Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news Now.
Speaker 2: As Republican lawmakers work to advance President Trump's tax bill,
Speaker 2: today we look across the aisle to see how House
Speaker 2: Democrats are watching this process. Joined by Democratic Congresswoman Debbie
Speaker 2: Wasserman Schultz of Florida. She's live with us from Capitol Hill. Congresswoman,
Speaker 2: it's great to see you give us a sense of
Speaker 2: what we're in for here tonight. The state of play.
Speaker 2: We understand the takeout food is arriving. Are you going
Speaker 2: to be there all night?
Speaker 3: You know, it's unclear because the Republicans are rounding up
Speaker 3: as many of their folks as they can to try
Speaker 3: to ram through the worst bill that I've seen in
Speaker 3: my entire career. It's an abomination. It would kick seventeen
Speaker 3: million people off of their healthcare. It is the biggest
Speaker 3: cut to nutrition assistance, meaning they're going to force millions
Speaker 3: of people to go hungry, including veterans, the disabled, elderly children.
Speaker 3: This is a bill that is a massive tax cut
Speaker 3: giveaway to billionaires and wealthy corporations. That is what this
Speaker 3: whole bill is in service to, and their massive spending
Speaker 3: cuts are essentially trying to make as much room as
Speaker 3: they can to take care of their wealthiest, most fortunate donors.
Speaker 3: It also blows a four trillion dollar hole in the
Speaker 3: deficit and makes increases the debt ceiling by five trillion dollars.
Speaker 3: That from the party that says that they actually care
Speaker 3: about deficit spending, they should never say that. Have that
Speaker 3: come out of their mouths again, well.
Speaker 4: As we consider who will ultimately benefit from what is
Speaker 4: largely an extension of existing tax rates set by the
Speaker 4: twenty seventeen tax bill, the President and your Republican colleagues
Speaker 4: argue that this is making sure that most of the country,
Speaker 4: including I'm sure the vast majority of your constituents, don't
Speaker 4: see a tax hike at the end of the year.
Speaker 4: Is it not good that that will be avoided?
Speaker 3: In the words of our previous president, who actually handed
Speaker 3: President Trump the most like the best economy in the
Speaker 3: entire world, that's malarkey. Because it is July. We can
Speaker 3: deal with expiring tax cuts in separate legislation and focus
Speaker 3: on making sure that we have tax breaks that actually
Speaker 3: help the middle class and working families, and and you know,
Speaker 3: if they wanted to extend those tax cuts to the
Speaker 3: wealthiest most fortunate Americans. You know, be my guest, but
Speaker 3: don't skew the tax breaks so disproportionately to people who
Speaker 3: are already successful and leave the middle class out. This
Speaker 3: bill has you know, taxes, you know, cuts in taxes
Speaker 3: on tips that actually expire in a couple of years.
Speaker 3: They're capped at twenty five thousand dollars. I don't think
Speaker 3: folks who earn tips know that. And the tax breaks
Speaker 3: for the wealthiest, most fortunate Americans, the millionaires and billionaires,
Speaker 3: they're made permanent. So you know exactly where Maga Republicans
Speaker 3: and Trump's priorities are taking care of the most fortunate
Speaker 3: and taking healthcare and food assistance and energy tax credits
Speaker 3: that make sure that we can keep energy savings, energy
Speaker 3: savings high and our electric bills low. That's the goals
Speaker 3: of this bill.
Speaker 2: Congresswoman. We have seen that individual components of this bill
Speaker 2: poll pretty well. And you know how this goes. You
Speaker 2: take out components of a bill and it pulls differently
Speaker 2: poorly than the big beautiful bill, as the President calls it.
Speaker 2: Some do poorly. In this case, we saw Tony Fabrizio's
Speaker 2: poll find that two thirds of voters agree there's waste,
Speaker 2: fraud and abuse in Medicaid that justify reforms. How do
Speaker 2: you message against that as a Democrat?
Speaker 3: This bill, this bill cuts a trillion dollars out of Medicaid,
Speaker 3: and the Congressional the Independent Congressional Budget Office says that
Speaker 3: it causes seventeen million people to lose their healthcare through
Speaker 3: Medicaid and the ending of tax credits in the Affordable
Speaker 3: Care Act. You know, when Republicans say that they are
Speaker 3: going after people who shouldn't have Medicaid, they cite undocumented
Speaker 3: immigrants andrant undocumented immigrants are already prohibited from getting access
Speaker 3: to Medicaid and they're not on Medicaid. There isn't a
Speaker 3: trillion dollars of Medicaid waste, fraud and abuse. They know it.
Speaker 3: And the analysis from the Independent Congressional Budget Office says
Speaker 3: that as well.
Speaker 4: Well as we consider questions around immigration and the housing
Speaker 4: of migrants specifically, President Trump yesterday, of course, was in
Speaker 4: your state of Florida to visit a new migrant facility
Speaker 4: that's being dubbed Alligator Alcatraz. Take a list in, Congressman
Speaker 4: to what the President said during his tour.
Speaker 1: Very soon, this facility will have some of the most
Speaker 1: menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet.
Speaker 1: We're surrounded by miles of treacherous swampland, and the only
Speaker 1: way out is really deportation.
Speaker 4: Congressman, I know you've put out a statement around this facility,
Speaker 4: but if these migrants do need to be housed somewhere,
Speaker 4: what in Florida would be a better solution? What would
Speaker 4: you recommend to the president and Governor DeSantis for.
Speaker 3: That matter, Keley Donald Trump is full of baloney. He
Speaker 3: isn't having the most violent, dangerous undocumented immigrants detained. The
Speaker 3: overwhelming majority of people that are detaining are having ice
Speaker 3: agents that are masked, snatched people off of job sites,
Speaker 3: and they're taking in people who are here making a
Speaker 3: better way of life for themselves, in our family, that
Speaker 3: have been contributing to our economy. He made a million
Speaker 3: people undocumented overnight by yanking TPS and humanitarian parole from
Speaker 3: half a million Venezuelans and half a million Haitians who
Speaker 3: did it the right way, followed the rules. I mean,
Speaker 3: he is lying when he says that he is prior
Speaker 3: poritizing the worst of the worst, and that alligator Alcatraz
Speaker 3: so called Alligator. Alcatraz site is on a very environmentally
Speaker 3: sensitive site that was abandoned years ago when they were
Speaker 3: planning an airport because it was deemed to environmentally sensitive.
Speaker 3: We're in the middle of hurricane season. Just yesterday, while
Speaker 3: DeSantis and Trump were doing their press conference, it started
Speaker 3: to flood while he was speaking because it was raining
Speaker 3: so hard, and their infrastructure is so flimsy that it
Speaker 3: would blow away like match six in a hurricane, to
Speaker 3: say nothing of the fact that it is on sacred
Speaker 3: tribal land that they have never consulted with the Mikasuki
Speaker 3: tribe of Florida on This is a boondoggle and a stunt,
Speaker 3: and an inhumane one at that, and it's wildly inappropriate.
Speaker 2: We heard from the President yesterday when he was delivering remarks,
Speaker 2: he had advice for migrants on how to outrun alligators. Congresswoman,
Speaker 2: don't run in a straight line. Run like this, he said,
Speaker 2: waving his hand from side to side. I'm not sure
Speaker 2: what motivates comments like this. What did the President mean?
Speaker 3: Joe, have you ever reported on an ice detainee escaping?
Speaker 3: I bet you haven't, because it doesn't happen. And it's
Speaker 3: also the fact that the majority of the detainees that
Speaker 3: Trump has been rounding up have been law abiding people
Speaker 3: who are simply here to make a better way of
Speaker 3: life for themselves and their families, who contributed to our economy.
Speaker 3: And you know, just before this segment, your reporter reported
Speaker 3: on the hit to the economy that rounding up these
Speaker 3: undocumented immigrants and the fear of deportation are having on
Speaker 3: beer sales and soda sales, and it's gonna hurt construction
Speaker 3: companies and restaurants and farmers. I mean, they're all sounding
Speaker 3: the alarm bell here. The Trump administration is really going
Speaker 3: through a process of trying to bleach America, not making
Speaker 3: America safe, and with no regard for people who are
Speaker 3: fleeing countries where they're being oppressed, that they face danger,
Speaker 3: and they're going to try to send people back to
Speaker 3: that danger. When we are a refuge and always have been,
Speaker 3: and we certainly need to make sure we get rid
Speaker 3: of criminals. But that's not what Donald Trump is trying
Speaker 3: to do. It's very obvious.
Speaker 4: All right, Congresswoman, we appreciate your time. As always. Democratic
Speaker 4: Congresswoman Debbie Wasser and Schultz of Florida, thank you