Episode 586: Neal and Toby dive into Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ that looks to extend a 2017 tax cut policy alongside other economic policies that may or may not increase the US deficit. Then, Netflix just saved ‘Sesame Street’ as the legendary show will now be available on the most popular streaming platform. Also, small college towns that rely on a bustling campus are beginning to become ghost towns as enrollments are shrinking. Meanwhile, Toby examines the trend of cremation – a much more affordable option for families, but also hurting the bottom lines for funeral homes. Subscribe to Morning Brew Daily for more of the news you need to start your day. Share the show with a friend, and leave us a review on your favorite podcast app. Visit endthecampaign.com for more Listen to Morning Brew Daily Here: https://www.swap.fm/l/mbd-note Watch Morning Brew Daily Here: https://www.youtube.com/@MorningBrewDailyShow 00:00 - 9 to 5 Interruptions 03:15 - Big Beautiful Bill Breakdown 08:00 - Sesame Street Heads to Netflix 11:45 - College Towns Emptying 16:35 - Cremation Rates Rise 20:50 - Headlines Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the Big Beautiful Bill and its implications?
Sounds pretty nice.
I know. We were laughing at this because that actually does feel like a blissful little two moments of peace for you. But add in all those messages plus post-work messages, and we are experiencing 275 interruptions a day. No wonder you can't think. Some other data points just showing how scatterbrained we are in the modern workplace. 60% of meetings are ad hoc versus scheduled.
And then edits in PowerPoint spike 122%. in the final 10 minutes before a meeting, so love all you procrastinators out there. Also, the messages do follow you home. Microsoft found that there's been a 15% year-over-year increase with messages outside the nine to five work hours, so anytime you feel like your work is chaotic or fragmented, you're probably right.
Now, Microsoft tries to position AI as the answer and the solution to all of this, but I say the answer is go outside and take a walk without your phone. And now a word from our sponsor, Iterable. Neil, I want you to imagine something. Imagine you just jumped into the ocean wearing a full business suit. Full birthday suit? Sounds like that wedding I went to in Punta Cana.
No, Neil, this is a morning show. I said business suit, uncomfortable, outdated, and wildly impractical for the situation at hand. That's what using campaign based marketing feels like in 2025.
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Chapter 2: How did Sesame Street end up on Netflix?
Traditional campaigns are rigid and often totally miss the point. Your customers don't live on a marketing calendar. They live in the now. Iterable helps brands ditch the old playbook and deliver AI powered, always on personalization that meets people in real time.
So instead of waiting three weeks for the Q3 summer sale email, you get a message when you actually need something.
Iterable orchestrates engagement across every channel. Feels kind of like leaving your suit on the sand and diving in with purpose. Neil, again with this birthday suit metaphor. Don't let your marketing sink. Swim smarter and less inhibited. Head to endthecampaign.com to learn more. The big beautiful bill is on the move.
Chapter 3: Why are college towns facing economic decline?
Late Sunday night, a congressional committee advanced President Trump's massive spending and tax package with the hopes of teeing up a House vote before Memorial Day weekend. This thing, running over 1,100 pages, is the centerpiece of Trump's legislative agenda and would shake up everything from your taxes to Medicare to the electric vehicle tax credit. The primary purpose of the bill
is to extend the 2017 tax cuts from Trump's first term in office. Those would expire at the end of the year. So absent an extension, taxes would go up for most Americans by 2026. So that's priority number one. In addition to continuing those tax cuts, the bill also eliminates taxes on tips, overtime, and car loan interest, fulfilling promises Trump made on the campaign trail.
All of that foregone revenue is going to be extremely costly for the U.S. government. To pay for the tax cuts, the bill claws back clean energy credits from Biden's Inflation Reduction Act and would make other cuts to Medicaid and food stamps. But it won't make up the difference, and it would exacerbate a spiraling debt problem cited by Moody's when it cut the U.S. 's credit rating on Friday.
Even with the spending reductions, the bill would add over $3.2 trillion in new red ink over the next decade. That's according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. And this double whammy of the Moody's rating cut and the prospect of even higher deficits from the tax bill shook Wall Street yesterday, spurring investors to continue... selling bonds and the dollar.
Yeah. Four main priorities here. Extend those tax cuts, introduce some of those new tax breaks that he campaigned on, boost some military and border spending, and then fourth, raise the debt ceiling so the government can continue to borrow money. And all of that is super expensive. So a lot of people are going, all right, How are we going to pay for the thing?
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Chapter 4: What trends are affecting cremation rates?
And the vast majority of it just won't be paid for. We're just kicking the can down the road once more. There are those cuts coming to Medicaid. There are those cuts coming to clean energy, among other areas. But this has created a problem within the Republican Party who... already holds a narrow majority because you have fiscal hawks that are saying, wait a second, why are we spending more?
Why are we adding more to the deficit? Let's add some deeper spending cuts to this thing. And then also some Republicans in their own districts are saying, we don't want to cut Medicaid. These are our constituents here. We don't want to do that.
And then others don't like the clean energy cuts, too, because, again, you are increasing costs for buying an electric vehicle for some of their constituents. And then probably the biggest... kind of hold up is one group that really wants to roll back a Trump tax hike, aka the salt deduction that would hits mainly affluent people living in blue states that came back in 2017.
That would be an expensive change because that was one of the big tax hikes that did help offset some of the tax cuts in Trump's previous administration. So a lot of just nitty gritty things that are still to be worked out in this big, beautiful bill.
Chapter 5: What are the latest headlines impacting the economy?
Yeah, they're trying to pass it or get at least to the House before everyone goes on break before Memorial Day. But as you mentioned, there are a lot of provisions here with a lot of stakeholders from people getting large clean energy tax credits in their states to those people in California, New York and New Jersey who really rely on that salt deduction.
And then investors, Wall Street really had a strong reaction to all that's been happening recently. And it really has been one common theme of fiscal deterioration from the Moody's cut on Friday to increasing the deficit with this tax bill on Monday. The investors sent bond yields higher, which means they sold off bonds. Yields are extremely high right now.
They're much higher than they were in 2017 with these tax cuts, which could make borrowing a lot more expensive for the U.S. government. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond yesterday settled in at 4.937%. That's up from 4.786% at the end of last year. Let's talk about the 10-year note. That was up to 4.47% yesterday, up from 4.2% at the end of April. Already, nearly $1 in every $7 the U.S.
spends goes toward paying interest. When we borrow money now, it's going to be at these much higher interest rates than they were in 2017. And that's what Moody's is setting. That's what these budget hawks are looking at when they're saying, you know, this fiscal picture for the United States is looking more dire than ever.
Let's move on. Every Sesame Street episode begins with a theme song, Sunny Day, which features the iconic line, Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street? Now that old question has a new answer. Log on to Netflix. The king of the streamers announced it had picked up the rights to Sesame Street yesterday, giving the kids show a new home after it had ended its partnership with Max late last year.
Despite shaping millions of children's vocabulary and math abilities for decades, Sesame Street has struggled to adapt to the streaming age. After more than 50 years as a PBS staple, the show struck a deal with Warner Bros. Discovery in 2016 to make the show available on its flagship streaming platform, Maxx.
But as Wall Street soured on the chase for subscribers, the eye-popping price tag Warner Bros. paid for the right to air Sesame Street in the $35 million a year range suddenly seemed too expensive. So as Sesame Workshop has geared up to work on its 56th season, it's also been shopping around for a new home, one that Netflix was happy to provide given its broader push into children's content.
Netflix already holds the streaming rights to Miss Rachel and Cocomelon, two of the most popular children's YouTube channels. In 2021, it acquired the Roald Dahl Story Company, and now it's got Sesame Street in the fold. Neil certainly seems like it wants to make sure any byproducts of Netflix and chill sessions from nine months ago have some entertainment as well.
Well, this is a huge lifeline for Sesame Street and its owner, Sesame Workshop, who cut 20% of its workforce. They lost $35 million in revenue per year when this max deal ended and Netflix swoops in and it's a big win for Netflix, which wants to build its lead over the other streamers with kids programming. It's already number one, 72% of 10 to 12 year old viewers are
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