Brendan Boyle
Appearances
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
It actually is not the first time this has happened. They're calling the president, the president elect bananas and crazy for coming up with this idea. But by the way, this is not the first time that America has tried to buy Greenland back in 1867. Democratic President Harry Truman tried to buy Greenland for $100 million, which would be about a bill this, you know, in our day and age, $1 billion.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
Yeah, so one actual quick word on reconciliation before we mercifully move on to your question. A very easy way for people to just remember about reconciliation, it's a way to avoid the filibuster. Simply put, that's it. It's a way to pass things in the Senate with simple majority because of their goofy, antiquated rules. So...
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
There are all these sorts of rules though that come with reconciliation that the majority party has to follow. And that actually is the beginning of the answer of your question, making sure that we attack the things that they're doing that don't qualify for reconciliation. Republicans successfully did that to us four years ago. In a number of ways when it came to Build Back Better.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
But if we take a step back from that, which is kind of process-y but important, on the larger picture messaging, we have to do this time exactly what we did eight years ago when it came to Trump's tax cuts and his ultimately failed attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
And that was simply point out to people what they're trying to do is take away health care from tens of millions of Americans and pass big tax cuts for billionaires that you, the American people in the middle class and working class, will have to foot the bill for. And that, frankly, is what we're already starting to see right now in 2025.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
We're talking about four and a half trillion dollars of tax cuts. promising $1.5 trillion of cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. That was in the budget continuing resolution that the Republicans passed, the internal agreement. I always love this, by the way. The media will breathlessly report Republicans reach an agreement. They finally reached an agreement amongst themselves.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
Yeah, but they did put it down on pen and paper, which is interesting. $4 trillion of cuts they commit themselves to, $2.5 trillion discretionary, which is, again, annoying Capitol Hill speak for basically most of the things government does, and then $1.5 trillion for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Those will be deeply unpopular if they really actually follow through with them.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
Yeah, so first, I would completely agree. I think it's fair to say the Trump campaign was not a policy heavy campaign. campaign, not exactly releasing a lot of policies and plans, a lot of talk about Hannibal Lecter, not as much talk about extending the Trump tax cuts. But it is funny, isn't it, that no matter what Trump or folks in the right wing talk about,
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
Always the top priority is delivering those tax cuts for the people who have been financing and funding their campaigns. It was the top priority in 2017 in Trump 1.0, and it's the top priority again this time around. So I think for them, it's the single most important issue.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
When you look at the tech pros, when you look at people on Wall Street and others who held their nose and went along with Trump, this was always going to be the payoff. It was going to be deregulation, combined with extending the Trump tax cuts, 83% of which go to the richest 1% of Americans.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
We obviously were not successful in doing that in 2024. One of the things I learned is that it's really hard to warn people about a hypothetical. Sometimes, unfortunately, maybe it's just human nature. They actually need to see it happening before they respond. I remember I was having one interaction with a voter in Philadelphia. Younger guy, Latino, was talking about how he had
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
Didn't happen, obviously. Still very important. And as you mentioned, Jesse, has a lot of minerals. Very important for our country. I think the president may be on to something.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
in his opinion, more money in his pocket and costs were less five years ago than they are today. And he didn't like Trump. He disagreed with Trump on immigration, and he was still going to vote for him on that basis.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
And I tried to tell him, like, you know, most of their agenda is actually about extending tax cuts for the richest 1%, possibly cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid to help pay for it. It just didn't work. I just wasn't interested in I think sometimes people actually have to see it happen. And in 2017, I will take some hope in this regard.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
In 2017, in the history of polling, the only tax cut that has ever been unpopular was the Trump 2017 tax cuts, the TCJA. You go back to the JFK tax cut in the early 60s, majority approval. This is all from Gallup, by the way. Reagan tax cut in 81, hugely popular. Bush tax cuts both in 2001 and 2003 were also popular.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
The Trump tax cuts consistently polled around 40% approval, 55% disapproval in 2017. That coupled with the attempt to take away Obamacare, those were the two twin reasons why we took back the House in 2018.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
Yeah, look, anytime the last couple of years, Republicans in the majority needed to pass anything, they needed Democratic votes to do it. I mean, anything of substance. They are not a functioning majority. They need Democratic votes for each and every one of those major items. So that gives us leverage. And, you know, I'm not a cheap date.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
I don't know why we as Democrats would give any yes vote unless we're making sure that our priorities are also being met. So that's my approach. I know it's Hakeem, Leader Jeffries?
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
So first and foremost, I mean, the attacks that are being talked about ongoing, reopening the Inflation Reduction Act, like what we did on energy transition, those sorts of things, complete non-starters. I mean, I will not vote for one dime of cuts in those areas. We talked about the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which was bipartisan in the Senate, wasn't bipartisan in the House largely.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
any attempt to claw back those dollars, complete non-starter. If you're talking about cutting Medicaid, which by the way, most of that money in Medicaid nowadays goes to pay for nursing homes. A lot of people don't realize that. Yeah, it's talking about health care for the working poor, but it's also paying for a lot of grandmas and grandpas who are at nursing homes as well.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
So those would be some of the priorities. Certainly there are many other, but I don't see why we as Democrats would give an inch on any of this if they're going to come to us and provide the votes necessary to pass unless we make sure that we're having our priorities met.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
Yeah. So I've been pushing for many years now my bill, the Debt Ceiling Reform Act. You know, the debt ceiling is crazy. It's an accident of history. There's this fairy tale that's told about it that the founding fathers in my district in Philadelphia conceived of the debt ceiling so that we would have the sober conversation on debt. It's a great story. It's total BS.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
It came about in 1917 and it was by accident. We were going into World War I, about to enter it. Treasury didn't want to come to Congress each time they had to pay a specific debt. So they created this concept of the debt ceiling to make it easier for them to meet the debt obligations that we had already incurred.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
And it's really only since the Tea Party Congress won in 2010 that we have seen the debt ceiling weaponized as this unbelievably destructive threat against the American worldwide economy. So I want to end that dysfunction once and for all.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
So, Tim, here's here's the problem, though, with that. There's an asymmetry here. When there's a Republican in the White House and Democrats control Congress, people know we're not irresponsible enough to actually threaten and. follow through with blowing up the American economy by not raising the debt ceiling. And for the first time in American history, our nation would default.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
People get that we're actually not going to do that. However, when the situation's reversed and there is a Democratic president, as we saw with Obama and Biden, when there's a Democrat in the White House and there's a Republican Congress, they really are crazy enough to and have enough crazies on their side not to raise the debt ceiling. So my view is I'm not looking to do Donald Trump any favors.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
Don't get me wrong. If we look at our long-term interests, both as Democrats, but also as Americans, if Donald Trump wants something and wants us to raise the debt ceiling, then one of the things that we should negotiate for is, all right, we'll raise the debt ceiling, but not just this time.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
We need to permanently take this off the table to make sure it's not used against a future Democratic president.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
Yeah, you're speaking to my Philly nature, which is... Throw some batteries at them. Listen, attitudinally, I agree with you. Debt ceiling is one because the consequences are so catastrophic. I mean, no economist has explained to me how we would actually come back from this. So I would put that off to the side as kind of a special example.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
Yeah, that's different. We know that we can weather government shutdowns. Unfortunately, in my decade here, we've suffered through a lot of them. You can recover from those. And I'm of the attitude, they're the majority, let them carry the votes. I was willing to go along with the government shutdown last time, especially when they went back on the very bipartisan agreement that they negotiated.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
And You know, unfortunately, they didn't have to suffer the consequences of their actions back in December. But we may well see that actually happen in mid-March. In fact, as we sit here right now, I think there's a much greater than 50-50 shot of a government shutdown.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
I have missed the two best days of the tournament. Finally, we've transitioned to what I really want to talk about sports. Yeah. The best two days of the tournament are that Thursday and Friday. And I have not been able to see much of that because we're typically in session for whatever reason those days.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
They are great grifters. And to me, it's pretty obvious. So how other people can't see the fact they're grifters is always kind of astounding to me. I said, look, if anyone in this administration is really sincere about actually identifying areas where there's inefficiencies in government, where there's government waste. I mean, go back to the 1990s.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
That was a big part of Clinton Gore's first term, which a lot of people have forgotten about it. Vice President Gore headed that up. They made some real progress. It's been about three decades. I think that if they really want to work with us on a serious effort to find inefficiencies and eliminate them, that's great. I would welcome that.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
Forgive me if I'm more than a little skeptical that that's what they're really about. And the idea that you can find trillions of dollars of government waste is nonsense. We all know that if you're really going to be talking about cutting trillions of dollars, there's only a few places where that money is. Social Security, Medicare, and Defense Department.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
Defense Department is about $900 billion a year. Social Security and Medicare, a lot more than that. Three of them comprise the vast majority of our federal budget. In order to do the sort of things they want to do and tackle the deficit and debt problem, those are the areas they would have to cut. And that's just the simple reality. That's not a democratic talking point. It's math.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
It is amazing how almost everyone who's coming into the Trump administration is a billionaire. Forget top 1%. Top 1%, I think if you make $5, $6 million a year, you're in the top 1%. Someone making $5 million a year is like an impoverished case to this crowd. So, I mean, these really are plutocrats.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
And they unfortunately use the language of populism to con enough people that Trump is really fighting for them. And, yeah, I mean, sometimes people need to actually see that, what the results of that are, as opposed to those of us attempting to warn about it preemptively.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
A couple of thoughts on this. First, you brought up immigration earlier in the context of reconciliation. Let's not forget that four years ago, Democrats attempted to address immigration in what was the Build Back Better Act, and the Senate parliamentarian stripped it out. No one's bringing that up today.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
I actually think Republicans are going to have a tough time dealing with, aside from just increasing money for enforcement, that they would be able to do. But any of the kind of policy changes they're talking about they're really going to attempt to do it in this reconciliation bill. I think they're going to have real challenges. So that's the first thing.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
Second, speaking kind of more broadly on the issue, frankly, I've always thought that President Obama had it right when he talked about We're a nation of laws and we're a nation of immigrants. We can be true to both. I myself am the son of an immigrant. I mean, all four, my father and all four of my grandparents were born elsewhere. I revere that we are a nation of immigrants.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
But yeah, if someone is here undocumented or illegally and they committed a serious offense on top of that, of course they should be deported. I think there's widespread agreement when it comes to that. But at the same time, we as Democrats should not ever go along with the gratuitous, really ugly sort of rhetoric and the stuff that we saw directed toward Haitians in Ohio during the campaign.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
I mean, which is pretty clearly racist. The irony is, by the way, and this is anecdotal, we have a Haitian American community in my district. Some of the hardest working, most solid people. family people I know happen to actually be those Haitian immigrant families. Again, you don't want to generalize, but this is actually a pretty positive perception that I have of that community.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
But of course, it wasn't really about immigration. It was going against an immigrant group that's black. So I think that as Democrats, we can get this right. Ruben Gallego is one of my best friends in Congress. We came in together, and I know we're both pretty like-minded on this issue.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
Yeah. I probably no person, uh, sat through more TV campaign ads than I did. I'm in the Philadelphia media market, uh, We were inundated from May on, literally every single commercial break. I'm also a white guy who watches a lot of sports. So I was subjected to more Trump ads. I mean, I saw the anti-trans ad. I must have seen that. No exaggeration. I might have seen it 500 times.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
So I consumed a lot of political information, also was sitting in on focus groups and looking at the data pretty much daily. And I'll say this, a couple thoughts. First, I don't think it's an accident that at this point in history, every single party in power from Europe to North America to Asia to South America has suffered at the ballot box.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
You saw it, whether it was the conservatives in the UK in July or the liberals in Canada right now or American Democrats, the worldwide inflation crisis has turned the public into worldwide, very sour on whoever was in power. Number two, I go back again to the conversation I talked about earlier, but also some focus groups that I happened to sit in on.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
Boy, there were people who were just dead set against voting against Democrats, no matter what happened in the campaign. I came away from one focus group. This was a non-college educated young males. It was a pretty diverse group. So it was early mid-October in Philadelphia, was on the other side of a one-way window.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
And I came away from that conversation that night actually pretty pessimistic about our chances to win this election. When you look at that exit poll, when they asked people, are we on the right track or wrong track as a country, it was three to one. wrong track over right. Really hard for the incumbent party to win a presidential election with those kind of fundamentals.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
And in fact, I'm still of the belief that if Republicans had a candidate like a Jeb Bush, like a Mitt Romney, I don't think they would have won by one and a half percent in the popular vote. I actually think it would have been much larger than 1.5 percent in the popular vote and roughly 1.4 to 1.7 percent in the three battleground states that decided the elections.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
I think structurally speaking, this would have been, you know, as someone who, you know, I supported Joe Biden very early on in 2018, 2019. I thought he was our best candidate to win. I think that history has proven me right. I had real concerns with some of the positions Kamala Harris took in 2019. I think Kamala Harris is a candidate in 2024.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
First thing we do have to remember, you know, the reason why the term it's the economy stupid has kind of stayed in our lexicon for three decades is because it is right a lot of the time. And what I was hearing in those focus groups, the economic concerns really were the primary driver.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
But the other thing was, and I go back to this one focus group in particular of non-college educated younger males, none of them were watching cable TV. None of them, because they were asked, where do you get your information? None of them said broadcast news. None of them said cable TV. None of them said radio. It was all YouTube ads, podcasts, so congrats, and TikToks.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
Oh, and then also text messages from friends. I mean, I think other peers have a lot of credibility and anyone who's run campaigns knows this as well, that some of the best surrogates are actually... if you're trying to reach a voter, it's someone in that person's family or their neighbor, as opposed to some big celebrity.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
So I think that, yeah, the critique that we as Democrats have to figure out and do a better job of showing up in what we still call alternative media spots, but maybe we shouldn't be calling it alternative media spots anymore if it turns out, you know, roughly a majority of people are actually getting their information that way.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
You know, for someone, I think we're the same generation, same age, when we grew up, You know, cable TV was in its infancy, but it was still the three major networks. Fox was just starting, let alone Fox News. Very different media landscape that my daughter is growing up in today.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
I, uh, no, I, I, you don't know about here. Here's one thing. I have never, I think people can sniff a phony a mile away and I'm not going to BS someone if there's something that I don't know. So that is, you know, I consume a lot of sports.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
Well, you won't be surprised because you probably know this. I am predicting that Notre Dame will win the national championship, 12th national championship. I'm a Notre Dame alum. I was a Subway alum well before I went there. I was on radio doing Sportscast. You thought 12 is too many?
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
By the way, that reminds me. We need to, real quick on this. We need to move the quarterfinals also on campus. That was amazing that Friday night. I was watching it actually from my office wondering if we're going to have a government shutdown because it was that same Friday. That was amazing, the Friday on campus at Notre Dame.
The Bulwark Podcast
Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift
So if you do the round of 12, the first round and the quarterfinals on campus, then the semis would be at the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl on New Year's Day. And then you get the national championship a week later. I think that's actually the way they should do it.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle Responds to Trump Destroying Economy
You know, it's pretty striking that literally Donald Trump All he had to do was do nothing. He could sit there, watch Fox News all day, sit with the remote control, occasionally tweet, and then on weekends go down to Mar-a-Lago and play golf. But he just had to purposely go about ruining this economy. With the exception of COVID and perhaps the Great Recession in the fall of 2008 when it began,
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle Responds to Trump Destroying Economy
I don't remember any other period in which you've had a Federal Reserve so quickly revise their projections from about 4% growth expected to now 4% decline. That is an eight point swing. in the economy in just two months. I have, again, with the exception of COVID and the beginning of the Great Recession, I have never seen anything like it. And this is not because of the normal economic cycle.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle Responds to Trump Destroying Economy
This is not because of a pandemic. This is literally all manmade, made by one man, Donald Trump.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle Responds to Trump Destroying Economy
Well, you know, I held this press conference about Social Security on Monday morning, but I actually want to go back 48 hours earlier to another event I held in my district. And this was a community event on Saturday morning, interacted and spoke to several hundred constituents who came.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle Responds to Trump Destroying Economy
I have never heard the level of anger as well as fear about what's going on right now, but specifically to Social Security. There are a ton of seniors. who are deathly afraid that they're not going to get their social security checks. Social security has existed for almost exactly 90 years, has never missed a paycheck.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle Responds to Trump Destroying Economy
We are now in real danger of seeing paychecks screwed with because of the gross incompetence and the malicious intent of what Elon Musk and the Doge Bros are doing. Let's not forget Elon Musk has already publicly said Social Security is next. He said that a few weeks ago. He's also said that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle Responds to Trump Destroying Economy
Howard Lutnick, the Commerce Secretary, said that, well, people could afford to go one month without a paycheck. He cited his own mother saying that she could miss a month. Well, yeah, no kidding. Her son's a billionaire. Most people on Social Security are like my father who rely on that paycheck that check that they earned over a lifetime of work.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle Responds to Trump Destroying Economy
So I'm doing everything I can to fight back against a malicious administration that is purposely going after the things that people care most about.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle Responds to Trump Destroying Economy
We are seeing evidence of those boycotts having an impact. I think the Atlanta Fed's figures are somewhat reflective of the damage from both tariffs as well as the Canadian boycott. But I can tell you one area, we're certainly going to see it in my area, is come summertime, we have a ton of Canadians who come and vacation at the Jersey Shore.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle Responds to Trump Destroying Economy
You can see the Canadian flags and Quebec flags in a lot of places. I have already heard from business owners saying that they are being impacted by the boycott because their expected bookings are down and down considerably. You know, the first early indication, I happen to be a sports fan and I was watching hockey when the U.S.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle Responds to Trump Destroying Economy
was playing Canada as part of that tournament that was played last month. And to hear the American National Anthem loudly and resoundingly booed at the beginning of that game that was played in Montreal. I never thought that I would see the day. It's truly sad.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle Responds to Trump Destroying Economy
And what is so bewildering about this is I still have not yet to hear one sentence, at least, from Donald Trump on why suddenly Canada is the enemy. What exactly is the pretense for going after them? I mean, I can understand, you know, if you're concerned about, say, steel dumping that comes from China or if you have tariffs that are industry specific and country specific.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle Responds to Trump Destroying Economy
Tariffs are a tool in our toolbox when it comes to trade and national security. That's not what's happening here. I mean, we might be seeing us actually. imposing an incredibly high tariff on every single one of our nation's allies beginning tomorrow. It's just insane.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle Responds to Trump Destroying Economy
i don't want to get too wonky but how how bad is this what's coming down the pipeline what should we be worried about what are you focused on yeah you know it's a as ranking member of budget this is uh basically what i spend most of my time on um and as you can imagine when we're talking about i mean even the name of the process reconciliation to try to explain this
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle Responds to Trump Destroying Economy
and not get too much into the weeds and to speak plain English is a challenge. So let's see how I do here. Bottom line is House Republicans have an incredibly austere plan that they already voted for and approved a few weeks ago, which includes $1.5 trillion worth of cuts, mostly coming from Medicaid. These would be by far the biggest cuts to Medicaid in American history.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle Responds to Trump Destroying Economy
all to help partially pay for the biggest tax cuts for billionaires in American history. So the beginning of that plan passed already in the House. It sits over in the Senate. That's where it sits right now. Senate Republicans are trying to figure out what they want to do with it, if they want to come up with their own plan. That right now is kind of an internal Republican squabble
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle Responds to Trump Destroying Economy
that is playing out as we speak. At some point, they're going to have to internally resolve that. The Senate will pass something. At this point, it doesn't, believe it or not, it doesn't exactly have to match at this point what the House Republicans have done. And then that would allow the next step of the process to play out. So it's a bizarre Byzantine multi-step process.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle Responds to Trump Destroying Economy
One important step has already been taken, has already taken place with the House Republicans passed. But we still have a few more steps to go. And I'm hopeful.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle Responds to Trump Destroying Economy
that there will be an opportunity for just one or two House Republicans to grow a backbone or at least get very afraid of their own voters and stand up to Donald Trump and actually vote with House Democrats so we can kill this once and for all.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle Responds to Trump Destroying Economy
It's a very good question because We don't know something that's called the X date, which is basically the drop dead date. It means this is absolutely the date by which you have to raise the debt ceiling or you've gone into default as a nation, which would have disastrous consequences. Remember, this is what Republicans, the Tea Party Republicans were threatening Barack Obama with.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle Responds to Trump Destroying Economy
In the summer of 2011, this is what they were threatening President Biden with just a few years ago. Well, now the shoe is a bit on the other foot, where House Republicans and Senate Republicans in the White House need to raise the debt ceiling. We don't know, though, that X date. The Treasury Secretary will announce when that is, probably the end of this month.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle Responds to Trump Destroying Economy
And a lot of it is determined and shaped by where tax collections are on April 15th. It could be as late as August or September, but it could be as early as May or June. You might remember two years ago, We were in a very similar situation.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle Responds to Trump Destroying Economy
Most analysts were projecting that the X date would be in August or September, but then tax revenues came in really soft and suddenly the X date got revised to June 1st and suddenly Congress really needed to act very quickly. So we might see that play out again. At the moment, as part of the House Republicans plan,
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle Responds to Trump Destroying Economy
reconciliation plan that they voted out a few weeks ago, they have included in there an increase in the debt ceiling. From what I hear, Senate Republicans are pushing back on that. So it still remains to be determined. Yeah, well...
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle Responds to Trump Destroying Economy
No, listen, happy to do it. Like I said, the biggest challenge is explaining this bizarre process in plain English. So hopefully I at least did a good enough job and happy to come back anytime.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle on Trump Abandoning His Promises
Yeah, you know, hearing Howard Lutnick talk about cars, actually, he does remind me of the first guy I bought a used car from 25 years ago. And it turns out it was a lemon. So Lutnick is very much along those lines. You know, this is so crazy. It's nuts. I come from, as you pointed out, proudly the city of Philadelphia, the home of the Super Bowl champions, by the way.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle on Trump Abandoning His Promises
Biggest city in the biggest battleground state. I was inundated with nonstop campaign TV ads for all of 2024. About 70% of them were about inflation and getting costs down. That's really more than any other issue, what the campaign was about. It was the number one issue for voters.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle on Trump Abandoning His Promises
Trump ends up winning by one and a half points, or as the other side likes to say, the greatest landslide since George Washington. As those of us who like math say, the second closest election in the last 50 years. And what does Trump do? Does he attempt to lower costs? No, still to this point, not one piece of legislation has been introduced in Congress by Republicans to reduce costs.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle on Trump Abandoning His Promises
Instead, he's focusing on attacking our closest ally and literally has members, senior members of our government talking about taking over Canada. It is nuts. It achieves nothing. And I don't know really what the end game for this stupid tariff strategy is. And I do fear things will get significantly more expensive for most Americans and Canadians before it ends.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle on Trump Abandoning His Promises
As you pointed out, those of us from Philly are not exactly known for being shy or polite. So we'd have no problem letting Donald Trump know exactly what we think and feel. But it's just... I wish that all of this, that we could just laugh at it and it was a bad reality TV show.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle on Trump Abandoning His Promises
Unfortunately, real damage is being done though to the American people and real damage is being done to the standing of the United States around the world. You know, if I had said six months ago to you that we would be in an all out trade war with Canada, threatening to physically take it over,
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle on Trump Abandoning His Promises
Inspiring Canadians of all different political ideologies to boo the American national anthem to see the approval rating of the United States in Canada now and around the 10 percent level. We're polling about where China and Russia do. in terms of what Canadians think of us. It's truly disastrous and tragic.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle on Trump Abandoning His Promises
You know, my wife is a public school teacher. She's an elementary school teacher, has been for 25 years. Very dedicated person that could be making a lot more money than she chooses to make because she's so committed to what she does, teaching right now, teaching second grade kids. The war on education that we're seeing being waged by Donald Trump and Musk and the Musketeers. It is disgusting.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle on Trump Abandoning His Promises
And you know, what Jim Banks wanted to confuse people about, the reality is, Most of the funding for K through 12 education in this country comes from the state and local level, and that's already where those decisions are made.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle on Trump Abandoning His Promises
Nonetheless, the Federal Department of Education plays a crucial role in our overall education system, while still primarily most of the funding and the decisions are made at the state and local level, especially as it relates to higher education. and student loans.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle on Trump Abandoning His Promises
So to see so many people committed to education, committed educators, literally thrown out of their offices and not allowed to come back in after years, sometimes decades of real service to our country, it just disgusts me.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle on Trump Abandoning His Promises
Yeah, let's just be clear. What happened in the 2024 presidential election is perhaps the greatest con of Donald Trump's long career as a con man. And this was the con. He was able to convince a lot of working class people that he and his party were on their side. And then in office, what was his number one agenda item?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle on Trump Abandoning His Promises
His bill to extend the Trump tax cuts, most of which go to the top 1% of Americans. The majority of the money literally goes to billionaires. And it is funded, it is paid for by the largest cuts to Medicaid in American history, $880 billion worth of cuts to Medicaid. Now Trump gets on TV and he lies about it. He lies as easily as he breathes.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle on Trump Abandoning His Promises
He said, oh, I promise to, in his words, love and cherish Medicaid. Well, anytime Donald Trump promises to love and cherish anything or anyone, you know that that commitment is about to be broken. And that is the reality of what they're pushing. We had that vote a couple of weeks ago in the House.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle on Trump Abandoning His Promises
I hope that it gets more attention than I think it's currently getting with all of the madness that's going on. It shouldn't distract people from one of the most significant votes of my time in Congress. And that is the largest cuts to Medicaid in American history to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. That, in the end of the day, is what Donald Trump and the Republican Party is actually about.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle on Trump Abandoning His Promises
Yeah, look, I think a lot of Democrats throughout the nation are frustrated and angry right now. I know I'm one of them because the reality is, while it was a very close election, the Republicans ended up winning the House and winning the Senate and have the White House. And so as a result, they'll be able to do a lot of damage.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle on Trump Abandoning His Promises
That said, I'm not giving up and I don't think any one of us should give up. I believe in a three pronged strategy, a legislative strategy, a litigation strategy and a people mobilization strategy. On the first point, even though we're in the minority, we do have leverage. You do have enough senators on the Democratic side in the Senate that they can filibuster most bills if they choose to do so.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle on Trump Abandoning His Promises
You also have in the House the closest, while Republicans aren't in the majority, it's the closest margin between the two parties since 1930. That means that if every Democrat sticks together, the same way basically we did on the budget vote yesterday, it forces every Republican but one to vote for any piece of legislation that they want to pass.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle on Trump Abandoning His Promises
We have to make sure that we stay unified as House Democrats.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle on Trump Abandoning His Promises
and continue to force republicans to reach total unity for them to achieve anything something that historically they've really had a tough time doing second on the litigation front we've already seen initial success in trying to block what elon musk and his doge crew are doing a lot of our outside groups have really been successful in courts even i have to say with republican appointed judges
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle on Trump Abandoning His Promises
And I think you're going to continue to see more of that. And then third and finally, on the people mobilization front, the model is exactly what happened eight years ago. You know, at this point, eight years ago, it was Republican President Donald Trump, Republican House, Republican Senate. And their number one priority, if you recall, was to repeal and replace Obamacare.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle on Trump Abandoning His Promises
They got it through the House. But then what happened? In the Senate, enough Republican senators voted with Democrats to block the repeal of Obamacare. They did that in part because so many people mobilized throughout the country. They had protests. They made their voices heard. The repeal effort you saw in the polls became very unpopular.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle on Trump Abandoning His Promises
That was enough to sway wavering Republicans in Congress to vote against the repeal, including the moment ultimately that John McCain gave the final thumbs down. So I look at that as a real model for us to follow, that we know that if enough people
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Boyle on Trump Abandoning His Promises
mobilize and speak out and pressure Republican members of Congress, then hopefully just enough will be more afraid of the American people than they are afraid of Donald Trump.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Brendan Boyle on Trump’s Big Disastrous Budget
When I see all those clips, I think, my God, why did I run for Congress? Why am I doing this? And calling someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene a colleague. So aside from rethinking my life's choices, I will say that in terms of the budget and the big, beautiful bill for billionaires that Donald Trump and Mike Johnson are pushing, I think at this moment, well, there are two things.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Brendan Boyle on Trump’s Big Disastrous Budget
First, Republicans have scheduled markups, basically voting committee meetings in a few very important committees, including Ways and Means, on which I serve, and Budget Committee, also on which I serve as the lead Democrat or ranking member. Ways and Means has been scheduled for Tuesday of next week, and Budget has been scheduled for Friday.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Brendan Boyle on Trump’s Big Disastrous Budget
However, despite their scheduling those voting meetings, I have to say at this moment, I don't think they're anywhere close to having a final bill. And here's why. Ron Johnson, who's a very conservative senator from Wisconsin, a conspiracy theorist, He alluded to the fact, and quite accurately, they are badly internally divided on the other side. They're divided on Medicaid cuts.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Brendan Boyle on Trump’s Big Disastrous Budget
You have a group in the House led by the Freedom Caucus who continue to push the largest cuts to Medicaid in American history. It would absolutely devastate the program. You have some moderate Republicans who want no cuts to Medicaid or very small cuts. You also have the SALT issue, the ability to deduct state and local income taxes.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Brendan Boyle on Trump’s Big Disastrous Budget
When that cap came into place by Donald Trump and Republicans eight years ago, it basically became a middle class tax increase in places like Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, California, Virginia, and some other states. So those are two of the big issues for internal disagreements. between House Republicans and Senate Republicans, also within the House Republican Conference.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Brendan Boyle on Trump’s Big Disastrous Budget
So at this moment, I have to say, unless real progress is made over the next 48 hours, I do not believe the happy talk from Mike Johnson. And I'll believe that we really have a vote next week when I say it.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Brendan Boyle on Trump’s Big Disastrous Budget
Good luck telling my daughter that she will get two dolls and five pencils. By the way, I think she'll happily trade the pencils for more dolls is my impression, at least based on one 11-year-old girl. Donald Trump is probably the greatest con man in American history.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Brendan Boyle on Trump’s Big Disastrous Budget
And he was able to convince a lot of people, especially in my state of Pennsylvania, that he would actually bring down costs and make their lives better. And just the last three months, the exact opposite has happened. And this isn't my opinion. We don't have to take my word for it or any Democrats' word for it. Just last week, Trump's own Labor Department released the receipts
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Brendan Boyle on Trump’s Big Disastrous Budget
The first quarter, contrary to everyone's prediction a few months ago, the economy actually contracted. We are right now in a recession. No one was predicting that. No conservative economists, no liberal economists. No one was predicting that. We're in a recession. We are in a contracting economy. And at the same time, prices are going up. Inflation jumped from the low 2% range to the mid threes.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Brendan Boyle on Trump’s Big Disastrous Budget
That's the biggest jump we've seen since the COVID pandemic. So this economy is in a bad place. And it is entirely because of Trump's tariffs. And everyone knows that.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Brendan Boyle on Trump’s Big Disastrous Budget
no amount even the greatest con man in the history of america donald trump can't get people to believe things that are so contrary to their own lives and their own experiences so there's a reason why trump's approval rating has actually dropped faster than any new president in the history of polling and i think it's going to continue to get worse because in all likelihood
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Brendan Boyle on Trump’s Big Disastrous Budget
The quarter that we're in right now, the data will actually come out and show that things are far worse than even it was in the first quarter because we're just now starting to see the full impact of the Trump massive tariffs.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Brendan Boyle on Trump’s Big Disastrous Budget
Well, again, here are the numbers. I mean, the Dow Jones down since the Trump presidency began. S&P 500 down since the Trump presidency began. NASDAQ down since the Trump presidency began. All of those were up just a few months ago. There's a tremendous amount of volatility. And we're actually seeing, you know, at the beginning of the year, again, just a few months ago,
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Brendan Boyle on Trump’s Big Disastrous Budget
Everyone was projecting there would be three Fed cuts of about 75 basis points. So that would have a dramatic impact in lowering people's mortgages and lowering people's auto loans. Now the likelihood is we won't have any Fed cuts. Why? Because of the Trump inflation that he caused as a result of his tariffs. As far as trade deals, I mentioned before I serve on Ways and Means Committee.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Brendan Boyle on Trump’s Big Disastrous Budget
I'm on the Trade Subcommittee. We have jurisdiction over that, so I will have the opportunity to review this so-called US-UK trade deal, look, I would welcome a trade deal with the European Union, which is a market of almost 500 million people, a trade deal with the UK, a trade deal with Canada, trade deal with Mexico.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Brendan Boyle on Trump’s Big Disastrous Budget
But Donald Trump announcing that he has a trade agreement is a little like the arsonist claiming credit for putting out one of the fires he started. After all, Donald Trump is the person who came in and slapped tariffs on all these countries. We already had a trade deal with Canada in operation. It was one actually Donald Trump negotiated along with Democrats in Congress in 2019.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Brendan Boyle on Trump’s Big Disastrous Budget
So I go back to what I said before. Donald Trump is the ultimate con man. This is just one big reality show for him. He loves the attention. He loves having the media into the Oval Office. He loves doing those bogus signings of executive orders, many of which aren't even real executive orders. They're essentially releases. He just loves the show. And it's just sad to me.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Brendan Boyle on Trump’s Big Disastrous Budget
And I have to admit, I'll never quite understand it. how many people have actually been suckered by him and believe his tremendous amount of BS.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Brendan Boyle on Trump’s Big Disastrous Budget
And while Trump makes billions off it, while he makes billions, people will be poor as a result of it.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Brendan Boyle on Trump’s Big Disastrous Budget
Yeah, I mean, so first, the House passed the House Republicans passed the bill, their first part passed. of reconciliation that we talked about earlier, $880 billion worth of cuts to Medicaid, by far the biggest in American history. There's some Senate Republicans who want to chop that figure down to about $500 billion.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Brendan Boyle on Trump’s Big Disastrous Budget
Well, okay, they would still be the biggest Medicaid cuts in American history and still have a devastating impact. Now, some of them will attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of the American people and say, oh, no, they're not taking away Medicaid. We're shifting the cost to the states. Yeah, you're shifting the cost to states who don't have the money to do it.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Brendan Boyle on Trump’s Big Disastrous Budget
Keep in mind that I'll just use my state as an example, Pennsylvania. Medicaid represents more money to the state of Pennsylvania than all of the other federal dollars we give Pennsylvania combined. And that's pretty representative actually of the way the financing works.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Brendan Boyle on Trump’s Big Disastrous Budget
So the reality is for the 44% of people in my district who are on Medicaid, for the other tens of millions of people on Medicaid nationwide, they will lose Medicaid coverage. Or if they don't lose Medicaid coverage entirely, depending on their state, they will see a drop in what that coverage actually covers. This will have a devastating impact. And why?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Brendan Boyle on Trump’s Big Disastrous Budget
In order to help subsidize tax cuts for the top 1% of Americans. It's truly immoral. It's bad economics. It really shows you that Trump's economic policy is a rich man's war, poor man's fight.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/14/25
Yeah, let's just be clear. What happened in the 2024 presidential election is perhaps the greatest con of Donald Trump's long career as a con man. And this was the con. He was able to convince a lot of working class people that he and his party were on their side. And then in office, what was his number one agenda item? His bill to extend the Trump tax cuts
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/14/25
most of which go to the top 1% of Americans. The majority of the money literally goes to billionaires and it is funded, it is paid for by the largest cuts to Medicaid in American history, $880 billion worth of cuts to Medicaid. Now Trump gets on TV and he lies about it. He lies as easily as he breathes. He said, oh, I promise to, in his words, love and cherish Medicaid.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/14/25
Well, anytime Donald Trump promises to love and cherish anything or anyone, you know that that commitment is about to be broken. And that is the reality of what they're pushing. We had that vote a couple of weeks ago in the House. I hope that it gets more attention than I think it's currently getting with all of the madness that's going on.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/14/25
It shouldn't distract people from one of the most significant votes of my time in Congress, and that is the largest cuts to Medicaid in American history to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. That, in the end of the day, is what Donald Trump and the Republican Party is actually about.