Thursday, August 6, 2026 Today, Abdul El-Sayed wins in Michigan and Amendments 4 and 5 go down hard in Missouri; new polling says voters prefer Democrats on the economy for the first time in a decade; Trump’s immigration crackdown has detained more than 50 military spouses and parents; ICE begins outfitting Haitian migrants with ankle monitors as temporary protected status is taken away; the New Mexico attorney general has sued the Department of Justice for access to the Epstein files; a pained Judge Mehta has dismissed the seditious conspiracy charges against the Oath Keepers; plus Allison delivers your Good News.
Thursday, August 6, 2026
Today, Abdul El-Sayed wins in Michigan and Amendments 4 and 5 go down hard in Missouri; new polling says voters prefer Democrats on the economy for the first time in a decade; Trump’s immigration crackdown has detained more than 50 military spouses and parents; ICE begins outfitting Haitian migrants with ankle monitors as temporary protected status is taken away; the New Mexico attorney general has sued the Department of Justice for access to the Epstein files; a pained Judge Mehta has dismissed the seditious conspiracy charges against the Oath Keepers; plus Allison delivers your Good News.
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msw media. Hello, and welcome to the Daily beans for Thursday, August 6, 2026. Today, Abdul El Sayed wins Michigan, and Amendments 4 and 5 go down hard in Missouri. New polling says voters prefer Democrats on the economy for the first time in a decade. Trump's immigration crackdown has detained more than 50 military spouses and parents. ICE begins outfitting Haitian migrants with ankle monitors as temporary protected status is taken away. The New Mexico Attorney General has sued the Department of Justice for access to the Epstein files. And a pained Judge Amit Mehta has dismissed the seditious conspiracy charges against the Oath Keepers. I'm your host, Allison Gill. Hey, everybody. Happy Thursday. Shit, shit, shit. So happy it's Thursday. Dana's out today. She'll be back tomorrow. But I do have a special guest, Stephanie Mensimer from Mother Jones. She wrote an article about the destruction of the IRS from Doge. And we're going to discuss the impact of that. You know, but the wait times on hold are hours long. Nobody can get anything done. It's just, it's a mess. And so we're going to discuss that with, Stephanie. And as I said in the intro, Judge Amit Mehta expressed deep regret on Tuesday as he granted requests by the Justice Department to throw out criminal charges against eight members of the far right Oath Keepers militia who were charged with seditious conspiracy for the central role they played in storming the Capitol on January 6th. This move came less than a month after one of his colleagues in federal District court in Washington, Judge Kelly, made a similarly pained decision to dismiss the seditious conspiracy charges for the proud boys. And we're going to be discussing this on the Unjustified podcast. And I'll be talking about with Harry Dunn on the cleanup on all, 45 podcasts as well. We'll go over what Jaja Amit Mehta had to say. All right, and with that, we better get to the news. We have a lot of it, so let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right, from npr, everyone got a little bit of what they wanted in Tuesday's primary elections. It was a good night for the Democratic establishment, the progressives and Republican candidates endorsed by Donald Trump. Now, some of the primary races for House and Senate in Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Virginia and Washington are critical to which party will hold power next in Congress. It was a huge primary win for the progressive side of the Democratic Party. I think that sort of, I mean, NPR opened this with everybody gets a little bit of what they wanted, but I think the story of the night is what happened in Michigan when voters picked progressive candidate Abdul, El Sayad as the Democratic nominee for Senate. He beat Haley Stevens, who was a representative who was backed by the establishment wing of the party and outspend him nine to one in the most expensive Senate race in the history of the country, mostly backed by corporate packs and apac. So I think that says a lot. You know, we talked about a long time ago how we beat Elon Musk's $20 million in Wisconsin for the Supreme Court seats there. We beat the Cuomo millions, tens of millions of dollars in New York City. ah, we beat so many, like so much money machine action in, in, in the past year just in special elections alone. So this is another, notch in that column, I think. Now the race was the biggest test for progressives to see if their populist agenda, such as Medicare for all, would bode well in a true swing state. If Democrats want to take control of the US Senate in November, winning the seat is crucial to accomplishing that goal. We have to hold that seat. That's a hold, not a flip. But the outcome of the Democratic primary makes it clear there's a stark divide among Democratic primary voters and the qualities they want to see from a sitting senator. I don't see it this way. I, this feels like horse race coverage to me here from npr. The way I see it is all Democrats pretty much want the same stuff. It's just, are you backed by a bunch of dirty corporate money or not? I think Democrats have always been a economic populist party. So I'm not quite sure where this is all like pitting Democrats against one, each other. It's just, it seems bizarre to me. Everybody came out after Al sayed one and said, we support you fully. The Democratic establishment that everybody whinges about is putting together huge events already for Al Said, like everybody's backing him. Everybody backed Mamdani, the dnc, you know, So I just, I don't understand where, you know, we've got definitely a handful of Democrats who are like old dog Democrats, like, you know, Carville in the Carville wing of the party, you know, who love that corporate money. But other than that, our agenda's been the same forever. It's the people's agenda. It was the same under Eisenhower. The Eisenhower Republican Party had the same Democratic socialist platform. It's just, it boggles my mind, all this. We all want the same stuff, and big money is just pushing everybody, everybody around the edges and trying to divide all of us. So that they can conquer us anyway. That's the way it's always been, but this is the way NPR is reporting it. The Democratic primary makes clear there's a stark divide among Democratic primary voters and the qualities they want to see from a sitting senator. Whoever wins the primary will face a tough challenge from the Republican nominee, former Rep. Mike Rogers. Progressives also picked up a win in Michigan's one true toss up district. That's progressive William Lawrence, who beat two other Democrats for the nomination. Lawrence is set to challenge first term incumbent Rep. Tom Barrett in November. In Michigan's 13th congressional district, Donovan McKinney unseated Sri Thanadar. That's the incumbent. Establishment Democrats got the candidates they wanted in a few key races. In Missouri's 1st congressional district, Wesley Bell won a rematch against Cori Bush. Bell was backed by the national party while Bush clenched endorsements from Democratic socialists and high profile progressives like Bernie Sanders. They lost that race. Bell will face Republican nominee Paul Berry in November. though Cook political reports rate the district as solidly Democratic. So there's that. In Virginia, Democratic voters picked establishment backed candidates for two House seats. The two seats, Virginia's first and second, are ones that Democrats hope to flip. These are flips to inch toward the party's goal of taking control of the chamber. So we'll see how that goes. I also want to give a shout out to my buddy Fred Wellman, who won his race in Missouri as well. Congrats, Fred. Now Trump backed candidates in Washington State, Kansas and Michigan won their party's nomination. In Washington's 4th, Trump endorsed Yakima County Commissioner Amanda McKinney won. She beat 10 other candidates for the top spot. That wide open seat is to replace outgoing Republican Dan Newhouse, one of the only Republicans still in office who voted to impeach Trump in 2021. McKinney received Trump's endorsement but didn't come away with any certainty. A Trump endorsed candidate has never won a general election in the conservative rural district, although there is a possibility that could change since Newhouse is not on the ballot. McKinney will face Democrat John Duressi. If I'm pronouncing that improperly, please let me know. And that's of course in November. Now Trump backhanded. It's also one in Michigan and Kansas. Democrats currently hold the office in both states, but Republicans are hoping to take the mansion back for governor. These Trump backed candidates since the sitting governors are term limited. In Michigan, Republican Rep. John James won the nomination. He'll face off against Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. In Kansas, Republican State Senator Ty Masterson clinched the nomination and they'll be faced by Cindy Holscher, another state senator. It was a tough loss for two Republican led ballot initiatives though in Missouri and Kansas. No changes to the state supreme court bench are happening in Kansas future and voters there rejected the Republican backed proposal for state Supreme Court. Justice is to be elected instead of appointed. Currently, judges for the state's highest court are appointed by the governor based on choices presented by a nominating committee. Most of the court has been appointed by the current and previous governors, both Democrats elected in the red state. The court has upheld abortion rights among other stands objected to by Republican leaders and voters in Missouri. High five Missouri voted against the proposal by the Republican led legislature to make it harder for the public to pass future amendments to the state constitution. And it didn't just lose, it got its ass kicked 80 to 20. After an amendment passed in recent years to end the legislature's strict ban on abortion and another that expanded Medicaid, the legislature proposed a question on Tuesday's ballot that would have raised the bar to do that kind of thing. Now currently approval just requires a majority vote statewide. The defeated amendment would have required a majority vote in each of the states eight congressional districts. None of the recent amendments would have passed if that were the threshold. And by the way, this one also would have lost because it lost in all the districts too. But well done Missouri. Also, Amendment 5 went down. That was the one I went over on the show about eliminating the state income tax. That one lost 83 to 17. So those Republican backed the amendments in Missouri just got shellacked. All right, next up from Reuters, Americans pick Democrats over Republicans as better stewards of the economy for the first time in nearly a decade, according to a Reuters Ipsos poll. That's an A plus poll which also found their approval of President Donald Trump fell to 35%. 35. The finding in a poll conducted Wednesday through Monday showed Trump's handling of the economy, including rising energy prices resulting from the Iran war, could weigh on his party's chances in the November midterm elections do that will determine control of Congress for the next two years. Now Trump's presidential approval rating fell to 35 from 37, so it's down 2 points in the prior Reuters Ipsos poll from last month. So 2% in a month with the share of Americans who give his presidency a thumbs up within just 1 percentage point of the lowest level of his term. Some 37% of registered voters responding to the poll said the Democratic Party has a better approach to the economy, compared with 36% who picked the Republican. Another 27% said they weren't sure or that a different party might do a better job. Republicans had held that advantage on the economy through most of Trump's first term, 2017-2021, through all of Joe Biden's four years in power and up until today, until Trump's, you know, right now in Trump's second term. A Reuters Ipsos poll that concluded in May 2017 gave Democrats an edge, though the question was asked differently, with no option for respondents to say they were not sure. The Republican edge on the economy has steadily deteriorated during Trump's current term, narrowing to zero in recent months as U.S. household finances have suffered from soaring gasoline prices following the Iran war. I wonder if people are maybe also just waking up to the fact that Republicans wreck the economy and Democrats fix it. Republicans have created 49 million of the last 50 million jobs. Democrats have created 49 million of the last fifty million jobs. Republicans 1 million of the last 50 million. That statistic still blows my mind, but it's true. I mean, there was the housing crisis, G.W. bush, right? There was. I mean, like, how many of these examples do we need in the last 10, 15 years? But maybe the tide is turning, but it could just be people paying more money at the gas pump and going, oh, economy bad now. Trump said he ordered the strikes and the ensuing conflict to dismantle Iran's nuclear program, curb its ability to attack regional rivals. But last June, he said he obliterated their nuclear program and to create conditions for Iranians to overthrow their clerical rulers. But gasoline prices have surged more than 25% since the war started, with Americans, on average, paying more than a dollar extra a gallon at the pump. The Reuters Ipsos poll, which was conducted online nationwide, found 42% of registered voters would vote for a Democrat, as opposed to 37% for Republican in congressional elections if the contest were held today. Independents in the poll pick Democrats over Republicans by 12 points. Republicans will be defending narrow congressional majorities in November 3rd elections. While the poll presents a picture of the national political mood, the actual elections for US Congress are a lot more complex. Of the 435 House of Representatives seats, only about three dozen are expected to be competitive. I think it's maybe a little bit more than that because I think the definition of competitive has gone from 1 to 3 points within that range to 7 to 10 points, frankly. But anyway, there's out, of there. There is. It's it's a small percentage that that are contested here and only about three dozen, like they said, are expected to be competitive, while about eight Senate seats are expected to be competitive. And that's actually way more than we thought it was going to be. We thought there might be two or three competitive Senate seats. I was pretty sure about a year and a half ago that we weren't going to get the Senate back, but now I think we got pretty decent chance now. Trump has repeatedly dismissed widespread polling showing Americans unhappy with him. On Monday morning ahead of the release of the latest Reuters Ipsos poll he posted on Truth Social my real polling numbers, not those made up by the fake news, are the best they've ever been. No sir, they're the worst. The Reuters Ipsos poll gathered responses from 4,505 U.S. adults and had a margin of error of just 2 percentage points. It's pretty accurate polling. And in an exclusive from the Associated Press, the Trump administration has detained dozens of parents and spouses of active duty US Troops. As it rolls back immigration protections for military families to pursue its mass deportation agenda, it's rolling back protections for military families. More than 50 parents and spouses of active duty service members have been detained since Trump took office for a term, and at least six have been deported and one actually self deported. I mean, the government doesn't track these, by the way the Associated Press found them. At least eight immediate family members of service members remain in federal immigration custody. Parents and spouses of people in the military have generally been shielded from deportation under bipartisan consensus for decades, but the Associated Press found they're now routinely being detained for months as they try to adjust their legal status through the policies available to service members, close relatives. And even as the military continues to recruit by advertising immigration benefits for enlistees families, experts warn that the reversal could undermine military preparedness. Even as the US Is at war in Iran. It's left military members without emotional support and no caretakers for their children. It's delayed deployments and forced some to take leave. Quote, how can I even focus on my military career? I have to worry about how my wife is. That's Army Sergeant Hadar Leonel Tercios Suarez, who was stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas when his wife was detained outside a Walmart in front of their six year old daughter in July. A handful of detentions of service member spouses have prompted public backlash and led to intervention by Homeland Security Secretary Mark Twain to try to get them released. Yeah, this is the thing. You've created an out of control Gestapo masked thug squad that not even Marquane Mullen can control and bring to heal. That's not frightening at all, is it? Department of Homeland Security says it doesn't compile data on these cases. Associated Press obtained information by just analyzing thousands of federal court records compiled by Habeas Dockets, a project run by Immigration Justice Transparency Initiative, and by reviewing existing media coverage and by verifying information with family members and attorneys. The actual number is likely much higher than 52 cases that the Associated Press found. The AP asked for comment from DHS on each case, including the Individual's Immigration and Criminal History Agency didn't provide specific information about the majority of the cases, but noted that at least seven people had been removed from the US before, at least eight had removal orders and at least two had drunk and driving or drug related convictions. Some service members have been left caring for children alone. Army Staff Sgt. Alexis Jaramillo, an aviation operations specialist who has served for more than a decade, said he would normally be involved in training soldiers at Fort Polk, Louisiana. Instead, he's on administrative leave caring for his five year old stepson, Noah, after his Brazilian wife, Mesa Lopez. Eleazar was detained in early July, and it happened during what the family thought was a routine appointment, a routine appointment at USCIS in Alabama. Eleazar, arrived in the US on a tourist visa in 2019 and the couple was trying to change her status. So she went in to do what she was supposed to do and got snatched. Immigration officials asked Jaramillo and his stepson to leave the room and minutes later they were told that she had been detained. The next time they saw her was inside a detention facility. It is really overwhelming because I need to care for my kid by myself. No one's here to help me. At least one active duty soldier halted her imminent deployment after her husband was detained by immigration officers, leaving no one to care for their five year old son. A judge eventually ordered the husband released. One of the military's most highly advertised immigration benefits is called military parole in Place, which allows spouses, children and parents of active duty service members and veterans to obtain legal immigration status from within the country. the policy was implemented under Republican President G.W. bush during the war with Iraq in 2007 and codified under Democratic President Barack Obama. DHS agencies can grant it on a case by case basis. Under Trump, the average time it takes to receive military parole in place has doubled from six months to 12 months, according to USCIS data. That leaves military families more vulnerable to being placed in ICE custody. Associated Press found that troops immediate family members have repeatedly been detained by ICE while applying for parole in place or seeking to adjust their status. So these folks are detained while applying for this program. That's a benefit to active duty service members. Marine Corporal Jose Manuel Vilshas Valle, his mother, Ursula Borja Valle was detained. His mother was detained at an appointment in August 2025 and deported to Mexico within a week. She'd been in the US since the 90s without a known criminal record. Her son was attempting to help her clear up a decades old removal order through the immigration benefits that military recruiters used to persuade him to enlist. Quote they basically told me, if you serve and you serve honorably, you can help your parents. He was honorably discharged shortly after his mother was deported. In a perfect world, I wished because of my service they could have pardoned her. In other cases, ICE has detained people who already had already been granted protection with the agency later arguing in court filings that their parole status was revoked. In June of 2025, the Marine Corps officially stopped advertising enlistment as a way to protect immigrant family members in response to inquiries from the Associated Press. But recruiters for the army and the National Guard still use it. For U.S. army Specialist Romero Ralios. His father's detention left him remorseful about his deployment last year to the Joint Task Force Southern Border where he spent nine months supporting ICE Customs and Border Protection. His father, Sebastian Ralios Tino, a Guatemalan landscaper with no criminal record, was detained this past summer. Lived in the US for nearly two decades. RAOS's commanding officer, Captain Mohammed El Maola, told the Associated Press he wanted to speak up because Ralos is a phenomenal soldier whose father should receive due process. Quote it's very hard to communicate and to have credibility as a leader when your own subordinates are unable to get support. Considering he enlisted his time and his life into supporting and defending the United States Constitution, it's the right thing to do to support soldiers and their families. Romero Ralios struggles to sleep at night due to the stress and wishes he had not been involved in the immigration enforcement even though he was, quote, just following orders. It was karma. He said, I should have known. All those families I broke. I have regrets. Next up from the post, Department of Homeland Security has begun summoning Haitian immigrants to Ohio to check in for appointments with federal officers who are giving them ankle monitors in what appears to be a new enforcement effort after the Supreme Court allowed Trump to end their humanitarian protections. Man Guerrillan Joseph Executive director of the Haitian Bridge alliance, said about 50 Haitians with temporary protected status in Springfield, Ohio were called into Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices Friday. Local attorneys said the immigrants were arrested and then conditionally released with electronic monitoring devices. They were instructed not to go travel anywhere out of a 75 mile radius of their house. A Trump administration official confirmed the effort to call Haitians with temporary protected status into ICE offices and give them ankle monitors and then release them. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal ICE operations, expected the check ins to be scheduled in waves. SCOTUS ruled in June that the Trump administration could end temporary protections for 350,000 Haitians despite ongoing political instability and gang violence in the nation. DHS alerted employers last week that it had officially ended TPS for Haitians, triggering mass layoffs and confusion because lower court that had blocked the administration's attempts to terminate the program has not yet lifted the order keeping TPS benefits intact. Next up Wall Street Journal New Mexico is suing the U.S. justice Department. They sued on Wednesday, accusing federal officials of stonewalling the state's criminal investigation into Epstein and breaking a years old promise to share evidence about crimes at Zorro Ranch. The lawsuit, filed in Federal court in D.C. by New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torres, a Democrat, is asking judges to compel the justice and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch to turn over unredacted investigative files that the state says it needs to identify victims, witnesses and potential perpetrators connected to abuse at the roughly 8,000 acre property in Santa Fe while, south of Santa Fe. In a statement, Justice Department said the Epstein Files Transparency act doesn't require disclosure of victim identifying information carte blanche and New Mexico has provided no lawful basis to justify such sweeping disclosures.
Huh?
Huh? DOJ remains available to assist New Mexico's investigation consistent with the law and binding court orders. That's what the DOJ says. At the center of the complaint is an agreement reached in 2019, shortly after Epstein was arrested and died in jail. New Mexico had opened its own investigation that year in 2019, and according to the complaint, federal prosecutors asked the state to stand down so the federal investigation could proceed, promising in exchange to pass along any information. Yeah, Trump did that a lot. Stand down, let the feds are doing it did it New York with Cohen Anyway, the state handed over its investigative file that September, including police reports, recorded witness interviews and other materials, and the Justice Department didn't reciprocate. Never did. A federal prosecutor in New York told the state this past July. It's not going to produce materials, citing victim privacy again, blaming the victims, using them as pawns, and protective orders from the Epstein Maxwell prosecutions. The complaint argues that the protective orders bar only public disclosure, and the Justice Department's already made unredacted files available to members of Congress. So what? New Mexico argues it's one of just a few jurisdictions still able to hold Epstein Associates accountable. All right, everybody. That is the news for today. I'm going to be right back with Stephanie Mensumer from Mother Jones to talk about the IRS and why you can't get through. Stick around. We'll be right back after these messages. We'll be right back. Hey. So I can spend 20 minutes staring at a full closet and still decide that I have absolutely nothing to wear. The problem isn't a lack of clothes, though. It's finding an outfit I already own that I want to wear. Daily look gives me pieces that fit my style and make getting dressed much easier, whether it's for a night on the town or for staying in with friends or going on the air. So if getting dressed feels harder than it should, it's time for our sponsor Daily look, the number one highest rated premium personal styling service for women. And for 50, 50% off your first order, head to DailyLook.com and use code Daily Beans. Instead of some random algorithm robot, Daily look gives you your own dedicated personal stylist who chooses clothes around your body. Shape preferences, lifestyle, you know, all that stuff. You start with a style quiz that covers your budget and the kind of things that you like your lifestyle. And then Daily look sends up to 12 hand selected premium pieces straight to your door so you can try them on in the privacy of your own space. You keep what you love, you send back the rest, and shipping is free both ways. It's pretty amazing. The last time I wore a Daily look, my stylist absolutely nailed it with a tailored blazer that fit like it had been made, specifically for me. I Wore it on Fox 5. It was awesome. She also sent elevated basics that made the whole outfit look polished. Like, I really knew how to put myself together, which is kind of nice. And every month, I get new additions to my wardrobe that fit exactly the kind of look that I love. And Daily look has sizes for everyone, by the way, from extra small to 3x and 0 to 24. So it's time to get your own personal stylist with DailyLook. Head to DailyLook.com to take your style quiz. Use code DailyBeans for 50% off your order once again, that's DailyLook.com for 50% off. And make sure you use our promo code, DailyBeans, so they know we sent you one last time. DailyLook.com promo code, DailyBeans. Hey, everybody. Welcome back. Today I'm honored to be joined by a, staff reporter from Mother Jones and the Washington bureau from Mother Jones. She was nominated for National Magazine Award in 2004 for a Washington Monthly article about the myths surrounding the medical malpractice system. In 2000, she won the Harry Chapin Media Award for reporting on poverty and hunger. And her 2010 story for Mother Jones on the collapse of the welfare system in Georgia and elsewhere won a Casey Medal for meritorious journalism. And today we're going to talk about the collapse of the irs. Please welcome Stephanie Mensumer. Hi, Stephanie. How are you?
Fine. Thanks for having me.
It's so great to speak to you. it's so funny. Somebody reached out about this amazing piece that you did about the IRS from Mother Jones that I had just finished reading when we were talking about having you on the show. And I was like, oh, my goodness. Amazing, because this really hits home. We all have a lot of friends who work in the federal government. We all have a lot of friends who are in the civil service. I've talked to many people about the effects of Doge and, Elon Musk, and it seems like it's starting to really sink in over at the irs. Can you talk a little bit about how that impacted the IRS and what you wrote about here in this piece?
Sure. well, I actually hadn't been giving the IRS all that much thought until I got a letter from them about a month ago, saying that they had changed my tax return and they had decided that I owe them a whole bunch of money. And I was like, I don't think I owe you money. And their numbers were sort of weird. And I looked at it and I was like, no, I don't owe any money. I paid all of this. And so I thought, well, this will be an easy enough problem to remedy. I will just call them up and explain, and I'll send them my receipts or whatever on my. My documentation, and then they'll take care of it. And so I started calling and calling and calling and calling. And after, like, almost, like, it's probably been almost two months of sitting on hold, I've never reached a live human at the irs. And I realized that, well, then I called my accountant and I said, can you do something about this? And they said, no, we can't get through either. And they have their own sort of special, like, bat phone to call the irs, and even that doesn't work anymore. And they have been unable to reach people at the irs. And it's at that point that I was like, oh, my gosh, the IRS is violently imploding. And I sort of knew this was coming because I had written a story last year about the irs, because I'm from Utah. I'm from Ogden, Utah. And the IRS has this giant IRS service center where people all over, like, everybody west of the Mississippi, mails their stuff if they have to mail something to the irs. And so, like, ever, you know, my relatives have worked there. Everybody's worked at the irs, if you lived in Ogden long enough. And so last year, I was writing about that because they were having all these massive layoffs when Doge came in almost immediately, you know, the first thing they targeted was the irs, and they started pushing people out, pushing people to retire. They gave them that deferred resignation deal where they paid people not to work and then fired them. And so, last year, people were saying, oh, God, they're doing this during tax season. It's going to be such a disaster. And then it didn't really turn out to be a huge disaster. And so I kind of forgot about it, because it turned out that they kept people on long enough to get through the tax season. But it was this year, once all those people were finished with their administrative leave and stuff, that this year, all of the staffing cuts really kicked in, and they cut 30% of the workforce at the IRS. And I think they kept some people even through, like, April 15th this year. But after that, like, everything is just shutting down. They just do not have. They've lost 30% of the entire workforce, and they just can't manage the workflow.
And that's the exact same thing happened to a friend of mine, because for a business tax, she'd been sending in her quarterlies and stuff like that. And then they came back and said, you owe us, like, $52,000. And so I don't think she's yet to get through to anybody at the irs. I think she's still trying. And I spoke to my accountant, too, and, yeah, you're right. They have these bat phones, these dedicated lines for tax experts, and there's no answer on those either. And so I think it's really interesting that it kind of took a while. And you said in the article, and you just expressed now that that has something to do with the fact that they kept on enough people long enough, but now it's sort of, you know, DEFCON. What's the bad one? DEFCON 1 4, I don't think.
Five? I don't know. Yeah, no, they definitely have, you know, juggle people around, even this year. So, the IRS cut 40% of its IT staff. You know, Doge, with all their technological, plans to make things better through technology, cut all the IT workers. So they cut all those people. And then the ones that were left during tax season this year, they moved a bunch of them to just answer phones. Even though these people were like, you know, GS13s or whatever, they put them on these customer service lines so they could make sure that during the tax season people were getting their calls through. But, one of the. I talked to the woman who used to be the national taxpayer advocate at the IRS for a really long time, and she said, you know, her measure of how the agency is doing is what happens on April 16th or 17th, depending on the year. And, you know, when people like me start getting these letters saying there's some problem or, you know, you, you owe something different from what you paid and they need to get in and talk to somebody, like to set up a payment plan or to say, wait, my husband illegally claimed our children on his tax returns. It's not my fault. And, you know, stuff like that. And, now you're really seeing all the problems because, you know, they couldn't, they couldn't keep that going. What they did during the tax season, they couldn't sustain that. And I'm not sure they wanted to. You know, they wanted to get rid of all of these, these people and to bring the staffing levels down to nothing. Pretty much.
Right. And cause trauma, as RAS Vote said, to our civil federal workforce. Talk a little bit about leadership. I think they're on their sixth IRS commissioner and it's a dual hatted fellow who's also running the Social Security Administration, which I'm sure is super simple. That's a super easy job. Right? Like, you can just do both of these jobs, the IRS and the ssa, no big deal. And his name is Bizignano. And he testified recently that everything's great and it's even better with fewer people, didn't he?
Yes, he said they were proving that they could. It's funny, people. I put this in the story. People have been sending me all sorts of notes about his grammar, but he said less people, better service, something like that. So right out of orwell and, you know, less people, better results. And he's actually not the commissioner. Like, they have not. They made up this fame, fake job for him. So they call him the CEO of the irs, which has never been authorized by Congress. So I don't even know, like, what authority he has to do anything over there. But, because they've had six people in the job since Trump started, and none of them, only one was confirmed. I think that was Billy Long. And he was, you know, there and gone before he realized it. And, so there's been no leadership at the top, and a lot of the upper management jobs are. Aren't filled. And, you know, it just. It's like across the board, the agency is just losing. You know, it's hemorrhage, all these people. It lost, you know, a generation's worth of institutional knowledge, which, in a place like the irs, you know, where the technology is kind of old and like, it, you know, institutional memory means a lot. And, you know, one of those people, you know, probably keeps, like, half the country running. And so now they're all gone. And now the IRS has also decided, oops, maybe we cut too many people, and they're trying to hire some back. But, you know, they can't really bring. Unless they decide to hire back some of these people that they push into retirement. They're starting from scratch. And a lot of people don't want to go to work there because, well, one, you know, government service doesn't pay as well as some of these jobs can in the private sector. And all these employees got treated so badly last year that, you know, the one benefit of working for the IRS always was, like, there was stable. You know, you had. And you had flexibility, and they had good benefits. But a lot of that has been taken away. And I think they're in a, you know, a bit of a bind at this point because I think they're after losing 30% of the workforce. They have something like the same number of people working there that did in, like, 1960, even though the population of the country has, like, tripled. So it's like there. And obviously some technology changes have made that possible. They can. They can do it with a few less people, but ultimately, you know, they're just driving this whole agency into the ground.
Yeah, the government's had roughly the same amount of employees since the 1950s, I think. I worked at the Department of Veterans affairs for over a decade and was removed from my job surreptitiously under the first Donald Trump administration for Some private activity that I was, you know, I was podcasting about the Mueller investigation, and they found out about that. Then I spoke to Sasha Abramsky about this, too. He wrote a book called American Carnage about. About the impact of Doge, and spent a lot of time talking about the IRS as well. But what he's noticed and what I can personally confirm is that when Joe Biden came back into office and I was offered a bigger, better, amazing, position at the government, I didn't want it. And because of it's now an unstable job. The whole reason I got the job in the first place was because it was a forever job. I could retire there. It was stable. It didn't pay very well, you know, for somebody with a doctorate in public health. But I was helping veterans. I was doing a civic duty. I was being a ward of the taxpayer dollar. And, I was going to retire. I was going to do it for the rest of my life. And most civil servants are that way. They're dedicated to serving their country and helping the American people. But the stability part went away. So why would you want an unstable job for less money? I don't think you're going to have an, easy time bringing people back into the fold. Ah, once this is all over, you know what I mean?
Oh, yeah. It's going to take them decades to recover, I think, and especially because, you know, I'm not even sure they're bringing back enough people. So if you go back in there now, you're going to be dealing with all these huge backlogs and angry people who, you know, have been getting disconnected on the phone for the last six months, and it's not going to be the most pleasant kind of environment, and, you know, lack of management, all those things. And, you know, the people who. The Biden administration actually, used some. They put some money into upgrading the IRS and the. The Inflation Reduction act. And they were trying to hire, like, forensic accountants and people. They were literally poaching people from the big four accounting firms to try to bring in a lot of specialized knowledge to make things better and to do better enforcement. And, the former HR director told me they were offering these people, like, $30,000 signing bonuses. Like, they work hard to bring in all these people. And then Doge just turned around and fired them. And, you know, she said the taxpayers should be furious about this because we spent all this money to try to bring these people in. And they just turned around and stacked them all. And, you know, now you can't get your phone calls Answered.
Right. And the electronic, the free E filing system, too. You know, I spoke to somebody who worked on that project, and, and that's been tanked by. But I wanted to also ask you about this, because I remember back when Ronald Reagan fired all the air traffic controllers at once in the 80s, and then. So they had to be rehired. Right. At some point. And then there was another crisis 30 years later when all of them were retiring at the same time. I'm, envisioning in 2029 when we rehire everybody in the government. We're going to have another crisis in a generation where, when everybody has to retire at the same time,
maybe. I mean, I think it's been a chronic problem, for a while. I mean, that there, I forget there's some huge percentage of federal workers who were eligible to retire even before Trump took office. So that's why it was. Once they started doing this, trying to get rid of people, a lot of them just left. And I've done my time and because
they were bringing in remote workers and putting them in offices without air conditioning and making them, you know, drive to work or commute, and, and people are like, I'm out.
Right. So, you know, one, they're just going to have to convince people that things will be okay when they, that it's, you know, that it's safe to work there again and then also find the talent. And, you know, we live in a country that's got, you know, we're an aging population. It's, it's all a problem. And, you know, I think that the DOGE people were always like, oh, technology is going to save us. We will AI our way out of this. But, but then they, they, they pushed out 40% of the IT department at the IRS. So who's going to do the technology
people to run the tech?
Yeah, they still need a person to, like, fix it all. And they, they got rid of those people. So I don't know what they're going to do. But, you know, it's, it's, you know, it's a pain for somebody like me who can't get through on the phone. But, like, the bigger problem is that, like, destroying the IRS also also destroys the ability of the government to pay its bills, because I think there's something like these cuts they have anticipate will result in something like almost a trillion dollars of lost revenue over the next decade. So that's not a small amount of money. And when we're just blowing it right and left on, like, Stupid wars and like keeping the National Guard marching around my neighborhood, you know, every day. it's like those things eventually are going to, that's going to be a crisis all on its own because we just can't, can't keep going like this. The money has to come from somewhere and eventually they're going to need the IRS to go out and collect it.
And that was going to be my final question. You beat me to the punch. What are the implications for future revenue on this country? We have to pay our bills. We already are at a $40 trillion. What is it? Deficit, debt. It's a bad number. It's a really bad number because of all the tax cuts. The one big beautiful bill, we're giving ice, like you said, $130 billion to, you know, put on masks and snatch our neighbors. We're paying exorbitant amounts of money to house detain people. Like it's just the money. And then of course you mentioned what was in the last NDAA $1.15 trillion for defense. And so I think that the, the obvious issue is going to be that the deficit just keeps climbing and climbing and climbing. We're going to explode the debt.
Yeah. And you know, those bonds, the T bills that are supposed to be the safest investment in the world aren't going to look so safe if we can't keep up collecting taxes. It's just a basic function. I know that Republicans like to say that the IRS is just a bunch of jackbooted thugs and taxation is theft, but the fact is we have to pay for our things that the government is doing. And the only way to do that is collect taxes. And if you and hiring people at the IRS actually pays for itself.
Oh, yeah, that's true for every agency. What Doge failed to understand and what Trump doesn't understand is that the people, civil servants, federal workforce, are stewards of the taxpayer dollar. My job, my one little GS13 job, GS14 job at the VA saved tens of millions of dollars in revenue. Not revenue, but, you know, taxpayer money. And that's what each and every federal worker does. And when you cut those people, you know, were very confused about why Doge cuts cost money. That's why.
Yeah, I think, and it's especially true at the IRS because, you know, what they wanted to do also is to make sure that rich people aren't getting audited or, you know, there's no enforcement against people like Elon Musk himself that they're paying their fair share of taxes. And so when you spend a little bit of money just making sure those people pay the taxes that they owe, they actually recoup a lot of money for the federal government. I mean, it's a lot of money, and it's not like it's, somehow nefarious. It's like people owe this money and they don't feel like they have to pay it because nobody's going to catch them. And that's pretty much true right now if there's no enforcement. I talked to a lot of people who are like, I don't even know why I pay taxes. Not like anyone's going to catch me if I don't. And I think. I think that mindset, you know, once that becomes ingrained in the culture, it's really, really hard to turn it around. I mean, Greece had that problem. Something like 25% of its residents didn't pay taxes for a long time, and it caused this huge fiscal crisis. Like, you have to pay. I mean, if you want the benefits of, like, you know, roads and, and national parks and all the things that the government actually provides to keep our society running, like, you do have to pay for it.
No, no, no. See, that's socialism. We have to build our own roads and put, out our own fires and police ourselves. That's. Everybody knows that. Everybody knows that, Stephanie. Yeah. No, and, you know, there's days I'm, you know, I'm glad I'm not in my 20s. I'm in my 50s, you know, because I don't know if I could do another 60 years of this, because it seems like we're just going to know, we're just going to run out of money. The dollar is going to be devalued. Like, all this terrible stuff seems to be on the horizon. And, I hope we can turn it around before we drive off the cliff. Drive off the fiscal cliff, as it were. But you're right, the IRS, it's 10 times more impactful in money savings because they collect the money. Me over at the va, I was just saving the money, not trying to generate it to come in. And Trump now has immunity from past tax problems, and maybe that's why there's no actual IRS commissioner, because nobody would sign off on that. I don't know. But anyway, thank you so much for coming in and talking to us today about this piece, everybody. It's in Mother Jones. You can find this incredible story. It's called the IRS is Imploding. It's by Stephanie Mensumer. Stephanie Tell people where they can find and follow you.
Oh, sure. you can find my work@motherjones.com and I'm on Blue sky and Twitter and at Eensmer and also face. Well, not Facebook, actually. Bluesky and Twitter. You can find me there. Eensmer.
Awesome. Thank you so very much. And you know, maybe we'll see you back here once you contact the IRS and get your stuff settled. Figured out, everybody, thank you, for listening. Stick around. We'll be right back with the good news. Everybody, welcome back. It's time for the good news. Who likes good news?
Everyone.
Then good news, everyone. I love the good news. I love it so much. We. They flood the zone with. We flood the zone with sunshine. So let's do it. Send your good news to us, big or small, from yesterday or 40 years ago. It makes no difference as long as it brings a little bit of a smile to our face so we can microdose in your hope. Maybe you just want to say, hi, how you doing? maybe you want to give a shout out to your spouse or yourself, tell us why you're awesome. maybe you want to give a shout out to, you know, a cool non profit or a small business in your area that could use a boost, something, anything. send it to us dailybeanspod.com click on Contact. Also send your good trouble suggestions. We've been getting a lot of good trouble suggestions from y' all and they're amazing. so send those into us and all you got to do is attach a photo. It can be your pet. We can try to guess the breeds of your shelter pup. It can be an adoptable pet in your area. Maybe we can find help, find a home for some of these babies. It, can be a random animal on the Internet. It doesn't even have have to be your pet. It can be someone else's pet. This isn't my cat. For example, maybe a favorite meme, something that makes you laugh, a sunset. what you're making or creating. Are you quilting, crocheting, knitting, ceramics? I mean, we have so many makers and creators out there. It's pretty incredible. so send in that. Anything at all, really. send it to us dailybeanspot.com click on contact. Next. First I should say is your Good trouble. Good troubles from Beth in Sacramento. Hello, Beans, Queens, pronouns, she and her longtime listener. First time submitter where I can't give in money, I give in time. Volunteering to help voters obtain ID to cast their ballots in their respective states. It's called voter.org and it's in need of Spanish speaking volunteers. It's three hours per week. It's a three hour a week commitment. I'm including the link to sign up for orientation. From there, they'll walk you through the process and you'll be up and running in no time. So we're going to have the link to that in the show notes. And for my pod tacks, meet two adorable and handsome cavalier King Charles spaniels. Cooper is red. George is black. Their little brother Adrian, as in yo. Adrian, is a sweet, troublemaking Maine coon. I think he was a Tasmanian devil in a past life. Although these sweet faces are not mine, I love them as if they were. I'm a full time pet sitter, so conversations only go so far. Listening to the both of you in the morning feels like I'm having coffee with friends. So thank you for giving me comfort through these dark times we find ourselves in. Thank you for this good trouble, Beth. Vote writers.org and there's a link to this if you can, you know, have three hours a week and you speak some Spanish. They definitely need you. And we'll have it in the show notes. Sending love to both of you. Look at these King Charles babies. They're very cute. hello, sweet babies. Thank you. Next up, Lindy in Kansas. Hi, AG and dg Intercessors for America. Intercessory prayer is the fancy name for I'll pray for you. Regardless of whether that phrase is sarcastically or sincerely stated, it's rooted in the word intercede and it's also connected to interrupt and intervene. So without going to the site and giving it clicks, I would assume this group is what Fugle Sang would call disgustingly fake Christians who profess to be praying for America, presumably interceding for all of us as we go on our merry way toward equality, health care for all, and all those other sinful things.
Things.
Keep up the good work and important work. You help keep this blue dot in red Kansas sane for pet tax. Here again is Bumper attempting to keep me from melting in the recent heat while sprawled in front of the AC vent. Oh, my goodness, what a sweet baby. You know, now I'm wondering, did CJ quant, organization? Because I feel like these guys made an appearance in, the West Wing. Remember when the guy in like one of the really early seasons prayer guy, he came up to. I'm googling it while I'm talking to you. So, so forgive me. What organization was the prayer guy Cj Craig West Wing and said, you know, oh, we're all going to pray for you as the new White House press secretary. you know what, it doesn't, there's really nothing in here about this. Maybe it's just something I, maybe I made it up in my head, but I could swear somebody was like, we're gonna pray for you anyway. I'm wondering if it was the same, if it was the same organization because the organizations that they feature in that show are often real, actual organizations. So anyway, thanks for that. Next up, Meg Pronoun. She and her hello brassy beans broads. Respectfully and with admiration. I just wanted to share some good news from the very red state of Missouri. In yesterday's election, Missouri voters loudly and overwhelmingly shut down amendments 4 and 5, both of which were shit ass amendments. Amendment 4 would have made it so the citizen led constitutional amendments would require a majority in each district rather than statewide. While the state legislature would have gotten to continue to use the statewide standard for their bullshit. Amendment 5 would have eliminated income tax in the state and would have allowed a slew of other goods and services to be taxed instead. Amendment 4, 80 to 80.3% no. And Amendment 5 83.3% no. I'm so proud of Missouri voters for their resounding refusal of these amendments. Now if we could just stop voting in the Republican fuck sticks who champion this type of shit, we might actually get somewhere. Might be a little gerrymandered down there, Meg. The Missouri legislature has a history of rejecting the voice of the people. We voted to enshrine abortion protection in the state constitution. And Missouri legislators said nah. And now we're going to have to vote on it again and again. November Missouri voters voted to increase the minimum wage and paid sick leave. Missouri legislators said nah. I'm hoping beyond all hope that my fellow Missourians stop voting for these dickbags who clearly do not care about them. Meg, I couldn't agree more. Thank you both for all the hard work you're doing bringing us the news. I listen to the beans each morning and I don't feel right start my day without it. Well, thank you. And who's this little orange man? Is that belly attracted? He looks very comfortable. He's definitely asleep. What a sweet baby. My little boy. Thank you so much for sharing that. Next up, Fran Pronoun. She and her. Oh my God. Oh my God. I saw this baby. I saw this baby cat. I saw this baby cat on Facebook and I was gonna just bring it up in the moxie Moment over on beans Talk. But it's here. It's here. Fran has shared it pronouns she and her. With all that we hold inside our hearts these days, it's a wonder any of us crawl out of bed daily. Beans is something we need to keep us centered, informed, and uplifted. So thank you for what you do here in Fletcher, North Carolina. We're excited for the good news that Edwards dropped out. Go Jamie Ager. Rhymes with Jaeger. We may flip the state after all. America. That would be so amazing. North Carolina. I'm praying for you, but not like real prayers. You know, just putting vibes out into the universe because I'm an atheist. Anyway, for my pet tariff, I just saw this on Facebook and couldn't get a good count on the toe beans this kitten is sporting. If someone doesn't already have their quota of cats, this one would be worth adopting. Now, does anyone want a polydactyl kitten from Asheville, North Carolina? I want this kitten. Look at the toe beans on this baby. There are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Toe beans on one hand, 1, 2, 3,4, 5, 6 on a, foot, 1, 2, 3, 4th, 5, 6 on the other foot. And that other paw could have six or seven, but this is a lot of toe beans. He's got psalms. Sweet baby cat. Thank you for sending that in, Fran. I was. I wanted to bring it to you guys. So you did it for me. Next up, Amanda. She and her beans queens and legumes. I wanted to share my crafting of Jimothy from, Beanie Baby. Keep being fantastic. And remember, googly eyes make things better. Okay, that's hilarious. So you just. You took a beanie baby and just scrunched him up. That's so, so very cute. And, yes, googly eyes make pretty much everything better. You can get a mu Emergency googly eyes too. anyway, next up from Erica Pronoun. She and her. My daughter in law asked for a jimothy, so I was happy to oblige. Now she has to make sure my grandson doesn't steal it. He's got three of the fat cats I made already. Oh, it's a crocheted jimothy. It's so cute. thank you for that, Eric. Next up, Ann. She and her, Hi, Queens of Illuminati. I'm grateful every day for you and your team. You're keeping me keeping on along with many others. Several weeks ago, you and Dana discussed wombat poop. I tried to convey this fun info to my husband like many Longtime married couples. Things go in one ear and out the other. Well, tonight he looks up from his phone and said, do you know Wombat poop was square. And I'm thinking, ah, did AG and DG get the word out? Is it making the rounds on social media? I couldn't stop laughing. Including a photo of our boy Bosch sleeping on his alligator. And, a photo of our overpass messaging over the 495 in Maryland outside of D.C. okay, sweet dog. And Trump Griff's 2 billion. What's in your wallet that's so great. Especially funny since that's the slogan of Capital One, which debanked him for money laundering. Next up, ash's dad. Dear A.G. and D.G. having lived in the DMV DC area for the better part of 30 years, I'm pretty familiar with getting stuck in traffic as a result of motorcade. As it turns out, I live only single digit miles away from its golf course in Northern Virginia and there are only two main roads in and out of the area. I was out running errands with my teenage daughter. We were to stop, light to turn, and there were two or three motorcycle cops on the concrete median. At the light, I immediately knew what was up. It was on its way back to the White House. My daughter was somewhat confused and asked me what the police were doing and I gave her a quick explanation. Being a high school senior and Gen Z Z with a large sense of moral justice, she was incensed at it and its audacity. She has been forced to listen to the Daily Beans on the daily drive to school in the morning for many years. And over the years it's no longer forced. In the early days she might just turn it off and put on the radio, but today it often leads her to asking questions about current events. I, reminded her of your bird watching request and submissions and she got very excited demanding that I submit this and this is the reason why. Result. Lastly, I'd like to tell her on the air that her mom and I love her and we're always proud of her. This is so cool. Look at this. I'm talking. You're in the car, she's there. Hey, what's up? And I'm reading it. This is very, very cool. Great bird watching photo of the motorcade, by the way. Thank you so very much, Ash's dad and. Hello Ash. Ah, that was a great good news segment. I'm going to head over to the Daily Beans, and do a quick explanation of, what John Solomon claims to have found about about the Mueller Russia files. I don't think he listened to the Mueller She Wrote podcast because if he had he ah, wouldn't be surprised. Anyway, that's what I'm going to cover today on Beans on Beans Talk and then ah, Dana and I will be back in your ears tomorrow. Until then, please take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health and take care of your family. I've been ag and them's the beans. The Daily Beans is written and executive produced by Allison Gill with additional research and reporting by Dana Goldberg. Sound design and editing is by Desiree McFarlane Marlon with art and web design by Joel Reeder with Moxie Design Studios. Music for the Daily Beans is written and performed by they Might Be Giants and the show is a proud member of the MSW Media Media Network, a collection of creator owned podcasts dedicated to news, politics and justice. For more information please visit mswmedia.com msw media.