Stephen K. Vance and Alex Blumberg discuss the possibility of a government shutdown on Friday, and how to avoid it. They also talk about what to do if it happens and why it might not happen. They're joined by Rep. Andy Biggs (R-VA) and Jose Garza (D-CA).
00:03:53.660I don't understand why we're playing their game and talking about clean CRs and and quivering in the fact that the Biden regime coming back from being a supplicant in the Bay Area to Xi, right, would have to shut the regime down.
00:04:08.320Why are we playing the game of the left, Congressman Andy Biggs?
00:04:13.760Steve, it's good to good to be with you again.
00:04:15.700Let me just tell you that what I think is going on here is that the new speaker is concerned about several things.
00:04:25.700We have a lot of of our colleagues, my colleagues who are just basically petrified at the word shutdown.
00:04:33.580They don't. They're afraid that we might get to shut down.
00:04:36.480So so they'll do anything to avert shutdown, including in this case, swallowing continuation of the spending and the policies of Biden, Schumer and Pelosi.
00:04:46.760So that's I think that's one of them. The second thing that they do is they say, well, we're not going to have a get this.
00:04:53.800They qualify it. We're not going to have a December omnibus spending package, which is what we've done for umpteen years.
00:05:01.300Right. Which gives us this massive debt.
00:05:03.240We continue on. So but when just because you're not doing your omnibus in December doesn't mean you're not going to get stuck with an omnibus, which might happen in January.
00:05:13.320So so it becomes a problem. But so those are two things they're trying to avoid.
00:05:17.880And the third thing that they're trying to sell us on is they're trying to say we're going to break up the status quo in Washington, D.C.
00:05:25.860And we're going to do that by doing this laddered approach.
00:05:28.100But the problem is a laddered approach, a two step approach, which is what this really is.
00:05:34.920And if it's if it's a clean CR where you're not attacking programs, you're not attacking spending, you're not trying to leverage to get the administration to do things like, I don't know, close the border.
00:05:46.260Then you are still maintaining the status quo of clean CRs, whereas that's where you fund the government with a monolithic spending package.
00:05:55.180The only thing different here is it's it's you've got two components to it instead of one.
00:06:01.580So that's the only thing I can tell you, Steve, about why I think they're doing what they're doing.
00:06:06.620Well, the one one thing into the credit, they are they are pitching, hey, in our model, there's no supplemental.
00:06:13.780There's no Ukraine. There's no Israel.
00:06:15.460You just you just get these clean CRs and it just buys us some time.
00:06:21.100But what don't they get about they have to understand that that not just this audience, but you, the House Freedom Caucus, just the fiscal hawks over there are not going to continue both the woke and weaponized policies of the Biden regime,
00:06:35.400but also the spending levels of Schumer and Pelosi.
00:06:38.360Why would anybody ever think that that's something that people would agree to?
00:06:43.880Well, again, you've got a lot of this is is remnants of the McCarthy era.
00:06:50.440I mean, the fact that we're where we are is not because of Mike Johnson, because of McCarthy.
00:06:54.420But I think Johnson, there's a significant number of my colleagues who are, you know, they they they're very, very nervous.
00:07:03.400And so they don't want to to run a risk of of having a shutdown of even one day or 24 hours or 72 hours because they're afraid of the publicity and the and what might happen.
00:07:16.740But the bottom line is, if if we capitulate to this package, then then we basically we I think that the base leaves us.
00:07:29.800I think the base says, well, why you guys are no different ultimately than than you were under McCarthy.
00:07:35.100You're no different than in the past. You're going to continue on.
00:07:37.960We're going to have the same problems. You will not attack attack inflation.
00:07:41.540You will not attack the border. You will not attack energy.
00:07:44.300You will not attack every problem that we have. Education, woke, crap, all that stuff.
00:07:50.780And I just would suggest and I and I have suggested to the speaker, actually, that this is an opportunity.
00:07:58.560He should view this as a leverage point. You don't get very many leverage points in a legislative term.
00:08:04.720You might get four or five max over a two year period.
00:08:09.300This is a leverage point. And I think that we're about to see it go out the window because, Steve, I think you're probably hearing the same thing I'm hearing.
00:08:19.200Democrats in the Senate, McConnell in the Senate, they actually are embracing this plan.
00:08:24.520Democrats in the House are starting to embrace it.
00:08:26.820So you're going to end up with it. Let's say we get 40, 50 Republicans stay off this thing, maybe more.
00:08:32.240Don't be surprised if you see Democrats help this limp along, both in the House and in the Senate.
00:08:37.920I also want to mention that there's some D.C. insider because in the C.R., it's not totally clean in that they slip in.
00:08:51.400Correct me if I'm wrong. They slip in the agriculture bill, which everybody's saying, hey, you still got the Chinese problem.
00:08:57.480You got the you got the well, you got the food stamp problem.
00:09:00.240You got all these things you can't pass. You can't pass on your own.
00:09:03.080How can you play the D.C. insider game by sliding that in and giving it a one year extension? Correct.
00:09:08.540Yeah, that's that's exactly right, which, by the way, took us all by surprise because that wasn't mentioned when we were getting briefed on the on the C.R.
00:09:16.380as it is today. We we all found out later on about this, this this farm bill and the farm bill.
00:09:22.940By the way, Steve, that has to be reauthorized every five years. This and so it's it's up at the on December 31st.
00:09:29.240This isn't like they haven't had years to prepare and get this thing right.
00:09:36.240But here we sit and and they they they didn't get it right and they know they didn't get it right.
00:09:41.160So they're going to try to put it in what what's called a must pass piece of legislation to try to get as many Republicans on board to vote for a crap sandwich as possible.
00:09:51.980And that's really what what's happened here.
00:09:53.980If 40 if we get 40, 50, 60, 70, and you get those Democratic votes, everybody's a Mike Johnson fan.
00:10:03.820Doesn't he understand? We're kind of back to the start.
00:10:06.160He's lost the moral high ground here, the moral clarity that we must have massive cuts.
00:10:11.400We got to do it now. We can't play more games because this is just a game.
00:10:15.180You give these guys more time. It's going to be January, February, and then you're into next year.
00:10:18.920It's just going to go on and on. The mass, the blob, the blob wins, particularly you're giving them the spending levels that they want.
00:10:26.860I mean, this is kind of insanity, is it not?
00:10:30.000It really is, because, look, I believe I believe that the negotiated spending levels were too high that most conservatives thought were fine.
00:10:38.840I wanted to go back to the 2019 pre covid levels.
00:10:41.360That's where I was. And now they're asking us to go not just at the post covid levels, but to take the Pelosi, Schumer, Biden levels, which which increased them dramatically.
00:10:54.620And you had a two trillion dollar structural deficit last year.
00:10:57.480So and we get we fall back into this rut.
00:11:12.920And my position is and again, I lay a lot of this, 75 percent of this on the previous speaker.
00:11:19.640But but nonetheless, this current speaker has an opportunity.
00:11:24.440You may not get everything, but you have a chance to actually break the status quo by getting something.
00:11:30.160And we're not. And this proposal doesn't get you what petrifies him, what pet what petrifies him about the media saying, oh, the government shut down is shut down over Thanksgiving.
00:11:51.960Now we know that the interest payment alone this year is going to be over a trillion dollars.
00:11:55.240We hold every card, not some of the cards.
00:11:57.700We actually hold every card. You have to go out and make that case to the American people.
00:12:01.920But that should be the job of the speaker.
00:12:03.960And I realize you still got deadbeats like Scalise and these other people around him.
00:12:07.600But you've got to be able to boldly go and make the case.
00:12:11.000Are there are the same people that oppose McCarthy prepared to make the case to this to the American people as these fights come up over the next couple of days?
00:18:25.100Did this show not tell you months ago that the deficit was six months ago when McCarthy cut the deal that led him and Graves and McHenry to get bounced?
00:18:36.160That they gave an open they agreed to an open pit mining that there was no bottom to this abyss of what the deal they did.
00:18:43.120The worst deal ever cut by any Republicans.
00:19:09.620As we told you, you're going to miss going to be four point five instead of five.
00:19:12.400It came at a four point four and then they admitted the Washington Post, Jeff Stein, those guys ran the math and came back and said, yes, war room's right.
00:19:19.360It's actually a two trillion dollar deficit.
00:22:00.120If you look at what Republicans have have dealt with over the last few years, Republicans lost the White House in 2020, did not win the Senate back in 2022.
00:22:11.780The House has a Republican majority, but it's so narrow they can barely govern.
00:22:59.780You've been one of the biggest proponents out there, but there needs to be change at the RNC.
00:23:03.320Tell the American people, what is your beef?
00:23:06.460Why are you picking on poor Ronna McDaniel?
00:23:10.920Well, let's just start with the fact that Ronna is consoling herself on CNN and MSNBC to get some support because that's where her true base actually lies.
00:23:33.420Let's rip the Band-Aid off, make the smart personnel decision, and fire this lady because, sir, she is working against you or just completely incompetent.
00:23:45.220And I posted the clip from War Room last week on X Twitter.
00:23:50.000It got over a million views, over 10,000 retweets.
00:23:54.080Everyone supports this except for CNN.
00:23:58.220I saw Liz Cheney come out with a quote saying that Ronna should stop President Trump from describing Marxist, fascist, and authoritarian uniparty people in D.C. as vermin, right?
00:24:11.820She doesn't like when President Trump calls her friends rats because that's what they are.
00:24:17.860And that just shows that Liz Cheney thinks Ronna McDaniel is kind of on her side, okay?
00:24:24.580She didn't run to Stephen K. Bannon to tell Trump to calm down.
00:26:27.300The American people, the voters, we are absolutely fed up with this incompetent loser.
00:26:32.680And we just have too much on the line.
00:26:34.500Yes, President Trump is going to bring record numbers of people to the polls.
00:26:38.680But let's all be rowing in the same direction.
00:26:41.940Let's give him a Congress and a Senate that actually will pass his bills and not Paul Ryan us.
00:26:47.600So, sir, we are asking very sincerely, help get rid of Ronna McDaniel at the RNC.
00:26:56.460Let's have respect for the Hispanic woman who's on CNN that says she's not going to vote for Biden because she's working three jobs and falling behind every day.
00:27:05.400Let's have respect for her by making sure when she comes out to vote that it actually counts and we're going to win.
00:33:34.080And then add that to the 275 from last year.
00:33:37.700So the biggest thing that I think is the most exciting about all of this is that 83% of the candidates that are Moms and Dads and chapters endorse were first-time candidates.
00:33:47.840So that means that you have a whole new group of people getting involved and running for office.
00:33:53.140And, Steve, that's so incredibly important.
00:33:55.080You know, we don't just endorse in races where we think we're going to win so we can show this great win rate.
00:34:01.400One of our values at Moms for Liberty is building relationships.
00:34:05.300And so we are helping people to run for office in these local areas.
00:34:10.260And people are hearing arguments or disagreements or conversations about what the best path forward is for American public schools.
00:34:17.800And, you know, even if we didn't win that seat, we are winning because we're endorsing candidates and starting conversations in these areas where we know other people share our concerns.
00:34:27.62070% of Americans generally share our concerns.
00:34:30.860It's just really getting people out to vote.
00:34:33.040And then what I'd love to talk to you about is how we help people to run successful campaigns across America.
00:35:49.640So how are we going to get more people sign up for that, given that that's a great sales pitch, Bannon?
00:35:53.600How are we going to get more people signed up?
00:35:56.260Your school board elections are incredibly important because school board members are making decisions that are affecting your community in huge ways.
00:36:03.580Oftentimes, the school board is the largest employer in any given area.
00:36:07.300The budget is normally larger oftentimes than a county commission's might be.
00:36:11.100And so there's an enormous amount of money and people.
00:36:13.840And it really does direct a lot of what's happening in your community.
00:36:19.620And if you go to our website under resources and candidates, you'll see it there.
00:36:23.760And it's a candidate handbook that covers how to build a campaign team, knowing your numbers, getting out the vote, fundraising, voter contact, messaging.
00:36:34.960Then there's a workbook that really helps you to set fundraising goals, canvassing goals, and vote goals, and crafting budgets, platforms, and talking points, as well as an ability to track volunteers and timelines.
00:36:47.400And then the last is a collateral collection that will help you to be able to have good quality materials that are cohesive that you can share with others.
00:36:55.240And so one of the things that we've recognized is that many people don't know how to run for local office.
00:37:01.960So again, 83% of our candidates in 2023 had never run for office before.
00:37:06.22076% of our candidates that we endorsed in 2022 had never run before.
00:37:10.220So we need to help these people to make smart campaign decisions.
00:37:13.640The other thing that I'll say that we really have to reckon with is money.
00:37:17.840The left puts a ton of money into these races.
00:37:21.520Teachers, unions, all of the school board candidates, Democrat school board candidates in Pennsylvania had their own PACs.
00:37:29.080So there's an enormous amount of money that's going into these races.
00:37:32.800And traditionally, conservatives have just not invested in these races.
00:37:35.900But it's important to get these races on cycle.
00:37:38.900And then you need to understand, if you have a mom and a dad who know who they're voting for for school board, they are clued in on these issues.
00:37:46.340That is the hook that gets them involved and concerned and knowing that they can make change happen.
00:37:51.420And then that goes all the way up ballot.
00:45:04.120They're embracing the idea that they are out to get retribution against the deep state, against the communists, the radicals, the rhinos, and the vermin.