Broken trust, promises, and process kills spending deal (12-19-2024--Hour1)

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[00:00:28] Where to begin? I guess we'll start with the history of the continuing resolution. I'm just kidding. We're not going to start there. We're not going to do that. We will start here. About two days ago, right? Two days ago, story... Oh, I don't know where this was. That's weird. I usually include when I print these out where they came from. This might be... Well, sorry.

[00:00:59] Well, I... Emily Brooks and Michael Schnell. This might be the Washington Examiner, but I'm not sure. It could be the Washington Times. I forget.

[00:01:10] House Republicans are fuming at Speaker Mike Johnson's handling of an end-of-year measure to extend government funding until March, saying it is more like a sprawling omnibus, which they abhor, than a simple temporary funding measure.

[00:01:26] Um, so again, an omnibus bill is one that has, like, a whole bunch of crap thrown into it.

[00:01:37] Unrelated items, policy, spending, just a bunch of stuff tossed in.

[00:01:45] I don't know why they call it omnibus.

[00:01:47] Like, this is a word that sort of came into the lexicon, I want to say, about 10 years ago when they started doing these ridiculous monstrosities because they couldn't do their freaking jobs and do a budget.

[00:02:01] So they just keep doing these omnibus spending bills and these continuing resolutions.

[00:02:05] And then the continuing resolution, or the CR, became the omnibus.

[00:02:12] And the omnibus became the CR because they're, like, technically different.

[00:02:17] And, right, an omnibus is any kind of a bill that has a bunch of stuff tossed in.

[00:02:22] And the continuing resolution is just, you know, be it resolved, like, we're just going to pass a resolution that continues the funding that is existing right now.

[00:02:34] The problem is, is that they just can't help themselves.

[00:02:37] They have to add some stuff to the CR.

[00:02:39] And so then the CR starts getting larded up with a whole bunch of stuff.

[00:02:46] And then it turns into an omnibus.

[00:02:49] And that gave us the cromnibus, a melding of these two abominations, the continuing resolution and the omnibus.

[00:02:59] Now it's a cromnibus.

[00:03:00] And now, today, we have the cromnibus.

[00:03:07] So now, you're injecting a tactical term.

[00:03:13] They're going to cram it down our throats.

[00:03:16] They're going to ram it through the Congress.

[00:03:18] So now it is a cromnibus that's being rammed through and crammed down.

[00:03:23] And so now it's a cromnibus.

[00:03:27] I don't know.

[00:03:28] I don't know where we go from here, people.

[00:03:30] I really don't.

[00:03:32] So, I mean, on the language thing, like, I don't know how many different names we can give this thing because it's all the same.

[00:03:38] It's just a different permutation of the same garbage, right?

[00:03:41] So the continuing resolution, which will keep government funding at current levels through March 14th, is also set to include.

[00:03:52] See, there's the giveaway right there, right?

[00:03:56] When it says that the continuing resolution will also include additional money, well, then that's no longer simply a continuing resolution, right?

[00:04:04] Because the CR would just continue what we've got.

[00:04:08] When you start adding more stuff, now it becomes something else.

[00:04:12] The cromnibus, right?

[00:04:13] So it's going to include $100.4 billion in disaster aid for people affected by hurricanes, including Helene.

[00:04:23] So Western North Carolina is directly impacted by whatever happens with this thing.

[00:04:32] And then there's another $10 billion in economic assistance for farmers.

[00:04:38] Marjorie Taylor Greene, Congresswoman from Georgia, Republican, said it's not a CR, which is a continuation of the budget.

[00:04:45] It's turning into an omnibus.

[00:04:47] And she's exactly correct.

[00:04:52] So there are two.

[00:04:53] And by the way, they have a deadline to pass this continuing resolution because the budget ends, the funding ends tomorrow.

[00:05:02] So they've got till like midnight tomorrow.

[00:05:05] So I guess that would be end of Friday, I think.

[00:05:09] So Saturday morning.

[00:05:11] And if this seems familiar, it's because it is familiar.

[00:05:15] They do this every Christmas.

[00:05:19] I remember being out of town.

[00:05:22] I want to say I was down in Atlanta at my brother's house when they did the Obamacare crap.

[00:05:30] When they rammed that thing through with the reconciliation process.

[00:05:35] Why did they do this?

[00:05:37] Why do they do this?

[00:05:39] Well, Thomas Massey, Congressman from Kentucky, he explained this.

[00:05:47] I believe this was in September.

[00:05:50] Let me see.

[00:05:51] I got time.

[00:05:52] This was him speaking in a congressional hearing.

[00:05:56] I also predicted this would fall right before Christmas.

[00:06:00] And I believe this this does fall on December 20th.

[00:06:05] Now, why have we picked December 20th?

[00:06:09] Because it's the same reason we always have December 20th.

[00:06:14] Everybody up here is human.

[00:06:16] There are no AIs or robots in Congress.

[00:06:20] What?

[00:06:20] And when you get to December 20th, you're five days from Christmas.

[00:06:24] You're four days from Christmas Eve.

[00:06:26] And you desperately want to be there with your family.

[00:06:29] So this is when the leadership here has the maximum influence.

[00:06:34] And again, I'm talking to the Democrats and the Republicans because you've seen it on the

[00:06:39] Democrat side of the aisle.

[00:06:40] They love to pick the week before Christmas for this showdown because you can smell the

[00:06:47] jet fuel fumes over at DCA.

[00:06:50] It smells like Christmas that you're going to get to go home and open presents.

[00:06:54] I've been in HC5 when literally the Speaker of the House, not the Speaker we have now,

[00:06:59] walks in and says, if you vote for this, you can go home and unwrap presents with your kids.

[00:07:05] And if you don't vote for this, you're going to spend Christmas here with Nancy Pelosi.

[00:07:09] And then the chant starts, vote, vote, vote, vote.

[00:07:14] How screwed up is that?

[00:07:18] How screwed up is that?

[00:07:22] You want to go home and open presents with your grandbabies, you know, your first grandkid,

[00:07:27] your first or maybe you're a young lawmaker and you've got very young kids.

[00:07:31] You want to be there Christmas Eve, Christmas morning.

[00:07:34] You want to be there when the kids wake up and come downstairs.

[00:07:36] And they use that in order to get you to vote for an omnibus, cromnibus, cramnibus, CR crap sandwich.

[00:07:48] And people do it and they don't read the bill.

[00:07:52] They haven't read it.

[00:07:53] It doesn't matter.

[00:07:57] And the leadership knows it.

[00:07:59] Literally, people get enthusiastic to vote for something that they haven't read.

[00:08:04] So let me predict what we're not going to do on December 20th before I take a guess at what we're going to do.

[00:08:10] What we're not going to do, we're not going to do 12 separate bills.

[00:08:14] We are not going to spend this time.

[00:08:16] We've got we've got a few months between now and December 20th.

[00:08:19] We could go back to working on appropriations bills.

[00:08:22] What he's talking about, the 12 bills, these are the 12 appropriation bills that Congress is supposed to be doing for these different sectors of the government, of the budget.

[00:08:33] And they haven't done it, I don't think, in my entire adult life.

[00:08:38] Like, I don't think I've ever actually seen this process unfold.

[00:08:41] What was supposed to be, quote, regular order.

[00:08:44] Very irregular.

[00:08:45] We are not going to do this.

[00:08:47] This sucker, whatever happens on December 20th, whether it's another CR to punt, to kick the can down the road for three more months,

[00:08:55] or whether it's an omnibus that funds all of government with with one bill, it's going to be written behind closed doors.

[00:09:02] It was every lobbyist in this town is going to try to attach their little thing to this bill.

[00:09:10] They did.

[00:09:11] This train is leaving the station.

[00:09:13] It did.

[00:09:13] On December 20th, it's the only one that we know is going to pass.

[00:09:18] They call it up here a must-pass legislation.

[00:09:21] So everybody's going to try and get their little thing on this bill, whatever it is on December 20th,

[00:09:27] whether it's another continuing resolution or another omnibus.

[00:09:31] It's so, it's not even really a prediction that I'm making.

[00:09:35] I'm just telling you what has happened for 12 years, regardless of whether Democrats are in charge or Republicans are in charge.

[00:09:41] There may be a little twist.

[00:09:42] We may do half of a CR.

[00:09:46] It'll be a whole CR, and half of it will end in February, and half of it will end in April,

[00:09:51] and they'll convince you they got something more clever this year than they had last year.

[00:09:55] But it's going to be the same old thing, warmed over, written behind closed doors, rolled out here.

[00:10:02] We're not going to have time to read this thing.

[00:10:04] That's also predictable.

[00:10:07] We're going to be told, vote for this, and you can go home and open presents with your kids.

[00:10:12] Don't vote for it, and you're going to be stuck here.

[00:10:15] And there will be people.

[00:10:17] It pulls at heartstrings.

[00:10:19] We are humans.

[00:10:20] And that's why I think it's really disingenuous or despicable, really, to pick four days before Christmas Eve to put this bill on the floor.

[00:10:31] The bill I'm talking about, obviously, nobody here knows what it is yet.

[00:10:38] And we're not going to have time to read it, but people are going to be inclined to vote for it because they just want to be with their family.

[00:10:44] Right, on Christmas.

[00:10:47] Yeah, it's corrupt is what it is.

[00:10:49] It's corrupt.

[00:10:51] Two issues, content of the bill and the process.

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[00:11:58] All right, so content and process.

[00:12:02] Regarding the content of the Cramnibus.

[00:12:08] Quote, total dumpster fire.

[00:12:12] Quote, it's garbage.

[00:12:15] Quote, crap sandwich.

[00:12:19] Sorry, I know it's lunchtime.

[00:12:21] Chip Roy said we get this negotiated crap and we're forced to eat the crap sandwich.

[00:12:26] Why?

[00:12:27] Because freaking Christmas is right around the corner.

[00:12:30] It's the same dang thing every year.

[00:12:32] Legislate by crisis.

[00:12:34] Legislate by calendar.

[00:12:35] Not legislate because it's the right thing to do.

[00:12:39] Speaker Johnson received an earful of criticism during a closed door House GOP conference meeting on Tuesday, where he briefed members on the emerging details of the government funding package.

[00:12:52] So this gets to the process.

[00:12:55] A lot of Republicans not happy with the process.

[00:12:59] Because as Donald Bryson, the CEO of the John Locke Foundation here in North Carolina points out on Twitter, the House GOP promised that the budget would be returned to regular order more than two years ago.

[00:13:14] Yet here we are at the end of another continuing resolution because nobody in Washington is willing to do the hard work of appropriations committees and subcommittees.

[00:13:24] Right.

[00:13:26] They are unwilling to work, yet they put into the CR a pay raise for themselves.

[00:13:36] Now, look.

[00:13:38] You've probably heard people say that what I'm about to say, which I don't have a problem with them giving themselves a pay raise.

[00:13:46] They haven't gotten a pay raise in like 15 years.

[00:13:50] They still make $174,000.

[00:13:56] Actually, I think I'm going to run for Congress now.

[00:13:58] No, I'm kidding.

[00:13:58] But they make so they get $175,000 basically.

[00:14:03] But the optics of stuffing a pay raise without any debate or any kind of conversation, any kind of transparency, it's just put into the cram to bus.

[00:14:16] And then everybody's told to vote on it.

[00:14:19] And they don't have time to read it, which, by the way, that's going to change.

[00:14:24] You know why?

[00:14:25] A.I.

[00:14:28] This will probably be the last kind of monstrosity that we have seen where A.I.

[00:14:34] will not be able to filter it like that and tell us everything that's in it.

[00:14:43] Things are changing.

[00:14:48] And you can lead, follow, or get out of the way, right?

[00:14:53] Regarding the process, the gripes are not just coming from hardline conservatives.

[00:14:59] By the way, you never hear hardline leftists.

[00:15:03] You never hear hardline liberals or progressives.

[00:15:07] I don't even think the media realizes there's such a thing as a hardline progressive.

[00:15:12] At best, you get, you know, the leader of the progressive caucus or a member of the progressive caucus.

[00:15:19] Sometimes you'll get left leaning.

[00:15:21] You never get hard left because I don't even think they realize there is such a thing.

[00:15:25] But anyway, Representative Mike Lawler, no relation to the wrestler.

[00:15:32] I don't.

[00:15:33] Well, maybe.

[00:15:33] I don't know, actually.

[00:15:34] He could be.

[00:15:35] But he's a Republican from New York.

[00:15:38] He represents a district that Joe Biden won.

[00:15:41] So these are your your squishy rhino, you know, Northeastern Republican swing district, moderate, whatever you want to call them, Republicans.

[00:15:53] They are most susceptible to the pressure that might come from the left because they are in a district that the president, Joe Biden, that a Democrat carried.

[00:16:03] But he won the district.

[00:16:05] He stood up during the GOP conference meeting and told Mike Johnson that the government funding process has not been member driven.

[00:16:14] Lawler also aired grievances, which it is that time of year with Festivus and all Democrats play about Democrats who played a key role in the funding process, telling Johnson at one point, I'm not a bleeping Democrat.

[00:16:29] How come they got all of this input and your own membership did not?

[00:16:35] Fair question.

[00:16:37] See, process and content.

[00:16:39] All right.

[00:16:40] Hey, real quick.

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[00:17:02] Pete at the Pete calendar show dot com and I can show you how it works.

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[00:17:07] That's Pete at the Pete calendar show dot com.

[00:17:10] So the article I've been reading actually is from the hill.

[00:17:13] I went and double checked.

[00:17:13] It's from the hill.

[00:17:15] And.

[00:17:15] And.

[00:17:16] This was two days ago.

[00:17:18] All right.

[00:17:19] When Speaker Johnson.

[00:17:21] Rolled this thing out.

[00:17:24] Fifteen hundred pages started talking to his members in the conference meeting and they.

[00:17:29] They.

[00:17:30] They went ballistic.

[00:17:32] The Republicans are super mad.

[00:17:35] And at one point when Johnson told the members that the continuing resolution, the CR.

[00:17:42] Was a collaborative effort that had committee involvement.

[00:17:46] Representative Jason Smith, the chair of the Ways and Means Committee, responded, quote, not true.

[00:17:52] True.

[00:17:54] That's never.

[00:17:56] That's never a good sign when you're up in front of the crowd.

[00:18:00] We had committees that worked on this.

[00:18:02] Not true.

[00:18:03] Oh, hang it.

[00:18:08] If you're if your conference doesn't trust you, you're done.

[00:18:12] You are done.

[00:18:15] Smith declined to answer questions from reporters as he left the meeting.

[00:18:19] Speaker Johnson, for his part, sought to sell the emerging package to his conference during the meeting,

[00:18:24] claiming to members that Chuck Schumer negotiated in bad faith and the Democrats did not secure any wins at all in the bill.

[00:18:33] And that is false.

[00:18:35] That is false.

[00:18:37] Democrats did secure some big wins in the bill, most notably the GEC, the GEC, the Global Engagement.

[00:18:48] Commission or something.

[00:18:50] This is the.

[00:18:52] This is the infrastructure that was built up eight years ago.

[00:18:57] Where the government could use.

[00:19:00] That infrastructure to censor people on social media.

[00:19:04] That's due to sunset.

[00:19:07] And Democrats attempted to build that into the State Department.

[00:19:15] For an additional year.

[00:19:17] So they changed it from an eight year sunset to a nine year sunset.

[00:19:21] So it could live on for one more year and to house that infrastructure inside the State Department,

[00:19:26] which would make it more difficult to dismantle under a Doge.

[00:19:34] Program of cuts.

[00:19:38] That was a big win.

[00:19:39] They also sought to immunize all of the members of the J6 Select Committee from subpoena.

[00:19:46] That's a big win for them.

[00:19:48] Right.

[00:19:49] Fifteen hundred pages.

[00:19:50] You're going to tell me there's no wins for Democrats in there after you negotiated with them.

[00:19:55] And now they're all squawking about a deal is a deal.

[00:19:58] We had an agreement.

[00:19:59] Why would they be fighting so hard for this then?

[00:20:01] Please.

[00:20:02] So once again, a lie.

[00:20:04] That's not good for the speaker.

[00:20:07] Next, Washington Examiner from this again Tuesday.

[00:20:13] This is just by the way, this is just for the background to tell you how we got to where we got to and what unfolded yesterday.

[00:20:21] Basically on Twitter, which is kind of nuts.

[00:20:26] I thought everybody was going to be over on Blue Sky for this.

[00:20:30] So weird.

[00:20:31] Um, congressional leaders have finalized a deal to extend government spending into the new year.

[00:20:37] Teeing up a vote later this week, just days before funding for federal agencies is scheduled to lapse.

[00:20:44] The first question I had when I saw this story was.

[00:20:49] If ever there is a time to shut down the government, why wouldn't it be right now?

[00:20:57] You just won the presidency.

[00:20:59] You just won the Senate.

[00:21:01] You've retained the House.

[00:21:03] You've got Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy coming in with their doge.

[00:21:08] The department, not a department, uh, department of government efficiency coming in to start laying waste to some of the bloat that is in the federal government budgets.

[00:21:20] To get us back onto a fiscally solvent footing.

[00:21:27] You have all of these Republicans running around getting their pictures taken with Musk and Ramaswamy like, oh, I'm down for doge.

[00:21:34] I want to be a part of this.

[00:21:35] And everyone's running around like they're part of the solution here.

[00:21:39] And then you give them this.

[00:21:43] Yeah, there.

[00:21:44] Yeah.

[00:21:47] Is the juice worth the squeeze?

[00:21:50] For this right now.

[00:21:52] After we just saw what we saw.

[00:21:54] The massive shifts in all these different voting demographics to Trump.

[00:22:01] Elon Musk out there campaigning with Trump.

[00:22:05] Promising this stuff.

[00:22:07] They got all this momentum.

[00:22:09] And this is what you do.

[00:22:10] One last deal for the lobbyists.

[00:22:14] In the swamp.

[00:22:18] Why?

[00:22:20] House leaders unveiled the legislation Tuesday evening, which would extend government, the current funding levels through March 14th and include $110 billion supplemental package for the disaster relief and farmer economic assistance.

[00:22:37] The legislation comes after weeks of negotiations between House and Senate lawmakers.

[00:22:41] And it includes a number of policy provisions intended to thwart Chinese influence.

[00:22:47] Oh, so I guess Joe Biden is is out effective immediately.

[00:22:52] Then no Chinese influence.

[00:22:53] Oh, man.

[00:22:53] And also to respond to recent concerns stemming from drones.

[00:22:58] The continuing resolution portion of the funding legislation will keep current spending levels for government agencies at the same level while being paired with a supplemental spending bill.

[00:23:08] Major provisions tucked inside of the disaster relief include $29 billion to replenish the FEMA disaster relief fund, $21 billion in disaster relief for farmers, and $8 billion towards the Federal Highway and Roads disaster fund.

[00:23:23] The supplemental bill also includes $10 billion for economic assistance to farmers and a one-year extension of the farm bill, which is set to expire at the end of this year.

[00:23:33] Some lawmakers said the provisions are not as much as they were hoping for, but it is a start.

[00:23:39] Again, this is from the Washington Examiner.

[00:23:41] Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray told reporters, quote,

[00:23:47] We should be done, but unfortunately we've been delayed by an 11th hour demand from the Speaker.

[00:23:53] It's not clear what that demand was.

[00:23:57] But the 1,547-page legislation is filled with provisions unrelated to government funding, such as language to reform how pharmacy benefit managers operate,

[00:24:08] provisions that would allow Washington to redevelop the site of the shuttered Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium that would possibly woo the Washington Redskins, a.k.a. commanders, away from their current location in Maryland.

[00:24:23] The bill also includes a reauthorization of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Program intended to address and counter the potential threats from drones.

[00:24:32] That provision came after thousands of drone sightings.

[00:24:36] Oh, wait, I think I just saw one right out in the hallway there.

[00:24:40] Oh, no, no.

[00:24:41] Sorry, that was that was Brett Winterble.

[00:24:44] Well, the unrelated funding has ignited a firestorm among House Republicans who are criticizing Speaker Johnson for what they call an omnibus spending bill in disguise.

[00:24:57] Why not do a standalone.

[00:25:02] CR.

[00:25:04] And a separate standalone relief package, disaster relief package.

[00:25:10] Why wouldn't both of those pass?

[00:25:14] Right.

[00:25:15] Run the bills.

[00:25:17] Run run a clean CR saying we're going to spend what we're spending now.

[00:25:21] We're just going to continue it for another three months.

[00:25:24] We have one hundred ten billion dollars in disaster relief.

[00:25:27] Run that bill.

[00:25:29] Put it up for a vote.

[00:25:31] Done again.

[00:25:35] Like what better time do you have to fight this fight?

[00:25:40] The election is already over.

[00:25:43] But oh, my gosh, it's going to be a shutdown and we're going to get blamed for it.

[00:25:48] Do you think.

[00:25:50] People care.

[00:25:51] At this point.

[00:25:53] Like, seriously, I know Republicans have been snake bitten by this.

[00:25:57] They get, you know, pilloried in the media.

[00:26:01] But so did Donald Trump.

[00:26:04] Like, were they calling you Hitler for shutting down the government because they were calling that guy Hitler and he won.

[00:26:10] So I don't know if the the media holds the sway any longer to move this needle, especially a month after the election.

[00:26:18] You got two more years, guys.

[00:26:20] This is why I said I'm not sure that Trump is going to be able to get everything done that he has promised because he's got to have a Congress that does this stuff with him.

[00:26:32] This is the concern.

[00:26:33] We're not going to know for sure until tomorrow.

[00:26:35] But because like right now, everything's still in flux.

[00:26:38] I believe there was actually a meeting started started earlier this hour among the Republicans in the House.

[00:26:47] So I'm not sure what will come of that.

[00:26:51] But they're they're scrambling because the government's going to shut down.

[00:26:55] No.

[00:26:56] After tomorrow.

[00:26:58] And I did get a message here.

[00:27:00] Hang on.

[00:27:01] Let me read some messages.

[00:27:03] This is from Junior, who says, I'm not sure if the public is aware, but most of the time a furloughed government worker is paid eventually when the shutdowns occur.

[00:27:16] I'm not sure about the long one with Trump's last term, but as a retired federal employee, I witnessed and experienced about five shutdowns.

[00:27:24] Every time I watched as non-essential employees were sent home, quote, without pay.

[00:27:31] When the shutdown budget was resolved, those same.

[00:27:35] Non-essential employees.

[00:27:38] Were.

[00:27:40] Returned to work and then received pay for the time they were off.

[00:27:45] So the bottom line was they got a paid vacation.

[00:27:49] The system is so crazy.

[00:27:53] This is from Tim.

[00:27:56] Omnibus Bill and Mike Johnson that Mike Johnson folds like a cheap suit.

[00:28:01] To Democrats on most any subject.

[00:28:03] I think they have him blackmailed like pictures with him in bed with an underage girl or maybe an underage boy for that matter.

[00:28:09] Well, maybe a farm animal.

[00:28:11] You don't know.

[00:28:11] It could be anything.

[00:28:13] We've heard about the parties.

[00:28:15] If I'm not mistaken, says Brett, it was either you or Vince who talked about this months ago when they passed the previous continuing resolution to continue to fund the government.

[00:28:26] Johnson set it up specifically so there would have to be a forced vote just days before Christmas.

[00:28:34] And Dennis says at this point, shouldn't Congress call this bill the omnibusted bill?

[00:28:44] Denny says, I'm OK with Congress giving themselves a raise as long as there are also provisions revoking their own special health care program and the elimination of insider trading on the stock market.

[00:28:55] Any chance that that would fly?

[00:28:57] Keep up the great content.

[00:28:58] Let's continue to expose all of this government misbehavior that Congress hopes nobody will notice.

[00:29:05] Right.

[00:29:05] So I saw somebody else suggest, hey, you know what?

[00:29:07] I would say take how about congressional pay of a million dollars a year if you balance a budget.

[00:29:14] All right.

[00:29:14] That'll do it for this episode.

[00:29:16] Thank you so much for listening.

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[00:29:31] Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.