12/19/24: Elon Nukes GOP Spending Bill, Dems Brand 'President Musk', Gaetz Admits To Paying Women

What's up, everybody? I'm Dan Burke here to tell you about a new podcast. It's NHL Unscripted with Verkin D'Amerse. Jason D'Amerse here in after playing 700 NHL games. I got a lot of dirty laundry to air out. Hey, I got a lot to say here, too, OK? Each week we'll get together to chat with the sport that we love.

Tons of guests are going to join in too, but we're not just going to be talking hockey folks. We're talking movies, we're talking TV, food, and EdNad's favorite wrestling. It's all on Litablif. Listen to NHL Unscripted with Verkin Daburs, the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to Decisions Decisions. The podcast where boundaries are pushed and conversations get candid. Join your favorite host, me, WZWTF. And me, Mandy B. As we dive deep into the world of non-traditional relationships and explore the often taboo topics surrounding dating, sex, and love. Every Monday and Wednesday, we both invite you to unlearn the outdated narratives dictated by traditional patriarchal norms. Tune in and join in the conversation.

Listen to decisions decisions on the Black Effect podcast network, iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

Hey guys, Sagar and Crystal here. Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election, and we are so excited about what that means for the future of the show. This is the only place where you can find honest perspectives from the left and the right that simply does not exist anywhere else. So if that is something that's important to you, please go to breakingpoints.com, become a member today, and you'll get access to our full shows, unedited, ad-free, and all put together for you every morning in your inbox.

We need your help to build the future of independent news media, and we hope to see you at breakingpoints.com.

Good morning, everybody. Happy Thursday. We have an amazing show for everybody today. What do we have, Crystal? Indeed, we do. Washington just got very interesting. The whole showdown on Elon Musk. Yeah, potential government shutdown was Trump thing. A lot going on. Jeff Stein's going to join us to break down all of the madness and try to figure out where we are and what might happen next to the best of any of our ability. We also have an update. So the House apparently secretly voted to release that Matt Gates ethics report.

So we've got Matt Gaetz response. Why did they do it? What do we expect to learn? Break all of that down for you. We also have a new health care whistleblower coming forward at the same time that Kathy Hochl is setting up a potential hotline for any CEOs who feel threatened out there.

a lot of response there. We've got some new details that have been revealed as part of a lawsuit against a bunch of elite universities, including some Ivy League universities, showing just how much preference they give to particularly wealthy and well-connected students. Some of these details are absolutely incredible. We also have some of the first numbers post-affirmative action

of minority enrollment, how that's been impacted by the Supreme Court ending affirmative action at these schools. So that's interesting as well. And we've got some interesting comments on the Theo Vaughn podcast from Timothy Chalamet about how Bernie Sanders is a folk hero. Interesting moment there. We'll talk about it. Yeah. I listened to the entire thing. The game day Chalamet,

That's not the real Chalamet I've discovered. I had no idea Chalamet is a full-on theater kid from like the Upper East Side or whatever in New York. Oh, really? I don't know anything about him today. He was on college day and he like had a, by the way, I don't want to call it football. All my football friends are telling me. They're like, oh my God, Chalamet was amazing. He made all of these correct picks. It's pretty clear somebody coached him about it because then when he was on Theo Vaughn, I was like, oh, this kid is like a full-on theater.

Yeah, no, by the way, sports and theater, Sagar. Don't rain him. I don't think so. Don't trust his sales. Look, I'm just saying I'm pretty sure that you were trained for that game day segment. And look, he's an incredible actor. He's one of my favorite actors in the up and com generation. So he could pull it off if he was coached.

I do that too. Absolutely, no question. Play the part. In my opinion, he was acting whenever he was on game day. Now, I will say he's still an interesting guy. He's a little bit of a soft-spoken and all of that, but I didn't know that much about him about his background and everything. And he's like, yeah, I went to Columbia and I was a theater kid in New York. And I was like, oh, okay, that was interesting. Anyway, he is a better actor. He's definitely, who's out of the young guy who's coming up right now? A lordy, he's a better actor than him, for sure. Yeah, women would probably disagree with me.

Let's get to Jeff Stein and let's talk about all of this government shutdown situation. Joining us now, Jeff Stein to The Washington Post. Great friend of the show. Good to see you, sir. Thanks for joining us.

Thanks for having me back on guys.

Tweets from Musk and has that complicated this? Well, I mean, I think that there's always a lot of interest in what's happening up here. And this is more than that because they're telling people, yes, they should be voted out. The social media world is a part of our politics. And I think members have to expect that. There'll be a lot of hard votes in the next couple of years.

The fact is, is that, look, this is a sandwich. I don't know how else to say that. We're being forced into this position. They could have done a standalone. They did this because they knew that it would put members in this position to support it. We're damned if we do, we're damned if we don't. Now, the bill has about $100 billion in disaster relief, nearly $30 billion to restock FEMA's coffers. And there are lots of health care provisions jamming everything together in one bill means some Republicans will not support Mike Johnson for Speaker in January.

Have any other of your colleagues said that they're not voting for Johnson any expressive? I've talked to a few, you know, who don't seem like they're going to vote for him. You have to ask them, I'm not going to betray any base position. Will you just vote president or will you vote someone else's vote for somebody else?

So Jeff, there's been a real, they've been roiled on Capitol Hill. It's now Thursday morning. Well, we're all talking. The government shuts down tomorrow at midnight. People thought that this deal was done. It was dusted. It was sailing to a vote. And yet now we're at a completely new reset. So tell us what you know.

Elon Musk is quite possibly the most powerful person in Washington. Donald Trump obviously is the source of his power, but Trump has a million things going on. And Musk seems really dialed in on these kinds of spending fights and has huge remit to sort of tell the Republican Party what to do on behalf of Trump.

And, you know, it's the money for sure. I mean, as you were saying, Musk has been threatening primary challenges against Republicans who are out of step with what he and Trump want. But I think it's more than that. You know, when I talk to Republican lawmakers,

They like the idea of being retweeted by Musk as silly as that might sound as a reason for how to govern. They want to be in his sort of aura. They feel that he has sort of a popularity and a vision that they want to be associated with. Someone was like comparing it to high school to me where

Musk is like the cool kid and people want to be at his table and no Republican wants to stand out of that mix if you want to have a political future and it's more than just

than that too. Musk is really assuming control for the Trump administration and coming Trump administration over spending and regulation, which is a huge thing. That's pretty much everything. Yeah, pretty much everything, exactly.

four members, right? If you want, you know, this project for your district and your constituents, you kind of need Elon Musk at this point to be on your side. So the stakes for them are existential and go beyond even the fear of Republican primary challenge and

You know, did voters in November, were they upset about high grocery prices or did they want the world's richest man to have discretion over the federal budget? I mean, that seems to be the question that, you know, Democrats are trying to push this morning, but I think it's a legitimate one.

Yeah, we have some of that a two please we can put on the screen just to give a taste of some of the Democratic reaction. So initially you had Elon saying that we should shut down the government until January 20th. That'd be approximately 33 days. We then got some more reactions if we continue here.

with some of these images showing you, he says, any member of the House or the Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in two years. What's even more interesting though, Jeff, is the plot twist that Donald Trump has added. So can we put A3 please up on the screen? Because this makes things even crazier.

And this is from JD Vance, which was tweeted out as a statement from President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect Vance. They talked about the most foolish and inept thing ever done by congressional Republicans was allowing our country to hit the debt ceiling in 2025. It was a mistake and is now something that must be addressed.

Meanwhile, Congress is considering another spending bill. The bill would make it easier to hide the records of the January 6 committee, which accomplished nothing. The bill would give Congress a pay increase while Americans are struggling this Christmas. Let's go to the next slide, please, because it says increasing the debt ceiling is not great, but we'd rather do it now on Biden's watch.

He continues, he says, Republicans must get smart and tough if Democrats are gonna shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, call their bluff. It is Schumer and Biden who are holding up aid to our farmers and disaster relief. So now I think we have three separate things that are going on. There's a fight over the disaster relief. There's a fight over the $10 billion to farmers. And now Donald Trump is saying, no Republicans, you don't even vote for a quote unquote clean CR.

First, maybe explain what a clean CR is. You only do it if we also attach a raise to the debt ceiling. So that adds another layer of what must get done in the next 48 hours. Yeah, I mean, we are facing a government shutdown. Musk seems to not be that alarmed by the prospect. I mean, the thing that I'm trying to figure out and calling sources yesterday and today that I can't really wrap my head around is

Why did Johnson not call Elon and Trump and say like, hey man, like here's my plan. Are you going to go nuclear on me in public and like embarrass me and potentially cost my speakers shit?

And I want to be very careful about how I phrase this, because I don't have this fully confirmed. But the thing that lawmakers and aides on the Hill and some people close to Marlago are telling me is that Johnson thought, maybe incorrectly, but he thought that Trump had his back. Yes. And as you were saying, the CR is just the idea that we will basically

just extend funding for the government without much attached. And that's how you get this idea. And separately, you have this idea of an omnibus, which you include a lot of different spending changes to the law. Now, for Hill speak, that nobody but like three nerds in Washington should ever have to hear that are calling it a chromibus, which is the CR plus an omnibus. So that sort of reflects what Johnson was trying to do here. Because he knew he was going to lose a lot of Republicans,

you know, for, to get the spending bill done, he included a bunch of stuff that Democrats wanted. And, and the, but the fact that nobody, that Johnson was unable to have a conversation with Elon, have a conversation with Trump, like, what are they talking about when they go to like the wrestling match and like, hang out? You're exactly like, they were literally together this weekend. The fact that Trump is just so willing to say to Mike Johnson, who he's been photographed hanging out with all the time, like,

No, like you eat shit now, dude. You're in your own is kind of breathtaking. I mean, it either suggests that Trump is just willing to like screw this guy who's been one of his most stalwart allies or that Johnson is a spectacular

It's particularly inept House Speaker who could not or see the most obvious outcome from a mile away. I've been hearing from Trump people who wanted to kill this deal for a long time and thought that they could get Elon on board. Even the defense bill, they passed a roughly $1 trillion annual defense bill, which I think you guys covered, $10 trillion in defense spending over the next decade, which Elon has talked about the DOD budget being too big.

And this whole time I was watching that fight, I was like, where is Elon, right? Because he could have done to that bill what he did to this bill. It seems like maybe he just wasn't paying attention enough to do that. But whatever the case, I mean, it suggests that we're going to be in for a very complicated few years if the coordination problems this early between Republican leadership and Mar-a-Lago are this bad.

And some real power struggles ultimately between the richest man on the planet who has his own base of support and plenty of wealth to throw around in terms of primary challenges, etc. And who controls Twitter, you know, controls this huge social media platform.

And can use it to push whatever message he wants to push, which, you know, has been in recent months, the same message that Trump wants to push. But it really does set up this titanic clash of two power centers between Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

Let's put a four up on the screen. We have some commentary from Trump specifically, which I want to get you to weigh in on what I just said about the power centers. But also, I want to understand more why Trump is focused on the debt limit at this time as well. So this is from Truth Social. He says, if Republicans try to pass a clean continuing resolution without all of the Democrat bells and whistles, that will be so destructive to our country.

All it will do after January 20 is bring the mess of the debt limit into the Trump administration rather than allowing it to take place in the Biden administration. Any Republican that would be so stupid as to do this should and will be primary, everything should be done and fully negotiate prior to my taking office on January 20, 2025.

I mean, this is deeply confusing to me because it seems like he's almost advocating for the CR that Elon just completely tanked. And obviously, this piece about the debt limit is very important to him. He keeps bringing it up. So why is that so significant? What do you make of this, whatever Donald Trump is trying to say here?

Yeah, I mean, I think what Trump is saying, right? Obviously, there's not to get too into Washington speak, but there's like two key things that, as you guys understand, right? There's the funding of the federal government, all the government services. And then there's a separate question about the US borrowing limit, which is the debt ceiling, which

basically stipulates that the government can only borrow up to, I don't know what exactly what it is now, but let's say like $37 trillion. And beyond that, it becomes illegal for the government to do that, which means that we become very quickly in the fault of our obligations, which could cause a global financial crisis. Trump is saying like, let's make sure that that bomb, that second bomb is not on the table. Like, I don't want to have to deal with this at all during my administration. I think he knows.

that if they don't deal with it now, he's going to have to figure out either A, how to deal with Democrats and give Democrats concessions to prevent the global economy from blowing up under his watch, or B, he's going to have to keep every Republican on board

for a debt ceiling increase, which is going to be really, really hard. So I think it makes sense that Trump is like, let's just clear the decks on this right now. And I've actually, I spoke to Democratic Senator Brian Chats earlier this week. He was saying like, I would love if Trump did this because we think that this is a huge problem too. And we want to be done with it.

I think the thing that I find most inexplicable about this or haven't really wrapped my head around is that the timing is bizarre. Trump was elected over a month ago, and we've known that the debt-skilling is going to be an issue this spring for two years.

And if Trump had said to Mike Johnson, this goes back to sort of my point about the baffling miscommunication here, if Trump had just said to Johnson, like, put this in the CR, I don't want to deal with the debt limit, we, I mean, maybe he did privately and I just don't have the reporting chops to like figure that out. But like, my sense is that this is a new aspect that Trump is now putting out there. And it reflects, I think,

I mean, I spoke to someone who was at Marlago yesterday, who was saying that like, you guys in the media and you guys in the hill,

Like you don't understand, like Trump is like feeling himself. Like he is so confident. He thinks of his, this guy referred to Trump as like feeling like he's Charlemagne, where he's just like this like globe striding colossal figure, like which I mean, historically, like he might be remembered as a quite significant president. So he just like the CR and the omnibus and like, this is like peasant stuff. Like I don't want to be like sucked into this boring mess. So like,

And I get where he's like Trump won twice. Like he's just like, I don't need to spend my days appeasing people in Washington and dealing with this like, yeah, mechanical stuff. But it also is like a huge problem for the functioning of the federal government if he's just going to like.

barely pay attention in the last minute, like throw out complicated, contradicting demands. Yeah, here's my theory of what happened. So I see this morning, playbook is reporting and it kind of fits with some of the people I spoke to yesterday. They're like, Trump, this wasn't on his radar, basically at all. He didn't particularly care.

Elon basically decides to pick a fight, him and Vivek on Doge on the CR. Trump wakes up to it. He gets kind of backed into a corner because enough people have now come out against the CR that it's not going to pass no matter what in terms of Republicans, including people like John Cornyn, right? Somebody in Senate leadership. So then Trump is like, okay, well, we got to do something new. Then a legislative aide down in Mar-a-Lago says, by the way, Mr. President-elect, you may not know this, but the debt ceiling is up in June.

Trump hates a debt ceiling, he doesn't want to deal with it. He especially doesn't want to deal with these Freedom Caucus guys. So he's like, okay, let's get it dusted now. He needs his tax cut. So he sees this and he's like, we need to get this shit done. We can't deal with this during reconciliation. And so he puts it in right now. As you said, very little has changed, Jeff, in the last four years. I was definitely assured of more streamlined processes and others, but I'm getting a lot of rhymes. It hasn't been that long ago since I had to deal with this.

I do think one thing you put your finger on that I think is really interesting is the idea that, you know, Musk is operating as an independent power center. Yes. That's kind of what that, if that is true, that suggests that Musk's power doesn't just derive from Trump and this notion that these are co-presidents and that Musk is like actually calling the shots here

I don't know. That's kind of what sounds like to me, right? Yeah, no, no, no. You are right. That's correct. I don't think that the... So from what I've been able to tell, it's definitely the Elon tweets, but especially the Vivek stuff attacking the CR, that's totally independent. That was never signed off on. Remember, a lot of these folks are not even in the same room.

Trump is down in Mar-a-Lago. Elon is wherever, somewhere in the globe. Everyone's all pops up in the UK, San Francisco, et cetera. Vivek is here in Washington. None of these people are necessarily coordinating. Allegedly, there is a group chat with Mike Johnson, Vivek, and Elon in it. Somebody never raised the CR, apparently, in said group chat. And so I think there's a very real chance of a shutdown here. What do you think?

I mean, I think it's, I'm ambivalent a little bit about sort of the substantive complaint being made here because I do think you talk to average people and it's like,

Members of Congress can't read the bill before they vote on it. It's like 1700 pages and nobody knows what's in it before they are expected to support it. It's full of things that have nothing to do with keeping the government open. Like those are, you know, to be fair, I guess, to mosque in Rama Swami. Like that is a thing that I think strikes people as a broken process and they're saying like it is time to end that broken process at the same time. I mean,

There are over a million government workers who are now at risk of having their Christmases and their families. Christmas is completely ruined, not to mention all the private sector workers who depend on it. And also, the things that are in here that are objectionable include disaster aid and far-made that a lot of people think is important.

And Musk circulated claims last night about the bill that are just patently false. He cited a report that was saying that the bill includes $3 billion for the new commander's stadium in Washington DC. That's just not true. He said that he circulated a report saying that the bill has $60 billion for Ukraine, not true.

You know, I hear where they're coming from, but if every bit of government legislation is at risk of being mischaracterized as it has by Musk and Ramaswami, as I think they did, and maybe not Ramaswami, but Musk did at least in this instance, it's going to be harder to pass anything of substance in the next four years.

What's up, everybody? I'm name Verketer. I tell you about a new podcast, my hard podcast in the National Hockey League. It's NHL inscriptive with Kirk and Demers. Hey, I'm Jason Demers, former 700 game NHL defenseman, turned NHL network analyst and boy, oh boy, does daddy have a lot to say?

I love you, by the way, on NHL Network. We're looking forward to getting together each week to chat and chirp about the sport and all the other things surrounding it that we love, right? Yeah, I just met you today, but we're gonna have a ton of guests from the colliding worlds of hockey, entertainment, and pop culture. And you know what? Tons of back and forth on all things NHL. Yeah, you're just gonna find out we're not just hockey talk. We had all kinds of random stuff on this podcast, movies, television, food, wrestling, even the stuff that you wear on NHL now.

You wish you could pull off my short charts, Verki. That's sure to cause a ruckus. Listen to NHL Unscripted with Birkin Diverse, the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to Decisions Decisions, the podcast where boundaries are pushed and conversations get candid. Join your favorite host, me, WZWTF and me, Mandy B. As we dive deep into the world of non-traditional relationships and explore the often taboo topics surrounding dating, sex,

and love. That's right. Every Monday and Wednesday, we both invite you to unlearn the outdated narratives dictated by traditional patriarchal norms. With a blend of humor, vulnerability, and authenticity, we share our personal journeys navigating our 30s, tackling the complexities of modern relationships, and engage in thought-provoking discussions that challenge societal expectations.

From groundbreaking interviews with diverse guests to relatable stories that will resonate with your experiences, decision decisions is going to be your goal to source for the open dialogue about what it truly means to love and connect in today's world. Get ready to reshape your understanding of relationships and embrace the freedom of authentic connections. Tune in and join the conversation. Listen to decisions decisions on the Black Effect podcast network, iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

It seems to me like perhaps the miscalculation that Johnson made is that he correctly perceived that Trump more or less didn't care and had given him sort of free rein to negotiate what he needs to negotiate. He has a very narrow margin in the House in terms of House Republicans knew he was going to have to rely on some Democrats. Obviously Democrats also still control the Senate.

So he struck the deal he needed to strike in order to, you know, clear the deck in his language, get this taken care of, get the debt limit taken care of, and, you know, live to fight another day and start fresh in the Trump administration. And the miscalculation was really not realizing you do kind of have this co-president situation. So it's not enough.

to have Donald Trump's buy-in. It's not enough for Donald Trump to be like, sure, whatever, go negotiate, whatever you want to negotiate, and just make sure that I can come in with the government funded and with the debt limit out of the way. He didn't realize, guess what? You need to also make sure that Elon's going to be cool with this. And that seems to me like where the real failure and miscalculation here was for Mike Johnson.

I think that's well put. And I think, I mean, based on what I'm hearing this morning and last night, like Johnson could very well be toast. I mean, it seems like it. I agree. He seems like his days are numbered. But who would replace him as always the question? You know, like, who can pull this caucus? Who does have the support of the full caucus? And what are the demands on the future? You know, potential speaker going to look like as well?

Yeah, it seems like Trump alone could save him at this point. I get Tom embers the name that comes up a lot. I know, you don't have to be a member of the House to be Speaker, so it kind of opens up the possibilities. Rand Paul, just today, we're about to cover it, said, why not just make Ewomp Speaker of the House? Maybe it'd be easier, actually.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if he's, I mean, he basically is. Yeah. Well, if he was, he would be probably like the most powerful speaker in history in a certain sense. I mean, outside of the fact that the margin would be so narrow, how many seat margin do they have now coming into this next session, especially with Trump pulled a few out of the house for his administration, Matt Gates resigning. So it'll take a while to fill that seat, et cetera. So it's extremely narrow. But I think when Elon says jump, the Republican caucus is pretty clear, says how high.

Yeah, absolutely. That seems like the question I've had for the last few months, I guess, is there are so many Republicans who resist some of the ambitious goals that Musk and Ramaswami have set out, $2 trillion in spending cuts revamping the DoD, cutting pork barrel spending out for this or that district.

The list goes on and on, all these regulations that they want to cut. And then there's sort of like the, it's not really my lane, but sort of, you know, Patel and, you know, what Trump does with the DOJ and, you know, what he does with the IRS, you know, those are all questions. But this is, I think,

I think it's fair to say this is the first sustained barrage of by Musk, his first real sort of flex, his first test of when you get congressional Republicans to sort of listen to you. And it's not entirely Musk, obviously, like, conservatives in the House have been a problem for leadership for like over a decade now. So I don't want to like say it's purely like sweet generous from Musk.

But I think by any standard, the test we saw, really the first test, which will set the course of the next few years, suggest that Musk

is in charge and that there is no willingness in the Republican party and ability to, I mean, I'm repeating myself here, but to stand up to him and to stand out and put your head above the sand. Yeah, Jeff, my last question for you is, you know, Elon is like a fan of Javier Malay and sort of anarcho-capitalist. He's this very, you know,

somewhat doctrinal libertarian outside of where he wants his own government goodies, et cetera. His ideology is not the same as what Trump has articulated to the country. I mean, Trump has never been like an austerity Paul Ryan Republican. One of the reasons he's been so successful, for example,

is pledging, I'm not going to touch Social Security and Medicare. Elon Musk would love to cut Social Security and Medicare. Probably the most clear-cut example of where there is a real divergence is Trump has been pretty consistently in favor of a very aggressive regime of tariffs.

Meanwhile, Elon was out tweeting praise for Javier Malay rolling back tariffs in his home country. So help people to understand it's always tricky with Trump talking ideology because he doesn't have that firm of an ideology. I think Elon is a much more ideological actually figure. Where are some of the frictions between Elon's ideology and at least what Trump has articulated his ideology to be to the American public?

I think that is one of the most important questions that we're going to see play out over the next few years. As you're saying, Crystal, Trump has rose to power in 2016, explicitly saying that he would not touch Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid, arguably the three most important programs in the federal budget provide health care and pensions for tens of millions, seniors and other poor people and other people in this country.

Now, I think in his second term, I'll be choosing my words carefully here, I get the sense that Trump is softening on that a little bit. And what I mean by that is Trump has always said that he stands for eliminating waste and fraud and abuse in sedimentic care.

So security, Medicaid, it's really though of those three, I mean, Medicare is kind of the crucial and there's so little waste and so security because, you know, you're just sending checks to people for their retirement, produce very straightforward. Medicare, though, is complicated and there are things in Medicare that people that I do not think are sort of out to, for grandma that can be

sort of revamped or changed or that there can be cost savings. I think what Trump seems to be suggesting to want to do to me, which I think is an interesting shift from his first term. And as you're suggesting, puts him more in line with Malay and Musk, is to say, actually,

I'm going to propose changes or cuts to Medicare, but I will insist that this is just waste. And any Dorky Washington Post reporter that suggests that this is Medicare cuts, I'm just going to yell at it and be like, you are lying about what I'm doing. I'm just doing reforms to Medicare that aren't touching the program.

adjudicating the question of if that's a cut, if that's slashing Medicare is a sort of epistemological, like metaphysical question that is hard to get like a very

straightforward answer to because legitimate people can have legitimate different different interpretations of what that means but but some of those I mean we'll have to see what he actually does some of those programs could if caught could lead to you know to last care for seniors at the same time

there is waste in Medicare and some of the things necessary to do that could just look like waste to I think a good faith person trying to reduce the federal budget which is a complicated and nuanced picture but and one that I think will be impossible to write in a story without like millions of people being like you're an idiot who is mischaracterizing things but I think that is sort of the dynamic that's shaping up. Welcome to our lives there Jeff. All right man we appreciate you joining us. Thank you. Great to see you Jeff. Happy holidays.

What's up, everybody? I'm name Berk here to tell you about a new podcast, my hard podcast in the National Hockey League. It's NHL Unscripted with Berk and Demers. Hey, I'm Jason Demers, former 700-game NHL defenseman, turned NHL network analyst, and boy oh boy does daddy have a lot to say. I love you, by the way, on NHL Network. We're looking forward to getting together each week to chat and chirp about the sport and all the other things surrounding it that we love, right? Yeah, I just met you today, but we're going to have a ton of guests from the colliding worlds of hockey, entertainment, and

pop culture. And you know what? Tons of back and forth on all things NHL. Yeah, you're just gonna find out we're not just hockey talk. We had all kinds of random stuff on this podcast. Movies, television, food, wrestling, even the stuff that you wear on NHL now. You wish you could pull off my short shorts, Berkey. That's sure to cause a ruckus. Listen to NHL Unscripted with Birkin Divers and the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to Decisions Decisions. The podcast where boundaries are pushed and conversations get candid. Join your favorite host, me, WZWTF and me, Mandy B. As we dive deep into the world of non-traditional relationships and explore the often taboo topics surrounding dating, sex,

and love. That's right. Every Monday and Wednesday, we both invite you to unlearn the outdated narratives dictated by traditional patriarchal norms. With a blend of humor, vulnerability, and authenticity, we share our personal journeys navigating our 30s, tackling the complexities of modern relationships, and engage in thought-provoking discussions that challenge societal expectations.

From groundbreaking interviews with diverse guests to relatable stories that will resonate with your experiences, decision decisions is going to be your go to source for the open dialogue about what it truly means to love and connect in today's world. Get ready to reshape your understanding of relationships and embrace the freedom of authentic connections. Tune in and join the conversation. Listen to decisions decisions on the Black Effect podcast network, iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

At the same time, Democrats are seizing upon all of this and they have one goal. They want to drive a wedge between Elon and between Donald Trump. They have now taken to the moniker President Musk. You saw the debut of this on CNN last night. Let's take a listen.

President Musk this morning made it clear with all his vast government experience, which is basically he became rich on the federal government, that he doesn't want Republicans to pass this. And seemingly vice president Trump kind of backed him up then at that point. And what it says about the politics is this is going to be a messy four years. The whole debt ceiling thing. Donald Trump is making it clear that he wants the debt ceiling to go up. By the way, the debt ceiling is going to have to go up.

But he doesn't want to have to take ownership for it because he will again for four years look at the Democrats in blame then. And so what this says about the politics is good luck for the next four years. I don't think they'll shut the government down because ultimately they'll want to get home for Christmas. They'll do like a one month CR pretending like that's going to fix everything. But yeah, I mean, I think President Elon has made it clear what his agenda is going to be for the next four years.

All right, so that was Adam Kinzinger, Democrat now, hilarious, but. Former Republican member of Congress. We can talk about that. We can talk about it. We can talk about it. We can talk about it. We can talk about it. We can talk about it. We can talk about it. We can talk about it. We can talk about it. We can talk about it.

Well, billionaires must not be allowed to run our government. Well, our president is going to be a billionaire. It's a little bit difficult. Yeah, well, it's different. Oh, sorry. No, he's not a real billionaire. Is that correct? Rob J.B. Pritzker. Well, what he means is unelected billionaires. It's one thing when you were actually, you know, won the popular vote and people backed you. I don't think that they thought that they were voting for Elon Musk necessarily.

We don't know about that. We have this poll. We can discuss. Let's put this up there on the screen. Do you approve or disapprove of Elon playing a prominent role in Trump administration? This is from Quinnipiac, sample size 924 people. Let's say 53% disapprove, 41% approve. I don't know quite yet. I mean, Elon does have a pretty high approval rating with the American people.

especially with Republicans, certainly with Republicans. Certainly with Republicans. To see what that is. I mean, you know, he was up there with Bezos and the other industrialists for a while in terms of the most popular people in the country. It took a huge hit, obviously, after he started getting political. I think the big question is not about even like small-D democratic question around Elon. It's about Trump.

There's a huge question here about how long Trump is going to allow this. So there's a couple of things that are happening right now. Trump seems to have made peace with the Elon stuff because he has now decided to make the debt ceiling part of his crusade. But look, Trump doesn't care about spending and he doesn't care about that. Okay. You can just look at his previous administration if you're curious for evidence on that one.

He doesn't care at all. But the thing is, is that if he gets backed into an unpopular corner, as we've seen a million times, he'll drop you. And so if Elon starts to cause political problems for Trump, that I could see to be a real issue. So for example, let's say there is a shutdown in the next 48 hours. All of us, especially me, we're all getting on airplanes, right? Pretty soon. I think 50 some 60 million people are going to take a flight in the next two weeks or so.

You want to know how TSA functions during a shutdown? It's not pretty. I've seen it before. So imagine that. Imagine we have that and we have headlines all across the country, not to mention what just happened yesterday. The S&P 500 dropped by three points. We have the largest 10-day, we have the largest daily decline in the Dow Jones in the last 50 years. Things are not great right now. They're a little precarious. We're going into a situation where-

Let's say we have a government, by the way, government shutdown always nukes the doubt every single time. You're going to have a thousand point drop, another one like that. Let's say the S&P drops another 3%. And so you could even have a system like we have more political chaos around the debt ceiling. That's another couple percent. So the S&P, let's say it's down by 10% by January 20th, the day that Donald Trump takes office. That's a whole other picture from your nice mandate and all these other things. If that starts to fall on Elon, as we know with Trump, nothing's ever as fault.

And so if this starts to fall on Elon, you could have a situation where on day one of the actual administration, there is some sort of split between the two. I would not be surprised by that outcome, especially if we do go too shut. People hate when the government shuts down, you know? And look, I know it's tried, everybody talks about it, but like, look, everyone always focuses on the soldier pay. They usually take care of that.

I'm talking about like seniors applying to Medicare, get denied, TSA, everybody. Oh, now we have six hour lines in the airport. There's no FAA problems. By the way, I'm not sure if anyone's aware, but we're actually in the middle of a presidential transition right now. Good luck with that in terms of making sure that if all those people can't come to work, it's like, how are they going to leave anything in preparation? I know all of it sounds extremely stupid. Like, oh, we don't need the government. It's like, yeah, we don't need it until you have to go to TSA. You have to wait for seven hours.

Yeah, it's part of what they put in this bill is disaster relief. I mean people in North Carolina and throughout that whole hurricane path were devastated still recovering and that need is extremely urgent. It's freezing. I mean, it passes yet. It should have been passed day up. I agree. I agree. It is nuts. And yet, I mean, that's part of what is entangled in this bill. There's also some farming that is

incredibly important for farmers because the previous farm bill never got passed. So, you know, levels have been stuck in terms of what they've been counting on. So that's important too. I just wanted to mention there is one provision in here that I actually really support and I think you do too, which is the reigning in of pharmacy benefit managers.

That's included in this bill as well. And it's one of the things that, you know, it gets dried as, oh, you just threw in these things. I have nothing to do with just funding the government. But it also would be actually a really good reform that would help to bring down prescription drug costs and has a significant amount of bipartisan support. This is something that Josh Hawley has proposed alongside with Elizabeth Warren that is also entangled in this whole thing. So it's not just, I mean, the federal government shutdown is bad enough. That creates a lot of headaches and a lot of problems.

But there's also funds in here that people are really relying on. So, you know, the other piece with Elon is, I mean, number one, he's the richest man on the planet. Like, none of this is ever going to affect him or really anybody that he probably knows at this point in his life. The other thing is, like, he doesn't really know anything about the government is my sense. Like, I don't think he really

Understands how important some of these pieces are. I don't think he really knows what it means if the federal government shuts down So it's easy enough for him to tweet like and just shut it down until Trump comes into office without Really having a grasp of what the implications of that ultimately are but you know to go back to this question about the potential drama playing out between Elon and Trump and

I think you're right, Sagar, and the reporting suggests that Trump was cool with this negotiation. It actually serves his interest quite well because he certainly doesn't care about the spending at all, whatever. It's fine. It got the debt ceiling out of the way. He wants to be able to do his tax cuts for the rich, extend the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in the new year when he comes into office. You need to have the debt ceiling cleared.

to be able to accomplish that. And so it served his interest. All of the, you know, spending pieces that Republicans could object to, like basically get pinned on, oh, well, the Democrats were in power. It's not our fault. It's like Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer and whoever it's their fault that they had these provisions that maybe a lot of Republicans aren't particularly supportive of. And then he can start with the government funded and with the debt ceiling out of the way. So he really did get back into a corner here. And I don't know if he feels that way or not, but part of the goal

of this, you know, calling him president, must, et cetera, is to irritate Trump and get under his skin and threaten his ego. So I think it's one thing, if this becomes a political problem for him, and it's government shutdowns always very unpopular, you get this sense of just total chaos already before he's even set foot back in the White House, that's an issue. But the other issue is this is a man who has a very fragile ego.

And if he feels like, oh my god, people think Elon is more powerful than me, I don't think he's going to like that. And we also know, think about how he, in that debate with Kamala, think about how he took the bait on literally everything. So it's not like he's capable of sort of like rising above it. That has never really been a Trump strong suit. On the other hand, you know, I think ultimately in a battle between Trump and Musk, Trump wins. But Elon has his own cards to play.

Because he does have so much money and can fund primary challengers and has his own base of support, has his own media platform, that he controls to his own ends, that is extremely influential, both in terms of the Republican base and in terms of the national conversation and elite media. So it's not like he's without.

any of his own cards to play in this chess match saga. And one last thing I was thinking about is, remember when Elon was tweeting about who he wanted, what, he wanted Howard Lutnik for treasury? Is that what it was? And then he ends up not getting picked for treasury gets put in at commerce. But, you know, he was able to do that and assert what he wanted for the government, even though he didn't get his way. There was no blowback from Trump on that. And I almost feel like that was a kind of like testing of the waters of how much he could

There's no question. How much he could freelance any sort of sort of like a toddler like pushing the bounds pushing the bounds pushing the bounds of what he can get away with.

This is all in Donald Trump's court right now. And if it works out, then it's fine, right? Because if this works out, honestly, it'd be pretty good for Trump. If you can get the debt ceiling off the table, that's fantastic. You really don't want to deal with that while you're in office and you can just focus on your tax bill and all that. I have a difficult time thinking that will happen, but look, we'll see. I mean, this could drag on for probably days. Honestly, Congress could be here all the way till Christmas. It wouldn't

Yeah. Well, the other thing is, I don't think Democrats are in the mood to rescue them. No, why would you, right? Because you're letting this all play out. You have the government shutdown. There's always a fight about who's responsible, et cetera. But there's enough tweets out there now from Elon saying, shut down the government. It's pretty clear who's responsible. There's enough tweets out there.

of you on being like shut down the government, right? And like I said, in normal times, government shutdowns are like, it's kind of a wash. People usually don't like them, but I think during Christmas, I think it would really, the travel stuff, I think could really cause a lot of headaches. And, you know, by the way, the Biden administration has every incentive.

to make it as painful as possible, because something Obama did, which was very smart even though it was all propaganda, is during the 2013 shutdown, is even though we didn't have to, they closed all the national parks. Even though they didn't have to, they started to, they made Americans feel it, the shutdown.

So if you're Biden, you've got 31 days left in office. You're like, screw it, boom. You want to tamp down the temperature or you want to tamp down any positive feeling in the country as much as possible. And now imagine this, we have an inauguration to plan. This entire city is about to get shut down. There's a million national guardsmen and all these other people are supposed to descend on this place. And you've got to plan all that when people literally aren't even allowed access to their email account. So it could be a complete shit show, is my point.

You sent this in this morning, Sagar David Plofo's fantastic campaign aid for Kamala Harris. That's right, he's so good. Also, obviously, it was a very significant strategist for Barack Obama. But anyway, he tweeted, unless it's to get rid of the debt ceiling permanently, there should be no dem votes to raise it prematurely now. A lot of talk about mandates, landslides, and trifectas. Let those claiming absolute power use some of it to deal with the debt ceiling next year.

And I saw, you know, Chris Murphy tweeting about this as well as Senator Chris Murphy. And I think this is, I think there are a lot of Democrats who feel this way of like, okay, you guys want to deal with? Go ahead. Be our guest. You all figured this out because we are not going to come and ride to your rescue.

I think the only thing that would potentially cause Democrats to really come back to the table, because they did spend a long time negotiating this deal with Mike Johnson, ultimately, didn't just come out of the ether. This has been months in the making. But I think the only thing that would really cause them to come back to the table would be something like getting rid of the debt ceiling permanently, which the debt ceiling is this archaic

meaningless stupid thing that is only gets used as like a hostage taking mechanism at this point. So if they could get the debt ceiling taken out permanently, that would be worthwhile. But you know, I seriously doubt that austerity minded Republicans are going to want to go along with getting rid of the debt ceiling forever. The alternative is Trump mince the coin, which if anyone would do it, he would do it. He doesn't care about North. He's just like screw it. I'm just going to do it. So true.

So, maybe, maybe that's where we're headed. And that would effectively nuke the death. Yeah, it'd be over. Yeah, it'd just be over. If he minted it because then once he's done it once, then everyone will just be like, yeah, that's what we do. This is what we do. This is what we do.

What's up, everybody? I'm name Berkord, I tell you about a new podcast, my hard podcast in the National Hockey League. It's NHL Unscripted with Kirk and D'Murs. Hey, I'm Jason D'Murs, former 700-game NHL defenseman, turned NHL network analyst, and boy oh boy does daddy have a lot to say.

I love you, by the way, on NHL Network. We're looking forward to getting together each week to chat and chirp about the sport and all the other things surrounding it that we love, right? Yeah, I just met you today, but we're gonna have a ton of guests from the colliding worlds of hockey, entertainment, and pop culture. And you know what? Tons of back and forth on all things NHL. Yeah, you're just gonna find out we're not just hockey talk. We had all kinds of random stuff on this podcast, movies, television, food, wrestling, even the stuff that you wear on NHL now.

You wish you could pull off my short charts, Verki. That's sure to cause a ruckus. Listen to NHL Unscripted with Birkin Diverse, the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to Decisions Decisions. The podcast for boundaries are pushed and conversations get candid. Join your favorite host, me, WZWTF and me, Mandy B. As we dive deep into the world of non-traditional relationships and explore the often taboo topics surrounding dating, sex,

and love. That's right. Every Monday and Wednesday, we both invite you to unlearn the outdated narratives dictated by traditional patriarchal norms. With a blend of humor, vulnerability, and authenticity, we share our personal journeys navigating our 30s, tackling the complexities of modern relationships, and engage in thought-provoking discussions that challenge societal expectations.

From groundbreaking interviews with diverse guests to relatable stories that will resonate with your experiences, decision decisions is going to be your go to source for the open dialogue about what it truly means to love and connect in today's world. Get ready to reshape your understanding of relationships and embrace the freedom of authentic connections. Tune in and join the conversation. Listen to decisions decisions on the Black Effect podcast network, iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

Talking and speaking of the House of Representatives, let's put this up there on the screen. The House Ethics Committee has now secretly voted to release the Matt Gates Ethics Report. So let's take everybody back in time to November whenever Donald Trump wins the election. He's shortly afterwards makes announcements about who we're going to get.

appointed to major cabinet positions. One of them is Matt Gaetz as the Attorney General of the United States. Matt Gaetz resigns from Congress as a result of this nomination. However, it quickly comes out that at the very same time, the House Ethics Committee was slated to release a report about Matt Gaetz involving ethics complaints about him

and his involvement with young girls and even allegedly somebody who was underage. Again, allegedly, keep in mind the Department of Justice did investigate this and he was never charged. Well, all of this then comes full circle when the so-called ethics report was allegedly going to get released if Gates stayed in the nomination process. It appears, Crystal, that he had to drop out as a result of that because multiple senators said that there was no way in hell they were ever going to vote for him.

and that it would eventually become a public circus. So he drops out of that. So now he is both no longer in Congress and no longer an incoming member or at least cabinet administration figure in the Trump administration. He has since announced he will be taking up a position at one American news where he'll be hosting a primetime show. So Matt, welcome to the media game. It's great to have you.

It's probably the lane he should be in to be in. Oh, absolutely. He's always been good at it. Yeah, let's be honest. He's talented. He's good, right? He's got a big guy. He's got a lot of people who like him. And at this point, he's got a big personality. Exactly. That's what you need to be in this game. So I have no doubt he'll be successful. Now, we thought, OK, it's dusted ethics report. It's never going to come out. They say, no, no, no, no. He's not getting away so free.

even though he won't be the Attorney General, even though he's not even a sitting member of Congress, screw him. So basically, they are still furious with him. Kevin McCarthy, who previously had allegedly read this report, and it said previously, he's like, I've read all the reports. I've seen the text messages. That's the only reason Matt Gaetz hates me, because Gaetz is one of the people who got McCarthy kicked out. It is speculated that McCarthy was behind the scenes, encouraging all these members of the Ethics Committee, many of whom he raised a lot of money for, and he's like, no, no, no, no, get it out there.

He's like screw him. We got to nuke his public reputation. So it appears that this is a behind the scenes long campaign by Kevin McCarthy to try and to get this to the front. And it has been successful at least in terms of the vote. We haven't gotten the report yet. And by the way, I just want to say for all these reports, release all of them. Anybody.

every single one that's everybody best. Any payoffs, every ethics complaint, et cetera. You know, here's the thing. They don't, this isn't a criminal proceeding. It's not about due process. If you're a member of Congress, you should be held to a higher standard than the rest of us. So I'm happy about it, actually.

Fair. Yeah, no, Kevin McCarthy is going to hunt Matt Gaetz until the day he died. Right. Like, that is pretty, pretty clear. And I mean, there's some really basic, just like human lessons here too, which is this would not be happening if Matt Gaetz hadn't been like people, people hate this guy, like people in the pockets.

really hate this guy because he was he was an asshole and they just didn't get along with him. I mean it's really not ideological. The only ideological part is like the fight he picked against Kevin McCarthy, which even that wasn't really ideological. There were some things that he wanted out of that and then he aligned himself with you know the small group that could hold up.

Kevin McCarthy's nomination is sent to speaker at the house. So to the extent that that was ideological, I guess, but most of this is just personality. And so yeah, they took a secret vote. This happened apparently a while ago. We're just now learning about it. And the report is supposed to be released sometime in the coming relatively soon, coming weeks.

And I also think it's pretty clear that you can say Gates, who I don't know that he has a lot of shame, did not want this to come out. Because when he got the Attorney General nomination originally, he did not have to resign from Congress. That's not a thing you have to do. And then not only did he resign, and when he resigned, that report was supposed to come out two days later,

So he did it in the nick of time. He resigns. And not only does he resign from this term, he's like, nah, nah, I'm just going to resign. The seat, I literally just won re-election for. I'm also going to resign that seat in an also an attempt to keep apparently this report from coming out. So there are things in here that are clearly embarrassing to him that he doesn't want to see the light of day. We do have a response from Matt. We can put this up on the screen. It's interesting what he has to say here.

I'll just read the whole thing, and then I get saga, I get your reaction to it. So he says, the Biden, Garland DOJ spent years reviewing allegations. I committed various crimes. I was charged with nothing fully exonerated, not even campaign finance violation. And the people investigating me hated me. Apparently many people do that.

Then the very witnesses, DOJ deemed not credible, were assembled by House ethics to repeat their claims absent any cross-examination or challenge for me or my attorneys. I've had no chance to ever confront any accusers I've never been charged. I've never been sued. Instead, House ethics will reportedly post a report online that I have no opportunity to debate or rebut as a former member of the body. In my single days, I often sent funds to women I dated. Even some, I never dated, but who asked?

I dated several of these women for years. I never had sexual contact with someone under 18. Any claim that I have would be destroyed in court, which is why I know such claim was ever made in court. My 30s were an era of working very hard and playing hard too. It's embarrassing, though not criminal, that I probably partied, womanized, drank, and smoked more than I should have earlier in life.

I live a different life now, but at least I didn't vote for CRs that F over the country. So there you go. There's his response. Of course, the most noteworthy line there is that he sent funds to women he dated, and even some he never dated, but who passed. Even some I never dated, just who asked. Wow, you know, that's a nice guy. That's true.

When people come up to me, I always give them money, right? That's what you should do. That's what, yeah, the goodness of your heart. It's the holiday season. You know, who amongst us is not the son of a Florida scion mill. It's just the whole thing. And whose best friend is in prison for what tax it brought?

Yeah, this whole thing with the yacht and who the guy who was partnered with. I think the- That story is too nice. There's a victim of blackmail. He was a victim of blackmail. That was a whole other thing. Don't forget Matt Gaetz's father is very, very wealthy and powerful. I think he's a former public official as well. Anyway.

So one thing is, I think part of maybe the rationale and why people were compelled to vote for this report to come out is because even though he's taken his One America News Network gig, I mean, it's not clear he's done with politics. So I think it is an attempt also to spike his reputation and limit his prospects of coming back in. What's going on with this Florida Senate seat? Yeah, that was a big question. Actually, I don't think he was ever in running for Senate. Really? Because there were some

talk about it. There was some talk of it. It seems that Lara Trump, who is Trump's sister-in-law, or sorry, daughter-in-law, wants the job. That's Eric Trump's wife. And she was obviously a major figure at the RNC. And so she's got a lot of interest in politics. She's a Florida resident. We're on DeSantis under a lot of pressure. To a point her, it's not yet matter. It's not yet clear whether he's going to do that. Then there's a big question about Gates in his future. Apparently, he allegedly been wanting to run for governor. So apparently that's something that was there, at least we're after DeSantis.

is gone. So you could see how one America could kind of be a bridge thing for him before he ran for the governor, but apparently him and Santa's hate each other. So there's a lot going on here. I don't know what it is. But yeah, the Florida Senate thing, I think Lara Trump will probably get it, but we'll see.

I mean, I would assume that she'd also been talked about for running for the North Carolina Senate seat. Yeah, that's right. That was previous. But I think whoever it was named, Tom Tillis, I think he's the one who's, I think he's running for reelection. So that one's not going to be up. And he seems to be playing better with MAGA and probably not going to face a primary. And it's just way easier to just get a point to do a seat and then defend that seat in a special election, which almost certainly would win now that Florida is a red state.

Yeah, but the other thing is I think DeSantis maybe a little bit has his own eye on that sentence. He could appoint a kind of placeholder who's not alive. He could be. He wanted to. You know, he has an agreement with that they're not going to run again. I don't know if he would. He hates Washington. I mean, he hated being a congressman. I don't know why you'd want to be a senator. He's saying the game. Yeah, just to stay in the game, that'd be the only reason if you really wanted to. But I mean, by all accounts, he really did not like going back. But yeah, I don't know. It'll be interesting.

What's up, everybody? I'd name Berk here to tell you about a new podcast. It's NHL Unscripted with Berk and Diverse. Jason and MERS here in after playing 700 NHL games. I got a lot of dirty laundry to air out. Hey, I got a lot to say here, too. OK, each week we'll get together and chat with the sport that we love.

Tons of guests are going to join in too, but we're not just going to be talking hockey folks. We're talking movies, we're talking TV, food, and Annand's favorite wrestling. It's all on Litablif. Listen to NHL Unscripted with Birken to MERS, the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to Decisions Decisions. The podcast for boundaries are pushed and conversations get candid. Join your favorite host, me, WZWTF. And me, Mandy B. As we dive deep into the world of non-traditional relationships and explore the often taboo topics surrounding dating, sex, and love. Every Monday and Wednesday, we both invite you to unlearn the outdated narratives dictated by traditional patriarchal norms. Tune in and join in the conversation.

Listen to decisions decisions on the Black Effect podcast network, iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.