Jon & Congress’s “Problem Solvers” on Tariffs & Trump | The Weekly Show

There's no way that there's only three. people in the Senate on the Republican. side that believe that the Senate should. retake the power of tariff. So, how do. we explain that to the American people? That's yours, Brian. YEAH. UM. SUOZZI TAPS OUT. HE TAPS OUT. HELLO, EVERYONE. Welcome once again to. the weekly show podcast. My name is. Jon Stewart. I will be hosting the.

program. today. It is I I think we might be even. taping a day earlier than normal. Yeah, it's Tuesday, May 6th. May the 6th. be with you. We've got a May 4th and then Cinco de. Mayo. May 6th really has got no game. It's got nothing going on, which is uh. which is truly a shame. Uh. the uh Premier of Canada, Mark Carney, visited the White House today and the. president once again said incredibly. rude and disrespectful things. uh about Canada, but I am still hung up,

quite frankly, on the interview that he. did with Kristen Welker on Meet the. Press uh where he. he continues to float this idea that. Americans just have too much. That in this new world order uh that he. is creating that it is important for. children to learn uh gratitude and. simplicity in terms of the amount of. dollars. I don't he he seems to be stuck. on 30 to 37 dollars as the the magic.

number of. what what spoils a child. I I'm not sure. there is a child that has received 30. dollars uh in a in the span of a year. uh uh unless they are. a Trump uh child, which is it gets us. really to the crux of how. [ __ ] wrong-headed his entire uh uh. approach uh may be because he sees. uh no value in moderation for himself.

There is no he is not leading through. the exemplar of a dignified and less. consumerist life. He as you can see, every time there is another press. conference within the Oval Office, another gold cherub gets its wings. Another gold cherub and another gold. leaf uh uh frame until there is no wall. space left in the Oval Office. [ __ ]. that.

[ __ ] you for telling uh the American. people, "Oh, you know what? So, your. kids have to go without." Why don't. billionaires, why doesn't he ever say, "Hey, you know what? Maybe you don't. need 350 billion dollars. Maybe you just. need 10 to 12 billion dollars. Maybe. maybe you don't need any of those uh. things. Why isn't his uh uh scolding of. excess in any way self-reflective. and and turned around to the people who.

have bought and sold this country to all. the interests. uh that are making it more difficult for. people to live. better lives. Why not uh say the same thing to the. prophets of the insurance companies. and to the banks and the. financialization? No, it's it's people. who are buying pencils for their. for their kids who've gotten out of. control. That's what's out of control. Those people.

Not him in his Saddam-like palace with. you know what? What if you had 10 golden. toilets instead of 20? Or the font on the giant uh uh Trump. sign was slightly smaller. God. It's. and Congress. just stands slack-jawed uh as it all. goes down. We're so upset about the. tariffs. We've got to do something about. the tariffs. Let's have a vote about it.

Yeah, I don't I don't know about that. Why don't we you know what? We'll let's. let's wait. Let's see what happens. Which is why actually uh so, we're going. to be talking a little bit about. Congress today. We've got a couple of. Congress people that are coming on the. show. We're going to talk about the. intricacies of it. The ins and outs. These are a couple of guys who are. working with something called the. Problem Solvers Caucus. It's right in the name there. They're. they caucus. to solve problems, generally about how. many dollars I'm sure people can buy. Uh.

but let's let's let's get to our guest. and learn a little bit about why is. Congress so passive and what are they. going to be doing about the chaos and. destruction that is being uh levied on. so many American families uh as we move. forward in this administration. uh from Caligula for God's sakes. Uh. let's get to them now. Uh ladies and gentlemen, very pleased. today we have two elected officials of. these United States of America,

Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick and. Congressman Tom Suozzi. Uh Brian. Fitzpatrick represents uh a lovely. district in Pennsylvania. Congressman. Tom Suozzi, areas of uh Nassau County. and and Queens, etc. Uh they are. co-chairs of the Problem Solvers Caucus, which is a congressional caucus that I. think we can only assume. solves problems. Gentlemen, welcome to the weekly show. I wanted to. start by asking you guys about. this.

con- to Congress con- Congress. Tell me. about this Congress. It's apparently. elected representatives. that have the power to enact. laws. They used to be before the. president took over and There are 435. members of the House of Representatives. There are 100 senators. Boom. Both of. them together make up the Congress. Uh-huh. The Senate is two senators from. each state. Mhm. 50 is 100. Mhm. And the 435 members. of Congress each represent about 750,000.

people. Very nice. Representative. Fitzpatrick, has it been difficult uh. the president of the United States, Donald Trump, he signed I don't know 150. executive orders. He has uh done all. these things. Uh is he bypassing. Congress? Do you guys feel like you have. as strong a voice? You both well uh uh. Representative Suozzi, you've only been. there for a little bit, but uh. Representative Fitzpatrick, as a. Republican, do you feel like you still. have a strong voice in this.

administration? For sure. Uh Tom and I. actually came in together. Uh we lost. him for a brief stint when he ran for. governor, but uh Tom and I came in. together the same year. I ran for governor of New York, got my. butt kicked, and then George Santos took. my place. Oh dear lord. they kicked him out, and then uh I came. back. And then Suozzi came back. Big upgrade. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, to answer. your question, I've never been a fan of. executive orders, and I think we're. seeing we're seeing them abused more and. more. Um where we're seeing presidents. come in and really testing of their.

Article 2 authority. they're they're. doing so in in expectation of getting. challenged by the judiciary um to rein. them in. Uh we've seen that with the. AUMF, the authorized use of military. force. Previously, we're seeing it now. with tariffs and and the like. Uh the. Alien Enemies Act uh with immigration. But, you know, as far as has Congress. lost its ability to oversee, no. I mean, the budget still has to go through us, right? I mean, we're going to be voting. on. uh multiple budgets. We're going to be. voting on appropriations. It's all got. to go through us. The only exception to.

that is executive orders. And many. executive orders a president sign do. exceed the boundaries of Article 2. authority. And that's when they get. smacked down by the courts. That's an. interesting point because we are seeing. you know, when you talk about the budget, well, well, let's let's start there with the. budget. So, uh this time you you guys. represent uh this Problem Solvers. Caucus, which is basically uh it is a. bipartisan caucus uh that gets together. and they try and make recommendations. and uh forgive me if I'm getting the. details wrong, but apparently you can't.

make a recommendation through the bi- uh. Problem Solvers Caucus unless 70% of the. members. uh agree to it. And it's a is it a 50/50. coalition? Uh 50% Democrats, 50%. Republicans. Is that the idea? It is. It is. If you want to join, you. have to find someone from the opposite. party to join with you. It's about 50 of. us. Yeah, we're we're about 25 and 25. right now. And yes, it's actually 75%. So, for the caucus to endorse a bill, 75% of the overall group and at least.

50% of the members of each party need to. say yes. Now, if 75% of the group says. yes, the 25% that do not, if it comes to. the floor, they still have to support it. because it's been endorsed by the group. If So, when you join this caucus, you. are making a pledge. Yes. that if the Problem Solvers Caucus. endorses this, then uh the entire group. has to endorse it. So, this is an. interesting point then. You're in budget. negotiations right now. I'm assuming.

that the reconciliation process is. what's going to get uh triggered and. that Democrats will not be involved in. the in the budget process. whatsoever. Is that an incorrect. assumption? That's a correct assumption. Right now, it's been very much my way or. the highway with the president and the. Republicans trying to cobble this thing. together on their own. uh without any reaching across the aisle. to the Democrats. If they don't succeed. in this or at some point when they're.

trying to get something else done, they. don't succeed, then we hope that uh. we'll be available as a group to work. together to try and find compromise on. things. But right now, you know, Democrats and Republicans have used the. reconciliation process when they're in. power. Uh the main reason they do the. reconciliation process is because it's a. uh a provision that doesn't require 60. votes in the Senate. requires 50 votes. in the Senate. He's suggesting it's it's. a way for them to avoid the filibuster. in the Senate that generally would. require some some bipartisan action. The.

now so for the problem solvers caucus, you're basically sidelined. in terms of of. budget. and that is for for the most part right. now in Congress the large majority of of. what you guys are doing. There hasn't. been I think the president signed what. five pieces of legislation this. it's it's a it's a small number. comparatively with his executive orders. would that be correct? Yeah, so keep in. mind the only thing that's accepted from. the 60 vote filibuster is.

reconciliation. So literally everything. else will require. bipartisanship because it can't garner. 60 votes in the Senate without it. And so that's what makes it so. difficult. Now my understanding is that. the Republicans are going to attempt. within reconciliation to maybe expand. the powers of that through. reconciliation. So they're also going to. deal with regulation and some other. elements that are a little bit more. controversial than just sort of your. standard fare.

These are the appropriations. Would that. would that also be correct? I think it's. important to note that in order for so. you've heard this term called the Byrd. rule. named after former Senator Byrd That's. right. that basically requires that for. anything to fall under the rules of. reconciliation which is a once a year. thing only under certain scenarios that. it's got to be budgetary in nature. So there's a lot of things they call. they get it it gets bird bath or birded. out. So I'm not sure what you're. referring to in terms of regulations. My.

understanding it was about the. executive's ability to. pass something that the Republicans. wanted which was a change in how. regulations can be struck down. Oh, you. may be talking about um. Yes, I think it's called the Reigns Act. That's correct. So basically what that what that idea. suggests is that any regulation that has. over a 100 million dollar impact on the. economy has to be revisited. So the. criticism is that the code of federal. regulations is a cumulative Bible. It.

gets added to every year but nothing. ever gets taken away. Right. And regulations that might have been. passed in the 50s or 60s that are no. longer germane or relevant are still in. the books. So it would force an. automatic sunset unless affirmatively. renewed by Congress. Now it's it it you. raise a good question John that it is. unclear whether that would even qualify. That's right. And and would that be the. parliamentarian who would decide if that. qualifies? parliamentarian. Senate Senate. parliamentarian. Because the Byrd rule. only applies to the Senate not to the.

house. Correct. I mean the bottom line. is is that it's very hard to change the. laws as part of reconciliation. It's. much more about the budget. So for. example, you know, there's a lot of. stuff that's debated about immigration. right now. Mhm. And one of the things. the problem solvers is working on we. have seven working groups. One of our. working groups the one of the ones that. has the most energy is behind. immigration. So that we can try and make. a bipartisan deal that will secure the. border for the long term that will fix. the broken asylum system and will.

modernize the legal immigration system. so that the dreamers and the farm. workers and the health care workers and. other people that are essential to the. United States of America and who've been. here for 10 or 20 or 30 years we can. figure out how to legalize them. Now is. that different than the Langford bill. that came out before the election that. there had been bipartisan support for. and and actually would have passed had. it not been uh I guess. the president wasn't the president then. intervened and said please don't pass.

this. Is this is this a substantially. different bill than that? It's I don't. want to say substantially different. A. lot of the elements from that are in. there but it's not that bill and it's. we're using a lot of different. bipartisan bills that have been worked. on over the years. like on the dreamers for example and on. the farm workers the farm workers. modernization act we're using those and. trying to cobble together something. that's been bipartisan for many years. but never got over the finish line. And. we're hoping that you know when the push. comes to shove and the administration.

needs some help to get something done. this will be one of the things that we. can make one of the first things we're. trying to push through. All right, we're. going to take a quick break. We shall be. right back. Hey. You like trees, right? Who doesn't like. trees? Trees are. they're lovely for God's sake and fast. growing trees is America's largest. online nursery. You can get thousands of. plants and trees grown on American soil. by American farmers. There have been 2 million. happy customers for these fast growing.

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weekly and obviously the offer is valid. for a limited time. and terms and conditions may apply. Let me ask you both cuz you're you know, you're in this situation where the. president has a vision of how government. should work and it's it's similar to I. guess how you would imagine he thinks. the Trump organization should work. It's. not a public company. and that he is the chairman and CEO of. America. And this idea of a kind of bipartisan is.

almost. the antithesis. of how he has governed. How does that. complicate what you would consider to be. the the primary driving force of this. problem solvers caucus. when he he doesn't seem to be receptive. in any way to that type of. bipartisanship or collaboration? Yeah, I don't share that vision. obviously. I'm the Democrat here. Brian's the Republican. I don't know that Brian shares that. vision even though he's a Republican.

I'm reasonably sure that Brian doesn't. share that vision either because it's. the vision of the United States. competition with three branches of. government that have equal power. And. you know, America's founded on the idea. all men are created equal. It's founded. on that we all have inalienable human. rights. to life, liberty, the pursuit of. happiness but it's also founded on you. can't trust each other which is why we. have these different branches to stop. any one branch from taking over cuz. they're always going to fight for their. own self-interest. What article of the. Constitution is can't trust each other. It's in there somewhere. It's article. one and two and that's how it works. It's how it's worked. It's got to be.

somewhere. Brian, you're you're in. you're caucusing with the Republicans. and let's let the audience know Brian's. record in Congress. I think you've been. voted the most bipartisan member of. Congress for. however long. You both are in districts. that voted for the candidate from the. opposite party. Representative Suozzi is in a district. that went for Trump even though he's a. Democrat. Representative Fitzpatrick is. in a district that went for Harris even. though he's a Republican. So so. you're really in.

the kind of that crucible. And and Representative Fitzpatrick I I. want to start with you because within. navigating that sort of freedom caucus. you know, really stringent purity. testing that goes on as far as the. Republican party and what Trump wants. How do you navigate. not necessarily being on the same page. about these issues like immigration or. tariffs or those kinds of things? Yeah, I don't I mean I think navigate John I. honest to God I mean every time I've run.

and I've I've been I've run five times. now. I was an FBI agent before I was in. Congress and I'd never run for anything. before. And I've been primary every every single. time I've run I've been primary by the. far right. Every single time. So I'm. used to that and You have kind of a. built up immunity then to the you know, they always challenge members to that. Because it's so they're so ridiculous. I. mean they're just ideological purists. And that's just not how life works. You. know, I I I ask them all the time. I. just marvel. I I'll find them on the.

house floor. and they're rattling sabers and they're. mocking you know, their their their. fellow American on the other side of the. aisle. And I just ask them is this how you. function at home, right? Could you. imagine if we took the attitude towards. our spouses or our partners. that if you don't if you don't agree. with me 100% of the time you're stupid. and a bad person. That's just. ridiculous. And yet you have a lot of. adults acting like children here that. conduct themselves that way. I'm a term. limits believer I I it's it's the first. bill I introduce every single Congress. and it's so important that this not be a.

career that this be a temporary public. service. And I think a lot of good. things flow from that because you're not. trying to stay here and become a. committee chair build up your little. political fiefdom or whatever you want. to call it it changes the way you. approach the job. And I'm a huge term. limits believer. I think the biggest. problem in Congress are the people that. have been here 20, 30, 40 years. Right. It's never meant to be that. I love that. recently Dick Durbin Senator from from. Illinois he announced he was not going. to be and he announced it as though it. was an unusual announcement. He's 80.

years old and he he announced you know, I'm not going to I'm not going to run. again. I think we should set an example. and I was like yeah at at 80 just just. when he was hitting his prime for the. Senate. I don't remember who it was Tom maybe. you can remind me but there there was a. celebration of of somebody recently who. broke the record for the longest serving. house Republican and they threw a party. for him and I'm like what what a. perverse incentive that is, right? We're. we're celebrating someone who's been. here for 55, 60 years. This that's an embarrassment, I think. Was it the guy from Alaska? Was it? Was.

it Was it Don Young? Yeah, Don Young. Don Young, yeah. Okay. Well, Clyburn, you know, they asked him and he said, "I'm never leaving. This is you know, this is my life." But I do think there. are perverse incentives. So, let let's. talk about that a little bit because are. there structural things within the House. or within the Senate that you guys as a. bipartisan uh coalition. would change that could cuz one of the. things that I felt I learned. from having lobbied Congress over these. years.

is. it's a surprisingly. insular. place. It really is perversely removed from the. wants and needs of the people they. represent. And the people that have the. access. really are. industry leaders, moneyed interests, and. those kinds of things. They hire people. who are who are professional people who. have full-time jobs, whose job is to. understand the intricacies of Congress,

not only the laws and the regulations, but the people and the politics as well. And that's their full-time job is to. work on trying to have influence on. particular pieces of legislation. Now, a. lot of lobbyists you know, bring a lot. of intellect and ability to the. conversations about the impacts of. different laws. But it also you know, why we have we not been able to fix a. lot of big things for so many years? Because. someone's benefiting from the status. quo. In every instance, somebody.

benefits from the status quo. So, if you. want to try and change the status quo. the people that benefit from the status. quo are going to use all of their effort. to do everything to make you look like a. jackass and beat you for trying to. change the way it is. So, like you know, Donald Trump when he first was elected. president in 2016 before he became. president said, "These pharmaceutical. drug companies, they're getting away. with murder these guys. You know, the. way they charge so much more in America. than they charge in other countries.". Mhm. And then when it came time to do a. law and negotiate uh prescription drug.

prices, and it was no longer a priority. for him. I think that that'll come back. soon because people want to start saving. money in Medicaid and Medicare and. negotiating drug prices using the. the purchasing power of the US. government, the largest drug purchaser. in the world uh through Medicare and. Medicaid, using our power to negotiate. prices will save us a lot of money. So, it's such common sense. We passed a bill. in the Biden administration where, you. know, we can negotiate the price of. drugs. 10 drugs. 10 drugs. I mean, we should be.

doing this with all with all the drugs. Yeah, it was it was insane. But that. gets us to the crux of the conversation, which is this. Is the dysfunction within the Congress. what leads to the opening for a more. populist leader like Trump. to bypass it through the executive. actions? In other words, is the failure. of. Congress. to understand how to effectively deliver. for the people that are outside the.

Beltway and not the lobbyists, is that. how the ground is seeded? And I'll ask. you, Representative Fitzpatrick for. someone to come in and go. "Screw all this. I'm going to bypass all. this complexity and deliver directly, even if it's. very much on the fringes of what may be. for the Constitution." People rightly. get so frustrated uh when they see. Congress function. John, I uh. I think so. Yeah, I. Right. John, an an illuminating example.

is when you uh came and joined uh me and. Tom and many others fighting for the. PACT Act and the 9/11 Heroes Fund and. Sure. you know, there are people dying. literally every week and Mitch McConnell. said, "Well, we'll get to it when we get. to it." kind of thing. And you threw up. your arms in a committee hearing. It's a. moment I'll never forget because it it. sort of illuminated to me you're. thinking like the average person out. there, right? Like, why can't they just. fix this? There's real people that are. losing their lives and you have this. disconnected person that's been in. Congress forever saying, "Oh, well, we'll put it on the docket and we got a.

you know, schedule for it.". regular order. He asked me He said to. me, uh "Why are you so upset about. this?" I know. I know. And I go, "Well, my friends are dying." So, that that. that makes it kind of an emotional. issue. But that moment really was so. illuminating to the disconnect that. exists between how the public thinks, which is what you were reflecting, and. sort of this inside the Beltway. completely disconnected uh mentality. But I will say this, there are certain. institutional impediments that prevent. so many things from happening. Number. one is the construct in the House right.

now, John, is if you get 218 votes on. the floor, you get everything. If you. get 217 votes, you get nothing. You get nothing. And yet. a 218 to 217 breakdown is reflective of. a very divided public, right? Who. probably want us to compromise. So, I am. a huge believer in a coalition. government. I don't like this all or. nothing zero-sum concept because it just. creates more division. I'm also a big. believer. uh in something that myself and my. Democrat colleague Jared Golden are. advancing to open up primaries to allow.

independents to vote. Primary used to be. a noun, now it's a verb. Now it's. something you do to somebody. Right. And I cannot tell you how many of my. colleagues go on the floor, we call them. the vote no, hope yes crowd where they. know voting for something is the right. thing to do for Democrats it's border. security, for Republicans it's Ukraine. Take your pick on on issues. And because they're worried about their. primary. they vote no on a bill that they know is. the right thing to do. Because in a lot. of these states, I believe over half if.

you dare to register independent, you. are told in one out of two elections. you're not welcome to vote in the. primary. So, envision this scenario. You. could be a 98-year-old World War II. veteran who stormed the beaches of. Normandy and saved civilization and you. register independent in a country that. was founded on independence and you go. to the polls and you're told in one out. of every two elections you're not. welcome here. Right. That is insane. And. and I think not only. is it well, pure and a justice but. allowing independents to vote in. primaries will allow more moderates to. emerge from the primaries and not these.

extremists. All these are creating. problems that Tom and I see. um that are jamming up the system. We. have 435 seats in Congress. Of the 435. seats in Congress, 380 of those seats. are safe seats. You can't lose because. they're gerrymandered, they're drawn. You pack all the Republicans in 190. seats over here. Well, you can't you. can't lose if it's uh gerrymandered to. your uh political party. But you could. be to to Brian's point, you could be. primary. lose a primary. That's the only way you.

could lose is a scandal or a. That's right. That's the threat is. you'll lose your job. And nobody votes in the primaries as. Brian just pointed out. Less than 15% of. the people vote in the primaries. Right. So, when you hear the crazy stuff. coming out of Republicans' voices or the. crazy stuff coming out of Democrats'. voices, they're usually pandering to. that small base of people that vote in. the primary because they don't have to. listen to the people the of the whole. population cuz they're going to win the. general election. They only have to. listen to this small group that can kick. them out in the one way they can lose,

which is in a primary. So, they pander. to those extremes instead of talking to. the people generally. One of the reasons. that Brian and I are the way we are is. cuz we're constitutionally made this. way, but also politically we have to. listen to both sides because we wouldn't. win otherwise. You know, there's this. sort of platitude of like, well, we've. got to collaborate, we've all got to. work together. But But the system is not. really incentivized for that in any way, shape, or form. But the second part of. it is the long view of it is if Congress. is not able.

to address its dysfunction, it will be. making itself irrelevant. You You You put yourself in a position. that it becomes this vestigial arm of a. government because. it opens the door for executive order. Especially through these executive. orders can oftentimes be incredibly. popular. Mhm. Well, they're popular, but. they're going to be proven, I think, in. most cases to be illegal. And when that. process runs through the courts in the.

next 11 years. Right. When the next in the next couple. of years. And you'll see a response from. the people for the things that are not. popular cuz some of the things that are. happening right now, as we've seen, are. not popular. People don't like to see. the prices going up. They don't like to. see the stock market going down. They. want a secure border and the border is. more secure than it was before. But they. don't like people being shipped away. without going through due process. They. don't like us treating our allies the. same as we treat our uh adversaries. So, these certain things are unpopular. So,

the Senate had an opportunity, just I. think it might have been last week or. the week before. to address that disconnect. Uh they had. an opportunity to retake for the. Congress the power of tariffs. And it ended up being a theatrical. display uh in the Senate. Three. Republicans, I think, voted to have that. done. But you knew it was theater. because it was just the right amount of. senators that would leave it to J.D. Vance to break the tie.

And and what does that do. to the lawmakers? And what are the. conversations like that we're not privy. to? Not the ones that happen on the news. where people say, "We know this is. theater. We know that probably Senator. Thune went, 'Okay, I've got three slots. I have three people that can vote. to retake the power of tariff from the. president without us actually having to. do it.' There's no way that there's only. three people in the Senate on the. Republican side that believe.

that the Senate should retake the power. of tariff. So, how do we explain that to the. American people? That's yours, Brian. Yeah, UM. SWALWELL TAPS OUT. HE TAPS OUT. Um John, there's a lot of people in. Congress, including in the Republican. conference, that um are very concerned. about the tariff situation. I think if. you if you took a poll amongst the. majority of the conference, the majority people that have not taken.

action yet are people that want to give. a limited runaway. uh for the president to do that which he. said he was going to do, which is to. recalibrate and have reciprocal tariffs. uh on countries. Uh tariffs in many ways. are remnant of World War II and our. effort to help Europe reconstruct after. World War II. Listen, we're we're all. hearing it back home. um about the impacts of of economic. policies that you know both you know.

hurt and help businesses. We heard it in. the last administration with inflation, we're hearing it now with tariffs. Um, and it's only a matter of time before. enough of my colleagues actually step up. and do something. So, I will tell you. this, myself Don Bacon have have pending. legislation that we were set to. introduce. Uh it's it's taken a you know. once the president put that 90-day. pause, we paused the introduction of it. Um, but we're prepared to go on it. because I sit on the Ways and Means. Committee. A tariff is a tax. Uh taxes go before our committee. Again,

as I said at the outset, I think this is. an example of the president testing the. boundaries of Article II authority. expecting to be challenged in the courts. to provide clarity about what they can. and can't do because they're going to. get away with as much as they can get. away with legally. There are Republicans. that are speaking up. You know, when I. choose as a Democrat as hard as it is. because I've got people in my ear saying. this is the end of the world, you got to. fight more. I've got other people. saying, you know, you got to crack some. eggs to make an omelet. But there are. Republicans that are speaking out. Brian. speaks out all the time about the. wrong-headedness of the approach to.

Ukraine of this administration. Right. there's a Freedom Caucus guy named Gary. Palmer from Alabama who says the. president can't get rid of the. Department of Education. Only the. Congress could do that. It has to go. through Congress. There's a guy from. Florida, Mario Diaz-Balart. He's a. chairman of a subcommittee on. appropriations says I the Congress has. the power of the purse. I zealously will. guard the power of the purse. What the. president is doing is inappropriate. So, there are Republicans that are speaking. Don Bacon that was just mentioned by. Brian earlier. Remember the problem. solvers. There are people speaking out,

but it's not easy in this environment. that is so toxic. It's not easy in the. environment where everybody's afraid. about losing a primary and all the. people that vote in the Republican. primaries are are really a lot of MAGA. people to go against the president. But. we got to keep on encouraging those. people that are doing the right thing to. speak out more forcefully. Well, even. more you know, when Senator Murkowski. says we're all afraid. And I don't think. she was talking about holding onto her. job. I think she was talking about she. is physically. uh afraid and if we lack the courage to.

do what's right. I think the frustration. as I watch it is. and and you rightly say there are people. that speak out. You know, uh Senator. uh Cassidy spoke out about his concerns. about RFK Jr. and HHS. Uh you know, you have Senator Willis. today spoke out about Ed Martin and not. uh you know, allowing him to become the. district attorney for DC and all those. different things. I think what's hard to. watch. on the outside is to see people speak. out on principle and then vote on.

convenience. Often. That I think that's been the toughest. part to watch is you see the theater of. it, but when it comes down to the. voting, there's a a real dearth of of courage. And I don't know, you know, Representative Suozzi, obviously as a. Democrat, you guys are in a different. position. You're the opposition. But. Representative Fitzpatrick, you. you're probably dealing with this behind. the scenes. Oh, yeah. Which is why I think I think.

open primaries and term limits would. solve 80% of the problem. I'm convinced. of it. But that would take congressional. action. And and what kind of a Congress. would ever willingly cede their own. power? I I just can't imagine it. So, how about this? If if we can't get. enough of our colleagues to do the right. thing and vote against their own. self-interests, how about we grandfather. in. the ones that are sitting and that way. at least organically over time we get. back to a citizen legislature. There's a number of ways we can do this. I like that. Listen, the the 22nd. Amendment. George Washington amongst many of his.

great qualities set the tradition for. term limits. All he wanted to do was go. back home to his farm in Mount Vernon. live under the laws he helped pass make. way for a new generation of leadership. They talked him into a second term. He. said no more. It's a tradition that. every president honored up until FDR who. obviously served four terms and died in. office at which point Congress passed. the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution. But true to form, the 22nd Amendment. they applied it to the executive they. didn't apply it to themselves. So, if we. can all agree that term limits make. sense for the executive, why pray tell.

wouldn't it make sense for the. legislature or the judiciary for that. matter? If we believe that we want new. blood coming in through the system, that. that's a an essential ingredient to. democracy, why wouldn't we support that. across the board? Sure. Or blood that isn't corrupted by. the incentives of the system which I'm. sure for you guys look Yep. you know, how much of your job is is fundraising? Is trying to. get money from all this? The idea that. corporations are people and money is. speech has polluted. I'll give you an example.

We we talked about the PACT Act earlier. I remember when we first came down to. discuss this Rosie Torres of Burn Pits. 360, some veterans groups, John Fiel. We met with it wasn't Problem. Solvers, it was For Country. The For. Country Caucus. There's got to be how. many caucuses are there in Congress? Quite a few, but not not too many that. are actually like real legitimate. caucuses. With Honor is great. Uh the. For Country Caucus, that's that's the. Problem Solvers version, but there are. people that served in the military. But. tons of caucuses. Mostly just resume.

padding. It's for the yearbook, the. congressional yearbook. of them are, yeah. Yeah. So, we met with. them, you know, Rosie had laid out a. very compelling case, the veterans that. were there. They were all incredibly. supportive. of uh doing something for these burn. pits. And as we were leaving, we got. pulled aside by two representatives and. they said, uh this is something that needs to you. know, get done. There's a lot of. veterans that are suffering. Could you. guys write it?

Could you guys write it? Now, we have the best interests of what these. groups are at heart, but what it said to. me was, "Oh, shit.". If if Congress is so busy that whoever. has a legitimate concern that comes in. is offered a seat at the writing table. Hey, if I'm a bank, if I'm an insurance. company, if I've hired a ton of lawyers. to do all that, it means that industry. and lobbyists.

are in charge really. of legislation. Well, it depends on the. issue, depends on the member of. Congress. So, you know, each member of. Congress have we have like you know, 15. people who work for us. Right. I've got half of them in my district. office. They deal with a lot of case. work. They deal with a lot of people. calling up who have a problem with like. Social Security or IRS or immigration or. something like that that we help to. resolve their issues. We have a press. person. We have a scheduler. Uh. we have people that mainly do case work. Down in Washington, I've got a press.

person and three people that work on. legislation. A lot of the the heavy. lifting on the big issues that you hear. about are done by committees. and not caucuses. Committees. Right. That are the formal. Yeah. Senate Veterans Affairs, House. Veterans Affairs, etc. etc. Ways and. Means, Appropriations. And they have. massive staffs. And those staffs are the. ones that often write the legislation. So, over the two people that went to you. and said, "Can you write this?" were. probably not on the committees of. jurisdiction that had the staff.

available to write the legislation. Well, I'll tell you the difference as to. why. Maybe you guys can address this is. what they realized is what we were. asking for. wasn't something that they would have. been negotiating against themselves if. they had gone to the Senate Veterans. Affairs Committee or the House one. The House Veterans Affairs Committee. Because they would have negotiated out. things that they thought were not. uh germane or doable. So, to get the. veterans what they needed, we actually.

needed independence. Because those. committees. are captured by the same interests that. you guys are talking about. It permeates. the entire building, does it not, Representative Fitzpatrick? No doubt, John. Um, I I mentioned before I was in. Congress I was an FBI agent. I ran I ran. the FBI's corruption unit here at. headquarters in DC. Mhm. And not only. was there a correlation, there was a. direct linear correlation between the. length of time in office and the. instances of corruption. Wow. What we found was that the most.

principled. well-intended backbone people that come. into the system, when that when all you. see all day every day is people. flaunting those lines, that becomes the. new normal. And then that becomes the. normal way to conduct oneself. So, you. are absolutely you are absolutely right. that the lobbyists are way way too. powerful. Pharmaceutical industry is. probably, you know, notoriously at the. top of that list, right? We have the. most absurd laws when it comes to drug. pricing, drug advertising drug.

advertising on television. I mean, it's. insane. It's nuts. There's only two. countries in the world that allow drug. advertising on TV, the US and New. Zealand. We're the only places in the. world that allow it. Everywhere else. it's it's prohibited. And and listen, insider trading. I mean, there's you. know, that goes on. all the time there. You just saw that. just recently when the tariffs got done. and then all of a sudden there was a. huge boon. for all that. I want to be careful though that I don't. want us to feed into this whole thing. that everybody sucks and everybody's. corrupt and the whole thing blows. Understood. Most of the people in.

Congress are trying to do the right. thing. Mhm. And I think that, you know, the problem that exists is a human. nature problem. When John F. Kennedy was. the president of the United States of. America, before he was president, he. wrote a book called Profiles in after. having 175 years of American history. There was only eight people in that. book. So, it's it's not that easy to. stand up to your own party or to the. structure and say, "I'm sick of this. [ __ ] and I want to change it." Right. And so, what you need is the people to. hold you accountable. The problem is the.

primary system where so few people. actually participate in the primaries, the only people holding you accountable. are often people on the fringes, the far. right or the far left. They're the ones. with all the energy and activity holding. people accountable. So, if you want to. get politicians to do the people's will, you need more people to participate in. these primary elections. Brian's idea of. open primaries is a great example of a.

way to do that. Mandatory voting, like. they have in Australia, would be a way. to do that. If everybody voted, I. guarantee our politics would completely. moderate because the people would do. most normal people want the things you. think about every day and you talk about. every day. They just don't They're so. busy with their jobs. They're busy with their jobs, they're. busy with their families, they don't. take the time to get involved. Most, you. know, the far left is like 8% of. America. The far right is about 8% of. America. Then you have traditional. conservatives, traditional progressives.

50 some odd percent of the people are. the politically disengaged and the. politically disenchanted. Ah, the whole. thing sucks, it's rigged, it's no good. I wonder though about you know, because. you know, we talk about that a lot that. it's oh, it's it's the extremes on one. side or the other, but social media has. polarized this country in a way that's. far deeper and far more about I think I. would have agreed with that maybe 15. years ago. I think now if you expand it out these. kinds of. uh rigid clinging to to dogma or.

ideological differences is much more. pervasive in our uh society than it. does. And I think our understanding of. government is much less. So, we have. this more reptilian reflexive. understanding of it. I And I'll I'll. give you example of how that works. And. and hopefully. uh this will resonate with you guys. So, for instance, DOGE, Department of Government Efficiency. Who. could be against that? You know, the idea that you can make.

government more efficient. But. unfortunately, in the practice of it or. the idea that there's a deep state. that's controlling your life and you. have no control over it. So, DOGE comes. in and they do that. I'll just lay this. out for there's a DROGA bill for the. 9/11 first responder community. There were. 93. people that worked in NIOSH. administering this bill. It was all done. to statute, it was all done really well. They cut 30% of those people. They just,

as they say, rift, which is RIF, which. is the the way that they retire. uh people uh and fire them now. Another. 16 of them. And what this has meant is and they say, "Oh, we're not we're just reorganizing.". But in the reorganization, there are now. people sick with. cancers that can't get certified to the. program and can't get treatment. This is. the chaos and confusion. of those that don't understand how these.

things run. are creating real damage down the line. for real people. Yes, so now people. can't sign up for the programs they have. available to them. And so. saying. So, the problem solvers, as. Brian and I talked about, the problem. solvers are going to work on helping to. re- reinstate those people. So, walk us through how you guys might. do that cuz that maybe that gives us a. better sense then of what this the idea. of problem solvers and and how you guys. can, you know, with with uh concerted. action can make that difference. How How.

would you guys go about that? So, the. program you were talking about is called. NIOSH, right? National Institute for. Occupational Safety and Health. Yeah. And they fired the guy who's the the. doctor that oversaw the whole thing. named Howard a while ago. That's right. And a guy named Andrew Garbarino on Long. Island and some others. And we also. supported. He's a Republican. He said, "Hey, you. you can't fire this guy. It doesn't make. any sense." And they reinstated the guy. and said, "Oh, we're going to give him a. from now till June 2nd. We'll make. another decision on June 2nd." So, everybody's like, "Okay, you know, the.

Republicans and Democrats and from the. New Yorkers especially are standing up. and they're not going to do this again. Right. Well, now they just did it again like. literally a couple days ago and they. fired these 16 more people again. And then said they didn't. And you know, when everything's said and done, this. whole thing's been very reckless. Yeah. They said they said we're going to cut. $2 trillion. Then they said we're going. to cut $1 trillion. Now they're down to. $150 trillion and it's going to end up. costing them $150 trillion in lawsuits. and rehiring people and Billion, yeah. Yeah. Loss of productivity. But but.

forget about that. So, it's reckless. Right. So, I think that what we can do is Brian. and I can get our colleagues, Democrats. and Republicans, this is a kind of a. no-brainer. I think Brian would agree. with me. Brian, you agree, right? I do. We would team up together, we'd. get our 50 members to come out and say, you know, you got to bring these people. back and bring some heft to hold the. administration account. Now, the. president's going to say, "I didn't mean to fire these guys. They. shouldn't have fired these guys. We've. got to. I'm sure he's saying that. I didn't know. that happened.".

But unless we can bring There's so much. going on out here, flood the zone, that. it's hard to bring attention to. individual issues. So, by getting the 50. of us to work together to bring. attention to this, I think that we can. help to reinstate these people. Hey John, way back in 1993, there was. this Bill Clinton, as soon as he got. elected, he started created what they. called the reinventing government. initiative. Put Gore in charge of it. And they I believe downsized the federal. workforce by 280,000. And they did it in a normal humane.

manner. And the way if you want to make. government more efficient, a good. starting point is to go to the agency. head and say, "Hey, can you find 10, 12%. of your budget that you can trim in a. responsible manner?" What we're seeing. now is the Silicon Valley approach where. you walk into the library, you dump all. the books off of the bookshelf onto the. floor, and you pick each book back up. one at a time that you think is. relevant. It does not work. I'm a huge. advocate of PEPFAR, of of combating. HIV/AIDS.

in Africa. Right. You talking about the programs. that we had USAID, some of those. programs that had like HIV support for. people. Bush started. Right. Right. Yeah, George. Bush and Bono, this was their This is. one of their legacy items. But we're hollowing out uh I I think the. downstream effects of this. guys is that we are hollowing out any of. the government's ability. to to exercise these kinds of programs. They're very complicated. The statutes. are written that way. And it's going to be hard to claw them.

back in any in any real way. And the. brain drain, too. I mean, the people. that we're losing in Africa, you can't. replace that kind of knowledge. These. are These are lifelong missionaries that. have spent their life doing this. Moreover, John, once you take these. kids, some adults, but mostly kids off. these antivirals, the virus comes racing. back. Often times if you reapply the the. antiviral doesn't work as well. And we. we have basically really contained. HIV/AIDS. We could easily find ourselves. back in 1980s footing again if we're not.

if we're not careful about it. Then you end up with hunger and you end. up with AIDS and you end up with other. problems and these destitute Look, they. cut money from food banks for God's. sake. the terrorists come in and use that as a. vehicle to come in and provide. assistance to people in their desperate. condition and then they get a foothold. in it. This the symbol of Elon Musk with. a. a chainsaw, which they thought was so. positive he thought was so positive at. the time, is really a symbol what they. did. They came in with a chainsaw to cut. stuff with which required a scalpel. This gets back to our original.

premise though, which is how is Congress. going to re- We are all talking about. devastating consequences of reckless. behavior of people not understanding. uh and not as a bug, but as a feature of. what they're trying to do. How does Congress. regain some semblance of control. so that these this hollowing out of. American exceptionalism,

the brain drain. Look, you may not like. Harvard, but the best minds and the best. research is part of what comes out of. those funding grants. If we are to turn. our back on all that, I don't understand. how that makes us great or how Congress. can keep saying, "Hold on, guys. Let's. just give it give it another 5 minutes, give it another 10.". At what point. do we reach a tipping point? So, it's.

going to start on next month with the. appropriations process Mhm. where there. are 12 different appropriations bills. that have an open amendment process. where Democrats, Republicans, anyone can. offer any amendment they'd like. And we. are going to have to write these. appropriations in a much more specific. way that limit executive branch. discretion. What we are experiencing. now, all that is with prior year. appropriations. We've never had a. situation, John, where the executive. branch is sending money back to the. legislative branch saying we don't need. it. Normally, these agencies are. spending every last dime they have even.

if they don't need to to sit to advocate. for more money in the following budget. year. So, this is unprecedented. We've. never really had this situation before. So, we're really going to have to button. up the appropriations process this. coming next month to write it in a way. that really curtails. these kinds of things. Yes. Yes. So, when everything's said and. done, uh this is not popular for me to say. amongst my own party, it's not popular. for me to say with my family even, is I. I think it's going to work out. I think.

that that I think that the American. people responding and saying they are. dissatisfied with the way things are. going is going to be reflected in every. district throughout the country where. the politicians are going to have to. respond to their people. They're going. to be more afraid of the people than. they are of Donald Trump like picking. them out. So. I think there are enough people of. goodwill and I think there are enough Oh. dear God. Do you Do you realize what this is? This. is what we talked about profiles in.

courage. It's profiles in fear. So now. you're basic The basic premises. hopefully everything goes such to [ __ ]. Oh and I think it has already. That Congress will be more afraid of the. voters than they will of Trump. the way democracy is supposed to work. Right. That's the check and balance. The government is supposed to be afraid. of the people. It's not the people. supposed to be afraid of the government. Right. And I think Or working in collaboration. with them to just not be afraid of them, but to just listen to them and and. execute. And the irony of all of this is. Trump administration is spending. billions more in their first 100 days.

than the first 100 days from last year. Right. They're actually spending uh. more. Wait, and and the tax cuts that are. coming Yeah, that's a whole lot of money. is going to cause a massive bigger. deficit than we've ever had. Bigger than. anything else. Than anybody's ever seen. before. Not based on spending. So let's just talk about what within. Problem Solvers. Give me a couple of. successes that you guys have had that. you feel really positive about and that. you feel like you can you can build on. as.

kind of a you know a first couple of. steps to starting to get this done. And. what have you seen from your group. in this new world we're in? Yeah, I'd. say the most recent one would be the. bipartisan infrastructure bill. Um. Joe Biden ironically touted that as his. greatest legislative success of his. presidency. And that was the bill John. that that passed that got across the. finish line because there there were. enough Republicans that overcame the the. bleed of the Democrats and the squad who. voted against it. So the Democrats and.

the squad voted no. There were three and. 12 of my colleagues that voted yes to. get it across finish line. A major major. investment in our in our US. infrastructure. That was exhibit A of. how our group can be effective. What do. What are we What are we keying in on. now? Immigration. The biggest failure of. our country is our failure to get our. immigration system right. We have the. ability to bring the best and brightest. people from all over the world that want. to come here. And it's the biggest. advantage we have in this country. Nobody wants to move to our adversary's. countries. Nobody's looking to move to.

China or Iran or or North Korea uh or. Russia. Everybody wants to come here. That's a huge demographic and and. economic security advantage we have. And. we can secure the border. Tom and I want. to work together on that. Permitting. reform. Uh we got to streamline this. absurd permitting process to yield the. benefits of of our lot of our local uh. natural energy. And then lastly is debt. and deficit. It is not hard to figure. out how to solve this. We just don't. have enough people with the courage to. do what it takes to put everything on.

the table just like we do in our family. budgets. You look at revenues, you look. at expenses, you figure out where you. can button up expenses, where you can. raise more revenue, and solve this debt. crisis. Although a country isn't you know that's. if if my family had a mint they would. they would make money. Or if my family. could sell debt to you know Japan they'd. probably do that. But we still got to pay these bills back. at some point. It is different. You're. right. There's a tremendous amount of energy. around doing something on immigration. I. mean it's just like everybody knows this. has to be done. Would the first step of.

that be. to decide what is the level of. immigration a country can safely and. appropriately absorb? What I never hear. in the immigration is to the positive. which is what do What does it add. economically? What is the amount of people that can be. absorbed? Right now half the farm workers in. America are probably undocumented. So is that the first step rather than. sort of viewing it as this blob we start. to really tease out what this all is?

If you want to get the Republicans to. help and and some Democrats, the first. step is really we have to really secure. the border for real. So now the. president has done a lot of that, but. that stuff's all temporary based upon. executive order. We have to have. congressional action Right. to secure the border for the long term. The asylum system has to be fixed. The. asylum system is the main In In 1980 we. loved asylum. When somebody Remember. when Robin Williams did the movie Moscow. on the Hudson and everybody's like I. defect. Yes, we win. WE'RE THE GOOD. GUYS. Reagan had the greatest immigrant.

amnesty program passed and that was all. in the 80s. So so we loved We loved asylum, but the. cart We have to stop the Democrats and. Republicans from fighting each other and. we have to pick our common enemy. Our. common enemy are the cartels and the. organized crime and the coyotes that get. paid $10,000 a person to bring people to. the southern border and tell them what. to say to try and game the system. So. that even though 85% of the people who. claim asylum ultimately get denied, it. takes six or eight years for those cases. to be adjudicated cuz so it's back so.

backed up. Representative Fitzpatrick, is there you. see energy on your side for this as. well? Or is it too. politically difficult to find themselves. in sort of agreement with the Democrats. on this? Is it Is it too hot right now. for the two sides to even uh begin to. come together on it? I think it's only. too hot when border security is not part. of the conversation. I think as long as. border security is part of the. conversation. Although it was with the Langford bill. That was I mean to be fair. Yeah, listen, I supported the Langford. bill. I put a statement out. I wanted it.

to come to the house. I would have voted. for it happily. Right. But I I think that you know to to. Tom's point if we can if we can start. focusing when you have groups like the. Chamber of Commerce, right? Typically a. right-leaning group that are all in for. the Dream Act. I voted for the Dream. Act. Are viewing immigration as a. positive as long as it's coupled with. law and order border security, we should. view that as an economic driver in this. country. All of our adversaries, John, Russia, North Korea, um China have massive demographic. problems. They have a low birth rate.

They have aging populations and nobody. wants to move there. That's the biggest. threat they have to their economy is. demographics. We have an endless labor. supply in this country. It's the biggest. economic benefit we have. And if we can. get this right, uh Tom and I are very. eager to work on this together. So you. have a unique situation. I'm a Democrat. I'm supporting strong border security. Brian is a Republican. He's supporting. legalizing the Dreamers and the farm. workers and trying to bring people into. the country Yeah. uh uh to to support our economy. It's as though it's two people who are. trying to make sense. It's We're trying.

to solve problems. It's It's like. what the heck? No, here's what we need to do. Make. Congress great again. I know it's not. the greatest acronym but. Exceptional. We want it to be. exceptional. Exceptional again. Whatever it is. Gentlemen, I very much appreciate the. conversation. It's really helpful to get. you know a realistic inside view of. what's going on cuz I think people are. just so incredibly dispirited right now. and frustrated by uh this runaway train. So I really appreciate you guys being. here. Representative Tom Suozzi, Representative Brian Fitzpatrick, the.

Problem Solvers Caucus, a bipartisan. group in Congress trying to. get a few things done before Elon moves. us all to the Mars or wherever the hell. we're all going. Uh thanks so much for joining, guys. Thanks, man. Thanks, yes. Those guys were were I have to say. little bit more They they tried to go. down platitude road. But I thought they they brought it down. to a a slightly more honest assessment.

of like, hey. we lack we lack courage. I love the idea. that he was like, I wish we were less. afraid of Trump and more afraid of. voters. I think that would be the But it. is all fear-based. It was Yeah. Shout. out to term limits. Let's go. What what? I loved that detail about the primaries. as well. Great points. Yeah. I just. don't know how realistic. Yeah. No, of. course. But it's like you hear. politicians and they're like there's two. options. I can either be reasonable and. do nothing or be primary by an ideologue.

to my right. And it's like what if. there's this secret third thing? Mhm. What if you were reasonable and did. something? Yeah. Mhm. Interesting. Something that really interested me that. we didn't really get into necessarily. was learning how many caucuses exist in. Congress. Yeah. And uh I'll give you a few just to give. an example, but. Of the other caucuses? Yeah. Yeah, like.

I don't know if this was the 118th. Congress or the last Congress, but. there's like pickleball caucus. And. there's the cranberry caucus. And. Cranberry caucus? Somebody has to look. out for their interests. Yeah, hobbies. Wait Wait. I could see the cranberry. caucus being like a very small. subsection of New Jersey cuz I think we. have cranberry bogs. cranberry bogs. Right. How is that its. own We get together and just talk. cranberries? I mean both of our guests. today were on the quiet skies caucus and. it makes sense cuz they both have.

districts with airports nearby. So you. know how it goes. But something else you. brought up that I thought was really. interesting was that of course you spend. a third of your time let's say. fundraising as a Congressperson. Easily. But Representative Fitzpatrick is in. dozens of caucuses. Uh Suozzi is in two. dozen. If a few of those meet weekly or. a few of those have I'm sure. Like how. do you have time for anything? No. Cranberry caucus is all email. They. just Hey, what if What if we put. cranberries in apple juice? What would. that be like? Let's not also forget that.

Suozzi opened the door for. bipartisanship by allowing George Santos. into Congress. True. That is crazy. So I guess Suozzi was the. representative, went off to run for. governor. Santos got the seat. And he flamed out. That was so fast. though. Sad. RIP. Imagine how big a liar. you have to be for Congress to go, you. got to get the [ __ ] out of here. They're. like it's a little much. Yeah. Look,

we lie like crazy, but you. you got to get That's just too much. Yeah. What do we got for what. Britney what do we what do we dealing. with questions today we got anybody? Oh, yeah. All right, what do we got what do. we got? Um now that we're a hundred days. plus out into the Trump administration. is America great again or do you think. he just needs a couple more days? It's. an excellent question. I I think the. tipping point is around 111 to 114. Almost there. We're so we're on the the.

precipice of greatness like nobody's. ever seen before. Like nobody My. favorite part about cuz as far as he's. concerned we were great the day he won. We sucked. We were a catastrophe. Uh I don't know if you saw the Welker. interview that he did, but she was. saying, you know, hey, these are some. things in the economy we've lost. trillions of dollars in wealth. There's. a lot of uncertainty. There's some. headwinds that are going on here. Some. people are saying there's going to be a. a recession.

Uh. you know, what do you When is it the. Trump economy? And he goes, well, I. honestly believe the good parts of the. economy are me and the bad parts are. Biden. And I just thought, well, what a. simple way to go through life. Just. Does he Do you think he does that with. his kids? You know, I I I look at. the good the kids and I think, well, yeah, the good part is me and the bad. part is. whichever of their moms. It's so simple and he doesn't have to be. specific. He's just like the good thing. however you broadly define that is me. I. love his thing like we trillions of.

dollars in investment like you've never. seen before and you go, we haven't seen. it yet cuz the last time he said the. same [ __ ] thing and none of it. happened. Yeah, and we have seen. trillions of dollars in investment and. then we're cutting that. Fresh fresh nonsense. Britney, how do. they get in touch with us? How do they. continue to send in such specific. questions about what day will be great. again? Uh Twitter we are Weekly Show Pod. Instagram Threads TikTok Blue Sky we are. Weekly Show Podcast and you can like.

subscribe and comment on our YouTube. channel The Weekly Show with Jon. Stewart. Uh thank you guys very much. We. had another fine fine program. You guys. your your your preparation and attention. to detail is second to none. Uh I truly appreciate it. Lead producer. Lauren Walker producer Brittany. Memedovic video editor and engineer Rob. Vittola audio editor and engineer Nicole. Boys researcher and associate producer. Jillian Spreiregen are executive. producers Chris McShane Katie Gray. Next. week we'll see you again Weekly Show. Podcast. See you next time. Bye-bye.

The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart is a. Comedy Central Podcast. It's produced by. Paramount Audio and Busboy Productions.