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A Sincere THANK YOU Plus Omnibus Disaster & An End To The Military Vaccine Mandate · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome in his verdict with Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you,
0:03
Speaker 1: I hope you had a fabulous Christmas with your family Center.
0:07
Speaker 1: I missed chatting with you over the last several weeks,
0:09
Speaker 1: and I know so many people have been reaching out
0:11
Speaker 1: to you. That's same with me, giving warm wishes and
0:14
Speaker 1: prayers for you and your family. I know you missed
0:18
Speaker 1: talking to the audience a lot, obviously, but you've been
0:21
Speaker 1: spending it some great quality time with your family. Well, Ben,
0:26
Speaker 1: I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. I hope everyone
0:28
Speaker 1: listening had a fantastic Christmas with their family. As everyone knows,
0:33
Speaker 1: the podcast has not been airing for the last several weeks.
0:37
Speaker 1: I've been dealing with a family emergency here at home,
0:40
Speaker 1: and I just want to say thank you to all
0:42
Speaker 1: of you who've reached out with your prayers, with your support,
0:45
Speaker 1: with your encouragement. It means an enormous amount. Everyone's doing
0:49
Speaker 1: okay right now, and we're grateful for the love that
0:53
Speaker 1: has been expressed. Heidi and I have spent the last
0:56
Speaker 1: several weeks just here at home with our kids, and
0:59
Speaker 1: we appreciate also folks respecting our families privacy, and so
1:03
Speaker 1: I don't intend to be talking uh publicly about what
1:07
Speaker 1: we're dealing with, other than just to say we appreciate
1:09
Speaker 1: the prayers, the love and support uh and um and
1:14
Speaker 1: and in this this holiday time, you know, Christmas is
1:18
Speaker 1: a wonderful time to be with your family, to hug
1:20
Speaker 1: your kids, to hug your parents, to to hold on
1:23
Speaker 1: to the people you love and and it's uh, it's
1:27
Speaker 1: never more important, no no doubt, no doubt about that.
1:30
Speaker 1: And I'm glad to get to spend some more time
1:32
Speaker 1: with you today. And so many people have been reaching out. Uh,
1:35
Speaker 1: we've seen all your tweets. I can promise you that,
1:37
Speaker 1: and I'll say it is just being around you. There
1:41
Speaker 1: have been so many people they've reached out and they've
1:43
Speaker 1: been and you guys are wonderful they have done that.
1:45
Speaker 1: So thank you. Thank you for for everyone that's done
1:47
Speaker 1: that as well. Uh, it means the world, I know
1:50
Speaker 1: when you see those messages. And there's some other breaking news.
1:53
Speaker 1: You've also gotten older since the last time I talked
1:55
Speaker 1: to you. Happy birthday a few days later late as well,
1:58
Speaker 1: what well, thank you Eddie. Techicly we've all gotten older.
2:01
Speaker 1: But yeah, but I gets just I gotta stick that
2:03
Speaker 1: one in there, centor you know. So December twenty second,
2:08
Speaker 1: I turned fifty two. We had a nice, nice birthday
2:11
Speaker 1: celebration at at home with a family, and and uh,
2:15
Speaker 1: yet another day. I'll tell you what I tell my mom.
2:17
Speaker 1: My mom's eighty eight now, and every birthday she has
2:21
Speaker 1: I tell her, Okay, you're halfway there. She's she's groaning
2:24
Speaker 1: more and more as I say that on more recent birthdays.
2:28
Speaker 1: That's hilarious. Fifty two, congrats, happy birthday to that one.
2:31
Speaker 1: There's been a lot that's happened in the last couple
2:34
Speaker 1: of weeks. And I do want to get your thoughts
2:37
Speaker 1: center on this omnibus spinning bill. Right before Christmas. It
2:42
Speaker 1: was kind of a stick it to uh the American
2:45
Speaker 1: people moment. People wanted to fly home. They wanted to
2:48
Speaker 1: beat the storm that's affected so many Americans, especially uh
2:52
Speaker 1: you know that are east of Mississippi. There was a
2:54
Speaker 1: lot of centers that said, just get me home. I
2:57
Speaker 1: don't care what it costs. And it cost us quite
3:00
Speaker 1: quite a lot of money, well over a trillion dollars
3:03
Speaker 1: in this new budget instead of just passing a cr
3:07
Speaker 1: How did this happen and why did so many Republicans
3:11
Speaker 1: go along with this. Well, I have to tell you
3:13
Speaker 1: this omnibus was absolutely disgraceful. That it is a massive bill.
3:19
Speaker 1: It is four thousand, one hundred and fifty five pages,
3:23
Speaker 1: it's one point seven trillion dollars of new government spending,
3:29
Speaker 1: and it is a massive spending bill on the way
3:33
Speaker 1: out the door. It is a giant gift to Nancy
3:36
Speaker 1: Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. In just a few days, we're
3:42
Speaker 1: going to have a Republican House of Representatives in Washington.
3:46
Speaker 1: Nancy Pelosi obviously doesn't want to enact the policy priorities
3:50
Speaker 1: of a Republican House of Representatives. So Pelosi and Schumer
3:54
Speaker 1: decided a team up together and ram through this final
3:59
Speaker 1: omnibus bill, massive spending that funds the federal government through
4:03
Speaker 1: most of next year, all the way through September thirtieth
4:07
Speaker 1: of next year. Now, they could not do so without
4:12
Speaker 1: the active assistance of Senate Republicans. And the reason for
4:18
Speaker 1: that is in the Senate we have the filibuster, which
4:22
Speaker 1: means it takes sixty votes to move this bill forward.
4:27
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, they got sixty votes
4:29
Speaker 1: because a total of eighteen Republicans voted with Nancy Pelosi,
4:34
Speaker 1: voted with Chuck Schumer, and voted to fund the Pelosi
4:37
Speaker 1: Schumer spending bill and simultaneously to pull the rug out
4:43
Speaker 1: from the brand new incoming Republican majority in the House.
4:48
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you, I am furious. I'm flabbergasted. There
4:53
Speaker 1: are things I've seen in Washington. They're spending bills that
4:56
Speaker 1: are indefensible. But it's one thing when Democrats act like socialists.
5:03
Speaker 1: It's at other things when Republicans actively facilitated and it
5:09
Speaker 1: was a galling and horrific thing to watch. You know,
5:13
Speaker 1: so many Americans right now center are struggling, and we've
5:16
Speaker 1: seen what's happened with inflation, with interest rates. There's been
5:20
Speaker 1: a lot of wealth that's been lost over the last year.
5:23
Speaker 1: People in their four one K retirement funds, those that invest,
5:27
Speaker 1: and when you're spending this type of money now, it
5:31
Speaker 1: costs you a lot more because this is money we
5:33
Speaker 1: don't have. We're gonna borrow this money, and it puts
5:36
Speaker 1: us into even more debt at a much higher interest rate.
5:40
Speaker 1: And that's where many economists have been saying, hey, you
5:43
Speaker 1: guys don't understand that the day of reckoning is going
5:46
Speaker 1: to come for the United States of America. You guys
5:48
Speaker 1: have spent this next generation into oblivion. I mean, you've
5:53
Speaker 1: got so much government waste. Rand Paul came out with
5:56
Speaker 1: his annual Festivals Report, four hundred and eighty two billion
6:00
Speaker 1: dollars in government waste. There are some idiotic items in there.
6:04
Speaker 1: Three million to watch Hamster's fight on steroids, two point
6:07
Speaker 1: one million to tell Ethiopians to wear shoes. I mean,
6:10
Speaker 1: these are some of the things that your tax dollars
6:12
Speaker 1: actually went for. And this is just another year of
6:16
Speaker 1: wasteful government spending that has happened, and now it's going
6:20
Speaker 1: to cost even more to bar this money. Well, look,
6:23
Speaker 1: the spending is massive, the debt goes up, it locks
6:27
Speaker 1: in Democrat priorities, and it also defangs the incoming Republican majority,
6:34
Speaker 1: which is what Senate Republican leadership wanted. If you look
6:37
Speaker 1: at the eighteen Republicans who voted for it, You've got
6:40
Speaker 1: Roy Blunt from Missouri. He's retiring, he's not going to
6:43
Speaker 1: be there next year. You've got John Boseman from Arkansas.
6:46
Speaker 1: He was just reelected, so he has six years till
6:48
Speaker 1: he faces the voters. You've got Shelley Moore Capital from
6:52
Speaker 1: West Virginia. You've got Susan Collins from Maine. You've got
6:55
Speaker 1: John Cornyn from Texas. You've got Tom Cotton from Arkansas.
7:00
Speaker 1: You've got Lindsay Graham from South Carolina. You've got Jim
7:03
Speaker 1: Inhoff from Oklahoma. Jim Inhoff is retiring as well. He's
7:07
Speaker 1: not going to be there next year. You've got Mitch McConnell,
7:10
Speaker 1: the Senate Republican leader who helped Chuck Schumer and Nancy
7:15
Speaker 1: Pelosi pass this massive funding bill. You've got Jerry Moran
7:19
Speaker 1: from Kansas. You've got Lisa Murkowski from Alaska who was
7:23
Speaker 1: just elected in November. You've got Rob Portman from Ohio
7:28
Speaker 1: who's retiring. You've got Mitt Romney from Utah. You've got
7:33
Speaker 1: Mike Browns from South Dakota. You've got Richard Shelby from
7:37
Speaker 1: Alabama who's retiring. You've got John Thune from South Dakota
7:42
Speaker 1: who was just elected in November. You've got Roger Wicker
7:46
Speaker 1: from Mississippi. And you've got Todd Young from Indiana who
7:49
Speaker 1: was just elected in November. And I got to say,
7:53
Speaker 1: and there were a couple of others. Marco Rubio voted
7:55
Speaker 1: initially to move this bill forward. He didn't vote for
7:57
Speaker 1: it at the end of the day, but he refused
8:00
Speaker 1: to vote against cloture at the outset to stop it.
8:03
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you, Ben, I cannot tell you why
8:06
Speaker 1: these Republicans voted for it. There is no explanation that
8:11
Speaker 1: I think makes any sense. I can tell you what
8:14
Speaker 1: they were telling Republicans privately in the lunches. They were saying, Okay,
8:19
Speaker 1: there are a variety of different talking points. One they say,
8:21
Speaker 1: we need to get our work done. I don't even
8:23
Speaker 1: know what that means. Our work done doesn't mean passing
8:26
Speaker 1: the Schumer Pelosi priorities. That's not, in fact the work
8:30
Speaker 1: that the voters elected us to do. They also said
8:34
Speaker 1: it was interesting. One of the arguments they made is
8:36
Speaker 1: they said, well, this is doing a favor to Kevin
8:40
Speaker 1: McCarthy and the House Republicans because if they have to
8:45
Speaker 1: come in and actually vote vote for government funding, they'll
8:50
Speaker 1: be a big fight, and they don't want to have
8:52
Speaker 1: a big fight. So if we just take this off
8:54
Speaker 1: the table, clear the decks is what they call it.
8:57
Speaker 1: That's Washington speak, it'll be good for them. I'll tell
9:01
Speaker 1: you who disagreed with that, really strongly was Kevin McCarthy.
9:05
Speaker 1: And and actually the House Republicans were loudly and repeatedly saying,
9:11
Speaker 1: do not do this, do not pass this bill, do
9:14
Speaker 1: not enable the Democrats to roll our incoming Republican majority.
9:20
Speaker 1: And yet I'll tell you a number of those folks retiring,
9:23
Speaker 1: it will not surprise anyone to see them opening up
9:25
Speaker 1: a lobby shop. And that thing was filled with earmarks,
9:29
Speaker 1: it was filled with pork, it was filled with wasteful spending.
9:32
Speaker 1: And this was the Swamp in all of its hideous glory.
9:37
Speaker 1: It's it's one thing to see the Democrats do this.
9:41
Speaker 1: You expect it when you see the Republicans do this.
9:45
Speaker 1: And and if you just need to see how excited
9:48
Speaker 1: Democrats were, all you had to do is look at
9:51
Speaker 1: Chuck Schumer and Nancy Post's reaction. They touted this and
9:55
Speaker 1: the White House if a massive policy victory, a policy
10:00
Speaker 1: victory that they could not accomplish without Republicans joining them.
10:05
Speaker 1: You mentioned some of the reasons why, but how much
10:08
Speaker 1: of this just came down to give me what I
10:10
Speaker 1: want for my stake, give me my share for the
10:14
Speaker 1: people that are lobbying me. That I need them to
10:16
Speaker 1: take care of me in the future and then you
10:20
Speaker 1: can get my vote. I mean, there were some people
10:21
Speaker 1: on that list that you just mentioned that I think
10:23
Speaker 1: shocked a lot of people in a concerned a movement.
10:25
Speaker 1: Tom Cotton, for example, was one of those where there
10:27
Speaker 1: was a lot of fodder. I saw people going, I
10:30
Speaker 1: understand some of these others, right, I get I get Alaska,
10:32
Speaker 1: I get Murkowski and others like that, but that one
10:35
Speaker 1: was shocking. Look, I have no explanation. You're gonna have
10:39
Speaker 1: to ask Tom. There's some Republicans who pointed to, well,
10:43
Speaker 1: there was more defense spending in this you know what,
10:45
Speaker 1: we could have done that next year. I don't think
10:48
Speaker 1: that remotely justifies voting for Schumer and Pelosi's budget, and
10:52
Speaker 1: that's what they did here. Listen, Washington is a town
10:58
Speaker 1: that is inherently corrupted. And one aspect of this that
11:02
Speaker 1: hasn't been fully understood is the important role that earmarks
11:07
Speaker 1: played in making this pass. So earmarks of the provision
11:11
Speaker 1: where a member of the House, for a member of
11:13
Speaker 1: the Senate can specially designate spending in their district for
11:18
Speaker 1: something they want, and it is the grease that turns
11:24
Speaker 1: the wheels of big government. And when we had the
11:27
Speaker 1: Republican takeover in twenty ten of the House of Representatives,
11:31
Speaker 1: one of the big reforms, one of the great conservative victories,
11:35
Speaker 1: was ending the policy of earmarks for Republicans, and so
11:40
Speaker 1: we had a decade where we didn't do earmarks. Well, unfortunately,
11:43
Speaker 1: Republican leadership didn't like that, because earbarks are how you
11:47
Speaker 1: buy off a problematic member. If someone's going to vote
11:51
Speaker 1: against you, if someone's talking too loud, if they're objecting
11:54
Speaker 1: to what you're trying to do, you just shovel a
11:56
Speaker 1: little bit of cash in their district and they shut up.
11:59
Speaker 1: It's the gay way drug to the rest of big
12:03
Speaker 1: government spending. Well, unfortunately in this earmarks are back and
12:10
Speaker 1: are back in incredible force, and that that has included spending.
12:20
Speaker 1: So Pat Lahey, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee from Vermont,
12:24
Speaker 1: he's retiring. He named a huge program up in Vermont,
12:28
Speaker 1: the Pat Lahey Program. Richard Shelby, the leading Republican from
12:33
Speaker 1: Alabama on appropriations, he's retiring. Also, he named a bunch
12:37
Speaker 1: of things after himself, the Richard Shelby. I gotta say, Ben,
12:43
Speaker 1: I think it is fundamentally corrupt for any member of
12:48
Speaker 1: Congress to name a damn thing after themselves. And I
12:52
Speaker 1: don't think anything should be named after a member of
12:54
Speaker 1: Congress as long as they're still alive. If someone kicks
12:58
Speaker 1: the bucket, you want to name something after him. Eight
13:00
Speaker 1: But my view, if you want the Ben Ferguson building,
13:04
Speaker 1: you got a real simple way to do it. Pull
13:05
Speaker 1: out your checkbook and write a check for it. But
13:07
Speaker 1: when you're in Congress, you're not spending your money, you're
13:10
Speaker 1: spending the taxpayer money. And the idea that you have
13:14
Speaker 1: members of Congress stick in their name on it, I
13:17
Speaker 1: think is just on its face, corrupting and a corrupt practice.
13:23
Speaker 1: There was an interesting threat that was made by the
13:25
Speaker 1: House many House members, and I want to know your
13:29
Speaker 1: thoughts on do you believe this is just political theater
13:33
Speaker 1: or is this going to actually be backed up? Where
13:36
Speaker 1: there were Republicans, including some of the new leadership, who said,
13:40
Speaker 1: for any of these Republicans that vote with the Democrats
13:42
Speaker 1: on the sound of a spending bill when they could
13:44
Speaker 1: have done a cr they could have said no, they
13:46
Speaker 1: could have allowed the next Congress to do a better
13:48
Speaker 1: spending bill with some accountability in it. They said you
13:52
Speaker 1: can kiss your initiatives and this new Congress, goodbye, your bills, goodbye.
13:57
Speaker 1: We're gonna hold you accountable for this vote right before
14:00
Speaker 1: everybody just wanted to get out of town. Do you
14:03
Speaker 1: believe there's going to be some real accountability in that
14:07
Speaker 1: way from the House or was that more just political
14:09
Speaker 1: theater to get the headline out there that you're standing
14:12
Speaker 1: up to the senators on the Republican side that basically
14:14
Speaker 1: sold us out. Well, look, I hope there's real accountability.
14:18
Speaker 1: The congressman who led that effort is Chip Roy. Chip
14:21
Speaker 1: Roy as a congressman from Texas. Chip is a very
14:24
Speaker 1: good friend of mine. I know Chip very very well.
14:26
Speaker 1: Chip was by very first tim huh. We did a
14:29
Speaker 1: bus tour stop with him. In fact, we did, and
14:32
Speaker 1: and Chip was my very first chief of staff when
14:36
Speaker 1: I was newly elected in twenty twelve, arrived at the
14:39
Speaker 1: Senate in twenty thirteen. Chips started with me on day
14:42
Speaker 1: one as my chief of staff. And Chip as a warrior.
14:45
Speaker 1: He's a conservative warrior. The battle against Obamacare that that
14:50
Speaker 1: resulted in a shutdown, but that also resulted in the
14:53
Speaker 1: biggest Republican victory in decades of the twenty fourteen election.
14:57
Speaker 1: Chip was my chief of staff throughout that Chips the
15:00
Speaker 1: one who who leveled this threat, and a number of
15:02
Speaker 1: other House Republicans joined him. I don't know if they'll
15:06
Speaker 1: be able to carry through on it. It It will
15:11
Speaker 1: prove difficult given that among the people supporting this omnibus
15:15
Speaker 1: are all of the members of Republican leadership, and so
15:19
Speaker 1: for a House member to say we're going to block
15:21
Speaker 1: anything they support, the threat is significant, but at the
15:28
Speaker 1: end of the day, blocking anything Republican leadership supports, at
15:32
Speaker 1: a minimum may prove difficult to execute. Senator, I want
15:35
Speaker 1: to go back, just before we move on from this,
15:37
Speaker 1: to the price tag on this omnibus spinning book bill.
15:41
Speaker 1: How did we get to a point where we could
15:43
Speaker 1: even imagine enough stuff to spend money on that is
15:46
Speaker 1: almost two trillion dollars. Well, look, the Democrats today have
15:51
Speaker 1: handed their agenda over to the radical extremes. That many
15:56
Speaker 1: of the Democrats in the House and Senator are openly
15:59
Speaker 1: embracing socialism. They're happy to spend all the money they can,
16:03
Speaker 1: and far too many Republicans are eager to be complicit
16:07
Speaker 1: in it. And that you roll this all together to
16:11
Speaker 1: buy up votes. The earmarks help you buy votes. But
16:15
Speaker 1: there are all sorts of provisions of this bill that
16:18
Speaker 1: reflect the fact that it was written by Nancy Pelosi
16:22
Speaker 1: and Chuck Schumer. So, for example, the funding for Customs
16:26
Speaker 1: and Border patrol explicitly prohibits that funding from being used
16:32
Speaker 1: to improve border security. Let me read you the language.
16:35
Speaker 1: None of the funds provided in this subsections shall be
16:38
Speaker 1: used to acquire, maintain, or extend border security technology and capabilities,
16:47
Speaker 1: except for technology and capabilities to improve border patrol processing.
16:53
Speaker 1: In other words, you can use this money to let
16:57
Speaker 1: illegal aliens go more quickly, but you can't actually use
17:01
Speaker 1: it to secure the border and stop them from entering.
17:03
Speaker 1: By the way, that same budget allocates four hundred and
17:08
Speaker 1: ten million dollars towards border security for Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia,
17:16
Speaker 1: and Oman. It's really striking. So we're funding border security
17:21
Speaker 1: in other countries but not here in the United States,
17:27
Speaker 1: and they're writing into law of prohibition on the money
17:29
Speaker 1: being used to improve border security. There's one point five
17:33
Speaker 1: billion for membership in global organizations, including the United Nations.
17:39
Speaker 1: All right, you want to know how you buy all votes.
17:43
Speaker 1: Here's an interesting thing. Pick a really random word that
17:47
Speaker 1: you would not think appeared in this bill much less
17:49
Speaker 1: appears forty eight times. Take a guess, right, I'm thinking
17:56
Speaker 1: of the worst people in the Congress writing this thing.
17:59
Speaker 1: So is it hand out? Is at government aide? I mean,
18:02
Speaker 1: what's their favorite word when they're more parochial than that?
18:05
Speaker 1: The word salmon as a really okay I was in
18:10
Speaker 1: a totally different world, appears forty eight times in the bill.
18:15
Speaker 1: What else is there? There's three million dollars for bee
18:18
Speaker 1: friendly highways. That's important. I know, I know that was
18:21
Speaker 1: one of your top agenda items when you were running
18:24
Speaker 1: for the Senate, right, you know, you gotta take care
18:27
Speaker 1: of the bees, and and and and this is the
18:30
Speaker 1: birds of the bees, because I got to tell you
18:32
Speaker 1: the taxpayers are getting screwed that this this is a
18:34
Speaker 1: lesson in Washington birds and bees. You mentioned the border.
18:38
Speaker 1: I just I have to get back to that for
18:40
Speaker 1: a sec We're securing the border in other countries. You
18:44
Speaker 1: had Zelenski that flew in and got you know, was
18:47
Speaker 1: the rock star of of Congress's past week, you know,
18:51
Speaker 1: kissing with Nancy Pelosi. We're giving him money literally to
18:55
Speaker 1: secure his border instead of sending that money down to
18:58
Speaker 1: secure our own border. Did that frustrate you at all
19:02
Speaker 1: that they're like advocating and how much do you need
19:04
Speaker 1: you got to secure your border? Sir, ours is wide open.
19:08
Speaker 1: We know there's a thousand and two thousand, five thousand,
19:11
Speaker 1: ten thousand coming across the border. Can't wait for you know,
19:14
Speaker 1: tile forty three to end and then they're gonna all
19:17
Speaker 1: come rushing across. And even the Democrats accidentally slipped this
19:21
Speaker 1: last week saying, well, they admit there is a crisis
19:24
Speaker 1: at the border, but we're quote handling it. It is
19:28
Speaker 1: absolutely insane, and I will say the adulation for Zelenski
19:33
Speaker 1: was bizarre. I think the Democrats it's become almost cult
19:37
Speaker 1: like and at the same time a complete refusal to
19:40
Speaker 1: have any meaningful accountability as to the money that's being
19:44
Speaker 1: spent there. Listen. I'm someone that believes it is important
19:47
Speaker 1: for our national security interest for Russia to lose, for
19:51
Speaker 1: Putin to lose, and so I've been an active advocate
19:55
Speaker 1: of supporting Ukraine. But for the Democrats it's a blank check.
19:59
Speaker 1: And it's a blank check not just for military weapons
20:03
Speaker 1: to defeat Russian soldiers, but for just billions of dollars
20:07
Speaker 1: that get poured into rat holes, and our subject corruption,
20:10
Speaker 1: our subject to embezzlement, and and and it. It is bizarre.
20:16
Speaker 1: But you also asked me how do we get there?
20:18
Speaker 1: In the debate over this bill, one of the strangest
20:23
Speaker 1: things that was said is is Mitch McConnell at a
20:26
Speaker 1: press conference said, I think the number one priority for
20:30
Speaker 1: most Republicans is funding Ukraine. Now, Ben that that is strange.
20:37
Speaker 1: I don't get the mindset that says that. I believe
20:42
Speaker 1: defeating Russia is important. But I don't know anyone in
20:46
Speaker 1: real America. I don't know any Texans. I don't think
20:48
Speaker 1: I've ever encountered anyone who says, you know, the number
20:52
Speaker 1: one priority for me for America right now is funding Ukraine.
20:56
Speaker 1: Just that that's the Republican leadership right now. When he
21:00
Speaker 1: said it, it was something that went viral quickly in
21:03
Speaker 1: Republican circles, conservative circles online. But but he meant it.
21:07
Speaker 1: It wasn't It wasn't a slip from McConnell. He genuinely
21:11
Speaker 1: was saying, this is the number one priority, not you,
21:14
Speaker 1: not your safety, not your country, but Ukraine. And if
21:18
Speaker 1: you're not with us, then then you're on the side
21:21
Speaker 1: of Vladimir Putin. I didn't like the way how in
21:24
Speaker 1: the last several weeks this has been. This framing is
21:26
Speaker 1: if I ask any questions, oh, you're with Putin. I
21:29
Speaker 1: got yelled at on TV the other day for this
21:31
Speaker 1: center where I was like, look, I'm in favor of
21:34
Speaker 1: stopping Russia aggression. I'm not in favor of us funding
21:38
Speaker 1: the entire thing. I'm not in favor of us being
21:40
Speaker 1: the one that's right in the check with no accountability
21:43
Speaker 1: or with no out auditing, no accounting of where the
21:46
Speaker 1: money is actually going. And the rest of the world,
21:49
Speaker 1: especially in Europe. And I said this, they claimed they
21:51
Speaker 1: were going to get involved. We're overwhelmingly funding this, this
21:55
Speaker 1: Ukrainian war. They're not stepping up to the plate either.
21:58
Speaker 1: And I'm tired of America always being the first one
22:01
Speaker 1: to say, here, the American taxpayers will write you a
22:04
Speaker 1: fifty billion dollar check. And then you look at all
22:07
Speaker 1: the countries in Europe, who, by the way, are buying
22:10
Speaker 1: oil from from Vladimir Putin for decades, keeping him in power.
22:14
Speaker 1: When we warned them, Donald Trump warned you know that,
22:17
Speaker 1: He warned Europe, you guys need to stop doing this.
22:19
Speaker 1: You're gonna make him powerful. He's going to be able
22:21
Speaker 1: to control you. And now they're putting hardly any money
22:24
Speaker 1: into this fight against against Russia and they're doing nothing
22:26
Speaker 1: really to help Ukraine. Yeah, listen, it is bizarre. The
22:32
Speaker 1: cult like support Democrats are showing, the complete unwillingness to
22:36
Speaker 1: have any accountability, the desire to just have a write
22:40
Speaker 1: a blank check, the unwillingness to hold Europe to account
22:44
Speaker 1: for them to pay their fair share of if the
22:46
Speaker 1: Democrats don't believe it. And of course the utter irony
22:49
Speaker 1: of this whole thing is it was Joe Biden that
22:51
Speaker 1: caused the Damn War in the first place, and we've
22:53
Speaker 1: talked about that at length, how the Nordstream two pipeline,
22:57
Speaker 1: the sanctions that I authored had stopped us from invading Ukraine,
23:01
Speaker 1: and then Joe Biden waived the sanctions on Russian Putin
23:04
Speaker 1: and caused this war. And now they're trying to cover
23:07
Speaker 1: up for their clean up on Aisle six, the mess
23:11
Speaker 1: that they made by just shoveling cash. Um, it really
23:17
Speaker 1: makes no sense at all. I do think it's important
23:20
Speaker 1: that people here and this is again in WASHINGTONC Mitch
23:25
Speaker 1: McConnell making it clear that he's going to spend your
23:28
Speaker 1: money on his top top priority is here. He is,
23:31
Speaker 1: in his own words, providing assistance for the Ukrainians to
23:36
Speaker 1: defeat the Russians. That's the number one priority for the
23:41
Speaker 1: United States right now, according to most Republicans. That's sort
23:45
Speaker 1: of how we see the challenges confronting the country at
23:51
Speaker 1: the moment. There's a lot of things that are that
23:54
Speaker 1: are that are right now, uh, you know, confronting this country.
23:59
Speaker 1: And when you go to Washington Center you sit around,
24:01
Speaker 1: is this truly how out of touchs they are with
24:04
Speaker 1: the reality of the American family who's dealing with inflation.
24:08
Speaker 1: I mean, USA to Ukraine. You have forty five billion
24:10
Speaker 1: within the omnoist bill, you had one point eight billion,
24:14
Speaker 1: and and and another package and sixty eight billion has
24:18
Speaker 1: already been sent. And he says this is the number
24:21
Speaker 1: one priority of the GOP is focused on this. That
24:26
Speaker 1: is a hell of a lot of money that we're borrowing. Again,
24:29
Speaker 1: we don't have this money. We're gonna have to borrow it,
24:31
Speaker 1: and we're gonna have to pay interest on it. Well, Ben,
24:35
Speaker 1: look that that's a big part of the reason why
24:37
Speaker 1: I helped lead the leadership challenge to Mitch McConnell just
24:41
Speaker 1: a few weeks ago, because our leadership is fundamentally out
24:44
Speaker 1: of touch, that doesn't reflect the priorities of the American people,
24:48
Speaker 1: and I think that's an enormous problem. You look at
24:50
Speaker 1: some of the elements of this bill beyond that, there's
24:52
Speaker 1: sixty five million for two programs name for Senator Pat Lahey.
24:57
Speaker 1: There's a federal building name for Nancy Pelosi. There's three
25:01
Speaker 1: point six million dollars for the Michelle Obama Trail. There's
25:06
Speaker 1: four hundred and seventy seven thousand dollars for quote anti
25:09
Speaker 1: racist training from the Equity Institute. There's three million dollars
25:13
Speaker 1: for the LGBTQ Plus Museum in New York. There's one
25:18
Speaker 1: point two million dollars for services for DACA recipients. There's
25:22
Speaker 1: four point one million in career programs for Fairfax County, Virginia,
25:27
Speaker 1: one of the richest counties in the country. It renames
25:31
Speaker 1: twenty five post offices. There's five hundred and twenty four
25:35
Speaker 1: million for a di and Structural Racism subdivision of the
25:41
Speaker 1: National Institute of Health. There's three hundred thousand dollars per
25:45
Speaker 1: year for the continuous Plankton Recorder. This is Washington corruption,
25:55
Speaker 1: plain and simple, and and it is a result. We
25:58
Speaker 1: expect democrat to be a train wreck, We expect them
26:01
Speaker 1: to be socialist. What we should be willing to expect
26:05
Speaker 1: is for Republicans not And the maddening thing is this
26:13
Speaker 1: didn't take anything particularly complicated or difficult to stop it.
26:17
Speaker 1: All we had to do was a forty one Republicans
26:19
Speaker 1: stand up and say no. The last four times there
26:23
Speaker 1: was a shift in control of one of the houses
26:25
Speaker 1: of representation, the Congress, each of the last four times
26:30
Speaker 1: did not pass an omnibus funding bill. The incoming party
26:35
Speaker 1: who was getting control had enough cajonas to stand up
26:42
Speaker 1: and say, hell no, we just won an election. We're
26:44
Speaker 1: going to set the spending priorities. Now. Look, there's reference
26:48
Speaker 1: to the uniparty. I gotta say, for the Republicans who
26:53
Speaker 1: supported this, I get the ones who were retiring why
26:57
Speaker 1: they did, although it makes you wonder what the hell
26:59
Speaker 1: they were doing previously. But I don't understand anyone who
27:03
Speaker 1: cast cast a vote for this, And I think I
27:06
Speaker 1: think a lot of the voters are pissed off, and
27:08
Speaker 1: I think they have good reason. To be pissed off.
27:09
Speaker 1: How much of this is an age thing? And I
27:11
Speaker 1: say that because you look at Nancy Pelosi at her age,
27:14
Speaker 1: you look at Mitch McConnell at his age, you look
27:16
Speaker 1: at Joe Biden at his age, and you and you
27:18
Speaker 1: look at Chuck Schumert his age. They know that when
27:22
Speaker 1: the you know what hits the fan, Senator, they're probably
27:26
Speaker 1: not going to be around to have to deal with it.
27:28
Speaker 1: There is going to be a catastrophic event economically within
27:33
Speaker 1: our government, within this country to pay back this debt
27:37
Speaker 1: at some point. And it's part of the reason why
27:40
Speaker 1: they just can do this so easily is just the
27:42
Speaker 1: fact they say, it ain't my problem. Literally, this is
27:45
Speaker 1: not going to hit the fan when I'm in office,
27:48
Speaker 1: much less I may not even be alive by then. Yes,
27:51
Speaker 1: it's going to affect my grandkids, right or even my kids,
27:54
Speaker 1: but not me, so screw it. I'll go with it. Yeah,
27:58
Speaker 1: it's it's it's not just age. I mean, the people
28:00
Speaker 1: that voted for this ran the gamut of the age. Look,
28:03
Speaker 1: there are people in the Senator or one hundred and
28:06
Speaker 1: forty two, so there are definitely some folks who are
28:08
Speaker 1: long in the tooth. But you know, Tom Cotton is
28:11
Speaker 1: one of the youngest members of the Senate. He voted
28:13
Speaker 1: for this. Todd Young is a relatively young member of
28:15
Speaker 1: the Senate. He voted for this. Marco Rubio voted to
28:20
Speaker 1: take this up initially. He's younger than I am, one
28:23
Speaker 1: of the youngest members of the Senate. So it's it's
28:25
Speaker 1: not just an age thing. But I'm going to let
28:30
Speaker 1: them speak for themselves that they can explain why this
28:35
Speaker 1: spending bill was better than a spending bill that was
28:38
Speaker 1: passed with a Republican majority in the House. I promise
28:43
Speaker 1: you a House Republican majority is not going to write
28:46
Speaker 1: into the bill the funds in this bill cannot be
28:49
Speaker 1: used to secure the border. That's something Pelosi and Schumer do.
28:52
Speaker 1: But for Republicans, they're willing to, at least some of
28:57
Speaker 1: them are willing to roll over and allow it to happen.
29:00
Speaker 1: How much does the national debt keep you up? I mean,
29:03
Speaker 1: I know there's a lot of issues you have to
29:05
Speaker 1: deal with, you have to vote on, But I sit
29:08
Speaker 1: here right now and I look at it, and it
29:10
Speaker 1: really is now becoming more of a constant kind of
29:15
Speaker 1: thought process for me of realizing that we are not
29:20
Speaker 1: as strong as we need to be as a nation,
29:23
Speaker 1: specifically economically. And I am concerned now that we've gotten
29:28
Speaker 1: so far into debt that for many of these people
29:31
Speaker 1: in the left it could be on purpose, just because
29:34
Speaker 1: they know that when the American people are hurting, they're
29:36
Speaker 1: more dependent on them. And that's how they gain power
29:39
Speaker 1: and control over you, is that when they can be
29:42
Speaker 1: your god, your savior financially, every thirty days, you're going
29:46
Speaker 1: to vote for them. That's the thing that I worry
29:49
Speaker 1: the most about this is if we go into some serious, hard,
29:54
Speaker 1: tough economic times, it is only going to, I think,
29:57
Speaker 1: help the Democrats in that moment go well, hey, hey,
30:00
Speaker 1: we can turn this more into kind of a you know,
30:02
Speaker 1: a socialist country, and we'll take care of you. Granted
30:05
Speaker 1: your wife is going to be terrible, but at least
30:07
Speaker 1: you're living. Look, I think for the Democrats, they don't care.
30:15
Speaker 1: I think the Democrats their solution at the end of
30:19
Speaker 1: the day, we're seeing it right now. Their solution at
30:22
Speaker 1: the end of the day is inflate their way out
30:24
Speaker 1: of it. Just print so much money, have hyper inflation
30:28
Speaker 1: that the debt as a percentage of as the value
30:32
Speaker 1: the dollar goes down, the debt becomes less relevant, and
30:34
Speaker 1: for them it's about power. Look, we've seen socialist governments
30:38
Speaker 1: do this all over the country, all over the world.
30:42
Speaker 1: Rather and and and I think that's on the left
30:45
Speaker 1: where it comes from for Republicans. Listen, I think most
30:52
Speaker 1: Republicans in the Senate, if you ask them, they are
30:56
Speaker 1: concerned about the debt, but they're more concerned about being criticized.
31:01
Speaker 1: They're more concerned about the media saying something mean about them.
31:03
Speaker 1: They're more concerned about not having not being reelected, and
31:10
Speaker 1: spending a bunch of cash is a great way to
31:13
Speaker 1: buy votes and and try to get reelected. And so
31:18
Speaker 1: it is. This is I've been in the Senate ten years.
31:25
Speaker 1: I've never seen it this bad with with Republicans literally
31:36
Speaker 1: undermining the ability of Republicans to pass a Republican budget.
31:40
Speaker 1: That's what they just did. Yeah, it's it's truly incredible,
31:44
Speaker 1: and it's gonna it's gonna hurt this country, I think,
31:47
Speaker 1: in so many different ways, including protecting in this nation
31:50
Speaker 1: in general from adversaries foreign and domestic. I do want
31:55
Speaker 1: to end this year on a on a on a
31:57
Speaker 1: I would say, an incredible note and it's something that
32:00
Speaker 1: you led on center, and this was the vaccine military mandate.
32:06
Speaker 1: This happened. A lot of good men and women in
32:08
Speaker 1: uniform were discharged from our military because they refused to
32:13
Speaker 1: get vaccinated. There were many of them that were not
32:15
Speaker 1: given religious exemptions, and pretty much they were laughed at
32:18
Speaker 1: when they tried to go that route. And now we
32:22
Speaker 1: have some we have a victory for those men and women.
32:26
Speaker 1: Is it a little bit too late for some of them?
32:29
Speaker 1: Are we going to be able to get some of
32:30
Speaker 1: them back in the workplace again and back in the
32:32
Speaker 1: military doing their jobs, getting back to their careers. Well, look,
32:36
Speaker 1: I'm glad we're ending this pod with a note of
32:39
Speaker 1: optimism and a note of good news. And we do
32:42
Speaker 1: have some good news, which which is the military vaccine
32:46
Speaker 1: mandate has ended. And that is a fight. I've been
32:50
Speaker 1: leading the fight against the vaccine mandate from the very beginning,
32:54
Speaker 1: from when they was first imposed. I think the vaccine
32:57
Speaker 1: mandate was wrong on day one. It's been wrong every
33:00
Speaker 1: day that it's continued, and in the military in particular,
33:04
Speaker 1: it's been horrific. I've spoken, I've visited with multiple soldiers
33:10
Speaker 1: and sailors and airmen and Marines who were discharged because
33:14
Speaker 1: they made the choice not to get the COVID vaccine,
33:17
Speaker 1: and I think that was fundamentally wrong. It was abusive,
33:20
Speaker 1: it was stupid. I visited with Navy seals who spent
33:24
Speaker 1: years training, who fought to defend this nation, who Joe
33:27
Speaker 1: Biden has fired. And so Congress took up at the
33:32
Speaker 1: end of the year the NDAA, the National Defense Authorization Act,
33:36
Speaker 1: and I joined with several other senators. We drew a
33:39
Speaker 1: line in the ground and said we should stand together
33:43
Speaker 1: and say we will not pass this bill unless you
33:46
Speaker 1: end the vaccine mandated. The Democrats beat their chest and
33:49
Speaker 1: said we'll never do it, We'll never do it, and
33:52
Speaker 1: wonder of wonders, Republicans actually held the line and the
33:57
Speaker 1: Democrats caved, and so Joe Biden signed in the law
34:01
Speaker 1: of the bill ending the military vaccine mandate. That is
34:05
Speaker 1: a terrific victory and one that we should celebrate because
34:09
Speaker 1: it's the right thing to do. Now, while we're celebrating,
34:14
Speaker 1: I think our celebrations need to be tempered because you
34:17
Speaker 1: asked the right question, Ben, It's right. Going forward, the
34:22
Speaker 1: Biden military will not fire people because they didn't get
34:26
Speaker 1: a COVID vaccine. Unfortunately, this bill is prospective only. It
34:31
Speaker 1: does nothing retrospective. I've had legislation I introduced that would
34:37
Speaker 1: allow every one of the servicemen and women who were
34:39
Speaker 1: dismissed because of not getting the COVID vaccine to be
34:44
Speaker 1: reinstated in the military if they so desired, if they
34:47
Speaker 1: made the choice, if they'd be if they'd been kicked
34:50
Speaker 1: out and they wanted to go back in, it would
34:52
Speaker 1: let them back in. It would also change their status.
34:55
Speaker 1: There were a number of people who were exited from
34:58
Speaker 1: the military with a less than honor discharge. That has
35:01
Speaker 1: enormous consequences for retirement, for healthcare benefits, for veteran status,
35:07
Speaker 1: and so my bill corrected that to ensure that those
35:11
Speaker 1: who were fired because they didn't get the COVID vaccine
35:15
Speaker 1: and who would choose they didn't want to go back
35:17
Speaker 1: now that they would at a minimum be deemed honorably discharged,
35:22
Speaker 1: so they would get full credit for their time served.
35:25
Speaker 1: That's a matter of justice, it's a matter of fairness.
35:27
Speaker 1: I had an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act.
35:31
Speaker 1: I did it with Ron Johnson from Wisconsin, and we
35:34
Speaker 1: had a vote on the Senate floor on my amendment,
35:36
Speaker 1: and the amendment unfortunately was voted down. The vote was
35:42
Speaker 1: forty to fifty four, so fifty four voted no. There
35:46
Speaker 1: were some who weren't there. The Democrats all voted no,
35:51
Speaker 1: and there were four Republicans who voted no. Bill Cassidy
35:56
Speaker 1: from Louisiana, Susan Collins remain Meant Romney from Utah, and
36:00
Speaker 1: Mike Rounds from North Dakota. I gotta tell you again,
36:05
Speaker 1: I don't have a good explanation. You got a Navy
36:09
Speaker 1: seal who spent ten, twelve, fifteen years fighting to defend
36:12
Speaker 1: this country. He gets fired because Joe Biden decides to
36:17
Speaker 1: throw him out because he didn't get the vaccine mandate.
36:19
Speaker 1: I don't know how to articulate why even one Senator
36:25
Speaker 1: would vote to say, nope, we're not letting that navy
36:28
Speaker 1: seal back in. I don't care that we have a
36:31
Speaker 1: recruiting shortage. I don't care that we don't have enough
36:34
Speaker 1: men and women to defend our nation. I don't care
36:37
Speaker 1: that we're no longer firing people for doing this. That
36:40
Speaker 1: guy is out of luck. It was infuriating that that
36:48
Speaker 1: particular amendment didn't pass. So the people that it is
36:51
Speaker 1: a minimum thousands, and it may be an excess of
36:53
Speaker 1: ten thousand. We have not been able to get an actual,
36:57
Speaker 1: accurate and fair accounting of just how men, any servicemen
37:00
Speaker 1: and women have been forcibly discharged. So as we go
37:03
Speaker 1: into the new year, let's celebrate the military vaccine mandate
37:10
Speaker 1: has been ended. It's been ended because millions of Americans
37:14
Speaker 1: stood up alongside me many others and fought to end it.
37:18
Speaker 1: That's a victory, but the victory should have been much broader,
37:21
Speaker 1: and I hope we use that as encouragement than to
37:26
Speaker 1: lean in and redouble the fight in the new year
37:30
Speaker 1: coming forward, no doubt about it, Senator, I know you're
37:33
Speaker 1: going to take a week with your family. You guys
37:35
Speaker 1: are going to get to enjoy each other through the
37:36
Speaker 1: new year, and I know you're looking forward to that.
37:40
Speaker 1: So for everybody, just so you know, we're going to
37:42
Speaker 1: get back to a normal schedule on Wednesday the fourth,
37:46
Speaker 1: and you we'll get back to our three shows a
37:48
Speaker 1: week starting on Wednesday the fourth. But I know you're
37:51
Speaker 1: gonna get to spend some time with your family through
37:53
Speaker 1: the New year break as well. So many people get
37:55
Speaker 1: to do that with their families, and I know you're
37:57
Speaker 1: excited about it. Absolutely. I hope every one has a wonderful,
38:02
Speaker 1: blessed new year. Have fun on New Year's Eve, stay safe,
38:07
Speaker 1: hug your family, and next year, I hope twenty twenty
38:11
Speaker 1: three is an incredible year for this this incredible nation.
38:14
Speaker 1: Happy New Year's Senator and uh and again to everybody listing,
38:18
Speaker 1: we will see you on January the fourth. Have a
38:20
Speaker 1: safe and happy new Year, and we'll see you back here.
38:23
Speaker 1: We'll get back to it on the fourth