What A Day - Trump Vs. Social Security

Episode Date: January 24, 2020

President Trump mentioned taking a look at cuts to Social Security. We discuss the implications and how the issue of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are showing up in the presidential race. Trump’s White House is also rolling out a new rule to limit so-called “birth tourism.” We discuss what this could mean for literally any woman applying for a visitor visa.  And in headlines: pharma exec goes to jail for Insys, special clocks, and NYC goes cashless-less.

It's Friday, January 24th. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick, and this is What A Day, giving you the spark you need to attack your Friday with that Monday energy. Yeah, beat up Friday like it's a Monday. Don't know what that means. Run away from it. On today's show, Trump cracks down on travel visas for pregnant women, then some headlines. But first, we're going to take a break from our back-to-back impeachment coverage to catch you up on what else 2020.

Everyone has a social security number. Akilah, what's yours? I'm definitely not telling you. Smart answer. You don't want to share your social security number with anyone, especially not on a podcast. And the reason that we're talking about social security is that it's turned into quite a hot topic for the 2020 election, thanks in part to some recent comments from President Trump. I cannot wait to hear those. But first, catch us up on Trump's history around social security. I will indeed. For years, the Republican Party has sought to curb spending on things like Medicaid and social security. I will indeed. For years, the Republican Party has sought to curb spending on things like

Medicaid and social security. It's all part of their so-called fiscal conservatism and focus on the deficit. The story that they tell goes that the deficit runs up and then they need to look at the budget and say, these social programs that are very popular need to be trimmed. I say story because Republicans have quite a habit of harping on the budget when Democrats are in charge, but running up huge deficits when they are in power like right now. One of the stranger things, though, that happened in the 2016 presidential election is that Trump promised no cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. It's a weird thing that I always return to. And it's one of the factors that could

have compelled voters that were maybe otherwise apathetic or negative to the Republican Party to support him. But we're not going to hurt the people who've been paying into Social Security their whole life. And then all of a sudden, they're supposed to get less. Every Republican wants to do a big number on Social Security. They want to do it on Medicare. They want to do it on Medicaid. And we can't do that. And it's not fair to the people that have been paying in for years.

And now all of a sudden they want to be cut. And it's my absolute intention to leave Social Security the way it is, not increase the age and to leave it as is. Open change 2016. Well, those are just three instances from a video that The Washington Post put together of Trump's promises during the 2016 campaign. Now in his administration, Trump has flagrantly broken that promise. His picks for agency heads are at odds with that stance.

His health care plan is too. And so is his 2020 budget. In this week, in an interview, he suggested it could all be on the line in the future. Do I dare? One last question. Go ahead. Entitlements ever be on your plate? At some point, they will be. We have tremendous growth. We're going to have tremendous growth this next year.

It'll be toward the end of the year. The growth is going to be incredible. And at the right time, we will take a look at that. You know, that's actually the easiest of all things, if you look, because it's such a big percentage. If you're willing to do some of the things that you said you wouldn't do in the past, though, in terms of Medicare. We're going to look. Trump has used this whole we'll take a look phrase for just about a million things in the past, and some of it has come to fruition and some hasn't. But this was still a sound the alarm moment for Democrats who obviously saw it as both a major break of a campaign promise and an opportunity to highlight the potential of an

administration targeting very popular programs in an election year. It's a layup. This is without a doubt going to be in advertisements and help play into a Democratic message that is based in fact, this president has worked hard to harm your health care, and now he might be coming for something that you worked hard to earn. I spoke with Alex Lawson, executive director at Social Security Works, an advocacy organization about all of this. Social security is a top issue across this country. Red state, blue state, purple state, doesn't matter if I'm speaking to

people who are wearing camo NRA hats or who drove to the event in a priest. Everyone loves Social Security. Nobody wants even a single penny of benefits cut because people understand it's our money. Now, Lawson has endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders in his personal capacity, but the organization does not plan to make an endorsement in the primary. Lawson also pointed out that Trump is currently trying to cut back Social Security on the edges right now through executive actions and changes to qualifying rules. So with Trump, this isn't just a future threat as much as it is current reality. Yeah. And while all that's happening, a conversation about Social Security is also

taking place in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. That is correct. And it's taking place largely between former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders. Now, the cheat sheet version of this goes a little something like this. The basic framing of the argument from Sanders camp is Biden has historically been a deficit hawk, at least compared to Sanders, who has shown willingness to do freezes or cuts to benefits like Social Security and Medicare. It's something that the Sanders campaign has been eager to litigate for a number of reasons. One, Biden has performed better with older voters and still does than Sanders. And this is a key issue for that constituency. And two, for working class voters who might be deciding between the two or other candidates

in the race, this could be an important topic as well. Sanders also overall has wanted to stack his record up against Biden on a number of fronts because these two older gentlemen have been around for a long time, including this and foreign policy. It's very important, though, to understand that at this very moment, Biden is in favor of expanding Social Security in his new presidential campaign. It's on his website. He has talked about it. Sanders and Warren also have plans to expand Social Security and fund it through tax increases on high income earners and investment income. In other words, all of these

folks are trying to make it a program that is worthwhile and there for when we all hopefully retire one day. I plan on getting hit by a bus, but good luck, Gideon. You know, there are two choices in life. But Biden's prior support for this kind of bargaining and his campaign rhetoric about finding compromise with Republicans once in office has been enough to give some advocates a bit of pause. Yeah. And the reality is that whoever the next president ends up being, if that's Sanders, Biden, Bloomberg, Yang, Warren, Buttigieg, or God help us, Trump, they might all have to contend with Mitch McConnell, who has expressed an openness to making

cuts. Exactly. And that's why some advocates have been concerned about who might end up at the negotiating table with them. Here's Lawson again. So this is Washington, D.C. we're talking about, so you can literally set your watch to one thing. As soon as Democrats take power, man, is the deficit going to matter again. And you're going to see all these stories about the deficit. No, wow, spending is out of control, and it's going to be marvelous to watch the media just turn on a dime and the Republicans to find their vision again on the deficit. And that's when the deficit hysteria starts, and that's when the grand bargaining starts. And that's why it's so critical that we acknowledge where some Democrats, too many Democrats were during the last time of austerity and the grand bargaining and to repudiate it. Essentially, Lawson and other advocates just want to hold Biden accountable.

Part of that is making sure that he's honest about his past record, how he's changed and getting him on the record now saying he won't use Social Security as a bargaining chip. We will see in the coming weeks and months if this continues to be a storyline in the Democratic primary going forward. But big picture takeaway here on this issue. Donald Trump has said out loud that he is considering cuts to Social Security. That puts him in line with Republicans who have pushed for cuts on this for years, and out of line with the majority of Americans who pay into these programs and support them and are relying on them in the future. The Trump administration is rolling out a new rule to limit so-called, quote, birth tourism. The idea being

that if you are a certain amount of pregnant and come to the United States on a tourist visa, you run the risk of having your baby on American soil, which would make the child eligible for citizenship under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. And for some reason, our government hates this. Yeah, I thought the GOP loved babies. I wasn't then? No, wrong, wrong people as a whole. Starting today, women applying for visitor visas could be required to prove that they have a specific reason for travel beyond giving birth, such as a medical necessity. But Akilah, what is the government's explanation for this new rule? Yeah. So a State Department official said in an emailed statement that the new rule aims to address national security risks, including criminal activity associated with the industry for birth-related trips.

And here's an additionally bananas detail. So the final rule says that officials must scrutinize female travelers to determine whether they might be pregnant. Yeah, no, it doesn't say, you know, how the officers will make those determinations. And yeah, it's very creepy and super unnerving. Yeah, I don't want that. So birth tourism, it's not clear whether it's a significant phenomenon or whether it actually leads to immigration or security issues, as the administration says. But fill us in on what we do know about it.

Well, it definitely exists. But you know, the truth is, I'd never heard of it. I had to look it up because, you know, I have a ton of pregnant friends who are on my Instagram timeline and none of them are talking about birth tourism like this. So after a little bit of research, I found out that almost a year ago today, three people who operated multimillion dollar birth tourism businesses in Southern California were arrested in the biggest federal crime probe ever involving that industry. In all of last year, 19 people were arrested in California for running these kinds of businesses. So in one of the schemes, businesses were coaching wealthy clients to deceive U.S. immigration officials to just pay lower rates at hospitals when they're giving birth. In another, they did the opposite. They coached impoverished clients to claim they were staying at, you're not going to believe this, Trump International Waikiki Beach. And that's just to convince immigration officials that they were well-to-do vacationers.

The baby wasn't a part of it. They just wanted to go on vacation. All very interesting. Yeah, I love to hop in the Winnebago and head down to Trump International Waikiki. Okay, so where are these clients mostly coming from? Well, in that bus, it was mostly Chinese parents. So an ICE special agent told the New York Times

that investigators found evidence of Russians participating in these schemes in Northeast America, and Nigerian families were doing so in Texas. So it's, you know, there's a variety. Okay, so clearly the schemes are not good. But what's unclear is how widespread they are, like if these new rules are even necessary, or if an overreaction that might impact travelers who happen to be pregnant who are coming to the United States for legit reasons, like visiting family or work or whatever else. Yeah, right. And critics of the newly introduced rule think it's just vague. And it's also probably going to be enforced in a way that's discriminatory. You know, who's deciding what's an important reason to be in America when you're pregnant?

Right. I highly recommend reading more about it. So the New York Times has really good reporting on it. And also the Daily Beast did a really interesting deep dive on Russian birth tourism, where wealthy Russians were visiting Trump properties with the intent to give birth while in the U.S., specifically the Trump resorts and things. So that's pretty interesting. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines.

We've got a special guest joining us today, Crooked's head writer, Travis Helwig. What it do, baby boo? That's what everyone says when they see me. It's great to be here. Follow me on Instagram. Lots of shirtless photos. Are you on TikTok? I don't want to answer that question.

Okay, well, the listeners will find out tomorrow. Well, I guess I will give us some news. All right, a former billionaire slash pharmaceutical executive was sentenced to five and a half years in prison. John Kapoor founded opioid maker Insys Therapeutics, which got its money from aggressively marketing a fentanyl product called Subsys. He's been I know you want to make a joke. It sounds like incest. It does. And we should call it out.

He was aggressively marketing a fentanyl product called Subsys. He's being booked for his role in a racketeering conspiracy to illegally boost Subsys sales. Subsys sales. Other execs in the company are also getting jail time, including a sales chief that hired a stripper to persuade doctors to boost prescriptions. It works. It works. Yeah, she's really talented in lots of ways. It would be funny if it weren't so deadly.

Oh, I'm sorry. This sentencing marks the first successful prosecution of pharmaceutical executives related to the national opioid epidemic. New York City's city council approved legislation on Thursday that prohibits stores from going cashless, which is refusing to accept hard currency. Look, cash was good enough for my grandfather when he bought his ticket on that big, wet boat that took him to Ellis Island,

and it should be good enough for Sweetgreen when I pay for my big, wet salad. Nice plug. Yeah, thank you. That's one of the cashless ones, and I love Sweet Green semi-free salads. Businesses say that using only digital payments helps speed things up and increases safety, but critics argue that it discriminates against low-income customers who often lack bank accounts and credit cards. The bill passed by an overwhelming margin but still needs approval from New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio,

who killed a groundhog one time. I'm counting my pennies in anticipation. All those pennies will buy the city a new groundhog. The governor of Tennessee announced that he wants to enact some of the most strict abortion laws in the nation. Governor Bill Lee's law wants to ban abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, way before most women even know they're pregnant.

The law would also require women seeking an abortion to be shown an ultrasound. This news drops just a day after the 47th anniversary of abortion being protected as a constitutional right under Roe v. Wade. Similar laws have been enacted in some southern states, but they've been blocked by legal challenges. Here's hoping that happens again to old Bill Lee. it doesn't say they have to be shown there i was thinking the same thing like can i get the one from alien with like the stomach yeah just a scary monster eating that looks like spaghetti i don't know all right just put a

sticker over the screen yeah it's just like you look great today yeah and yeah do they have to stare at it the whole time like if they blink, do they have to start it over? I think it's a bad idea Clearly Do not endorse In more anti-abortion news March for Life, not to be mistaken for March for Our Lives That's the good one, with the teens

That's happening today President Trump will be the first president in the history of the United States To show up and speak to the crowd But he follows in the time-honored tradition of men telling women what to do with their bodies. Trump's appearance probably has something to do with an anti-abortion super PAC announcing it would spend $52 million to help the president's re-election. Probably. Probably a little something to do with that. When I see stuff like that, I just think, that seems normal. Those things aren't related. I like living in a country where that happens.

I also wonder if it had to be 52 or could they have just given them a little less? Yeah. What's his price? The Doomsday Clock has been set at 100 seconds to midnight, the symbolic hour of the apocalypse. This new movement, of course, has been triggered by the upcoming release

of the live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movie. That fast rat will kill us all. We've all been triggered by it. I'm mad they changed it. We could add a second Cats in one year. Seriously, though, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, it bothers me that they call themselves the Bulletin and not the group of atomic scientists. They're the ones who control the clock, and they say it moved in response to the, quote, existential danger war and climate change it doesn't really mean anything and this is really just a clock designed to stress you out which when you think about it is honestly all clocks uh leave me the fuck alone let me sleep however late i want time's a concept timecube.com uh still it is a good

reminder that our world is messed up and a clock told me that. That's right. Travis Helwig, thanks for being here. It was honestly awful. Hope to see you again soon. I doubt it will happen. Thanks for formally joining this bulletin with us. I would love to be in a bulletin with the two of you. I want you to know every time I do something on air for Crooked, I am never asked to do it again.

So I anticipate that will happen to this as well. Well, thank you for ruining your own chances. You said it, not me. And those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, call our parents to schedule a play date, and tell your friends to listen. By the way, if you're into reading and not just the rings of the mighty oak tree like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Krooky.com slash subscribe. I'm Akilah Hughes.

I'm Gideon Resnick. And if you're a clock, stop ticking me off. It's Friday. Leave me alone. I don't care about what time it is. What a day is a product of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tun is our assistant producer. Our head writer is John Milstein, and our senior producer is Katie Long.

Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kshaka.