SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Calls it a big, beautiful bill, but President Trump's fellow Republicans blocked it yesterday in the House. NPR's Ron Elving joins us now. Ron, thanks so much for being with us.
RON ELVING, BYLINE: Good to be with you, Scott.
SIMON: President said online to stop talking and get it done. What happened?
ELVING: They didn't get it done, at least not yesterday. The big bill with so much of Trump's domestic agenda in it failed in committee. Four Republicans sided with all the committee's Democrats in voting it down. Now, these four voted that way but not for the same reasons the Democrats did. The Democrats said the bill cut too much from Medicaid and other programs and health and education. The four Republicans said the bill did not cut enough and that overall, the bill was adding way too much to the deficit and the national debt. And another $3.7 trillion over 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Joint Tax Committee, would be the result of this big, beautiful bill. Now, an arresting number, and there is a sizable group of Republicans in both chambers saying they are going to stand up to Trump on this one. They did not come to Washington to sign off on more deficit spending.
SIMON: Is this bill being stopped - is that why the rating agencies - Moody's voted to strip the US of its AAA rating yesterday?
ELVING: In terms of the timing, it certainly seems that way, but the other two major rating agencies had already done a downgrade based on the mounting U.S. debt and future deficits. And all of this has been a long time in the making, Scott. We didn't pile up 36 trillion in national debt in one budget cycle or four or even 10. If you go back to the first year Ronald Reagan was president, the national debt was around 1 trillion. But after that, the previous aversion to big-budget deficits year after year weakened or even disappeared in both our major political parties. So the national debt tripled in the 1980s. It took off again in the early 2000s. Both times, big tax cuts were not matched by spending restraint. There were wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. More recently, we've had COVID, post-COVID stimulus and, again, revenue losses due to tax cuts.
SIMON: President Trump ended his trip through Persian Gulf states yesterday, announced lots of business deals, sidestepped Israel, open relations with the new government in Syria, headed by a man who just a few weeks ago had been wanted as a terrorist. And the president said he wants to reach an agreement with Iran. What's stood out to you, Ron?
ELVING: Trump says he's bringing deals back to the United States that are going to mean trillions in investment dollars here. Not a lot of details on those or clarity about whether they're all new deals, but everyone gets the point. This is a transaction-oriented president. He likes deals, and the royal families of the Persian Gulf speak this language quite well.
On Iran, Trump alleged some kind of deal may be in the works, but he added that there needed to be a deal soon or, quote, "something bad is going to happen." Sounds a bit like the threats of fire and fury against North Korea eight years ago. And by the way, one other deal getting a lot of attention, the ruling family of Qatar has offered Trump a brand-new aircraft to be used as the new Air Force One and then donated to the Trump Library after his term. Trump said he was inclined to accept that gift and said he would be a fool to refuse it.
SIMON: He decried what he called interventionist foreign policies of previous administrations. This used to be an argument of liberal Democrats, didn't it?
ELVING: Yes, it did. Democrat George McGovern's slogan in his 1972 presidential campaign was, quote, "come home, America." It's long been a central part of the populist credo to question foreign commitments, and populists have mattered at various times in both our major political parties. And you certainly don't have to be an isolationist to wonder what the U.S. gained from some of its overseas adventures - Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan.
SIMON: Revelations continue from books detailing what they say was President Biden's mental decline in the White House. I feel the need to be blunt. Did powerful Democrats and White House staff deliberately let a man they judged to be incapable of fulfilling his sworn duties stay on in the most powerful office in the world so they could elect a successor?
ELVING: The reporting in these books expands on what was evident even a year ago. Biden was not entirely the man he had been. So was he incapable of fulfilling his sworn duties? We probably won't ever know. Yet these reporters allege that Biden and the people around him thought he and they could continue to manage his decline and his sworn duties and the public perception of it. They thought they could protect him and win another term and thereby manage the succession.
SIMON: NPR's Ron Elving. Thanks so much for being with us, as always.
ELVING: Thank you, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
