Less than impressed with Donald Trumps executive actions and said in a statement were disappointed instead of putting in the work to solve americans problems the president chose to stay on his luxury golf course to announce narrow policy announcements to slash the Unemployment Benefits millions need and endanger Social Security and medicare. We begin focused on the tens of millions of americans struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic as congress argues and the president signed the executive order the reality is things are dire for many of us in the United States. Lets start with our msnbc weekend anchor david, i would love to get your sense what this will mean. The president seemed to say 400 is good to get people back to work, that this is what the American People want, is that our understanding what the American People want . Joshua, ive been talking to a lot of people thats out of work and talk about the issue of it being a disingenuous incentive going going d disincentive, to a tee Everyone Wants to get back to work but theres not jobs available. So i will quibble with what the president said and theres been a ton of confusion around this, its been hard on men and women who are out of work. Couple weeks back i fwhwas in tulsa, oklahoma, people going to get their applications looked at and number of them with great difficulty trying to figure out what would happen if this couldnt get continued. 600 may sound like a large chunk when you look at at the state level some get 250 or 300 a week. So you have to look at it in a larger sense what it has enabled the u. S. Economy to do, people have paid their housing, their mortgages, pay their rent, make their car payments. Now that thats gone it could have profound ripple effects over all different parts of the economy. Yes it will be bad at the micro level for those individual whos cant make those payments but it will start to effect the broader, macro economy. Youve been talking to Economic Experts this week about some of the complicated factor thats exist in a pandemic during a financial crisis what did they tell you . This is a really important part of this story. I dont think a lot of people get it. These benefits are paid out at the state level and so many state agencies were unprepared for the inundation when the crisis set in. The job market was using technology that was out of doubt because it was working fine and weve learned how inadequate that is. So you look at whats happened over the past 20 weeks and whats happening now that confusion i mentioned moments ago will play out at the state agencies again. They will look at what the president said and wonder is this law . Is this something we can do now . I mentioned the technology, many offices operate on main frames from the 80s and 90s, very Outdated Technology and it will take a lot of time to implement the changes make it 400 versus 600. Theres going to he a to be a lac lack. Lac lack lag. Lag. How well did that infrastructure handle the crush of applications weve seen. The state unemployment offices have really struggled and let me say, its not their fault. That system has been under funded, under staffed and has not had uptodate technology. Youre trying to get an elephant through a system thats designed for a mouse and its just not going to work. So the system has really struggled and weve heard these deeply frustrating stories from millions of americans across the country of crashing websites. So that confusion i mentioned, now even more so, how these offices are going to be able to handle this, joshua. Seth and i had a conversation about is this going to be the moment that focuses these agencies at the state level, the Labor Department and federal level as well to fix some of the systems and make the investments to deal with crisis like this. He hopes that will be the case. Right now the focus is on what will happen in the coming weeks and how these agencies can get that money to people the fastest way possible. With what the president did just another degree of complication and confusion tooz as to what the path forward will be. Computer systems from the 80s, you said. Unbelievable. You heard me right. Still using tape. Fiveinch floppy discs, it continues to work so they havent invested in replacing those machines. The heads of many of these agencies say it is woeful. It would surprise people to see the main frames theyre using today. Got more power in my anyonent tendo twitch. Thank you. David. Starting us off this hour. Lets continue now with the member of the house Budget Committee, Democratic Congress man of california including the headquarters of apple, intel and linked in, all of which seem to have more Computing Power than some of our state employment agencies. Congressman good evening. Good evening, i think the Technology Companies should help the government so the benefit goes to the citizens insteld of just the companies that seem to be doing well. Thats a whole other conversation between Silicon Valley and the federal government. Thats an hour for another day. Let me ask you about the four executive orders. Is there anything at all among any of the executive orders the president signed today that you like or that you are generally in support of. Im in support of extended Unemployment Benefits but hes announcing a benefit cut, i mean, hes taking it from 600 to 400. Theres month plan on when people will get this money, if this money will be there. I dont think we ought to be giving folks who are struggling getting food on the table and rent false hope when it is so simple. He needs to negotiate with schumer and pelosi. They lower the number by a Million Dollars and willing to meet the president halfway instead its these gimmicks. You remember the Budget Committee i wonder what your sense is of what we can afford. I mean, america is spending money on number of things, gigantic piles of debt we have to pay off sooner or later. Are we prepared to spend money, even though we need to spend it that we really dont have a plan for recouping. Well the spending right now will prevent larger deficits. Lets say we dont spend this money and Consumer Spending dries up, the folks who are unemployed that will mean less tax revenue, more unemployment and will actually put us in a deeper hole. So this isnt just me, this is powell at the fed is saying we have to support people so that they can spend and dont wreak permanent damage on the economy and the president said he wants to terminate the payroll tax, thats literally a cut in Social Security and medicare. Talk about what you think we can afford to spend. A lot of what we heard this week sounds like monopoly money, 1 trillion, 3 trillion, to me im thinking can we average at 2 trillion. But i cant wrap my head around two. How do we think about the way the u. S. Looks at the money we have and the money we need to spend and determine if they match . Well, joshua, the way youre thinking about it is the way pelosi and shurmur said lets meet halfway at 2 trillion, that seems like a reasonable perimeter. Let me give a broader answer to your question our gdp is 2 trillion is 10 , i dont think this will be safe until theres a vaccine. Were in survival mode. We can afford 10 of gdp to make sure people have food, medicine and a roof over their head. Right now people are just struggling to keep life going and i believe it is our moral imperative that we spend 10 of our gdp, do it six to twelve months, and for donald trump to accuse these folks not wanting to work in a country people paid hundreds and thousands of dues just shows hes not in touch. I have nothing against people who make wealth but have some perspective on what people are going through. When you say gdp, to be clear, were talking about the amount of the value of the economy, not necessarily the dollars that come into the federal treasury as taxes. Yes. But that gives us an ability to borrow. The Interest Rates are extraordinarily low. And if were taking that kind of spending of the economy we can make sure we do right by people. Theyre not working through no fault of their own. Theyre not working because theyre being responsible. Businesses dont want to spread the infection. Now, if this is something that confronted the United States for 10 or 15 years then we could have a debate but to say look, we want to keep families together, keep people healthy, keep people enough money for their kids 6 to 12 months, most will say thats reasonable. Weve had crisis before, whether world wars, whether depressions, whether the great recession, we as americans have come together and said thats the time government has to step up. Whats the tone if your district like right now . You have a very interesting district, yours spans both sides of the bottom of San Francisco bay. Including cupertino, apple is headquarters. Santa claritaa where intel is headquarters. Sunnyvale where yahoo and linked in are and the 49erss stadium and freemont big production and wealthy district and very diverse district. The folks among your constituents are among those having the easiest time working in the pandemic because theyre in the tech economy, apple and google, and other companies saying stay home until june so they can kind of swing it. Theres other folks in the district who are the people who empty the garbage cans at google. Exactly. Or who work in the cafeteria at apple park who are not able to just stay home. So how are folks in your district doing right now . Well, joshua, that is the most thoughtful understanding of my district. Youre absolutely correct. On the one hand extraordinary wealth Tech Companies are doing great as more people are working virtually and were becoming a more digitized economy. But its just highlighted the digital divide, those who can work remotely are in some cases benefiting, but the bus drivers, Food Service Workers and janitorial staff are not keeping up, this is why we need to have an essential workers bill of rights, treat them as employees, give them hazard pay and give them child care. The amazing thing is we can do this. We have four or five Companies Worth trillions dollars why not tax them so everyone can benefit, seems would be to everyones interest in our society. Congressman of Silicon Valley appreciate your time. Thank you for the conversation. We have a powerful panel, an associate professor of Political Science and cohost of a podcast. And a host of sirius xm and former state Department Senior advisor and joined by senior political analyst. Good to 150e see you all. Professor, let me start with you and this move by the president , i can understand the critiques of the executive orders certainly the legal argument considering whether this will hold up considering congress as the purse not him. The political caucus seemed obvious, beyond the president were reporter and beyond reporters were people of his club who were called in to say, hey, want to watch a president ial press conference. Right, the visuals of that, we have a sitting president at his own country club making money while delivering formal news to the American Public and criticizing the media and most people werent even masked which is highly problematic. I think the press Conference Today really did illuminate just how little respect and understanding the president as for the separation of powers. The framers really did explicitly the congress has the power of the purse. They did give executive the power to have executive orders and so thats a president ial power thats incredibly important but the president often times confuse signing an executive order and signing a bill, so he doesnt understand, when Congress Writes legislation they send it to the president to sign, thats how a bill becomes a law. The executive order doesnt have the weight of the law behind it. The next subsequent president can come and undo it and reverse it. We seen positive executive orders in the past, integrating the armed forces. We also seen negative executive orders, ie, putting japanese americans and italians in american concentration camps. The president doesnt understand what the role of the executive is and today we see him just projecting, obviously, going way off, not even talking about what he invited us to discussion discuss. Just attacking nancy pelosi, Chuck Schumer and joe biden obviously and trying to turn what should be a policy conversation into a lowkey Campaign Rally with some invited guest whos paid 350,000 to say they heard the president ramble for an hour or so. I have to say, professor greer i wasnt expecting you to explain School House Rocks difference between a bill and executive order, when i hear you do that im like we have turned the page, we have a School House Rock bill versus executive order. Jonathan, with regard to this executive order what happens now. The professor is right these are two very different documents. Theres already a threat of a legal challenge because democrats argue the president is t trying to do something outside the power of the executive. Do we have a concrete sense whether or not thats an actual plan, or an idle threat right now . Number one the president has figured out if he does things it takes a long time for the law suits to work their way through the courts so for the shortterm he has the advantage to implement what he wants or perhaps some injunction to stop and on some of these things he actually appears to have some power to do, he may be able to suspend the collection of the payroll tax. There may be a lawsuit about that but there does seem to be some flexability there. On the policy level theres question about the political smarts of this. Heres a president who campaigned proudly in 2016 on the idea he was going to protect medicare and Social Security and what hes doing now is robbing the fund from that payroll tax that actually put the money into medicare and Social Security. And doing it from folks who are actually getting paid right now, opposed to those who are unemployed. With this executive order it doesnt send out stimulus checks which is something he wants to do and something nancy pelosi and Mitch Mcconnell wants to do. It also doesnt address the Small Business issues that still remain and a variety of other things. So it is a shortterm package, the best he can hope to do. Lara, what is your sense of these executive orders, some of them if they went forward, if they survived would have enormous effects on our economy. Well, this is a president who claims hes a dealmaker, has not actually gone to the hill or engage directly in any of the negotiations, hes been entirely absent in the process. He derided president ob trying to pass Administrative Law to executive order, its exactly what hes doing now. And in his press conference he tried to claim credit for two of the notable pieces of legislation that president obama passed. Veterans choice as well as the Insurance Companies having to cover preexisting conditions. Thats the context suddenly we have a president who is now trying to work around congress and trying to implement some type of, i cant even call it legislation, but some kind of policy that will effectively raid the government of trillion dollars if not more. Thats what eliminating the payroll tax and ability to Fund Medicare and medicaid and Social Security will end up doing at a time were not only massively in debt but looking at trillions of dollars in stimulus. So hes adding to the deficit and not fixing any of the fundamentals of the economy and hes using all of the tools he blames the previous president for using. Everybody stick around. Much more wed like to talk about with you tonight. Coming up new york state is suing to dissolve the nra. Whats behind the lawsuit . And what are its chances if court . Find your sense of wander. Find the world is new, again. At chevy wed like to take you there. 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