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Just like great shoes, great books take you places. Through unforgettable love stories and into conversations with characters you'll never forget. I think any good romance, it gives me this feeling of like butterflies. I'm Danielle Robay and this is Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club. The new podcast from Hello Sunshine and iHeart Podcast where we dive into the stories that shape us on the page and off.
Each week, I'm joined by authors, celebs, book talk stars, and more for conversations that will make you laugh, cry, and add way too many books to your TBR pile. Listen to Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Welcome to Pretty Private with Eboné, the podcast where silence is broken and stories are set free. I'm Eboné, and every Tuesday, I'll be sharing all new anonymous stories that would challenge your perceptions and give you new insight on the people around you. Every Tuesday, make sure you listen to Pretty Private from the Black Effect Podcast Network. Tune in on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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Hey guys, good morning. Had a whole bunch of tech issues, which means I could not do a full show for you, but I did want to bring you some updates on the one big beautiful bill and in particular on Trump and Elon back at full blown war against each other. The very latest this morning is Trump is now floating
deporting Elon Musk. So he got asked about this by a reporter and he said, I don't know, we'll have to take a look about deporting him. We might have to put Doge on Elon. You know what Doge is? Doge is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. Asked further about Elon, he said he's upset that he is losing the EV mandates. He can lose a lot more than that.
So that's the very latest this morning, but this comes, you guys know the backstory here. Of course, Elon was Trump's biggest supporter comes in. Doge is like this tremendous disaster. Um,
completely unpopular. Elon himself becomes politically toxic and he starts aggressively criticizing Trump over this one big beautiful bill in particular. There were other things as well, in particular the NASA guy that Elon wanted, Trump pulls him. So Elon goes completely nuclear. You'll remember he accused Trump of being an Epstein pedophile, sort of
walked that back, also said that Trump was going to destroy the economy, cause a recession, also said that Elon himself was the only reason that Trump won, which that was an interesting comment. So after that all happened and Elon kind of walked things back a little bit, he's been relatively quiet.
Now he's gone back in on the one big beautiful bill and has been aggressively criticizing it. So he said this, if this insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day. So now Yimeng, once again, actively threatening to create this third party.
Now, if he does it, do I think it's going to be particularly impactful? No. But you have to keep in mind when you have this very evenly split 50/50 kind of a system, if you have that party take even, let's say, 5% of the vote, this becomes a big problem for Republicans. And Lord knows Elon's got all the money on the planet to do whatever he wants with it, which is interesting as well because
Trump is threatening a primary challenge against Thomas Massey, looking for a candidate. By the way, the candidates they're looking at are complete and total psychos. Not that Thomas Massey and I are aligned, but I at least respect the fact that he has some principles and is willing to stand up for himself and his values. Trump is funding a primary challenge against him. Elon has now come in and said he is going to back Thomas Massey.
in that site. So directly taking on Trump in this one race that is becoming a sort of a focal point. Trump has also hit back at Elon. He said, Elon Musk knew long before he so strongly endorsed me for president that I was struggling against the EV mandate. It's ridiculous, was always a major part of my campaign. Electric cars are fine, but not everyone should be forced to own one. No one was being forced, whatever.
Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history by far. Well, that might actually be true between Tesla and SpaceX and all of the massive government contracts. There's no doubt. I mean, actually, under Obama, he helped to rescue both Tesla and SpaceX and moved the space program away from being housed inside the government to private contractors, i.e. SpaceX and SpaceX.
Elon Musk. So there is some truth to what Trump is saying here. In any case, he says he may get more subsidy than any human being in history by far without subsidies. Elon would probably have to close up shop, head back home to South Africa. No more rocket launches, satellites or electric car production. And our country would save a fortune.
Perhaps we should have Doge take a good hard look at this big money to be saved. That is what Trump was saying. So they are back at full on war. Maybe Elon is going to tell us more about what he said before about the Epstein files and how Trump was in them. Not that literally anyone should have been surprised by that since you have Jeffrey Epstein out there saying, hey,
me and Donald Trump, we were besties for a full on decade. We've got pictures. We know he was on the Lolita Express multiple times. So no one should be completely shocked by this. However, you know, Elon, they're really threatening to pull the pin. And it's been interesting how originally how meek Trump was in the face of Elon Musk and how even after Elon said all of that stuff, he counseled Jake Vance to be diplomatic and
to not go aggressively against Elon. Trump really tried to cool things down. Ultimately, Elon does back up and now things have flared up again. I suspect this is going to continue to be the dynamic where there's kind of like a quiet period and then things explode because you're talking about two gigantic narcissists who think they're like the only people that matter in the entire world. So that is the Elon piece of this.
There's a few other pieces that are really important to note this morning. So just to update you on where things are, this is 8.53 a.m. on Tuesday morning is when I'm recording this July 1st. And they've been voting in the Senate all night in what they call a quote unquote voterama on all of these amendments to the one big beautiful bill. This is like the longest voterama in history or something like that that I saw. And the way this works, of course, is
This bill has to get through the Senate, which continues to be in doubt. Republicans can afford, no Democrat is going to vote for it.
vote for it. Republicans can afford to lose three. Right now they've got four in danger. So Rand Paul is a no over deficit concerns. Tom Tillis is a no over a variety of concerns. And I know they covered yesterday how he is just he's not running for reelection and he is just going full like nuclear on Trump and this bill, et cetera.
So Tillis is no Rand Paul is no. That means you can lose one more. The two that are still out there are Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, who are the quote unquote moderates in the Republican caucus in the Senate. It looks like they're going to work in particular on Lisa Murkowski. She represents Alaska. They tried to carve out these provisions in the bill to basically buy her off to say the Medicaid cuts, the food stamp cuts, they're not going to really apply in Alaska in the same way.
The parliamentarian who comes in and says what things could be in the reconciliation bill, what things can't be in the reconciliation bill said you can do this with regard to food stamps, but not with regard to Medicaid. Why? I don't know. But in any case, so she's not getting all of the car bounce that had originally been promised to her.
So I suppose her vote is still in doubt. This morning, I've seen all sorts of talk from Jake Sherman and others about she's huddling with John Thune and having this meeting in the side office and people are gathering around her and she's got a patent paper. So I don't know what's going on there. But keep in mind,
even if they get their votes in the Senate, it still has to go back to the House and they have to, this is why it's called a reconciliation bill. It has to be reconciled with the House version, which is different from the Senate version. The House version passed by one vote, one vote. So it's squeaked by to start with. You have similar balancing act going on in the House between quote unquote moderates who are concerned about the Medicaid cuts, concerned about the food stamp cuts,
And the hardline budget hawks who are concerned about how much this is adding to the debt and the deficit. The Senate version adds a little more to the debt and the deficit is my understanding. The House version, in any case, I don't know. I think ultimately they probably figure out some way to get this through. That is my guess. But you can understand why Republicans are not excited to vote on this because it is surprising.
so profoundly unpopular. I mean, this legislation, it is truly insane. I've seen other people describing it as effectively like committing national suicide. Because not only do you have this massive upward transfer of wealth,
possibly the largest upward transfer of wealth in history from the cuts to social safety net programs and that money being funneled directly to the top in the form of a gigantic, gigantic tax cut to the top.
So you have that dynamic going on. And then you also have this attack on energy production at a time when energy production has perhaps never been more critical and specifically an attack on the new clean forms of energy production that certainly seem like the direction of the future and an area that China is investing massively in. They're already kicking our ass in solar in particular. And this bill would destroy our
our ability to innovate and to build in terms of solar, in terms of wind, also the aforementioned EV credits. So a lot of work has been done to do EV battery development in the United States. This is some of the successful work that actually did happen under the Biden administration.
This would gut all of that. So that's insane. And then the other piece that you layer on top of this is a massive expansion of the police and surveillance state, specifically in the form of huge funding moving to ICE, expanding these
private prison contracts for detention centers. So, you know, the raids that we've been seeing, Home Depot and whatever, this would absolutely supercharge that. So you've got a tax cut for the rich, massive cuts to the working class of the poor, and then a huge expansion of the defense budget and the surveillance state. So that's kind of, there's a bunch of other stuff in this bill too, but that's like the big picture of what's in here. Lo and behold,
It is profoundly unpopular. Harry Anton did a big piece breaking down the approval rating of the bill on all the different polls that have asked people the question, "Hey, how do you feel about this thing?" It's underwater anywhere from 20 to 30 points. And with independents, it's underwater more than 40 points.
Again, not a surprise. Just ask Steve Bannon. He's been warning about how incredibly unpopular this thing is going to be. I think Republicans have just, number one, decided that they're probably going to lose the House in the midterm. So they've like it's sort of like a lost cause at this point. Number two.
For Trump, as in his first term, this giant tax cut is just a massive priority for him. And it's something that really unites the Republican caucus. They want to do this giant tax cut for the rich.
And so I don't think they're going to be shaken off of that. This is one of the key promises that he made to his billionaire donors that this tax cut would get extended from the original tax cut and jobs act that he passed in his first administration. So this is a key priority for him. He's not backing off of it. I think Republicans ultimately will probably find some way to get it through. But as of this morning, it is in doubt. And you can see it's creating all kinds of
all kinds of tensions with him and Elon Musk and various parts of the coalition.
Last thing that I'll mention here is the fact that there is polling that indicates that a lot of Americans don't actually know what is in this bill, which is a profound failure on the part of the Democratic Party. You know, you've got Kirsten Gillibrand out there who's too busy attacking Zoran Mamdani in this incredibly racist way to effectively communicate on any other issue. In fact,
She has now declined to do any other interviews because she can't figure out how to, I guess, not be. She's afraid of getting asked about Zoran and doesn't know how to, you know, keep the donor class happy and APAC happy in particular without apparently getting, you know, being like just outrageously Islamophobic in her comments. So she's off the table, not that she's anything wonderful in terms of communicator to begin with.
But because you have so many Democrats who are busy attacking Zoran Mamdani and focused on these other things, you haven't had the messaging on this bill really break through. I mean, the other piece of this is that, of course, there's been a lot of focus on the fact that Trump started a war with Iran. So that has also sucked up a lot of the oxygen and the attention in the room in terms of being able to tell people what is in this bill. But very few people actually even realize that.
the dire cuts to Medicaid, the millions of Americans who will be cut off of health insurance, cut off of Medicaid that this bill entails. So it's very possible that even as bad as the polling is on it right now, that after it passes, it gets even worse as people realize just how damaging this thing is. Rural hospitals are going to close. So many people are going to lose health insurance, going to lose access to food stamps.
There's all sorts of things in here that are going to cause problems for people. So it may be one of those things where this horror show passes and then people continue to realize just how horrible and politically toxic it is. Again, largest upward transfer of wealth in history. Republicans now at war with each other over this. Elon and Trump fully back at it. And that's where we are as of this morning.
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Just like great shoes, great books take you places. Through unforgettable love stories and into conversations with characters you'll never forget. I think any good romance, it gives me this feeling of like butterflies. I'm Danielle Robay and this is Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club. The new podcast from Hello Sunshine and iHeart Podcast where we dive into the stories that shape us on the page and off.
Each week, I'm joined by authors, celebs, book talk stars, and more for conversations that will make you laugh, cry, and add way too many books to your TBR pile. Listen to Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Welcome to Pretty Private with Eboné, the podcast where silence is broken and stories are set free. I'm Eboné, and every Tuesday, I'll be sharing all new anonymous stories that would challenge your perceptions and give you new insight on the people around you. Every Tuesday, make sure you listen to Pretty Private from the Black Effect Podcast Network. Tune in on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
This is an iHeart Podcast.