off the top. 8.6 trillion budget, but it s behind schedule and if things don t change soon, the republicans saying they don t support it, it could be headed for another one of the those budget government shutdowns and everybody stays late to see if they re funded at the last year s level especially with the defense department saying they need more money. griff: nobody is looking forward to that. lucas, thank you. well, for more on this, we re joined by republican congressman from tennessee and member of the house ways and means committee. congressman, great to have you here on the show this afternoon. i want to get to the president s budget in just a moment, first, let me get your thoughts on collapse of this bank, silicon valley bank, the 16th largest bank in the u.s. sending shock waves throughout the world. can you explain what happened. it sounds like invests are
added $5 trillion, with a t, to their fortunes during the pandemic. $8.6 trillion in march 2020 to $13.8 trillion as of november. that s a bigger jump than in the previous 14 years combined. now, that s all billionaires. let s look at the combined wealth of just the world s richest ten men. that includes elon musk, amazon founder jeff bezos, facebook s mark zuckerberg. you see them there. their wealth more than doubled during the pandemic, jumping by $1.3 billion a day. every day. all told, their total worth is six times greater than the world s wpoorest 3.1 billion people. it is almost mind-boggling. how did this happen? central banks pumped trillions into the economy, setting off a stock market boom, lining the pockets of billionaires. this inequality is not by chance but by choice. governments should tax the gains and use the money to fund health
of the only medicare advantage plans with the aarp name. take advantage now. sandra: breaking news from the capitol a short time ago. house democrats passing president biden s massive social spending plans and the bill will now head to the senate. that bill contains a massive rich list of progressive items totaling 8.6 trillion. aishah hosni is live with the latest. aishah, a big morning so far. what happens now? a long night, sandra. good morning. 220 to 2013 vote. pelosi is known for pushing big bills with tight margins. met with loud cheers and applause on the left as the bill moves to the senate. a long night. a very long couple of months for democrats as they finally pass the president s massive tax and spending plan. the wheels started turning
the past, it s led to government shutdowns, you know, financial market turmoil. very counterproductive. so, i think this is ready for the trash bin. as you noted, it was designed to serve this important purpose. it hasn t stopped the debt from ballooning. $28.6 trillion. when do you start to worry about the size of national debt? is it something that people at home should care about? well, i think we should start to worry about it and really focus on it. once the economy is back to full employment you know, we re getting good job numbers. but unemployment is still very high. 5.4% is much better than $15 which is where we were back last april, in the heat of the business shutdowns. but a well-functioning economy where everyone is employed and
decided to cut off federal benefits early, deserve a lot of credit for this. the administration has continued to try and make this argument that not endless, but lengthily and extended unemployment benefits didn t have an impact on people going back to work. and they continue to cite the data from the labor department, but they are ignoring hundreds of restaurant owners who are trying to get people back to work and small businesses who are a sane look, i m competing with the federal government when it comes to wages. and on the issue of inflation, look, if wages are going up but inflation is going up and you get your job back, they are going to be pretty frustrated as an american family for paying more with your paycheck than you were before the pandemic. bret: bill, quickly, i want to put the u.s. deadlock. and we don t see it a lot. it hasn t in recent years been talked about a lot. if you remember two cycles ago, presidential campaign was waged with the candidates on the republi