A Sincere THANK YOU Plus Omnibus Disaster & An End To The Military Vaccine Mandate
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Summary
Ted Cruz returns to the podcast to talk about a variety of topics, including the aftermath of the storm, his birthday, and his thoughts on the omnibus spending bill that passed the Senate on Christmas Eve, and more.
Transcript
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Welcome, it is Verdict with Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
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I hope you had a fabulous Christmas with your family.
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Senator, I've missed chatting with you over the last several weeks,
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and I know so many people have been reaching out to you.
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The same with me, giving warm wishes and prayers for you and your family.
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I know you miss talking to the audience a lot, obviously,
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but you've been spending some great quality time with your family.
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Well, Ben, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.
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I hope everyone listening had a fantastic Christmas with their family.
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As everyone knows, the podcast has not been airing for the last several weeks.
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I've been dealing with a family emergency here at home.
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And I just want to say thank you to all of you who have reached out with your prayers,
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Everyone's doing okay right now, and we're grateful for the love that has been expressed.
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Heidi and I have spent the last several weeks just here at home with our kids.
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And we appreciate also folks respecting our family's privacy.
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And so I don't intend to be talking publicly about what we're dealing with,
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other than just to say we appreciate the prayers, the love, and support.
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And in this holiday time, you know, Christmas is a wonderful time to be with your family,
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to hug your kids, to hug your parents, to hold on to the people you love.
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And I'm glad to get to spend some more time with you today.
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There have been so many people that have reached out, and you guys are wonderful that have done that.
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Thank you for everyone that's done that as well.
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It means the world, I know, when you see those messages.
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You've also gotten older since the last time I talked to you.
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But I feel like I've got to stick that one in there, Senator, you know?
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We had a nice birthday celebration at home with the family.
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And yet another day, I'll tell you what I tell my mom.
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And every birthday she has, I tell her, okay, you're halfway there.
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She's groaning more and more, as I say that, on more recent birthdays.
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There's been a lot that's happened in the last couple weeks.
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And I do want to get your thoughts, Senator, on this omnibus spending bill right before Christmas.
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It was kind of a stick it to the American people moment.
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They wanted to beat the storm that's affected so many Americans, especially, you know, that are east of Mississippi.
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There was a lot of senators that said, just get me home.
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And it cost us quite a lot of money, well over a trillion dollars in this new budget.
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Instead of just passing a CR, how did this happen?
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And why did so many Republicans go along with this?
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Well, I have to tell you, this omnibus was absolutely disgraceful.
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It's 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
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Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. In just a few days, we're going to have a Republican House of
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Representatives in Washington. Nancy Pelosi obviously doesn't want to enact the policy
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priorities of a Republican House of Representatives. So Pelosi and Schumer decided to team up together
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and ram through this final omnibus bill, this massive spending that funds the federal government
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through most of next year, all the way through September 30th of next year. Now, they could not
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do so without the active assistance of Senate Republicans, and the reason for that is in the
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Senate, we have the filibuster, which means it takes 60 votes to move this bill forward. At the end of
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the day, they got 60 votes because a total of 18 Republicans voted with Nancy Pelosi, voted with
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Chuck Schumer, and voted to fund the Pelosi-Schumer spending bill, and simultaneously to pull the rug
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out from the brand new incoming Republican majority in the House. I got to tell you, I am furious. I'm
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flabbergasted. There are things I've seen in Washington. There are spending bills that are
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indefensible, but it's one thing when Democrats act like socialists. It's another thing when Republicans
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actively facilitated, and it was a galling and horrific thing to watch.
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You know, so many Americans right now, Senator, are struggling, and we've seen what's happened
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with inflation, with interest rates. There's been a lot of wealth that's been lost over the last year,
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people in their 401k retirement funds, those that invest, and when you're spending this type of
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money now, it costs you a lot more because this is money we don't have. We're going to borrow this
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money, and it puts us into even more debt at a much higher interest rate, and that's where many
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economists have been saying, hey, you guys don't understand that the day of reckoning is going to
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come for the United States of America. You guys have spent this next generation into oblivion.
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I mean, you've got so much government waste. Rand Paul came out with his annual Festivus report,
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$482 billion in government waste. There were some idiotic items in there, $3 million to watch
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hamsters fight on steroids, $2.1 million to tell Ethiopians to wear shoes. I mean, these are some of the
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things that your tax dollars actually went for, and this is just in another year of wasteful government
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spending that has happened, and now it's going to cost even more to borrow this money.
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Well, look, the spending is massive. The debt goes up. It locks in Democrat priorities, and it also
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defangs the incoming Republican majority, which is what Senate Republican leadership wanted. If you
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look at the 18 Republicans who voted for it, you've got Roy Blunt from Missouri. He's retiring. He's
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not going to be there next year. You've got John Bozeman from Arkansas. He was just re-elected, so he has
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six years until he faces the voters. You've got Shelley Moore Capito from West Virginia. You've got Susan
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Collins from Maine. You've got John Cornyn from Texas. You've got Tom Cotton from Arkansas. You've got
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Lindsey Graham from South Carolina. You've got Jim Inhofe from Oklahoma. Jim Inhofe is retiring as well.
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He's not going to be there next year. You've got Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader,
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who helped Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi pass this massive funding bill. You've got Jerry Moran
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from Kansas. You've got Lisa Murkowski from Alaska, who was just elected in November. You've got Rob
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Portman from Ohio, who's retiring. You've got Mitt Romney from Utah. You've got Mike Rounds from South
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Dakota. You've got Richard Shelby from Alabama, who's retiring. You've got John Thune from South
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Dakota, who was just elected in November. You've got Roger Wicker from Mississippi. And you've got
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Todd Young from Indiana, who was just elected in November. And I got to say, and there were a couple
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of others. Marco Rubio voted initially to move this bill forward. He didn't vote for it at the end of the
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day. But but he refused to vote against cloture at the outset to stop it. I got to tell you, Ben,
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I cannot tell you why these Republicans voted for it. There is no explanation that that I think makes
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any sense. I can tell you what they were telling Republicans privately in the lunches. They were
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saying, OK, there are a variety of different talking points. One, they say we need to get our work done.
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I don't even know what that means. Our work done doesn't mean passing the Schumer-Pelosi priorities.
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That's not, in fact, the work that the voters elected us to do. They also said it was interesting.
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One of the arguments they made is they said, well, this is doing a favor to Kevin McCarthy and the
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House Republicans, because if they have to come in and actually vote, vote for government funding,
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there'll be a big fight and they don't want to have a big fight. So if we just take this off the
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table, clear the decks is what they call it. That's that's Washington speak. It'll be good for
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them. I'll tell you who disagreed with that really strongly was Kevin McCarthy. And actually, the House
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Republicans were loudly and repeatedly saying, do not do this. Do not pass this bill. Do not
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enable the Democrats to roll our incoming Republican majority. And yet I'll tell you a number of those
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folks retiring. It will not surprise anyone to see them opening up a lobby shop. And that thing was
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filled with earmarks. It was filled with pork. It was filled with wasteful spending. And this was the
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swamp in all of its hideous glory. It's it's one thing to see the Democrats do this. You expect it
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when you see the Republicans do this. And and if you just need to see how excited Democrats were,
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all you had to do was look at Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi's reaction. They touted this and the
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White House is a massive policy victory, a policy victory that they could not accomplish without
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Republicans joining them. You mentioned some of the reasons why. But how much of this just came down
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to give me what I want for my state. Give me my share for for the people that are lobbying me that
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I need them to take care of me in the future. And and then you can get my vote. I mean, there were
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some people on that list that you just mentioned that I think shocked a lot of people in the
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conservative movement. Tom Cotton, for example, is one of those where there was a lot of fodder.
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I saw people going, I understand some of these others. Right. I get I get Alaska. I get Murkowski
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and others like that. But that one was shocking. Look, I have no explanation. You're going to have
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to ask, Tom. There are some Republicans who pointed to, well, there was more defense spending
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in this. You know what? We could have done that next year. I don't think that remotely justifies
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voting for Schumer and Pelosi's budget. And then that's what they did here. Listen, Washington
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is a town that is inherently corrupted. And one aspect of this that that that hasn't been fully
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understood is the important role that earmarks played in making this pass. So earmarks of the
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provision where a member of the House or a member of the Senate can specially designate spending in
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their district for something they want. And and it it it is the grease that turns the wheels of big
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government. And when we had the Republican takeover in 2010 of the House of Representatives, one of the
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big reforms, one of the great conservative victories was ending the policy of earmarks for Republicans.
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And and so so we had a decade where we didn't do earmarks. Well, unfortunately, Republican leadership
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didn't like that because earmarks are how you buy off a problematic member. If someone's going to vote
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against you, if someone's talking too loud, if they're objecting to what you're trying to do, you just
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shovel a little bit of cash in their district and they shut up. It's it's the gateway drug to the rest of
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big government spending. Well, unfortunately, in this earmarks are back and are back in in incredible force.
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Uh, and and that that has included spending. So Pat Leahy, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee
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from Vermont, he's retiring. He named a huge program up in Vermont, the Pat Leahy program, Richard Shelby,
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the leading Republican from Alabama on appropriations. He's retiring. Also, he named a bunch of things
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after himself, the name Richard Shelby. I got to say, Ben, I think it is fundamentally corrupt for any member
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of Congress to name a damn thing after themselves. And I don't think anything should be named after a member
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of Congress as long as they're still alive. If someone kicks the bucket, you want to name something after
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them. Great. But my view, if you want the Ben Ferguson building, you got a real simple way to do it. Pull out your
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checkbook and write a check for it. But when you're in Congress, you're not spending your money, you're
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spending the taxpayer money. And and the idea that you have members of Congress sticking their name on
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it, I think is just on its face, corrupting and and a corrupt practice. There was an interesting threat
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that was made by the House, many House members. And I want to know your thoughts on it. Do you believe
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this is just political theater or is this going to actually be backed up where there were Republicans,
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including some in the new leadership who said for any of these Republicans that vote with the
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Democrats on the sign of a spending bill when they could have done a CR, they could have said no,
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they could have allowed the next Congress to do a better spending bill with some accountability in
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it. They said you can you can kiss your initiatives in this new Congress. Goodbye.
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Your bills. Goodbye. We're going to hold you accountable for this vote right before everybody
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just wanted to get out of town. Do you believe there's going to be some some real accountability
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in that way from the House? Or was that more just political theater to get the headline out there
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that you're standing up to the senators on the Republican side that basically sold us out?
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Well, look, I hope there's real accountability. The congressman who led that effort is Chip Roy.
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Chip Roy is a congressman from Texas. Chip is a very good friend of mine. I know Chip very,
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very well. Chip was my very first with him. Huh? We did a bus tour stop with him. In fact,
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we did. And Chip was my very first chief of staff when I was newly elected in 2012,
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arrived to the Senate in 2013. Chip started with me on day one as my chief of staff. And Chip is a
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warrior. He's a conservative warrior. The battle against Obamacare that resulted in a shutdown,
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but that also resulted in the biggest Republican victory in decades in the 2014 election. Chip was
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my chief of staff throughout that. Chip is the one who leveled this threat and a number of other
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House Republicans joined him. I don't know if they'll be able to carry carry through on it.
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It will prove difficult, given that among the people supporting this omnibus are all of the
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members of Republican leadership. And so for a House member to say we're going to block anything
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they support, the threat is significant. But at the end of the day, blocking anything Republican
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leadership supports at a minimum may prove difficult to execute. Senator, I want to go back just before we
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move on from this to the price tag on this omnibus spending bill. How did we get to a point where we
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could even imagine enough stuff to spend money on that is almost two trillion dollars? Well, look,
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the Democrats today have have handed their agenda over to the radical extremes that many of the
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Democrats in the House and Senate are openly embracing socialism. They're happy to spend all the
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money they can. And far too many Republicans are eager to be complicit in it. And that you roll this
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all together to buy up votes. The earmarks help you buy votes. But there are all sorts of provisions of
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this bill that reflect the fact that it was written by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. So, for example,
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the funding for Customs and Border Patrol explicitly prohibits that funding from being used to improve
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border security. Let me read you the language. None of the funds provided in this subsections shall
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be used to acquire, maintain, or extend border security technology and capabilities, except for
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technology and capabilities to improve border patrol processing. In other words, you can use this money
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to let illegal aliens go more quickly. But you can't actually use it to secure the border and stop them
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from entering. By the way, that same budget allocates 410 million dollars towards border security for
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Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Oman. It's really striking. So we're funding border security in other
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countries, but not here in the United States. And they're writing into law a prohibition on the money being used to
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improve border security. There's there's 1.5 billion for membership in in global organizations, including the United
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Nations. All right. You want to know how you buy off votes? Here's an interesting thing. Pick a really
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random word that you would not think appeared in this bill, much less appears 48 times. Take a guess.
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I'm thinking of the worst people in the Congress writing this thing. So is it handout? Is it government
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aid? I mean, what's their favorite word when they're going to be more parochial than that? The word salmon
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as in the fish. Really? Really? Okay. I was in a totally different world. Appears 48 times in the
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bill. What else is there? There's three million dollars for bee friendly highways. That's important.
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I know. I know that was one of your top agenda items when you were running for the Senate, right?
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You know, you got to take care of the bees. And this is the birds of the bees, because I got to tell
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you, the taxpayers are getting screwed. This is a lesson in Washington, birds and bees.
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You mentioned the border. I just I have to get back to that for a second. We're securing the border
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in other countries. You had Zelensky that flew in and got, you know, was the rock star of Congress
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this past week, you know, kissing with Nancy Pelosi. We're giving him money literally to secure his
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border instead of sending that money down to secure our own border. Did that frustrate you at all that
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they're like advocating? And how much do you need? You got to secure your border, sir.
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Ours is wide open. We know there's a thousand, two thousand, five thousand, ten thousand coming across
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the border. Can't wait for, you know, Title 43 to end. And then they're going to all come rushing
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across. And even the Democrats accidentally slipped this last week saying, well, they admit there is a
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crisis at the border, but we're, quote, handling it. It is absolutely insane. And I will say the
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adulation for Zelensky was bizarre. I think the Democrats, it's become almost cult like.
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And at the same time, a complete refusal to have any meaningful accountability as to the money that's
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being spent there. Listen, I'm someone that believes it is important for our national security
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interest, for Russia to lose, for Putin to lose. And so I've been an active advocate of supporting
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Ukraine. But for the Democrats, it's a blank check. And it's a blank check, not just for military
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weapons to defeat Russian soldiers, but for just billions of dollars that get poured into rat holes
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and are subject to corruption, are subject to embezzlement. And it is bizarre. But you also asked
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me, how do we get there? In the debate over this bill, one of the strangest things that was said is
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Mitch McConnell at a press conference said, I think the number one priority for most Republicans
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is funding Ukraine. Now, Ben, that is strange. I don't get the mindset that says that. I believe
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defeating Russia is important. But I don't know anyone in real America. I don't know any Texans.
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I don't think I've ever encountered anyone who says, you know, the number one priority for me,
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for America right now is funding Ukraine. I just that that's the Republican leadership right now.
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When he said it, it was something that went viral quickly in Republican circles, conservative circles
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online. But but he meant it. It wasn't a it wasn't a slip from McConnell. He he genuinely was saying
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this is the number one priority, not you, not your safety, not your country, but Ukraine. And if you're
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not with us, then then then you're on the side of Vladimir Putin. I didn't like the way how in the
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last several weeks this has been this framing is if I ask any questions, oh, you're with Putin. I got
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yelled out on TV the other day for the center where I was like, look, I'm in favor of stopping Russia.
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No aggression. I'm not in favor of us funding the entire thing. I'm not in favor of us being the
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one that's writing the check with no accountability or with no auditing, no accounting of where the
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money is actually going. And the rest of the world, especially in Europe. And I said this,
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they claim they were going to get involved. We're overwhelmingly funding this this Ukrainian
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war. They're not stepping up to the plate either. And I'm tired of America always being the first one
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to say here. The American taxpayers will write you a 50 billion dollar check. And then you look
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at all the countries in Europe who, by the way, are buying oil from from from Vladimir Putin for
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decades, keeping him in power. When we warned them, Donald Trump warned, you know, that he warned
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Europe, you guys need to stop doing this. You're going to make him powerful. He's going to be able to
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control you. And now they're putting hardly any money into this fight against against Russia.
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And they're doing nothing really to help Ukraine. Yeah. Listen, it is bizarre. The cult like support
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Democrats are showing the complete unwillingness to have any accountability that the desire to just
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have a write a blank check, the unwillingness to hold Europe to account for them to pay their fair
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share of it. The Democrats don't believe it. And of course, the utter irony of this whole thing is it
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was Joe Biden that caused the damn war in the first place. And we've talked about that at length,
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how the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, the sanctions that I authored, had stopped Russia from invading
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Ukraine. And then Joe Biden waived the sanctions on Russia and Putin and caused this war. And now
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they're trying to cover up for their cleanup on aisle six, the mess that they made by just shoveling cash.
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It really makes no sense at all. I do think it's important that people hear. And this is,
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again, in Washington, D.C., Mitch McConnell making it clear that he's going to spend your money on his
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top, top priority. Here is it. Here he is in his own words.
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Providing assistance for the Ukrainians to defeat the Russians. That's the number one priority for the
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United States right now, according to most Republicans. That's sort of how we see the
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challenges confronting the country at the moment.
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There's a lot of things that are that are that are right now, you know, confronting this country.
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And when you go to Washington, Senator, you sit around. Is this truly how out of touch they are with
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the reality of the American family who's dealing with inflation? I mean, USA to Ukraine, you have
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forty five billion within the omnibus bill. You had one point eight billion and another package and
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sixty eight billion has already been sent. And he says this is the number one priority of the GOP
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is focused on this. That is a hell of a lot of money that we're borrowing. Again, we don't have
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this money. We're going to have to borrow it and we're going to pay interest on it.
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Well, Ben, look, that's a big part of the reason why I helped lead the leadership challenge to Mitch
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McConnell just a few weeks ago, because our leadership is fundamentally out of touch.
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That doesn't reflect the priorities of the American people. And I think that's an enormous problem.
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You look at some of the elements of this bill beyond that. There's sixty five million for two two
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programs named for Senator Pat Leahy. There's a federal building name for Nancy Pelosi.
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There's three point six million dollars for the Michelle Obama trail.
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There's four hundred and seventy seven thousand dollars for, quote, anti-racist training from the
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Equity Institute. There's three million dollars for the LGBTQ plus museum in New York.
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There's one point two million dollars for services for DACA recipients.
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There's four point one million in career programs for Fairfax County, Virginia, one of the richest
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counties in the country. It renames twenty five post offices.
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There's five hundred and twenty four million for a DEI and structural racism subdivision of the
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National Institute of Health. There's three hundred thousand dollars per year for the continuous
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Plankton Recorder. This is Washington corruption, plain and simple, and it is a result.
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We expect Democrats to be a train wreck. We expect them to be socialists.
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What we should be willing to expect is for Republicans.
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Not. And the maddening thing is this didn't take anything particularly complicated or difficult
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to stop it. All we had to do was have 41 Republicans stand up and say, no, the last four times there
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was a shift in control of one of the houses of representation.
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The Congress, each of the last four times, did not pass an omnibus funding bill.
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The incoming party who was getting control had enough cojones to stand up and say, hell no,
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we just won an election. We're going to set the spending priorities.
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Now, look, there's reference to the uniparty. I got to say for the the the Republicans who supported
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this, I get the ones who are retiring, why they did, although it makes you wonder what the hell
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they were doing previously. But I don't understand anyone who cast cast a vote for this. And I think
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I think a lot of the voters are pissed off and I think they have good reason to be pissed off.
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How much of this is an age thing? And I say that because you look at Nancy Pelosi at her age,
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you look at Mitch McConnell at his age, you look at Joe Biden at his age and you and you look at
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Chuck Schumer at his age. They know that when the you know what hits the fan, Senator,
00:27:29.260
they're probably not going to be around to have to deal with it. There is going to be a catastrophic
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event economically within our government, within this country to pay back this debt at some point.
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And as part of the reason why they just can do this so easily is just the fact they say it ain't
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my problem. Literally, this is not going to hit the fan when I'm in office, much less I may not
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even be alive by then. Yes, it's going to affect my grandkids. Right. Or even my kids, but not me.
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So screw it. I'll go with it. Yeah, it's it's not just age. I mean, the people that voted for this
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ran the gamut of the age. Look, there are people in the Senate who are 142. So so there are definitely
00:28:11.920
some folks who are long in the tooth. But, you know, Tom Cotton is one of the youngest members of the
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Senate. He voted for this. Todd Young is a relatively young member of the Senate. He voted
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for this. Marco Rubio voted to take this up initially. He's he's younger than I am, one of
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the youngest members of the Senate. So it's it's not just an age thing. But I'm going to let them
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speak for themselves that they can explain why this spending bill was better than a spending bill
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that was passed with a Republican majority in the House. I promise you a House Republican
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majority is not going to write into the bill. The funds in this bill cannot be used to secure
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the border. That's something Pelosi and Schumer do. But for Republicans, they're willing to
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at least some of them are willing to roll over and allow it to happen.
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How much does the national debt keep you up? I mean, I know there's a lot of issues you have to
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deal with. You have to vote on. But I I sit here right now and I look at it and it really is now
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becoming more of a constant kind of thought process for me of realizing that we are not as strong
00:29:25.560
as we need to be as a nation, specifically economically. And I can I am concerned now that
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we've gotten so far into debt that for many of these people on the left, it could be on purpose
00:29:37.540
just because they know that when the American people are hurting, they're more dependent on
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them. And that's how they gain power and control over you is that when they can be your God,
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your savior financially every 30 days, you're going to vote for them. That's the thing that I worry
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the most about. This is if we go into some serious, hard, tough economic times, it is only
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going to, I think, help the Democrats in that moment go, well, hey, we can turn this more into kind
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of a, you know, a socialist country and we'll take care of you. Granted, your life is going to be
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terrible, but at least you're living. Look, I think for the Democrats, they don't care. I think the
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Democrats, their solution at the end of the day, we're seeing it right now, their solution at the
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end of the day is inflate their way out of it. Just print so much money, have hyperinflation that the
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debt, as a percentage of, as the value of the dollar goes down, the debt becomes less relevant.
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And for them, it's about power. Look, we've seen socialist governments do this all over the country,
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all over the world, rather. And I think that's on the left where it comes from.
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For Republicans, listen, I think most Republicans in the Senate, if you ask them, they are concerned
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about the debt, but they're more concerned about being criticized. They're more concerned about
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the media saying something mean about them. They're more concerned about not having, not being
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reelected. And spending a bunch of cash is a great way to buy votes and try to get reelected. And so
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it is, this is, I've been in the Senate 10 years. I've never seen it this bad with
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with Republicans literally undermining the ability of Republicans to pass a Republican budget.
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Yeah, it's truly incredible. And it's going to hurt this country, I think, in so many different
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ways, including protecting this nation in general from adversaries, foreign and domestic. I do want
00:31:59.620
to end this year on, I would say, an incredible note. And it's something that you led on, Senator. And
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this was the vaccine military mandate. This happened. A lot of good men and women in uniform were
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were discharged from our military because they refused to get vaccinated. There were many of
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them that were not given religious exemptions. And pretty much they were laughed at when they
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tried to go that route. And now we have some, we have a victory for those men and women. Is it a
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little bit too late for some of them? Are we going to be able to get some of them back in the workplace
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again and back in the military doing their jobs, getting back to their careers?
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Well, look, I'm glad we're ending this pod with with a note of of optimism and a note of good
00:32:45.660
news. And we do have some good news, which which is the military vaccine mandate has ended. And and
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that is a fight. I've been leading the fight against the vaccine mandate from the very beginning,
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from when it was first imposed. I think the vaccine mandate was wrong on day one. It's been wrong
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every day that it's continued. And in the military in particular, it's it's been horrific. I've spoken,
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I've visited with with multiple soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines who were discharged
00:33:18.280
because they made the choice not to get the COVID vaccine. And I think that was fundamentally wrong.
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It was abusive. It was stupid. I visited with Navy SEALs who spent years training, who fought to defend
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this nation, who Joe Biden has fired. And so Congress took up at the end of the year, the NDAA,
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the National Defense Authorization Act. And I joined with several other senators. We drew a line in the
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in the ground and said, we should stand together and say we will not pass this bill unless you end
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the vaccine mandated. The Democrats beat their chest and said, we'll never do it. We'll never do it.
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And wonder of wonders, Republicans actually held the line.
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And the Democrats caved. And so Joe Biden signed into law the bill ending the military vaccine
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mandate. That is a terrific victory and one that we should celebrate because it's the right thing to
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do. Now, while we're celebrating, I think our celebrations need to be tempered because
00:34:21.220
you asked the right question, Ben. It's right going forward. The Biden military will not fire people
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because they didn't get a COVID vaccine. Unfortunately, this bill is prospective only.
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It does nothing retrospective. I've had legislation I introduced that would allow every one of the
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servicemen and women who were dismissed because of not getting the COVID vaccine to to be reinstated in
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the military if they so desired. If they made the choice, if they'd been if they'd been kicked out
00:34:54.960
and they wanted to go back in, it would let them back in. It would also change their status. There
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were a number of people who were exited from the military with a less than honorable discharge
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that has enormous consequences for retirement, for health care benefits, for veteran status. And so
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my bill corrected that to ensure that those who were fired because they didn't get the COVID vaccine
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and who would choose, they didn't want to go back now that they would at a minimum be deemed
00:35:25.680
honorably discharged so they would get full credit for their time served. That's a matter of justice.
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It's a matter of fairness. I had an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act. I did it with
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Ron Johnson from Wisconsin. And we had a vote on the Senate floor on my amendment. And the amendment,
00:35:42.280
unfortunately, was voted down. The vote was 40 to 54. So 54 voted no. There were some who weren't there.
00:35:53.160
The Democrats all voted no. And there were four Republicans who voted no. Bill Cassidy from
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Louisiana, Susan Collins from Maine, Mitt Romney from Utah, and Mike Rounds from North Dakota.
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I got to tell you again, I don't have a good explanation. You got a Navy SEAL who spent 10,
00:36:14.700
12, 15 years fighting to defend this country. He gets fired because Joe Biden decides to throw him
00:36:21.820
out because he didn't get the vaccine mandate. I don't know how to articulate why even one senator
00:36:29.260
would vote to say, nope, we're not letting that Navy SEAL back in. I don't care that we have a
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recruiting shortage. I don't care that we don't have enough men and women to defend our nation. I don't care
00:36:41.280
that we're no longer firing people for doing this. That guy is out of luck. It was infuriating
00:36:50.560
that that particular amendment didn't pass. So the people, and it is at minimum thousands,
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and it may be in excess of 10,000. We have not been able to get an actual accurate and fair
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accounting of just how many servicemen and women have been forcibly discharged. So as we go into
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the new year, let's celebrate. The military vaccine mandate has been ended. It's been ended
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because millions of Americans stood up alongside me and many others and fought to end it. That's a
00:37:22.860
victory. But the victory should have been much broader. And I hope we use that as encouragement
00:37:29.320
then to lean in and redouble the fight in the new year coming forward. No doubt about it. Senator,
00:37:37.140
I know you're going to take a week with your family. You guys are going to get to enjoy each
00:37:40.740
other through the new year. And I know you're looking forward to that. So for everybody, just so
00:37:45.940
you know, we're going to get back to a normal schedule on Wednesday, the 4th, and you will get back
00:37:51.820
to our three shows a week, starting on Wednesday, the 4th. But I know you're going to get to spend
00:37:56.360
some time with your family through the new year break as well. So many people get to do that with
00:38:00.580
their families. And I know you're excited about it. Absolutely. I hope everyone has a wonderful,
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blessed new year. Have fun on New Year's Eve. Stay safe, hug your family. And next year, I hope
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2023 is an incredible year for this incredible nation.
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Happy New Year, Senator. And again, to everybody listening, we will see you on January the 4th.
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Have a safe and happy New Year. And we'll see you back here. We'll get back to it on the 4th.