Speaker 1: You're listening to KFI Am sixty Wake Up Call with
Speaker 1: me Amy King on demand on the iHeartRadio app. It's
Speaker 1: five o'clock straight up, Good morning. It's Monday, Yeah, Happy,
Speaker 1: Happy Monday. The date is June second, so we will
Speaker 1: no longer be referring to all these icky low clouds
Speaker 1: as May gray. It is officially June gloom. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: we have a nice thick layer of it this morning
Speaker 1: in some areas.
Speaker 2: That's okay. It's gonna be sunny this afternoon. It's gonna
Speaker 2: be gorgeous.
Speaker 1: Still hacking away from the remnants of my cold. So
Speaker 1: if it goes quiet for a second, that's why.
Speaker 2: It's not quiet on my end. I'm just who last yet.
Speaker 2: It's a hack, that's all it is.
Speaker 1: It's beautiful, still watching for sunny and Gizmo our eaglets.
Speaker 2: They did not want to fly, so you know.
Speaker 1: Sonny lifted off last week a couple of times actually,
Speaker 1: but they stayed close to home for the weekend.
Speaker 2: So is today the day? We don't know.
Speaker 1: It could happen anytime, anytime right now. I think that
Speaker 1: they just like hanging out with each other. And we
Speaker 1: found out that their sisters they don't know unless they
Speaker 1: actually do DNA testing, but they believe because of there's
Speaker 1: certain things, including their vocalizations and that kind of.
Speaker 2: Stuff, that they are both girls. Okay, sisters, Okay. Anyway,
Speaker 2: here's what's ahead on wake up called.
Speaker 1: LA. Mayor bass Is called for an emergency meeting a
Speaker 1: city hall to evaluate security in LA following what's been
Speaker 1: described as a terror attack on Jewish demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado.
Speaker 1: A man used a makeshift flamethrower to attack a group
Speaker 1: that was demonstrating in support of the release of the
Speaker 1: remaining Israeli hostages.
Speaker 2: Eight people were hurt.
Speaker 1: A man's been rescued from twenty feet up a tree
Speaker 1: in the Hollywood Hills, LA Fire says the man was
Speaker 1: in medical distress yesterday afternoon on North Mount Olympus Drive.
Speaker 1: Firefighters were able to get the thirty year old down
Speaker 1: from the tree canopy.
Speaker 2: He was taken to the hospital.
Speaker 1: Not clear if he was working at the time or
Speaker 1: how he got stuck in the tree. Fire officials investigating
Speaker 1: a fire at an Amazon warehouse near Glendale in which
Speaker 1: eight vehicles were destroyed and two were damaged. The fire
Speaker 1: happened around one thirty yesterday morning on West San Fernando Road.
Speaker 1: All the delivery vans were empty at the time. Ukraine
Speaker 1: may be down, but it's not out. It hit Russia
Speaker 1: and hit hard over the weekend. ABC's Patrick Reevel's going
Speaker 1: to join us in just a couple of minutes to
Speaker 1: give us the latest on that Trump's got a new
Speaker 1: tariff plan for the European Union and it is supposed
Speaker 1: to kick in quick. ABC's Karen Travers has the latest
Speaker 1: on that that's happening at five point twenty. At the
Speaker 1: bottom of the hour, ABC's Jim Ryan is going to
Speaker 1: join us to tell us why now is the time?
Speaker 1: Now is the time to change all your passwords and
Speaker 1: with a razor thin margin for error, some republic and
Speaker 1: Senators continue their pushback against the presidents so called Big
Speaker 1: Beautiful Bill. ABC's Stephen Portnoy will help us sort through that.
Speaker 1: He's so good at helping make sense of these crazy, crazy,
Speaker 1: intricate and complicated deals. Well, say good morning to ABC's
Speaker 1: Patrick reveal Patrick. Ukraine may be down, but they showed
Speaker 1: this weekend that they're not out.
Speaker 2: What happened over the weekend.
Speaker 3: Hi, Ami, Yeah, absolutely, an extraordinary attack took place as
Speaker 3: we can both extraordinary in its results but also in
Speaker 3: how it took place. Basically, Ukraine succeeded in smuggling in
Speaker 3: dozens of.
Speaker 4: Commercial cord Copter drones into Russia and then launching this
Speaker 4: incredible surprise attack against four of Russia's most important strategic
Speaker 4: air bases across the country, some one up in the Arctic,
Speaker 4: one thousands of miles from Ukraine deep in Siberia, and
Speaker 4: these bases are home to Russia's strategic bomber fleet. These
Speaker 4: are the long range bombers used to launch cruise missiles
Speaker 4: at Ukraine, but are also the same type of aircraft
Speaker 4: that are used for Russia's nucleated terrein These are the
Speaker 4: type of planes that fly to Alaska, for example, and
Speaker 4: force the US to scramble jets. And the damage that
Speaker 4: Ukraine was able to inflict is remarkable. You know, we've
Speaker 4: seen not only videos from the drones over the weekend,
Speaker 4: but also this morning we've seen satellite imagery that suggests
Speaker 4: that at least twelve of Russia's heavy long range bombers
Speaker 4: have been destroyed at just two of these airfields. And
Speaker 4: to put in perspective, there's only a few dozen of
Speaker 4: these aircraft, and they haven't really built many of them
Speaker 4: since the Cold War because they're so expensive and they're
Speaker 4: so difficult to replace, and so basically the equivalent of
Speaker 4: the US is B fifty two's and so to suffer
Speaker 4: this extraordinary attack where you know, a large, significant number
Speaker 4: of them are destroyed just by these very cheap commercial
Speaker 4: drones in this spectacular way, there's obviously a huge psychological
Speaker 4: blow to Russia's air force.
Speaker 1: Okay, so Patrick, I want to look just a little closer,
Speaker 1: because you said they're very inexpensive drones and the way
Speaker 1: that they carried it out was absolutely just amazing that
Speaker 1: they were able to do this. But you're saying that
Speaker 1: they were small commercial drones that were used. So are
Speaker 1: we talking about a drone that's like two feet across
Speaker 1: or is it a larger drone? How big were these drones?
Speaker 4: Yeah? I think actually slightly smaller. Even you know, these
Speaker 4: are basically the sort of these are basically these quad
Speaker 4: copter drones, you know, the four propellers that you would
Speaker 4: see people using just for fun or for filming things
Speaker 4: in the United States, and they of course modified them.
Speaker 4: We believe they did put sort of improved guidance systems
Speaker 4: on them. Possibly there was a use of AI involving them,
Speaker 4: and obviously they put explosives on them. But these ultimately
Speaker 4: are very cheap drones. You know, they're around at most,
Speaker 4: you know, sort of thousand dollars, maybe fifteen hundred dollars,
Speaker 4: and these aircraft are worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Speaker 4: And you know, as you were saying, I mean, the
Speaker 4: way that they did it was completely extraordinary, and that
Speaker 4: they smuggled the drones in and then they hit them
Speaker 4: inside what were basically mobile homes, you know, wooden sheds
Speaker 4: that were put on the back of trucks, and then
Speaker 4: we believe they were driven by Russian civilian truck drivers
Speaker 4: who probably didn't know what they were carrying. And then
Speaker 4: basically when they got close to these bases, they then
Speaker 4: opened up the roofs of these containers and.
Speaker 3: Then the drones just started flying out. I mean, the
Speaker 3: videos are extraordinary, you know, you see these.
Speaker 4: Truck drivers just amazed as they're watching these things take off.
Speaker 4: And then we've seen the sort at least one example
Speaker 4: where there were truck drivers desperately trying to bring down
Speaker 4: the drones by standing on top of the containers trying
Speaker 4: to hit them with clubs, but obviously just an extraordinary
Speaker 4: intelligence coup as well for Ukraine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Patrick, I know you got to run, so
Speaker 1: thank you so much for the information.
Speaker 2: It's just amazing what they they did.
Speaker 1: And I guess they've been planning it for about a
Speaker 1: year and it was incredibly successful. We'll see if it
Speaker 1: makes any kind of difference. But Patrick Reeville, ABC, thank
Speaker 1: you so much.
Speaker 5: That.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: So can you imagine that because it sounds like you've
Speaker 1: got a mobile home on the back of a semi
Speaker 1: truck that you see driving down the road sometimes or
Speaker 1: in the freeway. I see it more in Oregon than
Speaker 1: I do in California. And then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: the top opens up and all these drones come flying out.
Speaker 2: Craziness. Monday morning. This is your wake up call.
Speaker 1: I'm Amy King. Thanks so much for getting your day
Speaker 1: started with us. Let's say good morning now to ABC's
Speaker 1: Karen Travers. So, Karen, another day, another change in tariffs.
Speaker 2: What is the latest?
Speaker 6: Yeah, so we have a couple things. The President on
Speaker 6: Friday announced that he was going to increase tariffs on
Speaker 6: steel and aluminum imports from twenty five percent to fifty percent.
Speaker 6: He did this when he was out in western Pennsylvania
Speaker 6: and the pitt Berg area talking about how he is
Speaker 6: going to boost the domestic steel industry. He said, this
Speaker 6: means nobody is going to be able to steal your industry.
Speaker 6: Think very much pun intended there. Of course, there is
Speaker 6: big pushback on this. The European Commission says that they
Speaker 6: strongly regret this increase because it's going to undermine efforts
Speaker 6: right now taking place to negotiate a trade deal, and
Speaker 6: they said they're going to have counter measures retaliatory tariffs
Speaker 6: put in place. Canadian steel workers are pushing back, saying
Speaker 6: that this should spark an immediate and forceable response from
Speaker 6: the Canadian government. We haven't heard yet if they are
Speaker 6: going to do that. But it also comes as the
Speaker 6: President is accusing China of renegging on the commitment made
Speaker 6: in Geneva a couple of weeks ago that led him
Speaker 6: to reduce tariffs and Chinese goods from one forty five
Speaker 6: to thirty percent. China insists that they have not renegged
Speaker 6: on that agreement and that the president is making baseless accusations.
Speaker 6: But apparently, according to his top economic advisors, he is
Speaker 6: going to speak with China's president this week, So a
Speaker 6: lot on the agenda for them to get to in
Speaker 6: that phone call.
Speaker 2: Wow. So, like I said, another day, another change.
Speaker 1: It's just like how do you keep up with the
Speaker 1: bouncing ball as you've called it.
Speaker 6: Lots of documents open.
Speaker 2: Yes, So Karen, here's the question.
Speaker 1: He's saying, Okay, we're raising these and this one is
Speaker 1: a pretty quick turnaround. It's not like it's happening in
Speaker 1: ninety days. He's saying it's happening in two more days
Speaker 1: this week.
Speaker 6: Now more days.
Speaker 1: Is that because or do we have any inkling or
Speaker 1: indication that it's because the trade negotiations are not moving
Speaker 1: along as he wants them to.
Speaker 2: So he's basically pushing the envelope.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: I think it could be a part of that in
Speaker 6: you know, they've acknowledged that they have not reached trade agreements.
Speaker 6: Of course with countries, we would have known about it
Speaker 6: by now. They keep saying that they're close, but they're
Speaker 6: also acknowledging that, you know, things are not great in
Speaker 6: the conversations with China, which is why they want to
Speaker 6: get him on the phone sheet this week. I think
Speaker 6: another part of this is when you look at what
Speaker 6: happened last week with the three judge panel that said
Speaker 6: the President exceeded his authority on tariffs and put them
Speaker 6: on hold. Then the appeals court said, well, we'll let
Speaker 6: them stay in place while it plays out in court.
Speaker 6: The steel and aluminum tariffs aren't a part of that.
Speaker 6: They were allowed to continue. So perhaps it's like the
Speaker 6: President looking at this and say, well, that's the one
Speaker 6: thing I can still work with and I can increase,
Speaker 6: I can change, I can use this as a leverage
Speaker 6: negotiating tool. And so they did it on Friday.
Speaker 1: Okay, and this is specifically on steel and aluminum.
Speaker 2: Do we make enough of it here?
Speaker 5: That is a question.
Speaker 6: I have gotten masked a couple times this morning, and
Speaker 6: I don't know the answer to that. Like ten companies
Speaker 6: suddenly just say great, we're going to shift then to
Speaker 6: domestic steelmakers. And will the supply be there if they
Speaker 6: do that, I don't know the answer to that. We're
Speaker 6: the world's largest steel importer, so clearly we are getting steel,
Speaker 6: a massive amount of steel from other countries around the world. Now,
Speaker 6: the criticism is because it's cheaper, and the idea than
Speaker 6: is to make it more expensive so that these companies
Speaker 6: here have to buy American made steel, gotcha.
Speaker 1: I was just I was curious about it because when
Speaker 1: we're talking about the car making and that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: they would physically have to build plants. But we do
Speaker 1: have steel plants in the US.
Speaker 6: We do, so it'd be interesting to see Kyle production exactly.
Speaker 6: And that's not something that can be done overnight, you know,
Speaker 6: it's really difficult.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm sure we're going to be talking again this
Speaker 1: week because we have two days until those tarriffs are
Speaker 1: supposed to kick in, and who knows what's going to
Speaker 1: happen between now and then.
Speaker 6: Stay tuned a lot of conversations, I'm sure.
Speaker 1: All right, Thank you so much, Karen Travers with ABC.
Speaker 1: Have a great Monday.
Speaker 5: Thanks.
Speaker 1: And did you see those little angels? Okay, the Eagles
Speaker 1: are up this morning. Of course we're waiting for them
Speaker 1: to fledge. We're on Fledge Watch now instead of Pip Watch,
Speaker 1: and they could fly at any time. And as we
Speaker 1: were telling you, Shannon and I and obviously Gary and
Speaker 1: Shannon were on the air and one of the eagles
Speaker 1: took off and Shannon and I just lost it.
Speaker 2: I started crying. It was wonderful.
Speaker 1: It was beautiful, and then he got blown back into
Speaker 1: the nest and she hasn't tried to leave since, so
Speaker 1: it'll be interesting to see that could happen anytime. Maybe
Speaker 1: she was just gaining her confidence. But we'll be watching.
Speaker 1: They're up and they're flapping around this morning, so.
Speaker 2: We're saying both girls. Yes, yep.
Speaker 1: The friends of Big Bearrett Valley now considers or has
Speaker 1: estimated or guestimated that they are both girls. So Sonny
Speaker 1: and Gizmo are sisters. When we come back, now is
Speaker 1: the time to change all of your passwords. I know
Speaker 1: it's going to be a pain in the butt, but
Speaker 1: ABC's Jim Ryan's gonna tell us why and what could
Speaker 1: happen if you don't. We'll be talking about passwords and
Speaker 1: changing them in just moments.
Speaker 2: Let's say good morning now to ABC's Jim Ryan. Morning,
Speaker 2: Jim Baby, how are you.
Speaker 1: I'm good, but apparently I got to run home, go
Speaker 1: to my computer and change all of my passwords.
Speaker 7: Now, you know what, you should probably just do it
Speaker 7: during the next spot break. You need to get in
Speaker 7: there and shout because yeah, massive data breach one hundred
Speaker 7: and eighty four million online accounts have been compromised, They've
Speaker 7: been discovered. There's this guy, this internet researcher, Jeremiah Fowler,
Speaker 7: who spends all day and all night looking for things
Speaker 7: like this, and he found a big one, this massive
Speaker 7: that all this data, these hundred and eighty four million files,
Speaker 7: these online accounts were being housed in a hosting service. Right, so, Apple, Facebook, Googled,
Speaker 7: the others contract with these hosting companies to hold on
Speaker 7: to that data and presumably to keep it all safe.
Speaker 7: But even that huge file, that that cache of data
Speaker 7: was not password protected. What so yeah, yeah, there was
Speaker 7: no two step authentication to get into that. There wasn't password.
Speaker 7: It was essentially open file. And whoever it was, I
Speaker 7: don't know if it was even hacking since it was
Speaker 7: apparently so easy to get hold of and now it's
Speaker 7: out there. The hosting company is trying to shut it down.
Speaker 7: It's trying to do what it can. But for the
Speaker 7: rest of us, it's just a matter of trying to
Speaker 7: protect ourselves individually by changing your passwords.
Speaker 2: Okay, so is it too late?
Speaker 1: I mean, if they have the information or once the
Speaker 1: passwords change, then your accounts are safe again.
Speaker 7: Well yeah they should be, yes, So let's say your
Speaker 7: bank account information is in that huge amount of data,
Speaker 7: your password, your user name before they can use it
Speaker 7: for some the various cause, or you need to go
Speaker 7: in and change your passwords so that it's protected again,
Speaker 7: use a password generator, use some method that you don't
Speaker 7: have to sit there and remember all your passwords at
Speaker 7: the same time. Use two step authentication, which I think
Speaker 7: is pretty handy. Facial recognition is or really good on
Speaker 7: my bank is my account is tied to that within
Speaker 7: the phone app, right, So instead of remembering passwords for
Speaker 7: that or for some others, just look at your phone
Speaker 7: and the facial recognition will will open up the account
Speaker 7: for you. Nobody else can get into it, okay.
Speaker 1: So if I have the facial recognition or the two
Speaker 1: step authentication, am I okay?
Speaker 2: Or should I change it anyway?
Speaker 7: You should be good. You should be good. But again,
Speaker 7: you know, better safe than sorrow. Even with the facial recognition,
Speaker 7: you can tie that to a new password, right, so
Speaker 7: you go into the once you look at the phone
Speaker 7: and it opens up the account, go in and save
Speaker 7: that change that password anyway, because it's still based on
Speaker 7: a password even though facial recognition is there. So change
Speaker 7: the password, maintain the facial recognition, and you should be
Speaker 7: good to go there. But it's all sorts of data Apple, Facebook, Google,
Speaker 7: that includes Google Gmail. And here's the other thing that
Speaker 7: he recommends, Jeremiah and Jeremiah Fallard, quit using your email
Speaker 7: as a cloud storage device. Right, So deep within your email,
Speaker 7: and I'm guilty too. Deep within that email is potentially
Speaker 7: your tax return because you send it to your account,
Speaker 7: or you send it to somebody or got it back
Speaker 7: from them, so your tax return is in there. Potentially
Speaker 7: medical records, could be your work contract, a list of
Speaker 7: passwords that you thought would be safe within your email,
Speaker 7: well it's not. You know, all of that could be
Speaker 7: part of this huge data breach.
Speaker 1: Amy all right, I'm going home to change my passwords.
Speaker 1: But better safe than sorry, right, Jim Ryan.
Speaker 7: Exactly protect yourself, you know, it's all we can do.
Speaker 7: And make sure your phone is updated. You know, if
Speaker 7: it says update, go ahead and do it. Don't bother
Speaker 7: in waiting till tonight. Go ahead and do it now.
Speaker 7: It'll be at a commission for just a few minutes.
Speaker 1: Okay, ABC's Jim Ryan, thanks for the tips, appreciate it all.
Speaker 2: Right, Time to get in your.
Speaker 1: Business now with Bloomberg's Courtney Donaho Courtney.
Speaker 2: The big question of the day, how are you good?
Speaker 1: Good?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 1: So my question of the day is how do you
Speaker 1: say price hike without actually saying price hike?
Speaker 5: Yes, that's what America's retailers are attempting to do, and
Speaker 5: they're coming up with a big old worm salad. So
Speaker 5: this report is sponsored by Total Line and more so
Speaker 5: that's buy in Target. They say they're adjusting prices, not
Speaker 5: raising prices. The footwear company behind Hooka Sneakers is quote
Speaker 5: flexing the pricing power of its brands, that's how they
Speaker 5: say it. And home Gooods owner TJX didn't even mention
Speaker 5: the word price. So listen to this verbal gymnastics that
Speaker 5: they're going through. They said in the call last week,
Speaker 5: if retails do move out there, we will adjust our
Speaker 5: retails to preserve that gap. According to the Wall Street Journal,
Speaker 5: retailers are audition it out in the hopes of not
Speaker 5: scaring off customers or raising the iron President Trump. I mean,
Speaker 5: look at what happened with Walmart when the President said
Speaker 5: eat the tariffs. It's you know, they're coming up with
Speaker 5: different ways to just really not say what's what's ahead
Speaker 5: of them.
Speaker 1: You know what this reminds me of Courtney is I
Speaker 1: was in my pavilions the other day and on the
Speaker 1: end cap they had cereals and I was like, oh, cious,
Speaker 1: which I don't almost ever buy, and it says big box,
Speaker 1: big box, and like it had these big signs on it,
Speaker 1: which again, like you said, it's word salad because it's fake.
Speaker 1: They're saying it's a big box, but I'm like, that's
Speaker 1: smaller than the boxes used to be.
Speaker 2: But they're just saying it's.
Speaker 1: Big, but it really isn't. And that you know, yes,
Speaker 1: that whole shrinkflation thing that I think is still affecting everybody.
Speaker 5: And what they're just hoping in all of this is
Speaker 5: we're going to forget some of these things. But even
Speaker 5: though a lot of companies they do have to come
Speaker 5: up with some sort of way to be able to
Speaker 5: offset the tariffs. But then also not all the tariffs
Speaker 5: are coming through right now, so they also have to
Speaker 5: be able to not say, hey, we're putting through a
Speaker 5: price hike, say the tariff doesn't go through that really
Speaker 5: affects certain products that they have. Then want to be
Speaker 5: able to have the verbal flexibility to be able to
Speaker 5: kind of go back on what they said. But some
Speaker 5: executives have talked to the Wall Street Journal and they said,
Speaker 5: raising prices is the last resort of what they're going
Speaker 5: to do. They're going to try to find other ways.
Speaker 5: Costco last week said, look, we're going to try to
Speaker 5: move things forward. We're going to try to change certain
Speaker 5: seasonal things. We're going to go to different suppliers. We're
Speaker 5: going to have a different product makeup, just so they
Speaker 5: don't have to come in and raise the prices.
Speaker 1: All right, we shall see. So this is something that
Speaker 1: isn't on the way up. It appears to be on
Speaker 1: the way down. And that's oil prices. And how's that
Speaker 1: going to help if I'm going to travel this summer?
Speaker 5: Yeah, so it could mean cheaper airline tickets are on
Speaker 5: the way. According to the International Air Transport Association, there's
Speaker 5: almost a direct correlation between the price of oil and
Speaker 5: the cost of an airline ticket, and the price of
Speaker 5: oil has come down significantly, even though it's higher today.
Speaker 5: Right now it's at sixty three dollars a barrel. But
Speaker 5: lower ticket prices usually fuel a lot of demand. People say, okay,
Speaker 5: prices are a lot lower. I'm going to take my
Speaker 5: family on a vacation. But the trade group says it
Speaker 5: also clearly drives down the overall revenue for the industry.
Speaker 5: So this isn't good for the airlines, because the airlines
Speaker 5: are expected to now earn thirty six billion dollars this year.
Speaker 5: Earlier in December they predicted a much higher number than that.
Speaker 5: But last week, as we heard, some of the airlines
Speaker 5: are coming out and they're already saying we're going to
Speaker 5: have cheaper flights. United being one of them saying, hey,
Speaker 5: we're going to have cheaper flights out of Newark and
Speaker 5: New Jersey. So because a lot of people have been
Speaker 5: avoiding that airport.
Speaker 2: Afleet well because people are almost crashing.
Speaker 5: And stuff like that exactly. But Delta Airlines too, they
Speaker 5: actually came out and they said they're more confident about demand.
Speaker 5: They said CEO ed Bashin, he talked to Bloomberg and
Speaker 5: he expects bookings to tick up after a lot of
Speaker 5: people showed some restraints. Hearing all of these.
Speaker 1: Headlines, all right, well, well we'll be watching, so watch
Speaker 1: those ticket prices. And before we let you go, what's
Speaker 1: going on in the stocks this morning.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so we're looking at a lower open this morning
Speaker 5: because we're seeing the flare up in trade tensions between
Speaker 5: the US and China. There's some mutual accusations between the
Speaker 5: two of breaching a trade deal. DW futures are down
Speaker 5: seventy points. But think about where we are right now.
Speaker 5: It was the best May for the S and P
Speaker 5: five hundred since nineteen ninety. We saw the S and
Speaker 5: P five hundred, after a volatile month, gain more than
Speaker 5: six percent. So sometimes when we hear these tariff headlines
Speaker 5: pulling back, we do see stocks pop hire.
Speaker 2: Okay, we'll be watching them.
Speaker 1: That's Bloomberg's Courtney don Hoe Donahoe getting in your business
Speaker 1: every day.
Speaker 2: Let's do it again tomorrow, shall we?
Speaker 5: Definitely we will.
Speaker 8: I'll talk to you.
Speaker 2: Later, thanks, Courtney.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's say good morning now to ABC's Stephen Portnoy. So, Stephen,
Speaker 1: the President's so called big Beautiful bills still awaiting action
Speaker 1: in the Senate, and with such a small majority of
Speaker 1: the Senate can only have like three senators vote against it.
Speaker 2: So where does it stand now?
Speaker 8: Well, right now, if the bill were put on the
Speaker 8: floor of the House today, it would not pass, and
Speaker 8: so tweaks are going to have to be made to
Speaker 8: get this thing through the Senate. To what extent those
Speaker 8: changes will be made, and to what extent they might
Speaker 8: threaten the bill's prospects in the House. That's sort of
Speaker 8: hanging over all this. The Senate comes back today after
Speaker 8: a week off of the Memoriality recess, and you have
Speaker 8: varying camps within the Senate Republican caucus. You have fiscal
Speaker 8: hawks who are concerned about the impact that this measure
Speaker 8: would have on the national debt.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 8: The White House pushes back strongly against the idea that
Speaker 8: it would raise the national debt by three point eight
Speaker 8: trillion dollars according to the estimate of the Congressional Budget Office.
Speaker 8: The White House argues that that takes into account prospect
Speaker 8: that they don't see as realistic, which is the snap
Speaker 8: back of tax rates to where they were before the
Speaker 8: Trump era tax cuts of twenty seventeen. And so the
Speaker 8: White House says that that shouldn't be factored in, that
Speaker 8: today's tax rates are where they would if this bill passed,
Speaker 8: and so therefore it shouldn't be considered a cost to
Speaker 8: the treasury or but that's the way things are viewed
Speaker 8: by the Congressional Budget Office. They look at the way
Speaker 8: the law currently is before the pass of this bill,
Speaker 8: because there's a chance it won't pass, and then the
Speaker 8: tax rates would snap back, and that would be revenue
Speaker 8: that's coming in. So the fact that that wouldn't happen
Speaker 8: has to be in the mind of the CBO factored in. Plus,
Speaker 8: the White House also argues that it will spark economic growth,
Speaker 8: and that CBO consistently underestimates the growth at least sparked
Speaker 8: by Trump policies, And so the White House and Speaker
Speaker 8: Johnson are saying that people should pay no mind to
Speaker 8: the CBO score. Republicans and the Senate, on the other hand,
Speaker 8: they're like, a not so fast. They do trust the CBO,
Speaker 8: or at least they're more inclined to trust it now.
Speaker 8: So that's the concern of the fiscal haughts. Then you
Speaker 8: have the moderates who are concerned about the Medicaid changes.
Speaker 8: There's the enhanced requirement for at least searching for work
Speaker 8: or performing some sort of volunteer task. You have to
Speaker 8: be looking for work, and some Republican senators say that
Speaker 8: they're not certain that their own states will be ready
Speaker 8: to ramp up some sort of a verification requirement in time.
Speaker 8: So you have that. Then you have the concerns about
Speaker 8: some of the tax implications and the Medicaid changes, a
Speaker 8: provision that aims to freeze state taxes on Medicaid providers
Speaker 8: as a means of paying for the healthcare coverage. There's
Speaker 8: also a concern about new copays for Medicaid recipients, what
Speaker 8: Senator Josh Hawley is calling a sick tax. This idea
Speaker 8: that people who are on Medicaid will have to actually
Speaker 8: share some of the costs by paying copays. Hawley doesn't
Speaker 8: want that. So you have a difficult high mountain for
Speaker 8: the Republican senators to climb before this thing gets back
Speaker 8: to the House to be sent to the President's desk.
Speaker 8: We'll see what happens.
Speaker 1: Okay, So Steve and I have a question for you,
Speaker 1: because you perked up my ears when you were talking
Speaker 1: about the Medicaid work requirement or volunteer requirement. Do you
Speaker 1: know how many people are on Medicaid?
Speaker 2: Do you have an idea you know? I actually don't.
Speaker 8: I'm sure I could google it and get back to
Speaker 8: you on that.
Speaker 1: Okay, I was just wondering because if I mean, like,
Speaker 1: on the surface, it sounds like a good thing, Like
Speaker 1: if you're getting all this free money from the government,
Speaker 1: why not have to work for it a little bit?
Speaker 1: But if you're looking at millions of people, I'm just
Speaker 1: talking about practicality right now. If you're looking at twenty
Speaker 1: million people, and I think it's more. But if you
Speaker 1: look at twenty million people, how with a low unemployment rate,
Speaker 1: how are you going to get all those people to
Speaker 1: actually work or volunteer. That's a lot of people to
Speaker 1: have that requirement there.
Speaker 8: And by the way, I just google it real fast.
Speaker 8: According to the Center for Medicaid Medicare Services, more than
Speaker 8: seventy one million Americans enrolled in Medicaid. Many of them
Speaker 8: are children.
Speaker 1: You know what, all the volunteer programs in America are
Speaker 1: going to be very well staffed.
Speaker 2: If that goes through, well, that's it.
Speaker 8: Look, this provision would add an eighty hour per month
Speaker 8: work requirement, and the idea would be that maybe you
Speaker 8: are engaged in childcare for the neighborhood, or you, as
Speaker 8: you say, amy, volunteer. The point is, you know, half
Speaker 8: of the work days of the month would have to
Speaker 8: be spent by you in an eight hour per day
Speaker 8: work situation, or maybe four hours per day every day.
Speaker 8: And you know that's some moderate Republicans are pushing back
Speaker 8: against that. They either think it's too arduous or too
Speaker 8: difficult for the states to verify. And you know, I'll
Speaker 8: just say that when it comes to how this is
Speaker 8: going to be handled, you have to figure out how
Speaker 8: to get these votes. There is, as you note, fifty
Speaker 8: three Republican senators and they can only afford to lose
Speaker 8: three and still have Vice President Vance breaking the tie.
Speaker 8: At the moment, according to Senator Ron Johnson, there at
Speaker 8: least four Republican knows, so that would be enough to
Speaker 8: tank the bill as it's currently constituted. So this is
Speaker 8: the process. The White House is maintaining an optimistic view
Speaker 8: of this. The deadline Republican senators are set for themselves,
Speaker 8: I should say the leadership at least is July fourth,
Speaker 8: So there's about a month for Republican senators to dig
Speaker 8: into this and see what they can come up with.
Speaker 8: But there's also the risk. Remember, you know it was
Speaker 8: in the first Trump term there was so much impetus
Speaker 8: in the Republican Party to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Speaker 8: They couldn't get it done.
Speaker 1: Okay, well we'll be watching it. We got a month ago.
Speaker 1: Steven Bortenoy, thanks so much. We'll talk to you again soon.
Speaker 2: You bet all right.
Speaker 1: Live from the KFI twenty four hour Newsroom, I'm Amy King.
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