Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - Episode 140 LIVE: Border, Budget, Bureaucrats, Bidens – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:04:50.000 You're not taking Matt Gaetz off the board, okay?

00:04:52.000 Because Matt Gaetz is an American patriot and Matt Gaetz is an American hero.

00:04:57.000 We will not continue to allow the Uniparty to run this town without a fight. 1.00

00:05:02.000 I want to thank you, Matt Gaetz, for holding the line.

00:05:06.000 Matt Gaetz is a courageous man.

00:05:09.000 If we had hundreds of Matt Gaetz in D.C., the country turns around.

00:05:13.000 It's that simple.

00:05:14.000 He's so tough, he's so strong, he's smart, and he loves this country.

00:05:18.000 Matt Gaetz.

00:05:20.000 It is the honor of my life to fight alongside each and every one of you.

00:05:25.000 We will save America!

00:05:28.000 It's choose your fighter time!

00:05:29.000 I'm sending the Firebrand.

00:05:31.000 Welcome back to Firebrand.

00:05:39.000 It's 2024. We're here broadcasting live out of room 2021 of the Rayburn House Office Building at the Capitol Complex in Washington, D.C. And I see already from the comments, several of you have missed me.

00:05:50.000 Haven't gone anywhere but...

00:05:53.000 Over the holidays, we give our team a little bit of a break, but there have been a lot of negotiations.

00:05:57.000 We've been down to the border to continue to observe the disaster there, and so really this is a catch-up episode for everybody regarding what's going on at the border, these budget and...

00:06:08.000 Government spending negotiations, the investigations into the Bidens and hunters showing up in the circus-like atmosphere, and also what we see going on around the world and with our Defense Department.

00:06:20.000 So glad to have you back.

00:06:22.000 Looking forward to a productive 2024. And frankly, it needs to be better than 2023. 2023, we saw the nation go in the wrong direction.

00:06:29.000 Prices continue to rise.

00:06:31.000 And we saw a level of, I think, departure from the policies Even more so during that year, the Biden administration.

00:06:39.000 The only lever of power that Republicans have is the House of Representatives, so we have to use it.

00:06:45.000 We just have to.

00:06:46.000 We have to use the power of the purse, the power of the subpoena, and we've got to have the will to endure a little bit of political pain to deliver on what is...

00:06:56.000 Necessary at this stage of the game to reverse the decline of the country, and there's no disputing that.

00:07:02.000 So now let's go to the border.

00:07:03.000 I went to Eagle Pass, Texas recently, a place that's been overrun by migrants, migrants, illegal aliens, migrants, what they call them, but really they're illegal aliens coming into our country.

00:07:14.000 And here in this video you're seeing right now, you're actually watching Customs and Border Patrol cut the fencing and We're good to go.

00:07:37.000 And to have these defensive barriers.

00:07:40.000 And we should not have your federal tax dollars going to remove those barriers established by the state of Texas.

00:07:47.000 So what you're seeing was given to me.

00:07:49.000 It was video taken by someone who is a federal official.

00:07:53.000 And they shared it with me when I was down there to see.

00:07:57.000 There it is.

00:07:58.000 Just real time.

00:07:59.000 How the wires are being cut.

00:08:00.000 The people are being brought in.

00:08:02.000 And you're funding your own invasion in a lot of ways.

00:08:05.000 But not enough.

00:08:06.000 According to one Democrat congresswoman, the situation in New York has gotten very dire.

00:08:12.000 You see their facilities being overrun, their social services being strained, and it is beyond the pale that this is Democrat congresswoman Representative Clark of New York saying what we really need are more illegal aliens. 0.94

00:08:31.000 She's calling for more illegal aliens from New York.

00:08:34.000 Representative Clark, take a listen.

00:08:37.000 I'm from Brooklyn, New York.

00:08:39.000 We have a diaspora that can absorb a significant number of these migrants.

00:08:45.000 And when I hear colleagues talk about the doors of the inn being closed, no room in the inn, I'm saying, I need more people in my district just for redistricting purposes.

00:09:00.000 And those members could clearly fit here.

00:09:07.000 Don't you see the tell in that?

00:09:09.000 All that matters to some of these people in Congress is what's going to preserve my political power.

00:09:15.000 She's talking about needing illegal immigrants in her district for the purpose of redistricting, because if you're able to demonstrate larger people, then you get more congressional districts.

00:09:25.000 That's what this is about.

00:09:27.000 And throughout America's history, there's always been a time where people have tried to create some mass suffrage or deprive mass suffrage in order to keep or limit political power of others.

00:09:40.000 Great debates in the Congress over these questions in the time that America was grappling with the offals of slavery and how to count various slaves for the purpose of apportioning congressional districts.

00:09:52.000 And here you have these people who oftentimes are in the slave trade because they're part of a human trafficking pipeline that ends up in a place like Chicago or Detroit or New York or Miami.

00:10:04.000 And here you have Congresswoman Clark saying, we can absorb them.

00:10:09.000 We can absorb them.

00:10:11.000 How is that going?

00:10:13.000 We've got a report from James Madison High School where children are no longer allowed to attend class in person because the very process of absorbing illegal immigrants that you just heard from Representative Clark isn't really going so well.

00:10:27.000 Take a listen.

00:10:30.000 Students at a Brooklyn High School had to learn remotely today after thousands of migrants were relocated to their high school because of the storm.

00:10:37.000 CBS2's Natalie Dudridge live in Midwood, Brooklyn at James Madison High School with more.

00:10:42.000 Natalie?

00:10:43.000 Outraged parents and some Midwood community members argued students' classes at James Madison High School should never have been moved online to make room for migrants to temporarily shelter in their gym and auditorium during Tuesday night's storm.

00:10:56.000 What I'm talking about, the human issue here.

00:10:58.000 It's inexcusable to do this to the students of New York City high schools, especially after all they've been through with COVID. They have to come up with another solution.

00:11:06.000 They cannot do this to the school kids.

00:11:07.000 Tuesday, city officials announced nearly 2,000 migrants would be bussed from their tent shelters at Floyd Bennett Field to James Madison High School due to concerns over the tent's ability to stand up to severe weather.

00:11:18.000 We are doing this out of an abundance of caution because of the high winds.

00:11:22.000 Officials said migrant families were bussed back to Floyd Bennett Field at 4.15 Wednesday morning.

00:11:27.000 A timing decision New York State Assemblymember Michael Novikov also questions, along with the costs, staffing and planning required to move hundreds of people.

00:11:36.000 I'm sympathetic for migrants too.

00:11:38.000 I mean, I have no idea why they were moved during the night.

00:11:42.000 You know, those people have kids. 0.97

00:11:44.000 Why 4.15 in the morning?

00:11:46.000 The school is closed anyway, so they could have stayed here until 6 or 7 a.m.

00:11:50.000 Elected officials and community leaders say they can give the city a list of empty buildings much better suited to house migrants during the next storm than a high school would be.

00:12:00.000 Meanwhile, we are told this high school is being cleaned and sports practices, they're still canceled today.

00:12:08.000 We are back live.

00:12:09.000 Mike on Facebook says this all really began when Ronald Reagan engaged in a mass amnesty and there's certainly a fair critique of the Reagan amnesty to be had and levied.

00:12:20.000 And Alan on Getter with a critique of me saying, Matt, why didn't you grow a spine and become Speaker of the House?

00:12:28.000 The answer to that question is that I would not have been able to even garner double-digit votes for such an endeavor.

00:12:35.000 On this podcast, we have laid out extensively that I'm not a particularly popular person among House Republicans.

00:12:41.000 It's not because I'm not conservative.

00:12:43.000 It's because I think that we have to change this system in order to save the country and They just want to run the system.

00:12:49.000 That's all that matters to a lot of my colleagues, just being in the majority so that it can be our hand on the wheel.

00:12:54.000 But if our hand is on the wheel as we're driving over the cliff, that isn't exactly the win that some of them think it is.

00:13:01.000 But appreciate, hey, maybe Alan will run for Congress and vote for me for Speaker one day.

00:13:06.000 Then I'd have one vote.

00:13:07.000 Maybe two.

00:13:09.000 Let's see.

00:13:09.000 I want to go now to some of the bravery that I saw on the border.

00:13:14.000 Sasha, go ahead and put up some of these images we have of...

00:13:17.000 This is Florida Fish and Wildlife.

00:13:20.000 I was meeting with an Eagle Pass, also met with...

00:13:22.000 Florida Highway Patrol, Texas State Police, Texas Guard, Florida Guard.

00:13:26.000 And I gotta tell you, we have got some real patriotic Americans who are on that border who want the tools to secure us.

00:13:34.000 And they know how to do it.

00:13:36.000 You have highly effective water teams there that could establish a deterrent.

00:13:41.000 You have guardsmen who have volunteered for the opportunity to go there.

00:13:44.000 I met one Florida Highway Patrolman from South Florida.

00:13:46.000 He said, when I heard that there was a chance To go to the border and to try to help defend my country, I signed up right then and there.

00:13:54.000 And this was a young man of Hispanic descent who really viewed it as part of his obligation for safety and security to volunteer for this mission.

00:14:01.000 And I didn't want to end my report on the border without giving great tribute to those from all over the country who have the patriotism in their heart to do this job if we will simply allow them to do it.

00:14:14.000 And that's what ought to happen and it's what Biden's blocking.

00:14:18.000 Now we go to a segment we like to call Around the World.

00:14:21.000 Around the World.

00:14:28.000 Today we address the evolving circumstances in Ecuador...

00:14:34.000 And while there is all kind of media attention regarding the conflicts that are oceans away and continents away, right here in the sphere of influence that we considered the American sphere of influence in the Marshall Plan, we have a destabilized government, armed gunmen, taking over a national communications asset, their television station.

00:14:55.000 Take a listen.

00:14:59.000 Tonight, this is the chilling moment armed men storm the set of a public TV channel in Ecuador, firing off guns and waving apparent explosives during a live broadcast.

00:15:10.000 The studio crew taken hostage for at least 15 minutes on air as the country watched.

00:15:18.000 Police later surrounding the station, arresting several suspects.

00:15:23.000 And across Ecuador, fiery blasts rocking multiple cities, this one engulfing a police car.

00:15:29.000 The wave of violence beginning just hours after Ecuador's president declared a state of emergency following a prison escape by notorious Los Choneros gang leader Adolfo Macias.

00:15:40.000 The government battling with what they say are at least 22 different criminal groups angered by that state of emergency.

00:15:47.000 Tonight, authorities say at least seven police officers have been kidnapped.

00:15:50.000 Ecuador, once known as one of South America's most peaceful countries, seeing an explosion in recent years of organized crime-related violence linked to Mexican drug cartels.

00:16:03.000 We are back live and I want to talk about how to think about this destabilization in Ecuador.

00:16:08.000 There's one theory of the case that it's a dangerous country and gangs rise up, a little bit of violence, but ultimately this is something where the government will prevail.

00:16:17.000 There's another line of thinking that we are now entering an era where the drug cartels have been given such a permissive environment.

00:16:26.000 In Mexico, that they are now able to export their malign influence and destabilizing assets. 0.93

00:16:31.000 So the cartels, having been given that home base in the Sinaloa Mountains throughout Mexico, now they're able to say, all right, our most permissive environment to operate is where you have weak nation states, weak borders, and then as people or drugs or weapons are moving around, there aren't a lot of barriers to that illicit movement.

00:16:55.000 And when you have those strong nation states, it's problematic and they try to go topple them.

00:16:59.000 In a way, it's the most devious iteration of the Banana Republic corporatization of governments in Latin America that we saw in the 70s and 80s.

00:17:12.000 Bananas is a great book.

00:17:14.000 I read about it.

00:17:14.000 It kind of goes over how these companies like United Fruit Company and Standard Fruit Company that are now Chiquita and Dole, they would...

00:17:23.000 Do everything they could to get a captive government to allow them to do whatever they wanted with banana plantations, to drive people off their land, to be able to access various growing contracts and growing rights.

00:17:35.000 And so you'd have these fruit companies warring with each other over who got to install their puppet government.

00:17:41.000 Well, take away the fruit companies and insert Mexican cartels.

00:17:45.000 Because that seems to be pretty obviously what's going on right here.

00:17:49.000 The cartels want access to the thoroughfares and the infrastructure.

00:17:54.000 And they don't want a legitimate government to stand in their way.

00:17:57.000 And when one does and has a state of emergency to try to counteract that malign influence, this is the reaction to retaliation you see.

00:18:05.000 I've also got experts on my team who've briefed me that this could also be part of what you see with exporting more and more malign influence from Venezuela. 0.85

00:18:14.000 You've seen Maduro make the argument about why Venezuela has a claim to like two-thirds of the country of Guyana and the Esequibo region.

00:18:21.000 We covered that last year on Firebrand.

00:18:24.000 So this could be another outgrowth of that effort at Venezuelan, South American hegemony.

00:18:30.000 These things should concern us more than which guy in a sweatsuit is running Crimea.

00:18:38.000 Because whether or not we have stable, legitimate governments in our neighborhood affects quality of life here.

00:18:47.000 The connection is far more tenuous in places where we seem to be a lot more interested.

00:18:54.000 One thing that...

00:18:56.000 I want to talk about is this latest scandal with Secretary Lloyd Austin and Breitbart picks up our call for a hearing to determine how the Defense Department, after losing billions of dollars worth of assets in Afghanistan, after failing every financial audit that they've been put through, can literally lose the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was incapacitated.

00:19:24.000 The reports are that he has prostate cancer.

00:19:26.000 He had a procedure associated with that prostate cancer.

00:19:28.000 We, of course, want the best for him in his short and long-term health.

00:19:32.000 But he was incapacitated for five days.

00:19:34.000 He was totally out.

00:19:35.000 And his deputy, Kathleen Hicks, didn't think enough of being the acting Secretary of Defense for those days to terminate her vacation in Puerto Rico. 0.86

00:19:46.000 I'm not making this up.

00:19:49.000 Like, our military was being run by a lady on vacation in Puerto Rico and they didn't even tell the White House.

00:19:58.000 Is Joe Biden so out of it and himself incapacitated that when other people are incapacitated, they don't even feel the need to, I don't know, let somebody know that somebody else should be running the military?

00:20:08.000 Who was in charge of the force protection posture in Iraq where we're getting these one-directional drone strikes coming from Iranian-backed proxies?

00:20:19.000 The Red Sea is like on fire right now with Houthis engaged in naval exercises against energy shipments.

00:20:27.000 This is the time to not tell your boss you're going to be out for five days?

00:20:31.000 There could be something else going on here.

00:20:33.000 There could be a total breakdown in communication between the Pentagon and the White House, and this could just be one iteration of it.

00:20:42.000 We have to explore this, and it's why I've called for hearings, and I'll be giving you updates regarding how the Chairman of the Armed Services Committee plans to proceed.

00:20:50.000 I can tell you that there has been a joint expression of concern from Chairman Rogers and from the lead Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, who we've had on the program, Adam Smith.

00:21:01.000 Also, the Pentagon Inspector General will probe the Lloyd Austin hospitalization.

00:21:06.000 This is news just coming in from a Bloomberg government And that, I think, is certainly an appropriate next action, but we shouldn't outsource that to the Inspector General.

00:21:16.000 We've got to have the hearings in the United States Congress as well.

00:21:21.000 We've also got a report regarding some of these really...

00:21:26.000 Nasty and negative efforts from the January 6th committee to go and goose criminal prosecutions of President Trump.

00:21:34.000 The goal of a congressional committee is not to try to create a yellow brick road for a prosecution.

00:21:42.000 Of anybody.

00:21:43.000 And that may upset some of you.

00:21:45.000 Some of you might think all we ought to be doing is setting up to get handcuffs on people and anything short of that is insufficient oversight.

00:21:52.000 It's not really our job.

00:21:53.000 Our job is to use the power of the purse to make sure the law is being executed in accordance with our commands.

00:21:58.000 And if it's not, don't appropriate money to those programs or those agencies anymore.

00:22:02.000 We don't do that.

00:22:03.000 That's what we should be doing.

00:22:04.000 That would be nice.

00:22:06.000 But in this particular case, we've got a report from Politico, and I'll read from it.

00:22:10.000 In the spring of 2022, the committee staff, and remember, this is the committee staff handpicked by Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, They didn't just run through the typical Capitol Hill types.

00:22:21.000 They went and got people out of CIA, FBI, state attorneys, attorneys general.

00:22:25.000 They really assembled a legal dream team.

00:22:28.000 They helped Fulton County prosecutors prepare for interviews with key witnesses.

00:22:32.000 Georgia prosecutors probing Donald Trump's effort to subvert the 2020 election Got an early boost in the spring of 2022. It came from another set of investigators who were way ahead of them, the House January 6th Select Committee.

00:22:46.000 Committee staff met quietly with lawyers and agents working for Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis in mid-April 2022 just as she prepared to convene a special grand jury investigation.

00:22:59.000 This is an improper use of This is a corrupt collusion between Benny Thompson and Liz Cheney and Fannie Willis.

00:23:11.000 This reporting is something that we could have gotten to a lot quicker if former Speaker McCarthy would have done as many of us demanded and as many of you on the live stream supported.

00:23:21.000 And that is, use the January 6th committee for our purposes.

00:23:25.000 Don't disband it.

00:23:26.000 Put me on there.

00:23:27.000 Put Jordan on there.

00:23:29.000 Put MTG on there.

00:23:31.000 Find the truth out about this stuff, and we would have gotten to this a lot faster, but it took some smart reporters at Politico to get the job done, and thus we now know, and we have to take action as a result of this to shut down the corrupt, illegitimately produced, and invigorated prosecution of Trump from Fannie Willis emanating from the January 6th committee.

00:23:59.000 Now let's talk about Hunter Biden a little bit.

00:24:02.000 He was on the Hill.

00:24:03.000 There was the contempt hearing.

00:24:05.000 Both the House Oversight Committee and the House Judiciary Committee, upon which I serve, have passed resolutions of contempt against Hunter Biden for not agreeing to answer our questions.

00:24:16.000 This was Hunter Biden on the Hill getting a question I don't think he was expecting.

00:24:22.000 Would you please, I'll answer your question if you'd be quiet and let me make a statement, okay?

00:24:27.000 How of crack do you normally smoke, Mr. Biden?

00:24:30.000 Hunter, what's your favorite type of crack?

00:24:35.000 Are you on crack today?

00:24:38.000 Mr. Biden, why did you put your dad on speakerphone with your business workers if you had no involvement in your business?

00:24:44.000 Hunter Biden was not expecting those questions.

00:24:53.000 Sasha, I think you got to give me a little...

00:24:55.000 There we go.

00:24:56.000 There we go.

00:24:56.000 All right.

00:24:56.000 So he wasn't expecting those questions.

00:24:58.000 And certainly it's concerning the way he's treated the Congress and the subpoenas that finally we got out the door directed to him and his interests and his records.

00:25:07.000 And here's what I would have done.

00:25:09.000 If Hunter Biden would have shown up To a committee I was chairing to clown me, I'd have told him to step behind that microphone, I'd have waved the rules, sworn him in, and I'd have asked him this question first.

00:25:21.000 Did you facilitate bribes to your father?

00:25:24.000 He's either going to admit that he did, he's either going to deny it, which will function as a complete and total waiver of any executive privilege he would have, or any Fifth Amendment privilege he would have, or any other privilege he could conjure up, Because he would have denied it.

00:25:39.000 So then he's opened the door to every follow-up question.

00:25:43.000 Or he would have taken the fifth.

00:25:44.000 Which is entirely his right.

00:25:46.000 And just because someone takes the fifth, it does not mean they're guilty.

00:25:48.000 But then he would have had to take the fifth in front of God and everyone.

00:25:53.000 Instead, we get more of this stuff.

00:25:57.000 And I wonder if the accountability is ever going to catch these guys.

00:26:00.000 I really do.

00:26:01.000 It should.

00:26:02.000 But here we are.

00:26:05.000 A year into the Republican control, and so far, the closest we've gotten Hunter Biden to the witness chair is sitting in the first row of the audience.

00:26:17.000 It's not good enough.

00:26:19.000 Nancy Mace was en fuego during that hearing.

00:26:22.000 Take a listen and enjoy.

00:26:26.000 First of all, my first question is, who bribed Hunter Biden to be here today?

00:26:31.000 That's my first question.

00:26:33.000 Second question, you are the epitome of white privilege. 0.96

00:26:37.000 Coming into the oversight committee, spitting in our face, ignoring a congressional subpoena to be deposed. 0.89

00:26:43.000 What are you afraid of? 1.00

00:26:44.000 You have no balls to come up here and... 0.99

00:26:47.000 Mr. Chairman, point of inquiry. 0.99

00:26:48.000 Chair recognizes Ms. Mays.

00:26:50.000 It does not matter who you are, where you come from, or...

00:26:53.000 Who your father is or your last name?

00:26:56.000 Yes, I'm looking at you, Hunter Biden, as I'm speaking to you.

00:26:58.000 You are not above the law at all.

00:27:02.000 The facts in this case are crystal clear.

00:27:04.000 This committee used and issued a lawful subpoena to Hunter Biden, a critical witness in this committee's investigation into Biden family corruption.

00:27:12.000 Hunter Biden and his lawyers did not claim privilege of any kind because clearly he has none.

00:27:17.000 They didn't contest the legitimacy of our reasons for issuing the subpoena, no reasons, because they clearly are legitimate.

00:27:24.000 And yet he refused to comply.

00:27:27.000 Trump's family members, Don Trump Jr., He did not defy a congressional subpoena.

00:27:33.000 He showed up multiple times for multiple depositions for several hours.

00:27:38.000 In doing so, you know, Hunter Biden broke the law.

00:27:40.000 He did so deliberately.

00:27:42.000 You did so flagrantly.

00:27:43.000 You showed up on the Hill on the Senate side the day of that congressional subpoena to defy it and spit in the face of this committee.

00:27:51.000 That's what you did.

00:27:52.000 I believe that Hunter Biden should be held completely in contempt.

00:27:56.000 I think he should be hauled off to jail right now.

00:27:58.000 Because it wasn't long ago, too, my friends on the other side of the aisle, that you also believed in the power of a congressional subpoena.

00:28:06.000 Not long ago at all.

00:28:07.000 You believed in holding those who refuse to comply with congressional subpoena accountable.

00:28:12.000 Let me be clear.

00:28:13.000 This should not be a partisan issue.

00:28:16.000 If Congress issues a subpoena, you show up.

00:28:20.000 Period.

00:28:21.000 This is not a responsibility we take lightly.

00:28:24.000 It brings no joy for us to do this, but the president's son broke the law and must be held accountable in the same way anybody else would.

00:28:30.000 I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do so. 1.00

00:28:34.000 And my last message to you, Hunter Biden, you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes. 1.00

00:28:43.000 I think we can call Congresswoman Mace a firebrand after that. 1.00

00:28:46.000 She read the Riot Act right to Hunter Biden, explaining what questions she would want to ask him if he were willing to step forward.

00:28:53.000 And it was no nonsense.

00:28:55.000 And not to be outdone, Congresswoman Greene was up next. 0.97

00:28:58.000 She was going to give a presentation that wasn't even going to result in Hunter Biden being able to stay in the room.

00:29:05.000 As MTG got recognized, Hunter just literally got up and scurried away.

00:29:09.000 Take a listen.

00:29:12.000 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:29:14.000 Excuse me, Hunter.

00:29:15.000 Apparently you're afraid of my words.

00:29:21.000 I'd like to reclaim my time, Mr. Chairman.

00:29:29.000 Wow, that's too bad.

00:29:31.000 I think it's clear and obvious for everyone watching this hearing today that Hunter Biden is terrified of strong conservative Republican women because he can't even face my words as I was about to speak to him. 0.99

00:29:45.000 What a coward. 0.87

00:29:49.000 A coward indeed, certainly proud of the efforts of Congresswoman Green and Congresswoman Mace. 0.99

00:29:54.000 I do think we've got to turn up the heat, and I don't think we can allow these guys to walk out of the room.

00:29:58.000 If we've got to send the House Sergeant-at-Arms to go and enforce congressional contempt with imprisonment, well then that's what we should do, because we've got questions that are central to whether or not our government's been sold out, and we should get answers to those questions.

00:30:13.000 I want to now talk about where we are with budget negotiations and with the spending talks going on with Speaker Johnson, Chuck Schumer, Joe Biden, all the rest of us.

00:30:25.000 But we have to set the stage here for why this matters.

00:30:30.000 The inflation, the increasing price for almost everything that you are seeing is a direct consequence of government deficit spending.

00:30:40.000 We are about to run $2.5 trillion annual deficits.

00:30:45.000 We are at a $34 trillion debt.

00:30:48.000 That is causing interest rates to rise, prices to rise, cost of cars, cost of homes, cost of debt, all of it.

00:30:55.000 And you pay it.

00:30:56.000 And so we don't fight against these spending programs because we're mean-spirited or we want to take people down.

00:31:05.000 We do it because we don't think you should have to feel the pain of the gutlessness in this town.

00:31:11.000 And that pain is real.

00:31:13.000 Let's go to this Breitbart report.

00:31:15.000 Inflation reignites.

00:31:16.000 Consumer prices rose at an even faster pace in December.

00:31:20.000 Inflation accelerated more in December, marking the 33rd consecutive month with annual prices rising significantly faster than the 2% target set as healthy by the Federal Reserve.

00:31:34.000 The Consumer Price Index rose 3.4 in December from a year earlier.

00:31:41.000 So we're looking for the 2%.

00:31:43.000 We're still at 3.4.

00:31:46.000 33rd consecutive month with prices rising above that goal.

00:31:50.000 And let me just give you an example of a few.

00:31:53.000 Motor vehicle insurance, up over 20%.

00:31:55.000 Food from vending machines, up over 13%.

00:31:59.000 Uncooked beef steaks, up 11%.

00:32:04.000 Transportation services up close to 7%.

00:32:07.000 These are the things that Americans buy.

00:32:09.000 These are the things that we need.

00:32:11.000 And it's not because you've done anything wrong.

00:32:15.000 It's that we won't subject the budget of the government of the United States to itemized review.

00:32:22.000 And so where we stand right now, you've got Schumer and Johnson who have agreed to a top-line spending number that is too high.

00:32:31.000 Here's how you think about it, okay?

00:32:34.000 McCarthy made the deal with Biden and Schumer called the Fiscal Responsibility Act.

00:32:39.000 I'll just call that the FRA because we can't even call it fiscally responsible.

00:32:43.000 So they agree to an FRA number.

00:32:45.000 Then, on top of the FRA spending number, McCarthy does $50 billion in secret side deals that he doesn't tell us, that he doesn't tell you, that he doesn't even tell other members of the House leadership team.

00:33:02.000 So Johnson gets in, sits down. 0.66

00:33:05.000 Schumer and Biden say, well, this is the freaking deal. 0.82

00:33:08.000 It's what McCarthy agreed to. 0.92

00:33:09.000 It's what we're going to hold you to.

00:33:11.000 And Johnson successfully takes $20 billion-ish out of the $50 billion-plus in side deals and claws that back.

00:33:21.000 It takes another fairly big bite out of the IRS. So you've got conservative economists like Stephen Moore, who we have a very high opinion of in this office and on this program.

00:33:34.000 Stephen Moore says this is savvy.

00:33:36.000 This is this big win for Johnson that he clawed back this $20 billion of the McCarthy side deals.

00:33:41.000 He's proving better than McCarthy and shrewd in that regard.

00:33:46.000 And then the Wall Street Journal editorial board, who hate me, Who totally disagree with the removal of McCarthy.

00:33:54.000 Even they say, sheepishly, that Mike Johnson cut a better deal than McCarthy.

00:34:00.000 All of it, bottom line, for you...

00:34:04.000 It's not enough.

00:34:04.000 It is not good enough.

00:34:06.000 It is not even close to good enough.

00:34:07.000 Okay, if we'd have gone to Kevin McCarthy and said, it's $20 billion and your side deals are your head, he'd have probably done the same thing.

00:34:14.000 We need transformational change about how we think about the budget and continuing to trip along, continuing resolution to omnibus with exploding caps and supplementals that fund Ukraine or other foreign nations.

00:34:29.000 That is what has put us in this position where you're paying 10% more for beef or 20% more for auto insurance.

00:34:38.000 It's linked back to the devaluation of the American currency that is driven out of Washington, D.C. That's why we're trying to change it.

00:34:46.000 So here's what a few of us said to the Speaker, and we had a relatively large group of members.

00:34:53.000 Folks, you know, Byron Donalds, Cat Kamek, Scott Perry, Bob Good, Chip Roy, Marjorie Taylor Greene, we all went and met with Speaker Johnson.

00:35:03.000 And I felt the consensus coming out of that discussion is that House conservatives are not going to tolerate a government funding bill while the border is open.

00:35:14.000 You have to shut down the border or we will shut down the government.

00:35:18.000 And I don't say that with any twinkle in my eye or any joy or any celebration for a shutdown.

00:35:25.000 I know some of you on the live stream want to shut down.

00:35:27.000 But I live in a district with a whole lot of troops, a whole lot of government contractors who are not at fault for this.

00:35:36.000 The Customs and Border Patrol...

00:35:38.000 Who are actually following the law, who care and love our nation, they did not do this, but they will have to disproportionately shoulder the burden of a shutdown.

00:35:47.000 And I don't think some airman abroad or some sailor on the high seas should have to disproportionately shoulder that.

00:35:56.000 I really don't.

00:35:59.000 But we have no choice right now.

00:36:00.000 There are no easy choices in front of us, okay?

00:36:02.000 It is just hard choices.

00:36:04.000 And if we do not get this budget under control, if we do not get this border under control, we are not going to have a country to defend.

00:36:11.000 And so it's not joyful, it's not a pleasurable experience to go through this, but we have to.

00:36:17.000 We have to shut down the border or shut down the government.

00:36:20.000 And all these little games about modest, little minor adjustments...

00:36:29.000 They function often to virtue signal, not to alter the shape of this corrupt system.

00:36:35.000 So we will have more meetings later today with the speaker, more discussions with cross-section of our conference.

00:36:42.000 We've had moderates and some of the big spending Republicans say, we don't want the border fight in the appropriations.

00:36:48.000 As a matter of fact, one told me that just a couple hours ago.

00:36:51.000 He said, I just want no chaos and no drama.

00:36:54.000 I don't want the border fight to be included in how we think about government funding.

00:37:00.000 It's just unrealistic.

00:37:01.000 It's going to lead us to being overrun.

00:37:03.000 And so we've got to build a reservoir of courage with House Republicans to fight on the border and to cut spending and to go after the Bidens and to go after the bureaucrats.

00:37:14.000 If we do these things, victory is in sight.

00:37:16.000 But if we do this Schumer deal, I won't be speaking to you next Congress from the position of a member of the House majority.

00:37:25.000 If we do this deal that Chuck Schumer is applauding, we will be out of the majority because our own voters will look at us and say, what have the House Republicans done for me?

00:37:36.000 What did you fight for?

00:37:38.000 And we may fight and lose.

00:37:40.000 We may fight and get rolled anyway.

00:37:43.000 That happens a lot here.

00:37:44.000 It's happened a lot to me over the last seven years.

00:37:47.000 But if no one is making these arguments and deploying this leverage to fix the border, Then what is going to be left to fight over?

00:37:57.000 Or preside over?

00:38:00.000 Anyway, appreciate your help.

00:38:01.000 Appreciate you guys being in the battle.

00:38:03.000 Here's my ask.

00:38:04.000 Here's your homework assignment.

00:38:05.000 Reach out to your members of Congress.

00:38:07.000 Let them know that you want to shut down the border or shut down the government.

00:38:11.000 And if you do that, just maybe, we'll build enough courage among House Republicans to be able to go to battle for you and to win.

00:38:18.000 Because that is what you deserve.

00:38:20.000 Thanks so much for listening.

00:38:21.000 Make sure you're subscribed, that you've got notifications turned on.

00:38:24.000 Leave us a review or a comment regarding what you'd like to hear us discuss or update you on next.

00:38:29.000 We hope we'll have another Firebrand before week's end and many more in 2024. Roll the credits.

Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - January 11, 2024

Episode 140 LIVE: Border, Budget, Bureaucrats, Bidens – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

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