Stopping the GOP from Destroying The Economy with Rep. Jim Himes and NABTU's Mike Monroe

[Music]. are you ready to learn how the democrats. will win in 2022 it is simple it's jobs. it's the economy it's health care and. it's pushing back on the hand. tale dystopia that republicans want here. in the united states as we've seen with. the arrest of liz herrera for murder for. abortion care and even for people taking. contraception this will start happening.

every single day in mass with the. legislation that republicans are passing. we will break it down on this episode of. the midas touch podcast ben brett and. jordy joining you today how's everybody. doing brett jordy. i'm i'm good and the reason i laughed uh. as you were giving that intro ben is not. because of the seriousness of what you. were talking about you kind of did it. you you laughed at like a weird part. well. well let me tell you why it's because. ben has apparently entered the uh his. phase of life where he gets the names of.

tv shows wrong um and so ben called it. the handmaidens tale it's the handmaid's. tale it's like when ben also now starts. to call it games of thrones instead of. game of thrones ben is officially at. that stage okay. he's getting up there it's fine there's. nothing wrong with that life of an old. millennial you know. then hates being called a millennial for. those one what was funny i was having uh. dinner yesterday and our gen z sister. um was basically i want i won't do the.

story i won't embarrass her. i'm gonna stop on the story right geez. what a tease but. the point is is that gen z is a very. unique and interesting generation but. gen z though i mean this is our future. and gen z sees through the [ __ ]. frankly that the boomers and that these. older people created who came in with. such great hopes you think about it you. know in uh you know the 60s 70s peace.

and love and on and and the great. movement but we've seen unfortunately. you know this. broader appeal of fascism we've seen. this broader appeal of rooting for. billionaires and it's problematic and i. believe in 2022. we're back to supporting workers 2022 is. the year of unions and when i saw nab to. the north america building trade unions. conference recently in washington dc. with president biden saying how.

important nab 2 was i was like unions. are back unions are important people. need careers people need jobs and they. shouldn't have to be working multiple. jobs people care about health care. people care about the economy and these. are issues that democrats are trying to. solve problems for and president biden. directly addressed those issues at nabc. so i said we need to have on this. podcast mike monroe who is the chief of.

staff of the north american building. trade unions nab two and they represent. everybody from the teamsters to the. electric union to the painter union you. name it we'll go through you name it. that's nabtu affiliated with the afl-cio. and so we will talk to them we would. talk to mike and so uh happy to have. mike as a guest then our first guest on. the podcast is also going to be jim. hymes from connecticut's fourth. congressional district and he chairs the. select committee on economic disparity.

and this podcast i want to focus on what. the mainstream media what all media is. not focusing on which is what is really. important with people am i going to be. able to feed my family am i going to be. able to have a job tomorrow am i going. to be able to afford a house or an. apartment am i going to be able to pay. my bills that's what people care about. and the media needs to talk about it. they're not so we are going to talk. about those issues here on this podcast.

with mike monroe and congressman jim. hymes happy to have them both and as we. talk about it i think this juxtaposition. is. no more clearer than what we're even. seeing as the recording of this podcast. with we want to talk about the. billionaire class just kind of [ __ ]. with everybody i'm sorry for cursing. like that there are some people say but. i don't like when ben cursed and there. are people saying i like when you curse. well i'm whatever i'm. sorry but elon musk today making the bid.

to buy. purportedly whether it's even i mean. he's made the bid whether he's serious. about it or just kind of doing one of. his elon musk stunts but to take twitter. private it's a publicly traded company. for. 41.39 billion dollars we talked about on. the last podcast that very weird letter. from twitter's uh new ceo about. distractions and about elon not taking a. board seat and we speculated the reason. was was because as a board member you. could only own a certain amount of share.

and that elon may have been planning. something more hostile that clearly. seems to be the case and. what this dystopian vision though brad i. want you to speak to of what these. billionaires though want to create what. they're trying to do with social media. is so disconcerting i don't believe this. is actually going to go through you know. i think twitter has the right amount of. defenses to prevent this from happening. i mean although i think it needs to be. followed very seriously but brett maybe. speak to that yeah it's hard to tell you. know how serious elon is or this is.

another stunt but i wouldn't just write. off everything as a stunt as we saw in. 2016 sometimes stunts become real things. and then we end up with donald trump as. president while everybody thinks it's a. slideshow so i would definitely take it. seriously as to what's going on i just. think you know i'm not like just a. general elon musk hater i'll just you. know say that right at the top but. you're you're on record on the pod. defending elon a few pods back a couple. months ago. i mean i i i don't think i was defending. him but of course you guys like i think. i i think you guys went pretty quick at.

me calling me billionaire brett which is. a little bit of [ __ ] of a moniker. but elon as this arbiter of free speech. is it's just phony in and of itself i. mean elon is not a guy first of all who. really is representative of free speech. i mean there's been numerous reports of. elon himself firing tesla employees who. disagree with him he famously fired a. tesla employee who did a youtube review. of the autonomous driving system in. tesla cars for having some criticism. about it he wanted to buy out the guy.

kick him off twitter just a few weeks. ago who was tracking his private jet. flight plans the public flight plans of. his private jet so he's truly not an. arbiter of free speech and i think. anti-free speech guy they're all. anti-free speech yeah well it's. anti-certain kind of speech right and. that's why that's why it's dangerous. they are against let's face it they're. against left-wing speech. and and pro-democracy speech and. when you really drill down to the core. of it what can you not say on twitter. yes they make mistakes yes occasionally. people get suspended for for garbage.

reasons. but on the whole. people aren't getting suspended because. they are expressing their interest in. lowering taxes people aren't getting. suspended for expressing their. differences of opinion on social. security or medicare or their opinion. about who their favorite athlete is or. what they think about a politician. that's not where people are getting. suspended for it's when it gets into. overt hate just hatred anti-semitism. just disgusting behavior. and that's kind of the stuff they want.

to bring back because here's the thing. with the whole free speech on social. media debate. if you're talking about you know i'm not. talking about government free speech but. if you're talking about just total. unfettered speech on a social media. platform without any rules of regulation. that already exists it's called 4chan. it's called 8-chan it's called a [ __ ] or. whatever all those platforms are and. those platforms if you go on them. you will be freaking shocked by what you. see because what you don't have there. are legitimate discussions and.

conversations and and civil discourse. you have people. really just saying racial epithets slurs. anti-semitic the worst. possible things you could ever imagine. and beyond are on those platforms and. that really is the ideal of this. right-wing proto-fascist. you know their concept of free speech. they just want to be free to hate. without having and they want to elevate. the free hate speech and then they'll.

censor the criticisms of them for their. hate speech so they will kick you off. the platform for criticizing their hate. speech i mean that's literally in the. terms of service yeah trump's truth. social that if you criticize truth. social you will be banned from truth. social taking it to the extreme we saw. what vladimir putin did when he was. echoing this concept of cancer culture. of the right when people were. criticizing. russia for slaughtering ukrainians and. he goes they're trying to cancel me. they're trying to cancel russia that is.

the same kind of rhetoric that. republicans have when they face. legitimate criticism for actually. attacking marginalized communities for. actually posting anti-semitic memes for. actually saying racial epithets and. slurs that is what they are upset about. they're upset about not being able to. speak. unfettered without being criticized and. without having a reaction and that sort. of free speech. doesn't exist in society you have no. right. in america to say something.

and then not face consequences for what. you're saying i mean that's the back and. forth of free speech you have free. speech to make your horrific horrible. comments and then i guess what a group. of people gets to say you know what i. disagree with that i think that's kind. of messed up what you're saying about it. and then a private company of course has. the ability to have a terms of service. that says you know what on our platform. we're not going to allow hate speech. anti-semitism we're not going to allow. all this stuff and so i think you know i. think it would actually be short-sighted.

for twitter to take this deal because if. they want to be a site that's advertiser. friendly if they want to be a site that. actually is bringing in money it's going. to be really hard to do that if your. platform all of a sudden becomes rooted. in in hate and that becomes if twitter. became a 4chan it's going to be hard to. get you know the nba or at t or any of. these big brands to go and say i want to. advertise my product on your service. well maybe not a t well you know what i. mean you know what whatever kind of big.

blue chip brand there is that yeah yeah. no no no they they are looking for safer. places to put their material and if. twitter became a 4chan cesspool then. yeah i don't think they're going to want. to do it i i think it would be a bad a. really bad idea for. twitter and i think it would be really. bad for. uh just social media the internet. in general if you know we centralized. power to to this one man but if you look. at what the billionaires are trying to. do i mean if you look at what trump is. trying to do with truth social and but.

he's failing miserably with truth social. if you look at even what like elon musk. is doing and you look at the parallels. internationally about the billionaire. class about oligarchies and what they. want to do at the end of the day it's. actually it's gaslighting when they say. it's about free speech what they really. want to do is control speech control you. control your bodies control every aspect. of it to prop up themselves that's what. this is really really about and that's. why you need and we're going to talk. about this on the pod that's why you.

need powerful counter points. to billionaires you know and and you. need to have checks and balances the. same way you have checks and balances in. government you need checks and balances. in a economic system for there to be. prosperity and we need to make sure that. billion you know it's ridiculous that. you get people who are paying themselves. 35 000 percent of what a worker's making. i mean you know at that it just gets. absurd and upsetting and everyone's for.

you know like look i'm i'm for. compassionate capitalism i want i think. people should be able if they work their. their butts off and achieve success and. you know and lots of times it's luck you. know there's a lot of factors that are. involved in it's not just hard work a. lot of it is luck and but you know and. connections and all those things but i'm. okay. you know at the end of the day with the. fact that people earn wealth. it just offends me that when there's. such a harvesting of the wealth and. cheating the system and cheating workers.

every single day. and rigging the system against the. workers and as democrats are fighting. for those workers republicans are. pushing back against it look we also see. the republicans are pushing back and. fighting against the economy and we saw. that before like these are really acts. of economic terrorism that's taking. place i think that's the best way to. describe it economic terrorism by. republicans because their goal is. actually to destroy the country when.

democrats are in charge so that they. could take power and then destroy the. economy by harvesting all the wealth for. their billionaire class and exploiting. workers that's basically what their. agenda is and we saw them doing this in. the canadian border. we saw the support of by all these. republican senators you know of that. phony. astro turf convoy situation there where. they were trying to literally shut down. the bridges to prevent commerce from. taking place.

across the borders with u.s and canada. and we see it in texas where governor. greg abbott as the governor of a state. is trying to assert federal powers i. mean we saw this before when he was. saying that as a governor of the state. he was going to you know take. immigrants put them on buses and ship. them to washington dc and then drop them. in washington dc which he doesn't have. the power to do it's a pure pr stunt and. it's just so cruel and. absolutely disgusting but then what he's.

also doing now is he's basically. shutting down the border on texas in a. way and he's basically making the checks. of the trucks so onerous so that the. trucks going from mexico to united. states can't even get through to ship. the goods by trying to make it so that. like multiple checks of multiple trucks. and and literally preventing trucks from. getting through there was this. incredible video by someone by the.

handle paul tx. paultexas890 just speaking plainly to. the people about what's going on and. this video has gotten millions of views. we amplified it as well maybe uh play. the video language alert before we play. it. folks you need to watch this video to. the end and you need to interact with it. you need to leave a comment. we need to boost this as much as. possible and this is your only warning. there's going to be cussing because i'm. [ __ ] mad as hell i am telling you. right now republicans are intentionally. working to drive up inflation and. intentionally working to [ __ ] our.

supply chain. right now governor abbott here in the. state of texas. is. forcing the dps which is our version of. state troopers to stop every single. truck coming out of mexico every single. truck. into a safety inspection on it safety. inspection on it what they're doing is. they're backing up shipping for. dozens and dozens and dozens of miles. normally a mexican driver will bring a. truck over across the border they'll. drop it at a depot and an american. driver will pick it up and drive off. they usually do about four a day they.

can't get one through they can't get one. [ __ ] truck through they're backed up. for [ __ ] miles. why because they want to drive up. inflation they think it's going to help. them in the midterms they want to. [ __ ] our [ __ ] supply chains. because they think it will help them in. the [ __ ] midterms they're doing it on. purpose to hurt you your family your. wallet. this isn't being covered in the national. media all the national media wants to. talk about is in inflation inflation.

inflation but they don't want to [ __ ]. talk about why it's [ __ ] happening. this. you have to look at local texas media. houston. you know [ __ ]. el paso laredo laredo is the largest. land port in this country. and they've got it backed up so goddamn. far you can't even see the end of the. guy damn line. these are the sorriest [ __ ] in. the world republicans are traitors they. don't give a [ __ ] who they hurt who they. [ __ ] just so long as they can get some. power i'm telling you people.

vote blue. vote blue in every election you would. reflexively think that. is that a trump supporter about to talk. like i mean that's kind of my first. reaction i don't wanna honestly that's. why he's such a good messenger because. that to me you know he is indicative of. like an average texan who's looking at. his state and going this governor's. screwing us over and nobody is talking. about this and the republican party is. giving him cover and the media is giving. him cover while he purposefully tries to. crash our economy while he's.

purposefully ruining lives trying to. drive up inflation and that really is. the not so secret plan of the republican. party in general they right now want to. inflict as much pain as possible on the. american people so that they can blame. it on president biden and the democrats. who have a majority that's the game. that's the name of the game they want to. inflict as much pain as possible going. into these midterms and they've said it. out loud rick scott who's like got to be.

the world's worst messenger for the. republican party they've got to be like. dude just stop talking bro rick come on. just reel it in a little bit rick scott. a few months ago before this is this is. before he announced his plan to raise. taxes on the working class and cut. social security and medicare um he. announced he he said out loud he he said. that inflation is a gold mine for. republicans that was the term he used he. was giddy. about inflation so you could be damn. sure that republican politicians across.

the country are giddy about anything. that's going to hurt the american people. because they view it good for them. politically they could be doing things. right now to come together with. democrats to help these issues but the. fact is they don't want to help and it. extends beyond them of course tying it. back to the elon musks of the world and. other billionaires in our society. they all are kind of in a coordinated. effort right now to sabotage democrats. to sabotage president biden because they. don't want strong unions they don't want.

lower taxes on the working class they. don't want taxes on themselves at all. and so every time democrats come to. power their policies are you know we're. going to make the billionaires pay their. fair share that scares them and then. there's a coordinated effort to fight. back and then you start seeing all these. other crazy policies that come into play. because the cruelty is the point with. the gop. can we start referring to rick scott as. a skeletor do you guys remember skeletor. the evil villain in he-man i like. skeletor and but he's a spitting image.

of voldemort and we i i just cannot get. past the fact that he's a spitting image. of voldemort so and look at the end of. the day we could call him whenever we. want but we need to be calling out and i. think the message of this podcast is. what we need to be calling out as jobs. the economy. that democrats are fighting for the. rights of women and child bearing. persons we're fighting for health care. and the other parties trying to take. those things away like it's a very. simple message that needs to get out. there and it just needs to be.

communicated every single. day you know the way you build. conversations is to talk to people i did. a tweet the other day i said you know. how you create a conversation you talk. and it's funny you know i got like lots. of like that was like controversial. statement like i got comments back like. you can't talk to some of these people. well you have to try you have to try. you know. me being on twitter. me being. you know or sitting in my living room. you know or or or just venting at the.

wall whatever like each of them has a. different reach but you have to go out. there and talk to people. you know and that's what i try to do. every single day that's what democrats. need to do if that's what our strategy. was in georgia. during the runoffs where hey we gotta. talk to people in areas that aren't. democratic and that's what we did and. that's what we need to do every single. day democrats need to be out there every. day that democrats are not out there in. coffee shops and in diners you know and.

in shopping centers you know even if. it's 10 people 20 people 30 people. anytime that's not happening is a missed. opportunity and the messaging that needs. to be discussed. is the messaging that we're about to. show you from congressman jim hymes and. mike monroe so without further ado let's. start our first interview with. congressman jim hymes from uh. connecticut's fourth congressional. district we are joined by congressman. jim hines who represents connecticut's. fourth congressional district and he.

currently chairs the select committee on. economic disparity and fairness in. growth and also serves on the house. permanent select intelligence committee. and the house committee on financial. services congressman welcome to the show. thank you great to be with you guys. one of the things i've been seeing. especially recently with your trip to. wisconsin. specifically in kenosha and just getting. the message out there about what the. select committee is doing i've been.

seeing the work i don't think the. mainstream media has really been as. focused as it needs to be when this is. what the american people are really. focused on in 2022 and frankly every. single day economic disparity and. fairness in this country so maybe just. start off by telling our viewers and. listeners what the select committee does. what its composition is and what the. goals are yeah sure um and and thanks. for the opportunity you know i'm glad. you framed it that way because um you.

know the reason i'm excited to be. chairing this committee is that i think. that um disparity in this country uh and. a perceived lack of fairness and by the. way a real lack of fairness has gotten. to a point where an awful lot of. americans are giving up on the system um. i think that actually explains a lot of. our politics in the last five years or. so and um um you know it looks a little. different depending on where you are in. the country it looks different in. milwaukee uh where where i just got back. from than it does in bridgeport. connecticut which is just 25 miles up. the road uh it looks different if you're.

in the middle of a rural state where you. know rural america is being hollowed out. but my point is that. while it may look different um it is. corroding. the sense that i think americans used to. have in this country that you know if i. can use a political cliche um that you. know if you work hard and play by the. rules you've got a good crack at being. um at being middle class for too many. people in all of those geographies i. just talked about that no longer feels. true and when it no longer feels true.

you start to say my gosh maybe this you. know democratic. uh. we can have a long conversation over. capitalism but this democratic. market-based system just doesn't work. and i need an alternative and when. people start looking for alternatives to. democracy and to the systems that have. served our um most of our i should say. uh. you know parents and grandparents and. great-grandparents pretty well you get. you get some pretty crazy politics you. know i think what we've talked a lot. about on the show and what a lot of.

people see though is it seems that the. systems that are in place though seem. like it's socialism but for the. billionaires the billionaires are. getting the tax breaks the billionaires. are getting the tax cuts you still have. this trickle down you know the concept. that pervades every time um particularly. you have you know republican. administrations that are are leading it. you know how do we speak though and. message and just speak to workers is the.

system rigged against them well you know. to some extent it is right and i'm not. dismissing the reality of the fact that. you know capital in this country is. taxed at. half the rate roughly speaking that. labor in this country is tax at right. you know those of us who get a paycheck. um you know when you get up into the. upper realms of the income brackets you. get taxed at you know the high 30s. dividends and interest and capital gains. in this country are taxed at you know. half that rate and so to some extent the.

system is kind of rigged and yes um you. know my republican colleagues are fond. of pointing out that only half of. americans pay income tax and i guess. that's roughly true but they're ignoring. the fact that pretty much all americans. who earn a wage pay medicare taxes pay. social security taxes pay sales taxes. and when you sort of add up the whole. tax system um the really really low. rates are experienced by people of of. really substantial wealth. and so. i want to acknowledge that even as i say.

that um. you got to be mindful on the flip side. that a market economy in this country. over a long period of time and by the. way in this world over a long period of. time has been an unbelievable engine for. lifting people out of poverty um and you. know you if you look outside of this. country in particular you know there's a. reason that the nation of india and the. nation of china with a combined two. billion people in them have in the last. 30 years or 40 years or 50 years gone.

from dire poverty to a long way from. where they want to be and where we want. them to be but but have you know. developed middle class societies that's. because of. a free market system what we need the. free market system to be is fair both in. its in the way the playing field is set. up but also in the way that people. perceive it to be you recently made the. point as well that economic disparity is. not a democrat thing or a republican. thing and that you you as the chair are.

seeking bipartisan solutions there's i. believe eight democrats six republicans. who are on the committee i don't mean to. be facetious here because my own view of. it is though is that i see the at least. the loudest. republicans out there are working. against the workers so how do you manage. to maintain. a bipartisan framework when at the real. leadership levels at the kevin mccarthy. levels like we know they're not really.

trying to be bipartisan with democrats. so how do you make that balance with. this group here that you lead. yeah yeah it's it's a tough one you know. you remind me many years ago uh when. eric cantor there's a blast from the. past when eric cantor was the number two. republican on labor day on labor day. which is a day to celebrate labor right. and to celebrate the labor unions and. the unions that accounted for so much of. the creation of the middle class um eric. cantor released it as a statement saying. you know here's to the job creators by.

which you mean he meant the bosses right. and and okay look we ought to support. job creators too but it was just. indicative of the of just the sort of. toxic um. stuff that uh you know probably started. in the reagan administration where all. of a sudden the private sector could do. no wrong and the public sector was. nothing but inefficiency and waste and. you know we're paying a real cost for. that uh is that instinct that got. started in the in the in the early 80s. but but i think look i think two things. number one um you might be surprised by.

the bipartisan agreement around things. like. the monopoly power of trillion dollar. market cap corporations that actually is. a concern that attracts support on both. sides of the aisle in terms of. addressing it um you know it is true in. this country that the deepest red. districts this is one of the things that. just constantly uh sort of a noise. puzzles me the deepest red districts in. this country are the are the are the. districts in which there is you know.

just just. wild poverty um you know in the. appalachian south um the poverty down. there is is is unbelievable and you know. it would be so easy to fix that by. simply funding more um community health. centers for starters so that people have. a basic level of health but i mean you. put your finger on a problem but i will. tell you. that there is more acknowledgement of. the need to address the folks that are. being left behind. than you might think what's by the way. what's happening and i'm gonna stop.

talking in a second because i know i'm. speechifying now but but um what's. happening in the united kingdom the. conservative party made huge inroads in. traditionally labor areas in places like. manchester and birmingham these were the. places that despised margaret thatcher. and they did that because the right-wing. party the conservative party in great. britain said we're gonna do what they. call leveling up we're actually gonna. provide aid to people who are being left. behind and i say that because the. republicans haven't quite figured that.

out yet in this country but it is sure. working for the right-wing party at. least temporarily in the united kingdom. and it's something that those on the. left those of us on the left need to be. very mindful about well here's the thing. though i think that the right wing feels. that they can get away with it. because. one they're just completely you know. defrauding the group but i'll tell you. what they're speaking. at least to the worker they're totally. lying. to the workers about what they're doing. for them and you know with you know we. hear with trump you know echoing.

infrastructure weak jobs jobs jobs at. the same time doing the exact opposite. but i mean do you think though that. democrats. you know you know independence people. who like democracy i don't even like the. democrat republican label anymore when. one party supports an insurrection but. do you think that democrats just need to. be messaging hey jobs just jobs and just. talk about jobs workers what we're doing. every single day like these are the. issues that people care about but.

sometimes like i just don't see us out. there at the rallies i mean and i. applaud you from going to kenosha and. speaking to people but don't you think. we should be like almost doing that. every day from now until election day in. 2022 yeah great great point great point. here's here's what i see happening. here's what i see happening um i know. that on the economic issues. our plans blow the republicans out of. the water you know whether it's making. sure that every american has access to. decent health care. minimum wage by the way minimum wage.

attracts support across the political. spectrum. and there's evidence of that because. some fairly red states have implemented. higher minimum wages right so on the. economic front um the american people. are with us i and and every poll shows. that so what is the what do the. republicans do um they say hey. don't talk about minimum wage or health. care let's talk about critical race. theory and the fact that the democratic. governor for virginia said parents don't. matter let's talk about the.

participation of transgender women in in. collegiate sports let's talk about um. the fact that there are two democrats in. congress who support defund the police. and oh by the way all the rest of them. do too because they're not patriotic so. what they what i think happens in this. country and and there's other issues too. right guns is an interesting one guns is. a really interesting one because you. know it's not hard for them to go to. you know semi-rural communities in ohio. that have generations long attachment to.

hunting and firearms and say the. democrats want to take your guns away. and so you see my point here what's. happening is a little bit of a. distraction game because i think most. republicans understand that when you. hold our. economic proposals next to their reality. which is let's cut the taxes on the very. wealthiest people in this country we. blow them out of the water on that on on. that approach to people but i guess. here's the thing when you look at those. policies and you break out those. policies and you pull test them like you. said they overwhelmingly are supported.

by the american people but then you ask. a question like who is better on the. economy democrats or republicans and. republicans maybe because of these. distractions often pull higher even. though all evidence. points to the contrary in that regard so. what are voters missing or i guess the. better question might be what are. democrats missing in the messaging that. the message is just not getting across. that those policies that you support. that's us yeah gosh that's a that's a.

that is the key political question um. and i look i i. democrats and republicans have radically. different messaging. missions right come visit me in the. house of representatives and i'm going. to park you. um in the gallery and you're going to. look down at the republican side and you. know what you're going to see you're. going to see 95. give or take. doughy white guys right largely out of. the south and the midwest and the west. as well.

um look on my side and you're gonna see. you know jewish muslim black white asian. it goes on and on and on every letter in. the lgbtq. continuum we are messaging to. a a much broader group of people um and. that's hard it really is hard and. you know as ominous as it is i give you. know you sort of have to in a. machiavellian way. you know.

uh. admire in a machiavellian way the extent. to which the republicans have been able. to play this smoke and mirrors game for. sure as we not only propose. but implement policies that make huge. differences right the affordable care. act which you know they only recently. gave up trying to kill. the affordable care act has you know. provided health insurance coverage to 20. million americans and guess what those. 20 million americans were not the. business owners or the hedge fund. managers those 20 million americans.

lives were saved now how they explain to. their people in red states like alabama. and mississippi that oh sorry we're not. going to expand medicaid. at the cost of thousands of lives again. in a dark and machiavellian way you sort. of have to say my gosh you know how do. they get away with that. forget expanding medicaid you have. republicans like rick scott going out. there and i saw some other republican. voices i think a candidate for congress. in ohio or maybe even senate for ohio.

saying that they they are saying the. quiet part out loud now just shamelessly. that if we get into power what we need. to do is we need a sunset medicare aka. we need to end medicare and social. security we need to raise taxes on. working people as you hinted at earlier. they said that working people need to. have some more skin in the game they. need to be paying some more so i know as. you just said you're a huge supporter of. the affordable care act how do democrats. plan on getting allowed about this issue. that republicans when they come into.

power this is their plan cut social. security cut medicare raise your taxes. well it really as you point out it. really helps that rick scott you know. who is sort of the senator in charge of. the senate republican message you know. as you said they said the quiet part out. loud. we're gonna raise your taxes unless. you're a billionaire right you already. pay as well you know what he thinks is. enough taxes we're gonna raise your. taxes and oh by the way i mean get this. you saw the other part of it which was. that all federal programs will sunset in. five years and if they're important.

congress will bring them back. mind-boggling right you know people tend. to forget that half of all federal. expenditures roughly speaking are. are three big programs right social. security medicare and medicaid right you. know and and you would have thought that. that would be political gold that we. could go out there and say hey guys. we're democrats we sort of stumble. around it's hard for us to agree because. we're such a diverse group of people but. we're really doing good work we can. point backwards at dodd-frank and point. backwards at obamacare and say oh man. the country's better off because we.

passed those things um and the other. guys by the way want to end medicare and. social security you know you would think. that that would be up you know 15 points. in the polling. generation. that's that's exactly what i'm saying we. got we got to be hammering this point. home every single day day in and day out. so um i i want to just go back uh for a. second to your trip to milwaukee i just. want to know you before you said that. you know there were a lot of differences. right when you were in different rural. areas of milwaukee compared to being in.

connecticut and things like that but. what were the similarities that you. noticed going to milwaukee i know you. just did a tour of some of those. milwaukee neighborhoods. with wisconsin democratic representative. gwen moore so what did you see in terms. of. wealth economic disparities and just the. similarities in the struggles that. people are having there and in your home. state. yeah so the similarities um are actually. remarkably uh important um and this gets. to something that we haven't talked. about because when you're talking about. economic disparity we went straight to.

you know the playing field being tilted. taxes etc you know the reality is that. the two things in my opinion that have. really contributed in the last 20 or 30. years to economic disparity there's two. things right number one the radical. change in the way manufacturing is done. today go to a manufacturer go to a. monument. a modern manufacturing plant you're not. going to see a lot of people working in. that factory the way you would have in. my grandfather's day um number one is. automation and number two and i'm not.

saying these are the right order but. globalization you know uh and and. changes in the economy so. so what what's what's the what is common. between bridgeport connecticut and. milwaukee milwaukee's a bigger city but. entire swaths of the city are. brownfields right here's where the. briggs and stratton engine plant used to. be here's where ao smith used to be. they're not there anymore they either. left the country um or they moved way. out of town to the interstate because. instead of being near the lake that they. can dump their industrial garbage into.

today it's important for them to be near. that interstate so that they can you. know get and receive goods and so um. that's the story of bridgeport. connecticut right you know huge. brownfields associated with factories. that close down for the reasons that i. just highlighted right and so it's a. mistake to say that there aren't. profound commonalities between you know. what we call the post-industrial midwest. or with you know the rust belt i know. how much people hate that at that. moniker in the midwest and rightly so. but there's a lot of commonalities you. know go to maine go to maine then the.

northeast corner of this country and. you'll see entire villages that don't. exist anymore because the mill closed. and so there's lots of particular ways. in which milwaukee is different than. bridgeport or bangor maine but there's a. lot of similarities too it seems like we. got a lot of five alarm fires so to. speak happening across america with. various different issues and civil. rights i know you've got a 100. pro-choice rating from planned. parenthood and right now we are seeing. an all-out assault on the right to. choose in gop run states most recently. oklahoma just passed a total abortion.

ban in direct violation of roe v wade so. what could the federal government do. here to step in and protect the right to. choose. well theoretically the federal. government could codify roe v wade which. as you know is a supreme court decision. we could codify it into federal law and. we might even have a reasonable. negotiation with the republicans who. who oppose. abortion um and we might say look let's. talk about the viability standard you. know let's let's have the kind of. conversation but no we can't have that.

conversation instead you know we're in. the strange world where the supreme. court may either obliterate roe v wade. and where as you point out states are. acting in clearly unconstitutional. fashion to to basically make abortion. all but um impossible and i don't really. want to get into the fight between you. know people who believe in reproductive. liberty like i do and those people who. for whatever reason you know believe. that abortion is murder what i can tell. you is this. i know what's going to happen because. we're seeing it already in states that.

make it um harder and possible for women. to get an abortion um they're going to. be criminalized you know we're talking. right now just as there was a case in. texas of a woman arrested and charged. with murder for undergoing an abortion. and um just as importantly. do you think the wealthy. uh. the wealthy young ladies of dallas are. going to not get abortions when texas. makes abortion illegal of course they're.

going to get abortions it's going to be. the lower income in the poor women of. dallas and houston and birmingham. alabama who are going to choose between. spending an exorbitant amount of money. to go to a state where abortion is legal. or worse yet. they'll. go back to the world of pre-row when. they saw it you know what the proverbial. back alley abortions that's the that's. where we end up here um and that's just. a terrible place in my opinion to be and. i would hope that my republicans would.

at least be willing to engage on that. but they're not they're not because they. sort of see what they define as total. victory and total victory i thought. about this during the affordable care. act you know in my darkest moments. because my first term was about. implement was about passing the. affordable care act in my darkest least. proud of myself moments i would say you. know what do away with the affordable. care act watch what happens when you. throw 20 million people off of their. health insurance it will be political. cataclysm now i never really believe. that because i don't believe people. should be pawns in that kind of.

political fighting but you know just. wait to see what happens in those. southern states that ultimately do away. with abortion wealthy women are going to. travel to illinois and poor women are. going to die in back alleys that's it's. so horrible and speaking of republicans. i think congratulations are in order for. you congressman because i just heard. that russia imposed sanctions on 398. members of the house i'm assuming that. you're one of them. i'd better be. what does it say so 398 that means that.

there are 37 who they decided not to. sanction i don't think we have a list of. the sanctions yet i'm assuming that they. are the typical suspects in the. republican party. what does it say to you that they. sanctioned 398 members of the house and. decided these 37 yeah they're okay. they're cool. yeah well they did a real disservice to. the 37 that they did not sanction. now um you know i i can guess i don't. want to i don't want to do it because i. haven't seen the list but i can guess.

who might be on that list and uh you. know that is not i don't care how wacky. your politics are it does not help to. have a uh to help to have a you know. genocidal mass murderer put you on his. good list um but you know you do what. you do make a point that we should. unpack a little bit uh because it's not. just an american phenomenon right we see. it in france we see it in hungary we see. it all over the world vladimir putin is. just taking it to its logical extreme. more and more people are saying you know. what democracy's too messy or democracy.

empowers people that we don't want. empowered or if you're if you're putin. you say the grand russian imperium needs. to i mean this is language that reminds. you of 1930s europe right the grand. russian imperium needs to be purified i. mean this is scary scary language and. sadly and i'm not going to name names. but you know who they are i don't know. if the number's 37 but i can certainly. count on two or three or four hands. republicans who are so far right that. they're pretty happy to dispense with.

the messiness of democracy in favor of. this you know. strong man authoritarian boy isn't it. efficient when we have a strong leader. and by the way doesn't it harken back to. a an america where people knew their. place and you know what people i'm. talking about here right. now you know don't we look backwards at. a mythical time when this country was. you know less complicated what if we. made america great again think about. that word again you know so anyway this.

is happening all over the world right. now and i think putin is showing us. the. the violence that can come from that. kind of thinking well congressman i. promise you i won't name names either. but i will phrase this question in a. certain way and you could react however. you'd like you have a bunch of weirdo. colleagues q anon. dangerous people. how do you such a normal rational person. politician deal with them on a. day-to-day basis. um i just i i make sure i'm not in an.

elevator with them right i mean honestly. i don't take the. i you know i'm a fairly disciplined guy. but i just don't have the emotional uh. uh fortitude to be around people that i. think are proto-fascist um you know. about people who i mean i heard you know. let's use a name here i heard marjorie. taylor green over and over and over. again using the word satanic that's how. people get killed right and you know.

there are some republicans that i can't. abide but i would never dream of either. calling them out individually or using. the word satanic because you know what. in a country of 330 million people. somebody's going to hear the word. satanic and they're going to take out a. firearm and they're going to go kill. that demon right and that's just so so. to answer your question i just i stay. away now what i do which sometimes get. me gets me in trouble with my fellow. democrats like it or not um in this. country certainly with a filibuster. which i would like to see eliminated.

if you're going to get something done. you're going to have some bipartisan. support and so. my job is to get stuff done for my. constituents so i irritate some of my. democrats by by going way out of my way. to try to cultivate relationships with. people that i disagree with but that i. think of our reasonable republicans but. no i don't get into elevators with the. proto-fascists. and i want to talk to you more about. this bipartisan charge that you're. really pioneering at this stage you know. bipartisan it feels like such a buzzword. these days you know a word that just. gets thrown around every politician says.

hey i'm going to reach across the aisle. in a bar in a in a bipartisan way but. they don't but you did you did it you. you've created and cultivated this. committee that's truly bipartisan and. frankly how did you pull it off well um. two things number one economic disparity. is as we talked about before. you know very much uh a problem in blue. districts and red districts. there is some area of agreement um. there's a lot of disagreement but. but here's the key for me and and then.

it's also my temperament you know. um. here's the key for me. washington is largely about contrast the. moment you say i want to run for. congress you know some consultant says. okay well you got to draw a contract and. i get that look i've i've been through. seven elections now. um i get that but. if you're gonna govern what you're gonna. do is instead of. centering. the differences that are huge especially. today especially today they're massive. because they they encompass like whether.

our constitution should be defended or. not but if if you're going to get. something done you're going to center. those things small though they may be. small though they may be where there is. some agreement and it's not my fault. that our founders set up a system that. was incremental and by the way you know. depending on whether you're in the. majority of the minority your views on. incrementalism change but my point is. that this is the card game that i was. invited to play in so i'm gonna center.

as much as i can and as small as that. area may be areas where there is. agreement you might actually make some. progress well it's a card game that i. think you're absolutely dominating and. uh. it's clear based on the fact that you've. been elected so many times so we've got. midterm elections coming up which. notoriously are difficult for the. incumbent party now you're in a pretty. safe district and like i said you're. pretty game of the game of cards here of. politics how do we ensure though that. democrats hold the house great great.

question and this gets to something that. we haven't. addressed explicitly but what i just. said about centering those small areas. of agreement. um is a very different mission and i'm. using the word different deliberately. there from what my more activist. progressive colleagues do right so what. does the proverbial squad do what if. what what they're about is in my opinion. maintaining the f the vision about you. know the the the the geeks would say.

expanding the overton window right and i. think they've been really good at that i. mean 10 years ago a public option for. healthcare was a kind of an unorthodox. idea today it's far from an unorthodox. idea right and so. and i say different because. both things are necessary right i as. i've now admitted to you. i am sort of taken and temperamentally. suited to the like okay let's get a. bunch of stuff done here no one's gonna. cheer too loudly because it will involve.

compromise but that other wing of the. party which is about expanding the. overton window about keeping a more uh. the word they use is visionary um bold. is the word they use that's important. too but to answer your question winning. a majority means that you're mixing. those two things. in the right measure. to expand. the electorate that's supporting you so. you keep the. activist based happy but you also and it.

is never or you also approach. people in virginia in fairfield county. connecticut in ohio in those purple. areas in a way that is not shocking to. them and it can be done but it's hard. and we're not always very good at it so. let's get good at it because we've got. 2022 is is coming up and. we have the policies. we have the right message and we are. delivering and you know that message.

needs to get out there i appreciate you. talking about it today on the podcast. and i do hope you'll come back. thank you thank you great great to be. with you guys congressman jim hymes. connecticut's 4th congressional district. we appreciate you. welcome back to the midastouch podcast. yeah it was great speaking with. congressman jim hymes and learning about. the work of the select committee he. chairs an economic disparity. it's what we need to be talking about. every single day with americans.

americans americans are not billionaires. i mean you know that's why the one. percent of the one percent are. individuals who are being represented by. the republican party like we need to. speak to people this policy is a policy. for you they're trying to take away your. health care. they're trying to take away your health. the republicans. that's what they're trying to do they're. trying to take away your social security. why is it that hard to message. it isn't that hard to message jim hymes. gets it the democrats is it on the.

economic disparity get it we better get. it we better start saying these things. every single day the best offense. is a good offense and if we're not on. the offensive. we're not going to win folks and. somebody who always is on the offensive. for his. workers for workers across the country. is mike monroe who's the chief of staff. for nabtu the north america's building. trade unions as we discussed earlier the. north america is building trade unions. is comprised of basically like every.

union imaginable construction worker. like all construction workers across the. country and they see the union workers. see the work that democrats are doing. because democrats especially under. president biden are speaking directly to. unions especially we saw this appearance. the other day of president biden and. nancy pelosi and a bunch of other. democrats at this nab to event it was. the event in which president biden gave. a warning shot to amazon president biden. also made some new announcements. sanctions on russia it was a big deal.

and it's no surprise that he made these. statements at this nab to event so i'm. really excited to get mike monroe's. perspective on what union workers think. of president biden and their needs and. their concerns as we head into the 2022. midterms because union workers and. workers in general across this country. are truly the backbone of america and. and democrats are the party of workers. before we get to the interview with mike. monroe let me tell you a little bit. about.

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with. chief of staff of nab to north america's. building trade unions. mike monroe we are joined by probably. one of the most important guests on the. midas touch podcast that we've. interviewed it's a lot to live up to. there mike monroe who serves as chief of. staff of the north america's building. trades union nab two and let me tell you. why i think mike monroe may be one of. our most important guests do you know.

why mike please tell me because. president biden said so. last week at the legislative conference. at nab two's annual legislative. conference he said that there was no. president biden without the workers. without the support of american workers. and let me tell you who nab two is. affiliated 14 north american unions i. could go tick through them but it would. take forever but we're talking about. electrical workers teamsters bricklayers. the painters union elevator construction.

workers over 3 million construction. workers across the country mike monroe. we're so appreciative to have you on. this podcast and for all the work nab 2. does. real grateful for that guys and and big. fans of y'all's work and uh just really. happy to be with you today so thank you. for that i hope i can live up to that. let's get right into it one of the. things that i. continue. to shout to anybody who listens and this. is also part of the work i do as a. litigator who represents labor in the.

work that i do. it's. when workers. start empathizing with the billionaire. class and fighting for billionaires more. than workers and like i see it with the. nfl well the owner said x y and z the. owner did this the owner did that and i. think to myself the people who are. saying that are workers you need to get. behind other labor why are we taking the. side of billionaires mike just the first. question why are why does it seem that.

american workers sometimes are being. conned by the billionaire class to do. their bidding the billionaire class. bidding sure you know look that's uh. that's an age old tale well will. probably remain well beyond our lifespan. here on earth that will continue that is. the sort of. friction if you will between capital and. labor very generally. and you know i think that. that is the power of organized labor of. a union is to give workers voice right. and that's threatening to a lot of.

people it's threatening to the status. quo over time. uh and so we are just laser-like focused. on drowning out sort of all the if you. will propaganda all the things that are. coming at our members or even american. families and really just try to focus on. kitchen table economics it seems try you. know seems simple but we do try to cloud. out all the nonsense and really focus in. our representational duties about. how it is you go to work how you perform. your work how you get home safely what. you're compensated for what that benefit.

package looks like are you going to have. health care retirement etc and in the. construction industry. uh whom i have the privilege of. representing all those unions you. mentioned and their their members. you know it's a dangerous occupation. right it's a dangerous industry and and. these are not you know a lot of. politicians like to say oh these are. good construction jobs nothing. inherently good about them all right. collective bargaining over the years. working with responsible employers. yes uh relying on good public policy. we've made them good jobs and in.

in the union movement in collective. bargaining space. you know. these are careers if we do them right. and they become more attractive to. people every day and i think in this. moment in time though. you know i think workers are taking a. second look i think they're looking at. their circumstance i think they're. looking at the challenges of their. family and they know the work that they. put in the hours they put in. and they're looking for a little bit. more not only respect on the job but. they know that they they have been. undervalued. and i think you saw that through the. pandemic i mean everybody was thrown.

around the term essential worker. it was true i mean there was a whole. class of workers that allowed us to sit. at home. um and ride out the pandemic as long as. we could. but they went to work every single day. so. that will always continue sort of that. struggle and everybody sees themselves. as a business owner or the boss or you. know aspires to that but there's real. power and sort of that collective action. and collective voice on the job so. here's the reason that i'm a democrat. okay i'm not a democrat because i love.

the donkey logo i'm not a democrat. because it's a cool brand. um. the reason i'm a democrat is i believe. it is the party that is fighting for the. workers and i don't just believe that. i see that. with the legislation and i see who's. opposing legislation and when i see. something like the infrastructure bill. when i see something like build back. better which is a jobs program at its. core and i see one party supporting that.

and one party not supporting that. i see who's supporting the workers. but it seems to me. that yes this nab two annual legislative. conference is great where you have. democrats go in and they speak and it. gets a lot of coverage. but are democrats really speaking though. to the people in a way that you need to. speak to people like what you just said. mike like hear what people care about.

they care about health care they care. about their hours they care about their. health they care about their family i. would venture. they care far more about that than a dr. seuss book the what skirt the eminem is. wearing and whether that turns on or. turns off you know but you can't just do. it in one conference and say hey we did. our thing. how does that get messaged and. it may be a loaded question do you buy. my overall premise there yeah i mean in.

general yes and and by and large and. since i've been on earth and raised in a. union family. democrats didn't always hit it out of. the park and they weren't as aligned i. think with. sort of this moment in time right now. you know historically this is a this is. a critical moment right and i think that. you are seeing politicians and starting. with this president say the word union. understand and explain to the electorate. what unions have meant to this country. and to the creation of the middle class.

that everybody loves to run on right. regardless of party. but there's even been an evolution in. heed the president joseph r biden i mean. it's not too long ago that you saw you. had the dlc wing of the democratic party. right you had a big free trading wing of. the democratic party i think we've. evolved right um to see. uh that some of those policy aims goals. you know. they didn't necessarily hit the mark and. workers weren't always at the center and. so there's a lot of rhetoric out there. right and we saw that even with the. prior occupant of the white house right.

there was a lot of appeal to talk about. we're going to build things in america. uh we're going to raise your wages we're. going to have infrastructure week every. damn week and never actually do anything. that's another conversation but. you know these are appealing things and. so. i on balance yes the democrats have been. there more aligned with working families. republicans have you know. mostly aligned themselves with business. but he you know with us in the building. trades is an interesting sort of angle. right all of our success is rooted in.

collective bargaining right but we. partner with our employers we partner. with our players on training on the. investment of workers we partner with. our employers on the safety and the job. place. and so. you know we're acutely aware of sort of. you know in a cost conscious. industry. um you know we want to make money for. the owner right um but we want to make. sure that as i referred to earlier we. want to make sure we're going home safe. and we're getting our share of the pie. and democrats by and large and certainly. in this last few years.

have really embraced that again you. can't sort of attack the state. and uh when you try to create safety. nets for families but at the same time. you're not allowing them to collectively. bargain right i mean in many ways that's. a private sector solution right to. income inequality letting these people. empower themselves and determine their. future so yes they can save they can. consume they can invest. and i don't see how you do that without. you know leaning forward on public. policy that supports collective. bargaining that supports people having a.

fair shake you talked about trump's. infrastructure week the never ending. chant it's infrastructure week it's. infrastructure week. and of course it never actually. happened. how is that. forgivable like how do. some workers you know sometimes i just. see the images and it could just be what. i see on the media what i see on tv but. when you have someone like that like a. trump just so brutally lie.

to people. and it's a vicious lie. because he's playing with your family's. life and your livelihood you know for. him it's a gimmick infrastructure we're. building this we're doing that. to millions of americans what that means. is. what type of dinner am i going to put on. my family's plate and so when he so. savagely lies to people like that. how do we message to people like.

what that is what that truly means and. have people not be distracted onto you. know the next scam or the next gimmick. well look i think there's some. perspective again from our from our. viewpoint right from the building trades. you know we worked hard um and endorsed. early secretary clinton um to be. president of the united states worked. hard for her election um. mr trump was elected we were. disappointed. um but we don't take forward four years. off right and that's where we're a.

little different than say maybe i don't. even want to suggest political parties. take four years off because they don't. but we have to get in there and we have. to do our duty to try to find wins again. for working people for our members. and so he engaged with him and we. thought and took kid at face value that. he would be. you know an infrastructure president. he'd even be pro-labor to an extent. right um. for whatever reason you know the powers. that be i guess when he got in there. they they decided to again their first. act was to try to repeal obamacare take. away health care. um they couldn't get that vote famously.

and then sort of panicked and then they. did the tax cut move right which sort of. starves you of anything going forward. and so his actual infrastructure bill. was very gimmicky there was no actual. federal expenditure in infrastructure. but it was all basically. some incentivizing for the private. sector to somehow come up with a. trillion dollars in investment right. and we just think the public should. invest in infrastructure right that's. always been our position so that was a. little bit of a tug pull you know more. on down the line you know again despite. the rhetoric he had just anti-union.

rapidly anti-union sort of. operators within the administration. whether it was the nlrb that is there to. protect people's right to organize or on. down and throughout agencies so the. rhetoric never really meant what was. going on underneath one thing we pride. ourselves in is our durable. apprenticeship training system i don't. think we would have survived 100 years. if we didn't you know professionalize. our ranks train them and skill them up. so then they can command a wage right um. they tried to undercut that and let. people short-circuit that.

because a lot of companies say hey i. don't want the federal government doing. anything but i want you to train my. workers right um we think that we should. born that out through collective. bargaining we think there's a. partnership there but there was a real. effort to undercut that right then of. course the infrastructure sort of lies. as you say i mean it was just dangling. that out it became comical and really. you know. sort of uh it's dispiriting to folks. even in washington who thought which is. a mouthful um who were probably the most. cynical bunch and thought this might. happen and it was just turning every.

week nothing nothing nothing and so. you know ultimately you know. we saw that as those are issues that we. then did communicate to our members. about right and we did move the needle. and particularly in some places i mean i. remember the promises made promises kept. banners everywhere we had four core. issues where. we were directly engaged right and we. were told one thing and then nothing. materialized right as i said the. anti-labor banks undermining the. apprenticeship system that has worked. for 100 years registered apprenticeship. system.

infrastructure never materialized and. then he told our leadership most notably. teamsters and others that he was going. to protect their pensions. none of that happened. and in the first calendar year. of president biden and vice president. harris's administration with democrats. control the house and a narrow majority. in the senate. they protected those pensions they've. invested in infrastructure they've. restaffed the nrb right they've. protected they got a rid of irap's which. was the assault on apprenticeship i mean. in one year.

that moved and that's what we. communicate to our folks about cloud out. all the noise. these things have tangible benefits to. your life to your family's lives. and this was done under this. administration despite all the banners. and the. rallies and the mastering of you know. language and sort of propaganda let's. look at the results and that's where we. find ourselves right is. is. communicating those facts and the truth. which is on our side to our members and. their tip of the spear on that and that. will grow and i think as the tangible.

benefits of some of these legislative. moves and executive actions start to. take hold you'll slowly move that needle. you will um but it takes time and i. unfortunately we're just in a very. polarized area where it's always zero. sum the infrastructure piece even when. we got it over the finish line here with. bipartisan you have 19 republican. senators there was a moment in time. where on the same day donald j trump and. bernie sanders were tweeting against. passage of that infrastructure bill. and again there is no there seems to be.

the incentive structure is all on the. polar opposites right there's no. incentive structure to work in the. middle at our conference you mentioned. the democrats we opened our conference. with senator lisa murkowski we need more. lisa murkowskis right somebody who. literally at that week was just doing. her jobs as senator not playing a. cartoon character like ted cruz you know. or josh hawley trying to make this some. sort of spectacle and make her out to be. a pedophile talking about issues of have. nothing to do with jurisprudence which. is what they preached to us you know in. the prior hearings so it's just hard to.

stomach all that and again. as my boss said in his keynote you know. we're not looking for cable news you. know to lead the way and tell the truth. we are on the front lines of. communicating these victories for. working people this is what we do right. and so and what we have done has helped. not only members of our unions and. people that are in the union movement or. in a labor union or have a union card it. helps all workers. and so. all those things and it's so refreshing. to have president biden say the things. he does when he does how he does and.

it's not just to union audiences. and again they're not just speeches. right they're not just for that five. o'clock news cycle. he's leaned in with his administration i. mean setting up a task force on worker. empowerment and organizing. you know nobody even thought about doing. that before like i said it's a little. thing but saying unions and explaining. to people how they've created the middle. class we know. that. somewhat almost 60 million americans. would prefer to be in a union if they. could. the deck is so stacked against them and. these employers manipulate the law and.

scare people into thinking that if they. ex exercise their federally protected. rights they will lose their job. right they will the plant will close. they'll move overseas. those are all illegal accidents you know. and they scare working people into. thinking they have no power they have no. voice and they're just gonna take. whatever given to them they're gonna. like it so. we're trying to flip that script it's. good to have partners in this. administration it's good to have. partners in congress. um and this is a moment where we think. we can not only help rebuild this.

country now that the investment that's. been laid out before us but with that. recruit and train the next generation of. craft professionals with an acute focus. on. communities of color women and veterans. so people that do not look like me will. have a career in the construction crafts. going forward so that's what we're. laser-like focused on and. we're looking forward to the work ahead. it's daunting. but we're in the arena. president biden famously in all of his. stump speeches he says something to be. effective i support unions unions built. the middle class you know it's about. time they start getting a piece of the.

action and you just mentioned some of. the things that president biden has done. to support unions already that have had. tangible benefits on people's lives. have you noticed in the past couple of. years since president biden has taken. office unions in general thriving more. around the country have you seen an. increased attack on unions in red states. throughout the country i'm just. wondering where right now i guess are. the biggest successes of unions. happening and where are the biggest. threats to unions occurring sure look.

unions are let's not forget unions are. people right you knows are not this. thing right so these people are coming. together everyday citizens are. questioning again. their value right and so they're. organizing on their own of course we. will help them find you know the path. forward understanding their their rights. under the law et cetera et cetera but. these are people that are coming to to. sort of reevaluate the whole deal right. the whole bargain so there's a lot of. growth south and in the areas i mean. obviously there was a big win with. amazon which is you know the president. addressed at our conference there is.

momentum there and there is stiff. opposition right we have when we still. face you know sort of reactionary. legislatures. and mostly red states. that see unions as just a pillar of or a. foundation of the democratic party and. they don't look beyond that right they. just see it as if i can somehow [ __ ]. these unions. um with that regard while also telling. people hey we want your raises to wage. you once you have good jobs once you. have health care we want you to have. retirement we're going to trash these. unions that work towards that end.

all to somewhat how somehow. theoretically starve for the financial. reasons or the democratic party so we're. caught in the middle of that right and. so. um you have these things like right to. work laws which are really insidious you. know they claim that all your money is. being thrown away to these big union. bosses right all it is saying is uh you. don't have to pay your dues right which. again is to starve that entity right but. what other organization i don't see a. lot of republicans i know sebastian. gorka wants you to pay for his vitamin. supplements he's not giving those to you.

free. right so i just think that it's about. power it always will be about power uh. but workers are sort of reflecting and. reevaluating the power that they do have. and we'll always face sort of that. well-heeled opposition in some of those. states but this is a real moment in time. where we see an increase in membership. and unions coming and we do need the pro. act or provisions thereof. um to help make sure that people know. that employers know it's not open season. anymore right you're going to have to. protect these people's rights uh you've. got to respect their rights to form and.

join unions as they wish so. those threats will always be there. and you brought it up so i got to ask. you about the amazon thing because this. actually happened at your event i. believe right president biden speaking. about amazon labor's first successful. union drive which was in staten island. and president biden leaned right on into. it and he delivered a warning line to. amazon which i think actually surprised. some people he said and by the way. amazon here we come to make sure the. choice to join a union belongs to. workers alone and by the way.

by the way. amazon here we come. watch. what did you make of that moment it was. really inspiring and and such a strong. statement right and and so impactful and. tone setting right and as i said. i don't know that workers have had. somebody like that in the oval office.

certainly not in my lifetime right. and. it's sending a strong signal that we. have your backs workers you're doing. whatever you are within your right to. seek this formation of a union. and we have your backs so. i know again well-heeled people that. have worked even in prior democratic. administrations that made some ink that. were complaining and crowing and you. know complaining to the chief of staff. that made it in there again that misses. the moment that incrementalism or that. sort of. you know corporatism if you will i hate. to say it that way. um has not.

uh benefited to the most people are not. redounded to the benefit of most people. right and we are dealing with still. major income inequality and so that was. a real proud moment and not to be lost. in that speech at nab two because that's. where all news happens. you know he dropped new sanctions on. putin and. you had if there were three thousand. people in that room. i'd venture to say at least 500 of them. were not veteran if not veterans. themselves a family member has veterans. these are patriotic men and women in. that room.

and it was very powerful right and i. think his opening line to that was you. know there's nobody i'd rather go to war. with than you guys this war could. continue for a long time but the united. states will continue to stand with. ukraine the ukrainian people in the. fight for freedom and i just want you to. know that and by the way. if i got to go to war i'm going with you. guys. it was electric it was electric for him. in there and i must say starting the. morning that morning was secretary labor.

marty walsh who comes from the building. traits mayor of boston innovator up. there right initiated a whole bunch of. pathway programs that we emulate now and. try to model into other states and. cities throughout the country. that place was absolutely electric when. that man took the stage right and again. that is a man who was a covering addict. is relatable on so many levels has made. it to the secretary of labor is a voice. for all working people and coming from. the building trades ranks i mean that is. a real moment of pride so. there were some real beautiful moments. in that speech.

um but the nod about amazon was as. strong as it gets and all credit to. president biden and when you look at. rooms like that like you said to me that. is america when you look at that that is. the backbone of america and another law. that you mentioned that you're fighting. for is the pro act which stands for the. protecting the right to organize act i. was wondering could you just tell our. listeners a little bit more about the. pro-act we brought this up on some past. episodes but where is it at i believe it. it passed the house what what are the.

next steps for this piece of legislation. what would it mean for workers it did. we're running into the same buzz saw. that a lot of other major pieces of. legislation are in that 60 vote. threshold in the senate but we do. believe some provisions can get through. whatever you know manifests itself in. this reconciliation sort of process we. think there would be some provisions. that could get through that you know. related to the tax code but it's very. generally and broadly the pro act again. is going to reaffirm the rights of. workers to form and join unions there. will be real penalties for employers. that are you know actively union busting.

the captive audience meetings there will. be processes and mechanisms to make sure. you get to a first contract because so. often but people vote to certify a union. and then they just drag it out. in you know just at at every whatever. length is necessary. you know and never get to a first. contract they have the resources so they. just sort of you know ride that out um. there will be a first contract there. will be if there are rights that are. infringed upon you'll be able to take. that up in federal court not appeals. court those are little things but are. impactful and uh trust me those that are.

hiring the lawyers the army of lawyers. to prevent people from seeking modest. wage increases know that very well. it also eliminates and has a as a. standard employee test for. misclassification because. all too often and everybody going back. to almost the first question about. relating to the billionaire class we now. have this sweeping the nation. everybody's an independent contractor. right everybody's on their own. everybody's their own boss they like. flexibility all that is is another shift. of responsibility costs to the actual.

individual and i don't know what's very. liberating about having 10 jobs right. when one career could probably do and so. um there is a strict sort of employee. employee employer test in there to. define whether or not you truly are an. independent contractor so those are some. of the provisions it would level the. playing field and get back to making. sure the national. labor relations act. is what it says it is does what it says. it does because that's been whittled. away over the last 70 years or so so. it's again it's a rebalance of power uh.

level setting i think for workers. uh in a real critical piece of. legislation if we want to create a. middle class again in this country and. just so i could stick at the bezels just. one more time before we move on here one. of my favorite lines and it's not my. line so i'm paraphrasing i'm probably. going to butcher it was basically hey. jeff bezos when you were in space your. workers they were unionizing and i love. that line so much just so much. i want to ask you about this though now. that we've been talking about the middle. class a little bit here so there's a gop. candidate in ohio i'm not going to say.

his name doesn't need that publicity. who said that the middle class is not. paying their fair share. what do you make of that. why is the geo why is the gop why the. republican party why why do they hate. the middle class yeah i didn't read that. or i read that i didn't see it i presume. his backdrop was a country club perhaps. i i don't know what his perspective or. life experience is to really claim that. right all the tax dodging and cheating. that goes on all the actual tax income.

that is collected from working americans. every day whether in service fees user. fees or direct income tax you know it. just doesn't add up right um. so i think that again that just shows. how out of touch they are they are. pandering to i guess a smaller section. of the electorate in their primary. voters there. but i don't even think that that. resonates with republican voters other. than a you know a small sliver so i i. don't know we don't relate to that kind. of stuff that it just shows you though. when unchallenged. some of those things become pervasive.

right and. i just find it very perplexing now the. same people that are. sort of in wartime mind you i grew up in. the era of freedom fries you know you're. either with us or against us and all of. a sudden you know fox is relentlessly. attacking our commander-in-chief right. relentlessly attacking this economy. relentlessly reminding people of. inflation yet not giving people the. tools to pay those bills right. relentlessly undermining success when. their whole metric for success was look. at the stock market you know today look.

what donald trump has done for you. and i where did where did that go right. and so it's all this selective stuff. that's really frustrating and again we. think we're on the front lines of trying. to break through with facts. and hopefully that guy doesn't actually. get on a ticket but if he does hopefully. he gets beaten like a drum. and really to that so. since the brothers they only really let. me get in like 100 200 words. an interview so i got to make the best. of this one here you're reaching your. quota right now just asking it on the. quote you do it on the court you're.

talking about the court jordan exactly. exactly what would you say to some. workers who voted for biden who were. upset about you know the state of. inflation and gas prices and things hey. you know maybe i'll take a shot with a. republican in the midterm what would you. say to those people look i think that's. natural i think workers are frustrated. people are frustrated right they're. looking for hope inspiration looking for. results solutions. that's natural right um. but so much of what is done and what.

affects people in their daily lives and. their communities is sort of out of the. reach of president biden right he has. set the tone he has laid out his. priorities he has worked with. legislative leaders to get some really. significant historic legislation passed. unless we forget republicans just for. sport have blocked that again i mean i. go back to the infrastructure bill. everybody says that was popular. everybody's running on it and. and sure [ __ ] these republicans when. that money starts flowing we'll be at. the ribbon cuttings taking credit for. that bill passing we know this right we. can expect that to happen we've seen it.

um and so there's a real i it's. difficult again we we we pride ourselves. on working across the aisle there's just. been a a decreasing number of folks who. will call balls and strikes. and and will deal on the level and so. i understand the need to sort of be. reactionary again to use a phrase and. sort of you know send displeasure or. signal of displeasure to washington. but i would just have to look at every. candidate no candidates to say not all. all these races are the same really kick.

the tires right because again that's. what we try to do we try to. when we organize for elections the first. thing almost all of our unions do. exclusively is a non-partisan voter. registration drive we want our people in. the process right. and then we will educate them and try to. inform them on issues that again we are. hired to represent them on we give them. that perspective the facts let them. decide right two-thirds of the time. they're likely going to go with our. endorsed candidate the other third they. may be voting on bathrooms or you know.

legos or m ms or whatever the hell right. you know that is what it is maybe. they're listening to their pastor who is. making millions off of them um but we. just try to bring some truth and. saliency to that and at the end of the. day we we we are comfortable with it. again that's what's so distressing about. sort of jan six and the undermining of. democracy. is that. we do our best i refer to it i mean we. we support the candidates we do we we. work like how to elect them if they. don't win. we get on with it man right and and so.

this is much bigger this experiment is. much bigger than one person in one. individual and i think that that party. the republicans unfortunately. have fallen to this cult of personality. and they don't call balls and strikes. like they used to anymore and and you're. seeing it with the war in ukraine and. putin. and and way too many high numbers these. are not just fringe cable news people. now these are people with elected office. right in the federal government that are. parroting putin lines. i i never thought i'd see the day from.

the gop quite frankly and so. you know i would just tell people to. have a discerning i mean emotional. reactions are natural but try to think. analytically on this and really see. who's on which side they're on right. study the issues. mike monroe chief of staff of the north. america's building trades union nab two. thank you so much for joining us on the. podcast thank you all very much look. this is why i love the midas touch. podcast not just because i get to do. with my brothers not just because we. have the greatest audience that's out. there but because we get to amplify.

messages that are being ignored. look. i wish. that i'm i love this midas mighty. audience that we have i just i wish we. could continue to grow we're going to. keep pushing and growing bigger and. bigger and bigger because we've got an. audience of hundreds of thousands of. people who listen to the podcast. millions of people on social media. hundreds of thousands which is great you. know great ratings i mean it's. comparable to some you know to actual. cable news but this is the message that.

needs to reach people every day. what workers want what unions are doing. for people how is health care how is. your health care being preserved. who is fighting for those issues. that's what needs to be discussed you. know going back to how do we deal with. economic disparity. these are issues that are just being. ignored. yeah for the flashy headlines or the. whatever of the media trying to you know. talk about this [ __ ] story or that. [ __ ] story or talk about you know. the laptop you know these are this is.

what american people care about and as. curators. of content in a responsible democracy. there has to be ethical moral. and patriotic standards that we have to. have to deliver content like the content. you all just heard on this podcast and i. should mention this all of the midas. touch merch is also union made jordan. you want to talk about midas merch being. union made. we made it a priority right away to make. sure that when we started to do our.

merch once we had the capabilities to. make sure that all of our items at the. store that's store.minustouch.com. are union made and manufactured and we. couldn't be more proud so that's your. stickers right here your vote blue over. q sticker you're it's not rigged you're. just a loser sticker over here your. t-shirts the wristbands everything in. our store we are so proud to partner. with such a great company to ensure that. all the products are union manufactured. made and delivered and we got such great.

stuff like jordy said i really really. love the midas gear and i love seeing. pictures of people in their midas gear. so if you're rocking your midas gear. please always feel free to tweet it at. us we will retweet you we will give you. a shout out it really makes our day and. go check it out store.midastouch.com. and i think i just want to end by. echoing something that mike monroe said. during that interview that really stuck. with me i believe it was when i asked. him about you know what do you say to. your workers basically who are. a little concerned for their futures.

right now who voted for president biden. and are deciding what they're going to. do in the upcoming midterms and he. basically says something to the effect. of i tell them to cut out all the noise. cut out all the noise that's going on. around you there's a lot of people. screaming there's a lot of theatrics. there are cable news pundits screaming. at you there are rallies there are all. this stuff to divert your attention the. republicans do crazy things every single. day but look at who's delivering all. right let's cut through the noise. look at who's delivering look what.

happened four years with republicans in. charge. look at how bad things were for the. american worker look at infrastructure. week a week that never happened. now look at the first year the first. year and a half of president biden look. at all the promises that were kept for. workers in president biden's one and a. half years compared to the promises. broken for workers by president trump. and. all republicans who immediately rushed. to give a tax cut to the billionaires to.

help them out. so i want that message to really be. instilled in you the listener of this. podcast. cut out the noise okay. let's figure out what's really important. here and what's really important here is. your day-to-day lives these kitchen. table issues our democracy your paycheck. your health care where you're going to. get that next meal from that is what is. truly important and that is what. democrats stand for that's why i am.

proudly a democrat it's not because like. ben said earlier because i love the. party or the brand it's because that i. view that the democrats are truly the. party of workers that are fighting for. those things while republicans are. fighting for the billionaire class so on. that note i just want to thank everybody. for another incredible episode of the. midas touch podcast such a pleasure to. be able to do this show week in week out. with my brothers and do it for the best. audience ever the midas mighty remember. to tell your friends about the show as.

you share the show with a friend guess. what the audience multiplies the message. gets out there even further check out. the midas store store.midastouch.com. check out fuckmasonbuckmason.com. midas and until next time this has been. another episode of the midas touch. podcast jordy shout out to the midas my. day.