Buying out the legislative body of the United States of America? Turns out it’s even easier than you’d think! And we know it’s already too easy for this country’s billionaire class — but this is a new low. In Episode 233 of KK&F, we talk to The Prospect executive editor David Dayen about the truly unparalleled show of grifting and chicanery Trump is putting on to shove his Big Beautiful Bill through Congress. The lawmakers of this country are willing to sell the working class down the proverbial river just for a signed T-shirt. We call them out on it in this episode. Watch below:

The New York Times just released an article explaining how the hell a bill designed to gut our healthcare system and hike the debt ceiling is making it through the House and Senate. Totally absent from the considerations of House and Senate Republicans voting for the bill is any interest in the well-being of their constituents. Rather, they’re succumbing without any fight to Trump’s “charm offensive,” the epitome of shady back-room dealings.

But these corrupt politicians aren’t even being bought out with billionaires’ funding for their own reelection campaigns. Rather, they’re exchanging votes for Trump-signed swag, photo ops — and Trump’s sweet talk is overriding any sense of political integrity they had left. Anything for a bit of the president’s attention! Take, for example, Senator Lindsey Graham, already a powerful and established legislator. Just like more junior colleagues, he’s been taken in by the gifts Trump is hawking to push his agenda, from a recent golf game to a shirt from the pro shop.

It seems almost hard to believe that these legislators, from the most powerful to the least, are willing to sacrifice their last shreds of respectability in the eyes of their constituents for a golf shirt. In this conversation with David Dayen, we lock in on how Republicans are caving to Trump without a fight and how the smallest and most frivolous of favors and gifts are enough to get them on board with what Bernie Sanders is calling “the worst piece of legislation in modern American history.”

Thanks for joining us for another episode of KK&F. You can listen to this episode as a podcast when it’s released tomorrow on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and other major streaming platforms.