Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Merry Christmas from Trump: Waste, Pork, & Corruption CUT from Spending Bill

Transcript

Merry Christmas from Trump: Waste, Pork, & Corruption CUT from Spending Bill · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: So we all know that the House was able to
0:03
Speaker 1: cut about fifteen hundred pages of a ridiculous bill continuing
0:08
Speaker 1: resolution that was filled with waste and abuse and just
0:12
Speaker 1: pure corruption of Washington DC. We know now that the
0:17
Speaker 1: Senate has passed it, so there's not going to be
0:19
Speaker 1: a government shutdown now. In general, I want to be clear,
0:23
Speaker 1: this is great news. That is the headline. The question
0:27
Speaker 1: is how was the deal done and how did it
0:30
Speaker 1: turn out to be so different than what was originally
0:33
Speaker 1: going to happen. It is the art of the deal.
0:35
Speaker 1: That's the best way I can describe it. And it
0:38
Speaker 1: was a deal that certainly was going to put us
0:40
Speaker 1: in a better place than we were before because many
0:43
Speaker 1: conservatives were willing to stand up and fight hard. The
0:47
Speaker 1: Maga revolt. That's how it's being described in the press
0:51
Speaker 1: right now. Slash the original one thousand, five hundred and
0:55
Speaker 1: forty seven page spending bill all the way down to
1:00
Speaker 1: just one hundred and eighteen pages this Friday, and the
1:06
Speaker 1: House bill to averted government shutdown was trimmed by one thousand,
1:11
Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty nine pages after conservatives said, no,
1:17
Speaker 1: we are not going to have this massive expansion of
1:19
Speaker 1: government in a continuing resolution, and we're not going to
1:23
Speaker 1: have the pork barrel spending in the cr as Well
1:26
Speaker 1: House Speaker Mike Johnson's original measure was filled with pork,
1:30
Speaker 1: there's no doubt about it. Now, he also had to
1:33
Speaker 1: work a deal because he had to deal with Republicans
1:36
Speaker 1: and Democrats, and that's a very tough spot to be in.
1:39
Speaker 1: I want to be clear about that, and I'm going
1:40
Speaker 1: to explain more about why I say that in a moment.
1:43
Speaker 1: But the reduction in size underscores what I would say
1:46
Speaker 1: is the failure by the pork barrel spenders in DC
1:51
Speaker 1: who wanted to pass a massive spending bill with Democrats
1:54
Speaker 1: support that few had even read before members were asked
1:58
Speaker 1: to vote on it, and that is a problem. There
2:00
Speaker 1: is an appetite for government reform right now. There's an
2:04
Speaker 1: appetite for reducing the size of government. It's very clear
2:07
Speaker 1: that there was a mandate for that in this last election.
2:10
Speaker 1: There is a huge appetite in people supporting and advocating
2:14
Speaker 1: for DOGE. That is going to be streamlining and changing
2:20
Speaker 1: how we do and run and spend our money in
2:24
Speaker 1: the US. That's being done by Elon Musk and by
2:27
Speaker 1: Vi vic Ramaswami at the leadership of Donald Trump. Now
2:31
Speaker 1: you put all that together, and Democrats are angry. They're
2:35
Speaker 1: angry at Elon Musk, and they're angry at Maga. They're
2:39
Speaker 1: angry at Conservatives for standing up to the government waste
2:43
Speaker 1: and abuse. How angry are they? Let me play for you.
2:48
Speaker 1: Rosa Delaro, who lost her mind on the floor of
2:52
Speaker 1: the House is she's angry as she describes it, that
2:55
Speaker 1: there is some man who is elected by no one
2:59
Speaker 1: who is now giving marching orders to the House and
3:02
Speaker 1: the Republicans to shut down the government. Issue described it.
3:06
Speaker 1: Take a listen to the purpled haired Democrat from Connecticut.
3:11
Speaker 2: We are on the cusp of an agreement to move
3:14
Speaker 2: this country forward. But two days ago, a multi billionaire
3:21
Speaker 2: with apparently no working knowledge of our government or of appropriations,
3:29
Speaker 2: someone who is a self appointed president of the United States,
3:33
Speaker 2: Elon Musk, issued a marching order for House Republicans to
3:38
Speaker 2: go against their own elected leadership. Shut down the government.
3:44
Speaker 2: Shut down the government. House Republicans are responsible for any
3:50
Speaker 2: harm and uncertainty brought upon the American people, And should
3:54
Speaker 2: some get their wish for a month long government shut down,
3:58
Speaker 2: they will be respect for cleaning up their mess come
4:02
Speaker 2: inauguration day. Indeed, we are in completely unprecedented times when
4:08
Speaker 2: someone who has no knowledge of government, who has no
4:13
Speaker 2: knowledge of an appropriations process, who is external to the
4:19
Speaker 2: House of Representatives, can make his weight felt here in
4:24
Speaker 2: turning what was a bill that was on its way,
4:30
Speaker 2: a bipartisan bill, a bi cameral bill, was on its
4:34
Speaker 2: way to achieving its goal of keeping the US government open,
4:40
Speaker 2: and the goal actually is providing services to American citizens,
4:46
Speaker 2: to working families, middle class families, vulnerable families where our
4:54
Speaker 2: responsibility lies. The world's richest man read being billions in
5:03
Speaker 2: government contracts, is calling the shots in the Republican Party
5:09
Speaker 2: at the behest of the world's richest man, who no
5:13
Speaker 2: one voted for. The United States Congress has been thrown
5:18
Speaker 2: into pandemonian It leads you to the question of who
5:23
Speaker 2: is in charge. I thought that there was a Republican
5:27
Speaker 2: majority in this body, not a President Musk majority.
5:36
Speaker 1: Now let's talk about what she said. Quote the self
5:39
Speaker 1: appointed president of the United States, Elon mussy Issy to
5:42
Speaker 1: a marching order for House Republicans to shut the government down.
5:45
Speaker 1: What he made What he actually did was he said no,
5:48
Speaker 1: I'm calling out the abuse of power. I'm calling out
5:52
Speaker 1: the fact that you've got a bill that no one's read.
5:54
Speaker 1: There's one five and forty seven pages long, filled with
5:57
Speaker 1: port belle spending, and I want to reduce it. And
6:00
Speaker 1: we did and condensed it into one hundred and eighteen
6:03
Speaker 1: pages and excluded the extreme amount of pork that Johnson allowed,
6:06
Speaker 1: by the way, in the original bill. Elon Musk is
6:10
Speaker 1: not the President of the United States of America. But
6:13
Speaker 1: what Elon Musk did was give a voice to the
6:15
Speaker 1: voiceless in this country and those that don't have the
6:18
Speaker 1: type of power to get the word out that he
6:22
Speaker 1: clearly does. And the American people clearly agreed with him,
6:25
Speaker 1: and the American people acted, and the American people called
6:28
Speaker 1: their congressman, and the American people got rid literally, this
6:32
Speaker 1: is no exaggeration, got rid of one thousand, three hundred
6:37
Speaker 1: and fifty nine pages of government waste, abuse and fraud.
6:44
Speaker 1: That is incredible. So was it worth it? Yes? Was
6:48
Speaker 1: it anarchy?
6:49
Speaker 3: No?
6:51
Speaker 1: Was it Elon Musk giving power to the people to
6:53
Speaker 1: make sure that the people were able to do what
6:57
Speaker 1: they need to do and say no to mass suspending. Yes,
7:03
Speaker 1: now here's what you need to know about what they
7:06
Speaker 1: have passed on the House side, and I'm going to
7:08
Speaker 1: get to the Senate in a moment because the Senate
7:10
Speaker 1: is controlled, as you know, by the Democrats right now.
7:13
Speaker 1: The bill will fund the government until March fourteenth. It
7:18
Speaker 1: also includes disaster relief and farm aid, which is very important.
7:23
Speaker 1: The bill does not include an extension of the debt limit,
7:27
Speaker 1: which President elect Donald Trump demanded. That will place Johnson's
7:31
Speaker 1: reelection on January third for Speaker in a very precarious position.
7:35
Speaker 1: I want to be clear, I support Speaker Johnson, and
7:39
Speaker 1: I think we would get a much more liberal speaker
7:41
Speaker 1: if Speaker Johnson is pushed out. And I don't like
7:44
Speaker 1: what we're doing right now. Every time somebody because there's
7:48
Speaker 1: such a thin margin for Republicans that there's a lot
7:51
Speaker 1: of power now given to certain members in Congress. And
7:54
Speaker 1: I don't like where we're headed with this, because if
7:56
Speaker 1: you don't like your one way or the way things
7:58
Speaker 1: are going, the fact that you can get rid of
8:00
Speaker 1: another speaker, I think is a very bad decision. I
8:02
Speaker 1: also think that Speaker Johnson has done a very good job,
8:06
Speaker 1: and I think you will serve Donald Trump very well.
8:10
Speaker 1: Much better than Kevin McCarthy would have ever done. And
8:13
Speaker 1: if he's not careful, what's going to happen is you're
8:16
Speaker 1: gonna end up getting a much more liberal member of
8:19
Speaker 1: the body who would end up becoming the Speaker of
8:21
Speaker 1: the House because he'll get some votes from Democrats to
8:24
Speaker 1: do it more than likely, and then you'll lose an
8:26
Speaker 1: actual conservative in Speaker Johnson. That's where we are now
8:31
Speaker 1: with this. Now, let me also put it this way.
8:34
Speaker 1: Punch Bowl News reported on the politics the latest proposed measure,
8:38
Speaker 1: saying this, Johnson is now pushing a short term funding
8:42
Speaker 1: bill that keeps federal agencies open until mid March. The
8:45
Speaker 1: bill would include a hundred billion in disaster aid for
8:48
Speaker 1: the hurricane batter in Southeast and other states. There's also
8:51
Speaker 1: thirty billion in aid for farmers and a one year
8:55
Speaker 1: extension of the current agriculture policy. The measure will be
8:59
Speaker 1: taken up under suspicion according to senior GOP lawmakers and
9:02
Speaker 1: AIDS meeting, meaning it needs a two third majority to pass.
9:07
Speaker 1: There'll be one vote instead of individual votes on the
9:09
Speaker 1: component parts as Johnson's first envisioned. Now what we know
9:14
Speaker 1: is what happened. What we know now it's very clear
9:18
Speaker 1: this has past the House, and it's passed the House,
9:22
Speaker 1: and it now is the sentence. And I'm going to
9:24
Speaker 1: talk about that vote obviously in a moment. But what
9:28
Speaker 1: I want you to understand is this Speaker Johnson was
9:32
Speaker 1: able to get this bill to drop significantly in size
9:37
Speaker 1: and save you the taxpayers, hundreds of billions of dollars.
9:42
Speaker 1: The problem now is you're now going to have a
9:44
Speaker 1: debt sealing vote come early next year, and that's going
9:48
Speaker 1: to be under the Republican leadership and under Donald Trump.
9:51
Speaker 1: There are many people that didn't want that, don't like it,
9:53
Speaker 1: didn't want to have to deal with this, and that's
9:55
Speaker 1: a political issue that we're going to obviously have to
9:58
Speaker 1: deal with. Quick Break Ferguson show, More coming up. So
10:03
Speaker 1: let's talk about the fallout now of this deal. There
10:07
Speaker 1: is clearly blood in the water over this deal, and
10:09
Speaker 1: the sharks are circling around Speaker Johnson because of the
10:15
Speaker 1: fighting and the pork and everything that's in this bill. Now,
10:18
Speaker 1: I want to be clear, when you have this razor
10:21
Speaker 1: thin majority as he does, it gives a lot of
10:24
Speaker 1: yahoos in Congress a lot of power, and it makes
10:27
Speaker 1: you have to listen to more people and to give
10:31
Speaker 1: people more things. They want to make sure you get
10:33
Speaker 1: their vote. Otherwise then you have a government shut down
10:36
Speaker 1: and it's on you, the Republican Party. I want to
10:39
Speaker 1: make it very clear that I still believe that Speaker
10:41
Speaker 1: Johnson is a conservative, and I also want to be
10:44
Speaker 1: clear that I think he's probably the most conservative that
10:47
Speaker 1: we could get elected that would have the votes to
10:49
Speaker 1: be elected as a Speaker of the House. I don't
10:53
Speaker 1: like what we're doing right now, which every time there's
10:56
Speaker 1: a vote on saying significant, there's this litanus test. It's like, well,
10:59
Speaker 1: if you don't get me what I want, then I'm
11:01
Speaker 1: going to get you out of your office and your job.
11:03
Speaker 1: And I don't like a speaker being held hostage by
11:05
Speaker 1: his own party. But that's the road that Republicans are
11:10
Speaker 1: going down right now. And I'm saying it again. I
11:12
Speaker 1: think you have to be extremely careful. You have to
11:15
Speaker 1: be very, very, very very careful, because this is what
11:18
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party does better than us. They don't eat
11:22
Speaker 1: their own. We keep eating our own. And you have
11:26
Speaker 1: to understand that there's ideals and then there's the reality
11:30
Speaker 1: of the numbers. And if you look at the majority
11:32
Speaker 1: and just how thin it is right now, We're lucky
11:35
Speaker 1: to have the majority in the House. To be clear,
11:37
Speaker 1: we're very lucky, and it is a razor thin majority.
11:43
Speaker 1: What Speaker Johnson is having to walk into every day,
11:46
Speaker 1: where any one or two or three Congressmen can hold
11:49
Speaker 1: him hostage every single day of the week on any issue,
11:53
Speaker 1: is not a healthy place for us to be. And
11:55
Speaker 1: it's not Democrats that are holding him hostage, it is
11:58
Speaker 1: Republicans that are holding him home. This is an extremely
12:02
Speaker 1: hard job, especially when you have Republicans are in essence,
12:08
Speaker 1: willing to walk in every day different ones and blackmail him. Now,
12:13
Speaker 1: the deal he negotiated with the Democrats failed to get
12:15
Speaker 1: a vote amid Republican outrage because of what he was
12:19
Speaker 1: having to do, which was to give pork. He had
12:23
Speaker 1: no other option but to do that or to have
12:26
Speaker 1: a government shut down. Now, I want to be clear
12:29
Speaker 1: about what did and didn't happen here because some people
12:32
Speaker 1: are blaming Johnson for all this and they don't understand
12:36
Speaker 1: the reality of the situation. The reason why we got
12:40
Speaker 1: this bill reduced by thirteen hundred plus pages is because
12:45
Speaker 1: the American people started calling, not Johnson but they're actual
12:48
Speaker 1: members of Congress, and the actual members of Congress are
12:50
Speaker 1: feeling the heat. They were afraid they were gonna get
12:52
Speaker 1: in trouble or be primaried, and so then they decided
12:55
Speaker 1: to do the right thing that allowed Johnson to get
12:58
Speaker 1: a different deal done. And there's people that are ignorant.
13:02
Speaker 1: They don't understand Johnson does not have near as much
13:05
Speaker 1: power as you think when it comes to counting, because
13:08
Speaker 1: you still have to count to two eighteen to pass something,
13:11
Speaker 1: and Johnson was put in an impossible situation. And one
13:15
Speaker 1: of the good things that came out of Elon Musk's
13:17
Speaker 1: tweets and Vivicar Ramasom's tweets and Donald Trump's tweets is
13:20
Speaker 1: that there was so much pressure put on members of
13:22
Speaker 1: Congress to do the right thing that that's what happened.
13:25
Speaker 1: This was not Speaker Johnson's fault. And if you think
13:28
Speaker 1: that it is, you need to understand how Washington works,
13:31
Speaker 1: and that's my job here is to explain it to you.
13:35
Speaker 1: I also think that there is a problem, and this
13:39
Speaker 1: is a storm that is brewing because we're going to
13:41
Speaker 1: have a debt ceiling vote going into next year. I
13:43
Speaker 1: don't like that but this is the best deal week
13:45
Speaker 1: apparently could get done at the time, and you still
13:49
Speaker 1: have to be able to count to two eighteen Now.
13:52
Speaker 1: Friday afternoon, for example, there was a Republican representative from
13:56
Speaker 1: New York delivered the latest blow to Johnson, walking into
14:00
Speaker 1: a House Republican conference being to hash on another path
14:03
Speaker 1: forward and made clear that she stands on Johnson's leadership
14:06
Speaker 1: or lack thereof, saying quote, I don't know what's going on,
14:09
Speaker 1: and really that's part of the problem, is what she
14:11
Speaker 1: said to reporters, adding there has been quote zero communication
14:14
Speaker 1: from leadership to the membership. Something should change before January third.
14:18
Speaker 1: So you can already see Republicans are saying hey, and
14:22
Speaker 1: it's one or two of them that can have this
14:24
Speaker 1: much power. This is also an example of Representative Thomas Massey,
14:30
Speaker 1: Republican from Kentucky. He's committed to voting against Johnson as well.
14:34
Speaker 1: Representative Riche McCormick, a Republican from Georgia, said on Thursday
14:38
Speaker 1: he would oppose Johnson if the vote were held today.
14:42
Speaker 1: When asked how frustrating frustrated she was with Johnson. The
14:45
Speaker 1: congresswoman that I mentioned a moment ago from New York answered,
14:50
Speaker 1: how does it sound, referring to how mad she is? Now,
14:54
Speaker 1: that's three Republicans. Look at the majority. It's razor thin.
14:59
Speaker 1: I will tell you right now, there is no one
15:02
Speaker 1: else on the list to be Speaker of the House
15:04
Speaker 1: that is as conservative and or as solid of a
15:07
Speaker 1: Christian is Speaker Johnson. Okay, Speaker Johnson keeps getting put
15:13
Speaker 1: in an impossible situation over and over and over and
15:19
Speaker 1: over and over again. Put into an impossible situation because
15:25
Speaker 1: he has such a small window for success and there
15:29
Speaker 1: are so many liberals out there, an opportunists, I would
15:33
Speaker 1: argue in the Republican Party that can just straight up
15:36
Speaker 1: screw with him whenever they want to. And that is
15:39
Speaker 1: one of the biggest problems here. And that's why they're saying, ooh,
15:42
Speaker 1: there's blood in the water. Oh maybe we can get
15:44
Speaker 1: rid of him. My question is careful what you wish for?
15:48
Speaker 1: Who are you going to get? That's the question that
15:52
Speaker 1: everybody needs to be asking, who are you going to get? Now?
15:59
Speaker 1: Representative of Chip Roy, for example, asking the question today,
16:03
Speaker 1: sidestepping the question over Trump's primary thread over the spinning bill,
16:08
Speaker 1: saying quote, I'm not worried about the politics.
16:11
Speaker 4: Here, take a listen, all right for the very latest
16:13
Speaker 4: on all of this, Let's bring in Texas Republican Cogressman
16:16
Speaker 4: Chip Roy, who serves on the House Budget Committee. So
16:18
Speaker 4: the meeting with the House Republican Conference is still going on.
16:21
Speaker 4: I assume you were there for a time. What's going
16:24
Speaker 4: on inside? And are we going to see a deal?
16:27
Speaker 4: Are we going to see a vote? We're going to
16:29
Speaker 4: see a government shuts down? All options on the table?
16:32
Speaker 5: I don't know. Hey, John, Hey Shannon.
16:35
Speaker 6: Great to be on and yeah, the meeting is still
16:36
Speaker 6: underway as we speak, and we're having a good conversation.
16:39
Speaker 6: And look, President Trump is absolutely right. We need to
16:42
Speaker 6: deal with the dead ceiling. We need to get it
16:43
Speaker 6: on the table so that he can proceed to do
16:45
Speaker 6: what he needs to do without Chuck Schumer rattling the
16:48
Speaker 6: markets with threats of default. That's what Chuck Schumer has
16:50
Speaker 6: said publicly and to people in the Senate. He wants
16:53
Speaker 6: to do so President Trump is right. The question is
16:56
Speaker 6: how we get there. The first bill that was negotiated,
16:58
Speaker 6: obviously was a non starter, and the American people saw
17:01
Speaker 6: everything that was in five and fifty pages.
17:05
Speaker 1: So we've moved the needle forward to a better bill.
17:07
Speaker 1: But it was a bill.
17:07
Speaker 6: And you asked, why did I oppose the bill last night?
17:10
Speaker 6: Thirty eight Republicans opposed it was because it came with
17:13
Speaker 6: two year extension of the debt ceiling, which would be
17:15
Speaker 6: about five trillion dollar a lift in our credit card
17:18
Speaker 6: without any structural spending reforms. So our position is, mister President,
17:23
Speaker 6: we want to deliver for you on a debt ceiling
17:26
Speaker 6: increase to get it out of the way. Chuck Schumer
17:28
Speaker 6: can't abuse it, but we need spending restraints. So what
17:32
Speaker 6: we've been doing for forty eight hours is meeting, meeting
17:34
Speaker 6: with the Vice president, meeting with a lot of folks
17:36
Speaker 6: in his incoming administration. I think we've got the outlines
17:40
Speaker 6: of something that would work, but we're still discussing it
17:42
Speaker 6: as we speak. I think we can get something done
17:45
Speaker 6: that will make everybody happy. We're working hard to do it.
17:48
Speaker 4: Okay, we'll talk about the outlines in just a second,
17:50
Speaker 4: and let me come back to this idea of the
17:52
Speaker 4: debt ceiling and voting against the proposal the President Trump
17:55
Speaker 4: was proposing and was getting behind. He was supporting it
17:58
Speaker 4: because he's now taken at you saying that you, Chip
18:01
Speaker 4: Royer getting in the way of what he wants done,
18:03
Speaker 4: and he's encouraging Republicans in Texas to primary you.
18:07
Speaker 5: You've really poked the barrier.
18:10
Speaker 1: Yeah.
18:10
Speaker 6: Look, at the end of the day, my job is
18:12
Speaker 6: to honor God, my family, the Constitution, and the voters
18:15
Speaker 6: who sent me here.
18:16
Speaker 5: That is what drives me.
18:18
Speaker 6: But I am working tirelessly to get what the president wants.
18:21
Speaker 6: I think the President knows that at the end of
18:23
Speaker 6: the day. Look politics or politics. Rick Perry called President
18:27
Speaker 6: Trump a cancer and then ended up in his cabinet.
18:29
Speaker 6: I'm not worried about politics. I'm worried about the American people.
18:32
Speaker 6: I'm worried about inflation. I'm worried about a five trillion
18:34
Speaker 6: dollars debt sealing increase with no spending cuts. The President
18:38
Speaker 6: is rightly motivated to block Chuck Schumer's abuse, but we
18:41
Speaker 6: Republicans here in Congress, in the House have an obligation
18:45
Speaker 6: to get it done correctly. That's what we're working to
18:47
Speaker 6: try to do on behalf of the President and our
18:50
Speaker 6: constituents and our obligations under the Constitution.
18:53
Speaker 5: All right, So let's look behind the curtain.
18:55
Speaker 4: If we could just a little bit because our Aisha
18:56
Speaker 4: Husti tells us that there's a couple of options being talked.
19:00
Speaker 5: About right now.
19:01
Speaker 4: One is a CR that will be coupled with Disaster
19:03
Speaker 4: Aiate and Farm made.
19:05
Speaker 5: It would be effective through March.
19:07
Speaker 4: It would be the vote would be on a suspension
19:09
Speaker 4: of the rules which limits debate no amendments. Or option
19:12
Speaker 4: number two is a CR Disaster Rate and farm made
19:15
Speaker 4: of separate bills in separate votes.
19:17
Speaker 5: Which way do you think is going to go?
19:19
Speaker 6: Well, that is what is being debated as we speak,
19:21
Speaker 6: and I don't want to get in front of the
19:22
Speaker 6: speaker or my colleagues making news here or violate confidences
19:26
Speaker 6: of a private meeting. But everything hinges on getting comfortable
19:30
Speaker 6: with the outlines and the contours of spending restraint next
19:34
Speaker 6: year in reconciliation as part of the agreement on how
19:37
Speaker 6: much we can lift the debt ceiling. I think we're
19:39
Speaker 6: getting comfortable with that outline as we speak, and then
19:42
Speaker 6: if so, one of two things will happen. Either the
19:45
Speaker 6: package last night without the debt ceiling attached to it
19:48
Speaker 6: will move forward because the President is comfortable that we're
19:51
Speaker 6: going to be able to get that done in January
19:53
Speaker 6: or there might be some standalone votes on a continual
19:56
Speaker 6: resolution plus the Farm Bill extension of one year a separate.
20:00
Speaker 1: Now you can hear there they're talking to him about
20:02
Speaker 1: this vote. We know what happened, We understand this. But
20:05
Speaker 1: I want you to notice now what the media has done.
20:09
Speaker 1: They are now trying to turn these votes into a
20:12
Speaker 1: civil war within the Republican Party. Chip Roy's a good man,
20:17
Speaker 1: he's a fiscal conservative, he's a Christian, he's a hard
20:21
Speaker 1: fighter for our constitution, and he's somebody that I would
20:25
Speaker 1: argue as a great member of Congress. I tell you
20:31
Speaker 1: this tale to remind you to be careful to not
20:35
Speaker 1: fall into the civil war idea within the Republican Party,
20:38
Speaker 1: because this is what Democrats want. They want Donald Trump
20:41
Speaker 1: angry to a conservative, hardcore member of Congress and being
20:45
Speaker 1: at odds with one another. That is a problem. We
20:48
Speaker 1: do not need to be in a civil war period.
20:53
Speaker 1: So the media is going to spend this in a
20:56
Speaker 1: different way. What the media is going to do is
20:59
Speaker 1: they are going to spin it to tell you to
21:02
Speaker 1: make you believe, okay, that this is somehow it was
21:06
Speaker 1: a big waste of time, and that nothing actually big,
21:09
Speaker 1: good or successful came out of this. I'll give you
21:13
Speaker 1: an example of what I mean by this. Center Haggerty,
21:17
Speaker 1: Republican Tennessee, was on a State of the Union on
21:22
Speaker 1: CNN on Sunday, and I want you to hear what
21:25
Speaker 1: he had to say, as CNN tried to turn averting
21:29
Speaker 1: a shutdown, which is a victory, into a somehow disaster
21:35
Speaker 1: and also trying to claim that you guys really didn't
21:38
Speaker 1: accomplish anything at all by cutting fifteen hundred pages of spending, waste, abuse,
21:45
Speaker 1: and fraud and just pure corruption out of the first bill,
21:49
Speaker 1: which turned into the second bill that was one hundred
21:51
Speaker 1: and something pages. All right, I want you to hear
21:54
Speaker 1: CNN putting this together, trying to tell America that this
21:58
Speaker 1: was somehow a failure for Trump, a failure for people
22:03
Speaker 1: that want to have responsibility in spending, a failure for
22:06
Speaker 1: Elon Musk, a failure for Romasawmi, a failure for DOJE,
22:11
Speaker 1: even though it clearly was a victory. And then they're like, oh,
22:13
Speaker 1: and by the way, you guys didn't increase the debt ceiling,
22:16
Speaker 1: so you' are gonna have to do that in Trump
22:18
Speaker 1: and Trump demand it, So you guys failed him. There
22:20
Speaker 1: so this is a disaster. Look, you still got to
22:23
Speaker 1: get the votes, and you have a Democratic Senate, and
22:26
Speaker 1: the Democratics Senate had to agree to something, and I
22:29
Speaker 1: think they weren't going to agree to increase the debt
22:31
Speaker 1: ceiling because they want to force Donald Trump to do
22:35
Speaker 1: that when he's in office. So there's what you want
22:38
Speaker 1: and there's reality. And the reality was Republicans had to
22:42
Speaker 1: give something to the Senate that the Senate would actually pass.
22:45
Speaker 1: And so Democrats made it very clear they did not
22:48
Speaker 1: want to increase the debt ceiling, even though this is
22:52
Speaker 1: clearly Joe Biden's fault, and they want to hand that
22:55
Speaker 1: negative to Donald Trump when he comes into office in January. Again,
23:00
Speaker 1: you want to know how corrupt CNN is. You want
23:03
Speaker 1: to know how how terrible data Bash is at her job,
23:06
Speaker 1: and you want to hear just how evil they are
23:08
Speaker 1: about telling you what's actually going on in America. Listen
23:11
Speaker 1: to this back and forth with her and with Center
23:14
Speaker 1: Bill Haggerty. He's on the Appropriations Committee. That's why they
23:17
Speaker 1: had him on. Listen.
23:19
Speaker 7: Understandable given what you just described and what we all witnessed,
23:23
Speaker 7: but also given the fact that you know him well
23:27
Speaker 7: and you understand what he was going for. The final
23:30
Speaker 7: spending bill that you all approved did not have any
23:33
Speaker 7: new spending cuts. It didn't include the debt limit increase
23:37
Speaker 7: that Donald Trump was demanding. So what did he accomplish
23:41
Speaker 7: with all of this?
23:43
Speaker 8: Well, the main thing, and I can share with you
23:45
Speaker 8: my perspective on a Dana, is this. We have had
23:49
Speaker 8: our appropriations bills on the floor of the United States
23:52
Speaker 8: Senate since this past summer. Chuck Schumer has refused to
23:55
Speaker 8: bring them forward.
23:56
Speaker 1: This is a.
23:56
Speaker 8: Typical Washington process where we wind up with a work
23:59
Speaker 8: product that the American public can't possibly understand. They dumped
24:02
Speaker 8: over fifteen hundred pages on us, and Elon Musk using
24:05
Speaker 8: the tool of Twitter, brought transparency to the entirety of it.
24:08
Speaker 8: The American public were shocked. We are always shocked when
24:11
Speaker 8: we see these types of monstrosities at the last minute
24:13
Speaker 8: that haven't been properly vetted. And President Trump was able
24:16
Speaker 8: to bring his weight to the table and say, look, this.
24:19
Speaker 5: Has got to stop.
24:19
Speaker 8: This has got to be skinning down, this has got
24:21
Speaker 8: to change. My overarching goal coming into this was to
24:24
Speaker 8: make certain that the government didn't shut down. Because President
24:27
Speaker 8: Trump over the next thirty days, needs to be able
24:29
Speaker 8: to process his nominees. We need to be able to
24:31
Speaker 8: put him place to get to work on January the twentieth,
24:34
Speaker 8: because three quarters of the American public feel that the
24:37
Speaker 8: United States is on the wrong track right now. So
24:40
Speaker 8: I appreciate the fact that Elon Musk made this transparent
24:42
Speaker 8: and that we were able to actually improve this. We
24:44
Speaker 8: didn't get everything we wanted, certainly I didn't, but we're
24:47
Speaker 8: in a better place now because we're going to be
24:48
Speaker 8: in a position to make certain that President Trump is
24:50
Speaker 8: ready to go in day one.
24:52
Speaker 1: I got to give kudos to Haggarty for dealing with
24:54
Speaker 1: it the way that he just did and saying it
24:56
Speaker 1: the way that he just did. They dumped over fifteen
25:00
Speaker 1: hundred pages on us, and I appreciate the fact that
25:02
Speaker 1: Elon Musk made this transparent. This is the reason why
25:07
Speaker 1: I will never trust the media again, because the lack
25:09
Speaker 1: of transparency from the media. They don't want there to
25:13
Speaker 1: be transparency. They do not want for you and I
25:17
Speaker 1: to know what's happening. Neither does the swamp. They want
25:20
Speaker 1: us guessing all the time. They don't want us to
25:23
Speaker 1: understand what is in the bills. This goes back to
25:25
Speaker 1: Nancy Pelosi. We won't know what's in the bill until
25:29
Speaker 1: we pass the bill. That is the mantra of the left.
25:34
Speaker 1: All right, now, there's a second part of this that
25:38
Speaker 1: I want you to know about that it's becoming an
25:40
Speaker 1: issue as well, and that is Speaker Johnson. There are
25:44
Speaker 1: many that are hoping that Donald Trump will come in
25:47
Speaker 1: and that there will be a big fight and they
25:50
Speaker 1: will get rid of Speaker Johnson, and that there will
25:52
Speaker 1: be chaos within the Republican Party. I'm going to say
25:55
Speaker 1: what I said earlier. I'm going to warn you about
25:57
Speaker 1: this right now. Speaker Johnson and at this point is
26:01
Speaker 1: clearly the most conservative speaker that we could get. And
26:03
Speaker 1: if we get rid of Speaker Johnson, I'm telling you
26:06
Speaker 1: right now, we're going to get a much more liberal speaker.
26:09
Speaker 1: That is why Democrats are pushing for this. Okay, I'll
26:13
Speaker 1: give you an example of how they're starting to bring
26:15
Speaker 1: this into an issue On ABC this week, what did
26:18
Speaker 1: they say about Speaker Johnson. What they said was, well,
26:22
Speaker 1: he's in real trouble and they're wanting this to be
26:25
Speaker 1: the story going into January.
26:26
Speaker 9: Listen carefully, Join now by ABC News contributing political correspondent
26:32
Speaker 9: and Political Capital Bureau chief Rachel Bade.
26:35
Speaker 1: So, Rachel, why.
26:36
Speaker 9: Did so many Republicans defy Trump?
26:40
Speaker 3: Well, you know, John, in a lot of ways, I
26:41
Speaker 3: feel like President Trump was sort of asking for the
26:44
Speaker 3: impossible in this situation. I mean, there's been a lot
26:46
Speaker 3: of hot takes out there that he in some way
26:48
Speaker 3: has lost his juice with Republicans or his way with
26:51
Speaker 3: the party. I don't buy that, and I'll tell you why.
26:53
Speaker 3: I mean, if you look at debt ceiling votes, historically,
26:57
Speaker 3: this is a toxic vote for Republicans, especially when you're
26:59
Speaker 3: trying to raise the debt healing without corresponding spending cuts
27:02
Speaker 3: or really any spending cuts whatsoever. And I went back
27:05
Speaker 3: and looked at a lot of the votes on the
27:07
Speaker 3: debt ceiling in past years, even when President Trump was
27:09
Speaker 3: president before, and way more Republicans opposed it. I'm talking
27:13
Speaker 3: about in the hundreds to two hundred at one point,
27:16
Speaker 3: and so I'm surprised that only thirty eight Republicans actually
27:18
Speaker 3: opposed this. The bigger issue, in my view, is this
27:22
Speaker 3: sheer breakdown in communication between President Trump and Speaker Johnson. Here.
27:25
Speaker 3: I mean President Trump.
27:26
Speaker 1: By the way, you notice how all this is doom
27:28
Speaker 1: and gloom, Like, are you hearing this? We cut fifteen
27:32
Speaker 1: hundred pages of government waste, and they're saying it's doom
27:36
Speaker 1: and gloom. We cut a bill with transparency because of
27:41
Speaker 1: the influence of Donald Trump and Elon Musk and X
27:45
Speaker 1: and putting it out there, having transparency for the people,
27:48
Speaker 1: and they're telling you it's doom and gloom. I want
27:51
Speaker 1: you to understand that what happened to Donald Trump in
27:54
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen is exactly the way the media is wanting
27:57
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four to go. He's lost his juice, He's
28:02
Speaker 1: already he's already in trouble. Are this is a disaster
28:06
Speaker 1: for Republicans. They're already fighting. I can't believe that in
28:10
Speaker 1: cut government spending. I can't believe that they were in
28:12
Speaker 1: this situation. Donald Trump had an unrealistic expectation for Republicans,
28:20
Speaker 1: all of this doom and gloom. Even in a successful
28:25
Speaker 1: vote that cut a bill by fifteen hundred pages, eighty
28:30
Speaker 1: something percent of the pages disappeared because of transparency. And
28:34
Speaker 1: somehow they start every single Sunday morning talk show saying
28:37
Speaker 1: the same damn thing. Wow, Donald Trump may have lost
28:40
Speaker 1: his juice. Donald Trump got screwed by Republicans. The Speaker
28:45
Speaker 1: of the House is going to lose everything. Oh, look
28:47
Speaker 1: how bad things are. Woe is me. Look how terrible
28:50
Speaker 1: things are. Look how awful things are, One after another,
28:53
Speaker 1: after another, after another after another. Doom and gloom, doom
28:56
Speaker 1: and gloom, doom and gloom, doom and gloom, doom and gloom.
28:59
Speaker 1: It's constant with these people. It is constant. And so
29:03
Speaker 1: what I would say is, when you hear this, look
29:06
Speaker 1: at the reality of the situation. Was this a success
29:09
Speaker 1: this week? Yes, what I've loved for the debt ceiling
29:11
Speaker 1: have been raised. Yes, But I'm also a realist and
29:13
Speaker 1: I know that the Democrats have controlled the Senate and
29:15
Speaker 1: they weren't gonna vote for that, and then there would
29:17
Speaker 1: have been a government shutdown, and it wasn't gonna hurt
29:19
Speaker 1: Joe Biden because he's already out of office. And then
29:22
Speaker 1: Donald Trump could have inherited a government that was shut down.
29:25
Speaker 1: If you go back to ABC this week in the
29:27
Speaker 1: second part of the interview, So the first part is
29:29
Speaker 1: everything's bad, Donald Trump's losses Mojoe, Democrats are brilliant, uh,
29:34
Speaker 1: And Donald Trump is going to lose a speaker. Right,
29:37
Speaker 1: that's the second part of this, right, because they're gonna
29:39
Speaker 1: tell you how bad things are, and then they're gonna
29:40
Speaker 1: they're starting they're trying to start civil war between Speaker
29:43
Speaker 1: Johnson and Maga Republicans so that you believe that he
29:47
Speaker 1: is a terrible person. And it's all about you believing that.
29:51
Speaker 1: Listen to part two of ABC This Week where they say,
29:55
Speaker 1: and then this war between Speaker Johnson Donald Trump, Oh,
29:58
Speaker 1: it's really bad, folks.
30:00
Speaker 3: Johnson he wanted him to do this right after the election.
30:02
Speaker 3: That they've been talking about this for a long time.
30:04
Speaker 3: Johnson's folks have been sort of under the impression that
30:07
Speaker 3: this wasn't a big priority for President Trump until two
30:09
Speaker 3: days before the deadline when he came up and sort
30:11
Speaker 3: of blew up the deal. Also, President Trump was under
30:13
Speaker 3: the impression that when he did add the debt ceiling
30:16
Speaker 3: to the cr of the Continuing Resolution, that it was
30:18
Speaker 3: actually going to pass, and that's why he sort of
30:20
Speaker 3: leaned in and tried to sort of say, look, Republicans,
30:22
Speaker 3: you need to do this. If he had known he
30:24
Speaker 3: was going to lose thirty eight Republicans, he wouldn't have
30:26
Speaker 3: done this and so the relationship right now. I mean,
30:29
Speaker 3: they've got some work to do if they want to
30:30
Speaker 3: be effective next year.
30:32
Speaker 1: Johnson, They've got some work to do, folks. I don't believe,
30:36
Speaker 1: by the way, any of the craps you just said.
30:38
Speaker 1: I think Donald Trump leaned in to cut fifteen hundred
30:42
Speaker 1: pages of a sixteen hundred plus page bill, and that's
30:46
Speaker 1: what he leaned in on. Did he get everything he
30:48
Speaker 1: wanted to know? Our Democrats in control of the Senate? Yes,
30:51
Speaker 1: is there a slim majority in the House? Yes? Was
30:53
Speaker 1: this going to be tough to do right before people
30:55
Speaker 1: are leaving and many people are leaving Congress forever that
30:58
Speaker 1: lost re election because they're going to stick it to Trump,
31:00
Speaker 1: including some Republicans at loss. Yes. Do I believe in
31:05
Speaker 1: this doom and gloom the way that they're talking about it.
31:07
Speaker 1: I do not. I do not at all. And then
31:09
Speaker 1: listen to this part where they're like, ah, well, now
31:11
Speaker 1: we got it. We got a problem with Speaker Johnson.
31:14
Speaker 5: That speaker of Genuary.
31:15
Speaker 3: There it's the million dollar question right now, john I
31:19
Speaker 3: will say people have underestimated Johnson quite a bit in
31:21
Speaker 3: the past year, and oftentimes he's sort of you know
31:24
Speaker 3: outlasts his naysayers here, but the situation is different. I mean,
31:27
Speaker 3: I've talked to a lot of Trump folks over the
31:29
Speaker 3: past couple of days, and Trump has really soured on him.
31:32
Speaker 3: It feels like something in this relationship has really broken.
31:37
Speaker 9: He needs Trump to get reelected.
31:39
Speaker 3: Absolutely, he needs Trump. And not only does he need
31:41
Speaker 3: Trump's endorsement, He's going to need President Trump to lean
31:44
Speaker 3: in to actually get that gavel. And right now I'm
31:46
Speaker 3: hearing from people that there's a real question about whether
31:49
Speaker 3: Trump's going to lift a finger for him to do this.
31:52
Speaker 3: I think the question Trump has to ask himself is
31:54
Speaker 3: is ousting Johnson worth potentially upending his agenda at the
31:58
Speaker 3: beginning of the year and creating this sort of stall
32:01
Speaker 3: in momentum. I mean, look, we remember the speakership chaos.
32:05
Speaker 1: When McCarthy, of course Macarthia.
32:07
Speaker 3: A whole month went by when we had no idea
32:10
Speaker 3: who was leaving the conference. Right now, this speakership vote
32:13
Speaker 3: is set for January third. President Trump, his victory is
32:15
Speaker 3: set to be certified on January sixth. I was talking
32:18
Speaker 3: to someone last night, pretty high up and Republican on
32:20
Speaker 3: the Hill, who was saying that without a speaker, you
32:23
Speaker 3: can't certify his election. So does he really want to
32:26
Speaker 3: do this? Does he want to stall his agenda? But
32:28
Speaker 3: perhaps he feels like it's worth it. I guess time
32:30
Speaker 3: will tell, all right, Rachel bag.
32:32
Speaker 1: By the way, I want to tell you multiple reasons
32:35
Speaker 1: why I disagree with the analysis that I just played
32:37
Speaker 1: for you. I don't believe that their rift is anything
32:41
Speaker 1: close to what they're trying to do on TV, which
32:43
Speaker 1: is to trying to start a civil war. I believe
32:46
Speaker 1: that Speaker Johnson and Donald Trump have a good working relationship.
32:52
Speaker 1: They have done multiple events together recently. He's been down
32:56
Speaker 1: at mar Lago recently. Multiple times, they had multileultiple events
33:00
Speaker 1: together on the campaign trail. They helped raise money to
33:03
Speaker 1: get others elected, Republicans elected, and they worked really well
33:07
Speaker 1: getting Donald Trump into tight races to make sure that
33:10
Speaker 1: they were able to win a Senate majority, as thin
33:13
Speaker 1: as it may be a House majority, I should say,
33:16
Speaker 1: as soon as it may be. I don't believe this
33:20
Speaker 1: idea that Speaker Johnson is in serious trouble. In fact,
33:24
Speaker 1: I would argue that Donald Trump is smart enough right
33:26
Speaker 1: now to say, hey, I need to move forward with
33:29
Speaker 1: an agenda with a conservative and Speaker Johnson is the
33:33
Speaker 1: best conservative that could get elected right now. What they're
33:37
Speaker 1: hoping is that this is a party in chaos. Headline
33:43
Speaker 1: today Johnson Carl Congress chaos right. This is how they
33:49
Speaker 1: spread it to the country. This is how they try
33:51
Speaker 1: to start a civil war. Listen.
33:54
Speaker 9: If you were watching Congress this week, you might have
33:56
Speaker 9: thought for a moment that Donald Trump is already president.
34:00
Speaker 9: Along with his most high profile and wealthiest advisor, Trump
34:04
Speaker 9: upended a bipartisan spending deal that had been months in
34:07
Speaker 9: the making. But the power of a president elect, just
34:11
Speaker 9: like the power of a president, only goes so far.
34:14
Speaker 9: And while Trump's hold on the Republican Party is not
34:17
Speaker 9: in doubt, we saw that his power to get Congress
34:19
Speaker 9: to do what he wants has its limits. As Congress
34:23
Speaker 9: veered towards a shutdown, Trump made only one non negotiable demand.
34:28
Speaker 9: He said that the bill to keep the government open
34:31
Speaker 9: must also increase or abolish the so called debt cealing
34:35
Speaker 9: that's the amount the federal government can.
34:37
Speaker 5: Borrow to pay its bills.
34:39
Speaker 9: Without this, Trump said on social media, we should never
34:43
Speaker 9: make a deal. And this wasn't just advice. It came
34:46
Speaker 9: with a warning that he might campaign against Republicans who
34:50
Speaker 9: dared to defy him. Trump declaring any Republican that would
34:54
Speaker 9: be so stupid as to do this should and will
34:58
Speaker 9: be primaried with that. Thirty eight Republicans defied their president's elect.
35:04
Speaker 9: They were either unworried about his warning or simply didn't
35:08
Speaker 9: take it seriously.
35:09
Speaker 1: And in the end, by the way, or it was
35:12
Speaker 1: Republicans that were leaving office. Notice how they don't tell
35:16
Speaker 1: you that part of the story. There are members of
35:19
Speaker 1: Congress that are not coming back that voted on this.
35:22
Speaker 1: It would be nice if they ran out actually honest
35:24
Speaker 1: enough to tell you that. They haven't told you that.
35:25
Speaker 1: And the reason why it's very clear they don't want
35:28
Speaker 1: you to know that. But remember this is all about
35:31
Speaker 1: doom and gloom, and I'm warning you the propaganda is
35:35
Speaker 1: full speed ahead right now. Keep listening to part two
35:38
Speaker 1: of this propaganda.
35:40
Speaker 9: One hundred and seventy Republicans, along with almost all of
35:44
Speaker 9: the Democrats, approved a bill to temporarily fund the government
35:48
Speaker 9: without raising the dead sealing, again defying Trump's demand. Trump
35:54
Speaker 9: had very good reason to insist on raising or eliminating
35:57
Speaker 9: the dead sealing. The government is on pace to hit
36:00
Speaker 9: the limit on how much it can borrow next spring,
36:03
Speaker 9: and if it is not raised, the government faces default
36:06
Speaker 9: with dire consequences for the economy and for the Trump agenda.
36:11
Speaker 5: This week proved he won't.
36:13
Speaker 9: Be able to count on Republicans alone to avert that disaster.
36:18
Speaker 9: One casualty of this shutdown mess maybe the Speaker of
36:21
Speaker 9: the House, Mike Johnson. He tried to do Trump's bidding
36:25
Speaker 9: and he failed, hurting his standing with the President elect
36:29
Speaker 9: and with at least some of his Republican colleagues. Will
36:32
Speaker 9: he be re elected as Speaker when Congress reconvenes on
36:36
Speaker 9: January third, with a minuscule Republican majority, that could take
36:40
Speaker 9: a minor miracle. On the show this morning, we'll hear from.
36:44
Speaker 1: A Republican again. That is the lead in. You just
36:48
Speaker 1: noticed in that lead in there was not a single
36:50
Speaker 1: thing about a massive cut in the number of pages.
36:55
Speaker 1: That is the beginning of ABC's this week when they're
37:00
Speaker 1: running their biggest show of the week and they start
37:03
Speaker 1: with Congress chaos. Chaos, by the way, you could argue
37:07
Speaker 1: to be a government shutdown which we didn't have. Chaos
37:10
Speaker 1: would be passing a bill that no one had read
37:13
Speaker 1: which didn't happen. Chaos would be a bill filled with
37:16
Speaker 1: pork so big that it was seventeen sixteen hundred pages
37:21
Speaker 1: that didn't happen. We cut fifteen hundred pages from a bill.
37:27
Speaker 1: Does that sound like chaos? Doesn't sound like chaos to me.
37:32
Speaker 1: We have a Speaker who had a very tight majority
37:35
Speaker 1: and got a deal done to avert a government shutdown,
37:38
Speaker 1: which they would have definitely blamed on Donald Trump. That
37:42
Speaker 1: didn't happen either. We have a debt ceiling vote that's
37:45
Speaker 1: going to come up, no doubt about it. But the
37:47
Speaker 1: reality is they've got now time to think about how
37:50
Speaker 1: they're going to do it, and how they're gonna do
37:52
Speaker 1: it in the best way possible. I will go back
37:55
Speaker 1: to what I said at the beginning. I don't believe
37:58
Speaker 1: that Speaker Johnson has a mass of soured relationship with
38:01
Speaker 1: Donald Trump right now. I think that's a media telling
38:03
Speaker 1: a lie. I wanted to start a civil war. I
38:06
Speaker 1: believe that this was a great scenario, a great scenario
38:10
Speaker 1: that what just took place, and I'm glad that it
38:13
Speaker 1: took place the way that it did. I'm glad we
38:15
Speaker 1: got rid of fifteen hundred pages. This was what I
38:18
Speaker 1: would refer to as a very clear victory for Donald Trump.
38:21
Speaker 1: And yet the media doesn't mention the number of pages cut,
38:24
Speaker 1: and they still tell you it's a terrible day in America.
38:27
Speaker 1: You need to remember they lie to you on purpose
38:30
Speaker 1: for a reason. They lie to you on purpose because
38:33
Speaker 1: they want you to hate Trump, and they want you
38:36
Speaker 1: to hate Speaker Johnson, and they want you to think
38:38
Speaker 1: they can't govern, and they want you to be angry.
38:41
Speaker 1: Don't take the bait. Enjoy knowing that we just had
38:47
Speaker 1: a victory of cutting government waste and spending. Don't forget
38:53
Speaker 1: Share this podcast with your family and friends on social media.
38:56
Speaker 1: Please write us a five star review and I will
38:59
Speaker 1: see you back here tomorrow.