On today's Firebrand Live from the Rayburn Office Building on the Capitol Complex in Washington, D.C., Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-GA) takes aim at the Deep State, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's challenge to become the next Speaker of the House, and the impact of the Omnibus spending bill on the economy and inflation, and more. Firebrand LIVE is a production of the Firebrand Radio Podcast Network and is brought to you by Forward Together, a conservative advocacy group that works to elect conservative candidates to the office of the President and elect the next President of the United States. To find a list of our sponsors and show-related promo codes, go to gimlet.fm/OurAdvertisers and use the promo code: CRIMINALS at checkout to receive 10% off their first purchase when you enter the offer ends on Jan. 3rd. Thanks to our sponsor, Forward Together! Our theme song is Come Alone by Suneaters, courtesy of Lotuspool Records, and our ad music is by Build Buildings Records. Subscribe to our new music streaming service, Tune In! Subscribe, Like, and Share! Subscribe, and Don't Tell a Friend about this Episode of Firebrand: Subscribe and Share it on Apple Podcasts! Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices and become a supporter of the show: Subscribe on Audible Subscribe on Podchaser.fm and other podcasting platforms! Download MP3 and Subscribe on the Podchractor Radio, wherever you get your own podcast, you'll get 20% off the best listening experience, unlimited access to new episodes and unlimited access throughout the web, and unlimited ad choices, plus a chance to listen to all new episodes throughout the world, for FREE 7 days, starting on January 1st, only on the entire world, starting at $3rd place, starting next month! FREE PROMETTEUM, no matter what you sign up for a maximum of 4GB and other places get 7GB and 7GB becomes FREE on the same thing, worldwide, Subscribe for the latest ad, Learn more than $5, you get 3 times a month, only 3GB and 5GB and I'll get access to 7GB, and I'm listening to it all that means more than that, FREE INTERVIEW AND FREE PRODUCED worldwide, FREE PRICING WORLD PRODUCE, and more!
00:04:47.000Matt Gaetz was one of the very few members in the entire Congress who bothered to stand up against permanent Washington on behalf of his constituents.
00:04:55.000Matt Gaetz right now, he's a problem for the Democratic Party.
00:04:58.000He could cause a lot of hiccups in passing applause.
00:05:01.000So we're going to keep running those stories to keep hurting him.
00:05:04.000If you stand for the flag and kneel in prayer, if you want to build America up and not burn her to the ground, then welcome, my fellow patriots!
00:05:39.000The New York Times saying that your bid remains imperiled on the right.
00:05:44.000NBC News says, can the Never Kevin caucus hold the line?
00:05:47.000And Politico warned by McCarthy critics one qualified alternative speaker.
00:05:52.000What can you do in the next couple of weeks to try to lock this up?
00:05:55.000Because there's a few that are basically saying they're never going to vote for you for speaker, and you don't have the margin that you need in order to get there, at least maybe today?
00:06:05.000Look, our goal was to stop this Biden agenda, win the majority, and fire Nancy Pelosi.
00:07:11.000We are broadcasting from Room 2021 of the Rayburn Office Building on the Capitol Complex in Washington, D.C. and It's quite something.
00:07:21.000Today I've got big updates regarding the impact of the omnibus spending bill on our economy and inflation.
00:07:28.000I had a great conversation moments ago with Steve Cortez, a conservative commentator that I'm going to be sharing with you.
00:07:34.000And there is an immigration bill Democrats are pursuing.
00:07:37.000They just had to pull it off the floor moments ago.
00:07:41.000I'm going to get into the arguments for and against that legislation.
00:07:46.000So what you just heard in that cold open, that clip, That was Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Fox News today, and it was obvious, wasn't it?
00:07:57.000He could not tell John Roberts, the host of that program, that he has 218 votes.
00:08:03.000So let me give you the latest on the negotiations.
00:08:07.000McCarthy has drawn a red line and said no to our demands that every bill on the floor adhere to a single subject.
00:08:16.000The reason that's important is because we don't want matters log rolled together so that each issue in legislation before the House for consideration doesn't get the scrutiny that it deserves, doesn't get the focused debate that results in better public policy.
00:08:33.000You would think that Republicans, Democrats, everyone...
00:08:39.000Now, that's something that would liberate committees from the control of lobbyists who seek to influence the actions of the committees in exchange for money.
00:09:02.000If you have conservative groups within the Republican caucus able to populate seats on the Rules Committee, the Appropriations Committee, the Ways and Means Committee, well then you'll see those actions from those groups and from those committees in greater compliance with where the country is.
00:09:22.000Now McCarthy has said he'll never accept the motion to vacate the chair in the version that governed the House of Representatives for more than a hundred years.
00:09:32.000Because Kevin has said he will never do these things.
00:09:35.000To fix Congress and to change Washington, we do have a group of members who are indeed never Kevin.
00:09:42.000NBC's Scott Wong reported on the dynamic.
00:09:47.000The small band of far-right firebrands who could derail Kevin McCarthy's speaker bid is now facing enormous pressure.
00:09:56.000To cave and throw their support to the California Republican, that's in the story.
00:10:01.000The story from Scott Wong continues, So far, the five anti-McCarthy conservatives, informally known on Capitol Hill as the Never Kevin Caucus, are showing no signs of backing down, even with the vote for Speaker fast approaching.
00:10:15.000But there are powerful forces on and off Capitol Hill that have a vested interest in McCarthy ascending to the Speakership.
00:10:41.000I hope he's going to be Speaker McCarthy.
00:10:43.000But I don't kiss enough butt and I don't raise enough money.
00:10:47.000So let's just pause for a moment and think about that.
00:10:50.000Even our rank and file members, a great representative like Tim Burchett from Tennessee, realizing that the dynamic with McCarthy, well, it involves kissing butt and raising money.
00:11:02.000And because Burchett doesn't perceive that he doesn't do either in sufficient quantity, that that limits his mobility for McCarthy.
00:11:10.000Leadership and high-profile opportunities in the Congress.
00:11:14.000It's really something that a member would think that.
00:11:36.000The media saying that the principal qualification for the speakership is who's raised the most lobbyist money?
00:11:41.000And just brazenly to have it reported that one of the power centers that Kevin McCarthy uses is K Street.
00:11:48.000Do you think that sits well with the American people?
00:11:51.000Do you think that grandmothers made phone calls to turn out the vote and people went door to door so that we could have somebody that is beholden to K Street as our speaker?
00:12:01.000The story tells the truth on that particular point that it's sometimes hard to tell where K Street and the lobby corps ends and Kevin McCarthy begins.
00:12:12.000There's more about this in this next story.
00:12:14.000So we had the New York Times actually pick up the discussion we had this week with Representative Andy Biggs on Firebrand.
00:12:23.000Quote, And the article reads in part, quote, Mr. Trump, according to people close to him, is not entirely sold on the notion of McCarthy as a strong speaker, but he considers McCarthy better than the alternative.
00:12:43.000So the buried lead here is that President Trump's lobbying effort, if it still exists, isn't inspired by any sense that Kevin McCarthy is strong.
00:12:52.000And that's probably why President Trump's lobbying effort has not moved a single vote in favor of Kevin McCarthy.
00:13:08.000It reports, quote, There's little evidence that the former president has swayed any skeptics.
00:13:13.000If Mr. McCarthy does have a plan, he has not shared it with members of his leadership team, whom he has cut out of his deliberations about the speakership race in what some regard as a display of paranoia.
00:13:28.000Instead, he has been spotted in recent days around the Capitol and the Republican National Committee headquarters with Jeff Miller, a Republican lobbyist who is among his closest confidants.
00:13:43.000I prefer leaders who are not beholden to the lobbyists and pollsters that they rely upon for power and political donations and even living arrangements.
00:14:22.000So, I haven't seen anyone actually wear the okay pin, and I just returned from the floor, but it's quite something, right?
00:14:33.000Like, are the only Kevin people saying that out of 222 members of Congress, literally the only one who should be considered as Kevin McCarthy?
00:14:42.000Paranoid and huddled up with lobbyists?
00:16:33.000Moments ago, House Democrats had to pull from consideration a massive immigration bill that was set to help China and big tech at the expense of American workers.
00:16:42.000I don't know if they didn't have the votes.
00:16:44.000I don't know if we'll be voting on it later today.
00:16:46.000But it was pulled, which does not happen frequently.
00:16:50.000This means that Even departing Democrats might not want their legacy to include harming the American economy with this immigration bill.
00:18:05.000The act also completely eliminates per-country caps on Lastly, it goes so far as to temporarily allow the beneficiaries of certain employment-based immigration petitions file for an adjustment of status, even if an immigrant visa is not immediately available to them with the implementing reforms for this particular non-immigrant visa program.
00:18:29.000Worst of all, this bill allows certain aliens to obtain lawful permanent resident status if the alien, one, is in the United States as a non-immigrant, and two, has an approved immigrant visa petition, and three, has waited at least two years for a visa.
00:18:47.000From the perspective of others, you might hear that this bill pushes back against arbitrary country caps, facilitating freedom of movement for people around the world, a better life, more talent, But talent is not equally distributed, right?
00:19:05.000I mean, despite what the Cato Institute would have you think, this bill doesn't really enhance our economy.
00:19:12.000It's just a white flag of surrender benefiting the economies of India and China at our expense.
00:19:18.000So first, we don't believe in freedom of movement or open borders.
00:19:43.000It means that Democrats and RINOs continue to push the boundaries on expanding foreign presence to benefit large corporations to reduce labor costs.
00:19:54.000It's just such a classic establishment move.
00:19:58.000Right now, in our country, we are in the midst of what they're calling the hoodie recession.
00:20:03.000And instead of trying to employ our abandoned workers, we are bringing in immigrant laborers to absorb the jobs that could otherwise go to our fellow Americans.
00:20:15.000We tell youth in our country to learn a trade, get a skill, code, major in STEM, and then we go importing foreign workers to do those jobs?
00:20:48.000Under an arbitrary reduction in percentage point requirements of eligible immigrants, China and India, the largest countries with the most people, they're the ones that have the longest lines and the longest wait lists for employment-based green cards, and they would benefit extraordinarily from this measure.
00:21:08.000We're likely to get more Go John Hayes and Zhang Wangs.
00:21:13.000Those are two Chinese spies recently charged with trying to obstruct a federal investigation into Huawei.
00:21:20.000Is now really the best time to open the floodgates for Chinese nationals to take jobs at U.S. tech companies?
00:21:26.000The CCP is already setting up police stations in Chinese neighborhoods in New York.
00:21:30.000I can bet that flooding our country with more Chinese nationals will aid their goal of infiltrating every major industry in the United States and then stealing our IT. And replicating our products, depriving our Americans the value of the innovation that is created in this country.
00:21:49.000China is working to close the gap, and this is the strategy to do it.
00:21:54.000We should not allow for a Trojan horse from China.
00:21:57.000We should not allow for harm to U.S. tech workers.
00:22:01.000And we should not back any America Last immigration giveaways.
00:22:07.000And as of the time of this broadcast, maybe my arguments are winning.
00:22:11.000The Democrats pulled the bill from consideration moments ago.
00:22:15.000So I would say, let's keep up the pressure.
00:22:19.000Keeping up the pressure is the theme of the discussion I had with my friend Steve Cortez.
00:22:32.000You can find him on The War Room, a conservative commentator who has been leading the fight on immigration, on entitlement reform, work requirements.
00:22:40.000And he's here, stopped by the office, Steve Cortez.
00:22:43.000Thanks for joining us on Capitol Hill.
00:22:46.000Right now, we are in the middle of this fight on the omnibus spending package.
00:22:50.000That would let Nancy Pelosi basically rule with a dead hand for a year.
00:22:55.000What should people expect regarding the impacts on inflation and otherwise on the economy?
00:23:02.000Well, you know, first on the politics, you're exactly right.
00:23:04.000And it's so shameful that Senate Republicans, particularly some who are on their way out the door, literally retiring, want their sort of their their magnum opus on the way out there exit interview, as it were, to be allowing the political carcass of Nancy Pelosi to effectively remain speaker in very many ways.
00:23:20.000If they, in fact, do pass this full omnibus, because what it will do is fiscally handcuff the incoming GOP House majority, this majority which people like you earned, which millions and millions of deplorables out there voted for.
00:23:32.000Handed that gavel, took that gavel away from Nancy Pelosi to be handed to the Republicans with a mandate to start pushing back against and fighting against this terrible Biden mess, particularly regarding the economy.
00:23:46.000Is there any mandate in this last midterm election more than the mandate for House Republicans to constrain federal government spending that's driving inflation?
00:24:13.000Worse than the financial crisis of 08, 09, worse than 9-11, worse than the 70s oil embargo.
00:24:18.000Literally, consumer sentiment has never been lower than it reached just in recent months because of inflation.
00:24:23.000The Federal Reserve met today, raised interest rates yet again, trying to fight I actually commend the Fed for finally getting in this fight, but of course it's also fighting an inflation that had a key role itself in producing, so I don't absolve it of the blame and its complicity as an institution for helping to create this inflation and ignoring it for as long as they did, I think largely for political reasons, because the Fed is...
00:25:16.000The consequences for regular folks, for working class people, middle and lower income folks who work hard, who don't have the luxury of significant savings, their lives are being made unbelievably difficult right now.
00:25:27.000I often talk about the have to basket, the three items that you really just need to live.
00:25:56.000And that's why the incoming House GOP, and I know you have the guts and the smarts and the conviction to do this, the incoming House GOP must tackle this inflationary madness.
00:26:05.000But that job's going to be made very difficult if this omnibus tyranny is passed in the coming weeks.
00:26:10.000Well, they're taking the fight away from us.
00:26:12.000I mean, what we had hoped was that we would be able to make certain demands of the Chuck Schumer Senate, of the Biden administration, and specifically on work requirements.
00:26:23.000I mean, one of the things that we really see is a labor shortage right now, and that labor shortage is exacerbated when the federal government is willing to pay people not to work, who are able-bodied, childless adults through Medicaid expansion and all these other social safety nets.
00:26:37.000When we get this majority, is there a better tool if we ever were to get into a spending standoff other than work requirements where you think Republicans ought to really stand in place?
00:26:46.000The other place where, and again, this is, you know, I think there's only a few items where Republicans should come in and be willing to engage in sort of ultimate brinkmanship.
00:26:53.000In other words, be willing to risk Biden shutting the government down over an impasse.
00:26:57.000I think the first is controlling the border.
00:26:59.000And the second one, in my view, regarding inflation, We're good to go.
00:27:17.000You had, unfortunately, the perfect storm for inflationary madness.
00:27:20.000I think the quickest way, we need to work on the budget, absolutely, but that does take time.
00:27:25.000The quickest way to inject the most powerful weapon against inflation into our economy would be fully unleashing American energy, drilling pipelines, all of it.
00:27:34.000So I think that that is an important enough issue, along with the border.
00:27:37.000To make it a hill to die on, a legislative hill to die on.
00:27:40.000And the reason I think that makes sense is you've got Democrats in the Senate from energy states that see the impact of some of these federal regulations on what their own states want to do to obtain resources from their areas.
00:27:52.000So you could actually draw a few over if you increase the pressure enough on the energy question.
00:27:58.000You know, you talked about these outgoing Republican senators who are building the yellow brick road for this Biden-Pelosi spending bill.
00:28:06.000And I think it's that a lot of them want to go be lobbyists.
00:28:12.000No, listen, it's to ensure their future careers and their future lucrative riches as lobbyists, and also as a payback to any of the donors, right, who have supported them over the decades.
00:28:50.000Let's keep the pressure up, right, in the coming weeks.
00:28:52.000Look, nothing is certain in these lame duck sessions, right?
00:28:55.000For example, again, not that this is certain either, but it seems as though on the issue of amnesty, it seems as though we're pushing back effectively, and amnesty is not going to happen in these coming weeks.
00:29:13.000If I had to wager money right now, I'd wager yes, they're going to pass it, unfortunately.
00:29:17.000That Senate Republicans are going to team up with Schumer and Pelosi to deprive us of the ability to have a meaningful fight, whether it's about energy, whether it's about the border.
00:29:26.000Look, the leverage we have is the leverage to fund the government.
00:29:30.000They call it the power of the purse for a reason.
00:29:32.000But this is an unequivocal surrender of that power that the voters gave to us.
00:29:37.000And it strikes me that the senators willing to do this are the real election deniers because they're willing to deny the fact...
00:29:43.000That there was an election that resulted in Republicans being able to have a voice on this, and it's members of our own party who are selling us out.
00:29:50.000I think it demands a lot stronger leadership, and I can't believe these people voted for Mitch McConnell again.
00:29:55.000Because he's going to be for it, right?
00:30:05.000So I do want to also encourage all the patriots out there, all the deplorables out there, all the American citizens who are frustrated and trying to, in their lives, you know, full of anxiety because of this inflation madness, to, in these coming days and weeks, to call, to email people.
00:30:44.000This is the best way to have a condensed presentation of information regarding immigration, regarding the economic conditions that businesses are facing, a lot of consumer information there.
00:30:54.000How do folks stay in touch with all the great analysis you're providing?
00:30:57.000So please follow me on social media on Getter.