Ro Khanna on the Megabill & OpenAI Warns ‘Token’ Investors 7/3/25

Squawk Pod

CNBC

Business News, Investing, Business, News

4 • 494 Ratings

🗓️ 3 July 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The House of Representatives began debate on President Donald Trump’s sweeping spending bill following a late-night shift as key Republican holdouts threw their support behind the measure. Representative Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) stepped out of an hours long speech from Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) to fill CNBC’s audience in on the broader implications of the legislation. Microsoft will lay off about 9,000 employees, just under 4% of its global workforce. CNBC’s Steve Kovach and fellow tech journalist Michal Lev-Ram discussed the role of AI in the cuts and the future of tech’s labor force. Meanwhile, U.S. payrolls increased by 147,000 in June, President Trump continues to put pressure on Fed Chair Jerome Powell to cut rates, and OpenAI is issuing a warning about Robinhood’s “tokens” in the company. Ro Khanna - 15:28 Steve Kovach & Michal Lev-Ram - 23:03 In this episode: Rep. Ro Khanna, @reprokhanna Michael Lev-Ram, @mlevram Melissa Lee, @MelissaLeeCNBC Andrew Ross Sorkin, @andrewrsorkin Cameron Costa, @CameronCostaNY

Transcript

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0:00.0	Bring in show music, please.
0:02.5	This is Squawk Pod, and I'm CNBC producer Cameron Costa.
0:08.5	On today's episode, the House of Representatives poised to vote on President Trump's
0:14.5	mega bill.
0:15.5	It's likely to pass, but not before the Democrats speak their peace.
0:19.7	California Congressman Roe Kona joins us.
0:22.6	The reality is you have to raise taxes on the wealthy.
0:26.1	You can't be cutting taxes on the wealthy if you want to do anything to lower the deficit.
0:32.3	And Microsoft cutting 4% of its workforce.
0:36.4	Is AI to blame, really?
0:38.3	Our own Steve Kovac says,
0:40.3	Eh.
0:41.3	I think it's an excuse, maybe not a reason.
0:43.3	It was mostly just getting rid of middle managers.
0:45.3	AI can't replace that.
0:46.3	Fellow tech journalist McCollev-Rom says it's all part of a cycle.
0:50.3	This is kind of a natural thing that happens with Silicon Valley companies when we're going
0:55.5	through one of these big technological transformations and reallocations.
1:01.8	Those stories, plus the jobs report for June, what a better than expected metric from the
1:06.6	Labor Department means for Fed Chair, Jay Powell. It's, July 3rd, 2025, and SquawkPod begins right now.
1:16.2	Stand to enter by in three, two, one, Q Andrews.
1:21.6	Good morning and welcome to Squackbox right here on CNBC.
	...

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