The Young Turks - Quoth Manchin "NEVERMORE"

Episode Date: March 3, 2021

Senator Elizabeth Warren says Vice President Harris should ignore the $15 minimum wage ruling and force it into the COVID relief bill. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. All right on the Young Turks, Jake Ugar, Anna Kasparan with you guys, action-pack show, rotating hosts, tons of stories. like I said, action-packed. But Anna, we're going to start with something right out of the gate that's got a lot of action in it, and that requires the audience's participation. But we've done this before and it's worked before. So before I get to it, how are you doing, Casper? I'm all right. I'm all right. I'm hanging in there. I'm getting increasingly frustrated with

Congress, but we'll talk about that later in the show because we're still fighting. And I'm excited for what we're going to plan to do next. All right, let's do it then, okay? So come to me, guys, with my hair being what it is and all this fun. All right, here we go. All right, so we are trying to get the minimum wage increase into the COVID relief bill. Now the TYT audience has already played an amazing role in it. As it stood on Friday night, no senator was going to introduce it even for a vote.

You guys did an amazing job with a campaign to encourage Bernie Sanders to put it up for a vote. And yesterday, while we were lying in the middle of the show, he said, yes, I will put it up for a vote. So that's great, as usual, Bernie riding to the rescue. That's wonderful. So that was step one. Now we can move on to step two. Step two is we must get the presiding chair to say that minimum wage is part of reconciliation. Now, for those of you who are not familiar with these words, they actually mean nothing. They're just made up stuff that the Senate does to obstruct any progress at all. But since they pretend that it's real and important, normally in a democracy, 51 votes in a 100-vote body get to the win, right? But they've made up filibusters and reconciliations and parliamentaires.

None of them are in the Constitution or the Bible. I was what's the Bible. We're going to get to Reverend William Barber. It's not in the Bible either. No, they're not. And Reverend Barber points that out. He's the moral force of this country. You'll see him in a sec. Okay, so none of it is in the Constitution. None of it is even in the rule books. The parliamentarian has no power, even though every reporter in the country reports it wrong as if the parliamentarian decides everything, all of a sudden, out of nowhere. But this is not about the reporters. This is about, in this case, the presiding chair, has the sole power to decide whether it goes in the bill or not. That's the bottom line. And it's indisputable. It is a 100% fact that the presiding chair decides. The parliamentarian does not decide it has, she has no power at all, she just gives advice,

okay? And so who is the presiding chair? Well, that's the vice president. That actually isn't the constitution, that is her role. Now she could choose to give that role to someone else, in which case they would rule, but at the end of the day, that does not absolve anyone of responsibility. The vice president definitely gets to decide what's in the bills and what isn't because she is the presiding chair.

So now that's good news because Kamala Harris has always said that $15 minimum wage was among her top priorities. Well look, this should be fantastic news. If it's one of her top priorities and she has complete and sole authority to put it in the bill, then there's no reason why she wouldn't put it in the bill. And I say that without being sarcastic or anything like that, I'm being serious. And I'm reaching out to K-Hive and to Kamala Harris supporters of fans and to Kamala Harris herself. And it's not just me, it's a lot of people who are reaching out.

And we're all asking, and I mean, you really cannot phrase it any more polite and better and positive and with hope and love, save us Kamala. And that's even the hashtag that we're going to use, hashtag save us Kamala, because you can. You indisputably have the power to save the minimum wage, which by the way, affects 32 million Americans. You could lift millions of people out of poverty. And so there's no one in your way. Mitch McConnell cannot stop you, nobody can stop you. So let me show you the petition. Then I want to go to Anna. I want to go to Reverend William Barber, but most importantly, I want you guys to participate. So we got a new petition up. The first petition worked perfectly.

So let's do it again. Let's do it again, okay? So it's CYT.com slash petitions slash save us Kamla, okay? And you'll see in the text here the same things I told you. It's one of her top priorities. As the vice president, she has complete power over this. And if she puts it in the bill, it will lift millions of people out of poverty. So if you love Kamala Harris and you believe in Kamala Harris and you're a fan and supporter of hers and a voter of hers, encourage her that she actually does have the power. Just remind her and say, We would love it and you would be our hero. If you're not a big believer in Kamala Harris, well ask her to do it anyway, right?

If you just want the minimum wage, great, ask her to do her. If you believe and love and support Kamala Harris, great, then you should help her get to one of her top priorities. So please sign the petition. Again, the last one worked excellent. That's why we're on to step two, otherwise we wouldn't be on to step two. Use a hashtag, save us Kamala. Make sure you're tagging at Kamala Harris so she receives it. So definitely tag.

And then whenever you can on this issue, use hashtag save us Kamala. And then the last part of it is last time we did videos guys, and that also worked great. Bernie got to see you guys, everybody got to see you guys. Just a quick 30 second video saying why it matters to you. How Kamala Harris can help save you or someone you know or someone you don't know. But tell them why it matters to you. And let's show the politicians generally only see lobbyists and they only see, you know, people in positions of power.

Let them see you, those videos are wonderful. So TikTok, help us, K-pop, meet K-Hive, let's go do this together, right? So put it on any platform you like, we'll try to amplify it. I have amplifying them on Twitter through my handle, the Young Turks handle, et cetera. But whatever platform you're on, we'll find it, we'll amplify, and let's have dozens, hundreds, one day, maybe thousands of these videos saying, save us, Kamala. You can put the minimum wage in there, it can pass, it can double people's salaries. Let's do it now.

All right, Anna. I just wanted to, you know, provide the evidence of how important this is for Kamala Harris. Because not too long ago, just about a year ago, she tweeted that it's absolutely unconscionable that we don't have a $15 an hour minimum wage. I want to share that tweet with you, it's from February 9th of 2020, where she said the federal minimum wage in 2009, $7.25 an hour, in 2020, $7.25 an hour. She also adds the comment that it's unconscionable, the House voted to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and it's time the Senate does the same. And she has the power to do it.

She has the power to overrule the Senate parliamentarian, an unelected Senate staffer, and do the right thing that would be unbelievably popular with voters. But more importantly, that would allow her to carry out what she has claimed is one of her top priorities and you know, her part of her agenda as someone who's now in this new position of power. So, So let's let her know that she is fully empowered to do this and she should definitely carry it out. Yeah, I mean, I don't know why everyone in K. High wouldn't join us because do you think she doesn't mean it? If you think she does mean it, and she says it's unconscionable that the Senate is not doing it, well, deliver the great news to her. She's the presiding

chair of the Senate. She alone could actually just put it in the bill. Now, for those of you're going to say, but Mansion and Cinema and, you know, but the sky and the grass and the rainbows and the unicorn. I know something else is going to prevent us, right? No, no, that's step three. Don't worry about step three. We have an excellent plan to beat Mansion and cinema. I talked about it before. Once we get past this stage, we'll will unveil that and it'll definitely work. But we cannot do it if Kamala Harris doesn't put it in the bill, because then if she rules with McConnell and the Republicans, and by the way, that is what the presiding chair is set to do now. They're set to rule with McConnell and the Republicans. And if they

do that, then we have to overcome a 60 vote filibuster. Why would the Democratic vice president rule with McConnell so that the Democrats have a 60 vote hurdle? Again, if you love and believe in value Kamala Harris, that's a fair question to ask her. You don't mean any harm by it. Like you're just wondering why, I mean, because you're trying to help her to get the minute in which she says is so important to her that not passing it is unconscionable. Now there's one other person, Anna, who agrees that it's unconscionable. It's Reverend William Barber. He is, I think, the leading moral authority in the country. He is our generation's MLK, if you ask me. It released Moral Mondays, just a giant in the faith-based community, and

in just a community fighting for the average American. So he did a sermon about this just the other day. I want to share a piece of it with you guys because it's so powerful. And he actually talked about Kamala Harris in the same loving and hopeful way that we are. This is her moment. Let Reverend Barbara explain. But I see the vice president, yes, he's my sister, but I know she's She can overrule the parliamentarian and she can force the senators to vote. But then people are saying, no, don't do that. I want to say, Sister Harris, you like Esther, you were born for such a time as this.

And when I see people who are dying from poverty and people, poor, and low wealth workers are the last to get any help, but the first to suffer. And for over nine years, we haven't raised the minimum wage. It was 7.7.25 now, $2.13 for tip workers. And these politicians want to hold poor and low wealth people captive in poverty and play games. Republicans want the block. Many have never seen a wage hike they like. And Democrats run on one thing.

And then when they get in office, too scared to run on what they said they were going to do. Word more about some kind of false notion of compromise. Don't you remember the three-fifths compromise kept us in trouble for 250 years? Not one of them swore to uphold a parliamentarian rule. Not one of them swore. The president didn't swear to do it. The senators didn't swear to do it. And even when I see the president, I love him preach for his inaugural sermon from this very poor pit. But when I see him say, he is going to listen to the parliamentarian rather than listen to the people, the poor people, the low-wage people who have kept this country alive,

who have been the first to have to go to work, and the first to get affected, and the first to get sick, and the first to go to the hospital, And the first to die. Reverend Barber preach it. That is exactly right. There's a reverend out here in the country who understands politics better than almost any politician and almost certainly better than any reporter. Reverend Barber knows that the parliamentarian has no power. And look, he is great allies with Biden and Harris.

And he is saying out of love, this, you were born for a moment such as this, Kamala Harris. And this disproportionately affects black and brown people in this country. And it most certainly affects poor and middle class people in this country. And so there is a moral imperative here to go help those people. And the good news is that Kamala Harris can do that. The question is, is she going to do that? They might be voting as soon as tomorrow. We have got to get that hashtag going.

We've got to get the videos going. And we've got to get the petition going. And Reverend Barber is right, this is a racial justice issue, as well as an economic justice issue. So if this isn't why we elected Biden and Harris, somebody's got to tell me what it was, why did we elect them? I get it. Trump is a monster. But are we going to do anything positive to lift people up? And Joe Biden, last thing on this, Joe Biden, let's talk about you for a second. What's gonna be your legacy? COVID relief bill. Trump did two COVID relief bills. Well, of course, any president is gonna do a COVID relief bill. That's not a legacy. Doubling the wages

of millions of Americans, that's a legacy, helping the poor in the middle class and black and brown people, and yes, white people in West Virginia, Arizona, and so many other places, that's a legacy. So I just, we gotta ask Biden and Harris, Who are you? What are you about? And what are you willing to do? If you say no, the obscure arcane, powerless parliamentarian is more important than Reverend William Barber, more important than racial justice, more important than lifting people out of poverty, and more important than your voters, then I would question your priorities. But we're not there yet. So Kamala Harris still has a chance to do the right thing. And we hope and believe that she will. Hashtag save us, Kamala. All right, Anna, anything else? No, thank you for explaining that. Obviously, Jank isn't doing shows on Tuesdays with us because he's working on his book. But when we come back from the break, Francesca Fierintini will be joining in to help me talk about the rest of the news we have prepared for you guys.

Jank, thank you for being here. And it's weird talking to you as if you're a guest on this show. I guess we'll just go to break. Yeah, no, hold on. One last thing, guys. Guys, I want you to understand, you have the power to change the world, you do. Just like I ask people in Congress to have the courage to use that power, and just like we ask people in media to have the courage to actually understand the issues, wish us luck

on that one. But anyway, but you guys actually do have the power to change the world. Follow what we're saying, and I guarantee you results, and I guarantee you victory in that. But we've got to work together. and now we got elected officials on our side, we got preachers on our side, we got progressive groups on our side. We're going to win this thing. Let's go out and do it together. Love you guys. All right. Young Turks will be back after the break.

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Smurfs, only the date is July 18th. Hey everyone, welcome back to TY, Anna Kasparendi, and Francesca Furentini with you, host of the Bituation Room, podcast, make sure you subscribe. And Francesca, how are you? It's so good to have you back. I'm good. Really good to see you. Good to be here. Save us, Kamala. I got the message. Save us. Damn it. I'm on board. I appreciate this newfound framing of love and, you know, connecting with people on a much more friendly and polite level. Let's see how long that lasts with me. I'm trying really hard. But let's move on, actually, to the next person that we're going to talk about,

who I am not going to be very polite to because he is being a complete self-interested hack in the middle of a pandemic when people desperately need relief. So, of course, the person I'm talking about here is Senator Joe Manchin. The legislative filibuster in the Senate is standing in the way of getting you and the rest of the country a $15 an hour federal minimum wage. that has not been updated in this country since 2009, the current federal minimum wage still stands at $7.25, which isn't even a wage, a living wage, obviously, it's a starvation wage. Now, when it comes to the coronavirus relief checks, when it comes to any legislation moving forward, Democrats will not be able to accomplish it unless they nuke what's referred to as

the legislative filibuster. And the person standing in the way right now of doing that is Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who had a temper tantrum recently when he was asked if he would vote to end the filibuster, given how difficult it is to pass a $15 an hour minimum wage. Manchin asked if there's a point where he would change his mind on the filibuster, turns around to yell, never. Jesus Christ, what don't you understand about? Never. So this man is in favor of this arbitrary obstructionist rule in Congress right now, in the Senate specifically, that stands in the way of accomplishing anything. It essentially makes Democrats worthless unless they're able to get 60 votes to pass any piece of legislation. Given the fact that the Senate is

dealing with a 50-50 split right now, it is impossible to get the 60 votes necessary to pass important policies like a $15 an hour minimum wage, something we've been talking about for weeks now. I can't stand, Mansion, and I wish that progressive Democrats were actually a lot more aggressive in showing up to his state, Francesca, and campaigning against him. And that includes Cinema, by the way, Kirsten Cinema, who's a senator from the state of Arizona as well. Both of them have been absolutely horrendous when it comes to this issue. But I wanted to get your thoughts on it. I mean, I just want to say I do think there are growing grassroots movements in both Arizona and West Virginia that are trying, that are attempting to break this stranglehold of

these Democrats who might as well be playing for the other team. I mean, this is the thing with Mansion. You got to, like, I'm trying to game it out for him. Like, what is the benefit of blocking your own party from being able to deliver on anything? Like, you don't get to go home and say, see, I stop my own party from passing, you know, a $15 minimum wage or any kind of relief or, you know, voting rights. Like, you don't have, what is, like, what's the 70 chess move here? I mean, maybe you understand it better than I do, Anna. Maybe it's like a, he's going to switch parties, major look. Like, what, why are we stymieing your own effing party? Mansion, because of the fact that Democrats have such a toxic reputation among voters in

West Virginia, Manchin has really, like, made an effort to differentiate himself from the rest of the Democrats in Congress. Now, that's understandable. But I think that when it comes to specific issues and you take the labels out of it, something like a $15 an hour minimum wage, forget the legislators, focus on the people and what voters want. The vast majority of voters, Democrats and Republicans combined, want a $15 an hour minimum wage. And you're absolutely right, One of the things that's given me a little bit of hope is seeing grassroots movements in West Virginia. You know, people who are part of the fight for 15 holding Mansion accountable for his refusal to join the fight to increase the federal minimum wage to a living wage. Now, he said that he would increase it to $11 an hour, but the people of West Virginia not only want $15 an hour, they deserve $15 an hour.

And so for Mansion to stand in the way of that is ridiculous and he can't use the same. B.S. branding excuse for why he's doing it. I get it. I get that he needs to be more of a so-called centrist or moderate Democrat to appeal to voters in his state that can't stand the Democratic party. But at the end of the day, when we talk about this issue by issue, the proposals that were in the original Biden coronavirus relief package, which included the minimum wage, the direct checks to Americans all, and all that. It's popular with his voters. He's the one who's the one who's standing in the way of it right now. And the fact that he will not nuke the filibuster is absolutely ridiculous. Yeah, I mean, you're basically resigning yourself to getting nothing done. And that's

the thing, I think this is the thing though that's really important, even though we are in this like deadlocked 50-50 Senate with Kamala as the tie-breaking vote. It is so hyper-partisan. But I feel like, and maybe you maybe you feel some of this, like I want to get to a point where these issues aren't partisan. And like you're saying, to polling shows is that they're not. Everyone wants to be able to put food on the table. Huh, funny how that's like, you know, neither a Democrat or Republican thing. In fact, it's, you know, the elite and wealthy versus everybody else. And that is something just like health care and the ways that Republican senators got it when they were trying to overturn the ACA from their voters who were Republican. Like, these are popular

issues, Manchin would have something to show to his constituents that he can depoliticize and especially if we change the language around it by saying, look, this is not about Democrat, this is not about blue and red or whatever, this is actually about human rights and, you know, the rights of all Americans. Absolutely. And look, there are currently 10 million Americans right now who are still jobless as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, meaning they were laid off through no fault of their own. We have a situation in which people have avoided eviction in most cases because of the eviction moratorium. But once that is lifted, once forbearance for mortgages is also lifted, we're talking about people who have to pay back either their lender or

their landlord quite a bit of money. In some cases, tens of thousands of dollars that they simply don't have. And I mean, the legislation being proposed right now doesn't even really deal with that. So the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill is okay, but it's still insufficient when it comes to providing the relief that Americans desperately need. And then you have, you know, Joe Manchin arguing, no, it's a little too much. It's a little too much. I would actually like it to be a little more targeted. So as Jake Johnson reports in common dreams, the $1.9 trillion relief measure approved by the House of Representatives late last week proposes extending emergency unemployment insurance programs through the end of August with a weekly federal supplement of $400 up from the current

$300 per week boost that's set to begin expiring on March 14th. Now, in regard to that, okay, this is what Mansion had to say. Mansion said that he'd prefer to see a $300 benefit rather than a $400,000, dollar benefit in response to criticism that some laid off workers could end up making more money on unemployment than they would on the job. Okay, so let's hold up for a second. So because companies are unwilling to increase their pay from a starvation wage to something that could, I don't know, compete with the federal government, we're going to actually go over to the federal government and tell them, no, let's actually lower the amount of relief we're going to give to people who are unemployed right now through no fault of their own, because we want to encourage them

to go back to the jobs that don't currently exist. That's what he's saying. Absolutely. I mean, and this I think is like this is a lot of the ideology of senators and governors around this country, which is this bizarre race to the bottom to make sure that corporations get the red carpet for them and that they're actual constituents, that they're actual constituents, that they're citizens, their residents get nothing, they get crumbs. I usually be happy for those crumbs, you know, because the cost of living is low here.

Like what? What are we talking about? I mean, this is, and it's a mindset of fear, it's a mindset of disrespect, not just for working people, but for all people. And it's saying, yeah, no, my constituents are disposable and expendable. And, you know, we don't want to pay them for any anymore. I mean, imagine, like, they all just subscribe to this like neoliberal economic BS theory that's been debunked over and over and over and oh my God, it's the year 2021. Don't we understand that when you actually help working people that that then trickles up into your blessed economy? Yeah, I mean, but you know, Francesca, when the Federal Reserve is printing money for the failing corporations and art, and then they can

go ahead and, you know, buy shares of their own stocks and artificially inflate stock values or share values, why would they need to have a healthy middle class that's compensated appropriately and can actually help to contribute to the economy? They don't need that. The Federal Reserve comes in and they play interference, run interference, and ensure that they lift up the companies that need the capital. Everyone else can go F themselves. That's essentially what we have in this current system right now. And I do also want to just quickly mention that Mansion is calling for more means testing, a more targeted approach when it comes to the $1,400 coronavirus relief checks. He says, we're just looking for a targeted bill. We wanted to be very targeted,

helping the people that need help the most. And how would that targeting happen? Well, it would lower the threshold for the people who would actually qualify for those $1,400 coronavirus relief checks. So if you make above $50,000 as opposed to $75,000, you will likely see the amount of that money taper off to the point where you get absolutely nothing for some earners. But the point here is let's, of course, cut the amount of spending that would provide relief to people who have really been hurting during this coronavirus economic collapse. And don't look at what's happening with the GDP, don't look at what's happening with massive corporations. They've done really well. They're thriving in the middle of this pandemic, whereas workers are the ones who have been suffering.

I just think that that whole mindset, and look, people in the Biden administration, hello Pete Buttigieg, have the same ideology, which has not proven, has not borne out. There's no evidence that shows that if you give stimulus to people making $75,000, that that's suddenly, oh, that's going to be terrible for the economy. Actually, alternatively, for all these folks, everyone loves to talk about business owners. Well, that's 75 to 150,000 for a couple. That sounds around, well, like a business owner, you know, right? Like a small business owner.

Someone trying to make it work. That stimulus would be huge for them. Those folks might employ people. And I'm not talking about Jared Kushner, who employed three people or whomever, right? Like, like, this is all a tactic. And I think we have to remember. that when you means tests, these kinds of stimulus and these kinds of bailouts, you're actually creating far more friction and deliberately among people who are in different brackets.

Rather than putting us all in the same group, creating solidarity, you're pitting people against one another. And you're making sort of middle class, let's remember like a lot of Trumpers are super middle. They're like middle to upper middle class, both dads who are very comfortable, you know, and they hate the poor. So this is all like, hey, how come I'm not getting what that person's getting? I'm not saying we placate them, but I'm saying that when these benefits are more available to all, there is more buy-in, and it actually does help the entire economy and not just a trickle down or just when someone is literally at death's door. Yeah, you're absolutely right.

Universal programs tend to pull better because they apply to everyone. So once you start dividing up people and pitting people against one another, that's when you're right, the buy-in starts to fade away. So we'll keep an eye on Mansion and Kirsten Cinema and keep updating you guys on what's happening with this coronavirus relief bill. But for now, let's move over to... One of the hardest parts of getting older is feeling like something's off in your body, but not knowing exactly what. It's not just aging. It's often your hormones, too. When they fall out of balance, everything feels off.

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Start your next chapter feeling balanced and in control. For a limited time, get 15% off your entire first order at happy mammoth.com with code next chapter at checkout. Visit happy mammoth.com today and get your old self back naturally. A story involving Elizabeth Warren's updated wealth tax and how incredibly wealthy people are not responding well to it. Senator Elizabeth Warren appeared on CNBC's squawk box to talk to wealth hoarder and Trump supporter Joe Kiernan, who is not very happy about the fact that Senator Warren is proposing an updated version of her wealth tax. Take a look. So this is not punitive, right? We're not punishing the, okay, it's not punitive. So they haven't broken any laws to accrue all this well. Okay, once then we are actually discussing. that maybe they've made enough to a certain point where they don't need all of it. Now, bear with me for a second.

If you're going to do 2% on 50 million, and then when you get up to a billion and you're going to do 3%, if we've crossed the Rubicon and said you have more money than you can ever spend and you don't need it and you need to help out the rest of us, why not make it truly progressive and do 10% at a billion. Do 20% at 10 billion. Why not do it that way? Once you get started and raise some real money, what would be the problem? Why would Bezos do 3% when some poor Schmoat at only 50 million does 2%? Now, just in case you might think that this person is being earnest in his line of questioning, understand that he's trying to make a point. He's being clearly sarcastic there because he thinks

that the wealth tax is arbitrary, it's ridiculous. He does believe that it's punitive and it's just a way of punishing the wealthy. And just to give you some more detail into what Warren is proposing here, her tax, her wealth tax would apply a 2% tax to individual net worth, including the value of stocks, houses, boats, and anything else a person owns after subtracting out any debts, above $50 million. So understand that if your net worth is under $50 million, this proposal does not apply to you, okay? I'm pretty sure the vast majority of people are not worried about this tax hurting them.

The only people that this affects are incredibly tremendously wealthy individuals, many of whom, by the way, have been able to skirt paying taxes for decades thanks to all sorts of corporate tax loopholes, all sorts of deductions that only apply to the wealthy, all of those things that have led to massive inequality in the country. And by the way, this proposal is also going to increase the amount of the wealth tax. If someone has a net value over $1 billion, it would add an additional 1% surcharge for net worth over or above $1 billion. dollars. So I give you those details because that to me seems reasonable, Francesca. But for Joe Kiernan on CNBC, it is punitive. This is nothing more than a punitive measure to punish the rich,

who worked real hard and earned everything that they have. Nothing they did was illegal, right? And she's like, well, not quite sure, unclear. We haven't fully audited them. Not everyone. Surely people making over 50 million. There's some book cooking there. But it's very funny how he's trying to like separate the billionaires from the poor Schmo $50 million earners. Like how many of those are there? Oh yeah, the couple, I don't know, 800 people in America. I mean, who are these people who are up in arms? No, no, homie. The whole thing is a bad faith argument against her. And like my only critique of the wealth tax is why not start it at four or five, knowing you might get, you know, you might get haggled down to the two or three, just started a little bit higher. Who knows? We know the way things get laundered through our bipartisan system in Congress. But yeah, look, again, we are on the precipice, I hope, of a lot of billionaires crying. And I know we're going to see more of that. And I can't wait for it. Oh, I love it. Well, Kiernan's not done. Warren did attempt to answer his question and he wasn't happy with the answer. Let's just quickly take a look at that exchange.

For just a minute, can we talk about what that two cent, three cent would be? It's not punitive on those at the top. They can still grow their fortunes. But here's the thing. It's enough for universal childcare. It's enough for universal pre-K. It's enough to make sure that every baby in this. this country has good care and raise the wages of every child care worker. But you didn't answer. You didn't answer me. Make it 10 times as good. If you're going to decide that some people have too much and 50 million is too much, and see, this looks to me like we're changing the rules of the game that go back centuries for if you've paid your taxes on the way in and accrued this.

And a lot of these people would rather do really good things with the money than And they don't think the government does it well. So, you know, that's another issue that I'm hearing from a lot of people that they want to give it to Harlem. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives, constantly monitoring us and storing and selling our data. But that doesn't mean we have to let them. It's possible to stay anonymous online and hide your data from the prying eyes of big tech. And one of the best ways is with ExpressVPN.

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So take back control of your life online and secure your data with a top VPN solution available, ExpressVPN. And if you go to ExpressVPN.com slash TYT, you can get three extra months for free with this exclusive link just for T-Y-T fans. That's E-X-P-R-E-S-S-V-P-N dot com slash T-YT. Check it out today. You know, the Harlem Fire, the things that they do. But go back to the original thing. Why not make it 5% or 10% on people that are really loaded? Okay, I'm loving this morning. I cannot believe that I've gotten you to say that we should tax the rich more, Joe.

It's not hurting me. Not hurting me, Senator. Did you hear what he said? He's like, you know, these witch people, they would rather, you know, decide what to do with their money on their own as if they're so philanthropic, you know, all these wealthy people who have saved so much money in their taxes over the years, they've been so charitable, they've been so great to society. I mean, we all know that's BS, but then he tried to give an example and he's like, you know, rather than have the government do what they do is like, you know, giving the money

to Harlem. I feel like he caught himself in a moment, but we heard what you said, it's too late, it came out of your mouth, like it's no surprise that this guy is a huge Trump supporter. And is the first CNBC host any time there's any type of legislation proposed to do something about the ever growing inequality in this country. He's the one who loses his mind and cries about it immediately like a man child on that show. It's so pathetic that these are the people who are allegedly delivering news and analysis to the American people. What a pathetic, small man. I just, Jesus. The saddest part is when he says it doesn't affect me. And I don't know if I

believe him. Like, yeah, like, first of all, he's definitely friends with multi-millionaires and billionaires. I don't know, maybe he's got $50 million worth of wealth. I wouldn't be on a show called Squawk Box if I were paid that much money. But hey, look, I'm not a sellout. So, but I also think it's really funny because that ideology, it's not just him. It's like, you know, sad Elon Musk's fanboys on Twitter being like, what don't tax him? I'm going to get the space truck or whatever his truck. And you're just like, oh, honey, you're never going to be a millionaire. I'm sorry. Like, I'm sorry. That's not going to happen. You know what we do have a chance at? making a more even playing field.

We have a chance to tax the ultra wealthy. We have a chance to fix our democracy. You have more better chances at that than getting rich in this rigged capitalist economy. Sorry, bud. And so it is just funny to see other people doing the ideological bidding for these billionaires. But I will say that I don't know much about the tax structure. I also don't make $50 million, so I wouldn't know. But apparently our current tax structure has this gaping hole.

when it comes to people who are multi-millionaires in terms of it's like fairly taxed up until that point. And then it kind of like, yeah, we assume you're a good person and you've created a philanthropy for Harlem entity. Like, you know, which is what was his words, of course, which by the way, we all know all these nonprofits that mega billionaires and millionaires create are all four tax breaks and write-offs. Hello. Yes, yes. And then of course it's like it's feeding even more of their free market ideology. And once they get tired of doing that, all they start Breitbart, they start, you know, newsmax. They're the Robert Mercer's who move their oil money back into poisoning our minds.

Like, we know where they spend their money. Anywho, good for Elizabeth Warren, always has a smile even when she's dealing with the most disingenuous hack. I mean, I don't know how she did it there because that man, and the way that he talks about inequality in America always makes my blood boil. But I do want to note that he's not representative of how Americans actually feel about this proposal. As was reported in the New York Times, polls have consistently shown that Warren's proposal is winning the support of more than three in five Americans, including the majority of Republican voters. Because guess what? It doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or Republican. If you're a worker in this country, you're noticing the inequality. You're experiencing it first.

And Warren has estimated that her initial proposal, the one that she rolled out back in 2020 when she was running for president, would raise $2.75 trillion over a decade. But the latest version would actually increase that number, which would begin to apply in 2023 if it were passed to net worth as calculated in 2022. So the number would be much higher because of the fact that the wealthiest people in this country have continued to grow their wealth while the rest of us have been hit pretty hard by the coronavirus pandemic and the economic downfall that came along with that. So we're not done with this story, believe it or not, because when we come back, rich men cry. We have more

rich men crying and we love to drink their tears on this show. So when we come back, we'll show you who they are, we'll dunk on them, and we'll have a great time. Stick around. POMAYOR. All right, hey everyone. I know that we weren't able to do our social break in the last break, because we have to switch out Jank with Francesca. So I'm going to go ahead and try to read as many of these member comments as I can, starting with a pocket in a pocket with some breaking news for us. Neurotan nomination, pulled. Wow. Wow. I want to do a full story on that.

So obviously I just found out about this because we've been live. But thank you for that note. And to our team, please don't delete that comment because I want to be able to read that link that was posted in there. So keep that in there, please. Jenny Penny writes in and says the U.S. Senate under either Democrat or Republican control is where our democracy goes to die. I think a lot of people are feeling that right now.

in the Ethernet writes in and says every day this fight for a living wage goes on. It feels like I'm getting my teeth pulled. It's simple. Lift 32 million people out of poverty, boost your brand and help our economy or lose to fascists in 2022 and 2024. That is something that I'm worried about because as we know, some of the worst elements of the conservatives in this country are using all sorts of populist rhetoric to try to appeal to voters as if they care about these socioeconomic issues. But we know that they don't. We know that when push comes to shove, their only real solution is bigotry, racism, and the type of policies that we want to fight against, honestly.

Crazy Lit Asian writes in and says, interesting that Republican leaders fired the parliamentarian in 2001 because they didn't like his rulings in a 50-50 Senate. You're right about that. A.A. Brooks 19 also writes in about Kamala's moment to do the right thing and says, this is a. is Kamala's moment to prove whether or not she's all talk and no action or if she's a champion of justice. It's her make it or break it moment. Hashtag save us Kamala. And thank you to all of you who have taken part in this campaign to, you know, pressure politicians to do the right thing. I mean, it's really important to, I mean, it doesn't take the place of organized labor. Honestly, we really need to help build that up in any way we can. But it's, you know, really inspiring

to see you guys jump into action and take part in this campaign. And I think that if we fight hard enough, we might be able to get a concession here. Northeastern Western writes in and says the middle class already pays a wealth tax. Most of the middle class wealth is in owned property and property tax is already a thing. You're right about this. The super wealthy pay a fraction of a percentage of their wealth since it consists of stocks instead of their homes. You're right. And Richard Wolfe actually talks about this quite a bit on his podcast, which you guys should definitely check out. It's called Economic Update. All right, I actually want to get back to the show. I'm going to try to read up on Nero Tandon, and I'll give you the details on that story in a bit. See you there.

I don't know what I'm a lot of the I'm a bit of a lot of it. I don't know I'm a lot of it. Oh, and I don't know and I'm a

I'm a, I'm a good. Hey, guys. Casbarian and Francesca Furentini with you. Francesca, as I always, you know, plug your podcast, The Bituation Room. I want to also give you an opportunity to continue plugging it, maybe sharing with the audience, what, you know, potential subscribers and listeners can expect with your show. You're the sweetest.

We had Naomi Klein on author, journalist, amazing, like slayer of all neoliberal economic. history and theory. We had Naomi Klein on. And so please listen to the episode. It's up now. It was so good. And also made me very scared because she definitely thinks that Trumpism is coming back if we do not push the Biden administration hard enough. And if they don't get the memo, bro. So yeah, listen to that. Thank you. Yeah. And definitely check out the podcast, guys. It's really, really good stuff. And I enjoy listening to it. I enjoyed being on it once. It's just a good free flowing discussion. Of course, I would love to. I love doing it. But what I also love doing Francesca is dunking on rich men as they cry. So let's talk about

the latest story where they're having a little bit of a temper tantrum. Rich dudes are not having an easy time digesting Senator Elizabeth Warren's proposal to implement a wealth tax. In fact, they're crying about it, which means it's time for another addition of when rich men cry. I care. Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax would not impact the vast majority of Americans. It would only impact the vast majority of Americans. It would only impact the The Uber rich, in fact, the Uber rich people who have a net worth of $50 million and above that would get taxed 2%.

And when it comes to people who are worth $1 billion or more, they would be taxed at 3%. Now, it's not an unreasonable tax, especially when you consider the fact that many of these people have skirted paying their fair share of taxes for quite some time now, and that has contributed to the ever-growing inequality in this country. And so when Elizabeth Warren first proposed this back during the 2020 Democratic primaries, our good friend Leon Cooperman cried on CNBC as you saw in that intro video. And now that she's proposing it again, although it's a much more updated version given the economic situation we find ourselves in during this pandemic, the temper tantrum just continues.

beginning with Grover Norquist, who's worried about the IRS enforcement component of it because he just thinks this is a way of punishing good, hardworking millionaires and billionaires in this country. Take a look. Grover, I know you hate all taxes, but is there a way to increase tax revenue and to more fairly tax the wealthy, recognizing that I know that you don't like the wealth tax unto itself? sure if you want to you reduce the capital gains tax every time we've reduced the capital gains tax rate higher income people have paid more in taxes and you've had more growth and there've been more jobs for everybody so if you're into hate and envy go ahead and do the wealth tax there's a lot of the

selective discussion about where the wealth tax succeeded 15 countries have put in a wealth tax 11 got rid of them because they discovered how dysfunctional it was one of the things that people should check on is in this legislation that Warren has put forward, she wants $100 billion more, $100 billion more in enforcement. He's upset about that because he's worried that wealthy people, meaning people who have a net worth of above $50 million, are going to have to deal with the same audits that people getting paid starvation wages have been dealing with as the IRS has focused. focused most of their attention on auditing the poor as opposed to the wealthy.

And the reason why that's the case, Francesca, is of course, throughout the years, you have Republican administrations, Republican lawmakers, cutting off resources to the IRS, which they would desperately need in order to audit the complicated tax filings of this country's millionaires and billionaires, who I would venture to say some of those people probably have committed tax fraud in order to prevent paying taxes. But they don't focus on The IRS doesn't have the money to do it. So Senator Warren's proposal includes funding for the IRS in order to be able to enforce not just the wealth tax, but enforce the current tax laws that we have now. I love how Grover Norquist is imagining like Michael Moore's idea of creating cops but for white collar criminals and like chasing people down in the streets. And like if only, you know, like once again, like don't threaten us with a good time because we on the left, we want to see that kind of entertainment.

But no, it is just, yeah, it's to, it's to actually get you to make good because we know you're litigious and, you know, lawyered up and have, you know, you don't like, you know, the billionaires aren't, you know, work with turbotax. You know what I'm saying? They've got a whole other army of accountants who are helping them skirt laws and fudge the numbers. And so that's what it is. Sadly, you need more money to enforce tax code on the rich because they're the biggest, like, violators of the tax code. So that's why. But also, my man's got no ideas for how to make the tax code more fair. Like the question was, is there a way we can tax the wealthy that you would approve of? And he was like, no, you get rid of capital gains taxes because we're job creators. Like, oh, God, buddy. How's that worked out for the country? Rover Norquist is the worst when it comes to this particular issue. He has dedicated his entire life,

his entire career, to doing away with taxes. And that has led to a lot of the inequality we see in the country, a lack of opportunity for people just completely gutting the social safety net. And, you know, the thing that I would point to is take a look at what the current capital gains taxes are. It's not the same as income taxes. I mean, these people are not paying a lot in capital gains tax, about 15%. And so for him to say, like, his solution is to do away with the capital gains tax, which is too low to begin with. It's too low. It should be increased. Capital gains, It's people investing their money, usually millionaires and billionaires, investing their money in the stock market, seeing a return in that investment, and then getting taxed much less on that income, 15% in most cases. Like, it's ridiculous that he thinks that that's too high.

But also, I love that he's crying about the possibility of having to deal with the IRS doing its job when it comes to the wealthy and the privilege. And then he mentions hate and envy. And that's really what I want to focus on. I wouldn't say that it's envy. I wouldn't even say that it's hate, but is there anger toward the wealthiest people in this country? Yes. And I think that that anger is justified because those individuals would not be as wealthy as they

are. Had it not been for their workers, had it not been for the labor that overproduces and then gets underpaid, right? They're the ones who have decided to hoard all. decided to hoard all the wealth, who have decided to pay themselves back by buying shares of their own stock in order to artificially inflate the value. I mean, these are people who have purposely, intentionally exploited labor in this country. And while their workers are demanding a fair wage, while their workers are demanding decent working conditions,

while their workers just want to provide for themselves and their families and live a life of decency, you have clowns like Grover Norquist pretending as if the real victims in this country are the people who have been completely ignored by the IRS, are the people who have been skirting, paying taxes in this country, the people who have done anything and everything to skirt regulations, to ensure that our food is safe to eat. I mean, that's a story we'll get to later in the show. And to make them out to be the victims, I think, is just beyond pathetic. You're just jealous of their private jets, Anna. That's all I'm hearing, I'm hearing like, you're just, you, you're just mad at us because you can't be us or

hate us because you can't be us. Whatever the line is. I think it's also just like, let's whatever, what was the money, the breakdown for what two or three percent would be? It's, it's like, oh, no, you've got to lay off some of your staff in St. Barts. Oh, such a drag. Of your second home, that's your, oh, your fourth vacation home. Like, this is what we're actually talking about. It's nothing. It's a little piece of dandruff on Bill Gates's, you know, whatever, million dollar suit. Like, this is not important to them. It's something they can let go of. But once again, we talked about on this segment, like rich people can't imagine. They're so afraid. It is the absurdity, I think, of when people misunderstand racial justice to be like, you're going to come

for my freedoms. Like, no, no, that's not what equality is. Like, how can you be so afraid of just a little bit more fairness. Not a lot, just a little bit. And really comes down to these people can't imagine ever living on minimum wage. These are, Grover Norquist would commit, like he would kill himself before he would have to live on minimum wage. He would kill. And meanwhile, poor people in this country, working people are also the most generous.

Like anyone who's who's been in a working class family, anyone who knows, anyone who's seen the amount of solidarity in times of need, anyone who's been to other countries also in like, that's where the actual solidarity comes from, not from the ultra wealthy, but these guys can't even imagine living like that. And just to really highlight how this inequality works, as you all know, taxes were already low for corporations and the rich in this country. But thanks to Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts, he actually lowered taxes for the race. in this country further. And so the year following 2017, data indicated that some of the most well-known and successful corporations paid absolutely nothing in federal taxes. So, for instance,

Netflix and Amazon paid no federal taxes in 2018. Other companies on that list include Chevron, Delta Airlines, Eli Lilly, General Motors, Goodyear Tire and Rubber, Halliburton, IBM, JetBlue, Principal Financial, Salesforce, U.S. Steel, and World. pool, like these are all companies that, remember, this isn't 2018. This is pre-pandemic. They're doing all right. They're doing all right. They're doing real well. And there's no reason why they shouldn't be paying anything in federal taxes. But the tax law was written as such. And did they create more jobs? No, they did corporate stock buybacks, which we'll get to in just a second. Corporate tax collections in 2018 declined 31% from the previous year.

This is the first year on record that corporate tax collections have fallen so precipitously during a period of economic expansion. It's just that's what's going on. Okay, but they're the victims, guys. Okay, Grover Norquist wants you to believe that they're the victim. Can you please stop hating and envying us? That's Grover Norquist. He also thinks that they should be allowed to do corporate stock buybacks.

Let's go to the next video. It does help the stock rise. Why is that so bad for shareholders? For pension plans that own the stock, for state retirement plans that own the stock. You reduce the float. Earnings per share goes up. The stocks go up. Everybody's doing better.

Income inequality narrows. We're all winning, Senator. We're all winning. Come on. What do you mean? Come on. This is nothing but pay for manipulation. Everybody's doing better. Listen to yourself.

Nothing about the business changed. They're still turning out the same number of widgets at the same cost and selling them to the same customers. Nothing changed. But they got a little fluff and buff in their stock. And how did they do that? By taking their excess cash and saying, geez, we can't figure out anything to do with this cash.

We're not going to give it back to our investors. You're going to put the government in the business. The investment decision that the only investment in America that makes any sense is to follow back our own stock of managing the balance sheets for these companies that are trying to do what they think is right for their capital structure. Oh, if you put it like that, then yes, yes, that's what the government should absolutely do. Because whenever it comes to their so-called capital structure, of course, they're more interested in paying themselves than paying their workers and doing the quote-unquote right thing as

Joe Kernan mentioned there, and I apologize. I mix up my white male wealth hoarders in this country. That was not Grover Norquist. That was Joe Kernan from CNBC's Squawk Box. And he lied in that segment about how absolutely devastating stock buybacks really are. He tried to make it seem like it's a great thing, Francesca, but just a few excerpts from a piece written in the Harvard Business Review about how disastrous corporate stock buybacks are for the economy. economy. And let me just note that there was $1.1 trillion spent on corporate stock buybacks in 2018. Stock buybacks made as open market repurchases make no contribution to the productive capabilities of the firm. Indeed, these distributions to shareholders, which generally come on top

of dividends, disrupt the economic, or I should say disrupt the growth dynamic that links the productivity and pay of the labor force. The results are increased income inequality, employment instability, and anemic productivity. You want to know why? Because they take the money from their tax savings and they just try to do all sorts of little tricks with the stock market so they can make more money for themselves. They don't create new jobs. They don't reinvest in their companies. They don't invest in their own workers. They don't do any of that. They just try to find ways to take advantage of a system that's rigged against workers to make themselves wealthier. And then you have a clown on CNBC telling you that it's a great thing that you should just shut up and take it.

I mean, what's crazy is that, you know, Elizabeth Warren, when consistently offered the ability to say whether, you know, she's a democratic socialist or like, like socialist ideas is like, no, I don't. I'm a capitalist. And you're like, oh, okay, you know. And once again, a lot of people who are calling for anything from breaking up big tech to not allowing these stock buybacks are like, no, no, I'm a through and through capitalist. I just believe that the system needs to have a little wee bit of regulation. I believe, like, Warren is all about breaking up Amazon because she's like, it creates more capitalist competition. So for all the, you know, like free market heads out there who somehow are, you know, on the side of Grover Norman. here and others, like remember, this is not what the free market was intended to do. This is not the invisible hand of the market. This is not working out. This is gaming a system that has been wide open for fraud and allowing your accountants and your stock brokers to make you even more money that you didn't earn. That's all it is. So again, it's not radical, but we have to keep on saying it over and over and over again that none of this is actually socialist, even if you are a democratic socialist. Right. No, you're absolutely right about that. I can't believe how fast time is going by on today's show, but we got to take a break. But when we come back, we have some pretty big stories for you, including Joe Biden's decision to drop near a tandon as his nominee for the Office of Management and Budget. And also a bunch of red state governors have decided to lift their mask mandates, what that means for the coronavirus pandemic when we come back.

you the full episode of the young turks support our work listen ad free access members only bonus content and more by subscribing to apple podcasts at apple dot co slash t yt i'm your host jank huger and i'll see you