talking about tens of billions of dollars. And in the meantime, Congress is nickel and diming the American people, especially the most vulnerable among us. So if you don't understand the rise of a candidate like Mamdani, this is this is at the heart of it, this economic dysfunction and this ever growing gap between [00:08:43] the rich and the poor in this country. Yeah. So I was on Piers Morgan this morning, and piers made an interesting point about how Mamdani is almost like a Democratic Trump. And the reason he said that is not as a negative thing, but as change. [00:08:59] Whatever we got to do, we're voting change, right? So the Republicans voted change and enough independents did to go with Trump, right? Now this is Democrats in the largest city in the country going we've had enough. We know Cuomo is not going to change anything. I don't know if these exact policies are going to work, but I'll [00:09:16] take it over the status quo any day. And that's what. Now both sides are screaming. We can't stand the status quo. The only people who still like it is every politician and every media figure in Washington, D.C. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets its wings. [00:09:32] Totally not true, but it does keep you updated on our live shows.