The Big Beautiful Bill Breakdown feat. Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly
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It's Thursday, June 5th. I'm Jane Koston, and this is What A Day, the show that would like one 24-hour period in which a Trump administration spokesperson, in this case, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce, doesn't say something low-key terrifying. The thing that matters when it comes to American policy and what's happening is what President Trump thinks and says. Well, I guess today is not that day.

On today's show, Doge volunteers become official government employees making lots of official money. Fun!

But let's start with the Senate, the current location of President Donald Trump's big, beautiful bill that apparently no one actually read or seems to like. That's the only conclusion I can come to after hearing numerous members of Congress, including Republican members of the House of Representatives who voted for the president's massive spending bill that would kick millions of Americans off their health care, say they didn't actually read the text of the bill they voted for.

Take Nebraska Republican Representative Mike Flood. He voted for the big, not very beautiful bill, but he didn't read it and missed a part of the bill that would essentially prevent judges from holding litigants who defy court orders in contempt. Litigants like, say, hypothetically, members of the Trump administration. And I'm not just saying he didn't read it. He did at a town hall last week. I am not going to hide the truth. This provision was unknown to me when I voted for that bill.

unknown to you or you didn't read it. Well, potato, potato. And then there was Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who tweeted that she just didn't know about a portion of the legislation that would prevent states from making laws about or regulating AI for a decade. Here she is on News Nation trying to explain herself on Tuesday. How did you not know that it was in there? And how'd you find out about it? Well,

We don't get the full bill text until very close to the time to vote for it. And so that was one section, that was two pages that I didn't see. This is like the time I missed that there was a second page of my AP bio exam, except I was 15 and not a member of Congress. Now, a lot of this sudden case of buyer's remorse is happening because of one of the loudest and most important voices in Republican politics, Elon Musk.

After tweeting on Tuesday that the spending bill was a, quote, disgusting abomination, the world's most prolific poster just kept on posting on Wednesday, writing, quote, call your senator, call your congressman, bankrupting America is not okay, kill the bill. And making a kill bill reference that was actually pretty good.

And while he was happy to yell at him on the Internet, he wouldn't even take his very good friend House Speaker Mike Johnson's phone call. Well, I tell you, I called Elon last night and he didn't answer. But I hope to talk to him today. I mean, it's not, you know, it's very friendly and we can and we've laughed about our differences on policy before.

Sure you have. But as much fun as I'm getting out of some very masculine men fighting it out on the internet, this very bad bill is actually very bad. The Congressional Budget Office says that it will add trillions to the deficit while leaving nearly 11 million Americans uninsured.

And let's keep in mind that many of the biggest opponents of this legislation, like Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul, want the bill to do more cutting of health care spending and services for everyday Americans to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. So to talk more about the not very beautiful bill, I called up Arizona Democratic Senator Mark Kelly.

Senator Kelly, welcome to What A Day. Jane, thank you for having me. You've been doing a lot of town halls in Arizona, especially around Republicans' proposed cuts to Medicaid in the so-called Big Beautiful Bill. What are you hearing from folks on the ground? Well,

Well, I'm not hearing that word. Not hearing the word beautiful? Not from a single person in Arizona that comes up to me to talk to me about this legislation. Not yet. I mean, could that happen next time I'm back? I guess so. But what I've been hearing from many of my constituents, you know, talking about how this legislation is going to be really harmful to them and their families and in some cases their friends, you

you know, moms that have kids that are on Medicaid. I met this one woman in Phoenix named Kiana Brown, and she has two kids that she adopted out of foster care. When you adopt a kid out of foster care, they're on Medicaid. And she was talking about how just how worried she is that they're going to lose their Medicaid. And she said to her, it feels like

This is a quote. She said, the Republicans are burning down my house and there's people still inside. My kids are inside. And she just can't afford, especially one of her daughters has some significant health care needs. And those are paid for by Medicaid. She can't afford it. And the deal she got when she adopted these kids out of foster care, would they be on Medicaid until they're 18 years old? That's what all this is about.

Yeah. And, you know, to your point, more than two million Arizonans are on Medicaid. And the Republican line here, at least one of them, is that these billions of dollars in cuts are merely cutting waste, fraud and abuse, and that the only people who are going to lose their health care coverage are undocumented immigrants or people who just won't get a job. As it specifically relates to Arizona, why are those claims wrong?

That's what they're saying over and over again. And I think if they say it enough, it'll become true. This is not the way this works. Work requirements are just designed to be an enormous amount of red tape. So where people can't stay on Medicaid. But the reality of the situation is you force them off of Medicaid. They're not going to get any better. They're still going to be sick. And they might even be sicker when they go to the emergency room.

And then they wind up in the ICU and they're in ICU for an extended period of time. And it just winds up costing more. So if you're really concerned about costs, sure. I mean, we should figure out how to deliver health care more affordably. But the way to control costs isn't to kick sick people off their health insurance.

I also think people are largely unaware that there are tons of people who are on Medicaid who might not even know that they're on Medicaid because it might have a different name in their state. And also, you know, if you're a DoorDash driver or you drive for Uber, you might get health insurance through Medicaid because you're

DoorDash doesn't offer health insurance. So, you know, and President Donald Trump has insisted over and over and over again that one, he will not cut Medicaid. And two, this bill does not change Medicaid. Those are both false. We've gotten into that a little bit. How do Democrats help voters connect the dots between potentially losing their health care and Republicans? Well, you got to connect the dots that this is their legislation. This is the president's priorities.

And if this passes, and it's not a done deal yet, but if it was to pass, we wind up with a situation where all these people lose their health care coverage. And that is going to be devastating to the health care system in Arizona because the foundation of the health care system is Medicaid.

There's not one health care system for people on Medicaid and one for Medicare and one for private payer. It is all the same system and hospitals will close and we will wind up in a situation where delivering health care for the entire population is affected in a negative way. If this legislation was to pass, we think around 300,000 of them would be kicked off of Medicaid directly.

because of things like, you know, work requirements and the red tape surrounding that. Or they would also, some of them would be affected by the decrease in subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. So they wouldn't be able to afford it anymore. And they would just leave the program. Now, there's been some interesting Republican opposition to this bill. So some GOP senators like Josh Hawley have expressed concern over Medicaid cuts in the bill.

But we've also heard from some members of the House who apparently just didn't read the bill and are having some buyer's remorse. Is that helping Democrats make a case? And at this point, is there a chance that this just won't make it through the Senate?

Well, I saw something about Marjorie Taylor Greene. There was something she said she would not have voted for this if she had read the entire thing. But we have Republican senators that are against this bill for different reasons. Ron Johnson and Rand Paul, because it adds too much to the debt. Now, they don't talk about the fact that the reason it's adding so much money to the debt is because this is a big tax cut, you know, for billionaires and the richest people in the country. But then we have folks like Josh Hawley,

who thinks it's bad policy and bad politics to kick poor people off of their health care. So there will be tremendous pressure on my Republican colleagues to ultimately support this legislation, but we're keeping the pressure up

You know, we're explaining to them. And it's not just about Medicaid and taxes. I mean, it's also about taxes, you know, credits for renewable energy projects in Arizona. That's solar, mostly solar, but hydropower as well. I mean, the job loss we could see in the state of Arizona because of this legislation is significant. They want to cut, cancel whatever. They want to cancel the Inflation Reduction Act.

this president wants to do that because it was a successful Joe Biden policy. You know, if they gut the legislation, in theory, you could see the price of prescription drugs go up. You could see insulin prices go back up. You know, instead of $35 a month out of pocket, maybe it goes back to what it was before, which for some people were paying hundreds, if not thousands of dollars for insulin. So there's other aspects of this legislation that is just bad policy.

Let's talk about immigration. Obviously, big issue in the last election, and voters seem to want a tougher response along the border. Trump has made good on his campaign promise to essentially shut down the border for migrants trying to come to the U.S. As a border state, how are Arizonans feeling about that?

Well, I think the majority of Arizonans, including me, you know, we want strong border security. I look at border security as part of our national security. We can't have an open and porous border where people just walk through. We need to give resources to the Border Patrol to be able to do their jobs. I mean,

I mean, that's really important. That's why we had legislation to do that, to hire more Border Patrol agents, to give them the technology they want, to give them barriers where they want them. I can tell you who doesn't want a 2,000-mile border wall. It's the Border Patrol, at least the agents that I talk to. In certain places, it helps. In other places, it's a waste of money, and they'd rather have cameras and seismic equipment.

you know, vibration sensors and lights and, you know, all that stuff. So I've always been a strong advocate of giving the border patrol what they need. But I think it's also important to recognize that we are a country of immigrants. We need to have a legal,

pathway for people to come to this country. It helps us support our economy. We're not going to be a growing population, a growing country if we don't continue to have immigrants. This idea of mass deportations that rip communities apart is not in the best interest of our country.

I mean, to just take families and deport people often without giving them due process is not who we are as a nation. We're a nation of laws. So there's a lot we have to do on this issue. I think there's bipartisan support to do some of it. A lot of my Republican colleagues get this.

that we benefit by having a strong legal immigration system. And if you're a rancher or a farmer, they need more visas. If you're like in the healthcare industry, we need more nurses, home healthcare aides. We can get that workforce through a legal immigration system.

Yeah, it's interesting because I think that there were people who voted for Trump believing that there were millions of criminal immigrants in this country. And that just isn't true. And that mass deportation will mean that you are deporting families and you are deporting people who've been here for 30, 35 years and who have followed the laws. But, you know, to your point, the Trump administration is defying court orders to deport people with little to no due process. Some of those people winding up in an El Salvadorian super prison.

And I think that the challenge for Democrats is that the Biden administration's approach costs Democrats voters. I think that there are still a lot of divisions within the Democratic Party on how to talk about immigration. You were just kind of, I think, showing how you would be talking about this. But how do you think Democrats should message this issue? You know, I spent 25 years in the Navy, you know, flying airplanes, 15 of it at NASA, flying spaceships. I'm not a communications expert yet.

You know, I talk about this issue and other issues just like I think I always have, like a regular person who's trying to solve a problem.

You know, and the problem on this is, you know, it's twofold. It's, you know, we've got a rather porous southern border. We need to strengthen that. At the same time, we need to recognize that we're a country of immigrants and we benefit from immigration. It doesn't have to be one thing or another. There are shades of gray. And then just try to talk about it like, you know, being a regular person. Senator Kelly, thank you so much for taking the time. You're welcome. Thank you for having me on.

That was my conversation with Arizona Democratic Senator Mark Kelly. We'll get to more of the news in a moment, but if you like the show, make sure to subscribe, leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube, and share with your friends. More to come after some ads.

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Start shopping at thrivemarket.com slash podcast for 30% off your first order and a free gift. Here's what else we're following today. Headline. You're trying to get other countries to lower their tariffs and trade barriers in return for us lowering ours.

That's true for the things that they'll take from us. That's called reciprocity. Of course. So are you or are you not seeking reciprocity in these trade deals? We are thinking we are absolutely seeking reciprocity with respect to things that can be reciprocal. What the fuck did he just say?

That was Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana asking Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick a simple question on Wednesday, and Lutnick proving, once again, that no one in the White House knows what they're doing. During a budget hearing, Kennedy pressed Lutnick about Trump's approach to international trade deals. He gave a hypothetical. If Vietnam, for example, came to you tomorrow and said, OK, Mr. Secretary, you win. We're going to remove all tariffs and all trade barriers.

Would the United States please do the same? Would you accept that deal? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. That would be the silliest thing we could do. Why is that? Lutnick continued. You wouldn't accept that deal? No, it's a terrible deal. We're the one with money. We're the one with the store. Of course they want us to take down. What's the purpose of reciprocity then? Is reciprocity not one of your goals? Are you telling the president that we shouldn't seek reciprocity? If that's what you're telling him,

Why are you trying to do these trade deals?

Why, indeed. Also on Wednesday, Trump's 50% tariffs on nearly all steel and aluminum imports went into effect. That's double from where they previously stood at 25%. Imports from the UK are exempt from the increase. The president signed a proclamation Tuesday saying that the tariff hike will, quote, reduce or eliminate the national security threat posed by foreign-made metals. Sure. But experts say this will likely hurt Americans in the long run.

We rely on aluminum and steel imports to build a lot of important stuff, like planes and cars. We also use steel and aluminum to package canned goods like soup and tuna. So these tariffs could make groceries more expensive. I keep saying this, but fun!

A federal judge issued a temporary order on Wednesday to prevent family members of the man charged in an attack on demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado from being deported. According to an FBI affidavit, the man threw Molotov cocktails at a group of people on Sunday. They were demonstrating for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza. He allegedly yelled, "'Free Palestine!' during the attack and is facing a federal hate crime charge and state charges of attempted murder."

The man's wife and five children were taken into custody by immigration officials on Tuesday. They have not been charged in the attack. The judge Wednesday granted their request to halt deportation proceedings. According to the Department of Homeland Security, the suspect and his family are Egyptian citizens who arrived in the U.S. in 2022. His visa expired in 2023.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement posted to Twitter on Tuesday, the suspect's actions will be prosecuted. Authorities on Wednesday raised the number of people injured in the attack from 12 to 15, plus a dog.

Even though tech billionaire Elon Musk has left the White House, some of the staffers in his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, are here to stay.

You might recall that Doge workers were restricted special government employees and could only work for the feds for 130 days. But on Wednesday, Wired magazine identified three Doge workers who were moved to full-time government worker status, and they've landed some of the highest federal salaries. Wired says one of them is Edward Korstein, you know, the Gen Z-er with the screen name Big Balls.

Wired reports that Doge appears to be actively hiring. And Politico reported Wednesday that the White House has requested congressional funding to grow the so-called department. And that's the news. Before we go, for a look at the week's biggest stories from around the globe, from trade wars to drones, check out this week's Pod Save the World.

Ben Rhodes is joined by MSNBC's Ali Velshi to talk about how Trump's policies are accelerating U.S. brain drain. They also cover Israel and America's disastrous aid distribution operation in Gaza, plus updates on Ukraine's drone war and more. Listen to Pod Save the World now on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Parents of tweens, if you're familiar with far-off drop-offs, or get DMs about what's for dinner, you may be experiencing tween milestones. For your son or daughter, these can start at age 9. HPV vaccination, a type of cancer prevention against certain HPV-related cancers, can start then too. For most, HPV clears on its own. But for those who don't clear the virus,

It can cause certain cancers later in life. Embrace this phase. Help protect them in the next. Ask their doctor today about HPV vaccination. Brought to you by Merck.