The Young Turks - Tucker Unmasked

Episode Date: April 28, 2021

Joe Manchin is still being a hurdle for infrastructure to be passed and Lindsey Graham expects him to join the Republicans in holding up the corporate tax hike. 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. Welcome to the Young Turks. I'm Anna Casparean. Joining us today is Wozni Lombre, host of Woznia over at our Twitch channel. Check that out at Twitch. at Twitch.TV slash TYT and also the host of woke bros, the podcast that you should all be subscribed to already. But if you're not, it's totally fine. Subscribe now. I'll give you a little bit of time. Do it right now. Waz, how are you? I'm good. Can't complain. Fresh off of a little

mini vacation. And I got back yesterday. And this is honestly the first thing I've done since being back is being on TYT with my great friend Anna Kasperian. And of course, Brett Ehrlich on the ones and twos, keeping the trains running on time. Definitely, definitely. I will, I apologize that we had to break your vacation mode. But hopefully we have a good time on the show today. You know how it is, like the first work-related thing you have to do after a vacation. You're just like, all right, let's go for it.

But, you know, hopefully we have a little bit of fun here. And you'll still kind of feel like you're on vacation. You know, we're vibing, we're having a good time. And I was with family on vacation and now I'm back on TYT, back with family, you see. So it's still a breeze. Don't worry about it. Oh, so you didn't actually go on vacation at all. Okay.

Well, hopefully you can make time for yourself to go on an actual vacation. But in the meantime, you've got to work. And we've got some pretty important stories to get to, including Joe Manchin continuing to serve as an obstacle when it comes to passing some of the policies. that we need to get passed. We'll also talk about what Joe Biden is proposing to do when it comes to tax dodgers. And what needs to be done in order to raise revenue to pass some of his policy proposals. And later on in the show, we'll also discuss how Tucker Carlson is literally encouraging his viewers to go around harassing people who don't go along with what the right wing thinks people should do in response to the coronavirus pandemic. But why don't we get started with the vegetables of the show, the substance, and that really

does have to do with the ongoing debate regarding the Biden infrastructure bill. They believe that you're one of the main roadblocks on getting those goals accomplished. How do you respond to that? I'm not a roadblock at all. Senator Joe Manchin does not believe he's a roadblock when it comes to passing Joe Biden's policy proposals, including the $2.25 trillion infrastructure bill, the only problem is he is a giant obstacle. In fact, he's currently working with Republicans in order to defeat certain components of the proposal. And of course, unsurprisingly, the components that we're

talking about here are the very components that are most popular in the infrastructure bill. Now, the biggest issue that Republicans have, clearly, and some corporate Democrats, is the potential of increasing the corporate tax rate. There are other issues involved as well, and I want to share those issues with you. So Senate Republicans have proposed a ridiculous counterproposal, $568 billion infrastructure counteroffer last week. Now bipartisan talks on a compromise proposal between $600 billion and $1 trillion are just getting started. Now, let me remind you all, I've already stated it, but I'll state it again. Biden has proposed a $2.25 trillion infrastructure bill. And right now, the bipartisan negotiations are somewhere in the ballpark of $600 billion and $1 trillion.

Now, Democrats, according to the Hill, are nervous. They're nervous about Mansions' opposition to Biden's proposal to raise the corporate tax rate to 28%. Saying a 25% rate is more reasonable. He met last week with Senator Lindsey Graham to explore ways to fund a compromise infrastructure package without relying heavily on tax increases. Now remember, the corporate tax rate prior to Trump taking office and passing his tax cuts for the rich was 35%. Trump lowered it to 21%.

And Biden wasn't even proposing to increase it back to 35%. He decided, maybe I'll go halfway to 28%. Maybe that's enough. And you have corporate Democrats and, of course, the GOP saying, no, we can't even have that. Let's start talking about maybe 25%. Maybe. And of course, you have Manchin going along with this nonsense. Now, Was, before I get to all of the other ways in which Senator Joe Manchin wants to essentially strip this bill down,

I wanted to get your thoughts on the tax component of it. You know, it's interesting when Manchin talks about sort of this bipartisan DREC, right? And the first thing he wants to attack as far as compromise and leave on the cutting room floor is all the stuff that would affect normal everyday citizens as far as home health aides, etc., etc. Everyday citizens, we got to sacrifice you. But corporations, we can't tax them at 28% even though. it was previously at 35 and the world somehow did not burn. And my problem with the dog and pony show that he always does before these things come up to a vote, at least in when we were kids, you know, our parents would come up with different tricks during Christmas time

or the two fairy to try to lie to us and, you know, trick us into thinking these things are real. Mansion doesn't even bother with his fairy tale of how magical bipartisanship is. He just comes out and says, it's great. He doesn't come out and say, hey, man, when we did the crime bill, it was bipartisan and everybody loved it. When we did Iraq, it was great. It was bipartisan. Everybody loved it. The Patriot Act.

It was awesome. It was bipartisan. He doesn't even give us examples of bipartisanship working. He just lies and says that it's just great in and of itself. That's what kills me about Joe Manchin is that he doesn't even try to lie to us anymore. Well, one other thing to keep in mind about Joe Manchin is, we talk about other details related to the story is that he really led the charge when it came to caving to the demands of the GOP in regard to Biden's coronavirus relief package.

His whole thing was, you know, we got to work in a bipartisan way. We have to, I mean, we don't want to be extreme, we want to, we want unity. And so he led the charge in essentially in decreasing the amount of money Americans would get in the unemployment benefits. Originally, the proposal was $400 per week. He got it down to $300 per week, something that Republicans wanted. And there were other things stripped away, including, by the way, means testing when it came to the direct relief checks to Americans.

And so he put in all that work. He gave to all these GOP lawmakers. And what did he get in return? How many GOP lawmakers in the Senate voted in favor of Biden's coronavirus relief package? I can't remember, Was, do you remember how many GOP members voted in favor of? None. Zero, zero, zero. So Joe Manchin failed.

Okay, so I don't want to hear anything about the need for bipartisanship from a man who hasn't even been able to carry it out after handing all of his bananas over to the GOP. Now, Manchin is also talking about conventional infrastructure and how Biden needs to kind of take out some of the other stuff that, you know, maybe constituents, are too dumb to understand. And if you don't believe me in regard to his language, let's watch the video. There seems to be a bit of a disconnect on how to define infrastructure here. President Biden has broader ambitions.

He, for example, has a plan inside his big proposal that includes $400 billion for in-home care for elderly Americans and those with disabilities, also billions more for child care facilities. Do you support that? Well, here's the thing. All the things he has stated that's needed is needed. I do think they should be separated because when you start putting so much into one bill,

which we call an omnibus bill, makes it very, very difficult for the public to understand. It makes it very difficult laws for the public to understand. You see, the American people are just too stupid to understand that, hey, if people have to stay home and take care of elderly family members or children, you know, they're not going to want that group together with an infrastructure bill. I mean, they're going to be against it if you included in an infrastructure bill. They're not going to, it's going to be too confusing for them. I mean, how insulting is that language? And by the way, they're not too stupid to understand it.

The vast majority of Americans favor the infrastructure bill as it is proposed right now. I'll give you those numbers in a second. But, Was, why don't you jump in? Yeah, it's just, you know, the logic that nobody. could understand how granny might need a home health aid so that everybody can go to work and, you know, you don't have to actually come out of pocket for it because those bills can get very expensive. I think Americans would understand why the government should handle that. Also, I love the idea because Mansion came out and he said, well, you know, the reason

why we got to do this bipartisan stuff, because we got to sell this idea to all Americans. You know, we got to work with Republicans to sell this to the American public. Sir, excuse me, the $2.2. trillion is already got overwhelming American support. It's already been sold, brother. You're the one that needs to do the selling, which is why he's out here shucking and jiving on behalf of corporations. And more importantly, Anna, man, what kind of politics do we have that Joe Manchin feels completely fine putting his name on cutting, you know, whether it be unemployment better, benefits, cutting the sort of the salary thresholds for the stimulus, saying, hold on, hold on. We don't want to raise taxes on corporations.

He has no shame in putting his name on this stuff publicly with no consequences. It speaks to, you know, the sort of messed up nature of our current politics, man. No, that's the most important point because whether you're talking about Senator Mansion or Senator cinema, they proudly vote against the best interests of the American people. But more importantly, they do so knowing that the very proposals that they're voting against are incredibly popular. So for instance, recent polling shows that more than two in three, this includes people of all political ideologies, more than two and three support Biden's two trillion dollar infrastructure plan. Let's give you some details from that poll.

68% of U.S. adults supported the president's infrastructure package dealing with physical needs including road, bridge, and tunnel upkeep, as well as broadband internet expansion and electric vehicle investments. And this is according to a Monmouth University poll. Now, what happens once you start talking about the robust nature of Biden's proposal as it stands today, right? The elder care component, the child care component, do the majority of Americans still support it? Wow, wow, this is shocking. It turns out that Americans actually aren't stupid, as Mansion suggested, and do find this incredibly popular. A similar majority, 64% supports what the poll describes as, quote, a large spending plan to expand access to

health care and child care and provide paid leave and college tuition. support. It took a lot for conservatives in this country to beat back the popularity of the Democratic Party under the New Deal. Because it was so popular, it provided so much financial relief and it made structural changes to our economy. It was incredibly difficult for Republicans to chip away at that. It took decades. And it was because the American people found those policies incredibly popular. And so when you read statements like this from the Hill, Democrats are nervous about Manchin's opposition to Biden's proposal. Why? Why are they nervous? There's nothing to be nervous about. Are they nervous about fighting back against one of their

own to ensure that they actually do right by their constituents? Yeah, they're probably nervous about that. And look, at the end of the day, what really stands out to me was, is the reason why Manchin cinema are totally fine, putting their names on awful votes is because we have no power, right? Jank gets mad at me when I talk about this, I feel like. Others get mad because they think everything is about electoral politics. You know, oh, there's the fraud squad, there's this, we just need to elect one more progressive. No, none of that is going to be the end all be all. Because what you need is a well-organized electorate, well-organized workers to apply pressure persistently and effectively. Otherwise, there's no competition. There's no competition. We're fighting against corporate interests here.

And if you do not have an organized electorate that's able to compete for the votes of these lawmakers, and we're competing against corporate interests, then we're done. We're done. If we don't have that power, we're not going to win. So is it important to focus on electoral politics and ensure that you have progressives elected into Congress? Yes, that makes the process a little bit easier. But yeah, there are all sorts of corrupting factors in Congress. And when push comes to shove, if they need to figure out what they're going to choose, it's easier to go through this path of least resistance if you You have the corporate interests and the party establishment on one side, the side that obviously we disagree with, and then you have like a disorganized group of people who are just shouting at

each other on Twitter. That's the state of politics right now. We need to be real about it. Yeah, and I think there's absolutely something to what you're saying right now, Anna, because honestly, when I say dog and pony show, I do think it kind of is a dog and pony show from Mansion because part of his stick is that he has to go home to West Virginia. and let the people know that, you know, he's not one of the libtards and that he's a hardcore, you know, sort of, he's pretty conservative, even though he has a D in front of his name. So a lot of this is brand protection, right? It's mansion going out and saying, I'm not one of these Dems. I always push against them, blah, blah, blah. And then ultimately, you know, voting for coronavirus stimulus when push came the shove, even though he did claw back some protections for the citizens. And, you know, ultimately, Anna, I side with you because the funny thing about Mansion fighting tooth and nail to sort of scale back the robust nature of this infrastructure bill is that West Virginia, in West Virginia, his constituents will be disproportionately affected by this in a positive way.

That's the craziest thing about it. So if there were sort of an organized left or an organized labor down there on the ground that could actually apply pressure to Joe at home, I think he'd absolutely be singing a different tune. But at home, it's obvious that his rep is just this brand thing where he's a different kind of them. And that's all he ever tries to protect in public is his sort of reputation as not being, you know, just any old idiot liberal Democrat, which is just so backwards and stupid. Joe, you should be going out and taking care of the people who put you in power and who put you in office. And believe me, Joe, once you retire, you and your family will somehow miraculously become extremely rich because that's just how this game goes. That is how this game goes. Absolutely. And, you know, when you talk to the people of West Virginia, I mean, remember when Democrats were caving to the GOP and corporate interest when it came to the $15 an hour minimum, wage hike, there were people in Joe Manchin State protesting pretty aggressively against it,

against gutting the relief bill of having a $15 an hour minimum wage hike. So obviously constituents want the very policies that he's fighting against. The question is, do the Democrats who claim they support the infrastructure bill as it stands today really supported enough to campaign against one of their own and really push him to do the right thing. That's the question. So when you read about how Democrats are nervous about Mansion, in reality, Mansion should be nervous about the Democrats. But unfortunately, it's not playing out that way.

Well, there's a Lindsey Graham component to this story. So I want to talk about that briefly because it just provides more evidence of how Mansion is far more willing to work with the Lindsay Graham's of the world as opposed to doing right by his own constituent. As Senator Joe Manchin continues to be an obstacle in increasing corporate tax rates and also passing important legislation like Biden's infrastructure bill, Republicans are celebrating. Republicans like Lindsey Graham absolutely love that Manchin keeps providing lip service to the notion of bipartisanship when in reality the GOP has no interest in voting in favor of any type of Democratic-led legislation.

Now, when it comes to the Senate, we've talked about the legislative filibuster quite a bit. That requires 60 votes in the Senate in order to pass any legislation. And considering that there's a 50-50 split between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, the only way you can go ahead and pass legislation is through the reconciliation process if the legislation has an impact on the federal budget. Now, Joe Manchin, you know, like that. He doesn't want legislation to pass with a simple majority.

Take a look. And would you tackle everything else with 51 votes through the reconciliation process? No, if people would just think about, if we go through the process that we're supposed to, we never used to use filibuster. And reconciliation is only used for budget. And that's why you have the guardrails put on with the bird rule. So we have to get back to getting it into the committees. Let the committee chair and the members of those committees work it in jurisdictions, whichever it comes to. I'm chairman of energy. Energy projects would come to me and we work it, give it back to the majority. They put it on the floor with an open amendment process that's humane. Now, Manchin knows exactly how that process will go down. The amendments will likely include a GOP-led effort to keep the corporate tax.

rates low. Biden has proposed increasing it to 28%. The GOP doesn't want to increase it at all, but Mansion says maybe we can increase the corporate tax rate from 21% to 25%, even though it was 35% prior to the Trump administration lowering it to 21%. But one thing that really stood out to me about this whole situation is how GOP lawmakers like Senator Lindsey Graham are salivating at all of this Manchin talk and how he will serve as an obstacle to pass important infrastructure policy. Let's take a look at what Lindsay Graham had to say during a recent interview on Fox News. I don't think the pay for us that they have are going to sell to the Republican Party, but if you want some good news on the 25th anniversary of your show, there's probably an $800 to $900 billion

infrastructure bill that we could all agree on. Joe Mansion has a pay for. I'm not going to raise corporate taxes to 28%. At the end of the day, I'm willing to not pay for some of the infrastructure spending, because I think it over time pays for itself. We're not going to do a couple trillion dollars, 85% of it's got nothing to do with infrastructure. But I think there's a bipartisan compromise coming about. Watch Joe mention. Joe's going to be a key player here. I met with him a couple of days ago. I think there's a sweet spot on infrastructure where we can find pay for us that won't hurt the economy. Was, I would love to get your reaction to Lindsay Graham's statements there.

I just wish for once, you know, before we even get to Lindsay Graham, I just wish for once on the Sunday shows I could get a solid just follow-up. Like, just a decent follow-up to the talking points and the rhetoric. Like, just ask this guy, just just go down the list of every single thing that's passed in the last, I don't know, 20 years. But if we want to be, you know, sassy about it, we could ask this guy about every single thing that's passed since, I don't know, Barack Obama got elected and ask him how many bipartisan bills have actually passed. But whatever, that's neither here nor there.

I just love the idea that Lindsey Graham is somehow in charge of what gets passed in the Biden administration from the minority. And he's, you just watch, you just watch Joe Manchin. You just watch him. He's going to save us all. He's going to give the corporations all the tax breaks they need. I just love this idea that he's the dawn of the whole operation. It's like, get out of here, Lindsay Graham.

You're the most spineless, feckless, ineffectual politician almost of my lifetime. So, you know, it's kind of just laughable to watch Lindsay Graham try to, you know, basically it's like fake sort of pressure because, again, Joe Manchin in the state and what's considered to be a conservative state. in West Virginia, he has a lot of constituents that do watch Fox News. And Lindsey Graham is trying to apply some sort of soft pressure to his colleague over there. It's ridiculous. Lindsay Graham, you gotta be honest with yourself before you can start acting crazy with people in public, man. My view is a little different from yours. I think Lindsey Graham is gonna get what he wants. I think the GOP is gonna get what it wants. wants. Look, when it came to Biden's relief package, coronavirus relief package, the GOP and corporate

Democrats, unfortunately, wanted stricter means testing to qualify for the financial relief. And they got it. The GOP got what they wanted. They wanted to decrease the amount of money that would be provided under the unemployment program from $400 to $300 per week. They got it. So Lindsey Graham might be talking with a little bit of swagger in that interview because he knows how the game is played. I mean, he knows that Manchin is willing to play ball. And look, Nando makes the point that Manchin likes to kind of like Collins, Susan Collins, likes to kind of present himself as the moderate, right? Like, oh, I'm not like one of these radical progressives as if there's like this abundance of radical progressives in the Senate. There's like one or two. But, you know, I say that because at the end of the day, Nando argues,

he ends up voting in favor of the legislation anyway, more often than not, he's going to vote along with the Democrats. Sure, that's true. But at least during the Biden administration, what we've noticed is that he has succeeded in getting the Democrats to cave and provide concessions to the GOP. And then, yeah, he ends up voting in favor of the bill because he got the concessions that he wanted. So the debate process that we're experiencing right now is telling. And I think most people who have been following this stuff can read the tea leaves. And if you read the tea leaves, there's a reason why Senator Lindsey Graham seems to have a lot more confidence when he's doing these interviews regarding the fate of these types of bills.

But who knows? I can be wrong. Mansion's absolutely got some John McCain, fake Maverick. I'm such a renegade Republican. but I vote for every single thing that they propose. For sure, he's definitely got a lot of that to him. And I think, you know, that's why you got to be heartened by the fact that Biden starts the quote-unquote negotiation at 2.2. I think an Obama administration would have started it at who, God even knows, where they would have started this one at. So they did start it at, and even though, by the way, we know that the real number should be 3.5 closer to that or 4 trillion. But, you know, it's better than what could have been expected.

And I know that's like sort of tossing a wet blanket on something that is of extreme importance. I think you've got to be optimistic with where they started. This does seem, again, just a different tenor from the last Democratic presidential administration. And yeah, they're going to claw back, you know, a few billion, probably a couple hundred billion from what ultimately gets passed and is going to suck for real people. but ultimately, I think we're going to get something done that's going to make a material difference for people. All right, we're going to have to see. For now, though, we're going to take a quick break.

And when we come back, I'll give you some details about Biden's latest tax increase proposal. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-The Republic or UNFTR. As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies,

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or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained all at the same time. I'm going to be, you know, I'm going to be. Wow, welcome to our first social break of the day. I wanted to give you guys some awesome programming notes for the show this week because Joe Biden will be a Congress tomorrow and TYT will be offering some special coverage of that. So you can check that out tomorrow Wednesday, April 28th, at 8.30 p.m. Eastern Time, 5.30 p.m. Pacific. You can watch live at t.y.t.com slash live and, you know, he is expected to give out some of the details about his upcoming families legislation. It's supposed to propose making the child tax cuts permanent.

There are other parts of it that are really, really important. So hopefully we'll get some more details during his address tomorrow. But definitely check that out live. And all your rowdy friends will be here, including Jake Yugar, J.R. Jackson, and John Idaola. Also, shop T.Y.T. I mean, they're like the busiest people on the planet. They always got something going on. So right now, they just added a new book to the site titled Staying in the Game.

by our very own Adrian Lawrence. So make sure you check that out by going to shop tyt.com. All right, moving on to our member comments. We have effectos who wrote, Biden is so gullible, he thinks toll booths aren't tax raises, their taxes on the poor, absolutely. One of the proposals coming from the corporate Republicans and Democrats is let's not raise corporate tax rates.

Why don't we instead, you know, know, have like more toll roads or, you know, a gas tax, basically any type of regressive taxation that could help prevent a corporate tax rate or a tax hike on the rich. Mickey C, the silver hair dragon in regard to Biden's compromise, says Anna, while campaigning, Biden said he would end Trump's tax cuts. You're right about that. So he didn't start at the 28 percent. He said he'd go back to before Trump, which was 35 percent. Biden went from 35 to 28% in the blink of an eye. Now he's ready to negotiate it down to 25%. It's a crock. I mean, you know I agree with you on all of that. I was always kind of skeptical about him

reversing the Trump-era tax cuts because remember, almost every member of Congress is incredibly wealthy. And there are some who, I mean, like Nancy Pelosi is worth a lot of money. And so when you're talking about tax hikes or an increase in the capital gains tax, those types of tax increases actually impact many members of Congress. Do you think they're going to vote in favor of that? So Puff the Magic Dragon says, I have a corporate tax rate compromise for Mansion and the repugnance since they're not happy with 28%. How about 30%. No, how about 35% and you also get rid of the corporate tax loopholes? How about that? How about they pay 35%? and you don't get to take advantage of all these ridiculous deductions.

Let's get back to the show. Welcome back to TYT. Just want to take a moment to thank our new YouTube members, including H.P. Girl 56, Joe Garcia, and Patrick Murchison, thank you so much for supporting the show. If you're watching online right now, particularly on YouTube, all you got to do is click that join button, and you'll be offered three different tiers, and you can decide which tier you'd like to join as a member, whatever's more comfortable for you and your personal finances. But just know that any support, any type of, you know, membership for TYT helps

to keep us sustainable, independent, and we really, really appreciate it. Thank you guys. Well, let's move on to Biden's plan of a tax. And it has more to do with capital gains. So people are not too happy about that. But also, just ensuring that people pay. their taxes when they're due. So President Joe Biden is seeking $80 billion to fund the IRS. So the IRS can actually do what it's supposed to do, audit people who are refusing to pay their taxes. Now, the IRS has been defunded so significantly that the agency is unable to do audits of high earners. So most of their focus has been on low earners. People, who are usually not engaging in any type of tax dodging. And, you know, the focus on that,

of course, doesn't increase the revenue for the federal government significantly. However, if we fund the IRS, as Biden is proposing here, well, then it would have the resources necessary to focus on the real tax dodgers. And that is important. So the administration estimates that giving the IRS an additional $80 billion over a decade could raise at least $700 billion in next tax, in the new tax revenue for a net gain of at least $700 billion. I mean, it just, it makes a lot of sense. Now, just to tell you how severe this problem is, this month the head of the IRS told a Senate committee that the agency lacked the resources to catch these tax cheats costing the government

as much as $1 trillion a year. This isn't even, I mean, it's, it lacks controversy, and to be quite honest with you guys, on its face, this story is incredibly boring and should not lead to any type of debate. Really, these are people who are based on this ridiculous tax code that favors the rich, they're still not paying the taxes that they're supposed to pay. So no one should disagree with this proposal, but we'll see, we'll see what happens, was. And it almost makes you wonder why we wouldn't spend even more on the IRS when you consider the ROI on this. Like you're telling me I get my money back tenfold by investing in this. Like any person who's ever done any type of business or investments would look at that type of return and say, hold on, can I dump all of my money into this? Like, the idea that people are skating on taxes to a tune of one trillion, and Biden is recommending something.

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Visit bemo.com slash the iPorter to learn more. Then that would get 80 billion of the $1 trillion back, which is effectively 8% of that back, like that there would be any argument against this is laughable. And of course, and we know why richer people aren't getting taxed the same way, and it's because their tax returns tend to be, have a little, They're more work-intensive for the IRS, right? Like the average person who works, you know, just a regular job, does the W-2. That's quick, that's easy.

Wham-Bam, thank you, ma'am, thank you for coming, right? But for their tax returns, it's a little bit more intricate and complicated, and there's more checking and stuff to do. And so, you know, they tend to put those off when they lack the resources. So, of course, you know, this idea that we wouldn't invest resources in getting money back, Like this isn't like, you know, tax cuts for the rich where it's theoretical that they're going to make it rain on us if we shake our little fee fees for them as workers in the economy and they think we're sexy enough to pay us, right? Like that idea has been debunked. It's a stupid one, yet they still peddle it. This is just full proof.

The more you invest in the IRS, the more tax revenue we get back to fund stuff like infrastructure and health care and education. This is just stupid, quite frankly. You know what's amazing? An $80 billion increase for the IRS budget would increase its resources by two-thirds. Like, it blows my mind how much that funding has an impact on the agency. And I should also note that between 2010 and 2018, the agency's budget was decreased by a whopping 20%. So the Trump administration really put that on overdrive. And yes, the $80 billion in proposed funding would be an increase of two-thirds over the agency's entire-

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So this is a good proposal, which means that even though it should be non-controversial, it will somehow be a big debate in Congress. We'll see how it plays out. But Biden will also propose new disclosure requirements for people who own businesses that are not organized as corporations and for other wealthy people who could be hiding income from the government. Now, making sure that everyone pays their fair share is important because Biden does want to propose policies that are, you know, at least rhetoric-wise and on its face, pretty bold policies. For instance, pretty soon he's going to propose his American Families Plan, and that's going to require even more government spending. In order to make the case for that, he needs to show how he's going to pay for it. At least that's the standard that he's set for himself.

And so the American Families Plan is expected to cost at least $1.5 trillion and will include universal pre-kindergarten, a federal paid leave program, efforts to make child care more affordable, free community college for all, and tax. credits meant to fight poverty. That sounds pretty damn good. And so in the very least, what we can do is ensure that people who are dodging the taxes that they're supposed to pay based on our current tax code end up having to pay it because the IRS has forced them to. Now, the administration, by the way, also aims to pay for the plan by raising the top marginal income tax rate for wealthy Americans to 39.6% from the current.

27% and raising capital gains taxes for those who earn more than $1 million a year. So he wasn't lying when he said that his tax plan will primarily focus on the highest earners. That is what he's doing here, I think it makes all the sense in the world, fund the IRS to make sure people are unable to dodge paying their taxes, increase taxes on those who have been able to enjoy this system that has been rigged in their favor. and do what's necessary to ensure that Americans can live healthy, prosperous lives. That is something that's been, you know, deteriorating in this country, certainly since the 1970s. And Biden, at least with his proposal, seems to want to reverse that.

I'll believe him once I see him actually fighting on behalf of these policies, not just proposing it. But in terms of where his focus is on tax increases, this does seem to make a lot of sense. You know what's funny about this as well, Ann, is that, you know, the Biden camp obviously feels like they have to do some type of PR push for funding the IRS because the other side has so thoroughly over decades sort of denigrated the IRS, demonized the IRS, and, you know, messed up their cue rating amongst the public, specifically amongst their base. You know, and that made me think, wouldn't it be nice if the Dems and the establishment on our side found a way to demonize stuff like Halliburton or Raytheon so that every time they tried to increase funding for these private military contractors, we could go out and just conjure up images of a boogeyman private military industrial industry that could affect their funding and ruin everything. But that's just wishful thinking on my part. I know. And there's never, there's never a debate or a discussion about, oh, we're going to increase the already bloated defense budget. How are we going to pay for that? No one ever asked that question. No one. And I'm talking about people in positions of power. Obviously, constituents ask that question. Viewers of the show asked that question. We asked that question. But when it comes to members of Congress or the corporate media, you know, the treatment that a proposal like Medicare for all got is not the same.

same treatment that a proposed increase in the defense budget would get. And that shows you where our priorities really are. We got to take our second break. But when we come back, unfortunately, we have to discuss how Tucker Carlson is encouraging his audience members to harass people and call child protective services on children who are wearing masks. I'm not kidding. We have that story and more when we come back. I'm going to be able to be. I'm going to be able to be. All right. I want to read some super chat questions and comments. And if you're interested in having your comment read your comment read or your question answered through you.

YouTube super chats, now would be the time to put in your questions. Submit your questions throughout the show and we'll answer as many of them as we can. Tricia Briggs writes in and says Tucker Carlson has never said anything more disgusting and awful. Now this is in regard to the story that we're about to do. Call child services over a mask. A call like that can ruin lives he needs to go. British 32 says, hi Anna and Waz, great combo today. Biden and Democrats should light a fire under mansions, but by doing interviews and press conferences in West Virginia to show local voters how much of a corporate shill slash two-face he is. That's the thing. They can do that. I mean, I just keep thinking back to Kamala Harris traveling to West Virginia

to do one local news interview to promote Biden's coronavirus relief plan, which Mansion was fighting to strip down and Manchin hated it. I mean, he was freaking out about it because he knows that his constituents aren't stupid, even though he treats them like they're stupid. He knows that they're fully aware of what these proposals are and how they could really benefit their lives. But he fights back against them anyway because his corporate donors demand that he do so. Peter Hamby says Mansion and Cinema will be around without consequences, only to inflict chaos within D.C., all for the sake of continuing chaos, they want infighting and we suffer. Peter, I actually disagree with you.

I don't know if they like the chaos. What I do know is that they certainly appreciate their corporate donors, and they certainly appreciate the, you know, the positive validation that they've received from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Restaurant Association. I mean, again, when we really take a step back and we think about it, this is a question about power. Who has the power in this country? Now, the American people could have the power. They just need to get organized. Otherwise, there's really no effective way of applying pressure to them. Yes, we can primary Democrats. We've been playing that game. But that's only one part of the equation. That's why the Amazon

effort to unionize was so important. You know, we love. The battle in that case, but the fight is a longer one, and hopefully we continue to try to get Amazon workers unionized because labor power, I think, is a big part of the equation. All right, I'll read Twitch comments for our next break, but for now, let's get back to the show. Welcome back, Friends, Anna Kasparian and Wozni Lombre with you. Make sure you check out Woznih Thursdays on our Twitch channel, Twitch.tvich. TYT. Was, you took a little bit of a break, but you're back on this week, right? Yes, of course. I'll be back Thursday at 1115. PM, excuse me, AM, not PM, Pacific Standard Time. We'll begin into politics. We'll begin into

CAD videos. We will maybe be giving updates about my dating life or lack thereof here in Los Angeles. We get into various things on the show. If you've ever tuned into the previous Wozni and Twitch streams, you know that the conversations will vary in seriousness, in tone and tenor. But we're going to have fun and just enjoy each other. Love the Twitch community. All right, everyone check that out. For now, though, we need to talk about Tucker Carlson, encouraging people to harass children and people wearing masks. So Tucker Carlson is now urging his audience to go around harassing people who wear masks while outdoors. Watch. If you dare to go on foot from Union Station to the Capitol, for example, in Washington

without wearing a mask, angry Biden voters will snort at you in judgment. How could you, they're saying from behind the gauze? How could you? That's the question we should be asking of them in return. The rest of us should be snorting at them first. They're the aggressors. It's our job to brush them back and restore the society we were born in. So the next time you see someone in a mask on the sidewalk or on the bike path, do not hesitate.

Ask politely but firmly. Would you please take off your mask? Science shows there is no reason for you to be wearing it. Your mask is making me uncomfortable. We should do that and we should keep doing it until wearing a mask outside is roughly as socially accepted as lighting a marble on an elevator. Lighting a marble on an elevator, first of all, in many cases, is illegal. And also is different from someone simply wearing a mask and minding their own business.

Inhaling secondhand smoke could actually cause harm to the person who's, inhaling the second hand smoke, whereas being in the same room or being near someone outdoors who's deciding to wear a mask doesn't harm anyone at all. It might somehow harm the feelings of conservatives who have bought into what corporate culture war merchants are trying to sell you. But overall, this is, just leave people alone, just leave people alone, leave people alone, leave people The CDC just today announced that for people who have been fully vaccinated, you do not need to wear a mask while you're outdoors. The only time you should is if you happen to be in some sort of crowd while outdoors.

But if someone wants to be extra cautious and wear a mask while they're out, just leave them alone, just leave them alone. Why do you need to go out and harass them? And what's also hilarious is that Tucker Carlson has whined and cried about people approaching him while he's out in public. He doesn't appreciate being harassed. And I know from personal experience that once he's in a room full of people who might disagree with him, he goes from being this tough guy to being a total dove, right? He doesn't want to be disagreeable. He doesn't want to have to actually debate someone in real time. But when he's sitting there in his comfy

little studio, that's when he gets to act like a tough guy and talk about how it's totally okay to approach people who are minding their own business because they happen to be wearing a mask that makes them uncomfortable, there's all sorts of things that people do out there that make me uncomfortable. I'm not going to go out there and harass them as a result. Yeah, it's funny that he would mention the cigarettes on the elevator because if people can remember or do their knowledge on this, the cigarette, the tobacco industry's big tobacco had known about the cancerous risks, the terrible health risks of cigarettes for decades. And even though they knew the actual effects, they went out, they took out ads, they did commercials about how cigarettes are actually healthy.

Or when they couldn't do that anymore because the government had to step and be like, guys, you're lying. They started calling their cigarettes light, et cetera, et cetera. And I think Tucker Carlson would have been somebody who encouraged people to keep smoking. That's not a big deal. The people who profit off of this who make billions of dollars off of this are telling us that it's fine. So, of course it is, right? Like follow the dumbest instincts possible is what Tucker Carlson wants to tell people to do. And all it is is, you know, in a way it's kind of sinister and how smart it is.

Nobody wants to be made uncomfortable. People want to go back to living what they felt like with normal lives. And he's just, you know, speaking to that. People don't want to wear masks. People want to feel like the virus no longer exists. They want to go back to how things were prior to the pandemic. And he's just speaking to that in the most dangerous. and cynical way possible, but what else can you expect from the most popular person at Fox News

right now? That's what they do. That's what they've been doing for decades, unfortunately. This is what they do because they don't want to have a conversation about things that actually substantively impact people's lives. Like, I don't know, health care, fair wages, agency over their own lives, so they're not constantly working and have no time for themselves. You know, child care, education, these are issues that really matter and have, again, a substantive impact on people's lives. He's not talking about that. Instead, he has a very clear interest in creating chaos and unnecessary conflict among

Americans, who, to be quite honest with you, they took a moment to just stop and think about their lives and what they want to make their lives better, these people shouldn't be in any type of conflict at all. people actually agree on the vast majority of things that need to be passed in this country legislatively, including fixes to our health care, including fixes to education, including fixes to child care. But they don't want to talk about those things that actually unite Americans. Tucker Carlson would rather create chaos and conflict over the latest culture war symbol for Republicans, which happens to be a mask. And if you thought that it couldn't get worse

than that, get a load of this. As for forcing children to wear masks outside, that should be illegal. Your response when you see children wearing masks as they play should be no different from your response to seeing someone beat a kid in Walmart. Call the police immediately. Contact child

protective services. Keep calling until someone arrives. What you're looking at is abuse. It's child abuse and you are morally obligated to attempt to prevent it. If it's your own children being abused, then act accordingly. Let's say your kids school emailed you to announce that every day after lunch, your sixth grader was going to get

punched in the face by a teacher. How would you respond to that? That's precisely how you should respond when they tell you that your kids have to wear masks on the soccer field. That is unacceptable, it is dangerous, and we should act like it, because it is. I mean, how can anyone take this clown seriously? That's what I was saying. And at a certain point, I can't be outraged by this because honestly, and I know we're not supposed to do this, if you actually take anything that was just said by that guy, seriously, like actually think your kid getting punched in the face by his teacher is the same as your kid wearing a mask while playing soccer is the same. You're an idiot. And you deserve everything that's coming to you. I'm sorry.

I can't hold back, Anna. This is ridiculous. You have to be so deluxe. and so brainwashed in this right-wing fever dream about everybody coming to get you and yours to actually believe that wearing a mask is the same as child abuse in its many, many forms, which is actually a serious issue in this country, you should be ashamed of yourself. You should be shunned for proper society. Your family should disinvite you from Thanksgiving. Get them out of here, Anna. Yeah, yeah.

I'm done with them. You know, but the unfortunate thing is Tucker Carlson does have a large audience, and we live in a country that's swimming with guns. Like there are guns everywhere. So what he is proposing people do is go around harassing others for doing what makes them feel comfortable when they're outdoors. Right now, the only people, according to the CDC, who are totally safe, not wearing a mask outdoors, are people who have been fully vaccinated. We don't have the majority of Americans fully vaccinated right now. So there are going to be plenty of Americans who want to wear masks when they're outdoors, when they're around other people outdoors.

And it is not only recommended that they do that, but in many cases, even if it's not recommended, even if they're fully vaccinated, they want to be super safe. Fine. Like, my point is, just leave people alone. Like, there's no need to go around. And by the way, that also applies to people who go around demanding that everyone wear a mask at all times outdoors. Leave people alone.

If you're worried about someone who's not wearing a mask, then cross the street, walk on the other side, I do that all the time. And like, you see how it all plays out in the real world, right? When you're not unfortunately confronted by lunatics, people are considerate, people will cross the street, people will walk, you know, a little further away so you're not too close to them. If they're not wearing a mask, look, despite all of the cancerous rhetoric coming from people like Tucker Carlson. Overall, people are good, overall people are kind, they're considerate,

and we got to keep that in mind and not allow the Tucker Carlson's of the world to continue to divide us, to continue to lead to all of this chaos and hatred outside of our homes. We need to stick together and fight for one another. Tucker Carlson doesn't want that. People like Tucker Carlson don't want that. So just don't fall into this toxic like pattern that I'm seeing online with people on Fox News and other corporate media outlets, it's so unnecessary. Just be kind to each other, be compassionate to one another, and respect other people's decisions. If they want to wear a mask while they're outdoors, respect that. Why would it make you uncomfortable? Just makes no sense. You know, and I have to tell you a confession,

and it's that normally when I am outside outdoors, I don't have my mask on. And like you said, when I see people coming who do have mask on, I like to go, you know, cross the street or walk in the street. And honestly, the main reason why I like doing it is because I'm taking the power back. So many white people have crossed the street when they've seen me coming. It's so nice to finally do it to them back and just take back the power. There's just something so powerful about it. Like, no, no, no, I'm crossing the street this time. So that happens on an everyday basis here in the valley, Anna, just had to tell you that one.

Yeah, I intentional, the only time I'm outdoors is when I go for a run at this point. And I intentionally go on a path where I run into the least amount of people. And then once I do, like I have a mask on, but I have it down because I'm running. It is uncomfortable to run with a mask on. And then I'll just lift it up if I'm about to cross someone or pass someone. Because just be considerate, be kind. That's all it is. And guess what?

You know what the amazing thing is about being kind and considerate to others? You start to feel good overall, right? You start feeling that sense of humanity. It's a great feeling. So ignore the cancerous rhetoric from people like Tucker Carlson, focus on the goodness in humanity, and move forward. Because we need to make this country in this world a better place. And we're not going to do it by listening to lunatics who have every.

incentive to continue dividing us. All right, one more story in this hour before we move on to our two. And this one's a doozy, a little bit of international news. So protests have broken out in several cities across the globe, but several cities in France specifically, including in Paris, over the killing of a Jewish woman who, unfortunately, it will not get the justice that she deserves. Her name was Sarah Halimi, and she was murdered in her own home by an individual who has been determined to have anti-Semitic intentions and motives. Now, Halimi was a 65-year-old Jewish woman.

She died in 2017 after being pushed out of the window of her Paris apartment by her neighbor. Kobili Troi is his name, I believe. I apologize for the mispronunciation, who allegedly shouted Allahoo Akbar, which is God is great in Arabic, he admitted to pushing her. So prosecutors have not only acknowledged that he did this, but they've also acknowledged that he had anti-Semitic motivations behind this disgusting murder. Now, he entered her apartment at 4 a.m. while she was asleep. He allegedly beat her before throwing her over the balcony of her third floor apartment, or council flat. Now, neighbors told the police that they could hear him screaming about how he had killed the devil, and the courts actually found that there was enough evidence to prove that he had

these anti-Semitic motives. But here's where things take a turn that you would not expect in the United States, even though we have all sorts of problems with our justice system here. The court said a person who committed a crime while in a delirious state cannot be sent to trial, And they believed that he was in a delirious state caused by the habitual use of illegal drugs. He used to smoke heavy quantities of cannabis. No, that's it, that's it. I was like, oh, is there more to it?

I mean, does he have a diagnosed mental health condition? No. Did they find other drugs in his system? No. Is marijuana literally the only thing that they pointed to for his delirious state? Yes, yes. That is what the courts have pointed to, and they argue that he is in a psychiatric hospital. He will remain in the psychiatric hospital, as far as I know indefinitely, and he will not face

criminal charges for murdering an elderly woman in her own apartment. So that's why the protests have been happening, because there's been no justice for this woman. And there has been an increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes in France over the last several years. So the Jewish community there understandably is terrified about what kind of message this sense. You know, France actually has a history of being one of the most anti-Semitic countries in all of Europe, which has been known for extreme anti-Semitism as a whole for centuries now, obviously. And, you know, you never want to cast dispersions on a system. You know, I don't live there.

I'm not on the ground. I don't know everything about the sort of climate around what happened. But the idea that they would demonize weed at the expense of anti-Semitic murder, it's hard not to sort of, you know, dredge up the past anti-Semitism of that country. I don't know how you don't make that connection when you see something so obviously horrific and hateful happen. And they say, well, you know, weed made them do it. That's, wow, that's just a tough one to fathom. Even, you know, being from a country where, you know, we're locking up people for decades for dime bags and nickel bags. France has taken the demonization of weed to an even higher level at this point.

With strange results, right? Because in the United States, I mean, you get caught at least historically with possession of marijuana and you're dealing with some serious charges. And with France, they take cannabis so seriously and obviously have a misunderstanding about what marijuana actually does to people to the point where they're like, well, you know, it's so extreme that it makes people crazy and they don't know what they're doing when they're on it. So if they happen to murder an elderly person, And in her own home, we can't criminally charge that person. No, this is crazy. This is absolute craziness. And listen, having a diagnosed mental health issue is very different from making the decision to take drugs, which then leads to you harming others. The decision is all that matters there, right? And in this case, we're not even talking about him taking a drug that makes someone

violent, certainly not violent enough to murder someone in their own home, right? So I just, marijuana doesn't do that. There's just a fundamental misunderstanding of what marijuana does, number one. And number two, even if, and this is not true at all, but even if there was any evidence indicating that maybe he took an edible or something and he was like hallucinating and like losing his mind, even so, it sends a really bad message to basically tell your, entire country that if someone murders someone, someone else under the influence of drugs, well, we can't criminally prosecute them at all because they weren't in their right mind when they did it. No, that's crazy. So I- Yeah, I can't even, I don't even, I don't even know

where to begin with this. And, you know, and another problem, too, is that when they call the God mentally disabled or disturbed or whatever you want to call it, they, and they cast a dispersions on him based on that. I think it basically stigmatizes people who are dealing with mental health issues and, you know, basically makes them seem like potential murderers and, you know, criminals, people who are dealing with their mental health on an everyday basis, man. It's just messed up all around, honestly. It really is. So if you happen to live in France, if you know more about this story and you want to share your thoughts, you can always send us a super chat on YouTube, and we'd love to hear your comments and thoughts on this.

For now, we're going to take a break, and when we come back for hour two, listen, this is one of my favorite stories. We're going to talk about the so-called YOLO economy. What is that? What does it mean? And how are we going to change our work lives moving forward? We have that story and more for you when we come back. Thanks for listening to 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.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.