-We got yet another
disturbing glimpse of where the GOP is headed this
week when Donald Trump endorsed Sarah Palin
for a seat in Congress and Matt Gaetz
accused the military of focusing too much on wokeism. Meanwhile, President Biden
proposed a new billionaire tax aimed at reining in
America's massive wealth gap. For more on this,
it's time for "A Closer Look." ♪♪
[ Cheering and applause ] There is obviously a lot
going on in the news this week. Trump's slow-moving coup
is continuing apace. The U.S. and its allies
announced new sanctions on Russia's barbarism
in Ukraine. A new report says it's now
or never to avert irreversible
climate catastrophe. There's a new variant
of a highly contagious respiratory virus swirling
around out there. And, on top of all that, -Former Alaska governor
and one-time Republican vice presidential
nominee Sarah Palin announced that she's
running for Congress. Former President Donald Trump has already endorsed her. -When you get there,
assuming you get there, you understand
that the media jackals are going to descend on you and you're going to be walking
down the halls to the cafeteria
to go get a Pepsi and you're just going
to be swarmed by these reporters sticking
these little microphones and recording devices
in your face. Governor Palin,
Palin, Congresswoman, are you prepared
for that onslaught? Because it's going to be
pretty vicious. -You know, I would never be so
cocky as to say bring it on... -[ Laughs ]
-...but, yeah. I anticipate that,
when I walk down that hall to get my Diet Dr Pepper, sure, the jackals are going to be
there doing their jackalin'. [ Laughter ]
-So, if you've ever stood in front of a Coke machine
and wondered, "What kind of lunatic
drinks Diet Dr Pepper?" [ Laughter and applause ] But, yes, yes, jackals will do their jackalin'.
[ Laughter ] And, by the way, if you want
to know what a jackal does, I'm the guy to ask. What they do
is leave nitpicky complaints in the YouTube comments section
that I then respond to in our Emmy-nominated series
"Corrections." [ Fanfare plays ]
[ Laughter ] Which you can see every Monday
at 8:00 pm right here on NBC. No? What's that?
Oh, is it on -- Is it on Peacock?
It's not on Peacock either? Oh, it's just on YouTube
every Friday morning? Alright, well, I guess
the network hates money. [ Laughter ]
It should be noted I think Palin is
in for a rude awakening if she thinks she's still
in the vanguard of wild and crazy Republicans. Palin showing up in Congress now
would be like me telling a bunch
of high school kids about my wild days
of sneaking out and drinking wine coolers
in the woods and then realizing I was talking
to the kids from "Euphoria." They'd be like, "Cool, old man. I put Molly on my oatmeal." [ Laughter and applause ] In fact, as if to prove
that Sarah Palin, somehow, would not be the craziest
Republican in Congress, if she won,
Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, who looks like he wished
on a monkey's paw he'd make it
to Major League Baseball and, instead,
got Mr. Met's head, [ Laughter ]
leveled a bunch of unhinged
conspiracy theories at Defense Secretary
Lloyd Austin yesterday, claiming the military cares more
about critical race theory and wokeism
than national defense. -What in the $773 billion
that you're requesting today is going to help you
make assessments that are accurate in the face
of so many blown calls? [ Laughter ] -You've seen what's
in our budget. You've seen how the budget
matches the strategy and so I'll let that speak
for itself. -Everyone else
in the world seems to be developing capabilities
and being more strategic. We got time to embrace critical
race theory at West Point, to embrace socialism at the
National Defense University, to do mandatory
pronoun training. Do you assess --
-You know, again, this is the most capable, the most combat-critical,
force in the world. It has been and it will be so
going forward. -Not if we continue
down this path.
-And this budget helps us to do that.
-Not if we embrace socialism. You guys said that Russia would
overrun Ukraine in 36 days. You said that the Taliban
would be kept at bay for months. You totally blew those calls. And maybe we would be better
at them if the
National Defense University actually worked
a little more on strategy and a little less on wokeism. -Has it occurred to you that
Russia has not overrun Ukraine because of what we've done
and our allies have done? -It seems the Biden
administration is trying to destroy our military
by force, feeding it wokeism. -What is wrong
with these people? In their fever swamp brains,
do they genuinely believe our soldiers no longer know how
to fire a rifle because they are buried
in homework from pronoun class? [ Laughter ]
Does he think they arrive
on the battlefield and the sergeant barks out,
"Alright, Bravo Team, go around the left flank
and tell the enemy they're beautiful
just the way they are. [ Laughter ]
Charlie Team,
circle those drums. The rest of you,
into the Prius"? [ Laughter ]
Also, I would just like to point out I have no problem
with tough questioning of our national
security officials and I'm all for cutting
the defense budget. It's massively inflated
and we can absolutely spend it better
elsewhere. But that's not even
what the scam artists, like Gaetz, are asking for. They just want to whine
about wokeism and critical race theory. They don't actually want
to cut defense spending, as Gaetz made clear in this part
of the exchange, where he claimed we were behind
on a certain type of defense technology,
without providing much proof. -We're behind in hypersonics. We failed to deter Russia. Last year --
-What do you mean, we're behind in hypersonics? -Okay, who's
ahead in hypersonics? -How do you
make that assessment? -I don't know. -Is it one-for-one?
-I make that assessment because China is fielding hypersonic weapons systems and we are still
developing them. -How do you know we're behind
in hypersonics? "I don't know."
Do you know what hypersonic is? "I know that,
according to Sarah Palin, they do a lot of hypersonickin'. [ Laughter and applause ] These people -- Trump, Palin,
Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene -- are very much the present and the future
of the Republican Party, which is terrifying
for many reasons. For one thing, they all try
to pass themselves off as pro-worker populists, while the left is actually going
after elite wealth and trying to redistribute
that money to better uses that would benefit poor
and working Americans. For example, the Biden
administration is proposing a new minimum tax
on billionaires. -Today, the Biden administration
expected to announce a new tax for billionaires. The minimum income tax
would require households with more than $100 million to pay a rate of at least
20% of their full income. -A 20% minimum tax that applies
only to the top 1/100 of 1%. 1/100 of 1% of the Americans
will pay this tax. I'm asking you one simple --
just pay your fair share. Pay your fair share, that's all. That's it. Just your fair share. And no one can argue that 20%
for a billionaire is unfair. -I love when Biden stares
down the barrel of the camera and goes into his whisper voice. It feels like your future self
time traveled here to warn you about something.
[ Laughter ] [ As Biden ]
I'm telling you, you got to dump
all your Peloton stock. [ Laughter ] Go get that mole looked at. [ Laughter ]
Now, I haven't spoken
to any myself, but I can't imagine billionaires
are happy about this. -Damn right we're not.
-What?! [ Laughter ]
Wally, you're
a billionaire, how?! -Seth, 20 years ago,
I was visited by my future self and he told me
to buy Amazon stock. [ Laughter ]
-Why don't you tell me? -Well, my future self told me
you couldn't be trusted. [ Laughter ]
-Well, I'd like to have a few
words with your future self. -That's me. Present day Wally
is the future self [ Laughter ]
that talked to me 20 years ago. -I don't want to waste another
"Closer Look" -[Both] talking
about time travel with you! [ Laughter ]
-I told me you'd say that. [ Laughter ] -Alright!
Anyway. [ Laughter ]
Billionaires and their
allies in Congress get so emotionally wounded
at even the suggestion that maybe our tax system
favors the wealthy, like during Biden's
State of the Union, when he said
Trump's $2 trillion tax cuts largely benefited the top 1%,
which is true. And Republicans audibly booed,
leading to an awkward moment where Chuck Schumer preemptively
stood up to clap the next line, but was interrupted
by the Republican booing. -Unlike the $2 trillion
tax cut passed in the previous administration, that benefited
the top 1% of Americans, the American Rescue Plan -- [ Booing ] [ Laughter ]
the American Rescue Plan helped working people
and left no one behind. [ Cheering and applause ] -It's like a dance mom who gets
up to applaud for her daughter before the daughter misses
a step and falls off the stage. [ Clapping ]
"You got this, Becky!" [ Clattering ] [ Thudding ] [ Clattering, thudding ] [ Clattering, thudding ]
[ Laughter ] [ Clattering, thudding ] [ Laughter ] [ Clattering, thudding ] [ Laughter ] [ Clapping ]
[ Laughter and applause ] Now, this new billionaire tax would essentially be a tax,
in part, on unrealized gains on things like stocks you own,
but haven't sold yet. It may sound a little
complicated, but don't worry. CBS News has hired
a very knowledgeable and truthful new analyst
to explain it to all of us. -President Biden has announced
a $5.8 trillion budget proposal for the 2023 fiscal year,
which includes a wealth tax for the richest people
in the country. Households with assets
of more than $100 million would face a minimum tax of 20%. So, here to discuss is
Mick Mulvaney. He's a former
Office of Management
and Budget director and today I am pleased
to welcome him as a CBS News contributor. So happy to have you here. Thank you so much. You're the guy
to ask about this. -No, he's not! [ Laughter ]
He's Donald Trump's former chief of staff. He's not just some budget wonk
who's giving nonpartisan advice. Calling him a former Office of Management
and Budget director and leaving out the Trump part
is like saying there were a lot of jokes at the Oscars
that Will Smith did like. [ Laughter and applause ] We're facing a litany of serious
existential crises right now, from impending climate disaster to the pandemic,
to wealth inequality, and one of our two major
political parties is consumed
by imagined moral panics and unhinged
conspiracy theories. There are so many
of these crazy people, it's hard to keep track
of their names, whether it's Matt or Sarah
or Marjorie or... -Jackalin'.
[Jacqueline] [ Laughter and applause ] -This has been "A Closer Look." ♪♪ God's Love We Deliver
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