Democrats are stuck with two terrible options: Either facilitating a government shutdown or allowing Republicans to pass a spending bill that would defund D.C.'s police and schools. Meanwhile, CEOs are getting rattled by Trump's tariff and trade-war chaos, a 'Hispanic Hibernation' is leading to job loss, and Marco Rubio is turning Hamas supporter Mahmoud Khalil into a martyr—as the campus free speech warriors go missing. Plus, California congressman Jimmy Gomez joins Tim to discuss how Dems need to finesse their 'relatable' skills, and man up against the billionaire establishment. Sam Stein and Rep. Jimmy Gomez joins Tim Miller. show notes Morning Shots on Puma cutting jobs because of a 'Hispanic Hibernation' The Bulwark's tip line Mona on the Mahmoud Khalil case
Chapter 1: What are the challenges Democrats face with government spending bills?
We are actually between two ferns.
We are. It's nice. I like it.
It's very quaint.
It's very good. We're going to start a little wonky. We're going to do some Capitol Hill machinations talk. And so I promise for the listeners out there in real America, outside the Beltway, who don't care about reconciliation and cloture votes... that I have candy for them coming at the end. But we have to do this. Before we get to the budget, we got Congressman Jimmy Gomez up in segment two.
Chapter 2: How are Senate Democrats responding to Republican strategies?
So I hope everybody sticks around for that as well. As I mentioned on yesterday's podcast, there was a kind of a quasi-CR. They're trying to call it a continuing resolution where they're continuing the Biden budget. With some changes. Some serious changes. Yeah. They're going to plus up funding for the military, deeply cut funding to Washington, D.C.
They're cutting some other discretionary funding. Elon isn't even listening to the – isn't even responsive to what they actually are passing anyway. This passed the House with one Democrat, Jared Golden, voting for it, but otherwise on a party-line vote. It now goes to the Senate. And it's a pretty complicated situation, actually, for the Senate.
And as the person who's been, like, screaming the loudest, do something, Democrats, stop them, fuck them up, do everything you can, the Senate calculus is, like, not actually that clear.
Are you having a change of heart?
No, no, I think that... We're about to talk about it. But I'm just saying up to top that I think that it's a complicated calculus because... The Republicans do have the votes to pass this if there's no filibuster. So the Democrats have to decide, are we going to filibuster this? Are we going to block this from even coming up for a vote?
Rand Paul, I believe, is a no. So Republicans need eight Democrats to say yes in order for this to pass.
Well, they need eight Democrats to say yes to cloture. This is going to be annoying.
Let's just assume that they're going to treat cloture as the... And I'll be over, right? So they need eight Democrats. And it is a tough one. I feel like I go back and forth on this.
Yesterday I was thinking about how if the goal here for Elon and Trump is to quite literally shave the government down to its studs and fire a bunch of people and reduce the size of the federal bureaucracy as much as possible, then this would help them do it, right? Like you would basically furlough all the non-essential employees. Russ Fott would be in charge of figuring out who's essential.
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Chapter 3: What is the controversy surrounding Mahmoud Khalil's detention?
And I was thinking to myself – Does that make the plane ride go faster or slower?
I was prepping this podcast. I was like, what would Bannon do? Well, WWBD.
I think that's actually a worthy thing to – way to operate.
Yeah. And – And the reality is that he would right now be sitting in my shoes with this mic going to the mattresses being like, zero votes, zero quarter for anyone that gives a vote. We must stop anybody that gives a vote. Patriots, sign up with me right now. We have the banner of heaven on our side. Okay. Okay.
Well, first of all, you need at least three more college shirts.
I have two shirts on.
But only one of them is college. You need that.
Okay. And so there's something – but here's the thing. Again, just politically, there's something to all that.
Right.
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Chapter 4: How are CEOs reacting to Trump's trade policies?
Chapter 5: What is the significance of Pete Buttigieg not running for Senate?
Chapter 6: How does the podcast discuss free speech issues on college campuses?
But if you are out there a regular American and fucking the stock market is crashing, like there's no real progress on any of the foreign stuff that Trump said that he was going to make. The prices are higher. Right. People are being fired all around you. You can't call Social Security help. You can't go to the national parks. I think that's great.
Are you going to really blame the – and you're like Donald Trump is the president. I don't know what the cloture is. Like Donald Trump said he'd fix everything. He's a dealmaker. It's all fucking chaos. I think it hurts Trump. I don't disagree with that. I think it hurts Democrats among elite thinkers and fart sniffers on the Excella corridor. But I think it probably hurts Republicans everywhere.
I don't disagree that what you're describing here was popularized in the great 90s movie Speed. Okay. Shoot the hostage. Shoot the hostage. And in this case, and I don't literally mean shoot people.
Ego Ed Martin, if you're listening, this is a reference to the movie Speed.
Okay? People in Canada, I know you're mad at me. In this case, the hostage is federal employees. And you've spent six weeks being like, what are you fucking doing to our government? You're firing all these people. It's horrible. And then you turn around and you're like, sorry, but we've got to go because we need the chaos. That's shooting the hostage.
But in terms of the politics, I actually think you're right, which is – I mean, the real criticism of Trump right now is that everything is just so chaotic, and that just extends from the government to the economy to world affairs, and this doesn't help matters. But the hostage is pretty pricey. Yeah.
All right. So I'm a no, but I think it's tough. I think it's tougher than it seems.
You want to raw dog this thing, basically.
I do want to raw dog this thing. And I got to tell you, it's interesting. It's not just one last thing on this because people are so fucking sick of culture talk, I'm sure, listening, but... I've spoken to two House Democrats who are like not Tim, like not like the flamethrowers. Like listeners probably haven't even heard of either of them, honestly.
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