Big Beautiful Blunder
The Gist
Mike Pesca
4.4 • 3.6K Ratings
🗓️ 1 July 2025
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The episode kicks off with a withering look at the “Big Beautiful Bill,” a deficit-busting tax cut that showers the rich while hacking away at Medicaid for the poorest Americans. Then, a trip to Minnesota’s Iron Range, where Bethany McLean discusses the bitter fight over Nippon Steel’s bid to buy U.S. Steel—and the awkward dance between union leadership and the workers they claim to represent. It’s a story about how economic reality collides with political theater, and why Democrats keep misreading the mood in places that once anchored their coalition. And in the Spiel, a reminder that no amount of spectacle can disguise the trade-offs hiding in plain sight of that big, beautiful boondoggle.
Produced by Corey Wara
Production Coordinator Ashley Khan
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's Tuesday, July 1st, 2025 from Peachfish Productions. It's the gist. I'm Mike Pesca. |
| 0:09.1 | There she blows, which works on more levels than Moby Dick. I'm talking about the big, beautiful bill. |
| 0:15.6 | I can't believe I have to call it that. It passed. And in order to buy off, sorry, cajoling convince Alaska Senator Lisa |
| 0:22.6 | Murkowski, there is a tax break for whaling boat captains. I'm not sure if the Republican |
| 0:28.4 | senators from Kansas' constituents benefit that much from the whaling tax break. Three Republicans |
| 0:35.6 | could not be broken, Collins, Tillis, and Paul. You got to say |
| 0:39.4 | Rand Paul, don't you? It seems weird to say Paul. But all the others, like Ron Johnson, who still |
| 0:44.5 | gets called a deficit hawk. In today's papers, they all voted for a bill that adds three and a half |
| 0:49.7 | trillion dollars to the deficit. Almost three and a half trillion. And maybe these senators will |
| 0:55.8 | fall in November, but not Ron Johnson. He's not up for reelection. Most vulnerable Republicans |
| 1:01.4 | or would-be vulnerable Republican senators are not. Now, I will get to the politics of this |
| 1:06.6 | more in the spiel, but I just wanted to say right here up top very clearly why the bill is bad. |
| 1:13.1 | You will hear three reasons. It gives to the rich, it takes from the poor, and it adds to the |
| 1:18.8 | deficit. So last one first. Yes, it does. Quite irresponsibly, the official score even pushed |
| 1:24.2 | the costs of the tax cuts to almost $4.5 trillion. It's funny. I say |
| 1:29.7 | almost, it's funny but sad. I say almost $4.5 trillion. It's really $4.45 trillion. But you know what |
| 1:36.1 | that point $0.05 trillion is? It's $50 billion. That's a lot. But we could say almost |
| 1:41.7 | four and a half and you'll be like, yeah, sure, 50 billion. |
| 1:44.5 | Yeah, 50 billion. |
| 1:45.7 | And all of that, all those trillions of dollar tax breaks, that was even before they handed out |
| 1:51.1 | the humpback kickback or whatever they'll wind up calling it. |
| 1:54.9 | I tried to get humpback kickback going with a hashtag. |
... |
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