Molly Jong-Fast
Appearances
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Molly Jong-Fast reacts to Trump’s Attacks On Americans
And as we've been talking about, this is not just a policy problem. There's obviously a significant issue of folks potentially losing access to their health care. But if you think of the political problem, you know, folks have always asked, what is it that's going to drive Donald Trump's voters away from them? Well, losing their health care may actually be the answer to that question.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Molly Jong-Fast reacts to Trump’s Attacks On Americans
You know, what's so interesting about this administration is at every point, they're sort of rediscovering government, like they're learning how government works. You know, Judge Pirro, Judge Jeanine, Judge Box of Wine, as she's called, she has this, you know, here she is, you know, learning about government. It's not fancy, right? There is money that's spent for foreign aid.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Molly Jong-Fast reacts to Trump’s Attacks On Americans
I mean, I thought that was bizarre, very specious, you know, that somehow millions of dollars of foreign aid should be sort of spent on government workers. And the funny thing that government workers' offices, what I think is the funniest part of this whole thing is that
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Molly Jong-Fast reacts to Trump’s Attacks On Americans
These people actually they do, in fact, like they made this whole case to their people that somehow government workers were making all this money and government was filled with fraud, waste and abuse. And here is Judge Pirro going like, oh, actually, there's not even bottled water here. So it turns out the federal government is not as fancy as a Fox News green room.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Molly Jong-Fast reacts to Trump’s Attacks On Americans
And unfortunately, the Republicans, who I think have been very smart and frankly correct in the fact that Obamacare hasn't solved a lot of the core problems of the American health care market, now own the problem. They're going to learn very quickly, unless they craft a better bill, that it's not just enough to critique the bill that has failed in the past.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Molly Jong-Fast reacts to Trump’s Attacks On Americans
Well, with the structure, it's a question of the structure. So a lot of these blue states have high state taxes. When you have a high state tax, it means you get more money from the state. If you have a lower state tax, you have to get more money from the federal government. And those red states are the states with the lower state taxes. So they get more money from the federal government.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Molly Jong-Fast reacts to Trump’s Attacks On Americans
What does Donald Trump want to do? What does the big, beautiful bill do? It actually cuts federal services for a lot of states I mean, cuts federal services broadly across the board, but the people who are going to be affected the harshest are going to be people who live in red states. For example, Trump World is obsessed with getting rid of the Department of Education. They're doing this because
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Molly Jong-Fast reacts to Trump’s Attacks On Americans
They're sort of obsessed with Carter, and Carter created the Department of Education. So there's a feeling that if they could just get rid of the Department of Education, then they can, you know. But the things that the Department of Education do, right, Pell Grants, that's college for kids who can't afford it. Title I, that's money for schools that don't have any money.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Molly Jong-Fast reacts to Trump’s Attacks On Americans
These are things that really help the poorest of us. And they're why the federal government sort of exists. They're the social safety net. And what Trump did in his second term was he was able to get sort of lower information voters to get out and vote for him. And they were people who didn't necessarily vote. They're not even lower information.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Molly Jong-Fast reacts to Trump’s Attacks On Americans
That is true, but there are also these low-frequency voters. That's why the polling is always so off for Trump, is because he gets people who don't vote to vote for him. But the problem is a lot of those people who don't vote tend to be people who really are, who benefit from the federal government, as well they should, a lot of them.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Molly Jong-Fast reacts to Trump’s Attacks On Americans
You know, one of the most disturbing things about this big, beautiful bill, and look, this bill is going to go to the Senate and it's going to get totally changed. But one of the things that's the most upsetting about it, this really is, this bill is set up to make good a lot of Trump's campaign promises, many of which are, I think, pretty undoable, like no tax on tips.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Molly Jong-Fast reacts to Trump’s Attacks On Americans
You have to actually offer a better alternative. And we're going to see if the Senate is able to actually put forward that alternative.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Molly Jong-Fast reacts to Trump’s Attacks On Americans
How are you going to say what's a tip, what's not a tip? How are you going to, you know, make it so that people can't just say everything I do is a tip now? I mean, it's, I'm not sure how you can structure that. But more importantly, Trump, What you're seeing now is these – it's just these Republicans – are going after the people who put them in office.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Molly Jong-Fast reacts to Trump’s Attacks On Americans
And a great example of this is the SNAP benefits. So this will be the largest cut to food assistance. I think in history, I think that I had read it was in history. And I mean, it'll be a seismic shift in the way we give money to children. It will mean more hungry children. This cut will mean more hungry children. important to mention that this bill also grows the deficit.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Molly Jong-Fast reacts to Trump’s Attacks On Americans
So it both cuts services for poor children, more hungry children, and also more government debt. I don't know how it manages to both do two of the things you don't want, And, you know, starve children and also grow the deficit. But it does. And look, by the way, the bond market isn't happy. You know, the bond market is sort of the last thing we have putting Trump in check.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Molly Jong-Fast reacts to Trump’s Attacks On Americans
And it's foreign investors saying, like, is the U.S. credit good or bad? Do we even really want to be in this thing? And the bond market is freaked out by this as well. It should be because this is a budget of sort of. It's just a very, you know, it shows a certain lack of responsibility that the Republican Party doesn't they are not worried about the deficit.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Molly Jong-Fast reacts to Trump’s Attacks On Americans
And they're also not worried about serving children, which these are two things they should be worried about.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Molly Jong-Fast reacts to Trump’s Attacks On Americans
So, you know, my generation is, and I think it may also be your generation, we're Generation X. We're young Generation X. So like at the very tail end of the generation. But we are a generation that has we are the least written about the least, you know, people don't, aren't really interested in us, but we are this generation that really does.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Molly Jong-Fast reacts to Trump’s Attacks On Americans
It really does just sort of, we have this moment where we have children and parents and we're taking care of children and parents. And, and I wanted to write about this experience of being in the sandwich generation and having and having, I'm going to go. and having to care, here it is, it's very beautiful, having to care for your parents and also your children.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Molly Jong-Fast reacts to Trump’s Attacks On Americans
And I was glad that I got to write it. And, you know, I also wanted to talk about sort of what it's like to have a spouse who has cancer. My husband had cancer, though he is fine. But I got to write about that. And that was really clarifying. And it's funny because now, you know, Joe Biden just had this terrible metastatic cancer disease.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Molly Jong-Fast reacts to Trump’s Attacks On Americans
diagnosis and I write, you know, almost a third, actually even more than a third of Americans will get diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. That's a humongous group. And so I write a lot about how to be able it's not a political book, but, you know, in the fact that science is political and and these things are all political.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Molly Jong-Fast reacts to Trump’s Attacks On Americans
But it's it's really about this kind of how to talk to the people around you and take care of them.