Senate GOP seeks $1B in taxpayer money for ballroom despite Trump saying Americans won't pay for it

0:01 promised his White House construction project is

0:04 going to cost you the taxpayer nothing.

0:06 So why are Senate Republicans now trying to get a billion

0:11 dollars $1 billion added to a funding bill for the new ballroom?

0:15 Joining us, professor of economics and public policy at the University

0:19 of Michigan and host of the new series Platypus Economics.

0:23 Justin Wolfer is Molly Jong-Fast.

0:24 David French still with us.

0:26 David, what's the deal with this?

0:27 Senate Republicans are trying to sneak

0:29 this through in reconciliation, am I right?

0:32 Well, he wants tangible physical legacies here.

0:37 He wants an arch, for example.

0:38 He wants a ballroom.

0:40 He wants a big giant island called Greenland.

0:43 I mean, this is something that this is

0:45 his quest for the tangible, physical legacy.

0:50 Now remember, he's a real estate guy.

0:52 He likes tangible, physical things.

0:55 And so he wants a ballroom.

0:57 And look, I don't necessarily have an objection

0:59 in principle to the idea of a White House ballroom.

1:02 I don't think it's by its very nature a bad idea.

1:06 But one thing that you can absolutely count on Trump

1:09 to do is take what is a OK idea,

1:11 a decent idea or maybe even a good idea and just

1:13 butcher it and do it in the worst possible way.

1:16 So here you have the standard sort of Trump playbook.

1:20 We're going to promise something.

1:21 We're going to over promise.

1:22 We're going to under deliver.

1:23 And then at the end of the day,

1:25 he still wants what he wants and he's going to go to the taxpayer for it.

1:28 So but one thing, Katie, that's kind of surprises me.

1:31 And compared to a war in Iran, compared to the crises of a constitution,

1:39 of the rule of law internally here at home.

1:41 The ballroom is like a rounding error on a rounding error in importance.

1:45 But I feel like it really has resonated

1:47 with people in part because of that tangible,

1:49 physical idea to watch it get wrecked,

1:52 to watch that wing of the White House get wrecked.

1:56 And then to watch all this sort

1:58 of Carnival Barker promotion around this ballroom.

2:01 It is sticking with people in an interesting way.

2:03 It's a tangible expression of sort

2:05 of the corruption and chaos of this administration.

2:08 Yeah, and this administration is saying to people,

2:10 we can't give you subsidies, extend your subsidies on health care.

2:13 We can't afford it.

2:15 We can't lower your gas prices because we've gone to war and it's worth it.

2:21 Just wait.

2:22 And now I just think it's surprising that Senate Republicans

2:24 would try to put a billion dollars into an immigration bill,

2:28 a billion dollars with a B.

2:30 That seems like a gift to the Democrats when they're campaigning,

2:36 especially with Americans as upset as they THEY

2:39 ARE ABOUT ECONOMICS AND THE COST OF LIVING,

2:41 AND THEY'RE BLAMING, BY THE WAY, THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION AND REPUBLICANS.

2:43 YEAH, AND YOU HAD BRIAN SHOT SAYING HE WAS EXCITED TO WATCH SENATE

2:48 REPUBLICANS HAVE TO UP OR DOWN

2:50 A BILLION-DOLLAR BALLROOM BECAUSE THEY HAVE TO VOTE

2:52 ON THIS AND IF YOU'RE DAN SULLIVAN IN THE STATE OF ALASKA AND YOU'RE

2:56 RUNNING AGAINST MARY PATOLA AND YOU'RE ALREADY

2:58 SEEING THAT SHE'S WINNING IN THE POLLS,

3:01 NOW YOU HAVE TO VOTE THAT YOU APPROVE A $1 BILLION

3:04 BALLROOM FOR DONALD YOU'RE SEEING THIS AND YOU'RE IF YOU'RE A DEMOCRAT,

3:07 YOU'RE SEEING THIS AND YOU'RE LIKE KEEP THIS IN THE NEWS CYCLE.

3:09 AND IF YOU'RE A REPUBLICAN, YOU'RE LIKE STOP TALKING ABOUT THIS BALLROOM.

3:13 WHY DID THEY ADD BECAUSE THIS IS THE TRUMP,

3:15 THIS IS TRUMP'S REPUBLICAN PARTY AND WHAT TRUMP WANTS,

3:19 TRUMP GETS EVEN IF IT'S NOT POLITICALLY SMART.

3:21 ALL All right.

3:22 Justin, explain why people might be bristling at the billion

3:30 dollars it will cost to secure this ballroom,

3:34 why they might be bristling at all the gold

3:38 and the filigree that Donald Trump is adding and promoting,

3:41 as David said, like a carnival barker.

3:44 Give me the facts.

3:46 Katie, you look like you might be bristling right now I get it.

3:49 I'm cold, it's very cold in this studio they keep it at like

3:52 literally negative 30 degrees in here that's mostly why my hands are crossed.

3:56 Molly is very very tight too.

3:59 Um look there's the billion dollars.

4:01 There's the billion dollars.

4:02 David French was exactly right.

4:03 Very responsible.

4:04 It's easy to whine but actually the point is one billion in the scope

4:08 of an economy as big as the United States is not that big.

4:10 So then the question really you know it's three bucks per person.

4:14 Three bucks you might not want to spend but it's not that much.

4:17 But there's a question of what this represents and actually I

4:20 think there's a really important metaphor here in two really important respects.

4:23 Anyone who's ever been on the White House grounds

4:25 knows what the White House actually needs is office space.

4:30 It needs lots of places for thoughtful advisors to be

4:34 able to do their work and it's an incredibly cramped space.

4:37 You've got very senior people working in tiny little cupboards.

4:40 What you have though here is a White House where

4:43 policy is made by mood and dictate of one person.

4:46 They have no need for advisors, advice and process.

4:50 And so, you know, it's a crazy thing to think the thing we need.

4:54 There's a ballroom.

4:55 The second really important metaphor here is, you know what?

4:58 Someone came and knocked over the east wing

5:02 of the White House in October with no, uh, with no legal power to do so.

5:08 And then they walked away bored.

5:10 Also with no warning.

5:11 Like they fell asleep in front of the TV.

5:13 Does this remind you at all of a trade war or an Iran war?

5:17 We start these projects.

5:18 We start these projects.

5:19 They never go anywhere.

5:22 I mean, that's a good point.

5:26 The White House says the private donations will still be

5:28 used for the ballroom and they distinguish the money coming

5:31 from Congress as funds for DHS and the Secret Service

5:35 for security purposes regarding the overall East Wing modernization project,

5:42 which they say is more than just the ballroom.

5:46 So, again, Justin, to you,

5:48 tell me about the economics that people are facing in this country.

5:53 Gas prices are high.

5:55 Mortgage payments are high.

5:56 They're not coming down.

5:57 Like, what is the overall picture right now yeah so this i

6:01 think is that the heart of your point katie and you're absolutely right

6:04 i rant about other things but it's the juxtaposition between folks doing it

6:08 hard right now because grocery prices are at an all-time high every grocery

6:12 except eggs of course let's only talk about eggs gas prices are unbelievably

6:16 high people are struggling with the cost of living we had a president

6:20 who came to power suggesting he was going to get address the cost

6:23 of living as the first thing he did Instead, he raised tariffs.

6:26 Instead, he attacked the Fed.

6:27 Instead, he started a foreign war that he didn't need to start.

6:30 And the one that really gets me is did not renew the Obamacare subsidies.

6:36 And so that means literally millions,

6:38 millions of Americans can't afford health care right now.

6:41 A billion dollars is not a lot when you

6:43 think about it from the country as a whole,

6:45 but if you think about just the moral responsibility that comes

6:49 with holding the people's money and could

6:51 that billion be better spent elsewhere?

6:53 And has that thought even occurred to anyone?

6:55 I think that's the juxtaposition it really burns.

6:58 Justin, I always love having you.

6:59 Thank you so much for joining me.

7:01 Molly, it's also really good to have you, and I'm going to plug your book,

7:05 How to Lose Your Mother, a Daughter's Memoir, in paperback now.

7:08 Oh, here, I'm going to show it right here.

7:10 It really spoke to me, and I think if anyone has not read it yet,

7:13 the paperback is a great option.

7:14 Molly, thank you.

7:15 Here it is.

7:17 Well, they were zooming in again.

7:19 David, don't go anywhere.

7:22 I'm sorry.

7:23 This TV thing, it's all very new to me.

7:25 I don't really know how to do it.

7:26 Still ahead, President Trump's