#1713 Yes, GOP Policies Really Are That Bad: Trump's Corruption and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act

Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy

Jay Tomlinson

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4.6 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 30 May 2025

⏱️ 192 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Air Date 5/30/2025

Given the overwhelming weirdness of Trump and his malfeasant style of governance, it would be perfectly understandable for casual observers to believe that his signature piece of legislation, weirdly named in reality the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," was itself also likely to be pretty weird; a potential departure from usual Republican Party policy priorities. In reality, what's weird is how deeply normal it is: take from the poor and give to the rich while letting corporations get away with murder.

Full Show Notes

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KEY POINTS

KP 1: All the president's side hustles - Today, Explained - Air Date 5-15-25

KP 2: 'Met Gala of pay-for-play' Trump crypto dinner is brazenly corrupt, says Hayes - All In with Chris Hayes - Air Date 5-22-25

KP 3: Historian Julian Zelizer Trump's corruption is the worst ever seen in the White House! - The Dean Obeidallah Show - Air Date 5-13-25

KP 4: Analyst Trump's Middle East Trip Isn't For Peace. It's a Turn Towards Fighting China - BreakThrough News - Air Date 5-16-25

KP 5: Trump's Big Beautiful Bill is Baloney - The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich - Air Date 5-17-25

KP 6: Trump-GOP Tax Bill Cuts Medicaid, SNAP To Give Handouts To Billionaires Part 1- The Majority Report - Air Date 5-20-25

KP 7: Trump Castrated the Courts! Big Beautiful Bill ENDS Constitutional Protection Against Dictatorship - Thom Hartmann Program - Air Date 5-20-25

(00:55:49) NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

On why seeing is not believing and how that helps Republicans

DEEPER DIVES

(01:02:25) SECTION A: CORRUPTION

(01:45:05) SECTION B: BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL

(02:19:13) SECTION C: IMPACT

SHOW IMAGE CREDITS

Description: Composite image depicting Trump giving a speech at a podium with his hands out and an image of House Speaker Mike Johnson’s face in a circle over his shoulder. Text over the image reads “THE BIG CRUEL STUPID BILL”

Credits: Composite design by A. Hoffman. Photo credit: “President of the United States Donald J. Trump at CPAC 2017 February 24th 2017” by Michael Vadon, Flickr | CC BY 2.0 | Changes: Darkened overlay and text and image overlays | “Mike Johnson” by Gage Skidmore, Flickr | CC BY-SA 2.0 | Changes: Cropped into circle with darker overlay

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of Left podcast.
0:10.0	Given the overwhelming weirdness of Trump and his malfeasant style of governance,
0:16.0	it would be perfectly understandable for casual observers to believe that his signature piece of legislation,
0:22.7	weirdly named, in reality, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, was itself also likely to be
0:31.6	pretty weird, a potential departure from usual Republican Party policy priorities. In reality, what's weird
0:40.3	is how deeply normal it is. Take from the poor and give to the rich while letting corporations
0:46.8	get away with murder. It really is that simple. For those looking for a quick overview,
0:52.0	the sources providing our top takes in about 50 minutes
0:54.6	today includes Today Explained, All In with Chris Hayes, the Dean Obediah Show, Breakthrough
1:01.0	News, the Coffee Clatch with Robert Reich, the Majority Report, and the Tom Hartman
1:06.8	program.
1:07.6	Then in the additional deeper dives half of the show, there will be more in three sections. Section A, corruption, followed by Section B, the Big Beautiful Bill, and Section C,
1:17.8	The Impact. But first, a reminder to check out our new show solved on the Best of Left YouTube
1:23.4	channel. We're really proud of the show we're making and think it's actually pretty
1:27.6	unique for a political talk show. We're all about quality over quantity and focus on
1:32.6	developing unified themes for our discussions. Plus, we animate ourselves and produce songs
1:38.4	about our conversations each week, just for fun. In our latest episode, we got a bit philosophical
1:43.2	about the ways in which normal
1:44.9	human emotions like anxiety get weaponized against that which makes us anxious, often other people,
1:52.1	and in extreme cases, turned into dehumanization and violence. We concluded with some thoughts
1:57.8	on the similarities between all humans that run deeper than our different cultures.
2:02.6	We really think you'll like it, and checking it out will help us find new viewers on the YouTube platform.
	...

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