"The whole thing is dumb"
>> Bryan Schott: Foreign
hello and welcome to Special Session. I'm your host, Bryan
Schott If you're new to this podcast, this
is the show where we talk about the most important stories
in Utah politics from the past week and
explain why they matter. Unlike, uh, other
Utah political shows, we don't have lobbyists
or elected officials as co hosts and
then try to pretend that they're providing unbiased and
analysis on the news of the day. I've covered
Utah politics for more than 25 years, so I
can tell you why these stories matter and give you some
background on them as well this week on the show.
>> Spencer Cox: They're dumb flags and it was a dumb bill. The whole thing's
dumb.
>> Bryan Schott: Governor Spencer Cox looks like he's trying to
rewrite history a little bit on the pride flag fight
between the Utah Legislature and Salt Lake City.
Utah leaders are talking tough about
protests, but it's based on
a false narrative. There are some questions about
the the cozy relationship between Utah
lawmakers and someone who has
connections to a Nazi sympathizer.
And Senator Mike Lee wants to sell public
lands to help pay for the big, beautiful bill
that's currently making its way through Congress. Before we get to
all that, I'd like to ask you to take a moment and subscribe to my
newsletter. You'll find it at Utah Political Watch
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and sign up. Now let's dig into the
week's news.
There are protests scheduled all across Utah
for this weekend. I'm recording this on Friday,
so they may have already happened by the time that
you're listening to this and you'll probably know how everything
turned out. But in the lead up to this, Utah
lawmakers, policymakers, leaders,
they are talking tough. They are
really rattling their sabers, hoping that
what they think is happen in LA
doesn't happen here. As you know Last week we
saw pictures of cars on fire in la, people
confronting the police, tear gas
in some areas. If you listen to some media
outlets, you would think that the entire
city is in flames. That's really
not what's happening. The Los Angeles Times has a
fantastic article published on Thursday
and the headline is all of LA is not
a war zone. They go through what's actually
happening out there. Utah
policymakers would be wise to read something like this.
I know they're not, they're watching Fox News or paying
attention to various right wing media outlets
that fit their narrative, but that's really not what's
happening out there. Los Angeles
encompasses more than 500 square miles and
there have been skirmishes between
protesters and the police. But
it's within just a few city blocks
in downtown la, right around the
Civic Center. If you've ever been in that area, you know what they're talking
about, but that's really where it's happening. Despite that,
you have Governor Spencer Cox, Speaker Mike
Schultz and other electeds around the
state, all of them Republicans talking very,
very tough because they want to make sure that
what they think is happening in la, what
right wing media like Fox News is telling them is
happening in la, doesn't happen here.
During his televised news conference,
Governor Spencer Cox was asked about what was happening
out in la and he said this.
>> Spencer Cox: I have lots of concerns about what's happening in Californ.
Um, uh, you've seen the videos,
uh, you've seen what's happening out there, the riots,
the chaos that is ensuing. We will not allow
that type of rioting to happen here in Utah,
here in our capital city or anywhere else. And
uh, we'll be prepared to make sure that doesn't happen again. I've
seen the videos. The damage that is being
done is unconscionable and
we just, we can't have that in a
civil society. It can't. Look, I want
Utah to be the best place in the United States
to protest. I want to do everything possible
to protect the right of those who want to protest. That's
also part of the Constitution, the ability for people to
show up and uh, express their
views and do so publicly. The right to
assemble. I also want to be, I want
Utah to be the worst possible place to riot.
The minute you start to spray paint the Capitol,
the second you start, you
implement violence, um, or property
destruction, um, we will arrest you and we will
hold you accountable and uh, we will break
up the um, disturbance that is happening. We
are going to be over prepared and uh, just, uh, a
word of warning to anybody who is thinking
about any type of violence or chaos,
uh, or property damage or vandalism, it will
not happen here, and you will be held accountable. So
if you want to protest, this is a great place to
protest. Um, if you want to do that, you
know, go to California.
>> Bryan Schott: You don't want people to commit property damage and you don't
want violence. Nobody wants violence with these
protests, but it sounds like the
state is expecting. They are
clearly planning for the worst
case scenario that might show up in their
fever dream. And yeah, this makes sense. Spencer Cox
is warning people not to get violent, not to do
property damage. That's a reasonable thing
to say, but Cox's response is very muted.
It's, it's very reasonable comparing compared to
what you're hearing from other Republican
leaders, legislators and even
city council members ahead of these
planned protests this weekend.
On Friday, House Speaker Mike Schultz tweeted
this. Protests are expected across the state this
week. While we recognize the right to assemble, let us
be clear, vandalism and violence will not
be tolerated. The governor, in coordination with the
Utah High patrol and local law enforcement, has
put a comprehensive public safety plan in place.
Sources are deployed and law enforcement is prepared.
We are committed to protecting the public, our
communities and state property. Representative Corey
Malloy, who sponsored the state stand your ground
law, his reply to Schultz's tweet is a little
more forceful. He writes, utah House Speaker Mike
Schultz is taking a hard stand against protests turning
violent in our state. I unequivocally back
our law enforcement officers and their preparations to
maintain order. Peaceful assembly is a right,
but any descent into violence or vandalism
will be met with unyielding strength and
resolve. So that's an even more
forceful response from the guy who sponsored the
state stand your ground law. And then we get
to the statement from some Republicans
in Riverton, including
Mayor Trent Staggs. I don't even think that there's
going to be a protest anywhere near Riverton.
But this statement from Mayor Trent
Staggs and council members andy Perucci, Troy
McDougal and Spencer Heyman and is
a little over the top. What they wrote is, quote,
what we are witnessing with these riots is
insurrection and brute force anarchy.
No, it's not. That's not what's happening. Those who
are not peacefully protesting are demonstrating
coordinated attacks on our nation's
institution, cities and citizens. Uh, uh,
citation needed, please. That's. That's, again,
that's not what's happening. We have zero tolerance for
this behavior. The time for appeasement is over.
Deportation of criminal, illegal, illegal immigrants
is not an extreme position. It is the bare minimum
response to restore order and protect American
citizens. Again, none of this
is happening. There is not an insurrection
happening. It is isolated clashes
between police in about a few square blocks
in downtown la. We affirm the right of
citizens to peacefully assemble and express their
views. However, any form of civil unrest
or violence is entirely unacceptable and any
individual found doing so in our community will
be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Our local law enforcement officers and federal partners,
including ice, deserve our respect, our gratitude,
and the resources necessary to keep our community
safe. They are the last line of defense against
chaos. Any public official who sides with
rioters over law enforcement is unfit to
lead. We stand proudly with our men and women in
blue. That is incredibly over the
top. It's based on misinformation that's being
fed to them by right wing media. But it's not
surprising coming from Trent Staggs, who is
very close to the Trump administration. But I want to zero in
on one line real quick. Any public official who
sides with rioters over law enforcement is
unfit to lead. Does that include January
6th? Does that include the insurrection at the
Capitol on January 6th with with
President Donald Trump saying that the people who
assaulted law enforcement were just
peaceful protesters? I think that's a legitimate
question. This is the result of
right wing media feeding
misinformation, feeding a narrative that is
not happening in la. They're not listening to the
people who are actually in la. They're listening
to pundits and others
who make their money off of people
being outraged. That's what the right wing media
ecosystem is. And you're seeing a perfect
example. And this statement from Riverton elected
officials is a perfect encapsulation
of the consequences of that false
narrative that's being fed to them. They think
LA is on fire. It is not.
It is scattered skirmishes between
protesters and police in just a couple of
blocks in a city that covers 500
square miles. Anyway, if you're going to the protests
this weekend, please be safe, Please
be careful when you're exercising your First
Amendment rights. I'm going to be at, ah, both of the
events in Salt Lake City covering it. If you see me, I'd love for
you to come up and say hi, but again, please be
careful.
This is a really important story about
influence and just what kind of people
Utah lawmakers, especially the Republican
majority in the Utah legislature, who they
listen to, who they give credence to whose
opinions they take into account when making
decisions on legislation.
In the past, we've talked about Jen Brown.
She is the founder of Utah Citizens
for the Constitution, a right wing group.
They've taken some interesting and extreme
positions about the nation's founding
document. They believe in a very
limited federal government or they're advocating for
a very limited federal government. They believe that states
rights are much more important. In fact, the states
should be supreme to the federal government. The whole
10th amendment thing. Jen Brown is the founder of that
group. There are some prominent people on her board of
directors. Former speaker of the House Greg Hughes
and former Congressman Rob Bishop. That gives
her a little bit of legitimacy. Brown likes to
present herself as a
constitutional expert or authority. And she
is not. She is absolutely not. That Brown
is a dentist. She
has no academic training, no
academic credentials, nothing that
would lead you to believe that she's an expert on the
Constitution other than the fact that she founded this
group that's about the Constitution. A couple of
years ago I interviewed her and
asked her what made her an authority on the Constitution.
And her reply was that she's read a lot of books. I've
read a lot of books too. That doesn't mean that I'm an expert on
the Constitution or any kind of authority. But Jen Brown likes to pretend
she is. She testifies a lot, lot up at
the state Capitol, lawmakers take her
seriously. She gets meetings with a lot of
top lawmakers. If you go through their Facebook page on
Utah Citizens for the Constitution, you will see her
posting photos with a lot of top
lawmakers at the Capitol in their
offices. She meets frequently with
State Treasurer Marlo Oaks. So she's got a lot
of pull up at the Capitol. She can get meetings that
dare to say you as a regular citizen
could not get. She was also appointed to
a non voting seat on the state's
Federalism Commission. That's a legislative commission
created in statute. They just expanded it this
year and there are 14 people who have non voting
seats. And she joins people like former
Congressman Jason Chaffetz, Rob Bishop, Chris
Stewart, even Ben McAdams. They have non
voting seats on this federalism
commission. And then there's Jen Brown, who is a dentist,
which is, you know, when you look at it, it's really
kind of strange. This year lawmakers
passed HB 488. And
that is from Representative Ken Ivory. And it
sets up this national federalism
initiative. They think that now is the time
for states to assert their authority against the
federal government and they want Utah to Take the lead. They're planning a
big summit later this year at Utah Valley
University. They're inviting lawmakers and
policymakers from other states around the country. And they're
also developing a curriculum on
states rights that will be given to
these lawmakers in other states so
that they too can act like Utah and push back
against the federal government. And one of the people they've
handpicked to help develop this
curriculum is Jen Brown. She's working with Ken
Ivory. She's very closely aligned with him. She's a very
close ally of his, and she is
helping him develop this curriculum. The
part she's working on talks with state
agencies and they're trying to identify areas
where the legislature can push
back against federal regulations. And I have
a recording of her from a meeting of her group about a month ago
where she said she's already started meeting
with state agencies here in Utah to try to
figure this out. Why is Jen Brown meeting
with these agencies? That's a legitimate question.
And it becomes even more of a legitimate question
when you consider some new information that recently
became public. Her organization, Utah
Citizens for the Constitution, what they do, they
are broken up into impact
councils. And these are citizen groups that there's
one in every legislative district in the
state. So they want to have one in all
75 House districts. And those are
citizens groups that reach out to the lawmakers
there, reach out to policymakers, and do some
citizen lobbying. Each one of those impact councils
is led by a chairperson selected
by Brown. In one of those
legislative districts, the impact council chair
is a young man by the name of Christian Drain.
Christian drain is 22 years old. He lives in West Valley
City. He was in the National Guard for a little
while. I don't know if he still is. I, uh, have been trying to
figure that out. Out. The problem with her appointing
Christian Drain to a leadership position within
her organization is that to put it
bluntly, he's a neo Nazi. His social
media is just chock full
of pro Nazi, racist,
anti Semitic content. Really gross
stuff. And until he made his Twitter account
private, it was out there for the world
to see. In addition to that, I've also
discovered that Drain is facing felony criminal
charges for an alleged sexual assault that happened
when he was 19 years old. But the victim was a 14
year old girl. There was a website that went online.
You can find it. It's Christian Drain.com
and they have saved copies of about two dozen pages
worth of his Twitter posts. And it's all
the pro Nazi content. His
account, as I Said is private. But I
painstakingly went back back through Internet
archives and verified that all of these
posts are legitimate. So he did post
these things. And uh, there's very little doubt that this account
belongs to him because if you go even further back
in those archives, he was using his own name
to post on this account. He was posting
under the name of Christian Drain. And
his link tree before he scrubbed it
pointed to this Twitter slash X account.
For a time on this account his username was
1488. And that is a popular
slogan among white supremacists and neo
Nazis. 14 is shorthand for what
they call the 14 word slogan. And
that is quote, we must secure the existence
of our people and a future for white children.
And 88 well, H is
the eighth letter in the Alphabet. 88
HH, it's shorthand for Heil Hitler.
So he used 1488 as his
username. His profile picture at the time
was a meme of Shiloh Hendricks. She
is the woman in Minnesota who was
videotaped using a racial slur towards a five year
old black child. And that meme features
a prominent racial slur. I'm not gonna go
through much of it, but if you look at what he was posting,
it's pretty unambiguously pro
Nazi content. There were pictures of
Hitler, things saying Hitler was right.
He reposted something from a very prominent Holocaust
denial account that called the
Auschwitz concentration camp
Disneyland for anti Semites. And
at the bottom of that post it said make ovens
great again. So there's really no
subtlety here. We know what Drain was posting and
why he was posting it. It's pretty clear.
And this is the person that Jen Brown decided to
appoint to a leadership position within
her organization.
I also found court documents for this
incident which he is facing felony criminal
charges and his trial is scheduled for
later this year. In 2023,
prosecutors charged him with forcible
sodomy, which is a first degree felony and
misdemeanor voyeurism for that incident
involving a 14 year old girl. According to
charging documents, Drain, who was 19 at the
time, and the girl were former co workers and
they reconnected and went over to her place and were watching
television in her room. After she
refused his request that she
perform a sexual act on him, she tried to leave.
According to these documents, Drain got up, blocked the door
to keep her in the room and then allegedly sexually
assaulted her. The voyeurism charge was added
last year after police obtained a video
they say shows Drain engaging in intercourse with
the girl. And the documents allege that the video
was made without her knowledge. And this is a person
that Jen Brown saw fit to appoint to
a leadership position within
her organization, Utah Citizens for the
Constitution. He's supposed to lead the other
members of the group that are in his legislative
district. And by the way, Drain was also
a Republican state delegate. He
was a delegate at last month's state
Republican Party convention. In fact, there's a
picture of him and Jen Brown together
at that convention. Although it's been
conveniently scrubbed from the Utah
Citizens for the Constitution Facebook page
now, it's unclear when Brown became aware
or if she is aware of Drains pro
Nazi leanings. I'm guessing the fact that the picture
has been scrubbed means she is at least kind
of aware. She won't answer questions. She didn't respond to
my questions about this, his pro
Nazi content on social media, his
neo Nazi leanings, the criminal
charges against him. She did not respond.
And she also didn't answer questions about what, if any kind of
vetting process she uses when
deciding whom she puts into a leadership
role in her organization. And whether
Drain still holds that position within
Utah Citizens for the Constitution. We don't
know. This also raises some very
serious questions about her cozy
relationship with Utah lawmakers, especially the
Republican majority. She frequently meets
with top Republican legislators and state officials,
as I said, post pictures with them and, and, and
gets meetings that others simply
cannot get. She's a very close ally of
Representative Ken Ivory who is
spearheading this whole federalism push. It's
pretty clear that he's the reason why
she is taking such a prominent role in this
national federalism initiative. I reached out to
Ivory, I reached out to House Speaker Mike Schultz and
I said is it proper for Jen
Brown who appointed a neo
Nazi to a leadership role in her organization,
is it appropriate for her to be taking a key role in
this, this effort that's going to be
shop to other states that ah, Utah wants to
be the leader in federalism and teach other states how
to do this. Is it proper for her to be doing that?
They did not answer that question.
Neither did Senate President Stuart Adams and
Senator Kevin Stratton. He is the Senate chair
of the Federalism Commission. They didn't respond to questions
either. I also asked whether she should
remain as a non voting member of the Federalism
Commission. Again, I didn't get an answer. She's still
listed on the webpage for the
committee as a non voting member, but I didn't get
an answer from them about this at all. Jen
Brown has much more pull up
on the Hill than you do, than a lot of people.
Legislators listen to her. They meet with her.
She gets access that a lot of
people in the public do not get.
There are some very serious questions
about that cozy relationship, given
her connections to a, uh, neo Nazi.
I'm going to keep trying to get answers to this. It's
clear they would just like this to go away, just sweep
it under the rug. That's why they're not answering my questions. But I
really think that this is something that deserves an answer. You deserve an
answer as a member of the public, and I'm
going to keep pushing on this. One more thing. I mentioned that
Christian Drain was a Republican state delegate.
That's got to be a black eye for the venerated caucus
and convention system, that the system that, uh, people say
is the best way to conduct
grassroots politics. Well, it picked an
actual Nazi to represent them at the
state level. Maybe I'm not being completely fair with
that, because if you've ever been to a
caucus meeting, sometimes there are very few people who
show up. Drain lives in a district
that is very Democratic. So you don't even know,
uh, who showed up for that caucus meeting.
He's young, and it's pretty easy for young
people to get elected as delegates. There
is a desire to get young people involved in the process. So
if you're a young person and you want to
become a state delegate, especially on the Republican
Party, just go to your caucus meeting. You have a very good
chance, because people who have been doing it for a long
time tend to welcome young people with open
arms into that system. Just
make sure you're not a Nazi.
Governor Spencer Cox tried to reclaim
his man mantle of principled
conservative centrist in the Republican
Party this week at his televised
press conference, when the Salt Lake Tribune's Robert Gerke asked
him about the flat between the Utah
Legislature and Salt Lake City over pride
flags. Now, if you remember, the legislature passed
HB 77, sponsored by Representative Trevor
Lee, and that only allowed
flags to be flown in classrooms and at public
buildings that were on an approved
list. It effectively banned pride flags.
Representative Lee has said as much. That was his
goal, to ban pride flags being
flown in Salt Lake City. But last
month, as you know, Salt Lake City found
this gigantic loophole in the law where
they added the city sego lily symbol to
the pride flag, the transgender flag,
and a Juneteenth flag. And then the city council
adopted the those as official flags of the city.
So that is allowed under
this law. But this week when he was asked about
it, Cox said he has just had enough of
the whole issue.
>> Spencer Cox: They're dumb flags, and it was a dumb bill.
Wait, they are dumb. The pride
flags are dumb.
>> Bryan Schott: Salt Lake City's flags are dumb.
>> Spencer Cox: Salt Lake City's flags, okay. It's ridiculous.
I mean, I'm sure they feel great that they got around this dumb
law and they did it with dumb
flags. What do you think? It's just the whole thing's
dumb and the legislature doesn't need to be in everybody's business
all the time. I said that again. It's,
it's, it's the dumbest of all. We're
living in the dumbest timeline right now. That's all I can say.
>> Bryan Schott: Now, the follow up question that was not asked of
him is, if you thought this was a
dumb law, why didn't you veto
it? Why did you allow it to go into effect,
act without your signature? And I think
part of the reason is he didn't want to pick that fight with the Utah
legislature. It passed with a veto proof majority in both
the house and the Senate. His veto likely would have
been overridden, and I don't think he wanted to pick
that fight with the legislature because it would have put
more attention on this issue. Uh, we talked about this
before the national media. Gays would have focused
on Utah because legislators were
having a veto override session
to override the governor on a pride
flag ban. I don't think Cox wanted those
optics and that's why he didn't want to pick
that fight. But for him to then say, well,
the whole issue is dumb and I wish that they would just drop it.
You had an opportunity to weigh in on it.
And yes, he wrote a letter saying
that, you know, he didn't agree with it and he was hoping that
lawmakers would come back in and change it. He didn't like that it
included all public, public buildings. But he had
an opportunity to weigh in on this issue and he
punted. He decided it wasn't worth
the fight. So this rings a little hollow
when, you know, now he's trying to
act indignant and above the fray.
You decided to not get in the fray. The
fray was there. The fray invited you in and
when you had an opportunity, you said, no, I don't think I'm going to
get involved. That's why it now
looks a little bit disingenuous when
you're asked about it and you come back and
you say, well, the whole thing is dumb. If you thought it was
dumb. If you thought it was a dumb law, then why
didn't you veto it? Why did you just decide to
let it go into effect without your
signature? This is giving big.
I just work here, man. Energy. I mean, that,
that's what it is. Cox. I don't know. I just, just work
here. You're the governor. You could have
vetoed what you thought was dumb legislation.
I'm guessing you just didn't want to pick that fight.
We got a number of things to talk about, developments
with the big beautiful bill, the massive tax
cut and spending bill that is working its
way through Congress. We talked a little bit about it last
week. Some things happened this week and
we're going to put m them all in this segment of the show
together. That bill is right now winding its
way through the Senate. All the different committees are doing their markups
of the bill and they had hoped to
get it passed, get it all the way through the process
before the Senate adjourns, before Congress adjourns
for the July 4th recess. It doesn't look
like that is going to happen. Happen now. And
you had Senator John Curtis come out this week
saying that that July 4 deadline
was an artificial deadline. Well, yeah, it
is an artificial deadline. They don't have to pass this by
any time. The only time they have to pass it is by the
end of this congressional term. But they're trying to
get it through as quickly as possible. He
said in an event in Washington D.C. sponsored by
Politico, quote, I think a lot of us would be surprised if it
passed by July 4th. I think that's a false deadline. I
don't think that we need to put a specific deadline on it. Let's get
it right. Part of the problem is you've got
members of the Senate who are upset it doesn't
cut as much money as they think it should.
There are others who are worried about cuts to Medicaid
and possibly even Medicare because
as we've talked about, this bill does
increase the deficit. It does, uh,
uh, increase, according to the Congressional Budget Office, it increases
the deficit by 2.4 billion doll
by 2034. And that could
trigger some automatic cuts because
of, uh, Paygo. We talked about that in last week's
episode. Others, like Curtis want
to save some of the clean energy tax
credits. They're trying to hammer this out. So I
think the Senate is realizing that this self imposed
deadline of July 4th just isn't going to happen. We expected
this was going to happen and it did. Senator. MUTTERING
Mike Lee and other Republicans have
added back into this bill a
provision that would require
the federal government to sell off between 2.2 and
3.3 million acres
of land currently owned by the Bureau of Land
management and the U.S. forest Service over the
next five years. This proposal stipulates
that the land will have to be used to develop housing
or for community development needs. And that's
been something Senator Mike Lee's been pushing for for a number
of years, is selling public lands, especially
in the west, to deal with the
housing crisis. There's a very acute housing
shortage here in Utah. The 11
states where this land would be sold would
be Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho,
Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Washington and
Wyoming, all in the western part of the United States.
Senator Mike Lee, who chairs the Senate Ed, uh,
Energy and Natural Resources Committee, he's spearheading this,
putting it back in the bill. There was a provision in the House
version of the bill that was stripped out before it
passed. Well, it's back and this seems to be even
larger than what Representative Celeste
Malloy had, uh, when she proposed
it in the House version of the bill. After this provision
was put back into the bill, Lee said in a statement
that this would, quote, turn federal
liabilities into taxpayer value
while making housing more affordable for hard working
American families. But this is just a way to raise some
revenue and offset some of the costs
of these massive tax cuts
that the Republicans are trying to
push through. They're trying to make the
2017 Trump tax cuts which
are set to expire. They're trying to extend those.
And that is the primary reason that this bill
will increase the deficit. According to the Congressional
Budget Office, this plan increases the
deficit by $2.4 billion
over the next 10 years
or so. The sale of this land would generate about an
estimated five to $10 billion for the federal
government between 2025 and 2034.
It doesn't offset those costs by means much because you're looking
at $2.4 trillion of the
deficit. But this would only raise between
and 10 billion dollars. Critics are saying that
this is selling public lands to pay for tax
cuts for wealthy Americans.
And they're not wrong. There was another analysis from
the Congressional Budget Office and they looked at this big
bill and said that this would give
a big financial boost to middle
income and high income households while
taking benefits away from low income people. So
not only would it be selling the public lands, but it takes
benefits away, as we talked about earlier with
Medicaid, and it also
cuts food assistance for
Lower income, uh, Americans, according to this
analysis from the Congressional Budget Office, and I'm reading from the Wall Street
Journal here, they say households near the
middle of the income distribution
would see their resources increase by an
average of 500 to $1,000. That
would be a boost of about 0.5 to
0.8% of their income. The top
10% of households would see
a yearly gain of around $12,000.
And that's largely because of these tax
cuts. On average, the bottom
30% of households would come out
worse off, losing household resources
like Medicaid. In fact, the bottom
10% of households would lose about
$1,600 of resources because of these
benefit cuts, which is almost 4%
of their income. Now, you'll hear Republicans
complain about the CBO score and their
analysis of this bill. They've disputed the fact that it's
going to raise the deficit by
$2.4 billion. And now this
new analysis says, says that most of the
benefits go to those at the top because of the tax
cuts, while taking resources away from
poorer Americans. The things that they're cutting
in order to pay for these tax cuts. You
have health care, that's Medicare.
You have food benefit assistance,
that's SNAP benefits. They're cutting a lot of that.
And they're also proposing selling off public
lands for housing to raise
about $10 billion. Republicans are saying
that these cuts are targeting waste, fraud and
abuse. But Democrats are saying what
they're doing is they're taking benefits away from lower income
Americans to pay for tax cuts for wealthy
Americans. It's really hard to argue. That's
not what's happening.
One last bit on this. Talking about fraud
and abuse. Representative Blake Moore is wagging his finger at
everybody, saying, come on, you all knew that
Elon Musk was just exaggerating.
He was joking when he said he was gonna cut one or two
trillion dollars from the federal budget. Come
on, we all knew that, right? Last week,
Representative Blake Moore was talking to reporters outside of the
Capitol, and he said, well, you know, uh, we all
knew that Elon was exaggerating when he said that he
was gonna cut 2 trillion, $3
trillion from the budget. Come
on. How, how could you not have seen that?
Representative Moore was one of the three
people named as the chairman of the House
Doge Caucus. They were going to work with Elon
Musk to come up with proposals for cutting the
federal budget. And that didn't happen.
They met two or three times, and then the caucus
has just kind of gone away. So this kind
of sounds like Moore is trying to save
face here because the caucus only met a handful of
times. According to a story from Business Insights, the
Doge caucus only met a handful of times at the beginning of
this year. They intended to
compile a report. They told Business Insider earlier this
year that they were going to have this big report
of cost saving measures for Doge at the
end of the first quarter of this year. That never happened.
We never saw that report. I don't even know if they worked on it. If you
only meet a couple of times, uh, how can you come
up with a list of costs, cost
savings that could be implemented by
Doge? Part of that is because
Elon Musk's team and the White House
kind of ignored Congress when they were going around
trying to figure out, uh, and part of
the reason why is Elon Musk and the White House ignored
Congress, specifically the Doge Caucus. When they were going
around and just indiscriminately cutting people from the federal
government, firing people, cutting the budget at cutting
entire departments, they didn't
ask for Congress's input, and it's pretty clear that they
didn't want it. But at the end of the day, this sounds like
Moore is trying to save a little face for
being so enthusiastic about what Elon
Musk promised to do and then just realizing
that, like a lot of Elon Musk's promises,
he wasn't going to come close to
fulfilling.
That's probably enough for this week. Once again, if you
are planning on going out to the protests on Saturday,
please be safe. And again, I will be out there covering
them for Utah Political Watch. If you see me, come
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