During a town hall on Tuesday, Rep. Bill Foster (D-IL) spoke about how the Democrats can navigate the budget process.
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NewsTranscript
00:00We're going to go back to a little wonky question.
00:04What is the next step in the budget process and what are the Dems asking for?
00:09Okay.
00:10All right.
00:11So, as I said, there are two leverage points coming up on this.
00:15First off, the way the budget process works very roughly is that both the House and the
00:22Senate comes up with the allocations toward the big areas that we want to spend money
00:28as well as the total amount.
00:29And so they'll say, we're going to spend this much on science, this much on Medicaid, this
00:33much on this or that.
00:34It's actually specified at the committee level.
00:37And so that, for example, in the case of Medicaid and science spending through the Department
00:42of Energy, it goes to a committee called the Energy and Commerce Committee.
00:45They are given one number, okay?
00:47And you probably have heard this $880 billion cut that they have to...
00:52And so that they said, here's our pot of money.
00:54We need to fund Medicare and Medicaid and the Department of Energy and everything else.
00:59Okay?
01:00And then the DOJs or Trump or whoever has negotiated the budget says, let us cut...
01:06This committee has to cut $880 billion.
01:09Okay?
01:10The problem is, the everything else that's not Medicare and Medicaid is not $880 billion.
01:16So they can eliminate the entire Department of Energy and all the other stuff that they
01:21do and still not be able to do this.
01:23They have to, to satisfy this edict, they have to cut probably Medicaid.
01:30All right?
01:31And so this is the lie they've been trapped in when they make one promise to one group
01:35and a different inconsistent promise to another group.
01:37And so what's happened as a result of that, that they passed something in the House over
01:42my dead body and let every Democrat against it.
01:45And the Senate has also passed something, but they're not the same.
01:50Because there are things in the House budget that Senators don't like and vice versa.
01:54They have to, the next step is for them to somehow come to an agreement.
01:58And they have to do that in a situation where they have no votes to spare.
02:02Or, you know, one or two votes to spare.
02:04And they've got at least one member who will never vote for anything.
02:07And they...
02:08Yeah, Thomas Massey.
02:10He's an interesting guy.
02:11If you ever visit my office in D.C., his office is across the hall from mine.
02:16Anyway.
02:20So that's the next step, is to see if the Republicans can stop arguing with each other
02:26between the House and the Senate and come up with a plan.
02:29And then it goes back to the committees and they have to actually, you know,
02:33take this money from the Energy and Commerce Committee with the $880 billion cut
02:38and actually be specific about how much they're going to spend on everything.
02:42And that's when, you know, that'll be ripping the clothes off of them on their lines
02:47to the people about not cutting Medicaid.
02:49And so that's...
02:50And at that point, maybe they'll start getting cold feet or maybe not.
02:54They'll just say, oh, we lied, so what?
02:56I don't know.
02:57But that's the next step.
02:59In between that, and so then when they get that figured out,
03:04they then have to pass it in both the House and the Senate.
03:06In the Senate, they can do it with 51 votes.
03:10They don't need to get past a filibuster.
03:12So that if they maintain unanimity on their desire to cut Medicaid
03:18and give their tax breaks to their billionaires, then we cannot stop them
03:24if they remain unanimous.
03:26And our goal is to try to get...
03:28We only need three in the House to come our way and say,
03:32no, I'm actually going to not lie to the people that elected me
03:35and I'm not going to cut Medicaid.
03:37We'll see if that happens.
03:39What about the special elections coming up?
03:42Well, yeah, they're important, but they're not seats that are likely
03:46to flip one way or the other.
03:48That's the case.
03:49They're still worth working on.
03:52I want to say one thing.
03:53This is an official side thing, so this is not a political thing.
03:56I want to say something.
03:57A lot of people are saying, what can I do now that will actually
04:00make a difference and make my voices heard?
04:02We're here.
04:03We're up.
04:05So here's something concrete and immediate that can be done
04:08all across this country in the next few weeks in different states
04:12and areas.
04:13We're having municipal elections.
04:15Normally I think it's wonderful that municipal elections are nonpartisan
04:18because most issues locally are nonpartisan.
04:21But this is not normal times.
04:24Now there is no excuse for anyone running for office to not have a position
04:31on what Donald Trump is trying to do to our democracy.
04:34So if you're running for Park District, you need to have a position
04:39on running for Secretary of State.
04:41So get involved in the upcoming elections that are coming up
04:51in just a couple weeks here.
04:52Have a look at people's position.
04:54Are they willing to stand up and criticize Donald Trump's policies or not?
04:59And that should be, because if the municipal politicians that run for office
05:08and get clobbered because of Trump's policies and they lose the election,
05:13all the political pundits and all the pollsters will say,
05:16wow, this is a big effect.
05:18And that will put the fear of God into enough Republicans that maybe
05:22we can get one or two or three to start going our way.
05:26And that's it.