The Madness of King Donald's massive, recently signed tax cut and spending law continues to be a focus on today's BradCast. As does his madness and non-stop lying, in general, and the deadly climate disasters that continue to worsen by the day, coincidentally, following adoption of the Republican anything-but-beautiful bill that guts U.S. investment in cheap, clean, climate saving, renewable energy. [Audio link to full show follows below.]

Before we get to our guest today, some quick news items, including...

• A few independently verifiable fact-checks on the mountain of a lies told by Donald Trump during Tuesday's ridiculous, televised "Cabinet Meeting" at the White House, including several of his falsehoods regarding inflation, his tariff policy, his massive spending bill, China's use of wind energy, California's clean and reliable power grid, and more.

• The climate chaos continues seemingly unabated this week. First it was record deadly flash-flooding in Texas on Friday. Then record deadly flash-flooding on Sunday in North Carolina. And, on Tuesday, deadly flash-flooding in Ruidoso, New Mexico, in an area scarred by wildfires and flooding just last year. (Also, Chicago saw a months worth of rain in about 90 minutes on Tuesday, stranding vehicles, triggering rescues, etc.) The Fox "News" Weather website had fairly good coverage in their story headlined: "Deadly walls of water pummel communities across three states in just one week, spawn unprecedented devastation". But, can you guess what they forgot to even mention in their coverage of all of that deadly climate-fueled chaos in less than one week? Right. Not a single mention of the manmade global warming and climate change which exacerbated the chaos, made it more likely, more intense and, sadly, more and more deadly.

THEN... We are joined by RYAN COOPER, Managing Editor at The American Prospect, who (presciently?) filed a story late last month about how climate-fueled disasters cost the U.S. almost a trillion dollars over the past year, far outpacing estimates even by Nobel Prize winning economists. And that was before the seemingly non-stop disasters of the past week.

It was also before Donald Trump gutted much of Joe Biden and the Democrats' landmark Inflation Reduction Act investments in clean, renewable energy, as Trump did when he signed the GOP budget monstrosity last Friday. Imagine how much farther the trillion dollars of damage from last year alone could have gone if it had been used to combat climate change instead.

"This is the real irony of what is happening here," Cooper explains today. "President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act was expected to cost about a trillion dollars in spending over ten years...a really big policy. But economic analysis now indicates that repealing that and replacing it with coal subsidies and whatnot [as the Trump/GOP law does] isn't going to boost GDP, it's going to reduce it. It's going to hurt economic growth." And, of course, the climate.

"Now that solar panels and batteries have gotten so cheap, this is the best way to drive economic growth. So we're cutting off our nose to spite our face. We're allowing China to monopolize the industries of the 21st century, while the American auto industry is going to be stranded, using obsolete technology, while China takes over the rest of the world with dirt cheap electric vehicles. So much for America First."

Cooper argues: "It's just completely senseless in way that's almost impossible to describe what Republicans have done to America and to the American economy. And the world, too."

But the gutting of clean energy investment is hardly the only under-reported absurdity in Trump's big bill. While there has been much coverage of its trillion dollars worth of cuts to health care via Medicaid, much less reportage has been given to the fact that --- unless Congress adopts a fix, and quickly --- as much as $500 billion will be cut from MediCARE as well over the next ten years, including $50 billion over the next year alone.

All of that to help pay for $4 trillion in tax cuts to mostly wealthy people, at the additional cost of $3 trillion added to the national debt.

Cooper and TAP's David Dayen this week rounded up even more under-reported idiocy from the Trump/GOP megabill, that we finally find time to cover today, including ten bizarre items hidden in the bill, such as its perverse incentives for states to defraud the SNAP food stamp program; a provision that exempts oil and gas drilling companies from paying taxes at all; and something that Cooper and Dayen refer to as "The Mass Shooter Subsidy". (Yes, it's as outrageously stupid as it sounds...)

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We're back live for today's BradCast after our 4th of July break last week. I wish we were back with better news. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

It was bad enough when we presumed we'd be covering last week's final passage and signing of the Trump/GOP Big Budget Boondoggle bill today. The law that will now strip health care and food assistance from tens of millions (including from the Obamacare exchange here in California; from rural hospitals already shutting down in Nebraska; and to MediCARE recipients across the country); super-size ICE into Trump's virtual private army; and gut landmark climate change initiatives and clean energy tax credits for consumers and businesses that had previously resulted in a U.S. manufacturing boom. All in order to help pay fore more than $4 trillion dollars in tax cuts mostly to the wealthiest Americans, at a cost of spiking the national debt by $3 trillion.

All of that would have been bad enough today. But the heartbreaking and completely predictable tragedy still unfolding in Texas is simply soul crushing. We know it was predictable, because, despite lies from officials to the contrary, it was predicted. Making it all the more horrific, the deadly flash flooding took place on the very same day that Trump and Republicans were high-fiving each other at the White House for their tax cuts to rich people and the gutting of landmark climate initiatives to help keep us safe by moving away from the burning of fossil fuels that has intensified and increased weather disasters like the one we are watching unfold in Texas Hill country today.

With more than 100 now confirmed dead as of airtime --- including dozens of little girls at a Christian summer camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River, where water rose 25 feet in less than an hour --- the blame game is already underway with Texas officials (and the chief of Trump's U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security), charging that the National Weather Service somehow failed to issue proper forecasts and warnings.

In fact, as we discuss in detail today, though the NWS is now dangerously under-staffed thanks to Trump's layoffs, early retirement buyouts and hiring freezes, agency meteorologists did, in fact, predict and warn about the flash flooding emergency. Multiple times. But many of the NWS positions which, prior to the second Trump Administration, would have prepped with and communicated warnings to local officials are now vacant.

Of course, all of that can be added to the years of warnings from climate science experts about exactly the type of disaster that unfolded on Friday night in Texas, where Republican officials --- like Trump in D.C. --- continue to ignore the lessons of our climate crisis and refuse to take action in response. In fact, they are actively working to make it worse.

Our own Desi Doyen spent much of the holiday weekend digging into all of this with academics and meteorological experts. She joins us today to clarify what we knew, what we didn't, and who is now lying about what in her old home state of Texas and beyond...

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On today's BradCast: It's getting worse, not better --- and more deadly --- in the U.S. Senate. That, even though the House version is already wildly unpopular. [Audio link to full show follows below.]

Over the past week, Republicans in the U.S. Senate have been releasing their updates to the budget bill passed by Republicans by just one vote last month in the U.S. House. Donald Trump's so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," is so named because he couldn't wait to adopt his second-term legislative agenda over several bills. It's all jammed into this one big, brutally cruel bill. That's the plan, anyway.

You may recall the House version slashed more than a trillion dollars from Medicaid and SNAP food assistance, likely to leave some 15 million low-income and disabled men, women, and children without access to health care and millions more without a measly $6 a day in nutrition assistance. In addition to gutting clean, renewable energy incentives for American families and companies --- adopted under Joe Biden, resulting in a manufacturing boom in the U.S. --- the House version of the bill increases the national debt by nearly $3 trillion dollars. All to help pay for $4 trillion in tax cuts that will disproportionately benefit the wealthy and corporations.

Recent polling finds the American public rejects the House bill by a nearly 2 to 1 margin, including large numbers of Republicans and independents. So, what has the U.S. Senate done to improve on the bill? It seems they have made most of it far worse, not better, beginning with the cuts to health care.

We're joined again today by BOBBY KOGAN, former Biden-Harris White House budget advisor and chief budget analyst in the U.S. Senate Budget Committee prior to that. We spoke with him a month or so ago, following passage of the House version. He is back with us today to discuss what has changed, improved or worsened with the GOP Senate's proposed version of the bill.

"The Medicaid cuts in the Senate version are more extreme than the cuts in the House version," he explains. "Simply more people kicked off, more states losing more money, and harsher work requirements" which, he details, have a proven record of not working.

It's not just Medicaid. Cuts to the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) "will kick 4.2 million people off of their health insurance. And then they are also going beyond the pre-Biden status quo, and that's another few million people kicked off."

Rather than fix all of that, the Senate bill simply makes things worse, he says. All told, the loss of health care, according to a recent analysis of the House version by the Yale School of Public Health, finds more than 51,000 people are likely to die annually that otherwise would not, but for these cuts.

"It's really basic logic," Kogan argues, even as he says Republicans become "indignant" when this is pointed out. "If you cut a trillion dollars of funding that is all about providing health coverage to people, then you better believe that with a trillion dollars less there will be fewer people covered. Some of those people will get really sick. Some of them won't be able to afford it. Some of them of won't get better, where they would have otherwise gotten better if they'd had coverage. This is basic logic. But, basically, Republicans are too afraid to admit that they don't think the money is worth it."

"Obviously this is bad on the merits," he continues. "But it's also wild that this bill would disproportionately hit a lot of people who voted for Trump. A lot of Trump supporters are on Medicaid. Those folks are going to be hurting."

But, it's not just folks on Medicaid or the ACA Exchanges who will be affected. The measure will result in a "double hit to the hospitals" which rely on payments from Medicaid to survive. Many of them are in rural areas, which disproportionately vote Republican as well. Many of them are likely to face closure for lack of funding, punishing everyone, no matter where they get coverage, in those areas.

So, why are Republicans in the Senate doubling down on this mess? Tune in for Kogan's thoughts.

He tells me that there has never been another bill like this in U.S. history, "where it is large cuts for low-income people at the same time they are doing tax cuts for the rich." He cites the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office analysis that "shows it would make the poorest Americans poorer while making the richest Americans richer, in the same bill. And when you incorporate the tariffs, it's only the richest who are winning." To be exactly, it is only the richest 10% of Americans who will gain. Every other American will lose.

"It's just a crazy bill," says Kogan, who is now Senior Director of Federal Budget Policy at the Center for American Progress. "It's a crazy thing to go to your constituents and say, 'You elected me to take from the poor to give to the rich, while increasing the deficit by trillions of dollars.' That's a crazy thing."

Crazy or not, it may very well pass out of the Senate, though Kogan says it can still be stopped. And, even if it does pass through the Senate, it will have to get through the House again, where it only passed by a single vote the last time.

He's got much more to say on all of this today. Please tune in. But, perhaps his most important message, once again, is to contact your Senators, no matter where you live, and let them know how you feel about this bill! Miracles happen, as Kogan illustrates today with his story of that night in the Senate in 2017, when he served on the Senate Budget Committee during Trump's first term, when Republicans were trying to kill the Affordable Care Act entirely. Dems thought it was done for. Until the moment when a sickly John McCain showed up to vote it down, saving health care for millions. It's why you never stop fighting.

ALSO TODAY...

• We don't have to wait for passage (or failure) of Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" before his policies undermine health care. His recent travel ban from 19 countries and visa restrictions are already preventing sick children from coming to this country for life-saving surgery and blocking thousands of new medical residents from overseas, relied upon by hundreds of hospitals across the country, from taking their post on July 1.

• And finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, as the Pacific hurricane season is off to an unusually early and ferocious start, with Hurricane Erick making landfall today as a Cat 3 in Mexico; Trump budget cuts and layoffs are already undermining our National Parks as tourist season begins; And more on the Republican budget bill that will increase energy prices for Americans, while selling off our public lands to the private sector...

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Well, it's our last BradCast for a week or so, as we prepare for a muuuch-needed stand-down next week after Memorial Day. But we make up for it by packing a lot into today's program, with two of our favorite (and your favorite) guests. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

We're joined today again for one of our semi-regular (irregular?) round tables with our old-school, right-about-everything-for-20-years blogger pals, HEATHER DIGBY PARTON, award-winning columnist at Salon and her own Digby's Hullabaloo blog; and the notorious 'DRIFTGLASS', blogger and co-host of the weekly Professional Left Podcast from Flyover Country, Illinois.

As noted, we cover a whole lot of ground today, including both important and incredibly dumb news alike! Among the important news...

• DoJ Team Trump attorneys are upbraided in court by a U.S. District judge in New Jersey for indicting Newark's Democratic Mayor Ras Baraka on ridiculous trespassing charges, vowing last week to bring him to trial, only to drop all charges this week. At the same time, they then went on to indict Democratic Congresswoman LaMonica McIver on ridiculous charges stemming from the same incident two weeks ago at an ICE detention facility in Newark. Those charges will also likely be dropped eventually, and Trump's former loser defense attorney, now interim U.S. Attorney in NJ, Alina Habba, will likely find herself upbraided again.

• After Trump spent years campaigning on promises to not touch Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid, House Republicans earlier today barely passed Trump's budget bill that --- you guessed --- will slash both Medicare and Medicaid by more than a trillion dollars, taking away health care from as many as 14 million Americans. That, in order to help pay for tax cuts to wealthy people while ballooning deficit spending by about 4 trillion dollars. (Digby: "It's a complete travesty, and I think everybody knows it.")

• The Trump Regime's ongoing horrors and errors and blatant, thuggish, authoritarian violations of court orders regarding his clownish yet cruel and unlawful mass deportation efforts. (Driftglass: "This is a mass weapon attack, like raining missiles down on an enemy target. Some of it is going to get through. And they'll get most of what they want.")

• Qatar's $400 million bribe to Trump in the shape of a Boeing 747 "flying palace" that may never be used as Air Force One, but that he hopes to keep for his own personal use after his Presidency. "Emoluments," like "groceries," is such an old-fashioned word. (Driftglass: "He's just a giant greed hole of need and narcissism." Digby: "It sure sounds like 'I'd like you to do us a favor though...'")

• And, oh, yeah, Republicans on Thursday also nuked the filibuster in the U.S. Senate by ignoring the Senate Parliamentarian to pass a law with a bare majority that, according to Senate rules, requires 60 votes for passage. And they did so in order to ban California's clean air laws. So much for states' rights. That, despite the fear by many Democrats of nuking the filibuster to protect Voting and Reproductive Rights for all Americans when they last controlled the Senate. (Digby: "Senate rules are dead. So get ready. We are in such untrod territory.")

As you might imagine, both Digby and Driftglass have quite a few thoughts on all of the above, as well as on the Dumb News we cover today as well (apologies in advance)...

• Trump's Director of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, doesn't know what "habeas corpus" means.

• Republicans are pretending to be horrified by former FBI Director James Comey posting a photo of someone spelling out "86 47" in seashells on a beach. (Ya know, just like those "86 46" t-shirts rightwingers used to pimp. Says Digby: "This is a Republican thing, and they've been doing it forever." See her "Art of the Hissy Fit" from 2007 for more.)

• Trump is attacking and threatening Bruce Springsteen. Bruce Springsteen!

• And the dumbest news of all this week: Jake Tapper has a book about Joe Biden and a super-duper, totally important right now, conspiracy cover-up of his physical --- and, allegedly, cognitive --- decline while in office.

Don't worry. I didn't give away the best lines or hottest takes on either the important or dumb news, so tune on in!

And finally, Desi Doyen is here with our latest Green News Report with nothing but really good --- okay, really bad --- news to kick off Summer!...

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Today on BradCast: Some really troubling news about voting rights and the Voting Rights Act that hasn't received nearly enough attention since a terrible court ruling last week. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

FIRST UP... A few other items of note...

• If you haven't heard, Donald Trump seems to be freaking out about something Bruce Springsteen said on stage last week when he opened his "Land of Hope and Dreams" tour in the U.K. We share a bit of what Bruce had to say, about democracy and more. "The America I love, the America I've written about --- that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years --- is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration," Springsteen correctly sounded the alarm as he opened his show. "Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experience to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism, and let freedom ring." And that's not all he had to say. We share more.

• Speaking of democracy, after recent come-from-way-behind victories by center-left and liberal parties running against authoritarian rightwing opponents in Canada and Australia in recent weeks, it happened again on Sunday. This time in Romania, where a Trump-supporting far-right nationalist candidate who looked set to win the nation's Presidential election just weeks ago, learned differently once voters actually showed up to cast their vote. Being a wannabe Trumper, he is, of course, claiming "fraud", though he has failed to present any evidence so far (as I said, just like Trump.) The apparent win for the pro-European, pro-democracy candidate is also very good news indeed for neighboring Ukraine.

• On Friday, a handful of Republicans in the U.S. House who want even more cuts to health care and nutrition assistance for the nation's neediest --- including millions of children and disabled Americans --- in order to help pay for huge tax cuts to the wealthy, blocked progress of Trump's so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill" in Committee. By the time Sunday rolled around, those so-called "deficit hawks" had been brought to heel. Another Committee meeting was called to begin at 10pm on Sunday night and the measure was successfully voted out of committee, even though it would still add trillions to the nation's debt. The measure now advances to the House floor where Speaker Mike Johnson hopes for passage before the Memorial Day recess. Thereafter, Trump's legislative agenda heads to the U.S. Senate.

• Also last Friday, there was some good-ish news from the corrupted U.S. Supreme Court via another emergency ruling at the behest of an appeal by the Trump Administration. All Justices, other than Thomas and Alito, rejected the appeal, issuing a ruling that found the Trump Administration had failed to give appropriate Constitutional Due Process to Venezuelan migrants they are hoping to deport from Texas to El Salvador under Trump's (mis)use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

NEXT... While alleged Venezuelan gang members may have access to at least some Due Process to avoid unlawful removal from the country and a life sentence in an El Salvadoran gulag, American voters in at least seven states may now have no way to challenge unlawful, racially discriminatory violations of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

A ruling last week by a three-judge panel on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the last route for private individuals and organizations in states covered by the Circuit (Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota) to hold jurisdictions accountable for violations of the Voting Right Act. The decision echoes a similar ruling by the 8th Circuit back in 2023. But last week's ruling would seem to block the one other remaining path that voters still had to bring private complaints following that other terrible ruling two years ago.

If the 8th Circuit's decision is allowed to stand, it would mean that only the U.S. Dept. of Justice could bring suit against violations of the last central tenet still standing from the VRA. The ruling, which my guest today describes as "dead wrong", applies, for now, only in the seven states covered by the 8th Circuit. But if plaintiffs decide to appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and lose there, it would effectively kill the entire VRA in all 50 states --- at least during Republican Administrations.

JUSTIN LEVITT previously served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice under President Obama and then as White House Senior Policy Advisor for Democracy and Voting Rights under President Biden. He is now a Professor of Constitutional Law at Loyola University Law School here in Los Angeles and joins us today to explain what he describes as last week's "truly unprecedented" decision. (That's the nicest thing he had to say about it!)

"They have effectively eliminated the ability to enforce the Voting Rights Act" in those seven states, Levitt tells me. "The 8th Circuit was way out of line, but it's not a sure bet that the Supreme Court won't follow them out of that line."

The 8th Circuit panel determined that because the Voting Rights Act doesn't specifically mention a private right to sue, that such suits are barred. Only DoJ can sue. But, in fact, since 1982, there have been more than 450 such suits and only 18 of them were brought by DoJ. Some made it all the way to SCOTUS and yet none of the judges in any of those cases --- until now --- found the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue under the law. Go figure.

"This is about people in robes forgetting why they're there. People in love with a particular statutory interpretation methodology and forgetting that what they are supposed to be doing is effectuating the intent of Congress," argues Levitt. The VRA has been amended several times since 1965 --- under Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush --- and adopted by huge majorities in both chambers of Congress. The members of Congress who amended it, and Presidents who signed the re-authorizations, "absolutely thought that the NAACP Legal Defense Fund would be bringing cases right alongside the Department of Justice and others. It's ludicrous to think that Congress wanted anything different than that." If they had wanted anything different, he notes, they could have changed the law to say as much at that time, since so many suits had already been brought under the law by individual voters and private voting rights organizations even before the law's several re-authorizations.

So, what happens next? What can be done about any of this? If the case does make it to SCOTUS and they too undermine the VRA are there ANY routes left for voters to challenge racially discriminatory election laws in the U.S.? Levitt answers all of those questions and many others on today's BradCast...

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Today on The BradCast: A whole lotta madness. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among our many, mad stories today...

• The Trump Administration challenged the constitutionality of lower court judges issuing nationwide injunctions at the U.S. Supreme Court today, as part of Donald Trump's wildly unconstitutional Executive Order declaring an end to Constitutional Birthright Citizenship. He's lost in every lower court, so far, even if the merits of that Order, largely, were not heard by the High Court today. The Administration did, however, appear to be on track to lose their maximalist argument against nationwide injunctions as well.

• The House GOP's effort to ram Trump's "big, beautiful" agenda through the House before the Memorial Day recess continues apace, after several all-nighter mark-up sessions in major House committees. The bill is meant to encompass the entire Trump/GOP agenda to give enormous tax cuts to rich people and corporations, while taking health care (and much more ) from millions of the neediest Americans, in one single bill. But many Republicans can't agree on how many Americans should have their health care taken away from them to pay for a bill that will add nearly $4 trillion to the national debt. And some Republicans appear to have no idea about major provisions in the legislation.

• As Congress is gutting health care and nutrition assistance for the nation's neediest, the Trump Administration continues to work toward --- "eliminating" --- the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) just weeks before hurricane and wildfire season kick into gear. Trump fired FEMA's acting Director last week after he dared testify, in contradiction to Trump, that he didn't think it a good idea to eliminate the agency. His replacement is promising to "run right over" anyone who gets in his way, even as an internal review obtained by CNN warns that FEMA "is not ready" for hurricane season.

• And hurricanes this year could be more deadly than ever. That, thanks to both climate change and, more immediately, drastic Trump cuts to the National Weather Service (NWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) which houses it. Last week, five former NWS directors penned an open letter, warning of great danger to the public in the wake of recent draconian cuts at the Service. Scientific American details their chilling concerns.

• It has now been two months since Maryland father and Venezuelan migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia was "accidentally" disappeared to a gulag in El Salvador by the Trump Administration in violation of a court order. But Trump's ridiculous contention about Abrego Garcia having "MS-13" tattooed onto his knuckles continues. That, as the Administration continues to defy a Supreme Court order to facilitate the man's return. But because Trump was obviously and transparently wrong about "MS-13" on the man's knuckles (it clearly Photoshopped onto a photo shown to him), everybody else in his Administration must pretend he wasn't wrong about it. That led to an absurd and surreal colloquy between DHS Sec. Kristi Noem and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) in a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Wednesday.

• Yes, it's a mad world right now in these United States, though one that we should have seen coming. (Some of us did.) Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter --- who died last week in New Hampshire at the age of 85 --- tried to warn us about pretty much everything we're seeing now...back in 2012, before the Trump-era.

• Finally, we close with Desi Doyen and our latest Green News Report, as Republicans in Congress work to end Joe Biden's landmark clean, renewable energy initiatives; the Trump EPA rolls back limits on toxic chemicals in drinking water; and some recent good news for the climate out of Australia...

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On today's BradCast: While we're all distracted on a daily basis by Donald Trump's endless, lawless, childish idiocy, Republicans have been quietly preparing to adopt some "deeply evil stuff" in Congress in order to help pay for trillions of dollars in huge tax cuts to wealthy Americans. [Audio link to full story follows this summary.]

On Monday, House Republicans finally unveiled the final piece of their proposed, so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill" that would "dramatically reshape America for the worse," according to my guest today, who broke down the cruel proposal at the heart of Trump's main budget and tax agenda for his second term at the Center for American Progress last night.

The plan includes, among other things, what my guest describes as "the largest Medicaid cuts in history," cutting access to health care to more than 8 million people at or near poverty-level income; "the largest SNAP cuts in history", threatening daily nutrition assistance to the 1 in 8 Americans who receive, on average, about $2 per meal, per day from the program, many of them children; it would increase the cost of energy and electricity for all Americans by cutting the Biden Administration's landmark investments in clean, renewable energy while keeping billions of dollars in permanent federal subsidies for fossil fuel companies; and the GOP measure would also increase costs for undergraduate student loans for the roughly 1 out of 8 Americans who have them and/or are in the process of trying to pay them off.

All of that to help pay for a massive $68,000 tax cut for millionaires and a $300,000 cut for the luckiest American households in the top 0.1 percent. The House GOP proposal, if adopted as written, would do nothing --- or even raise taxes --- for some 33 million households. But it would increase the federal deficit by trillions of dollars, despite a Republican Party which has long pretended to oppose deficit spending. (At least when they're out of power.)

How's that for making American Millionaires and Billionaires Great Again?

We're joined today to break down all the ugly details on both the bill and its chance for passage by BOBBY KOGAN, Senior Director for Federal Budget Policy at the Center for American Progress. He previously served as an adviser to the Office of Management and Budget in the Biden-Harris White House and as Head of Budget Analysis for the U.S. Senate Budget Committee under Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT.)

"It absolutely would really, really hurt the people who they claim to represent and serve," Kogan tells me, referring to the proposed cuts of at least $600 billion to Medicaid and the loss of health care coverage for tens of thousands of Americans in each of the House districts represented by GOP lawmakers supporting these cuts. A number of House Republicans --- especially those representing "blue" or "purple" districts --- previously claimed to oppose Medicaid cuts. If House Speaker Mike Johnson loses just 3 votes he will not be able to pass the bill. So, what does it say that their long-awaited proposal includes massive cuts anyway? "What I would say is they maybe talk a good game," argues Kogan. "They might pretend that they don't want to cut Medicaid. But their actions show that they are actually laser-focused on cutting Medicaid."

Among the many proposed changes to the program would be increased work requirements for recipients, which Republicans claim is necessary to save money by trimming waste, fraud and abuse. "It will save money by kicking people off their Medicaid," Kogan explains bluntly. "It's not about stopping fraud. The hyper-majority of what they are proposing in Medicaid cannot be credibly construed as going after fraud. Instead, what they are doing is transforming Medicaid from a lifeline for folks into something you only get if you meet certain conditions. It'll save money because if you lose your job, now you no longer get your Medicaid."

"States that have implemented these work requirements have led to disaster," he tells me. "It's not actually something that leads to more work. Instead, it puts up so much red tape that folks fail to make it through. They end up disenrolling tons of people who are working. It saves tons of money because people have lost their Medicaid."

The proposed cuts to food for needy adults and children via the SNAP program are no less evil or immoral, he says, along with the increased education and energy costs that tens of millions of Americans will face if this bill becomes law. All to pay for huge tax cuts to already wealthy people.

Is there anything in what Kogan describes as a "profoundly evil bill" that might actually help non-wealthy Americans? Can Republicans even get it over the finish line in the House with their incredibly narrow margin, much less through the Senate, much less agree on a version that can ultimately be passed by both chambers? And what can you do to help prevent all of this from happening? (Hint from Kogan: Call your members of Congress! Especially if they're Republican!) We discuss all of that and much more today with Kogan, who knows a whole lot about all of this stuff and is great at explaining it.

ALSO TODAY: The Washington Post filed a chilling story over the weekend about pizzas being delivered to the homes of federal judges in at least seven states over the last several months. The message being sent --- as Donald Trump, Elon Musk and their supporters have been attacking judges for rulings they oppose over social media and elsewhere --- is all too obvious and disturbing, especially since whoever is behind the threats have recently begun referencing the murdered son of one of the judges.

AND FINALLY: Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report in which, among other things, the Trump Administration is working toward shutting down FEMA entirely --- and just fired its Director --- weeks before hurricane season begins; and Republicans in Texas are moving to require that all solar plants must produce energy...at night...

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Will he ever face any punishment for his many crimes? That is among the many issues covered on today's BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

FIRST UP... The fight over Donald Trump's absurd selection of alleged statutory rapist Matt Gaetz as the next U.S. Attorney General continued in Congress today, as Republicans on the House Ethics Committee appeared to block the release of the report from a years-long investigation into the former Florida Reps' well-documented record of alleged sex trafficking of minors, paying some $10,000 for sex, and illicit drug use, among other (previously) disqualifying issues for someone tapped to head the Dept. of Justice as the nation's top law enforcement official.

THEN... The clown show of other Trump appointments to key government posts has continued over the past 24 hours with the selection of pro-wrestling's WWE co-founder Linda McMahon to head the Dept. of Education (which Trump has previously vowed to shut down) and TV doctor/snake-oil salesman Dr. Mehmet Oz to head up the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.

But one of Trump's picks this past week has received much less attention than it deserves. Brendan Carr, author of the chapter on the FCC in Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 [PDF], was selected over the weekend to become Chair of the Federal Communications Commission, even though Trump pretended during the campaign that he wanted nothing to do with Project 2025 and the people who created it. Carr quickly took to his friend Elon Musk's Twitter/X after his nomination on Sunday to declare a war on "censorship" by Big Tech companies, before subsequently appearing on Fox "News" to suggest the FCC must review broadcast licenses granted to news outlets like CBS. During the campaign, Trump called for the censorship or complete shutdown of almost all broadcast and cable news outlets that are not rightwing propagandists.

It must also be noted that Project 2025 specifically calls (see p. 279) for reviewing the broadcast licenses to Pacifica Radio Network, which has dozens of affiliate stations across the country that air The BradCast every day, including KPFK, our flagship station here in Los Angeles.

NEXT... The New York state justice system is in completely uncharted waters at the moment, with the election of Donald Trump following his conviction earlier this year on 34 felony counts of fraud related to his hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. Sentencing in the case had been scheduled for November 26. But this week, prosecutors from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg informed Justice Juan Merchan they were willing to pause sentencing to litigate Trump's assertions that, following his election this month and the U.S. Supreme Court's absurd "Presidential Immunity" ruling over the Summer, he can never be sentenced at all and the case must be dismissed in full. NY prosecutors, however, disagree and argue he should still be sentenced even if, in a worst case scenario, it must wait until after Trump is out of office.

We're joined today to help us make sense of this mess by George Washington University law school professor RANDALL D. ELIASON, who previously served as chief of the U.S. Justice Dept.'s Fraud and Public Corruption section in D.C.. Over the weekend, Eliason argued in an article at The Atlantic that New York must proceed with sentencing of Trump before he is sworn in to office next January.

"At this point," he tells me today, "it's almost less important what the actual sentence is. But I think it's important for the justice system to see that this case gets concluded, and doesn't just kind of dangle out there for the next four years. The case has already been tried and we already have a jury verdict. And it could be sentenced before he even takes office. That's not going to 'chill' him from doing anything as President, because it's over, and it's not going to take any of his time because appeals are handled by the lawyers."

While conceding "we don't have any precedent for any of this" and that a prison sentence certainly can't happen while he's in office, Eliason argues that it's "important now that A sentencing happens," even if it "can't be that meaningful or consequential. But I think it should take place just as a matter of the justice system completing this prosecution, honoring the jury's verdict, and having an official judgment of conviction entered on the record that he is, in fact, a convicted felon. Then the appeals can proceed in the normal course."

In addition to much more on that, we also discuss...

• The "extremely concerning" appointment of Matt Gaetz as U.S. Attorney General, who, the longtime DoJ veteran Eliason describes as "completely unqualified for the job" with "his only connection to the Justice Department, as far as I can tell, as the subject of a criminal investigation";
• The likelihood of Trump using recess appointments to push many of them through without Constitutionally-mandated Senate oversight. "How much Trump can get away with is going to come down to whether Senate Republicans have any backbone at all, and are willing to stand up for their Constitutional role for advice and consent." (Uh, oh);
• Whether the sprawling racketeering conspiracy case against Trump can continue in Georgia against his 18 indicted co-conspirators even if the ringleader of the attempt to steal the 2020 election in the Peach State is now either let off the hook entirely or is allowed to defer the trial until after he is out of office;
• How Eliason would like to see Special Counsel Jack Smith end the two federal indictments against Trump for his attempt to steal the 2020 election and his theft of hundreds of pages of highly classified national security documents the last time he left office in 2021;
• And whether Trump will still have to pay his civil penalties no matter what happens, including the $355 million fraud verdict against him in New York State and the $83 million jury award in the sexual assault case against him won by writer E. Jean Carroll...

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Marveling at the remarkably positive vibe emerging from the recent Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch observed:

That "new power dynamic" Bunch references is embodied in Vice President Kamala Harris' open alignment with the economic needs of the vast majority of Americans who make up the working and middle classes.

Whether or not the recommendation from Sen. Bernie Sanders, this nation's most progressive Senator, was a factor, it is clear that Harris' decision to pick one of the nation's most progressive Governors, Tim Walz of Minnesota --- a governor who gleefully signed a bill for free breakfast and lunch for all school children into law --- as her Vice-Presidential pick, reflects her commitment to progressive values.

As Georgia's Republican former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan made clear during his DNC speech, there's no need for Harris to move to the right to attract voters from outside of the progressive realm. The threat to democracy posed by Donald Trump, Project 2025 and the MAGA cult, along with the Democrats' commitment to "freedom", "patriotism" and respect for the rule of law, will be enough to attract honest conservative voters irrespective of whether they still call themselves Republicans or now describe themselves as either former Republicans or independents.

By adhering to her progressive economic values --- whether it comes to support for organized labor, an increase in the federal minimum wage, the expansion of social safety net programs, tax increases on the wealthy, the expansion of accessible health care and a crackdown on corporate price gouging --- Harris can not only maintain authenticity but also take advantage of the fact that an overwhelming majority of the American electorate both want and need such progressive economic policy initiatives...