Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime - Episode #416: Tax Cuts, Technology, Trump's Cabinet

Episode Date: February 25, 2017

Bill and his guests – Rep. Darrell Issa, Fran Lebowitz, Sen. Angus King, Seth MacFarlane, and Asra Nomani – answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 2/24/17) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Don't miss what the movie blog calls something you need to watch. Saving those children is how we all go home. From binge all episodes exclusively on Paramount Plus. Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO late-month series, Real Time with Bill Moore. Okay. Oh, hey, Congressman.

You polished a shitload of this off, man. Yeah. He kept telling me it was water. Right. Congressman, how does the GOP plan to cut taxes while increased defense spending? Well, you know, and we've heard that one before. Reagan, you know, I mean, voodoo economics,

George Bush the first called it. The serious answer is, is that although there'll be about $30 billion of additional spending with my colleague's help, General Mattis now additional over last years, and that's significant.

And you think we need more? Even though we spend more than every other country in the world combined. That's an exaggeration, but we spend... No, it's not. No, I mean, well, we spend... I mean, the country closest to us is China at $215 billion a year, and we spend about $700...

But that's not even counting on war. We'll spend about 4% of GDP a little less than that. The NATO allies are promising to spend 2% of GDP. There's no question, we invest more. But the answer to your question is that mostly what we're going to try and do is leverage the fact that Secretary Mattis is somebody who really does want to do the reforms to wring out some of the cost. And that includes some of the expensive toys that are being put in

instead of some basic equipment that can be bought more effectively, includes the F-30, F-18, the super... I want about the tax-cutting part? Because, you know, I saw during the campaign, Trump was talking tough about the hedge fund managers. These guys just pushed numbers around in a computer screen. I haven't heard that lately. Well, remember that night after he won the election,

he was at 21 for dinner, and he was leaving, and some hedge fund guys were there, he was like, we're going to get you. your taxes down. So that looks like kind of a con to me. You know, he says someone thinking in the campaign. You know, and you've got two sides of the issue here.

Right now they're talking about a border adjustment tax. It won't work. I oppose it. And a lot of my Republican colleagues oppose it. And that's a revenue increase that's supposed to pay for a big part of the decrease. But in fact, it is not a sensible. It's going to start a trade war

if we do it. And it'll act as a tax on consumer goods. It's a consumption tax. Why don't rich people pay income tax? Okay, why don't Donald Trump pay income tax? Well, rich people do pay. Rich people, please. I don't mean rich like you.

I mean super rich. If only we were rich enough not to pay, Bill. No, he's super rich. I'm not super rich. He's super rich. In fact, these two can have a rich off right over here. These two are very rich. I don't want to try to outfund anyone,

but do understand I was too poor to get into this administration in a cabinet position. You're hardly too. You're the richest guy in Congress. Yeah, but that's not enough to get in the cabinet. Really? Okay. But I know what you're saying.

But rich people do pay... Let's see what's in here. All right. Terrible. All right. Water. Fran, would you ever consider getting a smartphone or joining the social media age?

No, you're famously not hooked up to any of the new... I would rather have smart Congress. I can give you a list of replacements. Hey. He's sitting right here. We'll compare a list. There'd be no comparison. Seth, what was it like to be Roastmaster for Donald Trump?

Wow. Yeah. Yeah, you know, my only, if I'm completely honest, my recollection of the time, and this is why the current state is so bizarre, is that he was perfectly pleasant and a little boring. Everybody says that in person. Yeah. He's a different guy. It's just like a little boring. Like, there was just kind of there to do a job, and that was it.

And my personal interaction with him when I wasn't on stage making masturbation jokes to his face was pretty limited. Was that the boring part? Yeah. It was pretty limited. And I would just say, this is a business guy like a thousand others, you know. And I think that's part of, like, I remember reading something that you said, and I feel like that's part of what the administration needs to try to translate to people

that you experience a completely different person than the demagogue that he's become. But it's very important how you present yourself. No, I agree. I agree. And it's particularly the rest of the world, it's so important. And this is why I say, like, when you say, I think we need to get him there, I don't know that he has that in him. He doesn't. Whoever you are, whoever you are, whether you're Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton,

whoever you are, if you are on. a stage for months at a time being deified and lionized by thousands of people that will affect any one of us right and you know I know I and I'll go so far as I say I there were moments in the debate where I started to see Bernie play into the crowd a little bit and and and and and and and Bernie is made of stronger stuff and you know and and did you hear that when when Roman generals returned from the war and they had a big parade and people were and throwing rose petals, there was always a slave standing behind the general,

whispering in his ear, all men are mortal and all fame is fleeting. Yet he was a slave. Every congressman should have somebody. Not a slave. Hang it, you understand, you remember those parades. Not everyone waves with all their fingers. We do get that message. I've noticed that.

When I retired from politics, people waved and used all their fingers. It was a big upgrade. But in the absence of his ability to curtail that instinct in himself, it's up to Congress. It's up to Congress. It is. It is. And the courts.

I get your frustration about liberals on the same way. But this man is a malignant narcissist. I mean, he's been diagnosed that way. It cannot. He hasn't been diagnosed that way. Not in person. Right. If you can't see it from afar.

If you can't see malignant narcissism and someone who, the only metric with him is if he says good things about me, I like him. That's Vladimir Putin. If white supremacists say nice things and their fans, he just cannot institutionally put them down. Keith Ellison, he praised

this week because Keith Ellison said he would win during the campaign. This is the only metric he has. If you say you like me, you're good. If you criticize me, I must destroy you. That cannot come out well. No, and we all, it's like Bush after 9-11. We all desperately wanted him to be good.

because we needed him to be good. And we need this guy to be good. And the problem is when he gets up there and he says, they reported that there wasn't a standing ovation and there was. Like, that doesn't fucking freak you out? Yes, it does. It should.

It does. That doesn't worry you? How does that not worry you? How does that not deeply concern you? I worry every day that as great as our country is and as great as our people are, our leaders let them down regularly. I worry about that because the fact is

our country deserves better leadership than we've had for a very long time. It deserves a Congress that works together. But he is different. It deserves. You're putting him in a continuum with people who I never liked George Bush who I would pay to be president. What the cure is for our current situation is as fast as possible

look at every good nomination in the opinion of the Senate and unanimously consent, get them through. Get through hundreds or thousands of confirmations of people that are acceptable. Don't stall anyone that's good. Because the faster we fill out the government, the faster the government is run by people

that are mutually acceptable. I wanted to vote for them. Which were the good ones in the cabinet? I don't see. I was your favorite. Jeff Sessions, is that your favorite? General, good. General now Secretary Kelly is absolutely qualified and excellent. And the new national security.

A new national security. How is Pruitt a good thing for anybody? General Dundford is also well respected. So we have General Dunford. He's on. He's a carryover. Okay. But he's chairman of the...

Yeah, but I'm just saying that he's accepted by the lot of time. But the fact is, the sooner we get, we don't have a Secretary of the Army, the Secretary of the Army nomination pulled out. You can't confirm those you don't have. But those that are lined up, let's get them through as quickly as possible because America is better. Except some of them are terrible.

What's the hurry to confirm somebody who's terrible? Most of them I've heard of are terrible. All of them are horrible. Well, no. Senator, just us, nobody else. The fact is, if you take all of them that you know,

are going to be confirmed that are reasonably good that have been properly vetted. And you just look at Chuck Schumer and say, look, we're going to you see all these guys. Let's get them there. And then, by the way, let's take all the time in the world, no matter whether someone's high or low, to slow down the ones we object to. And that's exactly what's happened. We

approved Elaine Chow in about 10 minutes. Right. And Mattis, and we did a 60-vote rule change to allow Mattis to go through. It took one day. So if the nominee is good, it can move fast. How can you blame this on the Democrats? How can you blame this horrible cabinet on the Democrats.

No, no. What I'm blaming is or stalling. Who invented the stalling? Why do you have a Supreme Court nomination? You shouldn't have one. Yes. Yes. God damn right. God be on. Me House, him Senate. Right. I know.

The fact is, though, that if we take, and you're right about a couple of nominations, although I can't figure out why Chuck Schumer suddenly decided to line chow should be voted no on. But that was not a wise move. But if you look at it and you take 30 hours for each person, it will be the 25th re-election of Donald Trump

before you'd get one cabinet and all the staff in. So, no, it's not good. Okay. We have an obligation, we, we all have an obligation to get people in so the government runs. Well, I will say. We should say no to some people, and you have. One of the problems is,

is Merrick Garland. Yes. Because what happened to him is so unconscionable that there are a lot of people in the Senate who just aren't feeling all that. And I know that's not your specific department,

but it is your party that was always pulling the Constitution. I carry it around in my pocket. But you don't read it. Because it says that the president gets the pick. By the way for France, it's on the iPhone. It's on the eye, I need the paper one.

All right. In fairness, though, Richard Nixon saw not one but two of his appointments turned down until he picked an outright leftist. It is not new for the Senate. Who was a leftist? Blackman. Blackman was a leftist?

He wasn't a black man. No. But if you look at the court. A left. Wait a minute. Did you ever hear the phrase, in fairness, Richard Nixon? In fairness to the Senate.

This is a unique phrase. In fairness to the Senate, the Senate has been dysfunctional on appointments and confirmations for lawbts. Not to that. That is a new one. And stealing a Supreme Court seat, first time. I just want to say my one concern, thank God we're not at the Supreme Court yet.

My one concern, though, is that if we sit in the echo chamber of just resistance, resistance, resistance, 2018 will be lost by the liberal movement, and 2020 will also. It will happen. No, but it's like what's hard for a lot of us to wrap our brains around is like, you guys come on here very articulate, very well-spoken, very dignified, and you're reporting to a guy who's so not that. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

We don't work for that guy. I voted, that's all I did. No, no, no. But I'm just saying, that's misspoke. But in that point, I mean, if we just make a caricature of the right and the Trump. But we don't need the characters, what they do. That's a thing. Wait a minute.

But there's half of America who doesn't believe that. They're wrong. When Obama did, when Obama did stupid stuff, we called him on it. But if we, so call him on it, but this entire, the age bomb equation is happening. But we already talking about Trump's followers, not necessarily Trump. Because 60 million people voted for him and they had a reason. And we can't just say they're dumb. That's absolutely right.

They had some legitimate. Some of them are dumb. And some of them were, no, some of them are dumb. And some of them are just racist. And some of them are. And some of them are so turned off by the stuff you were talking about before that the Democrats have been doing. And a lot of them feel left out. They feel disrespect.

Right. Particularly in rural areas. Right. And so Democrats have to learn, even if they're old fat and white, do what Trump does. Pretend you care about them. Hmm. I'm not old, dumb, or fat, I think. No, no.

But I'm just saying that if we just caricature them as that, then we will never really understand them fully. But the thing is, they caricature themselves. This is the problem. Right. When Sean Spicer gets out there and just does the bidding. But it's not helped by this constant. But what else are we supposed to say?

Hillary lost the election. How else is a sane person supposed to react when you're coming out and saying that green is blue? I mean, say, say, what the fuck else he was supposed to do? Say green is green. But it's just like what happened to. to Milo. I mean, you know, if you're just like F off, F off, F off, like, not,

the conversation's never going to go anywhere. We're just saying the world is round. Milo is a cartoon. Milo is a human being, too. But he's also a guy who like, like, look, there are two varieties of people to me. There's guys like Bill O'Reilly, who I really do think,

believe what he says. And there's guys like Milo who just wants to fucking get a rise out of people. Right. I think those are, and in that, I disagree with O'Reilly. I'm not rising. I'm the same, look, listen, I'm buddies with this guy. It's like, we're not the guys rising. We're the guys saying, yeah, you know what, it's,

you should be allowed to speak out and say, but when it comes from the fucking White House, that's a problem. Yes, it's a big problem. That's all. We got to go. Thank you very much, everybody. Anyway.

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