The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
Are You There, Congress? with Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick and Tom Suozzi
Thu, 08 May 2025
In this era of executive overreach, Jon is joined by Representatives Tom Suozzi (D-NY) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), co-chairs of the Problem Solvers Caucus, to examine how bipartisanship might still be possible. Together, they explore the caucus's approach to building consensus across party lines, discuss what leverage remains with the legislative branch, and consider what reforms could help Congress better serve the American people. This podcast is brought to you by Fast Growing Trees, America’s largest online nursery. Visit http://fastgrowingtrees.com/weekly and use code WEEKLY for 15% off. Follow The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart on social media for more: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@weeklyshowpodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/weeklyshowpodcast TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@weeklyshowpodcast X: https://x.com/weeklyshowpod BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/theweeklyshowpodcast.com Host/Executive Producer – Jon Stewart Executive Producer – James Dixon Executive Producer – Chris McShane Executive Producer – Caity Gray Lead Producer – Lauren Walker Producer – Brittany Mehmedovic Video Editor & Engineer – Rob Vitolo Audio Editor & Engineer – Nicole Boyce Researcher & Associate Producer – Gillian Spear Music by Hansdle Hsu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the focus of today's podcast episode?
Hello, everyone. Welcome once again to the Weekly Show podcast. My name is Jon Stewart. I will be hosting the program today. It is, I think we might be even taping a day earlier than normal. Yeah, it's Tuesday, May 6th. May the 6th be with you. We've got a May 4th and then Cinco de Mayo. May 6th really has got no game. It's got nothing going on, which is truly a shame.
The premier of Canada, Mark Carney, visited the White House today and the president once again said incredibly rude and disrespectful things. about Canada, but I am still hung up, quite frankly, on the interview that he did with Kristen Welker on Meet the Press, where he continues to float this idea that Americans just have too much, that in this new world order,
that he is creating, that it is important for children to learn gratitude and simplicity in terms of the amount of dolls. He seems to be stuck on 30 to 37 dolls as the magic number of what spoils a child. I'm not sure there is a child that has received 30 dolls in the span of a year, unless they are
A Trump child, which is, it gets us really to the crux of how fucking wrongheaded his entire approach may be because he sees no value in moderation for himself. There is no, he is not leading moderation. through the exemplar of a dignified and less consumerist life. He, as you can see, every time there is another press conference within the Oval Office, another gold cherub gets its wings.
Another gold cherub in another gold leaf frame until there is no wall space left in the Oval Office. Fuck that. Fuck. Fuck you for telling the American people, oh, you know what? So your kids have to go without. Why don't billionaires, why doesn't he ever say, hey, you know what? Maybe you don't need $350 billion. Maybe you just need $10 to $12 billion. Maybe you don't need any of those things.
Why isn't his scolding of excess in any way self-reflective and turned around to the people who have bought and sold this country to all the interests that are making it more difficult for people to live better lives. Why not say the same thing to the profits of the insurance companies and to the banks and the financialization?
No, it's people who are buying pencils for their kids who've gotten out of control. That's what's out of control, those people. Not him in his Saddam-like palace. You know what? What if you had 10 golden toilets instead of 20? or the font on the giant Trump sign was slightly smaller. God! And Congress just stands slack-jawed as it all goes down. We're so upset about the tariffs.
We've got to do something about the tariffs. Let's have a vote about it. Yeah, I don't know about that. Why don't we, you know what? Well, let's wait. Let's see what happens. which is why actually, so we're going to be talking a little bit about Congress today. We got a couple of Congress people that are coming on the show. We're going to talk about the intricacies of it, the ins and outs.
These are a couple of guys who are working with something called the Problem Solvers Caucus. It's right in the name there. They caucus to solve problems, generally about how many dolls I'm sure people can buy.
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Chapter 2: Why is Congress perceived as passive?
Something that really interested me that we didn't really get into necessarily was learning how many caucuses exist in Congress. And I'll give you a few just to give an example.
Of the other caucuses? Yeah.
Yeah. Like, I don't know if this was the 118th Congress or the last Congress, but there's like Pickleball Caucus and there's the Cranberry Caucus.
Cranberry caucus?
Somebody has to look out for their interests. Yeah, hobbies.
Wait, I could see the cranberry caucus being like a very small subsection of New Jersey because I think we have cranberry bogs.
Yeah, you have cranberry bogs.
Right. How is that its own? We get together and just talk cranberries?
I mean, both of our guests today were on the Quiet Skies Caucus, and it makes sense because they both have districts with airports nearby. So that's how it goes. But something else you brought up that I thought was really interesting was that, of course, you spend a third of your time, let's say, fundraising as a congressperson. But Representative Fitzpatrick is in dozens of caucuses.
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Chapter 3: Who are the Problem Solvers Caucus and what do they do?
And he goes, well, I honestly believe the good parts of the economy are me and the bad parts are Biden. I just thought, well, what a simple way to go through life.
Yeah. Yeah.
Does he, do you think he does that with his kids? You know, I, I look at the good, the kids and I think, oh yeah, the good part is me. And the bad part is whichever of their moms.
And he doesn't have to be specific. He's just like the good thing. However, you broadly define that is me.
I love this thing. Like we trillions of dollars in investment, like you've never seen before and go, we haven't seen it yet. Cause the last time you said the same fucking thing and none of it happened.
Yeah. And we have seen trillions of dollars in investment. Exactly. And then you're cutting that.
Right, right. Sad. Nonsense. Brittany, how do they get in touch with us? How do they continue to send in such specific questions about what day will be great again?
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Nice. Thank you guys very much. We had another fine, fine program. You guys, your preparation and attention to detail is second to none. I truly appreciate it. Lead producer, Lauren Walker. Producer, Brittany Mamedovic. Video editor and engineer, Rob Vitola. Audio editor and engineer, Nicole Boyce. Researcher and associate producer, Jillian Spear.
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