What A Day - Let's Make A Democratic Spending Deal

Episode Date: October 29, 2021

After weeks of negotiations, President Biden announced his revamped Build Back Better plan, which includes approximately $1.85 trillion of investments to fight climate change, expand health care, create jobs and more. This plan was originally much much bigger but two Democratic senators, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, are the reasons Dems had to abandon some of the bigger provisions.And in headlines: big oil CEOs testified before Congress, the DOJ will pay $88 million to the victims’ families of the 2015 massacre at a Black church in Charleston, South Carolina, and a new criminal complaint alleges former NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo of forcibly touching a female staff member.Show Notes:NY Times: “The World ‘Has Found a Way to Do This’: The U.S. Lags on Paid Leave” – https://nyti.ms/3mmRzA5For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Friday, October 29th. I'm Gideon Resnick. And I'm Priyanka Arabindi. And this is What A Day, where we are congratulating Mitt Romney on being the last person to go as Ted Lasso this Halloween. And if you don't know what we're talking about right now, just go on with your day. Just enjoy it. Don't look it up.

Don't. Don't let him ruin that for you. Don't let him take away your joy. On today's show, Congress grills big oil plus Facebook rebrands as meta. But first, after weeks of negotiation, President Biden announced his revamped Build Back Better plan yesterday. After months of tough and thoughtful negotiations, I think we have an historic, I know we have a historic economic framework.

It's a framework that will create millions of jobs, grow the economy, invest in our nation and our people. It includes approximately $1.85 trillion of investments to fight climate change, expand healthcare, create jobs and more. Yeah, and we've been hearing about this plan for weeks, if not months, as lawmakers have debated how much to spend and what to cover. So let's give everybody a rundown of what actually made the cut in this revamped plan. Yes, so it is quite a list, but I'm going to do my best to run you through the highlights and what people are excited about.

So let's start with combating climate change, which is of existential importance to all of us and our planet. So $550 billion are going towards clean energy investments and efforts to combat climate change, including home energy and efficiency tax credits, rebates, and credits for U.S.-made electric vehicles. Princeton energy expert Jesse Jenkins told The New Yorker that these proposals make this the, quote, single largest climate policy in U.S. history. And what about the parts of the plan that would actually help families expand the social safety net, those aspects? Yeah, so a hefty portion of the bill is centered around parents and children. It establishes free universal pre-K for more than 6 million 3- and

4-year-olds while expanding the child tax credit for another year and giving some parents a little more help with handling child care expenses. There's also an expansion of health care coverage, which includes a Medicaid expansion that will affect 2 million low-income Americans and reduce premiums for coverage under the Affordable Care Act. And there's also major investment in affordable housing options, including the creation and reconstruction of affordable homes, rental assistance, and more affordable options for the elderly. That all sounds very promising. And so this plan was originally quite a bit bigger. It felt like the only stories we were seeing over the last couple

of days and weeks was about what was actually getting cut here. So what did get left on the chopping block? Yeah, you're right. It was a lot bigger. This is a pared down version for sure. And I mean, you know why, you know, their names, two Democratic senators, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. They are the reason we had to abandon some of the bigger provisions that President Biden campaigned on. We're talking things like free community college, a clean energy program, efforts to lower prescription drug pricing, and paid family leave. These are obviously going to bring the price tag down, but many Democrats aren't happy because those would have been huge, life-changing policies for their constituents and all of us. And it was completely within reach

had it not been for Banshin and Sinema. Here is what Biden had to say about the process. No one got everything they wanted, including me. But that's what compromise is. That's consensus. And that's what I ran on. He seems a lot more measured than either of us are about this. Yep. But it's important to note that this isn't final.

Things are definitely still in flux, as they have been for quite some time. We're just giving you the latest updates. Exactly. So let's get to the cost of this bill. It was originally supposed to be north of $3 trillion. I'm old enough to remember the articles over the summer about $6 trillion. That felt great, huh? Who knows?

I have no recollection. My memory is about a week long at this point in time. I had to look it up myself, but it was a good feeling to see it again. So where are we now, and how is this actually getting paid for? So right now, the total cost of this is $1.85 trillion. As for who has the tab, here is what we know about the proposed tax changes. Stay with me. There are a lot of numbers, but I promise it's really not so complicated. First, there will be an additional 5% tax on personal income above $10 million and an additional 3% on income north of $25 million. If you are listening to the show and that applies to you, I'm going to drop my Venmo in the show

notes. Feel free to toss me a few bucks. Feels like you can maybe afford it. Possibly. There will also be a 15% minimum tax on corporate profits of large corporations that make over a billion dollars in profits, plus taxes on foreign profits of U.S. corporations and a 1% tax on stock buybacks. So it's pretty much only affecting the ultra wealthy and major corporations, the vast majority of which do not pay their fair share of taxes in the first place. Yeah. And Manchin, again, has also pushed back on the tax on the billionaires gains aspect of

all of this. So we'll see how that shakes out, too. You know, it is so beautiful. We have someone giving a voice to the voiceless. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Finally, finally. Thank you, sir.

Now we have gone over what is in this and all of the important stuff that's been trimmed out. But let's talk about how progressives have responded. Yeah, so first as a reminder here, progressives in Congress have said that they would back the bipartisan infrastructure bill if they were happy about the details of this Build Back Better plan and thought that 50 senators would vote for the specifics that they had seen. They don't want to pass something in the House and have it go to the Senate and then see more things cut. So here's Representative Pramila Jayapal, chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, shortly after the president's remarks. And she starts on the bipartisan

infrastructure bill, which she refers to as BIF. He did not ask for a vote on the BIF today. The speaker did, but he did not. He said he wants votes on both bills. And he said that what we do on these two bills is going to be determinative for how the world sees us. What is the position of progressives then? Well, let's see. I mean, we're going to go meet, but I can tell you that, you know, we have had a position of needing to see the legislative text and voting on both bills and we'll see where people are. But I think a lot of people are still in that place. Okay, so she mentioned a meeting, right? Yesterday evening, Jayapal put out a statement following her caucus meeting, saying a couple of important things. So

one was that the Congressional Progressive Caucus had, quote unquote, overwhelmingly approved the Build Back Better framework in principle, that they still want to also see legislative text of it before they back BIF, aka the infrastructure bill. And lastly, again, that members of the caucus are just not going to vote for BIF without the Build Back Better Act. Yeah, and that's a huge deal because the Progressive Caucus isn't going to vote on just the infrastructure bill alone. We've known that for a long time. They've been saying that for a long time. Right. And if they don't do that, that's not going to pass the House. They need those votes. That's exactly right. And the margins here are so narrow that three, literally three no votes on Biff alone would have killed it. There was reporting that as many as 30 members were actually going to vote against

it yesterday. And so the other thing in the thinking of these House progressives is they don't know how the framework of the Build Back Better plan may or may not get changed in the thinking of these House progressives is they don't know how the framework of the Build Back Better plan may or may not get changed in the Senate. And to be clear here, Manchin and Sinema have still been kind of cagey about this. They were like, we like that negotiations are happening, but I don't think that there was anything explicit that was like, we are voting for this framework. So again, there's a lot that's in flux. By record time on Thursday night, the plan from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to vote and pass the infrastructure bill was dead in the water as we speak. What has been the reaction to the details of the Build Back Better plan from the progressives

in the Senate? Yeah, so for one, Senator Sanders, who helped to craft the original bill when it was three and a half trillion, basically backed the strategy of those House Democrats saying that they wanted to wait for the full text and the support of 50 senators. So here's a little bit more of what he had to say. I think if you look at the bill that the president announced today, it is probably the most consequential bill since the 1960s in terms of protecting the needs of working families, our children, the elderly, the sick and the poor. It is a major, major step forward. But clearly, to my mind, it has some major gaps in it.

One of those gaps that Sanders has mentioned in his attempts to improve the bill is to get a broader expansion of Medicare to include not only hearing, but vision and dental benefits as well. Definitely. That would be great. And to that end, we're kind of talking about a moving target here as we go to record. Yes. But what else could possibly be added to this? Priyanka, oh, man. There's a lot of stuff that's in the mix.

I'm sorry for asking. It's okay. This is what we have to do. According to the New York Times, Pelosi wants to get a paid family and medical leave program back in. By the way, just to put this in context, the U.S. is one of only like a half a dozen countries in the entire world that doesn't have national paid maternity leave. It is truly a disgrace. It's embarrassing.

This is embarrassing for us. We need to get that in there. Yeah, totally. We're going to link to an article that shows how much of an insane outlier we are. There are also reportedly ongoing conversations about a plan to lower prescription drug costs and a proposal that would allow the IRS to access bank account info to pursue tax cheats. You know, we've certainly been talking about this for some time, but I'm down to keep talking about

it if they add in all this stuff. That's good. It's important. We should be doing it. Yes. And the clock is ticking because Biden wants this passed as soon as possible. Why is that the case? Yeah, I mean, beyond, you know, how long the conversations have been going on, there is this relatively close Virginia governor's race on Tuesday. There's a belief in some circles that if the infrastructure bill gets passed by then it could help the Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe. I don't super know if that is 100% the case, but that is a thought that's going around. And then according to multiple reports yesterday, Biden reportedly told House Democrats in a closed-door meeting that, quote, I don't think it's hyperbole to say that the Democratic House and Senate majorities and my presidency will be determined by what happens in the next week.

Yeah, I mean, he gets it. He knows this is a big deal. Right, right. The proverbial big fucking deal, as he put it about the next week. Yeah, I mean, he gets it. He knows this is a big deal. Right, right. The proverbial big fucking deal, as he put it about the ACA. And Biden has now really thrown his weight behind this specific framework, hoping to have something not only to tout for next year's elections, but also before this upcoming

UN climate change conference that starts on Sunday. Little bump on the fact that there won't be spending to worry about without a planet. Just a side note from me. Just a note. Just a parting word. Of course, this did not pass

before he left for said climate change conference. So we'll see where things go from here in the next few days. More on this soon, but that is the latest for now. It's Friday WOD Squad. And today we're doing a segment called The Solution, where we propose a fix to a news story that has created chaos in our world. Guiding us through it once again is our head writer, John Milstein. Thank you guys so much. I look forward to this every week and it is my life's goal. So do we, John. So do we.

It's ours as well. I'm glad that our goals are in sync. Truly. So everybody forgot why Facebook was bad yesterday as the company rebranded as Meta. Announced by CEO and grill-enabled piece of smart tech, Mark Zuckerberg, at the company's annual Facebook Connect event, the new name serves to emphasize the importance of the metaverse to the company's future. The metaverse is what Zuckerberg sees as the successor to the internet we know now, which will incorporate augmented reality, virtual reality, and good old-fashioned computer screens.

Ten years from now, Zuckerberg thinks we'll enter the metaverse to hang out, meet with coworkers, date, and also, quote, teleport to a private bubble to be alone. If you are having trouble understanding, this clip from yesterday's keynote will clear everything up. 3D street art? That's cool. Send that link over so we can all look at it. This is stunning. That is something. That's awesome. i love the movement wait it's it's disappearing this is amazing hold on i'll tip the artist and they'll extend it wow if you guys like it here i have another room that you're gonna love check out this forest room let's see it koi fish that fly that's new this is wild oh man 3d art is where I checked out, and that was the first line. I'm sorry.

I'm all about the koi fish that fly. That's what I'm looking for on a social media platform. Every, like, whoa, that's awesome, like, very scripted line that they gave him. Loved it. Wow. But, of course, what you're missing here is the 3D avatars of Zuckerberg and his friends inside the metaverse. They all look like variations on Sid from Toy Story before Pixar figured out faces. To throw one final science fiction code word at you, Facebook's new VR platform to allow users to enter the metaverse will be called Horizon.

It's a whole lot of info, and we still don't even know who's going to buy our metaverse browsing habits to make this company billions of dollars. So for the new company Meta and the voyage into the metaverse that will be its central product, here is John with the solution. Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse needs to better capture what we love about our virtual lives online by offering way more opportunities to win free iPod Nanos. As we know, iPod Nano giveaways are the main driver of our behavior on the internet. The primary reason we even go on websites is to be visitor number 100,000

and get two free iPod Nanos after filling out a very brief survey. The second reason we go on the internet is to pirate MP3s from hardworking musicians to put on our iPod Nanos. Mark's metaverse may allow us to negotiate business deals while appearing as a new twist on Wallace from Wallace and Gromit, but it lacks the one feature of the internet that we really truly love. I'm certainly

willing to put on two-pound glasses and wave toy lightsabers around in my room if there's a chance it'll get me 2,000 songs in my pocket. If there's not, I'm out, and so are my extremely influential friends. Of course, supply chain problems are a huge trend recently, so maybe that's what's going on here. It could also be that the last iPod Nano was manufactured in 2017. If so, Mark better speak

up now, and then he can blow us away by announcing a whole new aspect of the metaverse, where virtual moms can surround us and tell us about one weird trick that doctors really don't want us to know about. At that point, the metaverse will be perfect, and I'll be really happy to spend my entire life on it. Wow, that is beautiful and the right priorities once again. You have a gift. You really just have a solution for everything. You know how the people in the Matrix, they look at code and see the world. I look at the metaverse and see ways to incorporate more iPod Nanos. Beautiful. That's beautiful for us all. Exactly. That was the solution. We will be back after some ads.

Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. Congress held a hearing with big oil CEOs yesterday to get answers on whether they misled the public about climate change to protect their own interests. Lawmakers heard from a true global warming supergroup, including executives from Chevron, Shell, ExxonMobil and BP. The hearing was part of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform's investigation into the industry's decades-long, quote, climate disinformation efforts. Democratic lawmakers had fiery words for these executives. Here is Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. I hope that you are ashamed of the future that you contributed for your children and for ours. And I ask all of you to resign.

Wow. Lawmakers compared yesterday's questioning to a 1994 hearing where executives from large tobacco companies testified about industry practices. Now, this is not a bipartisan issue on Capitol Hill. Democrats on the panel argued oil and gas companies, much like tobacco, knew its products were harmful

for years and did nothing. But Republicans didn't pin the blame on big oil. Instead, they called the hearing a, quote, distraction and questioned its legitimacy. That checks out to me. The Justice Department announced yesterday that it will pay $88 million to the victims' families of the massacre at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015. In that event, a self-proclaimed white supremacist shot and killed nine people. The families of the massacre at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015. In that event, a self-proclaimed white supremacist shot and killed nine people. The families of the victims sued the government because they alleged the FBI failed in its background check of the shooter.

Before the massacre, he had been arrested on drug charges, which should have prevented him from purchasing a gun. The payments to the families range from $6 to $7.5 million for those killed in the shooting. And for those who survived, the payments are five million dollars per claimant. Bakari Sellers, one of the attorneys for the victims, said this about the settlement. We're taking this tragedy that they tried to tear our country apart with and build black communities and generational wealth. The victims were all black and those who were killed ranged in age from 26 to 87. I obviously remember the shooting.

I didn't realize about the failed background check. Really just illustrates how broken our systems are. Complete failure. Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is back for another one of his famous disgraces. A criminal complaint accusing him of forcibly touching a female staff member was filed in Albany City Court yesterday. The victim is Brittany Camisso, a former aide to the governor who is one of 11 women whose allegations of sexual harassment by Cuomo were investigated in a report released this August. The complaint said that Cuomo, quote,

intentionally and for no legitimate purpose, forcibly placed his hand under the blouse shirt of the victim and onto her intimate body part. Forcible touching is considered a misdemeanor in New York and carries a penalty of up to one year in prison. For Cuomo to be convicted, prosecutors would have to prove that his touching of Camiso was not accidental, but was carried out intentionally and with force. The only place to get a jug of laundry detergent that is big enough to hide inside Costco is raising its starting hourly wage to $17 beginning on Monday. Now, this comes less than a year after the company raised its minimum wage to $16. And it comes in the midst of a labor shortage that's got corporations around the country competing for workers. And it's also led to a bunch of really great viral tweets of employees texting their

bosses mean things and quitting. Starbucks also announced a pay bump for its hourly workers this week. By next summer, the company's base hourly pay will rise to $15, with some employees earning up to $23. Starbucks workers are in the midst of a unionization push in Buffalo, but the company said that wasn't the impetus for the pay increase. Ha ha, I'm sure. Either way, the higher pay probably will not be reflected in the prices of the delicious adult milkshakes that we all buy there every day. You know what?

I know the real thing behind this. Costco. No one at Costco. No one at Starbucks wanted to get a mean text. And I don't blame them. I wouldn't want one either. So good on you. I like your solution here.

Yes. Keep firing those mean texts. And those are the headlines. One more thing before we go. We have NSYNC's Joey Fatone wishing us happy two years using the exclusive website Cameo. I don't know if you've heard of it or Joey. You can check it out on our Instagram and on Crooked's Twitter account. It is not to be missed. It is truly iconic. Really? Do not want to miss it. It's a ball's Twitter account. It is not to be missed. It is truly iconic.

Really? Do not want to miss it. It's a ballad, honestly. It is. It's beautiful. It really is. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, follow us into the metaverse,

and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just the terms and conditions on our free iPod Nanos like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Priyanka Arabindi. I'm Gideon Resnick. And enjoy your adult milkshakes. We make them sound like they're alcoholic. Yeah, they're pretty delicious. I mean, I'm not gonna lie. I like a pumpkin spice latte. Whataday is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Bill Lance. Jazzy Marine is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Bill Lance.

Jazzy Marine is our associate producer. Our head writer is John Milstein and our executive producers are Leo Duran and myself. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kshaka.