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Schumer Supports GOP Budget & California Needs Money | Afternoon Update | 3.14.25
Fri, 14 Mar 2025
Schumer reverses course on budget bill, California quietly borrows more than three billion dollars to pay for Medi-Cal, and Donatella Versace steps down from eponymous fashion brand. Get the facts first on Morning Wire.Balance of Nature: Go to https://balanceofnature.com and use promo code WIRE for 35% off your first order as a preferred customer PLUS get a free bottle of Fiber and Spice.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic of this episode?
I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley. It's Friday, March 14th, and this is your Morning Wire afternoon update. The Republican-led Senate is poised to pass a funding bill today that's backed by President Trump. The stopgap bill will prevent a government shutdown that would hit at midnight tonight.
Chapter 2: Why did Chuck Schumer support the GOP budget bill?
The House-approved resolution faces a procedural vote in the Senate today, but as we reported this morning, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has reversed course and agreed to support the bill, so it will likely pass. Many Democrats are upset with Schumer's decision, which he defended on MSNBC.
I knew I'd get criticized, but I felt obligated for the country, for my Democratic caucus, to the people to explain how bad a shutdown would be. And if we had if we went into a shutdown and everything bad happened, I had to give people this warning.
Chapter 3: What is the latest development in the Gaza hostage situation?
Hamas agreed today to release the last living US hostage held in Gaza. Eden Alexander, a 21-year-old Israeli-American, has been in captivity for 525 days. The bodies of four dual national hostages will also be returned as part of the deal announced by a senior Hamas official.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet his team Saturday to plan next steps as ceasefire talks continue in Qatar. It's unclear when the transfer of hostages will take place, but it marks progress and negotiations amid pressure from President Trump, who has prioritized freeing all hostages.
Chapter 4: How is California handling its Medi-Cal budget crisis?
California will borrow around $3.5 billion to cover the state's Medi-Cal shortfall. Daily Wire senior editor Ash Short has details of the budget crisis.
Officials inside Governor Gavin Newsom's administration are warning that the multimillion-dollar loan is the maximum the state can borrow and only covers bills through the end of this month. The shortfall is fueling debate over the state's $8.4 billion cost to cover undocumented immigrants this year. This is nearly triple the original $3 billion estimate provided to California voters.
Chapter 5: What are the implications of California's Medi-Cal funding issues?
Assembly member Carl DeMeo says he was thrown off the budget committee after exposing the massive cost for illegal immigrant health care and the $3-plus billion loan. Morning Wire spoke to DeMeo about the massive cost overrun.
I was on the budget committee for only two hearings and I was taken off because of the line of questioning I've been engaging in in a variety of government programs and budget items. This was at my first hearing where we basically said our sources, our investigators are telling us that the cost of illegal and immigrant health care is not what you represented in the budget, that it's far higher.
What's the real number? And she said it's $9.5 billion. I said, okay, well, that's 43% higher than you guesstimated. And how much of that is general fund, which means how much of it is not being reimbursed by the federal government? And the answer, $8.4 billion, all but a small fraction of the cost.
So we're talking about one out of four dollars in the Medi-Cal program in the state general fund in California is being handed out to an illegal immigrant. And that's why it is insolvent currently.
There are new air restrictions around D.C. 's main airport after January's tragic midair collision. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced this week that the FAA is accepting both safety recommendations from the NTSB to permanently restrict non-essential helicopter operations around Reagan Washington National Airport.
The move makes permanent the temporary restrictions put in place by Duffy and the FAA after the deadly mid-air collision on January 29th. He made this announcement this week.
Over the last two and a half years, there have been 85 near misses or close calls. And that is close calls that are within 200 feet of vertical separation and 1500 feet of lateral separation. Incredibly close. for aircraft, 85 of them. I think the question is, when this data comes in, how did the FAA not know? How did they not study the data to say, hey, this is a hotspot.
We're having near misses. And if we don't change our way, we're going to lose lives. That wasn't done. Maybe there was a focus on something other than safety. But in this administration, we are focusing on safety. And so what the FAA has deployed is AI tools. Our AI tools will help us take corrective actions preemptively as opposed to retroactively.
Tax Day is just a month away. Imagine no income taxes for Americans earning less than $150,000 a year. That's President Trump's goal, according to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. He floated the novel idea in an interview with CBS this week.
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