The Political Landscape in Pennsylvania

Yeah, ye, I might want to download that Exxon mobile Rewards plus app. Yeah. Are you the Exon Tiger? I am. Yeah, you know, new users can earn ten dollars in points. five bucks after your first purchase and five after your second That's a lot That's a whole lot. It is. Well, hey, you get on that download, buddy. I will Floating Download the Exon Mobile Rewards pllus app and join today Ex on Trust the tiger. For details, visit exonoffer d. com Hey, it's Ry Reynolds from MitMobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for fifteen dollars a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made fifteen dollars bills. but it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at MintMobile dot com slash swwitch. Upr payment forty five dollars for three mons, ninety dollars for months or one hundred eightyllars forelth plan, required fifteen dollars ath equal to taxes extra initial term be greater than fifty gigabytes slow netork busy terms. Before I switched to Wealthfront, my API was probably zero point one. One size switch chitching. With the Wealthfront cash account, earn up to four point two percent APY on your cash. I can trust Wealthfront is taking care of me Make your money earn more. G started at wealthfront d. com d C clients pid one thousand dollars for their testimials creating a conflict of interest.all comees soer. point percent, safety as of january thirtieth, twenty six is representative variable and earned funds swep to program bs.er point six fivecent new cli boost for months and up to one hundred fifty thousand dollars. Direct depit one thousand dollars ath fund invest account for er point fivecent increaseash account offered by Wealthfont brokerage LC member Fer IPC in a This podcast is sponsored by Mid in Cookware made in partners with multig genererational artisans and some of the world's best chefs to create professional quality cookware, knives, and kitchen tools products are trusted in Michelin Starg restaurants worldwide and designed to perform just as well in your kitchen From five ply stainless clad to carbon steel, every piece is built to last and made to actually make you a better cook Discover award winning cookweare at madein cookweare. com This is a paid message from GofunMe Juan now la When a son was hospitalized for a viral infection wan started to gofund me to pay for medical expenses It was five k to pay the bill for my son and I need only twenty two hours. It was amazing. People really trust and go find me. How did Juan raise five thousand dollars in less than a day He posted a short video on Go Fun Me, telling his story in thirty seconds thirty seconds, be specific, be quick. and tell what are you going to be using the funds for? I was nervous to do it because it doesn't feel okay to ask money, but you shouldn't be nervous. Sometimes you just have to do it and see the results. We were able to save my son's life. Thanks to Gof me that we still have my son with us Start your goofund Me today at gofundme. com That's gofundme. com goofundme. com This message reflects one person's experience Magam Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House is panicking as members of his own party want him out. They think that he is the worst speaker of the house ever, Magam Mike. As you know, shut down the House of Representatives until at least july thirteenth, when there was a full fledged revolt in the past week and a half against Magam Mike's leadership The MGa Republican extremists in the House blocked Maga Mike from passing a rule, as it's called, in order to keep Congress running. So Maga Mike panicked and he was like, okay, everybody go home until july thirteenth. So Maga Mike shut down the House of Representatives until at least july thirteenth. and now we're hearing other MGa Republican leaders mock him for that and they're preparing. They see blood in the water for them to take over leadership when Maga Mike the Republicans, the House of Representatives in the me t in the midterm. So by way of example, you've got MGa Republican Congress member Jason Smith. He went public with his criticism of Maga Mic. It wasn't just a criticism as Raw Story says, Mike Johnson was shamed by MGA lawmakers over his leadership problems fix it or else and this as the MAGA Republicans are in a full fledg revolt against them. Let me show you what Jason Smith, MAGA Republican Congress member, he's like the number three top ranking Republican in the House of Representatives. He went on state regime media Fx And here's what he said. He said, We don't need you recessing. stop sending us home. You're making us all look dumb, Maga, Mike here playing this clip. Is there something more that Johnson can be doing here? because out of the last Seven speakers, Johnson has had the most failed rule votes at nine. behind him was Kevin McCarthy at three. And before that, there had not been a failed rule since Dennis Hasard Johnson's defense is always that he's got the slimmest majority in history You know, in the rule vote on the NAA, the skinny version of the Save America Bill failed last week, It's not like he was, you know, keeping members at home and twisting arms and having the president make phone calls He sent you guys home point does This become a leadership problem more than a function of a slim majority You know, we do have a slim majority I knew that going into the big beautiful bill. I knew I could only lose two votes in the House and three in the Senate. We only lost two in the house, three in the Senate, but we were able to thread that needle. It's all about bringing people together. I truly, truly believe that We have to figure out what a team is. We don't need to be recessing when we hit a bump on the road. We need to We need to have a conference meeting go and hash it out. fix the problem. And that's what Speaker Bayner, Speaker McCarthy, Speaker Ryan would do. and I strongly insist that Let's get the job done for the American people. and I think that that you'll see that with less than thirty seconds. So that was on state regime media earlier. and then thereafter, Maga Mike goes on and Maga Mike just goes right out of Donald Trump's playbook. and Magam Mike's like, okay, okay, okay. I hear what he's saying. but folks We're dealing with communists right now. We're dealing with Mam Dani and people like that have killed hundreds of millions of people have died because of the beliefs of people like Mam Donni. What the hell are you talking about? Rent stabilization boards, not raising rent for two years, the horror. Giving people free healthcare, universal healthcare, single payer, the horror, making sure that all Americans receive education that they deserve what the horror to make sure that Americans can afford rent can live the American dream can afford to be buy and own their homes, the horror to make sure that there can be universal pre K, to make sure that there can be universal child care. Oh my God, is this what they're really asking for? too make sure that people can work with dignity and get paid not just a minimum wage that is not enough to afford the basics of their life, but to be able to actually Live a thriving life, have people get paid a wage with dignity. The horror. Here's what Maga Mike has to say. let's play. Mom Donny got electted in New York. I've been out of the campign triil. country wide across coast to coast, every swing district, the blue states, red states saying the same thing. There are many Mamanis popping up running for Congress around the country and you better be very serious about this. This is a serious threat to our whole system of government. These are Marxists. It's communism, socialism, those are deviations of Marxism begins with the opposite premise of America. and it is a serious threat to us. These people want to say, they're saying it out loud They want to abolish all borders. They want to abolish all prisons. They want to defund the police. They want to abolish the U S. Senate. They want to pack the Supreme Court. They want the government to take over control of all production This is communism and it has led to the murder of innocent people, tens of millions of them in the twentieth century alone. We have to fight this. We're no longer just in an election cycle. We were saying it was common sense versus crazy. Now it's common sense versus communism, and everybody needs to wake up. And then you have Mag and Mike saying, okay, okay, okay But here's what we're going to do We're going to come up with a reconciliation package. It's going to be big. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be irresistible to Republicans. And this way, we're going to do this voter suppression. Everybody's going to be happy with Maga Mic and we're going to suppress people's votes because yeah, Donald Trump doesn't give a shitcuse Donald Trump doesn't care about affordability when it comes to housing. He hasn't even signed that housing bill Donald Trump doesn't care about health carere. He'll just lie and say, your health carere prices are down eight hundred percent his makeu numbers. But when it comes to, you know, voter suppression, that's what we're going to focus on. Why? Because these people are losers. They have loser fascist ideas. People like Maga Mike and Donald Trump are not patriots. They hate America. They hate you, They hate this country. All they want to do is take and take and take and steal and cheat and commit crimese That's what they want to do. Here's what Magga Mike has to say, let's play it. What we're planning to do is send over a bill that will be irresistible for any Republican. Really incredible piece of legislation that will get the job done, meaning that we will continue to increase affordability, We will reduce fraud, waste, and abuse in government, and we willll secure elections. Every Republican would vote for that if packaged correctly and that's what we're planning to do right now All right, so that's where Save America Acts is going to move to the Senate is probably through that plan. Oh I want to bring in right now? I want to bring in Democratic Congress member Chris D Lzio from in Pennsylvania True patriot. let me bring in Congress member Deluio. I interviewed him just before let me bring in the interview I just did with Congress member Deluio from Pennsylvania. Bring it in I want to bring in Congressmber Chris Delzio from Pennsylvania, Congressman. Great to see you. you know, these economic reports that are coming in are very dire. I mean, we're seeing No job creation Revisions from prior job reports, you know showing that even when there were bad job reports in the past, it's even worse than we expected, you know in prior months. know and Donald Trump's out there saying this is the golden age. He's got his national economic advisor, Kevin Hassett saying, hope is right around the corner the stage is set for the and it's always right around the corner. And you know what's going to happen as they keep on crashing this thing. They're just going to then find their target to blame and say, we were about to do it. We were so close and then the Democrats and then this person. so how do we how do we deal with it when people in your district and across this country are something? And they are, right? People in Pennsylvania and Western Pennsylvania all over are getting hammered by high prices Gas, yes, the place you see every day and Donald Trump starting the Iran warar. has driven up gas prices tremendously. They's still north at four dollars a gallon in my part of the world It wasn't just the war in Iran. he started that made life more expensive, right? He started all these trade wars that have been pounding small businesses, especially pounding farmers I go on and on and has done nothing, frankly to address this heavy consolidation of industries, this like corporate monopolization, our economy Even the very weak action that the DOJ and the Trump administration took on the meat packers. You're all, what's he talking about the meatpackers Beef has gone up tremendously in costs and there is heavy heavy consolidation And the Trump administration did nothing about it. So we see this roll up It might be private equity, it might be just overwhelming corporate power. We see it squeeze people on prices kill small businesses. I mean, we're all pay for it whether you're in Pennsylvania or anywhere el Donald Trump has made so much of this worse The scale of his grift and self enrichment and I believe criminality while the American people is suffering is the scale is so big I think that's what he's relying on hoping that people just can't even comprehend these numbers. I mean, people can understand, wow, you did ten trades and you manipulated markets during this period of time twenty one thousand trades. Crazy. twenty two thousand trades during during one year. I mean, you're talking about eighty to one hundred trades every single day and timed around critical events where they were either kind of you know, massive, you know, massive tanking of the economy or, you know, buying dips when the economy, you know, when you had the market rising, you know, and then the crypto ventures, you know, bringing in the foreign money to World Liberty Fancial and just seeing all that. I mean, how How do you talk to your constituents about that? Because, you know, what Trump will do, that the pivot is, you know, politics is corrupt in general. You know, there's corruption here, there's corruption there. They did it. We did it. everyverybody does it. This is on such a different level though. that it is, you know, beyond comprehension This corruption and the level of corruption from Trump and people around him is unprecedented one point four billion dollars through crypto ventures alone should just shock your conscience and it does. I think the reporting is that E's family took in north of two billion dollars analyzing these financial disclosures. And as you said, it's crypto schemes, it's foreign government and foreign government backed business deals. It's the stock trades. I, look, when I'm doing stuff It could be a town hall, whatever. and I talk about corruption. I talk about banning members of Congress and people like the president from trading stocks You know, the folks even with the Maga hats are clapping along because they're right. This is corrupt stuff It should gross you out. And by the way, the corruption comes at a cost Because when you are defrauding people, when you are engage in these pay to play schemes It doesn't just have no victim. it erodes trust on our whole system And there's somebody else on the other side of that trade, especially this meane coin scheme And these are supporters and deep believers in Donald Trump. we just took money from in this scheme. It's just nasty stuff Right? I mean, when you look at what his crypto ventures earned I mean you it looked like earned two plus billion dollars. Then you look at the people who bought into it. They lost two billion dollars. by the way, it doesn't have to be be that way. I mean, know if you werere going to do a venture, you know, people would think, okay, you know what I'm in a business, I have shareholders, I have stakeholders. My job as a fiduciary is to create shareholder vue, evenven if you thought in those terms, you know, yes The leadership can make money. That's no one's saying the leadership can't make money, but it should be based upon bringing everybody along for the ride. And to me, it's a perfect analog to what's happening in this country where Trump has viewed the country as a zero sum game. I believe he didn't want to sign the housing bill because he believes if we give new people housing We're taking away housing from the private equity firms and we're harming people to help people. And everything I think he just sees through the lens if We're going to help the American people. We then must be hurting my rich oligarch friends and my friends The oligarchs, me, my family, we've only made money our life when we take from other people. I mean, you look at those charts of the Trump investments, how he does versus his investors or how he does versus the people who buy the mean coins. It looks like the US economy, it's that c shape thing that everybody talks about where he's made all the money and everybody's lost all the money Yeah, and look as I say, doing this Fine, you're a private business person, okay You're not. You're the president. You occupy the highest office in the land You have access to so many levers of power. that you can abuse that you are abusing. to enrich yourselves at the public's expense, right The kind of information even a member of Congress learns, we see members of Congress abuse that power and trade stock. That's like on steroids for what the president and the people around him can do. And in a bunch of ways you just pointed out They're doing it And they're not shy about it and they're making lots of money just like pigs of the trough, man ripping off the public here You know, you talk about, you know who this Trump regime is looking out for, the right wing oligarchs, private equity. You know One of the things that we've seen when I'm not doing my this Touch network, I'm a sports law professor, and I've talk about this in my class where you now have private equity trying to kind of gobble up rights to children's sports u to kids sports and kids sports leagues And, you know, for people who are like, you know, well, you know, there's so much to focus on right now Sh we be focusing on these vulture practices in kids sports? Id say yes, because it's also symptomatic of a broader issue. If the private equity is going after your child's little league, it tells you that there's nothing off limits in where they're going to try to take away the American dream and take away the refuge that we have in family and fun in order to extract profits. And I know you're fighting against that. talk about it Yeah, Ive introduced this let Kids play act with Senator Murphy and some others to get private equity and vulture investors out of youth sports. And let's start with the problem They have turned youth sports into a luxury item. Think about that. in America Sports are supposed to be the great equalizer. Every kid should be able to show up on a field, on a court, whatever and have their shot. You learn about discipline and hard work.'m from place where we belieleve black and gold in Western Pennsylvania sports matters to us. They matter all over the country. But man They have rolled up so many different parts of you sports. They've jacked up the cost for families. This is now like a forty billion dollar industry making money off of parents who want their kids play. So we go right at some of these nasty practices in the bill We're trying to kick out these vulture investors Remember, this isn't just like some other part of the economy. We're talking about youth sports where there is a good and there's an interest here that is bigger than just making money Kids having a shot to play matters for society. It matters for the country. And I see these vulture investors. I think they should have nothing to do be nowhere near making money off the backs of kids Chris, I know you're running for reelection right now as well U talkalk to us though about what you're seeing in your district and what you're seeing in Pennsylvania. and if you're seeing the vibe shift that appears to be kind of taking place, you know, from my vantage point, but I never want to I just spoke with someone out in Iowa, I just spoke with someone out in Indiana, you know, and they're saying, you know, we've never seen anything, you know, like it. I mean, you know, Pennsylvania, Commonwealth view generally purple, very swing state. What are you seeing? I mean, you saw what down in twenty twenty four? Are you seeing differences right now? What are you seeing? Yeah, Pennsylvanians have turned against Donald Trump. His numbers are imploding. But let me be clear about something. That does not automatically translate to Democrats are going to win. It's an opportunity I'm going to say this as a guy who Donald Trump threatened to imprison and the call for my hanging, just opposing Trump is not enough. Democrats have to seize this moment frankly restore the American dream. I mean, people are tired of getting ripped off and working hard and their life doesn't line up to what their hard work should give them eararn them And I think this is a chance because Donald Trump has failed so remarkably. for Democrats to frankly, dream bigger than just meeeting this affordability crisis. We got to put juice back in the American dream to build out a good life for people to make hard work pay off. And this is a real opportunity to do that given his failure. So I sense The voters have turned against Donald Trump. They've turned against these Republicans who are so weak doing whatever he wants Democrats have to offer more and I see so many of us in that economic fight. But it's a moment for us to seeize it Congressman Delzio, appreciate you coming on as always and appreciate the great work you're doing. And I think it'll be Elightenning to a lot of our viewers what's going on. I mean I'm sure a lot of them know what's happening in kids sports like that, but You know, they should really look into it because it is a horrific, horrific practice. And then you know what happens next? then these private equities want want these tax breaks relating to it and they want exemptions because now they're saying, lookook, we're doing it in the public the slippery slope kind of continues, right of how they then want to use children as kind of a as a kind of cludgeon against other taxes and things like And thanks for having, Im man All right everybody, hit subscribe. Let's get to seven million subscribers. Want to stay plugged in? become a subscriber for our substack at Midasplus. com You'll get daily recaps from Ron Philipkowski, add free episodes of our podcasts, and more exclusive content only available at Midasplus. com