0:00

presented by Invest in Our Land.

0:07

Hey, good morning. I'm Playbook Co-author of

0:09

YouTube. Daniels, it is Monday, March 11th.

0:12

Here's what's driving the day. First up,

0:14

a fight for the future of the

0:16

Republican Party. Our colleague, Burgess Everett, over

0:19

on the Hill, had an

0:21

interview Sunday with Iowa Senator Joni

0:23

Ernst, who says she is running

0:25

for Senate Republican Conference Chair. Now

0:27

that was set up a blockbuster

0:30

race in the fall against Arkansas

0:32

Senator Tom Cotton, who has already

0:34

said he is going to run

0:36

for the position. And the story that you can

0:38

go read right now on political.com. Burgess

0:41

writes that the Iowans decision is a

0:43

natural progression, given her current role as

0:45

Republican Policy Committee Chair, a job that's

0:47

number four in the GOP hierarchy. She

0:49

could have chosen to stay in that

0:51

job, but movement above her opened up

0:54

the job of the party's chief messenger.

0:56

That is a fight that we're all

0:58

going to need to watch. Also

1:01

today on the top of Playbook, we are

1:03

looking at the relationship between President Biden and

1:05

the prime minister of Israel. Over

1:08

the last few weeks, their relationship has

1:10

worsened. And on Saturday, in an interview

1:12

on MSNBC, President Biden said that an

1:14

invasion of Rafah, the city on the

1:16

southern border of the Gaza Strip, would

1:19

be both, quote, a red line and not

1:21

a red line. The president told Jonathan Capehart,

1:24

quote, it is a red line, but I'm

1:26

never going to leave Israel. The defense of

1:28

Israel is still critical. So

1:30

there's no red line. I'm going to

1:33

cut off all weapons so they don't

1:35

have the iron dome to protect them.

1:37

For weeks, the administration has warned Israel

1:39

against going into Rafah. On Sunday, when

1:41

asked about the red line, Netanyahu thumbed

1:43

his nose of Biden, saying, quote, we'll

1:46

go there. We're not going to leave.

1:48

Matt Duss, the executive vice president of

1:51

the Center for International Policy told me

1:53

last night that this is

1:55

embarrassing for the president to see

1:57

the, quote, leader of this climate.

2:00

States speaking this way so defiantly.

2:02

And this isn't the first time that

2:05

Netanyahu's done something or said something that

2:07

is in direct contradiction to the President

2:09

of the United States. It

2:11

is very clear that their relationship has

2:13

changed, even though the White House and

2:15

the administration are staying far away from

2:18

that question. There are also

2:20

some more non-Biden related things

2:22

that could be behind Netanyahu's

2:24

comments. There's a sense inside

2:26

the White House that this is just a

2:28

lot of offering for B.B. that

2:30

he's talking tough for a couple of reasons,

2:32

to put pressure on Hamas to take the

2:34

hostage deal that's currently on the table and

2:37

to keep his right-wing coalition office back.

2:39

Either way, this White House is going

2:41

to have to have some answers today

2:43

in the briefing room, as reporters are

2:45

going to definitely ask them how the

2:48

President interpreted Netanyahu's comments.

2:52

And also, it's budget day,

2:55

not extra holiday or anything, but

2:57

the President later on today is

2:59

releasing his budget. Last night, a

3:01

White House official said, quote, the

3:04

President's budget will lower costs for

3:06

families, protect and strengthen social security

3:08

and Medicare, and reduce the deficit

3:10

to about $3 trillion over 10

3:13

years by making big corporations and

3:15

the wealthy pay their fair

3:18

share. Joining me now

3:20

to talk about that budget is

3:22

economics reporter and the author of

3:24

the fabulous new column capital letter,

3:26

Victoria Guida. Victoria, hello. Hey,

3:28

Eugene, always good to be with you. Thank

3:31

you for joining. I mean, today feels like

3:33

you're like Super Bowl or something. Yeah,

3:36

no, it's funny because it's both

3:39

extremely interesting in terms of its

3:41

policy signals and potentially very important,

3:43

but also technically meaningless.

3:46

Those are the best

3:48

kinds of gigs. Exactly.

3:53

So this is

3:55

President Biden's fourth budget, you know, the way it's

3:57

been put to me by aides around

3:59

the President. is that you don't kind

4:02

of do a whole new thing. You don't really reinvent

4:04

the wheel in a whole budget

4:06

running into election season. So what are

4:08

you looking out for? So

4:11

this budget is very interesting because it's

4:14

through fiscal year 2025, which

4:17

means that it's a budget that would lead

4:19

into a potential second term from Biden. And

4:21

so this is a very interesting signal

4:23

about what his policy priorities are going

4:25

to be going into a second term

4:27

if he wins. And so, one of

4:29

the things that I'm most interested in is

4:32

deficit reduction. This is something that the Biden

4:34

administration has talked about a lot as something

4:36

that they want to pursue. And

4:39

the question is, how? A

4:41

big part of that is expected to be, they

4:43

wanna raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations,

4:45

but are they potentially talking about cuts in

4:47

spending? What else are they looking at? Yeah,

4:50

it's always interesting to

4:52

hear, he

4:54

cares about the deficit, talking about

4:56

a democratic president. That's not

4:59

typically their talking point. I

5:02

always select these, and like you said, technically

5:05

this is meaningless, right? They

5:07

are still doing the appropriations for last

5:09

damn year. So it's not like a

5:11

budget of going anywhere, but

5:14

it does help to provide a content. It's

5:17

super helpful if you are running for president again, and

5:20

even more helpful if you are

5:22

a president who won on

5:24

Thursday through down the continent and made it very clear

5:26

how you're gonna run this election. And

5:29

two, I've been struggling to

5:31

explain to people your economic policy, and

5:34

I've been talking to people kind of

5:36

the last couple of days leading

5:38

up to this, and two

5:40

things stuck out to me, I'm

5:42

curious if these stick out to you,

5:44

on what the Biden administration is going

5:46

to really be focusing on is taxes

5:49

and housing policy. And I'm curious

5:51

if that lines up with what you've been

5:53

hearing as well. Yeah,

5:56

that's exactly right. And The taxes

5:58

piece is really interesting. Case you

6:00

know that Republicans under Trump pass

6:03

extensive tax cuts and those expire

6:05

at the end of twenty. Twenty

6:07

Five. So even though you know of fiscal

6:09

year, twenty Twenty Five budget doesn't quite. Get

6:11

to that yet I'm taxes next year

6:13

are going to be center stage in

6:16

terms of deciding which is as text

6:18

that should be extended and which. Ones

6:20

shouldn't And so we're gearing up for

6:22

a big conversation on taxes. That sort

6:24

of has to happen regardless because those

6:26

tax cuts or expiring. And then

6:29

on housing. That's not surprising that that's a

6:31

big thing that the By Administration is focusing

6:33

on, because if you look at a lot

6:35

of the big economic data, things are pretty

6:37

good in the economy. And one of the

6:39

things that's obviously not great is housing affordability.

6:41

And so the By Administration is already announced

6:43

some things that they want to do, but

6:45

it is a little tricky because there there's

6:47

only so much you can actually do. With

6:49

the federal level on that front. And

6:53

less question before let you go and

6:55

begin to all of this house republicans

6:57

released can have a blueprint of a

6:59

budget last week as well and you

7:01

know in terms of a concert episodes

7:03

the President's to have a say you

7:05

know this isn't some theory that this

7:07

is that so plan that they kinda

7:10

and updates they would go through with

7:12

The Mrs House differs from mine taught

7:14

some people little bit about was in

7:16

the house Republicans blueprint budget. Yeah,

7:19

yes, so. Is it that the to budget

7:21

side to side? or sort of going to tell

7:23

you because I eat? Obviously what? what ultimately leads

7:25

to the. Spending and neither of these things

7:27

are are you know the what's actually going

7:29

to The spending is to sort of like

7:32

them putting out their ideas. It tells you

7:34

how far apart they're going to be and

7:36

ah it looks like they're probably going to

7:38

be pretty far apart. The Republicans is a

7:40

big things that they're talking about His for

7:42

example, cutting back on suffered some of these

7:44

subsidies for green energy that were in the

7:47

by demonstrations. Inflation. Reduction Act, which is sort

7:49

of a a landmark piece of of what they've

7:51

done in the first. Term Arm And

7:53

then he oh Student Loan

7:55

forgiveness. Ah, you know, cutting back on

7:57

some of that, so sort of going after.

8:00

key things that the Biden administration wants to keep.

8:02

And then on taxes, they're

8:04

talking about reducing taxes, whereas in

8:07

certain areas, the Biden administration wants

8:09

to raise taxes, certainly on corporations

8:12

and on wealthier Americans. And so

8:15

we can expect more chaos in

8:18

the budget and appropriations negotiations.

8:20

Lovely. Lovely. I don't

8:22

think anyone's shocked to hear that. Not

8:26

at all. Not at all. Victoria,

8:28

thank you. Thank you for joining.

8:30

And I'll be looking forward to

8:32

your reporting explaining this. So I

8:34

appreciate you coming on. Thanks

8:36

so much, Eugene. And

8:39

for your schedule today, the Senate and

8:41

the House are in and President Biden

8:44

will leave Delaware to head to DC

8:46

to deliver remarks at the National League

8:48

of Cities. This afternoon, he will be

8:51

in New Hampshire where he will be

8:53

delivering remarks on the lowering

8:55

costs for American families. On budget day,

8:58

what else would he be doing? I'm

9:00

Eugene Daniel. Thanks for listening. Farmers

9:07

are the heart being of rural

9:09

America. Congress recently invested $20 billion

9:11

in America's farmers and ranchers, focusing

9:14

on conservation practices and profits for

9:16

future generations. Today, these

9:18

funds are at risk. You're squawking over

9:20

$20 billion. That USDA program

9:22

is investment into the future for

9:24

everybody. If the funding was eliminated,

9:27

it could hurt farms and families.

9:29

Tell Congress protect this generational investment

9:31

in the farm bill. Learn more

9:33

at investinourland.org. Paid for by Invest

9:35

in Our Land.