Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / 18 GOP SENATORS JOIN LIBS on "Infrastructure" Bill that will Carpet Bomb our Economy! Sen Hagerty joins us to talk about how we fight it!

Transcript

18 GOP SENATORS JOIN LIBS on "Infrastructure" Bill that will Carpet Bomb our Economy! Sen Hagerty joins us to talk about how we fight it! · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It is sad to say that there is only one
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: US Senator right now that's standing between a massive infrastructure
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: bill that has nothing to do with infrastructure. In fact,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: we now know that it's filled with pork barrel spending.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: And when I say port bill spending, I'm talking about
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: a ton of it. More than seventy five percent of
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: the infrastructure bill we are now being told has nothing
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: to do with infrastructure spending. And there's only one Senator
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: that's saying no to this anarchy, this massive spending bill
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: that has nothing to do with actual infrastructure. That senator
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: is going to join US, Bill Haggerty from Tennessee in
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: just a moment. But let me tell you about what
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: we know now about the Republicans that have sold out.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: A total of eighteen Senate Republicans now eighteen have decided
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: to put the so called infrastructure build on a glide
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: path to passing it. These eighteen Republicans centers have voted
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: on Sunday to clear the final hurdle before a four
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: vote to advance the so called bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. Now,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: there is something shocking about this bill that everybody listening
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: needs to understand, and that is this it is insane.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: This bill has not even been marked up yet in
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: the House. What that means in translation is this bill
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: will actually get more extreme. Did you hear me? It
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: will get more extreme, not less. It will get more extreme.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: The Senate bill is already extreme. It will get more
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: extreme when it goes to the House. Usually it's the
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: other way around. But they've designed it this way on
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: purpose because they figure if they could just get it
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: out of the Senate and throw it back over the
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: House and they could add even more crap into this,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: and then everybody would just be like, all right, fine, whatever,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: let's just move on, Like, let's get through this as
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: quick as we pass we can. Let's move this on,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: and then we'll move on down the road, and we'll
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: all get what we want, right, We'll get the port
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: will spending that we want, We'll get the pet projects
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: that we want, We'll get everything that we want. That
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: is the goal of this. That is exactly why these
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: eighteen Republicans have gone along. Now, the Senate voted sixty
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: eight twenty nine to vote to invote culture on the
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: bipartisan infrastructure bill. This they're calling at the Infrastructure Investment
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: in Jobs Act. It really has anything to do with this.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: The vote means the Senate could take up the bill,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: possibly by Tuesday morning afternoon evening, meaning they could pass
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: this mammoth two thousand, seven hundred and two page, one
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: point two trillion dollar legislation in the dead of night.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: This bill is twice as long as the Bible and
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: the King James version. So grab your Bible, your King
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: James version, and double the size of it. And that's
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: how big this bill is. Do you think anybody's read
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: this thing yet? No? Nevertheless, eighteen scumbag Senate Republicans voted
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: to advance the bill on Sunday, clearing the significant hurdle
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: of passage of the bill through the Senate. The eighteen
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Republicans that did this, so I'm gonna give you each
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: and every one of their names, because many of you
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: listening will recognize them, and you're gonna want to call them.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Roy Blunt Missouri, Richard Burr North Carolina, Bill Cassie Louisiana,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Shelley Moore Republican West Virginia, Susan Collins, Republican Maine, Kevin Kramer,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Republican North Dakota, John Hovan, Republican North Dakota. Here's one
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: that will shock many of you. Mitch McConnell voted in
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: favor of this. Republican Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski, Republican from Arkansas,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Rob Portman, Republican Ohio, Jim Reich, Republican Idaho. Met Romney
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: no surprise there, Republican Utah, Tom Tillis, Republican, North Carolina.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Deb Fisher Republican, John Cornyn, Republican Texas. Roger Wicker, shock there,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Republican Mississippi. Dan Sullivan, Republican Alaska. And Mike Crapo. That's
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: my favorite senator ever, Republican Idaho. Wicker by the way,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: the Republican from Mississippi. This is just to shows you
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: how fast people can sell out. He previously voted against
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: advancing the legislation. He voted in favor of invoking culture
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Sunday quote. The bill we're not debating as far from perfect.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: If I were the only one with a pen, I
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: would have made many changes. But at the end of
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: the day, he said, I believe this package will do
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: a great service states of American, a great service to
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: my home state of Mississippi. In other words, they paid
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: him off. He got a bunch of craft in there
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: that he thinks will help Mississippi said, screw it, let's go. Young,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: by the way, who also previously voted to advance the
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: infrastructure bill, came out against the legislation Sunday. He is
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: up for reelection in the twenty twenty midterm elections. Young
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: said in a statement Sunday, for the last several months,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: I've been working diligently with my colleagues towards a bipartisan
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: infrastructure bill to provide crucial funding for a crumble roads
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: and bridges, and to make targeted investments that yield positive
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: long term results in areas like broadband, ports and airports.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: By the way, less than twenty five percent this bill
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: has to do with infrastructure. So when he tells you
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: that crap, don't listen to him. He went on to say,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: I've said many times, while I'm eager for a bill
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: that makes his investments, I'm also committed to doing so
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: in a physically responsible way. Well, this bill is not
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: paid for in a physically responsible way. So he's also
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: again breaking his own quote rule having a review the
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: CBO's estimate and the fiscal impact this legislation is currently
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: constructed and frankly, still not being comfortable with the number
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: of Democratic priorities contained in this version, I will vote no.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Senators tried unsuccessfully to add amendments to the bill, but
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: the Senate failed to agree on how to add amendments
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: to that bill because they said, well, we don't want it.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: Senators Cynthia Loomis, Republican Wyoming, and Ron Wyden, Democrat Oregon,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: and Pat Toomey, Republican Pennsylvania have proposed an amendment to
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: the Infratructor bill that would address the thirty billion tax
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: on the cryptocurrency industry. Lawmakers and industry officials contend the
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: bill could send jobs overseas. Insert Centator Bill Haggerty, who
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: will join us in a moment. He has tried to
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: slow down the advancement of this bill to bring up
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: amendments to the bill. But Senator christ and Simona, a
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Democrat Arizona, objected, claiming that Haggerty refused to agree to
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: a timetable on the amendments. Then insert center Chuck Grassley.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: He tried to bring up his own amendment that would
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: lessen the bill's fiscal impact. It failed. He said, quote,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: I offered two bipartisan amendments to Infrastructure Bill one that
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: would have saved taxpayers one hundred plus million of fraud
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: via false claims. At two would give states more flexibility
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: of funds to strengthen rule broadband. Both make bill better
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: for Iowa, but DEM's blocked by denying the unanimous consent request. Quote,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: we have wasted all day, the day Saturday, and now
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: through Sunday. Grassley said, that's enough time to vote on
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: a multitude of amendments, and we just set around these
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: three days accomplishing nothing. Well, it's not true, right, it's
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: not true at all. You guys accomplish a hell of
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: a lot. You got all the Portbrail spending in there
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: you could possibly ask for. And let's deal with Senator
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Roger Wicker. I know, full disclosure, Roger Wicker. I'm in
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: shock by the pandering and the flip flopping by Senor
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Roger Wicker in favor of backing this one point true
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: two trillion dollar infrastructure bill. And I think his calculated
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: decision was pretty simple. He decided to announce his support
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: for this so called bipartisan infrastructure bill Sunday after voting
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: against the bill because he got a bunch of money
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: for things port rail projects that he wanted for a state.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: He went on to say, a rise this afternoon to
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: announce my support for this bipartisan infrastructure legislation. Coming to
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: this decision has not been easier straightforward. Wicker, the ranking
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: member of the Transportation Committee, said, on the Senate for it.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Don't worry. He got a bunch of stuff he wanted.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: He got a lot of stuff that he wont it.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: The Mississippi Republican said the bill is not quote perfect,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: and that amazing how fast everybody says it's not perfect,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: but they vote for it anyway. He said, even vote
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: for the bill because it was it would allegedly benefit
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: the country, and specifically Mississippi said, quote the bill we're
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: now debating is far from perfect. If I ever the
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: only one with that pen, you know, I would have
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: done it differently. But hey, I gotta get it done.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Mississippi vote senator voted against advancing the legislation Saturday. Then
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: he got a bunch of crap in there he wanted,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: and he was like, all right, now, let's go for it.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: He said, I will vote yes on this legislation, and
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: that's when he joined seventeen other Senate Republicans who now
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: back this one point two trillion dollar trojan horse liberal
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: bill that has nothing to do with infrastructure. Mike Lee
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: had this to say about just how bad this bill
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: actually is. He says, it's not only an inflation bomb,
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: but it's already a bill that he believes is completely
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: designed to destroy this country. And it's a mighty sentence,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: a lead so great you could join us tonight. I mean, look,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: there's this story out there that someone putting out. There's
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: the good bill, and then there's the bad bill. I mean,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: it's all just one bill, isn't it. And Republicans should
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: be against it. It's a terrible bill and it look,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: this is yet another inflation bomb dropped on an already
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: carpet bombed economy. This is something that reinforces the false
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: notion that the federal government is in charge of everything. Yes,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: and it's also based on a false notion that this
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: is principally about infrastructure, which it isn't. And by the way,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: most infrastructure isn't federal and should never be in the
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: first place. This is going to make everything more expensive
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: for Americans. It causes inflation. Inflation hurts the poor and
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: middle class more than anyone else. This bill is going
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: to make a substantial effort at destroying the budding cryptocurrency industry.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: It's also going to wreak havoc on homeowners as homebuyers
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: find these increased fees that they're putting in place, They're
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: going to make everything more expensive in the real estate
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: market they already can't afford. On top of all this, Steve,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: this is a massive intrusion into privacy as this creates
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: a pilot project to monitor where you drive and how
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: many miles you drive in a year. This is not
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: what the federal government ot to be doing. And this
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: is not bipartisan and chip in action. This is the
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: uniparty forcing the will of Washington, d C. This isn't
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: just about Democrats versus Republicans. This is Washington DC against
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: the American people. And it's wrong exactly. And I'm so
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: pleased you started with that point about centralization. It's something
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: I feel so strongly about too. This is totally antithetical
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: to not just the letter, but the entire spirit the
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: idea of the Constitution, which is to decentralize power. This
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: just centralizes so much in Washington, as you say. Now,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: in terms of the process, we're hearing that Schumer is
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: hoping to get one hundred Senates to vote for this.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: The SOCl Bipartisan want tomorrow so they can expedite the
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: process and get onto the thing they really want, which
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: is the Bernie Bill. Are you going to be parts
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: of that? What can you do to stall poor hold
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: any of this up. Honestly, the best thing we could
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: have done to stop the Bernie Bill is to stop
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: the uniparty bill, the one that the Senate's working on
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: right now, because we've got a few people who have
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: made clear that they're not either going to pass unless
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: they both pass, and so we shouldn't be facilitating that
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: in the meantime, with this does come up, when the
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: budget resolution comes up, I and my fellow Republicans I
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: think we're going to be united on that one. I
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: wish we were united against the bipartisan bill as well.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Apparently we're not. We're going to fight like heck over this.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Three and a half trillion dollars is what they want
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: to spend. Many estimates that it will be more like
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: five that two is going to dilute the buying power
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: of every dollar in the American economy that hurts poor
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: and middle class people. And let me just say two
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: things about what Mike Lee just said. Here this bill,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: as he described it, which would accelerate the inflammatory trend
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: underway in the US economy of pass we would see
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: massive inflation. He said. This is another inflation bomb dropped
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: on an already carpet bombed economy. He also said, this
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: is something that quote reinforces the false notion that the
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: federal government's in charge of everything. And it's also based
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: on a false notion that is principally about infrastructure, which
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: it isn't, he said. And by the way, most infrastructure
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: isn't federal and should never be in the first place.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: He's right. Look at what happened with the famous Memphis
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: bridge that was fixed without an infrastructure bill, that was
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: fixed by two different states. The point is very clear.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: It's not the federal government's objective. It's not the federal
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: government's job to fix all of these problems. It's not,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: it never has been. But if you call it infrastructure,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: then how could you be against it? Even though this
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: has nothing to do with infrastructure, right, I mean, this
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: literally has nothing to do with infrastructure. Less than twenty
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: five percent of the spending goes infrastructure, and infrastructure is
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: not the job of the federal government, never has been.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: Predominantly it is of the state government's decide, not the
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: federal government. People should pay attention to that, but they're not,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: and they're not paying attention to it on purpose. And
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: the reason why, I think is very clear, because this
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: bill really has nothing to do with infrastructure spending, and
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: they know it, and they're okay with it. This has
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: nothing to do with actually fixing our roads and our
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: bridges and YadA, YadA, YadA. Great example is cryptocurrency. Okay,
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: let's let's deal with what you just mentioned there. Why
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: does an infrastructure bill put a tax on cryptocurrency and
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: push jobs overseas? I would love for someone to answer
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: that for me. Would someone please answer that for me?
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: Explain that to me. There are so many things in
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: this bill that have nothing to do with infrastructure, and
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: of course it doesn't have to do with infrastructure for
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: one main reason, because this is port barrels spending at
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: its finest. There's even programs in here that are going
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: to monitor how many miles you drive and then you
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: will be charged per mile that you drive. They're actually
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: now looking into that. There are programs in here that
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: would put a breathalyzer machine in cars, private cars. Can
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: you imagine every time you get in your car, and
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: of course they're gonna say this is non invasion of
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: your private See, this is going to make you safer.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: You got to blow into the machine just like everybody
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: else to start your car, and they're gonna say, oh,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: to save lives. Again, I want you to actually think
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: about that, Think about what that means for your life.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: All of these things are designed with one thing in mind.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: They are designed to control every part of your life.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: No infrastructure, this is about government control. And I also
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: think the amount of money they're spending right now is
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: very clearly deliberate. If you get a government into so
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: much debt that you have no choice but to raise taxes,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: and you can push taxes being raised on the quote
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: evil rich people. Right, that's something you can do. It's
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: pretty amazing. We should all be excited about that, shouldn't we.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: That's what the Democrats are doing now. This is all
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: being done in advance of massive increases and taxes, because
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: at some point you have to pay for this now
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: with hyperinflation, does that give the government more or less power?
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: Gives them more because more people are going to be
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: desperate for the government to step in on all sorts
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: of issues, for example, the housing markets, rent, government aid,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: unemployment benefits, all of the things that democrats desperately need
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: to contain, containing and grow their power over Americans. That's
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: part of what this is about. It's about government control.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: And the more money that you spend, right, the more
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: money that they put us into debt, the more power
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: they have over us because they get to decide how
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: and when and where to raise our taxes. And when
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: you raise our taxes, and you do it in a
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: significant way, right when you raise our taxes. What happens
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: when you raise those taxes? What goes down when you
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: raise taxes. It's very simple, folks. They own you, and
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: they've already said they want to take from the rich
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: and they want to give to the poor. And that's
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: their objective. They've already said that's what they want to do.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: They've already said that their total goal. That's their accomplishment.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: At the end of the day, you put us into
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: such a financial, bad situation, such a terrible situation that
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: then it's just game on. We have no choice but
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: to raise the taxes on quote the rich, which is
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: going to be anybody making over seventy grand a year.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: They'll have more people that will be on government aid
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: because they will have suffocated the economy, which means again
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: they win. This is really about winning, if you really
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: get down to it. This is just about total government, anarchy,
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: total government control, and no other way to explain it.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Then we spend all your money, and now we got
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: to pay it off, and now we get to dictate
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: you what we can and can't do, what you can
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: and can't do. All right, joining me now, US Senator
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: Bill Haggerty, the only man standing in the way of
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: this bill becoming a reality. You were the only Republican
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: to Halter try to halt Shimmer's fast track of this
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: massive infrastructure spending bill, which has less than twenty five
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: percent of spending even goes infrastructure. Yeah. Then it's been
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: pretty lonely up here. You know. I was told this
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: morning I needed to get a food taste or and
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: step up my security detail inside the Capitol. And I
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: understand that the hottest selling item here in Washington right
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: now at least among lobbyists a dartboard with my picture
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: on it. But and congratulations, that means you're actually doing
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: your job, right, I mean, if that's what's happening, a
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: good jobs. It's shocking to see what is in this bill,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: you know a little bit more about than others. Run
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: us through some of the things. I have nothing to
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: do with infrastructure. There was even something in their provision
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: for breathalyzers and cars for goodness six You know, then
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: this is something that has been built and advertised as
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: as hard infrastructure all along. It was billed as being
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: paid for, and then we find out that it indeed
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: is not paid for. And it's got a lot of
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: stuff that are really more or less a down payment
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: on the Green New Deal. The items that you mentioned,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: they're more. They get into, you know, research on unalternate energy.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: You know, we're going to put electronic vehicle charging stations
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: in place. We're going to sell off the strategic Patroleum Reserve.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: It's interesting Biden does that after he jacks up the
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: price of oil and everyday Americans, then he turns around
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: in profits from it to pay off this bill. But
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: what really concerns me and I think This is where
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: I really want to point our conversation is they're trying
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: to rush this through. And you know they tried to
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: rush it through last Thursday night. They dropped a twenty
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: seven hundred page bill on our desk just six days
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: prior to put it into perspective the King's James Bible,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: and sitting here on my desk, it's thirteen hundred pages.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: That's more than twice the size of the King James Bible.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: And then they hold back to scoring, meaning the so
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: called caut in pay for of it, until the very
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: day that they want to try to accelerate its package.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: And guess what it turns up not just a little short,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: but a quarter of a trillion dollars in the hole.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: And then the goal was to pass it in the
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: dark of nights so they could move straight on to
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: this three point five trillion dollar quote soft infrastructure bill.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: I can tell you I wasn't going to let them
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: light the fuse in that three point five trillion dollars
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: socialists at bomb I stopped this that night. I would
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: not going to allow them to accelerate it. We're still
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: debating it, and you know what's happening, people are hearing
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: from their voters. We've actually had members of the so
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: called bipartisan committee that negotiate this they're saying now they're
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: not going to vote for it. If I think about
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: some of the vulnerable members in the House who are
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: in swing districts, those Democrats that won in twenty twenty
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: in swing districts, I'm sure they're getting a lot of pressure.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: I'm hearing that they're having a great deal of pressure
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: right now. I hope there'll be a revolt over there,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: and I hope that as long as I can keep
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: this open and look, there's a limit to what I
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: can do here, but as long as I could keep
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: this open and keep having conversations like we're having right now, Ben,
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: the greater the chances are that we can move this
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: in a different direction, of better direction for a miracle. Well,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: let's talk about how long you can hold up by yourself.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: Have there been any other Republicans that have come to
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: you and said, hey, man, let me help you out
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: with us, or hey, I'm seeing what you're doing with
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: your leadership here. Let me let me get in on
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: this as well. Are you still just sitting there on
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: an island by yourself and how long until that island
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: gets flooded? Well, in the Senate, I'm the loan person
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: that's holding this up, but I've had support from loads
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: of people on the outside. President Trump put out a
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: statement yesterday talking about this. But look, he's a businessman
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: like i am. Ben. You know, I've been a business
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: person all my life. I'm not against infrastructure. I grew
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: up I shoveled asphalt and working my way through college.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: My father and my grandfather were in the road construction business.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: President Trump was in the real estate development business. We
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: understand infrastructure, hard infrastructure that generates a real return on investment.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: But when you put together there are package like this
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: that has some infrastructure in it, but so much more
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: that's not if you run up another quarter of a
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: trillion dollars a debt, and that's probably generous given some
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: of the other maths I've seen on this, and you
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: use this really as a threshold or a gateway to
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: get to the three point five trillion, And I'll explain
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: that in just a minute. That really does, you know,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: go well beyond anything that a business person would think
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: would be a good deal for America, would be a
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: good deal for taxpayers. Certainly not something that I thought
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: Tennessee would want me to be supportive of. And if
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: you let me sort of break this down a little
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: bit further, here's what I believe the Democrats strategy is.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: And it's not something that I'm using a crystal ball
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: with Nancy Pelosius stated it. We just need to listen
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: to what the Democrats are saying. Pelosius said, and I'll
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: use her words, there ain't going to be an infrastructure
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: bill unless she gets her three point five trillion dollar
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: reconciliation bill. Reconciliation is a code word for a fifty
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: person completely partisan vote that Kamala Harris comes in and
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: throws the tie off. That's what they did back in
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: March with the one point nine trillion dollar quote COVID
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: relief package that ninety percent of it had nothing to
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: do with the with the pandemic. That's the same policy
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: that they're going to use again, the same procedure they're
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: going to use again when they can get to it
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: on this three point five trillion dollars socialist debt bomb.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: They're going to bring Kamala Harrison and they're going to
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: pass it on completely partisan lines. What's going to happen
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: is Nancy Pelosi is going to get this infrastructure, this
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: so called bipartisan infrastructure packaging in, and then she's going
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: to use that as leverage on the senators in the
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: more moderate Democrat senators to force them to support this
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: three point five trillion dollar fiasco if they ever want
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: to see their one point two trillion dollars infrastructure bill
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: see the light of day. That's going to be the strategy.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: Biden revealed it within two hours of getting to a
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: handshake with this group of bipartisan negotiators. Within two hours,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: he said, well, of course I'm not going to pass
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: this bipartisan bill unless I have this holy partisan reconciliation
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: three point five trillion dollars wish list on my desk
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: at the same time and passed them together. Check Shumer said,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: it's a two track process. The first track is what
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: we're on right now. Of course I'm doing everything I
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: can to keep that from accelerating. But the second track
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: will be this three point five trillion dollars again what
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: I call a socialist death bomb that's going to push
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: our nation toward far more government dependency. It's going to
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: make America look like Western Europe and it's going to
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: be devastating for our children and grandchildren. So what is
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: in it for these other Republicans that have decided these
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: eighteen to say, Okay, let's act like Democrats for a day.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: Is it just straight up port Brell spending for them
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: in their in their pet projects or their state. I
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: still understand the political play here. For some of these guys,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: I don't get it at all, and usually I understand
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: exactly what they're trying to do. Well, Ben, each senator
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: has got to make their own decision that they'll come
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: to their own conclusions. As I said, one of them
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: last night, who was involved in the in the drafting
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: of this who was a part of that bipartisan team,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: made the decision that he couldn't support it once he
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: saw and analyze the CBO score. I'm hopeful that more
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: will move over. I'll tell you what I've heard. We
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: need to prove that we can get something accomplished on
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: a bipartisan basis. That's one of the arguments here. We'll
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: get me something bad accomplished for America. Doesn't really satisfy
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: that for me. Another is that we need hard infrastructure.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: I've never argued that, As I said, it's in my DNA,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: but we need hard infrastructure that has a real return
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: on investment for taxpayers. And I've seen deals move like
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: this before. Ben. You get so wedded to the idea
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: of the deal itself, yet you look back and the
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: other side continues to drop more and more bad things
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: in it. It's clear to me that the Democrats drafted
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: this bill because it's chock full of things that are infrastructure,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: and when you get to the actual calculation of how
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: it's paid for, whether you agree with how the CBO
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: does it or not, the CBO, the Congressional Budget Office,
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: is the umpire that Congress has selected to determine how
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: these things are going to be scored, and they're the
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: ones that are as needed to call balls the strikes.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: No one senator can sit there and say, well, I'm
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: going to do my own map and here's how it
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: scores out. I'm hearing a lot of that right now,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: seeing the CBO is wrong that this really does pay
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: for itself, Well, how do you get a quarter of
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: a trillion dollars miss? You know, it's not even close.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: So you know, you talk about infrastructure. You talk about
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: infrastructure center, and there's one question that I have to
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: ask because I haven't been able to get a straight
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: answer in an infrastructure bill. You can't imagine that there
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: wouldn't be direct money going to deal with the problem
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: that we saw on the Memphis bridge. Right, it was
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: a it was catastrophic what could have happened? It was
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: also catastrophic in many ways to just commerce traffic, shipping,
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: the river being shut down for several days. The list
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: goes on and on. In this infrastructure bill, was there
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: anything in there for specifically major corridor bridges like the
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Decto Bridge. Well, there's one hundred and ten billion in
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: there for a highways and bridges. Again, more work to
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: be done as it's strapped it out. But I got
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: a very snide comment from one of my Democrat colleagues
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: last night, how about that bridge in Memphis? Well, you
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: know what, then we fixed it. It's reopened again, and
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: we did it without this bill. Tennessee and Arkansas, t
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: DOT and art DOT, you know made this happen. I
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: want to see, you know, an investment, irrational investment in
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: our infrastructure. I think everybody in Tennessee supports set across
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: the nation. People support that, but people don't want to
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: see that held hostage or something that's going to be
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: absolutely devastating for our children and grandchildren. And that's what
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: I mean by this. Not only is the initial infrastructure
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: build chalk with a lot of stuff that's not infrastructure
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: and runs a quarter of a trillion dollars into the hole,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: but this again opens the door to Pelosi's entire negotiating
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: strategy to slam this three point five trillion dollars you
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: so called soft infrastructure package, which I would call the
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: biggest step towards socialism we've seen since the nineteen sixties
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: Great Society Package. We're going to spend three point five trillion,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: lay another twenty percent of GDP on the backs of
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: our children and grand children at the time when we've
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: already got in place in running rampant. This makes no
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: sense at all, and that's what I think people need
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: to be focused on right now. Last question, what do
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: people need to do if they want to help you
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: in this fight? I think they need to reach out
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: to not only their senators, but to their congressman as well,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: because this is going to wind up back over in
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: the Congress, and my hope is particularly those Democrats that
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: are in swing districts are going to get a lot
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: of pressure. They're going to hear the same things I
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: hear from Tennessee In's and realize that this is not
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: going to be good for the nation, and it's not
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: going to be good for them if they support and
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: vote for this. We've got to stop it. As I said,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: I think we've got people moving the right direction here
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: in the Senate. Well I get there by the time
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: the clock runs out of me. I don't know here
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: in the Senate, but I'm going to keep talking about it,
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: keep pushing it. The conversation that you and I are
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: having right now with your listeners I think helps this.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: The more sunshine that this get so the more taxpayers
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: realize what's happening, I think, the harder it's going to
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: be for senators and representatives to pass something like this.
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: And I certainly stopped it from being passed in the
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: dead of night last Thursday. So this is all good.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: We're moving in the right direction, and let's pray that
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: we were able to stop it in the end. Senator Haggerty,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: I appreciate your time. Keep us posted we'll certainly have
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: you back again real soon. Thanks so much, Ben, great
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: to be with you. I hope every one of you
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: will share this our podcast with your family and friends.
• 29:31
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• 29:34
  Speaker 1: and share it with your friends. Subscribe to our podcasts.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: It is free. I'll say it again. Our podcast is free.
• 29:42
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• 29:44
  Speaker 1: family and friends. We'll see you back here tomorrow