 dystopian time. So I'm not sure if you all have been following the infrastructure talks, but we got a little bit of a wrench thrown into everyone's plans. So just to give everyone background, if you haven't been following this, and I don't blame anyone who hasn't been following the situation because it changes so quickly. But basically the plan to get progressives to go along, progressives in Congress, to go along with the infrastructure deal was to give them a reconciliation package. Because basically congressional progressives were left out of the talks for the infrastructure because all the conservatives got what they want. So everyone in Congress, Joe Biden, they all agreed, if we pass this infrastructure bill that the conservatives in Congress and both parties want, then we'll pass a reconciliation bill at the same time. Well, now all of a sudden they reached an agreement on the infrastructure bill. And Kyrsten Sinema is saying, actually, I don't support the reconciliation bill. So immediately betraying the entire goal of this compromise, trying to ice out progressives. And I'll get your thoughts on this, but I just want to read a little bit from this story. I mean, we knew this was coming. Joe Manchin was already signaling that he wants to water down the reconciliation proposal, which would contain possibly a minimum wage increase, but unlikely. But more specifically, what was being fought for with progressives in Congress, primarily Bernie Sanders, is lowering the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 60 and expanding coverage, so it includes dental, hearing, and vision, which would be incredible. I mean, it's not Medicare for all, but it is moving us in that direction by expanding Medicare, and that's exactly what we want to do. But now the conservatives in Congress, Kyrsten Sinema, is shitting on it. So this is from Raw Story, and it reads, Arizona Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema was writing high on Wednesday as a group of Republicans announced their support for a bipartisan infrastructure deal through by the afternoon, though by the afternoon, it still wasn't clear if it had enough votes to pass, just as momentum was building for that legislation, though. Sinema deflated hopes for Democrats' follow-up act, a $3.5 billion budget reconciliation bill. And the reason why this is important is because this just needs 50 plus one votes to pass. It doesn't need the 60-vote majority required for other pieces of legislation, so that's why they're trying to get this all done at the same time. The budget bill only requires 50 votes to pass, I shouldn't have explained all that, avoiding the 60-vote threshold that the Senate typically requires to enact law. That means Democrats don't need any Republican votes to pass a budget bill. But with only 50 Democratic lawmakers in the Senate, the party needs every member on board if it's going to shove its spending priorities through the budget process as long as the plan, or as long been the plan. In a Wednesday statement to the Arizona Republic, though, Sinema announced she doesn't want to spend $3.5 trillion on the bill. I have also made clear that while I will support beginning this process, I do not support a bill that costs $3.5 trillion, and in the coming months, I will work in good faith to develop this legislation with my colleagues in the administration to strengthen Arizona's economy and help Arizona's everyday families get ahead, yeah, right. So basically what's happening is she got everything that she wanted. Her and her right-wing ghouls, they got everything that they wanted in the infrastructure proposal, and now they're trying to control the reconciliation bill, which is where progressives are supposed to get some concessions. Now, I genuinely hope that progressive members of Congress fight. I'm comfortable with Bernie Sanders as the budget reconciliation chair, but at the same time, we knew this was happening, but it's still really frustrating. Thoughts from the panel here? And people thought that AOC was not being, you know, was changing too much going to Capitol Hill. Senator Sinema has become, I mean, she was a Green Party member, and now she's his right-wing. Isn't that, she was a member of Code Pink, Code Pink. And now she is in line with Republicans, majority of the time. She's just been bought. Like that's the thing. She obviously doesn't have any of those convictions. None of them were ever real, if you can just be so easily swayed. And I think that it's funny the way she says, I was just saying that to Peter. It's funny the way she says, well, I don't want to spend that, as if it's coming out of her pocketbook. Like the way that she's talking, it's like your kid's seeking an allowance raise and you're just not worth it. Like she's not, you know, like whatever her stuff is, but it's interesting. Clearly it's her donors. Well, whoever she works for doesn't want to do that because they just don't, doesn't serve them. That's why. Because it obviously isn't her. She doesn't have any beliefs. What's her, what's her deal? Like, why is she so eccentric? She's just bought. She's a corporate whore. So there's one thing like voting, but the way she does it is like, you know, obviously the viral one, when she like, literally walks over like it's no big deal and it does the little curtsy and does the thumbs down. That's just seeking clicks and seeking drama and just being the center of attention and thinking you're all that. And, you know, she's another one of those women that I just think never properly had their ass kicked as a kid because they didn't grow up in my 70s in South Florida or we would have dealt with this. Marjorie Taylor Green and like there's a slew of them that just really never got their ass kicked sufficiently. It's funny you say that because I just got up a Jacobin article about it. And apparently she grew up in like quite bad poverty and stuff, like no running water or electricity. And it's just like talking about like how anti-capitalist she was as well and like working for Ralph Nader's like 2000 campaign and stuff. It's actually insane and she was about my age when she did this. So I really hope, you know, nothing bad happens to me when I get to. I'm getting further left and I just turned 50. So I'm going to the left. I don't know if that helps you. That's that's encouraging to see. No, you know, Kirsten Sinema was actually she was homeless at a time. So there's this massive cliff that we're about to go off of with the moratorium on evictions expiring. And you think there would be at least some level of urgency, even for her own career, because she has constituents who are going to be affected by this too. But there's just there's there's no concern whatsoever. And now what I think is kind of happening is whatever like prospect there was that she'd be reasonable is gone, because now she knows that even her own constituents, 66 percent of Arizona voters would support somebody else over her in a primary. So she's thinking, OK, if I'm going to survive this now, I really have to go to bat for my donors because I'm not going to get money at all through constituents. So I'm going to need super PACs to fund my campaign when I'm up for reelection. And so maybe that's part of it. Also, I genuinely and this is a little bit like reductionist, but I feel like she enjoys being evil as many members of Congress do. Like when I look at people like her and Joe Manchin, I think these people are genuinely like sociopathic to not care during a pandemic about so many people suffering. We're on the brink of a major housing crisis. You know, the Delta variant is ravaging communities already. People are going to need support. And now when the reconciliation bill could make a difference, expand health care, they're they're fighting against it. And, you know, as if it wasn't bad enough that there were members of Congress fighting this, there is an all out war against Bernie Sanders, just as his provision meager provision to expand Medicare coverage. The Americans for Prosperity, the Koch funded network, is fighting against him doing that, saying that it's like a government takeover of health care. I've got news for Republicans. Medicare is something that the country overwhelmingly supports. And it was always controlled by the government. It's not like Medicare was this private company that was all of a sudden nationalized. It's always been a national program. So there's no there's no takeover. But I mean, they throw out these buzzwords, throw everything at the wall in hopes that something will stick. And it's it's it's really infuriating to me. Like when I see this stuff, it really is it's frustrating. I don't want to I don't want to I'll let other people jump in if you if you wanted to add to this before we move on. Just again, it's all corporate special interest money. That is what defines our politics a lot. Most of politics, in my opinion, is not complicated. It's just not people are complicated for sure. But the overarching issues that we face really comes down to, you know, we were just talking about this earlier. There are 100 senators on Capitol Hill and only two of them do not have lobbyists knocking down their door. Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders. And that's it. Everybody else deals with this every day. Hundreds of millions of dollars spent. And again, it's a great investment. Because what they spend and how they get out of it always works. It's a very cheap price. And in the case of, you know, why we need to change the infrastructure and anybody who's near Nevada, I would look at their model and what they didn't take over the state party because that's really what you need to do. So much of this problem is systemic and it becomes this what's the rotating villain. All right, so today it's Kristen Sinema. Tomorrow it's Joel Manchin. It's political theater. The next day it's Diane Feinstein. And then soon enough, you'll, you know, you'll boomerang it to, you know, whoever it could be a Kirsten Gillibrand. You know, so it's this sour works. And right now, you know, she's taking on the heat because the truth is they don't want to give us anything. They want us to suffer because they like this idea of living high on the hog and looking down at the peasants saying, hey, you know, that's why somebody like Sinema is a great example that somebody who did come from very humble beginnings and really went through a lot and then was ultimately able to climb the ladder, so to speak. But man, as soon as she got to the Senate, she turned fast. And that it didn't even there was no like grace period. It was just like full on, you know, whatever the corporate donors want, I'm doing it. And that's why we really need to hammer home this message of corporate special interest money. That is what is defining us. And especially the race with Nina Turner and her opponent. Why do not you know, that's just a prime example of that. Nina is as grassroots funded as it gets. And her opponent is as corporate funded as it gets. It couldn't be more distinct in terms of the two candidates you're getting. And regardless of whether you think Nina is going to fight the way you want her to fight, if she were to get there, she will damn sure fight a hell of a lot better than that other person, if she were to get there, who will just be every other corporate Democrat that is on Capitol Hill. Yeah, yeah, great points. And I agree with the political theater point that it is always like there's some scapegoat there. And Kirsten Sinema effectively is a scapegoat. I mean, at the end of the day, Biden has the bully pulpit if he really wanted to. He could exert a tremendous amount of pressure he could offer, you know, even pork barrel benefits if he's really desperate to try to get some, you know, legislative concessions. But, you know, if nothing gets accomplished, then it's like, well, my donors are happy and at least the American people think that we tried. I just want to know, I'm curious, what would President Donald Trump think about Kirsten Sinema as a Democrat? Like I wonder- You have to ask this. What would President Trump think? Well, here's what I have to say about Kirsten Sinematic. She's a lovely lady. She's a beautiful lady, you've seen her. She's really incredible, really tremendous. And the great thing is that she told me in private that she'd vote for me if I ran in 2024. Isn't that incredible? That's really great. That's great inside information. I'm sure she did. Really great inside information. And that's why I'm totally considering running again, because America, so Mike, I have the slogan. I've got the slogan. Tell me what you think. It's really great. It's really incredible. Let's hear it, let's hear it. America, great again, again. I love it, I love it. Put it on a T-shirt, put it on everything with Trump, Trump state, Trump housing, Trump, everything. It's really great. Maga, ah.