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DOGE Sweeps into 15 Federal Agencies, Including the IRS · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

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  Speaker 1: And this should have been done by Biden years ago.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: This should have never been allowed to happen. I know
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  Speaker 1: he's a friend of yours, He's a friend of CNN.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: That's why nobody watches CNN anymore because they have no credibility.
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  Speaker 2: Who else? Yes, you're listening to the forty seven Morning
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  Speaker 2: Update with Ben Ferguson.
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  Speaker 3: Well, happy Friday morning, you made it to the weekend.
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  Speaker 3: Ben Ferguson with you, and here are the big stories
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  Speaker 3: we're covering today on the forty seven Morning Update. First up,
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  Speaker 3: Democrats are losing their mind as Elon Musk and his
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  Speaker 3: team have now gained more access to a total of
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  Speaker 3: fifteen government agencies.
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  Speaker 4: What are they fighting? I'll have it for you in
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  Speaker 4: just a moment.
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  Speaker 3: Democrats also trying to figure out how they are going
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  Speaker 3: to fight back against Donald Trump.
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: And in story number.
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  Speaker 3: Two, elam Omar goes on National TV to say that
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  Speaker 3: Donald Trump is in essence a dictator and a tyrant
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  Speaker 3: when he's just been on the job for three weeks.
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  Speaker 3: And finally, we have the list of the likely tax
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  Speaker 3: that could save you and your family a ton of
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  Speaker 3: money that Donald Trump wants in the Reconciliation Bill, will
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  Speaker 3: have those details as well. It's the forty seven Morning
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  Speaker 3: Update and it starts right now.
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  Speaker 2: Story number one.
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  Speaker 3: If there's one thing that Donald Trump has done that
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  Speaker 3: has really made the left angry, it's the fact that
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  Speaker 3: he's exposing the waste of fraud and the good old
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  Speaker 3: abuse in the United States government. We're also finding out
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  Speaker 3: each and every day just how bad things have gotten.
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  Speaker 3: And now it seems clear that Donald Trump is saying
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  Speaker 3: to Elon Musk and his.
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  Speaker 4: Team, go find it all.
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  Speaker 3: Elon Musk and his team have now swept into fifteen agencies,
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  Speaker 3: and this.
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  Speaker 4: Is what we know.
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  Speaker 3: Staffers and allies of Musk and his service are well
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  Speaker 3: fanning out across Washington in the last week, especially seeking
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  Speaker 3: access to data and disrupting operations in at least fifteen
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  Speaker 3: government agencies in pursuit of dramatically smaller federal government. DOGE,
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  Speaker 3: which you know stands for the Department of Government Efficiency,
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  Speaker 3: has not disclosed the names of its staff members, but
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  Speaker 3: the Washington Post is trying to do a let's out
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  Speaker 3: you list. They've identified now more than thirty people working
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  Speaker 3: for closely with by examining the internal directories. They claim
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  Speaker 3: a multiple agencies and interviewing numerous federal workers, virtually all
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  Speaker 3: of whom spoke on condition of eminemity to fear for quote,
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  Speaker 3: major retaliation. Now, this is when you know that Elon
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  Speaker 3: Musk is getting somewhere in Donald Trump. When you have
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  Speaker 3: this many people inside the government that are trying to
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  Speaker 3: undermine the people that are working with Doge, They're hoping
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  Speaker 3: that they can get them in trouble or find a
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  Speaker 3: way to get them fired. Now, about half of those
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  Speaker 3: identified have ties to Musk or his companies. Why, well,
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  Speaker 3: these are clearly the people that he trusts with his
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  Speaker 3: companies and also people well that operate at another level
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  Speaker 3: when it comes to intellect. Now, among those are young people,
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  Speaker 3: and the reality is many on the Democratic Party are
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  Speaker 3: angry at the fact that many of these people working
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  Speaker 3: for Elon Musk are young in their twenties. Another way
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  Speaker 3: of putting it, it's clear age discrimination. They don't like
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  Speaker 3: the fact that young people are coming in and looking
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  Speaker 3: at ways to cost cut or looking for the waste
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  Speaker 3: fraud and abuse and exposing it the way that Elon
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  Speaker 3: Musk is on X. What's also very interesting about what's
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  Speaker 3: happening now is much of the waste fraud and abuse
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  Speaker 3: is being exposed instantly because Elon Musk will get the information,
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  Speaker 3: then he checks and verifies it, and then he's putting
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  Speaker 3: it out on social media, so that you know, before
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  Speaker 3: the media can protect or stop the story from ever
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  Speaker 3: being written. He's going around the media now. Donald Trump
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  Speaker 3: was asked in an interview during the halftime of the
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  Speaker 3: Super Bowl on Sunday night about if he trusts Elon Musk,
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  Speaker 3: because again, what is the left doing trying to tell
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  Speaker 3: you that Elon Musk and his staff cannot be trusted.
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  Speaker 3: What did Donald Trump say, Take a listen.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if it's kickbacks or what's going on,
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  Speaker 1: but the people, look, I ran on this, and the
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  Speaker 1: people want me to find it. And I've had a
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  Speaker 1: great help with Elon Musk, who's been terrific.
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  Speaker 5: I'm on you say you trust him?
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  Speaker 1: Trust Elon. Oh, he's not gaining anything. In fact, I
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  Speaker 1: wonder how he can devote the time to it. He's
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  Speaker 1: so into it. But I told him to do that.
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  Speaker 1: Then I'm going to tell him very soon, like maybe
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  Speaker 1: in twenty four hours, to go check the Department of Education.
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  Speaker 1: He's going to find the same thing. Then I'm going
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  Speaker 1: to go to the military. Let's check the military. We're
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  Speaker 1: going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of
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  Speaker 1: fraud and abuse. And you know, the people elected me on.
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  Speaker 3: That hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse.
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  Speaker 3: It was very clear the President was saying to you,
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  Speaker 3: the American people, you told me what the mandate was.
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  Speaker 3: You wanted me to cut the size of government. You
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  Speaker 3: wanted me to me make sure that they weren't wasting
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  Speaker 3: your tax dollars. You wanted to make sure that your
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  Speaker 3: money was going to America first policies. That is exactly
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  Speaker 3: what Donald Trump is delivering on, and he's expanding the
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  Speaker 3: scope of where he's looking for all of the government waste,
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  Speaker 3: fraud and abuse.
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  Speaker 2: Now story number two.
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  Speaker 4: It is very.
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  Speaker 3: Clear Democrats are trying to find their footing and how
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  Speaker 3: they're going to deal with all the successes over the
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  Speaker 3: last three weeks of Donald Trump's agenda. They understand now
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  Speaker 3: that they've got to come up with some plan to
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  Speaker 3: undermine him. The media is obviously on board to help
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  Speaker 3: with that. Alam Omar has come out just days after
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  Speaker 3: Democrats already called for a third impeachment of Donald Trump
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  Speaker 3: from the floor of the House to say that it's
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  Speaker 3: very clear that Donald Trump has decided he will not
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  Speaker 3: abide their claiming by the Constitution. They're now saying he
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  Speaker 3: is a dictator and a tyrant. Well representative. Alam Omar
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  Speaker 3: on Sunday on CBS Facination had a few other things
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  Speaker 3: to say about Donald Trump. This is their game plan
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  Speaker 3: of how they're going to undermine him. Listen carefully to
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  Speaker 3: the word she uses.
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  Speaker 5: We're joined now by Democratic Congressman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
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  Speaker 5: Good to have you here. You have spoken quite a
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  Speaker 5: bit this week about what USAID meant in your life,
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  Speaker 5: particularly when you were living in a refugee camp for
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  Speaker 5: four years and USAID you talked about helping to keep
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  Speaker 5: you alive. We know this week a federal judge will
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  Speaker 5: come to some kind of hearing and decision perhaps on
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  Speaker 5: what happens to all those government workers. Are the courts
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  Speaker 5: the main line of defense here?
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  Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, what we are witnessing is a constitutional crisis.
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  Speaker 6: We are seeing an executive branch that has decided that
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  Speaker 6: they are no longer going to abide by the Constitution
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  Speaker 6: in honoring Congress's role in the creation of the agencies,
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  Speaker 6: in their role in deciding where money is allocated. And
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  Speaker 6: so the only week course we have have since our
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  Speaker 6: congressional leadership, the Speaker will not stop the executive is
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  Speaker 6: through the judiciary. And this is you know, when you
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  Speaker 6: think about the checks and balances that we have, the
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  Speaker 6: courts are the only recourse we have at the moment,
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  Speaker 6: and we have seen and when we talk about the
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  Speaker 6: illegality of what the executive is doing, we have seen
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  Speaker 6: every single executive order that has been challenged in the
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  Speaker 6: courts was found to be illegal. And that I think
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  Speaker 6: should give faith to the American people that our courts
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  Speaker 6: are working as they should. The checks and balances are working.
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  Speaker 6: What is not working is the way that the executive
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  Speaker 6: is behaving and the congressional leadership that is failing the
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  Speaker 6: American people.
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  Speaker 5: Well, some of these court cases are ongoing.
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  Speaker 3: So, by the way, let's just be clear over what
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  Speaker 3: she just said. She just claimed that the court systems
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  Speaker 3: had stopped Donald Trump on every executive order. That is
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  Speaker 3: a and as you could even hear there, and I'm
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  Speaker 3: sure this was hard for them to do at CBS
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  Speaker 3: Face the Nation, they even tried to somewhat correct her
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  Speaker 3: and say, well, these are ongoing He's only been present
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  Speaker 3: for three weeks. How can you make such an egregious claim.
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  Speaker 3: You also have to remember who the Democrats are putting
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  Speaker 3: out on TV. Face The Democratic Party now has become
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  Speaker 3: so radical they decide to put a congresswoman out there
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  Speaker 3: as their faced this week on Face the Nation, a
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  Speaker 3: woman that referred to the nine to eleven terrorists as
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  Speaker 3: some people that did some things. We also are finding
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  Speaker 3: out that the Democrats are putting different extremists out there
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  Speaker 3: to try to find out a way to undermine the president.
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  Speaker 3: You notice, in the beginning of that interview, Margaret Brennan
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  Speaker 3: is talking about we know that USAID meant so much
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  Speaker 3: to you and your life. Why did she say that, Well,
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  Speaker 3: it's very clear they're trying to cover for the abuse, waste,
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  Speaker 3: the fraud coming from USAID and even the funneling of
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  Speaker 3: money to actual terrorists. So what better person on TV
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  Speaker 3: to defend the program then a woman that refers to
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  Speaker 3: the nine to eleven hijackers as some people that did
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  Speaker 3: some things. Now Omar was not done there. She also
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  Speaker 3: went on to say this, I mean, what we're witnessing
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  Speaker 3: is a constitutional crisis. We are seeing executive brands that
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  Speaker 3: has decided they no longer are going to abide by
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  Speaker 3: the Constitution and honoring Congress's role in the creation of
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  Speaker 3: the agencies and their role and in deciding where money
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  Speaker 3: is allocated.
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  Speaker 4: So, now, what does she say?
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  Speaker 3: You have a president of the United States of America
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  Speaker 3: that has gone rogue. I think it's pretty clear the
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  Speaker 3: Democrats are now trying anything they can to get their footing,
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  Speaker 3: whether it's impeaching Donald Trump or saying he's a dictator
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  Speaker 3: or a tyrant or someone not abiding by the Constitution,
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  Speaker 3: all because Democrats don't know what to do because there's
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  Speaker 3: so much winning going on in Washington.
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  Speaker 2: And lastly, story number three, I have.
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  Speaker 3: An important list for you today and is the list
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  Speaker 3: of the likely tax cuts that now Donald Trump wants
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  Speaker 3: in the Reckon Aciliation Bill. What this means for everyday
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  Speaker 3: Americans is real savings for you. Now the plan has
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  Speaker 3: become even more ambitious, mainly because of all the well
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  Speaker 3: abuse of your tax dollars that the Trump administration has
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  Speaker 3: found in the last three weeks. The Press Secretary Carolin
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  Speaker 3: Levitt came out to explain just one of the abuses
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  Speaker 3: of your tax dollars being used against you, and it
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  Speaker 3: was when the money they found was going to media
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  Speaker 3: outlets including Politico. This is what has spun the President
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  Speaker 3: up to give more of your money back to you.
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  Speaker 7: So upon coming out here to the briefing room, I
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  Speaker 7: was made aware of the funding from USAID to media
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  Speaker 7: outlets including Politico, who I know has a seat in
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  Speaker 7: this room, and I can confirm that the more than
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  Speaker 7: eight million taxpayer dollars that have gone to essentially subsidizing
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  Speaker 7: subscriptions to Politico, the American taxpayer's dying will no longer
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  Speaker 7: be happening. The DOGE team is working on canceling those
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  Speaker 7: payments now.
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  Speaker 3: So when they find the money and then they decide
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  Speaker 3: to cancel these types of payments, the question many asked was, well,
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  Speaker 3: what's going to happen next? Well, it now is clear
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  Speaker 3: the president saying he wants you to keep more of
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  Speaker 3: your money and stop giving so much of it to
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  Speaker 3: the government. President Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans are in
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  Speaker 3: deep negotiations and went all weekend long on a tax
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  Speaker 3: package that a budget watchdog group estimated would actually save
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  Speaker 3: you five to eleven point two trillion.
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  Speaker 4: Over the next decade.
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  Speaker 3: Now, if you read the media's explanation of that, they'll
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  Speaker 3: tell you it's going to cost you between five trillion
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  Speaker 3: to eleven point two trillion. No, no, that's how much
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  Speaker 3: the government will not get from you. A series of
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  Speaker 3: tax policy changes that Trump's supports appear to have broad
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  Speaker 3: support among Republicans in Congress. The Committee for a Responsible
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  Speaker 3: Federal Budget has released a study that projects the cost
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  Speaker 3: of each item over a ten year period is going
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  Speaker 3: to be huge for you, the American people. Now on
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  Speaker 3: that list, at the top of it was one big thing,
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: eliminating taxes on tips. This was a huge promise from
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  Speaker 3: Donald Trump during the campaign, something he said he would
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  Speaker 3: work on as soon as he got into the White House.
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  Speaker 3: It would result in a hundred billion to five hundred
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  Speaker 3: and fifty billion reduction in federal tax revenue, meaning one
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  Speaker 3: hundred to five hundred and fifty billion of taxes that
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  Speaker 3: you wouldn't have to pay to the government. We also
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  Speaker 3: found out exempting overtime pay from federal taxes would also
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  Speaker 3: give two hundred and fifty to three trillion back into
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  Speaker 3: the pockets of American workers. And finally, exempting Social Security
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  Speaker 3: benefits from federal taxes would now cost between five hundred
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  Speaker 3: and fifty billion and one point five trillion. That's how
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  Speaker 3: the government is reporting it to the media as they're
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  Speaker 3: trying to keep more of your dollars. So what does
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  Speaker 3: it really mean. It means that Donald Trump and the
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  Speaker 3: Republicans are wanting you to keep between five hundred and
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  Speaker 3: fifty billion to one point five trillion that you normally
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  Speaker 3: would have paid in taxes. We also have been told
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  Speaker 3: that the present wants to lower taxes for US production
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  Speaker 3: of certain goods that would save you between one hundred
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  Speaker 3: to two hundred billion, and reducing tax benefits for stadium
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  Speaker 3: owners and ending the carried interest loophole. They would also
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  Speaker 3: save the taxpayers one hundred billion dollars. Now, all of
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  Speaker 3: this is being put together in one of the biggest
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  Speaker 3: tax plans we've ever seen. But this is not a
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  Speaker 3: big tax plan that's going to raise your taxes. It's
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  Speaker 3: going to go down in history as one of the
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  Speaker 3: biggest tax cuts in American history. And this is the
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  Speaker 3: reason why Democrats right now are so terrified of Donald
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  Speaker 3: Trump and his success, because three weeks in we also
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  Speaker 3: know that Donald Trump has a new high approval rating,
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  Speaker 3: meaning the American people are paying attention and the American
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  Speaker 3: people are in favor of exactly what Donald Trump is doing.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update
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  Speaker 2: with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: you're listening to the podcast right now and for more
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: and we will see you back here tomorrow