Money in Politics and Corporate Influence

There's a new book that I think is particularly timely. It's called Control: Why Big Giving Falls Short. Author Glenn Galitch offers a rare insider view exposing why billionaires and millionaire donors move so slowly while communities battle urgent crises. In Control, why big giving falls short, Galitch reveals how our philanthropic system and culture encourage excessive donor control and keep over two trillion from reaching communities. By prioritizing wealthy donor interests, power, and control, this system doesn't simply slow social progress , it structurally prevents it. This is a really interesting deep dive into the world of big philanthropy, which I think we think is a sort of unadulterated good, but actually these billionaire donors, they have their own motives, uh they have their own reasons for doing things. They can distort the way philanthropic giving works. They can distort public policy. Uh, they can control the capital allocation and decision making. So it's really interesting and worth better understanding how this kind of extreme wealth helps shape our society. And then also how we can fix it. It's a great book to read. Order your copy of Control: Why Big Giving Falls Short by Glenn Gallage from your favorite indie bookstore. That's Control, Why Big Giving Falls Short, out now . If a cyber attack hit this week, would you cope or scramble? Cohesity surveyed over 3,000 IT and security leaders. 76% have suffered a major attack, and a quarter have been hit more than once. Yet only 6% can call themselves truly resilient. Want the playbook the top 6% are using? Visit Cohesity.com slash res ilience. Cohesity resilience everywhere . Hey everybody, welcome to Pod Save America. I'm John Lovett. I just wrapped a conversation with Senator Corey Booker. We talked for about an hour. They only gave us 30, but I I I pushed it longer because we were actually getting into some really interesting stuff. We talked about the war in Iran. We talked about APAC and support for Israel. We also uh spent a lot of time on his tax proposal, his big idea to raise the standard deduction to $75,000 , which would provide a lot of tax relief for middle class families, but would also mean most Americans don't pay income tax and what it means to have a Democratic Party that is advocating against taxes for the middle class while Republicans are advocating against taxes for the wealthy, and uh what it says about our politics. I really liked this conversation with Corey Booker. I'm really glad he gave us the time, and uh I think you'll like it too. Uh so uh take a listen. Senator Cory Booker, welcome back to the pod. It's really great to be back on. So uh before we started, we were just talking about this. You recently got married. I'm getting married in a couple of months. You have an age gap. Any challenges in marrying someone younger than you? Um well younger and cooler than me. Yes, much much so. Um no, I I think you know every un marriage is unique, every relationship is unique, but from the second I met her, she I I always tell say that it was sort of like the Wizard of Oz, my life was in black and white, I didn't realize it. And then suddenly it just got to be technicolor. Mm-hmm. But any uh any like references uh oh we doesn't have a room. We could pull her. Is there any references he doesn't get to you? Yeah. Yeah? I think it's music. Music. Oh, I remember on at our wedding there was a song that and now I'm gonna embarrass myself because you're gonna ask what the song is, but everybody rushed to the dance floor and started dancing. Yeah I I just hadn't I just didn't know the song and it was just a weird weird play Camptown racist. Um Something more something I something I can really jig to. Yes. I I I I do get jiggy with it, but that's a different that's a different uh generation too. Um yeah, I think my corny dad jokes, but uh yeah, that's a universal problem in my life. Uh my my staff allows me one one dad joke a day. Yeah. I feel like you were old when you were young. I I have been told that I am an older soul. Like I was a boring friend. I don't drink, you know, I was always like the designated driver and yeah. Um so I think I was always the adult in the room. Yeah. Interesting. Interesting. I wonder if that'll change. I wonder if it'll have a like a an immature phase where you're sort of unmanageable at some point. I think that maybe towards the very end. Who who who knows? We we see this with uh Republican senators when they get ready to retire, all of a sudden they become uh constructively cantankerous. I will tell you though, uh, I'm psyched to hear this this news because it really is uh what life's greatest blessing and the most important choice I think you make in your life in terms of your own happiness and joy. And I think that you are going to find a deeper and richer life uh as as as as a married man. I hope I hope so. I think that's true. So we are recording this on Thursday afternoon shortly after uh Fox reported and Trump confirmed that Pam Bondi Speaking of uh of uh relationships that didn't work out, uh replacing her with deputy A.G. Todd Blanche in the interim. What is your reaction to the news? I mean this is an agency you know they renamed the Department of uh uh defense to Department of War. They should rename this to the Department of Injustice. It is um it is an agency that is doing such destructive things to our well-being and our safety. What I mean by that is they're trashing the Constitution, investigating the Fed chair, investigating uh uh uh senators and Congress people, they're approving mergers, what they should use to give a lot more uh substantive analysis. Now they're letting this corporate mass corporate concentration. They've moved out FBI agents who are focused on our national security, our voting uh security and more to do immigration enforcement. It's just an agency that has been doing really horrific things. And so who's at the head of it? Uh the question is is are we ever going to see Donald Trump put somebody in place that understands that that's not his personal group of lawyers to pursue his vendettas and agendas and instead to actually pursue justice. And I don't think we'll get that ever out of this president. Trevor Burrus It creates a tension. I know you're on the judiciary committee, so this will become before your committee in that having someone as incompetent as, say, Christy Noam in charge of that agency reveals something about the policies, right? And if what Trump wants is a more competent, less in-your-fa ce, uh uh bombastic and um kind of uh ridiculous figure as Pam Bandy, doesn't that almost help him achieve his ends of politicizing the department ? I I I'm not sure who knows who's gonna be up front us. I I just for me, this this is one of the darker, more dangerous corners of the Trump administration that often doesn't get the kind of attention it should. I know people who have been careerists that have left that office when they start saying we're going to not investigate um the kind of uh anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic, anti-uh attacks on minority. No, we're gonna investigate uh attacks on Christianity and attacks on Christians. We're gonna uh investigate uh uh bigotry against white people, um the the kind of things that they're doing from that de partment that undermine um the a lot of the urgencies we have, including foreign entities trying to undermine our local elections, it's just a very, very dangerous thing and the characteristics of who's there, as long as long as they're submitting to Donald Trump's will and direction, we have a very cancerous problem that is going to affect Americans more than they realize. Do any of your Republican colleagues share any of these concerns? Is this confirmation process going to be any kind of opportunity for uh uh a look at the ways in which the the department has behaved in this way? I was pleasantly surprised to see like Tom Tellis, for example, go after Christy Nohm telling the truth. Um, I just don't know if that's going to be the case for whomever he puts up. I just don't know the name yet. Um, there has been seemed to be little appetite for checking and balancing and providing accountability and oversight to Department of Justice. Remember, this is not just Pambodney's realm, it's also Cash Pat el. Um there are a number of people serving in agencies underneath uh uh uh the attorney general that are doing really, really bad things. The pardon attorney, for example, is is there and here's a president that has been just wholesale pardoning people who pay him or pay his friends, uh, and then turn around, as we've seen in some cases with some of the biggest fraudsters, and then invest in his companies or help him advance his crypto schemes. So this is and they've getting gotten rid of all the safeguards, uh inspector generals and the like. So I again this is a a changing around the de the desk chairs on a on a on a a ship that is sinking, hopefully. Um, but I do not expect any kind of real change uh as long as people are going to continue to give up their patriotism for their personal loyalty to Donald Trump. So last night Trump addressed the country on Iran . There were a lot of varying stories of what he was going to use the time to do. He ended up not doing very much at all to reiterate the policy which is the war What was your reaction to this speech and uh what do you view as sort of your job in the Senate to try to uh check what Trump is doing. Aaron Powell More than a month into the biggest military buildup uh since the war in Afghanistan, this unilaterally declared war by Donald Trump, and now he's coming to the American people. The first time he has actually made statements, now he's made tons of statements, but he's contradicted himself multiple times about why we got in there. And he's changed the story multiple times from unconditional surrender , all the things he wanted as an off-ramp, he continues to change them. Now he's in crisis. Uh he's broken what Colin Powell would say, the pottery barn rule. If you break it, uh you buy it or you fix it. So but yet now he's saying the even the straight of her moose, which I uh was the uh but for clause, but for him doing this, we would not be in a the worst global oil shock ever. Um he's making pronouncements last night that he's just gonna walk a.way Yeah, yeah, exactly. England. And and so you add to that the cost to American people , American lives lost. Hundreds and hundreds of people , uh, soldiers uh injured, tens of billions of dollars. And then he has the flagrant um morally bankrupt statement of saying, oh , we can't afford Medicare and Medicaid. The state should this is his speech last night. That I'm I'm spending tens of billions of dollars, but I c we can't afford uh affordable childcare in America, which other competitive nations have realized we have a national urgency to provide the best for our children, to provide health care for our people. He's saying we can't afford that, the man that cut a trillion dollars out of Medicaid, and yet he comes up with uh our resources, our treasure uh to go to this war. So what I get very upset about in the Senate is number one, all of his enablers who know this is wrong, who would have never allowed any president to go this far into a war without having an open hearing. Remember, this is a Congress is that is utterly practicing some advanced form of yoga where they're bending over backwards to supplicate themselves and do Donald Trump's will. They do not want open hearings. They do not want to check and balance him, ask questions, no accountability, no oversight. And those enablers, to me, and this is enablers in the Justice Department, enablers uh in Congress, uh, all the people who are enabling this man to do what he is doing and the harms he's doing offend me worse than even Donald Trump does. And so what could should the Senate be doing? Number one, we shouldn't be doing business as usual. And Democrats in the Senate, and this is why I'm happy to have joined with a small group of Democratic senators, should do everything we can, every lever we can, to force them to focus on the outrages of this war that's wildly unpopular with the American public. And so what we're doing right now is forcing war powers resolution votes. It's one of the privileged votes that an individual senator can force to the Senate floor. And we're trying to do these with regularity, not to let these guys in the Senate just continue to pretend like there's not this major military operation that is a sink for American uh uh uh blood and treasure right now and force them to have this conversation. But it has to be matched by a growing outrage in the public, and I'm seeing a lot more of that. But this is a president that needs to be checked and balanced. And since Republicans in Congress won't do it, uh leaders, and we all are the leaders we we are looking for need to start fighting back because his standard now that he's creating in America, think about this standard now. Any president at any time could spend forty, fifty billion dollars and go to war with any country and for a month not even come before the American people tell you why. And by the way, when we finished with Iran, he has told us I want to take Cuba. He he has told us uh uh that hey maybe, I will take Greenland as well. This is a president if he's not checked, is setting number one, a new standard that is dangerous and unconstitutional and against what the founders said. But even worse than that um is capable and liable of doing anything unless he's he's he's held to account. Trevor Burrus So is there any way to view if there is some kind of a a supplemental there's been talk of a $200 billion supplement al for the war in Iran. Is there any argument that that would be anything other than retroactive approval for the conflict? I would see it exactly at as that. I would say see it as an again rewarding a president who unilaterally declared war, which is contrary to the Constitution. I do not think and and they're going to try to pitch this as this how could you vote against America having the pick your weapon system type. Yeah. And so I uh uh uh uh for for Donald Trump to say two to three weeks, which I think is um I I do not see it ending in two or three weeks, but maybe they uh end combat operations there. It doesn't mean that the fallout of that is gonna be uh is gonna end. Um it doesn't mean that he will have anyway secured fissile material for a nuclear weapon. It doesn't mean he will have achieved a regime change, which he said uh with a more brutal regime. It doesn't mean they're gonna stop killing their own uh citizens like he said he ho horrifically that that that he said he was going to stop. Um none of his uh long-term goals will have been achieved. And now we're going to just uh say that's fine, let's put more money uh in into the military uh to cover for your the the bill the the tab you rang up. And and this is why I think Congress uh is is just dangerously broken right now if that's if that's what if that's the exercise we're about to do or if they try to do that uh somehow through reconciliation. Can't this I actually was confused about can they do it the reconciliation or would they need the pay for us? Like I the like technically will will the supplemental be a 60 vote vote or do you I I again this is a this is a Congress and a president that will change the rules. What what rule on that they're they're redistricting in the middle of a term. Well so far the par they've they have so far, right? Respected the parliamentarian, they've respected that diff distinction between the fifty vote threshold on budget bills and sixty votes and everything else, right? I mean so far they have. So far they have. So far they have. But you know, there wasn't a raid on the Capitol until there was. Right. Uh there wasn't a president that did this kind of war effort in our entire history uh unilaterally until he did. Um, if there's anything that you and I should be confident of, is that Donald Trump and the his enabling Republicans are going to do things that have not been done before to further undermine our democracy and frankly, the the i the will and the interest of the American people . America is brought to you by Wild Alaskan Company. Wild Alaskan Company is the best way to get wild-caught perfectly portioned nutrient-dense seafood delivered directly to your door. Trust us, you haven't tasted fish this good. I love getting Wild Alaskan Company. You can choose the fish you get and then it's ready to go. You don't have to go to the store. You don't have to have a bag of fish sitting on your car seat. 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Well my focus uh should be for everybody in that region is ending what has been this horrific decades of conflict in that region that has taken lives in both places. And pitting this group, us versus them, there's a simple reality I keep telling people over and over again. We will never be able to achieve justice and independence for Palestinians without Israeli security and there'll never be Israeli security until there's justice and independence for Palestinians. And so the the politics of this should not drive us as much as a moral urgency, which is to bring this conflict to an end. And it's a conflict that unfortunately, because of Netanyahu, who is in the same category as Trump but worse, and what's going on not just in Gaza right now, but what's going on in the in the West Bank , which is why I'm leading uh Democrats on trying to sanction people who are committing these atrocities in the West Bank, is w we have to be clear that in that region, we have a decades-long conflict, and we as America should be playing a positive role into bringing it to an end. I I've I've heard you give a version of this answer before and you've been pressed on this and say, like you you don't want to call Benjamin Netanyahu say a war criminal. Uh what happens if you do? What goes what changes by just saying I believe Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal and uh uh uh that signals what are sort of moral parameters are for the kind of leadership in Israel we view as acceptable. This is not a political test for me. Benjamin Entenahu is a horrible person who enabled October 7th and has failed to take accountability. Remember, he was he knew about the Qataris fund funding this horrific terrorist organization, Hamas. He knew about that. He allowed that funding to continue has failed in that sense. He has within his own administration people that are committing atrocities right now in the West Bank, as we've seen over these last few weeks. Saying that he should be held accountable for any crimes that he's been commit that he's committed. My focus and has been consistently before October 7th is trying to be a force as a member of the Foreign Relations Committee to do everything that I can to bring this enduring conflict to an end. He's got an election coming up this year, uh, Entenahu, and I hope the people of Israel not only vote him out, but then jail him because he's uh obviously uh uh uh um has crimes right now that he's being uh being investigated for. But there's still a problem in that region and we still need to bring it for to a conclusion. And I will continue to try to be like I was there on October 7th. I will continue to try to be someone who finds a way in every way possible, leveraging my position on the Foreign Relations Committee as a US Senator to end the suffering and the needless dying and and and and really the You know, I'm I'm a Jewish person. I've I've struggled with how to talk about this, and I find that the for me the way I prefer to then talk about it is just to lay out that struggle in a longer form in a podcast or sort of in conversation. But we live in a social media age and people are genuinely shocked and outraged by Israel's conduct of the war. And there's a lot of young people who didn't grow up with the kind of pro-Israel mindset with Israel as this democracy as a beacon in a a w uh a a land of autocracies. They just have seen it as an aggressor. And it's led to a real kind of sentiment in which Zionism itself as a term has become a slur . And uh at the same time, I find that there are people that want to defend Israel and accuse people of anti-Semitism simply for being so outraged by Israel's conduct of the war. And I just wonder how as someone you know, you you talk about uh uh a lot of sort of these intersecting values in the book like uh have we lost the ability to to really kind of talk about this as a society in a way that's productive. Because I see a lot of people talking past each other, but there is an Israel filled with millions of people there. There are Palestinians that deserve a right to self-determination. But we seem mired in I think sometimes language and and and anger about it. That's a really thoughtful analysis and I think it's right spot on. Um and I think it's indicative of a larger problem where we see things in terms of absolut es that don't give us any space to have conversation or some kind of constructive pathway out of the har dened tribalism that i exist not just in this region, but but in our politics here in America, where we're just yelling at each other and not giving any space whatsoever uh to find that common ground. The reality is crises like that and others around the planet right now, and I'm I'm uh as on the Foreign Relations Committee, I'm dealing with other hotspots on the globe. If you cannot have dialogue, if you cannot imagine that the person who feels fundamentally different on this issue, that they still have some shared humanity, where maybe if I and I and I write about this uh in my book uh around the abject outrage in the differences between Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln wasn't a avowed abolitionist. Frederick Douglass was. And here were two men that had very uh moral differences, deeply moral issues when Frederick Douglass would fight the president because the president wasn't fighting for it what was happening to captured African Americans. There was a much different treatment if you were captured by the Confederates and you were black versus if you were a white soldier. And the hardened differences, and yet they found ways to sit down, not to yell at each other, but to cobble together the kind of coalition needed to end the nightmare that they would were in. And so yeah, I I I see when it comes to Israel and and the Palestinian people and their cause for justice in that region, I hear people often more concerned with being right and labels that are being used or or or use the same words I'm using , or you yourself are evil, as opposed to saying there is misery and suffering in that region . And and perhaps we can find ways to work to end it. During that crisis, you know, my office and most senators have staffs that are better than them. We were using the way we were trying to position ourselves as people that could have conversations with Palestinian leaders, conversations with Israeli leaders, because I said our moral urgency is to stop people dying. And we found ways that perhaps we would not have been able to to get sick Gazan children out, because we could have communications with people in both sides of the conflict to get American doctors, many of them uh Muslim themselves in to help people, and yet we would bump into walls of people who on both sides were infuriated and had certain litmus tests on both sides of this issue that often would direct their ire towards me. And so I again these this is uh a a generationally long conflict in the Middle East. My my biggest fears is the conflicts that are growing here at home. And what I mean by that is when I go into SCIFS classified hearing briefings, I see, and this is this is uh um open information, but I see our adversaries who have warehouses full of people who just go on to our social media and try to whip up the conflicts that we have between us, including this one. One of my friends was just showing me bot analysis of where the origins of these people who come in and try to throw matches on anything they can to get more hate and division, even in the Democratic Party. How can we make the Democratic Party members hate each other more? The biggest threat to our democracy, which was shown in the time of the Civil War and the heroism of Douglas and Lincoln, who found a working relationship. The biggest threat is our inability to talk to each other, to find common ground, to work through our most difficult solution And sometimes, especially in in-group, forget the Republicans that that attack, often the in-group sanctions are so bad it it debilitates even the Democratic Party from coming together around common views and and beating the very people on the other side of the aisle who pose the greatest threats. So I wasn't gonna ask you about this and I'll I'm gonna say I I pre-regret being part of the discourse about this because I think it's talked about enough, but based on what you're saying, I do think it's a natural question, which is uh uh through your office you said, and it's just one person, but it's part of a large group of, I think, people that have this point of view, that you wouldn't say go on like Hassan Piker's stream because he's said some heinous and stupid shit in the past. But to me, I like given you know this is uh what I want to understand, like to me, uh I would expect you'd be like chomping at the bit to say, you know what? Of course I'm gonna go there because I want to represent this point of view in a place that doesn't normally hear it. And I want to talk about the ways in which I think some of the things he said are offensive. The same way you might want to go confront somebody on Fox News or you've met with, you know, talk to Newt Gingrich, and he said crazy shit in the past too. So like maybe part of the way out of this is for someone like you to to go to those spaces, even if there have been things that are offensive to people. Aaron Powell Yeah. So first of all, uh uh somehow we're having a much more uh deeper and personal conversation than I thought. So I'm gonna be very candid with you. Uh-huh. Um gotcha. Got me. But in a in a very good way. But I always want to talk to you about deep things. No, I appreciate that. And and and that's why I appreciate you, frankly. Um so here's candor. I had no idea who this person was until a few days ago. I really I never heard their name. That's going around, I think. Yeah. And I still haven't heard him speak even. I haven't heard anything he's done. The man sitting over there was my comms director. It's almost as if there's a bunch of focus on one random streamer, and it's not really the right way to have a big debate. Yeah. That's my point. Like, so my comms director said to me, Oh, you're getting asked this question, would you go on the show? And I'm like, Well, who is this person? And all he did, the totality of this person he gave me. Right there, that guy. I don't want you can't he's not on camera, so I don't feel like I'm implicating him. The totality of what he did to me was show me four or five of the most outrageous things. And they're pretty outrageous. They're they are. I said, okay, well, whoa. Right. Uh um, um let's give whatever you saw officially coming out of my office. So here's a couple things uh and I have this experience I don't want to say daily. My my wife experienced it last night in the airport as somebody was wanting to take a moment as I come off this very long flight. It's and mother. Oh, you're right. I never thought about that analysis here. I appreciate that. All kinds of mothers have sex. I I f you think about it. I think that my wife wants to come back here often. She suddenly she likes you. My point is is the first rule of mental health, actually this is not my first rule of mental health. I have a number of them. I really want all your listeners to like this is a very good rule for mental health, first and foremost. You do not have to attend every argument you're invited to. Okay. And pick and choose because sincerely I meet with thousands of people from town halls to roundtables and the like. And I want to be very thoughtful about how I apply my energy. And so whether it was this extraordinary woman who brought me together a few weeks ago with uh Palestinian leaders in my in my in my from my state to have a direct, very candid conversation to uh meeting with Republicans in my state who are straight up think I have horns before we sit down. Um I choose often to try to uh sit down with people on the other side of the aisle or on the other side of um ideological bridges to try to remind them that we have common humanity. One of my favorite experiences in the Senate, and you'll appreciate this, was with Jim Inhoff, if you remember the man who brought a snowball, the Senator who brought a snowball um uh to the Senate floor. Bill Bradley gave me this advice. Uh he gave me three rules of three things I should abide by if I'm gonna be a a really good senator. And one of them was you go towards the g you you just don't shoot till you're in the paint. No. No. Um sadly he can't help my very average basketball abilities. Um but meet with every one of your Republican colleagues. Go out to dinner with them, get to know them as human beings. And when I got down there, I went on this wild odyssey. But in off I couldn't with, so I go into his office and to for Bible study. And and I there's a there's a brand of Christianity I'm sure he abides by that um And so I go into his office and immediately my implicit biases are surprised because I did not expect to see this elder white um uh right wing conservative on his altar is is m is is w one of his main shelves he had a picture of him in in an in an affectionate embrace with a black girl. And I didn't call my my elder senators back then by their first names. I just said Mr. Chairman, sir, who dat. And and he tells me this story about them adopting a a a young child out of a very, very difficult circumstance. I was moved by it, didn't expect it. Um, months later, I'm on the Senate floor angry and pouting in the back because there's a big education bill going through that's being managed by uh uh a great Tennessee Republican uh uh who ran for president multiple times, uh Lamar Alexander. Um and he uh he's no there's there's a delicate balance that often is in the Senate. No amendments. Let's just get this bill through. And I think my amendment is important because the worst educational some of the worst educational outcomes in our in our country are for kids that are uh uh homeless or kids that are in foster systems and I wanted to do something to create uh what I thought way was better assurances that they would get uh the educational services that they deserve. Long story short is I see Inhoff come in as I'm sitting in the balcony, I remember that story . And I walk down there and I say, Sir, I know you have a particular concern for kids from disadvantaged circumstances. Can I tell you about my amendment? And would you would you co-sponsor it? I just went swung for the fences. And he gave me the Senate version of no, uh uh, which is uh I'll think about it. Let me talk to my staff. And I said, okay. And I walk back to my uh back row where I was sitting back then and still am, and I look up and he's like his GPS coordinates are off. He's walking right into the Dem section and walking right up to me and he goes, Corey, we're in. And I go, What do you mean I'm you're in? And he said, I'll co-sponsor your amendment. And then he walks off quickly. And I I was sat there stunned and, then I look up and I see Chuck Grassley on the floor and I went over to him and I made my case. And as soon as he saw that Inhof was on, he said to me, uh, not uh I'll talk to my staff, he goes, I'm on it too. Long story short is I went to uh Lamar uh after getting all of these people supporting it that you would not expect and look at him, he laughs and he says, Corey, this this will get on the bill and it's the law of the land now. Aaron Ross Powell And that was the one that banned the transath from swimming? No, it was not. No kidding I'm sorry. No, it's look, if there's anything as a guy who's now written two books, one called United, one called Stan, so together, Stan United. Oh boy. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But but when I was mayor of the city of Newark and I wanted to get shit done, the way I would tell my staff is that uncommon coalitions create uncommon results. And the best , if everybody in your coalition agrees with you on every ever ything, then your coalition is not big enough. And we right now have this ability to want to eviscerate others, if they don't use the language we want them to use, if they don't agree with us on everything. And there is no way the most complicated problems in this country and in this world will be solved if you can't find ways of bringing people together to do the hard work of finding common ground and finding common cause, even if it's not everything, can we move this forward? And the last example I'll give is just guns in America. Uh I I'm not sure if there's been many senators who've been more affected uh uh uh by gunfire. Clearly, Mark Kelly is one. Um, but has a guy who's knows lots of people who've been murdered in Newark, um, and people I cared about deeply. Uh I feel the sense of urgency. And and and I wanted to solve problems, not simply um moralize about them. And found out that only one shooting in my city in all the years I was mayor was done by somebody who bought a gun legally . And I know AKs and other automatic weapons, which I have strong feelings on, but the handguns that flow into communities like mine. And then I find out through polling that most gun owners, most NRA members agree on universal background checks. But yet we can't pass that legislation. Pot Save America is brought to you by Fast Growing Trees. Did you know Fast Growing Trees is America's largest and most trusted online nursery with thousands of trees and plants and over two million happy customers. They have all the plants your yard or home needs, including fruit trees, privacy trees, flowering trees, shrubs, and house plants, all grown with care and guaranteed to arrive healthy. Whatever you're looking for, fast-growing trees helps you find options that actually work for your climate, space, and lifestyle. Fast growing trees makes it easy to get your dream yard. Just click order and grow. So a lot of our ads, you click order and grow. It's true. All kinds of things. 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Which would also I think lead to challenging some of Democrats' own priors about the best way to kind of address gun violence, including around sort of you know mental health and a few other issues that aren't specifically related to guns. Do you do you think that that that that we've like attended to mass shootings as a culture more than we have to the actual sort of more common ways of dying by guns? Yeah, I think it's an absolutely a problem look, I'm proud of the bill that I got a chance to write some of the section, the first one in thirty years we got passed on guns that for me the my part was the community violence um intervention money and getting a lot of that into communities like mine in New Jersey that really helped to stop the kind of violence we see in in in Camden and Newark and Patterson Passaic. I I'm I I I know what captures people's attention and and and often it's frustrating to me. Like I just watched this documentary about Black Jewish relations. And when Goodman, Cheney, and Schwar ner died, I was I never knew this before until I saw the documentary how ferociously noble the white wives were of the Jewish men that died with uh uh uh with Cheney, um that they were saying when they were dredging for their bodies and they were doing this massive search, they found black body after black body after black body that had been murdered and thrown into that river, but it never got national attention. And these uh I remember one interview with this woman was a first very that you would not be paying attention to this yet another black person being murdered unless there were white people being murdered as well. And so I will still remember in my life , uh I think the the most like broken one of the most broken I've ever felt in my life was after a murder in my neighborhood. I tried in vain to stop this kid from bleeding to death. And I was so shaken by it. I still don't even remember how I got home. And but as I'm wiping these kids, I just lost my first mayoral race. It seemed like forever till I would get a chance again. I felt like I failed uh so many people who believed that I could bring an end to this level of violence. And I had never felt this level of anger before as I sat there and tried to wipe this kid's um blood off my hands. And my anger was at our own nation for this um uh the obscenity of indifference towards the constant death of people in my that didn't even make the newspapers anymore. And so look, I I feel this frustration now globally and locally, like getting people to even mention Sudan on a podcast is seems almost impossible. Uh uh uh to talk about American weapons there being used in this cr in this in this uh uh humanitarian crisis. I feel that at home still . Uh, that we still live in a nation. We joke now more than ever about marijuana, but there's still thousands of marijuana possession arrests in America, disproportionately black and brown people. Um, I feel the this this discord that our that our polit politics and the issues we debate and don't don't truly keep centered uh the people who are really struggling um while we debate uh in the unfinished business of America and I feel like we're losing , we are actually losing what my parents generation handed me. When my my dad's generation 95% did better. If you were if you were gonna be born poor on the planet Earth, even poor in black like my father, in a segregated town, this was the best country because it had the best social mobility in that generation. Um uh Pell Grants covered uh the majority of cops. The deal worked. And it was the deal still. Remember, Democrats kept majorities through the Tip O'Neill years, from FDR through Tip O'Neill, because most of America believed in the deal and believed the Democrats were fighting for them. My gener and by the way, I'm I God bless my father's generation, they're now leaving the the political stage. Last baby boomer president, last baby boomer heads of the Senate. My generation and your generation , um we've seen the collapsing of the deal. We've seen all that FDR sort of did now collapsing. I I I'm you you know this, I'm plant-based, and our food systems now controlled by like four or five companies. Uh meat packing, the famous book by Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, which exposed all the horrors of the meatpacking industry and created changes for a while, for a few decades, those were middle-class jobs. Now, it's more uh corporately concentrated than it was back then. And the same kind of dangers are are are popping up. So I could keep going through. You are not the bargain, this is how bad the bargain is and how much other countries are out-Americaning us. We're no longer the best country to be born poor. Sc classist England. It's better to be born there if your sole goal is to make it into out of the bottom quintile. Yeah, but then you're still English at the end of it. point is is our politics and the divides that define them are failing Americans. And if there's anything that's going to save, not the Democratic Party, screw parties for a second. If there's anything going to save the promise of America, it has got to be a renewal of that deal, a redemption of that deal, and a different kind of thinking, not just about our problems, but how we think about each other. And that's the urgency of this moment. We can argue ourselves to death. And meanwhile, this country and the people who are really getting screwed right now are gonna are going to continue to hurt unless we figure out a way to get ourselves out of this. And I would be wrong if I did not tell you one of the reasons why we're stuck is because of the outsized poisonous influence of money in politics. And this is why I don't understand what's happening right now in the Democratic Party. People are talking about APAC, but why aren't we talking about all PACs? Why aren't we talking about the fact that all of the money flowing into our politics right now is destructive and anti-democratic, especially because it's so few people who are fueling the billions of dollars. Remember, of all the money spent on Donald Trump's campaign, 10 people spent 44% of it. But it's not just their problem. We are uh have a big money problem on our side la uh as well. Ten ye ten years ago, I think it was about that I was one of the first people in Congress to say no corporate PAC money. Uh at the end of last year I said enough. I I don't want to start asking I want to say no more issue area PACs as well. I think that the fact that I can sit down, I'm on the ad committee and we have oversight of uh of crypto . And as I'm negotiating, because I think the crypto markets need structure and so I'm at the good faith negotiations at the table with Barrasso and his team. And Veronica, you c another person that's here is off camera. She she knows this phone call that came in. But while we're negotiating the details of this bill, that industry puts together, I think it's $17 5 million pack where they're willing to drop 10, 20, 30, 40 million against people. And I think that it was so grotes que that you got a call where they somebody from that industry tried to apologize. What was the exact words? Yeah, we don't want you to think this is a threat. We want you to know it is. Yeah. So uh in terms of addressing some of the deeper issues, you proposed the uh keeping your pay act, and I wanted to ask you about it because I think it's insane and I want you to convince me why I'm wrong. Sounds good. Uh you'll pay for it by raising the corporate tax rate, top marginal rate, and closing the carried interest loops. And other things. And other things. Stepped up basis. I could go through all the things. There's a few other pay fors and a few other ways in which increased child tax credit, a few other things. Here's my my question about it. If you believe the majority of Americans shouldn't be paying income tax. Shouldn't income tax on their first seventy-five thousand dollars of household earnings. Which would mean the majority of Americans wouldn't pay income tax. Which mean the m majority of Americans would not pay income tax, yes. Aaron Powell Does that suggest that right now people are not getting the value from their taxes that they ought to be getting? Like we all I I want to higher, I want a more progressive income tax, I want a more progressive tax system, I want the rich to pay more, I want corporations to pay more. But don't we want to live in a society where everyone says, you know what? No, nobody likes taxes. Uh, everyone would like their taxes to be lower, but I benefit from the highways, I benefit from having the best military in the world, I benefit from uh having uh TSA, I benefit from uh what our government does for us, and I believe in government as a Democrat, and so therefore we're all gonna pay our share into the into the tax. So let me let me let me address that in a few ways. So first of all, I'm glad you kept saying income tax, because you and I pay a lot of federal taxes that are not income taxes. Payroll tax, gas tax, a lot of places like tax. But and those are very regressive. Yeah. So so understand poor people are paying a lot more than wealthy people when it comes to most federal taxes. That's the first point. So so you're we're just now talking about income tax, but you're stipulating that we're all paying into the common kitty, even if we don't pay income tax. Well and and as of right now, the current standard deduction is what around thirty thousand dollars for a family, but payroll taxes kick in in dollar one. So this is a tax cut that you're proposing for that that doesn't hit people that are making the least. It actually hits people making more between, say, above seventy dollars. No, because then you're ignoring the massive increase in the CTC and the EITC. this cuts child poverty in half. This cuts the overall poverty rate, and I've seen different estimates by people who have run the numbers from 10 percent to greater. So this is a massive boost to the people that live in neighborhoods like the one I live in. Um where if you sit down with a woman, single mom, one young kid, makes sixty thousand dollars a year, she'll get almost six thousand dollars of their own income. So before we talk about the analysis that you did, I just wanted to let you know, because I've done this in focus groups, sitting down, not focus groups, political focus groups, kitchen tables, round the kitchen table, and just asking real Americans what this would mean for their lives. And literally having people when you when they do the little calculator on my website start tearing up because they're treading water. They're barely staying afloat. And six thousand dollars to them is a difference between them making their rent payment and keeping up with all these costs. So I I when I talk to intellectuals like us, I get one response. When I talk to Americans, I don't need to mean it's not insulting, I have such respect for you. I'm just saying to you, when I sit down with real Americans who are really struggling right now, I've talked to families that make a hundred thousand dollars a year and are are are are not keeping up with the cost of their health care and and child care. So I just want you to know that that if you if you and I were to go out in the streets right now and just with our little calculator and ask people, it'd be wildly popular. So you're asking now the philosophical question of shouldn't people on their first $75,000 pay in the And I will tell you this. We, and I'm including us who are progressive people, we have tolerated in America the top tax level, grifting off of the rest, because they pay an effective tax rate lower than a teacher or a firefighter or the people that are that are soldiers who are fighting right now in Iran. So think about the absurdity of this. The tax avoidance that's built into our system. You stipulate that. So so why have we been okay with and you and I have not been have not been but we are not as outraged as all that I'm getting about a tax plan that suddenly lets people enjoy what the wealthiest have enjoyed because they've built into the system. And let me tell you things that we def end. I will defend the mortgage interest deduction. But did you know most of that tax expenditure is enjoyed by the top 20 percent? Well, this is the I know well, you'll defend the mortgage interest deduction because you'll have you're from an expensive state like New Jersey where a lot of people benefited from you defend the salt deduction, which is just a way of saying that people in rich states should pay for less of their local government and have it be subsidized from people from states that have less local government. All of these are ways around. So I agree, people are really struggling. Healthcare costs are insane. Education costs are insane. Gas prices are really high. There's not enough opportunity. Like the incomes have been flat. Housing has become a massive crisis in so many places where the jobs are uh okay, those are the real problems. Yes. So you're good, you're looking you're basically saying and and so we're gonna zero out your taxes, which a lot of people would be a huge relief for them. But it doesn't address the underlying problem, which we've built an economy in which it's there that people are not making enough to get by. And so I'm telling you right now, because you are a good political thinker and strategist, I'm telling you right now , you have the Senate, the House, and the White House. And you've got six months to redeem the Democratic Party. I say you need big, bold ideas that people feel right away and that make sense to people. And I and I'm going to try my best over the next uh coming months to be one of those people that starts putting out the big ideas, swinging for the fences that show we're creating a new deal in America, that we're creating something that can redeem the dream for America that you don't believe in anymore because half the country doesn't. They're working harder than their parents and making less. And so this of all the ideas, and again, we have a few more big ideas we're rolling out, but this is basic, it's simple , I get it. And finally, working class people can keep more of their paycheck. You can tell me Democratic Party, you want to nibble around the edges, but you're going to let my family, I'm one of those families making the low six figures. I got two kids and you're gonna tell me I can keep $1,000 more of my money. Well I I'm telling you right now, that goes so much farther than you trying to give me some alphabet soup things that the Democratic Party is going to try to do. My grandfather, who was a Republican, became a New Deal Democrat because of the big bold ideas like social security that was going to actually end poverty, or or and we now know it hasn't because we haven't done the right thing by social security, but end poverty for for a generation of elder people in our country. The Democratic Party needs big, bold ideas again, and this one is simple that everybody can understand. And if you don't, go on the website, put your earnings in and see how much more money you have. And you still pay federal taxes and you still payroll taxes. You pay your you pay your uh uh uh uh Medicare taxes, you. You pay pa thaty that . That's I I I get that. I guess like I I'm just sort of is it like I agree. I'm sure it's popular to tell everybody that you're not gonna pay taxes anymore. Like I think that you're right. I don't have much of a big of an idea. Again, we ha you and I should be precise with our words. I have to do that. You are paying for the record taxes. You're not not paying taxes anymore. So I I think it's a it's definitely a bold idea to raise the standard deduction to seventy thousand, but you're leaving in place, say, like the payroll system that comes off of people's first dollar, right? That affec that everyone. Which we should change. You and I both know. We should the the higher higher income earners who pay a lar much lower per centage of their income and pay they we should be affecting that as well. If we're gonna make social security more solvent and there, we should increase social security for people who live off of their social security checks like a lot of people do and live in poverty. I'm still a progressive that believes we need to have a common sense tax system that actually benefits working people in America. I am telling you, if you and I, and you've seen this data, looking at working people in America. Most of them feel like they're being screwed, that the deal isn't working, and that they are seeing more and more of their paycheck go out and less of the resources they need to make sure their family can eat and pay for prescription drugs and do more. This show is brought to you by A G1. Spring feels like a natural reset. The weather begins to warm, the days get longer, and there's new momentum in the air. 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It is the best way you can support what we're doing here. Thank you . It's also something that's good for you. It's good you were doing it for you too. So sign up. Crooked.com slash friends now back to center record booker . Well, not to the government, right? We just passed the Trump's big beautiful bill did increase the child tax credit, right? Yeah, but a little bit. I'm just I'm gonna be I'm I'm getting out of the rhetoric and into the facts. Yes. Thank you. And to me, okay, uh I b I want to have a an a a a simple progressive tax code and a government that works and functions and delivers value for people. Yes. Right? Yes. And I don't see how creating a f a uh a five tr illion dollar hole that you're gonna No can I challenge you on this I wanna challenge you on this challenge me you are comfortable with the richest of the richest getting because to say it calls a five trillion dollar hole is not is not f fair.air Not. Because it's not a five trillion dollar hole if you're paying it by unrigging the tax system. Well, my understanding is that if you even if you raise the top rates, even if you close the carried interest loophole, I am for every progressive, I am for every pay for you having this. Yes. I want to do every pay for you having this. Uh but if I were saying, all right, I've got a few trillion dollars and I'm gonna try to give to people in tax relief, the income tax, because of the standard deduction, it's not going to the people that are paying the payroll tax. There's a lot of people that make very little money that will not benefit very much from this bill. Yes, no, you're wrong. If you're if you're expanding the CTC and if you're expanding the EITC, I'm sorry to talk to acronyms to your audience. But but the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit. Yes, if you're expanding those signific antly, you're going to make sure that and we, by the way, we expand it to teenagers who work, who don't get the AIT C to and to our elders at work, and they'll get the EITC. So if even if you're somebody that has part-time earnings, you are going to benefit now from the CT from the EITC. So trust me, the we we design this so that we are cutting poverty in America and making work pay. And why is that person, that working class person who makes a nurse and a cop who make $100,000 a year , why do we say they're making too much money? They're struggling right now. I don't think they're making it. Right. And so this is the not that they're making too much money, but that we shouldn't be looking to benefit people across the income scale. And and so so th what I'm simply saying is that it doesn't cost anything if you are taking away all of these uh uh tax avoidance schemes of the largest corporations and you use it to fund this, then it costs nothing. It's just stopping the people at the top who are who have been benefiting from a rigged system and finally letting the people in our country who are working have the benefits of this democracy. Because right now, all the benefits are accruing to the wealthiest who are seeing compound gains like they've never seen before. When are working people in America going to get their fair deal? And so and you think the only the way to get to a fair deal is people pay payroll tax, but they pay no income tax. So the payroll tax is four things. It's for social security, it's for Medicare. I'm trying to understand it. I'm thinking with you about it. They pay for social security and Medicare. But the gener but the money you pay in income taxes is for everything else that the government does. And you're saying that people that make under a certain amount of money just should be don't don't aren't receiving enough benefits of the five yeah. So what I'm asking is a guy who would defend the standard deduction we have right now. Maybe you want to raise it to four fifty five. Mabey you want to raise it to sixty -five. Why are you okay with with a large percentage of Americans that don't pay, very large percentage of Americans don't pay uh federal income taxes now either? And so if you're comfortable with that, why aren't you comfortable with moving it up a little We have lost the ability to make an argument that government provides a basic good that we all share in that collectively we all pay into this income tax and it's and we hate it and it stinks, but we're building an economy in which people have opportunities, and and we are going to be so careful with your money, because it's everyone's money, that we're going to have a government that works for people. So you and so these are not contrary arguments. And I'll add one more thing, which is a system in which people are paying income tax, pay roll tax, uh paying into all these different buckets in which people that make under 40K pay a higher percentage of their taxes uh than people making a billion dollars is a stupid system. The answer isn't to just zero out the income tax, which doesn't help hit the people makinging pay payroll tax on their first dollar, but build a better system from the ground up in which we can look at it and say on a in a graduated way, this is a progressive income tax system that is fair across the world. Well, my friend, why are you the tyranny of the or I am the liberation of the and I believe in government. I I'm a former mayor. When we made shit work in Newark, when we went from filling potholes from uh uh from months to literally hours. When we made people who were paying their parking ticket not have to come to City Hall and wait on long lines. When we made somebody who wants to put an addition on their house so they can rent it out. I I love making things work. We have a government. I'm sorry, Donald Trump has this knack for pointing out the right problems, but coming up with disastrous solutions. Do you want to talk about the need for a more efficient, more effective government that lowers the friction points for Americans that make them frustrated. Hell, just paying taxes in America is a is a testimony to to corporate corruption because there's a handful of corporations, every time you want to make it easier, they come in because these tax finders are. tax and all that So what I'm saying to you is this is one idea of a suite of ideas that the Democratic Party, I believe, needs to get on board of. And yes, one of them is redeeming government. This idea of the Reagan era , government bad. No, bad government is bad. Bad stupid government bad. But the this idea that we pool our collective resources and and and provide real services from high -speed rail to quality to world-class education to child care for everybody in our country that they can have affordable childcare. These are things I passionately believe in. And I'm telling you, we got to think bigger that we can do this, give taxpayers in the country a break, let them have what the what the richest of the richest had for a little while, and still find ways to do the other things. There there was this in again in in my book, uh this wonderful woman named Marissa Broger, uh who's my speech writer, who came to help me on this book, she finds this quote one day, she goes, I'm gonna read you this. And I said, what? It's from a chaplain in the Civil War who says, are we a nation or have we a government? It gave me chills because less and less we're thinking we're a nation where we do have common cause and we're looking at government is just, hey, I have no loyalty to this thing, government. I think government is bad, and the right has so demonized this idea that I'm sorry, public schools are one of the greatest inventions in democracy. That's government. Having roads and bridges that actually work and are efficient and effective that can fuel commerce, that's government. Hell, keeping me safe every day from toxins and chemicals in my food, that's government. And we should celebrate that. But it's hard to do that unless the first part of this conversation we were having is we get back to seeing that we have something in common as a nation, that we are a people that have an obligation, that our very founders as, as imperfect they were, said that we have to pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. Well we know the sacred honors go going because we hate each other. We know the fortunes going because we have people that want that that live this life as I can collect as much dollars as possible, so my bank account is as big as possible before I die, and then hell, I'm not paying taxes on that. I'm just gonna give it to my people. So I well I guess I just don't understand. Isn't that all an argument for saying, hey, if we're gonna have a country together, if Democrats are gonna say to people the only fair income tax rate for you is zero. No, it's that that but I'm just I'm I'm listening to what you're saying and I'm following the logic of it. I want I like look, I I think we should have a single payer healthcare system. That's gonna require everybody paying into taxes instead of paying insurance. We to me the question is are people getting value out of their tax dollars? And right and you would say no and I'm saying No, no, I would not say no. I I uh look , I I will do this again and I've done it before. I always tell people when I was running for mayor in Newark, if you vote for me, I'm gonna ask for more from you than any elected leader has ever asked from you. Because there's no way we're gonna turn around Newark. There's no way we're gonna do impossible things unless everybody is pitching in. And and I I hate it. I hate that George Bush, when we, for the first time ever in American history, he took our country to war and said, I'm giving you a tax break. It was the first time we didn't collectively invest in our national effort, which we you and I would disagree that it was an unworthy war. But I hate that. I hate that we don't feel like we're all in on making America work. The minor difference we're having right now is where the standard deduction should be, right where it is, or to give relief to people, to a generation of folks, millennials, do not believe they can pay rent. And so what I'm simply saying is give more people the same break for the last 40 years that we've given the wealthiest of the wealthy, give them a chance to invest in savings. Hey, there's this 529 vehicle that's bullshit too in the sense that I believe in 529s, but they're overwhelmingly used. When I asked this family groups around the table, anybody have any money to invest in their Nobody did. Why can't we just say to the next generations as the baby boomers start to leave the stage, you know what, millennials, we're gonna let you keep more of your money? You're still gonna have obligations. This is still a nation. This is a country. In fact, we demand more patriotism, not your flag pin, not your song. What real patriotism is, is a quiet devotion to this country, and you show that by your devotion to your fellow uh woman and man, by your neighbor. That's we need to revive that sense of patriotism where we are all in. And where that standard deduction line is, right now, the tax code's written for the wealthiest. Yeah. Let's Democratic Party say, you know what? We're going to give you a break. Finally. We're going to create a new deal with a rigged tax code. It's not rigged anymore for the wealthy. It's fair for you. Okay. And we're going to do that by letting you keep more of your money. Doesn't mean that we're not going to ask you to pay any tax es when you buy a beer. This is not a beer, but looks like one from far away. We're going to we're going to we're going to have taxes on that. Hell. Regressive sales taxes. But I'm like, when are we going to finally federally legalize marijuana and tax the shit out of it so that we can create more revenues streams getting taxed. With alcohol, I'm sorry about taxing your weed, man. I think it's fine. But but my point is we are a nation of abundance. We are much of great wealth.'re going to I w feonel it. Why are we thinking so narrowly? You're you're killing me here. Wha we're wh we have so much wealth, but yet we have so many poor struggling people. Yes, but the economy is fucked up and broken. Yes. We have massive structural problems. Yes. And your answer is to say the taxes are bad. And I'm saying fix the problem. Why are you why are you telling me that's my singular answer? We must come together and share in our shared obligations, our blood, our fortune, our treasure. But if you're any income tax uh over zero for the majority of Americans is unfair. You're you're mischaracterizing again, and I love you. I sincerely do. And I and I it's not a singular idea. There ha it has to be the and you're not saying it's temporary before we fix things. You're not saying it's you're saying the new tax code will have these numbers in it. And I worry about what happens when we have go from having when we have two anti-tax parties. Because I worry about living in a society in which we don't allow conversations about trade-offs, we don't allow conversations about nuance, and then all of a sudden we've got one party that's uh against taxes for the rich, one party that's against taxes for the middle class, and then what happens? Right. And it's fun to be against taxes. Everybody fucking hates taxes. I hate taxes. I again I'm in favor of your proposal. I am not an anti-tax. I love what you've called for as I think about it. I I I am not an anti-tax person. No, my brother, no. Okay. I am not. I'm an anti-working class people being screwed. Well, that's a dead one. Hold on. Stop stop in the name of love. Stop in the name of love. How could you tell me if I'm sitting here talking about all those other taxes we just talked about that people are gonna have to pay. Why can't for the the working class people? I am not anti-tax, I am pro-working people keeping more of their money. And yeah, when you raise the standard deduction. Th'erell be some people that you seem to tolerate it at where it is the standard deduction is now, but but and not complaining about that. Why not give a little more relief to people who feel like the deal hasn't made and now I'm going to tell you something exciting. If we had five big ideas that we ran on as a party and and and then got into office, and and I love uh uh President Biden, I partnered with him on the CHIPS Act and the Infrastructure bill, but people in my neighborhood did not see those changes and didn't feel like it changed for them. Five big ideas that we in the first three months do and everybody feels a real change in their lives. It's not just having more money in the pot in the pocket. It's like suddenly seeing billionaires not have influence in our politics because we banned the packs that I've given up. We say nobody can take that. Everybody has got to have the same standard I put forward and I'm living on myself . No issue area packs, no whatever. We we kill citizens united, and that the worst decision. That's maybe that's another one of our bold ideas. We make everybody from a president won't be able to have crypto coins, a senator won't be able to trade stocks, and the highest court in the land won't have the lowest uh uh uh uh uh uh um ethics laws like they do right now, where billionaires take them out on these fancy hunting hunting trips and give them mobile homes. Wow, this Democratic Party made a change in my life immediately, in my family's life immediately, so we can actually pay our rent and have quality childcare. And now they're showing us that finally it's not going to be the money interest that I'm fighting against every single day, that are corrupting our politics, that are allowing corporate concentration and more. But wait a minute, they banned all that as well. What are you guys gonna do for the for for the third act? Imagine if we did big ideas like that right away and then turn to the country and say we still have some problems to solve like gun violence. We still have some problems to solve like health care. And some of these things we may have to pay for. And and why and why we have an economy. Now you've got deposits in the emotional bank account of a nation that has nothing left to give you a lot of people. How to increase worker leverage, how to build more housing, how to build uh high-speed rail, how to make an economy which people have opportunity, even if they are paying taxes. And here's the big thing I really want to tell you. You pull off those first three or four things in, you're not only going to win back the loyalty of people that are tired of voting for Democrats and seeing nothing happen, you're going to start seeing people on the other side of the aisle say, wait a minute, you're now explaining to me how workers get screwed with things like uh uh uh non-compete clauses uh and and and labor laws and and I actually get you, I'm a factory worker that's voted Republican the last 20 years, and this guy's making sense. And I'm listening to him now because my life has gotten materially better. What I want for the Democratic Party is no more dam n elections where one person gets 49.7 and the other person gets 49.3. We need a wave election. We need a generational renewal. We need people to begin to believe again that they have people in office. And it's not, you don't get that through talk. When I won in the city of Newark as a guy who had barely lived there back in 1998, I knew people, their vote for me wasn't that we believe in you. It's we're gonna give you a shot to deliver for us. And and when we get that shot, if we should get that shot again and have the tri factor, we better deliver and deliver big and bold like FDR did with our version and our generation of the New Deal. All right. All right. Fine. We'll do it. Okay. Senator Corey Booker. Thank you so much for time to get in. So much better than I thought it was going to be. Wow. Because you you didn't hold back, and I I appreciate you. I've heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times. Senator Booker the book is stand twenty-five hours and you 're pants. I d I did not. I did we're we're circling the drain, we're circling the toilet now. You gotta get him out of here. You gotta you guys got places to be. Thank you. I I know thank honestly, thank you. It was a really good visit. Thank you to Senator Cory Booker for joining us. I'm glad we got to do that. It was a great freewheeling conversation. I appreciate that he was willing to give us the time and I appreciate you for listening. We will be back in your feeds with John. Podsave America on Tuesday. And uh other than that, I'll see you at the confirmation hearings for a free Trump puts up for Attorney General Next . If you want to listen to PodSave America ad-free and get access to exclusive podcasts, go to Cricket.com slash friends to subscribe on Supercast, Substack, YouTube, or Apple Podcasts. Also, please consider leaving us a review. That helps boost this episode and everything we do here at Crooked. Podsave America is a crooked media production. Our producer is Saul Rubin. Our associate producer is Farrah Safari. Austin Fisher is our senior producer. Reed Chirlin is our executive editor. Adrian Hill is our