Transcript
Cuts for THEE and not for WE say Red State Lawmakers (Hour 2)
The Dom Salvia Show · Thu Feb 13, 2025
Thank you so much for tuning in and listening, but you can do more than that You can be a part 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 civic it's a phone line It's a text line and love it when you are a part of this fine production just PS working hard on the board and get some national topics This hour and of course don't forget the end of the show We like to wrap it up with tell us something good give you plenty of time to prepare I kind of forget about it sometimes that
at the end of the
We're going to talk about something good in the day on a positive note.
I kind of touched on this topic a little bit yesterday.
I want to dive a little bit more into it because there's been some interesting reporting and statistics out that I think kind of accentuates the point.
NBC News is reporting when the pain hits home, Republicans balk at Trump's spending cuts and tariffs.
From
AIDS food program to imposing new tariffs, GOP lawmakers are beginning to speak out carefully against some of Trump's actions.
Well, and I think carefully perhaps given who you're dealing with.
But your constituents really should be the ones that you are worried about.
A little bit from the report here, as mentioned, from cost of health care and agriculture funding to fears of new tariffs negatively impacting local industries and consumers, Republican lawmakers starting to push back against certain aspects of Trump's plans when it affects their states.
and they're doing so carefully, acknowledging the voters want to shake up business as usual in the nation's capital and wanting to avoid Trump's ire.
If all these if the NIH and the USA and the tariffs and all these things that we are currently in, it was business as usual and Trump is doing these things to change them.
Certainly that's changing business as usual.
But what do you think was going to happen?
Well, now it's going to perhaps affect you.
We mentioned Senator Katie Britt from Alabama.
Uh, yesterday, she recently pushed back on the administration's funding reductions under the NIH.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham is a major recipient of that money, which has helped make that, make it the state's largest employer.
What a woke ass university,
Right.
That includes Canada.
But wait, there's more Republican Senator Susan Collins from Maine said a cap on indirect costs under the NIH grants were poorly conceived and would impose arbitrary cuts and funding for vital research at our main institutions and not to mention we got like what 65 million dollars at University of Madison
Suck it up.
But let's stay on the Republicans now.
So we got Alabama.
The Republicans in Alabama, we got the Republican Senator in Maine.
Oh, another one, Senator Bill Cassidy from Louisiana warned that universities that cut big endowments would lose out the most due to the NIH cuts.
Quote, it'll be very difficult for them to conduct this research.
And so, of course, I want people in Louisiana to benefit from research dollars and for it.
to not all go to Massachusetts in California, Cassidy said.
So I am in active conversation with my folks back home and I'm researching the issue.
Weird.
Everybody wants that money to come to their state and not the, all the other states.
It's, what did we talk about?
You know
States and democratic state.
That's why it's why we have the business as usual, the way they have it.
You don't have somebody like Elon Musk or Donald Trump's, you know, picking and choosing.
Yes, Alabama, you get it.
And in Madison, you don't.
That'd be wrong.
I think that would be wrong.
But here's, here's some of the statistics I referenced earlier from once again, NBC news.
Among the top 20 states that take more money from the federal government than they send in tax payments, among the top 20,
13 are solidly red states that voted for Trump in the last three elections according
He had to listen last hour.
He got to talk slow for the minute.
He lost his mustache.
The top five states.
And nine of the top 10 that send more money to the treasury than they receive voted for Democrats in the last three presidential election.
And to your point, Jess, you don't hear those five states and the nine of the 10 saying, stop sending money to the red states.
No, you don't hear that.
And you're not gonna.
Another imperative for Republicans in rural areas is to protect farmers who rely on the federal government as a major customer.
We talked about the federal, the farmers.
Not so long ago, this triple C act, this new deal era that Donald Trump tapped into when he got in the trade war last time with China and they stopped buying all billions of dollars in agriculture.
Well, he went to the CCC, if I forget what it stands for, but, and this thing has like unlimited money.
You can just take what you want out of it because it's for agriculture.
It's very important.
Of course, food is important, some say, some say Donald Trump, when he was losing that last tariff war, trade war,
tapped into that and gave those farmers what 16 billion dollars plus another 12 billion dollars 28 billion
The US Agency for International Development was Trump and billionaire advisor Elon Musk, if targeted for dismantling, administers the Food for Peace program under which the government buys and distributes American crops to help fight a hunger around the world.
I mean, can you get more woke than a fighting hunger around the world?
What about hunger here at home?
I mean, have you seen Trump?
Doesn't look like he missed a meal.
A coalition of Republicans in rural states and districts, including the House Agriculture Committee Chair, Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania, introduced legislation this week to save the food for peace program by transferring it to the Department of Agriculture.
Again, sliding it over from one spot to another.
I don't know, they're really accomplished is what
But a quote from Rep.
Tracy Mann, a Republican from Kansas.
For 70 years, Kansas and American farmers have played an active role in sending their commodities to feed malnourished and starving populations around the world.
Wait, there's a Republican saying that?
Why would you do that?
Sounds pretty woke.
What a waste of money.
This free gift from the American people is more than food.
It's diplomacy and feeds the most vulnerable communities.
Rep Tracy Mann, a Republican from Kansas said, this doesn't sound very Republican.
Like 500 million is going to rot in the warehouses because why?
Because Trump said so.
A little more here, man, the aforementioned Republican from Kansas, whose office of the program has fed more than 4 billion people in more than 150 countries, introduced a bill with Thompson and a couple other reps.
The Trump tariffs have also ruffled feathers among some of his otherwise solid allies on Capitol Hill.
Chuck Grassley, Republican Senator from Tennessee, the Senate pro tem and chair of the judiciary committee who protested when Trump threatened to levy tariffs on imports from Canada.
Citing Biden inflation, what you mean, Biden inflation, noted the high cost of fertilizer as for an exemption that protects Iowa farmers.
I plead with President Trump to exempt potash from the tariff because family farmers get most of our potash from Canada.
He wrote on X, I'm a free and fair trader.
And the president was elected on a proposition of trying tariffs out.
If they're for negotiation, we'll see how they work.
If they work, I'll applaud him.
If they don't work, I'll tell you, I told you so.
Well, how does that?
Grassley, how does that help your constituents one iota?
It don't I told you so vote for me Kentucky's two Republican senators Mitch McConnell who's apparently getting some I don't know backbone in his old age.
I mean what?
seen as makers say, Oh Lord, look what I did on that one.
Kentucky's two Republicans, Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul has have also objected to the tariffs warning that they'll drive up costs for Americans, including Kentuckians.
Cause of course those guys, those are the most important Americans in an opinion piece Wednesday for the Louisville Courier Journal, McConnell warned that slapping tariffs could have negative consequences for our state service, 5,000 family fires and sell their crops around the globe.
or our auto industry.
Oh yeah, the auto industry.
We're gonna talk about that next.
McConnell wrote, in Kentucky, local store owners are already hearing about the supplier's prices going up.
One estimate suggests that President's tariffs could cross the average Kentucky in up to $1,200 each year.
And it's not just about rising prices here at home.
During the last Trump administration, retaliatory tariffs from trade partners set off a broader trade war that hit wide swaths of American industry from agriculture to manufacturing to aerospace and motor vehicles to distilled spirits.
Bourbon.
Already Canada announced retaliatory measures that take direct aim at Kentucky's production targeting products like peanut butter and whiskey a little more from Iran Paul We'll get to that as well.
These are Republicans That are all down with Donald Trump and doze and Elon Musk except when it comes to their states because they know Republicans know their constituents.
You better know 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 gonna come back more of this and your calls as well
And welcome back to the Dom Salvia show 8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2-8-5-5-7-5 Civic just PS on the board spinning the hits for you Welcome to the creep show.
Love it.
Love it 8-5-5-7-5 Civic gonna get to some collars and some textures and perhaps just a little bit more I mean if you see the kind of the trend here everyone's down like the Republicans are all down for shaking things up and
and stopping businesses usual, stopping the fraud, corruption and abuse and all those things, except when it comes to their own states, except when it comes to their state's industries, the bourbon, the automobiles, the agriculture, right?
Then it becomes a problem.
We're, I think this is the third, right?
Oh God.
I know it's going to be a long eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two.
But there's also, you know, this, this budget that's coming up, we're talking about, you know, slashing billions of dollars from Medicaid and a little bit here.
And then we'll take the calls eight, five, five, seven, five.
Civic Republicans have made slashing hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid, a core part of their plan to pay for the.
tax cuts for the rich.
I mean, come on.
Mine's gotta come from somewhere.
I mean, so how about just not do the tax cuts?
And then you can, then you can still, you can still go after waste, fraud and abuse.
Don't do the tax cuts.
You know, let the taxes go up on, on the very rich.
Oh well.
And those, those of us that got a little bitty, bitty bit, cause most of it went to the very rich.
Most of it went to the very rich.
Uh, they could pay a little more.
Well, maybe, you know, if we're all going to pay a little more anyway, I mean, it's amazing how we have to accept this, right?
Uh, the, the Republicans are lamenting the fact and Donald Trump has even said today, yeah, that's kind of things that could potentially cost a little more.
Well, what, what does a tax, tax, right?
Taxes, money out of your pocket.
Correct.
The cost of life is a little bit more expensive.
That's unacceptable under this administration because you got to have tax cuts, which, which, you know, keeps money in your pocket.
But what the the increases on the goods and the services We're gonna go up.
That's gonna be money out of your pocket.
So instead of playing this game How about we just leave that let the tax cuts expire?
Because remember when they passed them, they didn't make them permanent They made them expire which of course added trillions of dollars to the national debt back then and certainly will if they don't do these tax cuts go do these Expense cuts going forward add more to the debt
Well, if you don't mess with that side of the equation, then you don't have to mess with the other side of the equation as much.
You could focus certainly still on waste, fraud, and abuse, but spending money on a product that the righties don't like or on a service that the righties don't like like USA.
But apparently some righties like it because it helps out their farmers and it feeds billions of people according to the Republicans we were quoting today.
So if you don't mess with it if you're not so concerned about doing Donald Trump's extending these tax cuts and this letting them expire as the original legislation Written as it was written it would happen.
You don't have to worry about cutting billions of dollars out of Medicaid a little bit more from this
And making cuts as Republicans could be harder than they anticipate.
This is from Joanne Keenan at Politico.
She said Medicaid has evolved and expanded significantly over the years and its constituency has expanded along with it.
Some 80 million people now get health care from Medicaid, including many working class voters, in the president's base.
Let me repeat that from Politico.
Some 80 million people now get healthcare from Medicaid, including many working class voters in the president's base.
All this, oh, people are gonna work for the Medicaid.
Yeah, a lot of people are working and they're still on Medicaid.
And what that tells you...
is that the wages aren't high enough.
If you're working full time and you still qualify for Medicaid, maybe we should work, if you wanna work on an equation side, maybe we should work on increasing the pay for the workers, man.
What does this say if you're working full time and you gotta be a Medicare, a Medicaid for your health insurance?
80 million
Indeed, a number of states that back Trump voted by popular referendum to expand the program, Medicaid, over the objections of their GOP legislators.
In these states, Medicaid is often the main driver preventing rural hospitals from closing.
Yeah.
Damn!
Right?
You know, you know the medical stuff here, Jess.
Of course, Republicans famously attempted to repeal the AC under Trump's term and all their proposals featured drastic custom Medicaid public outrage over and at the time played a big role in the Democratic landslide elections in 2018.
In fact, he and continued Republicans may have gotten an ominous look at just how much blowback they could, they stand to receive from even trying to cut Medicaid.
Republicans have just gotten an alarming glimpse of the future amid the chaos of Trump's now rescinded domestic funding freeze.
Medicaid portals across the country went offline, which meant States couldn't get their Medicaid.
Dollars it was something the administration said was never supposed to happen and which provoked public outrage and a bipartisan outcry Yeah, there's there's Republicans on Medicaid indeed Republicans on the AC a a lot of them, you know We're all in this together man try to screw someone given the interconnectedness of
existence on this earth, and specifically in this country, and maybe in your state, and most definitely in your neighborhood, you can't get away from it.
So what exactly are you trying to prove by shaking things up and changing things and making it different?
I mean, I get it, we can look things up, but let's have that go through the budgetary process.
And it's derived in the Congress, specifically in the House, which is closest to the people.
They get elected for two-year terms.
And folks, there'll be another election less than two years for those folks.
And that's perhaps one of the reasons why this administration is trying to move so damn fast, because they know what's going to happen.
If the Republicans in the House get their ducks in a roll, they could actually get a budget done, which would have some of these cuts.
We'll wait and see what happens.
So it's still got to get through, even if they're able to make it all under reconciliation, which means it's a budgetary thing.
You don't get the, you don't have to get through a 60 vote filibuster in the Senate, but they only have in the Senate, Republicans only have two votes to lose.
And Mitch McConnell apparently is very happy with these days.
I mean, Trump today was like questioning whether or not the dude had polio and saying he doesn't, he doesn't have this.
He's not there anymore.
He's, he's lost it.
I mean, he's just.
It's terrible.
The way these, the way they treat their own man.
You know what I mean?
I mean, my God, he says you need stuff to the bitch.
He's doing stuff to Mitch McConnell.
You wouldn't do it to a farm animal.
I'm swear to God.
It's not even right.
Eight, five, five, seven, five, two.
You would know you worked on the farm.
You know, I was working on a farm.
Eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, eight, five, five, seven, five, civic.
I was 17 years old.
I guess to get up at five o'clock every morning to go milk the cows before school.
Yeah, it's true.
Hey, Dom, I hope the media just doesn't read their mea-copas and actually reads their votes because it's not what you say.
It's what you
You can have these Republicans coming out now and trying to get the media to say, oh, no, not my state.
BS, you just voted for Hexas.
You just voted for all those people that get into different positions.
You voted for OMB director who has a project 2025.
I don't want to hear it.
I want to hear the media hold their feet to the fire and not allow them to re-change the way that their vote actually was put out there.
Their vote is what counts, not what they say to the media.
not the made-up commercial they're going to do for their next election.
It needs to be the way they voted right from the get-go from this new legislative
I hear what you're saying, Tom, and I would like to think that I am holding them to account.
And NBC's reporting at least gives us the opportunity to bash them over the head with the hypocrisy and the statistics.
12, 13 out of the top 20 states, uh, that they give, uh, take more money than they give to the federal government voted red and what the top five and nine out of the top 10 who receive, who, who receive less money than they give to the federal government voted blue.
That thing is something that needs to be repeated over and over and over and over again.
Uh, I, I honestly think, man, you know, especially when you see how that, when the Medicaid thing went down, some of these articles were referencing about the different industries in the States.
I think there's genuine concern among these very, I'll call them short-sighted politicians, Tom, who decided to go this route.
And I can't necessarily...
Blame them of course you blame them they decided what they want to do, but it's the red it's the constituents man It's the it's the the mega voters who voted for Mitch McConnell who voted for man who voted for Rand Paul who voted for the Alabama senator Britt It is those voters who are voting against their own self-interest in some sort of weird attempt to Rain in government spending when they're the biggest recipients of government spending.
I mean It doesn't make any sense
So Tom, I think there is going to be some genuine blowback and it's going to be felt by unfortunately us citizens blue and red and Independence and those of us who didn't even bother to vote and you'd be worried real worried about the size of that population because of also they get active because a bunch of righties wanted to own the libs and stop government spending that that what supported their industries their states their institutions
Right and then go to foreign policy and stop the the USA and our soft power and all those things and man there there is going to be a Reckoning for that and we're three weeks in and they're already Concerned about we're like a half a dozen states got a guy the CEO of Ford saying dude What I mean these folks have made investments in Canada in Mexico based on NAFTA and then the USMCA and then the guy that signed the USMCA Now as I say, oh the hell with that tariff this tariff that
It doesn't there's no consistency.
There's no logic to it now if you think that tariffs are going to increase Revenue to the the government.
Well, who pays the tariffs?
That's another tax on the consumers.
Yo How many how many taxes you want the price of things are gonna go up, right?
Your taxes are gonna go down
Wonderful.
Hey guys, um, tax cuts.
Yeah.
Tax cuts and government should be run like a business.
All right.
What business do you know voluntarily cuts their income?
I can't think of a single one that goes up and says, Oh, I'm making too much money.
I'm going to cut my income.
But the Republicans all want to cut the incomes of the government that should be run like a business.
Thank you for making it.
Thank you for listening up in the Fox Valley.
Uh, no one wants to cut the revenue.
Man, if you're in business, if you're in business, you're trying to make a profit on your product or your service, you know, you got a couple of things you can do.
You can try to increase revenues, right?
And if ever all the expenses stay the same, that'll increase your profitability in the bottom line, right?
The PNL statement or, or, or you can keep your revenues the same, but cut expenses and also thereby, you know, put more money in your pocket or you can do a combination there.
I mean, there's only a few ways to do it, right?
Uh, but of course the government is not a business.
It is not this wasn't wasn't incorporated as an LLC doesn't have pass-through taxes This is an attempt by by a rebel group hundreds of years ago to appreciate identify and acknowledge The individuals liberty they're the let pursuit of life liberty and happiness, right?
That's what government is should be about and granted and you have all sorts of different
Variables in that, but the end of the day, it's about the people and about how we want to be governed and how we're going to govern ourselves.
We don't want a king.
We don't want an unelected special government employee.
Hell, apparently some Republican senators and Congressmen don't even want Trump's cuts.
Although that's what they voted for and that's what their constituents voted for.
But they're a little concerned about that.
Come back where this folks, tell us something good.
It's our last segment of the day.
Hell, I don't know if you don't know this, but it's my last segment of the week.
Jess, we're taking off tomorrow.
We're going to do a best of tomorrow.
That's something good.
But we want to hear something good from you.
855-752-4842.
End the day with a smile on your face.
Share something happy and positive with our audience.
855-757.
Coming back with your calls.
Welcome back to the Dom Salvia Show 855-752-4842.
Last segment of the day, if you got something to say, hit us up right now.
But if you do, you got to tell us something good.
That's how we roll.
Let's see.
This morning, I woke up and so.
Frequently, I wake up with one of my two cats nestled either between my legs or as far into my butt as she can possibly get, depending on, you know, how I'm laying.
And I was on my back, so she was between my legs.
And just nice and warm and lovely.
And then my other cat, who is just a big orange dingbat.
just comes in, starts walking all over me, but then he settled down on my chest and I just spent 15 minutes just resting with my two cats, just enjoying it.
I opened the shades so that I could see the tree that sort of hangs over by my window.
I could see the snow on it and it was just peaceful.
It's hard to get away from like, you know, it's so hard to get up when they're like that.
Well, if you can't sleep, just find a cat that's pern and just cuddle up.
You'll eventually fall asleep.
You got something good?
Yeah.
Number one, we're taking tomorrow off.
Yeah, that's something good.
I can't wait.
It's Friday for us.
No, two Fridays in a row.
I'm getting used to this.
Four days a week, four hours a day.
That's all I got.
Maximum efficiency.
That's right.
Everything from there is diminishing returns.
You know what I'm saying?
But one of the reasons taking off tomorrow, heading up with my lovely to door County.
And we're renting a place with some friends of ours.
One of my friends, Maggie Dawn.
Oh yeah.
I'm going to see her this weekend as well.
Spend some time together.
as friends, we don't get to hang out much.
You know, we're both doing our things.
And so when we get, we get some time to hang out, it's, it's, it's pretty fun.
So, uh, me and Steph and Megan, Lizzie, another couple are going to go up and hang out in Door County, look forward to getting away and kind of unwinding a little bit and.
It's kind of a drive up there, though.
I mean, it's like three hours, three and a half hours.
Yeah, we're going up to like Sister Bay.
But also, you
So what you might get some of that beautiful snow, maybe being a hot tub as the snow is coming down.
There are worse things than that.
855-752-4842.
Another thing.
So taking tomorrow off, going up north was with my wife and some friends.
Um, going as mentioned, going to go check out a car.
Oh yeah.
Haven't gone to car, check out a car in a long, long time.
And I used to like be that guy would.
Hit the hit the dealerships at night or or or on a Sunday when they're closed, you know, just gonna look at cars But what I don't like is like having to get a car And I got at least I'm like way over on the miles, you know, I'm like 20,000 miles over this car But you know life has changed, you know, you just kind of roll with it, you know driving new to receive to do the show all this Mazda up an Appleton is like, okay So I had a little more driving than I had anticipated when I initially got the but but but I get
to go check out some cars, which is always fun.
And of course, my cousin Joe works at Stellantis, and so I get the good break.
Sweet.
Yeah, man, that's what I'm talking about.
And I got my Sun Studio shirt on here.
You see this?
I do, yeah.
This is when we went to Memphis.
Steph and I, she'll take me on a random trip sometimes, and we went down to Memphis.
Got an Airbnb and like also be funny of the blues and Rivertown hanging out and as we're walking from our Airbnb to go like to look closer to downtown all of a sudden I realized oh damn, you know, there's That sign looks familiar that a hotel
That's where Martin Luther King, Jr.
got shot.
Frozen time.
So I couldn't not go check that out.
Absolutely not.
Yeah, you need to.
So it went there very, I mean, as you can imagine, it's kind of tough to swallow when you think about the gravity of the whole thing.
But then we went out afterwards and checked out this studio, the Sun Studio.
Now, this is where a famous studio in Memphis where Elvis recorded there and Johnny Cash and a bunch of folks.
And it's funny because there wasn't much.
You know what I'm saying?
You look like, oh, okay.
Same thing with Motown.
You know, you got in Detroit, you kind of walk in the joint, like, I can't believe all that.
Just Matt.
Awesome music was made here.
I mean, the historic stuff that changed the world is kind of this music, right?
And it's made in these little, little crappy realms with this.
I
So that was a lot of fun.
And I'm like, Oh, this is cool.
You know, like, you know, I'm a t-shirt guy.
So as I, as I got out and I got this, this fine sun studio t-shirt, we're, you know, it was wrapping with the guy that was checking us out.
And how are you from that?
I'm walkie.
Oh, yeah, I'm playing up in Milwaukee like no walkie connection No, I'm not even kidding you like next week was like I think was Brady Street faster one of the street festivals We walked up.
We saw the dude.
Oh, here's a guy that's only my T-shirt Memphis.
He just got done playing a set On on Brady Street.
I was just it was super fun.
So, you know, it's a small small world So always remember that man.
It's always gonna it's always gonna be like that.
Thanks for telling us some good stuff So folks have a wonderful night
have a wonderful weekend.
The best of tomorrow.
What do we got?
What's coming
