Bill Maher slammed the dollar amount given for President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan and how much “government spending” happened during the pandemic, calling it “money that is just being stolen.”
During “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast Tuesday, Rogan and the host of HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” talked about how pulling back on the massive spending by the government is just about “common sense” as the two gave one example after another of wasteful spending. It starts at the 1:02:56 minute mark here and can be seen in the clip below.
“I mean, I say this all the time because the percentage of graft keeps getting higher and higher,” Maher explained. “Now, we found out recently that something like … 20%, I think, of the unemployment checks we passed out during COVID were complete fraud.”
“The PPP … I mean, J.K. Rowling got money for her Broadway show because if she didn’t she’d be living in her car, Joe,” he added to the host’s shock. “Everybody got money. Tom Brady [got]…”
The former host of “Politically Incorrect” went on to explain how in Los Angeles, the price tag to build a house for the homeless is now at $837,000 as the two mocked the idea of spending that much money.
“So, if I’m complaining about that, again, to your point about a Republican idea, people would say, ‘Oh, you’re complaining about government spending money,’” Maher shared. “And my answer is, okay, but is there any number at which point I’m not tipped over into the Republican side that I can’t complain about money that is just being stolen.”
“I totally, as a good liberal, I totally accept the notion that, as someone once said, you cannot transfer money except with a leaky bucket,” he added. “I get it. It can’t be perfect. But is there no number for which I can not remonstrate against this? Twenty percent is a low. It’s even higher than that — that was only the unemployment checks. The PPP stuff was even higher.”
Rogan said that’s why it’s “beautiful” because the government says “we need to help these people” and then “the grift.”
Maher gave the example of how California tried to build a railroad between San Francisco and Los Angeles. He said they finally decided to pull the plug when the price tag got up to “$200 million a mile,” calling it “ridiculous.”
Rogan then pointed out the famed Boston Big Dig, started in 1991 and finished in the early 2000s, and how he said “they robbed so much money from it” and the “corruption involved in that.”
“You know, when I hear about Build Back Better, okay, look, certainly the country needs to get rebuilt,” Maher replied. “But I’m thinking always, like, when you give me a number, it just seems like you pulled it out of your a**. It’s gonna cost $1.5 billion. We know that for — and it came in right at that round number, huh, to rebuild this or something? And are we going over this with a fine tooth [comb]? What if we only spent $1.2 billion, or trillion, I’m undercounting it.”
“What if we only spent $1.2 trillion?” he added. “What would we be sacrificing? Anything? Cause so much of that money is going to consultants and just syphoned off by all the pigs at the trough all snorting this s*** up with their big f***ing snouts.”
The podcast host agreed and said there’s “very few people that are saying” what Maher said.
“And that to me is not a Republican idea,” the HBO host replied.