The Great America Show - AMERICA’S IN A BAD PLACE. WE CAN’T TRUST BANK REGULATORS, WE CAN’T TRUST THE BIDEN REGIME. THEY ARE CORRUPT THROUGH & THROUGH

00:00:00.000 Hello, everybody. I'm Lou Dobbs, and this is The Great America Show. Welcome, and thank you for

00:00:05.700 being with us. We begin with a historic development. The Marxist-Dem Manhattan District Attorney,

00:00:12.680 Alvin Bragg, has indicted former President Donald Trump. This brazen political act marks the first

00:00:20.280 time in American history that a former president has been indicted. It was a raw, viciously

00:00:27.520 political act that means America will be more divided than at any time since the Civil War.

00:00:33.980 A local prosecutor choosing to carry out an attack against the Republican Party's presumptive

00:00:40.460 presidential candidate under color of law. I believe our nation is not only severely lessened,

00:00:47.280 but our further decline is all but assured. How can we honestly call ours a nation of laws when

00:00:54.620 Americans have watched one of its two political parties conspire to stop a candidate to overthrow

00:01:01.180 a president by using the corrupt legal system and government power to persecute a president

00:01:07.780 for seven long years? This indictment of Trump, without intervention or protest by our national

00:01:15.720 leaders, Democrat Party officials, perhaps Republican Party officials, business and religious leaders,

00:01:22.560 it's certain that our decline is clearly gaining speed. Extreme left-wing political partisans and

00:01:30.200 Marxist ideologues dominate what was once a fair and impartial judicial system. And don't think for

00:01:36.900 even a moment that President Trump is the only victim here. We are all victims of the totalitarian

00:01:43.680 left in this country, that is, if the Marxist Dems have their way. Wrongs, even as great as this offense against Trump,

00:01:52.560 justice and all that our republic stands for, can be righted. Just pray we have the strength and

00:01:59.520 wisdom to overcome the evil that's being done to President Trump, to each and every one of us,

00:02:06.080 who love this country. And be heartened by the knowledge that it seems of late, Republicans and

00:02:12.400 independents are at least wising up and wising up to what the so-called Democrats have become.

00:02:18.160 They've become communists who want vast government powers over every aspect of our lives. They're day

00:02:25.600 by day under the Biden regime and our puppet president, tearing up our constitution, stripping

00:02:31.840 citizens of our rights and moving ahead to destroy this great republic. These communist Dems are waging

00:02:39.360 an actual war on our country, on you and me. Look to the southern border wide open by the order of

00:02:46.800 President Joe Biden. Just where did he get the power to throw our nation's sovereignty into a trash can?

00:02:53.760 He simply assumed that power and no one stopped him. 2,000 miles of border. It's wide open to the

00:03:01.280 Mexican drug cartels who control that border, both sides of that border. In league with the communist

00:03:08.480 Democrats, the cartels are making fortunes off the smuggling of their deadly drugs into the United States,

00:03:15.440 fentanyl and heroin and others killing Americans every day. Wide open illegal immigration across that

00:03:22.880 border. Whole state populations being imported into the United States every month. Just how big is Joe's

00:03:30.720 payoff for all the death and pain and destruction he and the cartels have created? We don't know of

00:03:37.280 course, but we do know who Big Joe is assigned to keep the border wide open and the cartels drowning in

00:03:44.800 cash. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is in charge of demolishing the border,

00:03:51.920 permitting sex trafficking, bringing in millions of illegals and deadly drugs into the country.

00:03:58.240 The Biden regime is the best thing to have ever happened to the Mexican drug cartels,

00:04:03.680 and the Republican senators have tired of the Biden border policies, their accommodation to the Mexican

00:04:10.320 drug cartels, and they're tired as well of the runaway crime rates and the hundreds of thousands

00:04:16.880 of Americans who've been killed, all because of the Biden regime. In the Senate Homeland Security

00:04:24.000 Oversight Committee hearing, angry Republican senators served notice early that it wouldn't be a good day

00:04:30.400 for Secretary Mayorkas. Here now is Senator Ted Cruz. What are these wristbands? I don't know what

00:04:37.600 they are. You don't know what they are. Mr. Secretary, you have just testified to the American people you're

00:04:43.120 incompetent at your job because I've been to the southern border and if you go to the southern border

00:04:47.600 along the southern border, you see thousands of these wristbands because the illegal immigrants wear

00:04:53.520 them. The drug cartels, every color corresponds to how many thousands of dollars they owe the cartels.

00:04:59.520 You have turned these cartels into multi-billion dollar criminal organizations and these are

00:05:04.960 modern day leg irons because these are children being sold into sex slavery and you don't even

00:05:11.760 know what they are. That is astonishing. Mr. Secretary, how many children have been sold into sex slavery

00:05:17.760 under your administration? Senator, we are taking it to the cartels. How many children have been sold into

00:05:21.680 sex slavery? Do you know how many children have been sold into sex slavery? To an unprecedented degree.

00:05:26.960 Mr. Secretary, I want to say to you right now, your behavior is disgraceful and the deaths,

00:05:32.640 the children assaulted, the children raped, they are at your feet and if you had integrity,

00:05:38.320 you would resign. And I will tell you the men and women of the border patrol, they've never had a

00:05:42.960 political leader undermine them. They despise you, Mr. Secretary, because you're willing to let children

00:05:48.720 be raped to follow political orders. This is a crisis, it's a disgrace and you won't even admit

00:05:55.840 this human tragedy is a crisis. Claiming one minute chairman time, Mr. Secretary,

00:06:00.720 would you like to respond to any of those questions? What the senator said was revolting,

00:06:03.920 I'm not going to address it. Your refusal to do your job is revolting. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas,

00:06:10.160 a great American. And now another great American. Our guest today is Russ Boat. Russ served as the

00:06:16.880 head of the Office of Management and Budget under President Trump. And now he's the president of the

00:06:22.960 Center for Renewing America. Great to have you back with us, Russ. A lot going on in the country,

00:06:29.120 as usual. Right now, a banking crisis, one that is indeterminate in terms of its direction,

00:06:35.600 how close we are to some solution. Now, it's a pretty scary time in terms of what we've realized,

00:06:42.000 the unhealthiness of the banking industry in the last two weeks, the lack of confidence,

00:06:46.880 the degree to which you have a number of these banks that have not kept their eye on the ball,

00:06:52.560 and the degree to which the administration has set some really terrible policies in the sense of now,

00:06:58.640 all banks know that they all of their depositors will be relieved if they get into any kind of

00:07:09.040 situation. And the signal that that sends across the entirety of the financial sector

00:07:14.560 is a really bad one. And then, you know, you have systemic reasons of why we're in this mess,

00:07:20.880 loose federal policy, spending on behalf of the Biden administration,

00:07:26.480 all of which has led to a place where we are right now. And I don't think we have a great crystal

00:07:32.320 ball about how it's going to unfold. And it's coming at the midst of a lot of division and

00:07:37.280 instability in other parts of this country. So a pretty scary couple of weeks. And we're going to

00:07:42.560 have to stay on top of trying to make sure that the cartel, the financial cartel is not able to

00:07:48.960 put the blame where it shouldn't be and vice versa. Right. And that cartel, as you put it,

00:07:55.520 I'll just take it as the banking establishment in this country, which right now it seems to be

00:08:02.480 serving the Marxist left that directs the Biden regime in every quarter, and apparently including

00:08:11.680 banking regulation. The regulators of the Biden administration seem not to have not only been

00:08:18.320 asleep in performing their duties to be just simply not cognizant of what should be done.

00:08:26.960 I have to say, I was stunned by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen basically saying, you know,

00:08:32.000 we're going to take care of everybody. No problem. Forget that FDIC,

00:08:36.240 $250,000 limit. You know, and if you're a China venture fund at SVB, you know, you're part of the

00:08:46.000 family. We'll take care of you. I mean, this is crazy stuff to me, Russ.

00:08:50.160 I agree. I mean, and the fact that they ended up doing this via the FDIC, you know,

00:08:56.400 the Fed makes bad decisions every single day. At least if they're going to set bad policy,

00:09:01.360 they should do it from the Fed and not send such as blatant of a blanket rule as it would mean for

00:09:11.120 depository insurance. So we're in a bad place. You can't trust the regulators. You can't trust

00:09:18.320 this administration. They're corrupt through and through. And so it really puts you in a situation

00:09:24.480 where you've got to really focus on what you can focus on fundamentals wise. And that is,

00:09:31.200 I believe, getting control of the underlying factors of too much spending, too much debt,

00:09:37.520 which are the root causes of inflation and has allowed the Fed to be empowered to make the kinds

00:09:42.960 of decisions that they have been in the process of making. So Russ, where we seem to be

00:09:50.000 is with an administration that has decided to just dispense with moral hazard and responsibility,

00:09:58.960 the impact that'll have in commercial banking in particular is not likely to be beneficial to the

00:10:06.000 economy, to the American people. We know one thing for sure, the taxpayer, despite all of the denials,

00:10:14.400 despite all of the couching and posturing and, if you will, wordplay, the taxpayer is going to be paying

00:10:23.120 for this, the resolution in whatever form it takes, the resolution to this banking crisis, right?

00:10:30.720 Yeah, I mean, the taxpayers is going to continue to absorb liabilities in the system. And, you know,

00:10:38.320 the consumer will, this cost will be borne by the American people, that we don't live in a world

00:10:48.560 where, you know, costs don't have to be absorbed by someone. And whether that's the taxpayer or whether

00:10:54.720 that's the consumer, that's going to occur. And I think that is, you know, much of the problem that

00:11:01.520 we've had over the last several decades of very, very loose monetary policies is that the Fed has

00:11:08.000 allowed this to occur. And that has had massive impact on the economies that we are having to

00:11:16.080 operate in. And it's a troubling situation. It's something where, you know, if you don't,

00:11:22.000 remember, this is the same, this is the same cartel community, Lou, that said we'd never see inflation

00:11:27.040 again. And they're the ones that are saying that they have a handle on this problem. And yet we know

00:11:31.520 from certain economic fundamentals that certain policies lead to assets and being overvalued. It

00:11:42.000 leads to inflation. And now you're, you have a situation where the Fed is having to take action

00:11:47.920 and it's leading to a host of other scenarios that they did not envision. A bank like Silicon Valley

00:11:55.760 that doesn't, is not properly accounting for the fact that their treasuries that are on their books

00:12:02.000 to be held for the long term are suddenly devalued when everyone's been pushing treasuries for the last

00:12:08.160 10 years. So that's the kind of situation that we're in. And we've got to figure out a way to get

00:12:13.920 back to the fundamentals and of sound economic policy and accounting for things like moral hazard,

00:12:21.200 like you mentioned in your question. And one of the barometers that we can follow pretty closely

00:12:27.040 is the treasury general account right now, because as we're discussing the FTC backing up everything

00:12:33.200 and everyone, we're looking at what 50, 60 billion drawn on that account, something around, I think

00:12:40.880 it's around 160 billion right now on hand for the treasury to deal with these issues. We have no idea

00:12:48.720 how quickly that's going to deplete it. And that will lead us to perhaps an acceleration in the so-called

00:12:55.760 you know, doomsday date, which is when the debt ceiling is reached and suddenly the United States

00:13:04.000 government, at least in theory defaults. We are dealing with some, some now very clear influences

00:13:13.600 in the government, in its accounts and running up against obligations in the, in the markets.

00:13:23.120 Well, you, you do bring up a good point in terms of the interaction with this and the debt limit.

00:13:27.280 And my view is that we're, we're not in danger of a default because that's the treasury secretary's

00:13:34.240 decision. And the revenues, unlike a situation where you are with a shutdown at the end of the

00:13:39.680 fiscal year with appropriations, that, that, that there is enough revenue to pay interest and

00:13:46.400 principal on treasuries. And, and, but here's the thing, right there, the ability to win a political

00:13:54.640 fight on the debt limit, which we must do to be able to get our fiscal house in order is part of,

00:14:00.480 there's an assumption that you've got to keep the financial markets calm down and you can't keep

00:14:05.920 them calm down when they're, when they are dealing with the shock of, of some of these other

00:14:11.360 situations that have arisen. And so this certainly complicates the matter. And it's, and it's,

00:14:16.560 it's going to require the, the Biden administration, and we will be calling on them to, to be counter to

00:14:24.000 how they have been for two years and to act responsibly to be able to calm the waters and

00:14:30.240 not use political arguments to make it more difficult to get to a debt limit deal later in

00:14:36.720 the summer or early fall. Yeah. Let me clarify what I said. When I talked about the doomsday date

00:14:44.880 and default, what I'm doing is I'm taking both parties at their word. Yeah. White House says they're not

00:14:52.160 going to concede on spending and the Republicans, the conservatives have made it clear that they're

00:15:00.720 not going to raise the debt ceiling. The result, if you take both at their word, will be a default

00:15:07.040 sometime around, well, the, you know, the range, June, July, whatever, because then the extraordinary

00:15:13.440 measures will have run out for Janet Yellen to meet obligations. So when I say that, I mean, that's just

00:15:19.920 taking them at their word. And I believe we should take both parties at their word,

00:15:25.440 because we have seen this happen, this run up against the debt ceiling. What is it? 70 some odd

00:15:31.840 times, almost 80 times over the course of the last 60 years, the Republicans have never won the debt

00:15:38.400 ceiling argument. How is it that we should think that they would this time? My view, and there is

00:15:45.680 examples of they, they have some very serious spending reforms have been attached to debt limit.

00:15:51.600 But I think the difference about this one is this. The framing of it is they typically go for

00:16:00.320 asks that are, the country doesn't support, you know, like Social Security entitlement cuts and things

00:16:06.320 like that. That is part of the thing that they need to avoid. And so far, they're avoiding that. And I

00:16:11.920 believe that they can win this fight. Who's they? House Republicans. And they're really driving this,

00:16:17.600 the negotiations for this. And I think they're being pushed by House conservatives who now have,

00:16:23.520 we've talked about it previously, now have real power in the House. If they make the fight about

00:16:29.360 cutting the woke and weaponized bureaucracy of the Department of Justice, the Department of Education,

00:16:34.960 the Department of Health and Human Services, they can win that fight because they have five

00:16:39.920 five months to say to the Biden administration, there's literally no reason we could have passed

00:16:44.720 the debt limit five months ago. But you have been unwilling to negotiate and come to the table with

00:16:50.080 your list of proposals. And you've sat back and now we are in a situation where we are in.

00:16:57.360 And then I would remind that the administration is trying to over define the word default. They're

00:17:02.560 trying to say that timely payment of Tony Fauci's gain of function research at the Department of the

00:17:10.080 National Institute for the Health is the same as paying for Social Security benefits and Medicare

00:17:15.680 benefits. And it's not. The Treasury Department has authority to be able to triage and and these

00:17:22.320 payments. And so there is ability to win this fight if the ask is right. And if they are playing,

00:17:28.720 they have a seriousness of purpose. And I believe that seriousness of purpose is beginning to

00:17:33.840 materialize as evidenced by the House conservatives that have said and put out what they are looking

00:17:39.280 for, which is newsworthy, Lou, because everyone in this town is assuming that they would never put

00:17:44.640 forward anything that that could get them to yes. Well, I think that that's that's terrific.

00:17:51.120 Biden has gotten what he wanted. He wanted the Republicans to go first in the House,

00:17:55.520 and they have done so. He has already launched a daily program of rebuttal and refutation. And,

00:18:04.880 you know, it's just it's really quite a remarkable scene at this point. And the Republicans,

00:18:11.200 I think, have made a couple of mistakes already, frankly, and that is attaching this to discretionary

00:18:18.240 spending. Nothing is. Well, the only thing larger than than the defense spending are entitlements.

00:18:27.120 And they are already accusing the House Republicans of wanting to go after Medicare.

00:18:33.520 The denials, of course, were instantly forthcoming. But it's still, I think, a winning position on the

00:18:40.640 part of the White House and more to me, more worrisome because it's more realistically a possibility.

00:18:49.520 And that is any cut in defense spending right now. It is hard for me, frankly, to see anywhere that a

00:18:56.720 budget right now can be cut. Spending can be cut by three trillion dollars without a major,

00:19:04.480 major impact on the economy and the markets. Well, it's a fair point, Lou. But let's just talk

00:19:12.160 about the kinds of things that would be put on the table to go back to pre-COVID levels on non-defense

00:19:18.320 discretionary spending. And there you can be at the levels that they are trying to be at and increase

00:19:23.840 defense spending and yet allow for a 20 percent cut. And so let's look at Centers for Disease Control.

00:19:29.520 3.2 million dollar grant for the LGBT network for tobacco related cancer disparity research

00:19:37.040 within the LGBTQ population. 1.4 million grant for the CDC prevention at Los Angeles LGBT centers.

00:19:45.760 There are just these networks of woke nonprofits that are getting research. You look in the Department

00:19:51.760 of Education, you see culturally responsive learning is everywhere. Culturally responsive learning is

00:19:57.760 CRT in the education context. It's questioning the notion of grades, of promoting kids from one grade

00:20:06.480 to the next based on how well they do. It's taking issue with things like back to school nights and

00:20:12.480 metal detectors. So there is so much woke and weaponized bureaucracy that could be cut. And all that

00:20:19.600 would require is to get us back to pre-COVID levels, $150 billion in one year and cuts over 10 years.

00:20:26.960 Now you're talking to $3 trillion. So I think that's absolutely a debate that you can win

00:20:31.200 with the American because they see that. They see that this bureaucracy is weaponized against them.

00:20:35.680 You see that in the last 10 days or so with the conversation around President Trump and the way

00:20:43.200 that he continues to be at the eye of the storm. And I think that debate resonates with people who have

00:20:51.440 dealt with the Department of Labor, the Department of the EPA, because they see the way this bureaucracy

00:20:56.880 is aimed at them. And I don't think that will hurt the economy.

00:21:00.160 Yeah, I take your point and you're a man of reason and you are a man of empirical based reason.

00:21:09.760 What I would suggest here is that whatever the number is that you can come up with on the

00:21:16.080 the cultural issues, the woke issues within the budget. And by the way, I think that's just a

00:21:24.800 down payment on what's in there because we are also talking about funding for blue state budgets and

00:21:33.200 blue state budget deficits in perpetuity, it seems. So I don't doubt that the numbers are there.

00:21:40.560 What I do worry about is that right now there you see this as a numerical issue, a fiscal issue,

00:21:48.880 which it certainly is. I see it as something that it also is, and that is a political

00:21:56.160 danger zone because what the Democrats have successfully done for the past 20, 30 years is to

00:22:04.480 make this all about politics. And by the way, no one's better because they own the political media.

00:22:10.480 They own it outside. I mean, it's just lock, stock and barrel. It's never been a more powerful

00:22:18.640 fourth estate in support of the Marxist Dems in this country ever. I don't think the Republicans

00:22:25.200 can win it because of the political pitfalls that await because of the media power behind even the

00:22:31.760 the just completely obvious impaired president. I mean, think about this, Russ. These people got

00:22:40.800 two of the most incompetent and apt, inarticulate people in the country

00:22:46.880 elected as president and vice president of the United States. We have never seen this like we've

00:22:53.760 seen weak vice presidents. We've seen weak presidents. We've never seen both who really are

00:23:00.480 just simply inexplicable. Your thoughts?

00:23:04.080 No, I mean, any winning any debate with the cultural heights that they have is is is a difficult

00:23:10.800 road to go. What I would say is this and this is my firm conviction is that the way to win spending

00:23:17.280 fights is to to do their playbook on them and just to make them cultural issues so that a dollar of

00:23:24.560 spent is not just waste and inaffordability and inefficiency. It's actually sewage that's being

00:23:31.600 pumped into the community so that you have moral high ground to enter into these debates. You're having

00:23:36.880 debate about the way that HUD is actually screwing up my neighborhood and not just whether we can afford

00:23:42.880 Section 8 housing. That's that's the that's the new aspect of what I'm suggesting. They they have

00:23:49.600 they gain the moral high ground by making spending arguments from a cultural perspective and and we

00:23:56.640 have seen in the last two years the ability to win these debates on critical race theory and in the

00:24:02.000 debate about groomers in schools. Republicans are learning how to make these. There is risk involved

00:24:07.760 because they they have to be up to speed on what they're fighting about and there's no question about

00:24:11.520 that but in terms of where the the political capital is in this country they have the moral high ground

00:24:17.680 and they are siding with their people if they take this if they take this fight but if they hang back

00:24:22.800 and do what you've said you know is accurate with the last 20-30 years where they just put their

00:24:27.920 propeller hats on and treat this as accountants they will lose and and I'm suggesting there is a path

00:24:34.720 forward that both saves the country from a woke and weaponized bureaucrat bureaucracy which I think is

00:24:40.160 fundamentally the biggest threat facing us and deals with our fiscal house and getting it in order and

00:24:45.840 fuses those fights indelibly because one you can starve and the other one you can save money by not

00:24:52.240 spending on the agencies. And I would submit to you that to me at least the great the great challenge

00:25:00.400 and the great threat here is for the Republicans to blow the election of 2024. We have sufficient

00:25:08.080 empirical evidence over the course we have history and all of the evidence that has been gathered

00:25:14.400 in these contests debates and conflicts between Republicans and Democrats irrespective of who is in

00:25:20.160 the in the White House that Republicans lose they just simply lose. And I admire even the connection that

00:25:30.880 you would like to to create between the cultural issue and the budget item but I think that is a tough

00:25:39.600 tough path forward and I would and I think that there is a moral high ground for the Dems that we have to

00:25:46.880 acknowledge. These are already obligations of the United States government that we're fighting over.

00:25:53.920 These have all been approved by the by the institutions the senate the the house and indeed the president of course

00:26:02.640 and they are obligations of the United States. We can't do much that is on the moral high ground

00:26:11.680 if we decide to retreat from those. Your thoughts? Well I'm not making the case that those bills shouldn't be paid.

00:26:19.360 What I'm saying is that you pay the credit card off but you also rip up the credit cards and make sure

00:26:25.520 that you have some feet on some firm foundation under your feet to be able to tackle the spending

00:26:32.080 that is no longer that that has not come down the pipeline. And so what we're now talking about in

00:26:37.760 terms of these 20 percent cuts to get back to pre-COVID level are the spending that Congress this year is going

00:26:43.840 to pass and if we don't focus on it we're going to allow them to keep funding the bureaucracy that's

00:26:49.120 aimed against the country and that is what I think ultimately will never put them in a situation either

00:26:54.960 to win elections or to be able to be successful when they do win elections because they will have

00:27:01.440 constantly focused on things that were not the main event problem. So I take the caution and I agree with

00:27:07.760 the messaging like you've got to be able to to articulate what you're for what would get you to

00:27:13.120 yes and I think you've got to do it in a way that resonates with the American people and also realize

00:27:18.640 that in this new environment of distrusting the Biden administration and and the media and the

00:27:23.840 institutions that have been fundamentally corrupted and hollowed out that you have an opportunity like

00:27:29.120 Newt Gingrich used to say to win a national narrative once that conflict is there and I think they've got

00:27:34.880 to use the debt limit to be able to do so and I think they can win it. They there have been significant

00:27:40.960 spending reforms attached to debt limits and the question is whether those will be linked to the

00:27:47.920 types of concerns that the American people have. Right and again in acknowledging that these are obligations

00:27:58.160 you have to concede as well that you're the threats of not raising the debt ceiling is frankly

00:28:04.720 and I'm going to be very direct here it's an empty one because otherwise you would be risking a default

00:28:11.120 would you not? No again I would say that this is gets to the the how the administration wants to define the

00:28:18.640 word default but I I think Republicans should be fully prepared to have a debate about the timely payment of an

00:28:26.560 NIH grant or some funding at EPA or Department of Education so I I do think that you know we right

00:28:35.680 now here to zoom out for a second we have a balanced budget requirement in the in in the form of a debt

00:28:41.120 limit everyone wants to talk about well we need a balanced budget man we have one it's called the debt

00:28:46.240 limit it's just that Republicans are don't think of it that way and it's not framed that way and I agree with

00:28:53.600 you that these these all need to be paid at some point the question is how timely with with interest

00:28:59.440 and principle it's got to be immediate same with Social Security and Medicare benefits I'm not convinced

00:29:04.960 of the same with regard to the discretionary agency and then look here's here's the bottom line of what

00:29:09.760 I'm what I'm urging of the Congress freedom is is in jeopardy freedom in this country is facing default I

00:29:18.640 want to expand the conversation not just to be about what we count to be default with regard to

00:29:23.840 treasuries and principle on that on those bonds but to talk about the extent to which the American dream

00:29:30.160 and freedoms that that we have all counted on is facing default we can have that debate I think

00:29:35.680 there's going to be a lot of chances for victory and moving this in the right direction I think there is

00:29:41.120 a great chance for debate but when you talk about it depends on the Biden administration and how it defines

00:29:47.760 default here's here's the reality Russ they've already defined it they have defined it because

00:29:55.760 the House Republicans have said they would prioritize the meeting of obligations should they reach the

00:30:04.720 doomsday date and as Janet Yellen the Treasury Secretary said it I thought succinctly and and right on point

00:30:13.120 prioritization is by any other term default am I not is can you find an argument to that yeah I just

00:30:23.680 disagree with it Lou in the sense of default is a is is a definition that is linked to the payment of

00:30:33.040 treasuries principle and interest it is not it is it is their argument I disagree with it but it is it is their

00:30:42.240 argument they want to say default by another name as it pertains to the other obligations that the

00:30:48.960 federal government has made that comes at the same time the federal government has said we're not going

00:30:54.560 to allow a debt to exceed a certain limit so you have federal laws that's in conflict with each other and

00:31:02.800 I think it's a very healthy debate to figure out okay we we are going to have a conversation about what we can

00:31:10.640 afford and what we can't and we're not going to be allowing the administration to scare us into a

00:31:17.760 premature passing of a debt limit increase when we need to have this debate over the next six months

00:31:23.760 seven seven months and the Biden administration quite frankly needs this to be able to govern

00:31:28.400 they're the ones that have to be able to get this thing done because they're in control and republicans

00:31:33.600 don't have to give that to them until they have uh the types of commitments that have historically

00:31:40.080 been given to be able to get something through and divide a government every issue of course every

00:31:46.480 complex issue has uh sometimes nuanced subtext amongst those that would be under that heading I would rate

00:31:57.520 uh this it is the republicans who have talked about prioritizing and indeed putting forward

00:32:04.000 the idea that China would be amongst the first to receive payment uh if not the first under the

00:32:10.320 extraordinary measures uh undertaken by the treasury department uh upon approaching uh x day whatever you

00:32:18.080 want to call it uh that seems to me to be a difficult sale in one that's already been put forward

00:32:25.200 uh your thoughts about that yeah that has not been put forward by house republicans it's an

00:32:30.880 interesting line of attack from the administration but it's based on arguing against their own interest

00:32:37.760 that they actually want to pay uh interest um and the principal on on on treasuries now unfortunately

00:32:45.680 China uh it's declining but China has about a trillion dollars of our debt um one of one of the reasons why

00:32:53.360 so many of us are concerned about the fiscal health of this country is that we think from

00:32:58.240 a national security standpoint it's a really really bad uh tenuous situation to have uh an adversary owning

00:33:06.320 our our our debt in a way that they can they can wreak havoc with if they wanted to so the administration

00:33:14.000 has said that that was their line of attack and Yellen said that in the hearing but the bill doesn't do

00:33:19.120 that the bill just says look you want the you want to be concerned about default you're concerned

00:33:23.600 about paying this we're going to make sure we're going to force you we're going to take the politics

00:33:27.040 and the decision out of your hands as to what how you could prioritize it and we're going to just

00:33:31.760 say you've got to you've got to pay the treasuries and then you've got to pay social security and medicare

00:33:37.280 and the military and begins to have an a statutory line of of triage to be able to give guidance

00:33:45.200 to the secretary of treasury and then the second category i would put it be i'd put it under the

00:33:51.840 name mitch mcconnell uh because he signed off on the omnibus uh 1.7 trillion dollars he took away

00:33:59.760 effectively one year of budget control uh and design from the successful republicans who now lead

00:34:08.800 the 118th congress that was a craven act uh it is an act of one of the leaders of the republican party

00:34:17.520 and it is important subtext to what we're discussing because all that we're discussing right now could

00:34:23.360 well have been uh resolved had mitch mcconnell been responsible uh and instead of reckless

00:34:31.600 well i think that's certainly one of the reasons i mean the the fact that that occurred and the

00:34:38.800 ongoing nature of these omnibus bills is one of the reasons why there is new this new focus on

00:34:45.120 the appropriations process and preventing that from ever happening again and we i don't want to be in a

00:34:50.960 situation where house republicans are passing crs or omnibus bills and the only way to do that is to

00:34:57.920 start now and linking it so that we have this fight when there's actual leverage uh but you're

00:35:03.520 right like the senate is a can can help or hurt and that's why so far i'm glad that the negotiations

00:35:10.400 between kevin mccarthy who you know now is being um he has a a new uh power sharing arrangement around

00:35:19.840 him to make it so that when he's negotiating with the white house it's on the basis of what the house

00:35:24.800 conservatives think is appropriate which i think is the right way to think about it i do too i give

00:35:29.920 i give him great credit for that i also want to just give him great credit for what i think has been

00:35:34.320 uh and i'll be straightforward i was a skeptic uh but i think he's uh his leadership to this point has been

00:35:42.400 exemplary uh and i hope that he continues on this path uh i always give our guests the last word and

00:35:51.040 for me to interject at this point with some of my reservations about our discussions the topics

00:35:57.120 we've been discussing here today russ uh you know i i will defer to uh to the last word uh here today

00:36:05.440 on this podcast you're a great american we appreciate everything you're doing for the country uh your

00:36:11.600 concluding thoughts if you would no this is a great debate by two people who want america to be first and

00:36:17.520 in concern greatly with the the cultural uh situation that are the american people are dealing

00:36:24.160 with and so how we get to that uh solution is is the types of uh discussions that i always want to

00:36:31.040 be a part of i'm happy to do it on your show and look forward to being back thanks russ vote and thanks

00:36:36.240 everybody for being with us today here next monday will be a congressman who fights for his constituents

00:36:42.800 and who stood up against the marxist dems january 6 committee and he won our guest will be congressman

00:36:50.240 barry laudermilk here monday have a great weekend please join us monday till then thanks god bless you

00:36:58.800 and god bless america

The Great America Show - March 31, 2023

AMERICA’S IN A BAD PLACE. WE CAN’T TRUST BANK REGULATORS, WE CAN’T TRUST THE BIDEN REGIME. THEY ARE CORRUPT THROUGH & THROUGH

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