The trio of PBS News Hour host Geoff Bennett, Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart, and New York Times columnist David Brooks tried to have it both ways on Friday. The three men attacked the GOP’s Big Beautiful Bill for its negative effects on the deficit, but also its spending cuts, meaning PBS either wants to raise most people's taxes, but is too afraid to say so or they want a bill with even higher deficits.
Bennett began by asking Capehart, “Jonathan, this bill extends the Trump tax cuts, but to pay for them, it cuts Medicaid, it slashes food stamps, it rolls back the Biden clean energy agenda. What does this bill say about Republican priorities?”
If Republicans fail to pass something, nearly every American faces an income tax increase next year, but Capehart tried to insist Republicans are only seeking to help the rich, “What this budget shows is that Republicans are hell-bent on financing tax cuts for the upper income at the expense of middle-class, working-class, and poor Americans. And it's something that Republicans — House Republicans are going to have to explain to their constituents.”
There are some Republicans who want even more spending cuts, which, if they had their way, might cause Jonathan Capehart to spontaneously combust, but he still cited them to attack the House’s bill, “If you look over on the Senate side, particularly, I saw a clip of Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, no liberal at all, railing against the deficit impacts of what the House has passed.”
Bennett then turned to Brooks, “The deficit impacts and the Medicaid cuts in particular. That's tricky politics for Republicans because there are now so many more people on Medicaid. Over the past eight years, Medicaid enrollment has surged to a record high and more red states have skin in the game, more Trump supporters. How do you see this playing out?”
Brooks, too, tried to have it both ways, “Yeah, and a lot of those rural hospitals really demand that. And if they shut down, there's not a lot of options out there. As this thing was going on, I was thinking of Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, as I often do… But starting there like 100 years ago, and the Republican Party stood for fiscal discipline. Like, it was in their bones. And you don't have to go back too long to get to the Tea Party movement. And this bill will add to the deficit — or to the national debt by $3 trillion, $4 trillion? Mind-boggling.”
He added, “This is already at a moment when we are paying more interest — on interest in the national debt, paying more to the bondholders than the entire defense budget. And so you can run deficits when your interest rates are zero. But when your interest rates get higher, it gets ruinously expensive.”
Brooks concluded, “And so we're at a moment of true national peril. Nations decline for a lot of reasons. They lose wars. But they do decline because they get swallowed up and buried in their own debt. And it's so mind-boggling to me that the Republican Party of Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge is the author of this.”
Again, PBS would lose its collective mind if Republicans started cutting budgets like Calvin Coolidge, but as it was, Bennett returned to Capehart and wondered, “Is there an opening here for Democrats, especially on the health care and the Medicaid cuts? Because that's a playbook that Democrats know. That's how they won back the House in 2018, really going after Republicans who tried to roll back the Affordable Care Act.”
Capehart doubled down on citing conservative budget hawks to enhance his liberal arguments, “Absolutely. It'd be malpractice if Democrats weren't already running against Republicans, vulnerable Republicans. Look, the president and the speaker made vulnerable Republicans cast a really bad vote for a bill that, sure, it passed the House, but is going to go to the Senate and is going to come back to them completely unrecognizable, thus giving Democrats all the material they need to hammer away at those House Republicans.”
He added, “And I'm being very specific here. I'm talking about House Republicans, but — because the Senate Republicans, at least the ones I have been watching, are closer to the Harding Republicans you're talking about, David.”
Republicans face some difficult choices. Raising taxes would lower the deficit but would also harm most Americans and hinder the economy. That leaves spending, which the previous administration raised to irresponsible levels, and now PBS is attacking Republicans for having to fix Democratic-created problems.
PBS News Hour
5/23/2025
7:36 PM Et
GEOFF BENNETT: So, House Republicans this week managed to pass their version of President Trump's legislative agenda, a massive bill that passed by one vote.
Jonathan, this bill extends the Trump tax cuts, but to pay for them, it cuts Medicaid, it slashes food stamps, it rolls back the Biden clean energy agenda. What does this bill say about Republican priorities?
JONATHAN CAPEHART: Well, you know, when Nancy Pelosi was speaker of the House, she has two favorite sayings. One involves Lincoln. The other one is, show me your budget and I will show you your priorities.
And what this budget shows is that Republicans are hell-bent on financing tax cuts for the upper income at the expense of middle-class, working-class, and poor Americans. And it's something that Republicans — House Republicans are going to have to explain to their constituents, because if you look over on the Senate side, particularly, I saw a clip of Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, no liberal at all, railing against the deficit impacts of what the House has passed.
BENNETT: The deficit impacts and the Medicaid cuts in particular. That's tricky politics for Republicans because there are now so many more people on Medicaid. Over the past eight years, Medicaid enrollment has surged to a record high and more red states have skin in the game, more Trump supporters. How do you see this playing out?
DAVID BROOKS: Yeah, and a lot of those rural hospitals really demand that. And if they shut down, there's not a lot of options out there. As this thing was going on, I was thinking of Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, as I often do with a frisson of pleasure.
But starting there like 100 years ago, and the Republican Party stood for fiscal discipline. Like, it was in their bones. And you don't have to go back too long to get to the Tea Party movement. And this bill will add to the deficit — or to the national debt by $3 trillion, $4 trillion? Mind-boggling.
This is already at a moment when we are paying more interest — on interest in the national debt, paying more to the bondholders than the entire defense budget. And so you can run deficits when your interest rates are zero. But when your interest rates get higher, it gets ruinously expensive.
And then when your interest rates are above your growth rates, that's a recipe for national decline, because you're building up debt and cost faster than your economy is generating wealth.
And so we're at a moment of true national peril. Nations decline for a lot of reasons. They lose wars. But they do decline because they get swallowed up and buried in their own debt. And it's so mind-boggling to me that the Republican Party of Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge is the author of this.
BENNETT: Is there an opening here for Democrats, especially on the health care and the Medicaid cuts? Because that's a playbook that Democrats know. That's how they won back the House in 2018, really going after Republicans who tried to roll back the Affordable Care Act.
CAPEHART: Oh, absolutely. It'd be malpractice if Democrats weren't already running against Republicans, vulnerable Republicans.
Look, the president and the speaker made vulnerable Republicans cast a really bad vote for a bill that, sure, it passed the House, but is going to go to the Senate and is going to come back to them completely unrecognizable, thus giving Democrats all the material they need to hammer away at those House Republicans.
And I'm being very specific here. I'm talking about House Republicans, but — because the Senate Republicans, at least the ones I have been watching, are closer to the Harding Republicans you're talking about, David.
