Sen. Johnson & Rep. Harris on WNC recovery (01-17-2025--Hour2)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetecalinarshow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:28] Union County Crime Stoppers Barbecue, by the way, we're here doing the whole program. Brett Wintermull will be here also doing his. We raise money for the Crime Stoppers organization. This is how they fund the rewards for tips that come in that help solve crimes. So you can come and eat to beat crime. You can use that, by the way.

[00:00:48] I like that. Yeah, there you go. That's State Senator Todd Johnson from Union County here and District 35. Welcome back, sir. I think this is our annual 15-minute chat. This is our anniversary. That's right. So you guys were here last year. And I guess you did you just participate in the event inside the big room there?

[00:01:07] I did. This is one of the most well-attended events in Sweet Union County every year. It's a place where if you really, really despise being around politicians, probably want to stay away. But the cause is definitely worth it. So anybody and everybody comes here for this event. It is, as you can see, I think the facility holds 700 people. It's packed all the time and it's constantly in and out. Cars are lined up. And actually, you know, a lot of times we have to go to this stuff and the barbecue's not that great.

[00:01:35] Pete, this event has really, really good barbecues. Don't they all say that, though? Yeah, but this one is really good, though, Pete. It's really, really good. So, yeah, I'm curious. Is it like what comes first? Is it the barbecue, the politicians, the media? Right? Like which one? Because they all need each other. It's like this symbiotic relationship, right?

[00:01:56] Well, you know, we have a saying in Raleigh, you know, we meet with staff and the bureaucracy in these governments, a lot of times they think they are the ones making the decision. So many times we have to remind them, you've got to eat the barbecue to make that decision. And so that's a saying we like to... I have not heard that one. Although they could be forgiven for sometimes thinking that because they, like, in their defense, they do draft a lot of the bills. Sure.

[00:02:21] Right? They do a lot of that kind of work. And some of them are subject matter experts in some fields. So I could kind of see where somebody might think that they may be in charge after a little while. You know, providing guidance and advice is appreciated. But when it comes to the final decision making, the elected official has to make that call. So, all right. So the new session, you all got sworn in last week. You're fixing to go back. This will be the long session.

[00:02:47] So this is the bigger one where you're going to be dealing with budget stuff. And obviously the hurricane in western North Carolina, Hurricane Helene, that recovery and response. And I asked you before we started, you're not on because they created a legislative oversight committee, right? And I think, is that House and Senate members?

[00:03:07] Typically what they would do with a nonstanding committee, it's a joint committee, but they can meet individually or as a group with the House and the Senate to come up and see from the state's response, oversight, what we're doing at the state level. Right, wrong, and try to expedite the recovery efforts in the West. And so you're not on that committee? I'm not on that committee. Now, with the nonstanding committees, they can change. You know, they may plug some more folks in if they need some more brains in there to kind of get in there and do some of the legwork.

[00:03:34] But as it stands today, which it can change over the next week and a half, as it stands today, I'm not. Do you think it's going to change? I don't know. Is that something you would want to be a part of or? I always welcome the chance to provide input, especially on something like that. I don't know that you would find a member of the General Assembly that doesn't have family, friends, some tie into Western North Carolina. So everyone has been affected in some way or another. And so the ability to get in there would be something that I would definitely welcome. You served with Josh Stein, right?

[00:04:04] No, he was. Oh, he was gone before you got there? And right before I got there. Okay. Do you think that he's because I like one of the things he said he's not going to use NCOR or rebuild NC that complete mess. Yeah. That was supposed to, you know, help Matthew Hurricane Matthew and Hurricane Florence victims. And as I understand it, there are still people to this day from Hurricane Matthew that have not been put back into their homes.

[00:04:33] Yet South Carolina seemed to figure it out within like two years. Yeah. And ours was like eight years running now. So they're not going to run it through NCOR, North Carolina Office of Recovery and Relief, I think, something like that. Or resilience. Yeah. That's classic. So they're going to do it through what? The governor's office now?

[00:04:56] I am not 100% sure because we've just based all that has the head of the NCOR was terminated. Was she let go or did she quit? Do we know yet? I think it was a termination. Okay. I'm pretty sure it was a termination. And not going down that rabbit hole. Right. But we are looking forward to a fresh start.

[00:05:16] We are hopeful that Governor Stein, I really in my soul believe that he's going to not repeat the sins of the NCOR debacle. Because if you talk to our friends like Senator Danny Britt, Senator Michael Lee, these guys down in eastern North Carolina that have, you know, they're kind of used, I hate to say used to these disasters. More hurricanes, though. But they get more of them. Sure. And just hearing the horror stories where they literally have constituents that are living in hotels for six, seven, eight years still waiting on this.

[00:05:46] And the thing that really frustrates me is the money's there. The money's been appropriated. Get the money out the door and let's get help to these people. Six to eight years has been long enough. Right. It's like that's your sole job. Right. As the NCOR rebuild NC. Like, that's your one job. Similar complaints we've heard about FEMA. The way they've been running the operation, if you can even call it that, in western North Carolina. Not great. I understand. Lots of challenges.

[00:06:17] I was willing to give them a chance to get in there and see how it was going. So, I guess, first off, what's your assessment or what are you hearing right now about the way that FEMA has been managing? Sure. I'll tell you, we are very fortunate in North Carolina to have some, and I'm speaking on the Senate side because that's who I have relationships more with.

[00:06:40] Our delegation in western North Carolina, bipartisan, they do a phenomenal job and have been on the ground since this hurricane hit. But keep in mind, these folks had their homes affected as well. Yeah. But they're out in their communities, and they are really working hard on this. And it was really nice. One of the best kumbaya moments we've ever had in the Senate was the first time back after this. It was just a surreal moment, and I wish we had more of them.

[00:07:06] But everybody was singing in one song, and everybody was really focused on the people of western North Carolina. But at least from the delegation that's on the ground, what I hear in terms of FEMA is write us a check and get the hell out of here. Like, the way their response to things, it just, the red tape and the bureaucracy is just not effective. Whereas the people of western North Carolina, keep in mind, these are mountain folks. These are self-sufficient folks.

[00:07:35] They're not looking for a handout. They're looking for a little assistance on the financial side, but they're not waiting on the government. A lot of these folks got out and started doing their own stuff right away. And so it is not, they would not receive a passing grade, FEMA that is, based on the feedback from our delegation in western North Carolina. What about doing just, like, block grants? Exactly. Do a block grant. Send it to, and you could even run it through. We could create a subcommittee.

[00:08:04] We could, there's plenty of ways to do it, to have an administration of it. Or you've got some, I have no problem with private administration. I mean, we've got some great organizations. I think about Samaritan's Purse are a number of different organizations that could easily administer the funds. And, of course, we could provide oversight at the state level. But when you've got the federal government, you think about all the things we have issues with. They're not set up to be successful. They're not going to be nimble. They're not going to be able to address that immediate need.

[00:08:33] And you can't, you know, when your home's gone, you have no power. You have no running water. You don't have any of these things that we take for granted. It's not a matter of, hey, I can just sit back and wait. No, these are essentials to survival. Right. And so you need to be as nimble as possible. You mentioned something there, and I just blanked.

[00:08:53] Oh, the, if, rather than the block grants, one of the other things that I've heard is bogging down the system is the, you mentioned red tape, but is building codes, regulations. Sure. What can the state legislature, and then with, I guess, the support of the governor, I guess, what can they do, what can you all do to, you know, give reprieve?

[00:09:19] Because, you know, without going through all of the different building codes and why they were done, let's just assume they were all done for the best of intentions and for safety and all of that. But now it's an obstacle, and it's an obstacle for first order needs of shelter. So what can the state do to speed that up to get stuff built? Well, Pete, I know you well enough to know that you'll agree and at least understand what I'm saying. Okay.

[00:09:43] This may be a shocker to some folks, but the building codes and regulations that we have now are not the bare minimum of what you need to provide safety and security for the folks that are entering these. That is not actually shocking to me. So to that point, there is a way that we can pull back some of these that still keeps folks safe, keeps people's property safe, a number of different things where it's not a matter of endangering the public. You're not going to endanger the public.

[00:10:11] We have to look at these regulations, and there's a lot of conversation around that because when you – here's a good for example. You take Mitchell County. Mitchell County has one water treatment plant, and it serves every single member of that county, every single citizen of that county. That water plant was completely destroyed. Under the current regulatory format, it would take six to ten years to get another one online. That's unacceptable.

[00:10:41] You can't go without water for six years, so they're having to use temporary sources in the meantime. Right. Certainly there's a way that we can look at that, look at the regulations, and, again, keeping the environment in mind, keeping public safety in mind, all of that, but a way to peel that back to expedite that. Yeah. That may not even be a word. Expedite. Yeah, there you go. Expedite. That's right, right, right. We just make it as we go down here. That's right. Too much time in Raleigh. Yeah. Can you stick around for a couple minutes? All right. Yeah.

[00:11:10] That's Senator Todd Johnson, District 35, State Senator from Union County here at the Union County Crime Stoppers Barbecue.

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[00:12:36] And it helps to fund a great organization and the rewards that are offered for people to call in the tips so you can help solve crimes while you stuff your face. And it's very good. I've been assured by Senator Todd Johnson, who's with me here, Senate District 35, State Senate, that this barbecue is really, really good. It's really, really good. I think that's the direct quote. Okay. So, I mentioned Governor Josh Stein.

[00:13:06] He came out of the state legislature at a time when Republicans were not this ineffectual minority. They were, in fact, the majority. So, he's got some relationships there. Do you have an expectation that he will govern relationally with the legislature differently than Roy Cooper has? Well, you know, Governor Cooper was also in the Senate. But it was many, many years ago. Different set of people.

[00:13:34] Completely different political landscape at that time. Yeah, Democrats controlled the entire state. That's correct. They had their own machine running. And Governor Stein has served with a number of the members that still serve today. So, I think there will be some relationships there where at least communication won't break down like it has in the past between the legislature and the executive branch. So, hopefully, we're hopeful for that. And I kind of equate the new governor with the legislature as kind of a new marriage.

[00:14:03] I think there will be a honeymoon period. My hope is that that honeymoon will be a very extended honeymoon period, at least through the long session. And let's get to the point where we can continue to work together for the betterment of North Carolina. But I'm sure at some point in time, I look at the break point probably going to be around budget time. So, that carries us into, say, June or July, maybe.

[00:14:25] But at least until then, I think it will be a good unified effort of trying to work together and at least kind of doing the courting and the courtship aspect. Speaking of the budget, the need for the disaster relief, right? North Carolina's got the rainy day fund. The Republicans funded this thing, even though Roy Cooper kept trying to rate it for all sorts of regular ongoing operating expenses. Republicans have guarded it. They've filled it.

[00:14:54] And so, now this is what is being looked at to use to pay for some of the disaster relief. That's right. Not going to be enough, though. No. No. And so, for the six years that I've been in the legislature, I know every time we talk about appropriations, my caucus, I'm Republican in the Senate. And so, the Senate Republican caucus as well as the Republican House caucus, we literally get our teeth kicked in by folks saying, you need to give more money here, here, here, and here.

[00:15:20] Why are you being such a scrooge and holding all this money back? You hate people. You hate people. You hate orphans. You hate America. Teachers, education. Chocolate pie. Yeah. I mean, puppies. You pick it. You ate them all. That being said, we live on a coast. We know that we're going to have earthquakes. Well, we do have some earthquakes. Yeah, we do have earthquakes. We know we're going to have hurricanes. Yeah, yeah. Flooding is actually, this was just a major flood, but flooding occurs in western North Atlanta quite often.

[00:15:50] And so, we were trying to be good stewards of the taxpayer dollar. The money, at least in our caucus, we do not look at this as our money. This is the taxpayer's money. And we try to spend it and save it accordingly. When you think about a state budget that's in the range of $35 billion, with a B, the damages, estimated damage, and keep in mind, these are government estimates, so they're going to be undershot by a little bit, is around $60 billion.

[00:16:18] So, if you took all the money for two years, you cover it, maybe. And so, there's really no way for us to fully fix western North Carolina. We're going to rely heavily on the federal government. So, what we've tried to invest for, we've appropriated about $1.2 to $1.4 billion of that $6 billion rainy day fund that we were able to build up. The question we get is, why aren't you just sending it all there? Just go ahead and send it, and let's get that going.

[00:16:46] The problem is, if you get too far ahead of the federal government, they will say, okay, North Carolina, you've got it. You guys got it under control. Good luck. Or, you have an issue where not all federal, but some federal money requires a match. Six to one, eight to one, nine to one. So, you go to these small towns. Take a small, I know I mentioned Mitchell County a minute, Spruce Pine. Spruce Pine, yeah. Spruce Pine can't come up with a million dollars. There's no way that, a million, not a billion, a million.

[00:17:16] Wooden pipes. Right. Wooden water pipes. They can't come up with the match needed for their community. That's where we're going to come in as a state and help these communities and counties and towns be able to pay that federal match. So, we're trying to get money deployed for the immediate need, but also be prudent with the remainder of that. And then also look for the next storm. We've got to be mindful of the next one as well. So, trying to thread that needle to where we don't get too far ahead of FEMA, but then also that we don't leave our friends out west.

[00:17:47] Without help. Because it's a long road recovery. We'll be, you know, I've been in here six years. If for some reason I'm crazy enough to stay four or six more years, we will still be working in western North Carolina. This is not a two-year fix. Yeah. We are out of time. State Senator Todd Johnson, thanks a lot for stopping by. Although, to be fair, I was just here at this other more important event that he went to. But you're welcome anytime on the show. I'll see you next year, Pete. All right. Well, let's not make it a year. Good to see you, sir. Thanks so much.

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[00:19:12] Trust the experts at Create A Video, conveniently located in Mint Hill, right off I-485, and online at createavideo.com. I want to welcome to the program Congressman, Reverend, Reverend Congressman. What do you go by? Mark Harris, District 8. There you go. What do we do? Reverend Congressman? I answer to just about anything these days. That's what everybody says. But, like, which do you pick? Which is the protocol now? Well, they call me Congressman Pastor. It is fascinating. Congressman Pastor.

[00:19:41] In fact, on the floor and really without in the conference, a number of my colleagues will come up and just say pastor. They'll refer to me as pastor right off the bat. Okay. All right. Well, I mean, I'm just always curious when people come in with multiple honorifics or degrees or whatever, like what gets top billing kind of thing. So we were talking about this before we came on the air. Sure.

[00:20:07] And there's been a change to the inauguration for the planning. And so, as I understand it, they are moving the ceremony inside the rotunda at the Capitol. That's right. That's what I've understood. And canceled the outdoor swearing in and have canceled the parade. Oh, they've canceled the parade now as well? That's correct. So earlier I'd seen that the parade had not been canceled. Well, that was the latest I had heard. My chief had texted me. So that could have changed.

[00:20:36] But that was the last time. Well, the first notice I got was just that they were moving it inside, quote, unquote, and that was all. And then I got the other thing. Okay, part of it's going to be in the rotunda. And I was like, well, that's not going to hold the whole crowd. But then they're also going to have Capital One Arena. And they're going to fill that up and, I guess, put it on the jumbotrons and stuff. Correct. That's what I understand. Okay. So, but is that enough room to fill? Or is that enough room for the crowd size?

[00:21:07] Well, nobody really knows. You know, I had heard numbers the end of this week. Folks were saying they were maybe expecting a million people to be there. But then we also started hearing from people as the forecast came out. And it is going to be bitterly, bitterly cold. I mean, like eight degrees that morning of the inauguration is low for Sunday night. So when you start, people are going to be coming out before the sun comes up to get in line. So they were going to be out there for hours in single digits.

[00:21:37] And then the high for the day is maybe 21 or 22 degrees. So it was going to be bitterly cold. And so I can only assume that they felt like that it was going to put too many people at risk in that case. So, no, it's not going to be enough room to hold all the ticket holders. Because every congressional office, for instance, we had 470-some requests for about 170 tickets that we were granted. And only a handful of those were actually seated.

[00:22:06] A lot were standing. But, again, there's no way that that arena is probably, I don't know what the arena holds. I'm going to guess 50,000, 60,000. I'd say that's a good bet. That's going to be it. Yeah. So. Is it possible that the frigid temperatures are indicative of the underworld freezing over? I felt that way right after our swearing in, a snowstorm hit Washington, D.C.

[00:22:35] And we had 12 inches of snow, which was pretty amazing. So it could be. It's all freezing over. It's a whole new day. I think of it from the spiritual sense of a purification that's going to come from the snow that covers everything. So, speaking of things of biblical proportion, the hurricane that hit western North Carolina, obviously that's of great importance at the state level. We were just talking to Senator Todd Johnson about that.

[00:23:02] At the national level, though, like the state of North Carolina does not have the money to pay for all of the recovery that's going to be needed. The number, like he threw out there, was like $60 billion. So where do we stand as far as you know? And I know you're new and you just found out where the office is, learning where the water cooler is and the president's shake machine.

[00:23:23] But where do you think we are in getting enough support for the kind of aid that's going to be required? Well, I can assure you, Pete, that western North Carolina is not being forgotten. Obviously, we're in a situation right now, lots of problems with FEMA. I think everybody recognized lots of problems with FEMA money being spent on illegal immigrants and all of the things that went on with that,

[00:23:51] that then suddenly they say we don't have the money that we need to take care of the victims of Hurricane Helene. So I know back in December there was a large disaster relief amount that was passed as part of that CR that went forward. But, again, the big question is we've watched these wildfires happen in California, and everybody's saying, oh, FEMA's running out there, making commitments, we're going to be here, there, and everywhere.

[00:24:19] At the same time, you're getting word that letters are going from FEMA to some families that were cutting you off. You know, no more support. I was part of a letter that was written by Chuck Edwards. Chuck contacted us in the delegation. And that's one thing, by the way, I'll say I'm very excited and proud about is we are communicating very well as a delegation. We're trying to have regular meetings where we actually meet together.

[00:24:45] Just this past Wednesday, we had one of those meetings and talked about what was happening in Western North Carolina. I'm involved from a church standpoint, interestingly enough, in some of the rebuilds with Baptist on Mission and Samaritan's Purse that have been at the forefront. But we signed a letter, I think all of us in the delegation did, that went to FEMA urging them to not send their personnel out of Western North Carolina until the job was finished.

[00:25:13] And so Senator Tillis, I know, has been trying to weigh in on that. Senator Budd as well. So I think we're all working together to make sure that it stays at the forefront. Of course, you've got the speaker, Mike Johnson, that made it very clear that we're not just going to be sending money to California without there being some conditions. And that sort of seemed to trigger a little bit of a response from Governor Newsom, who's firing back about these are people's lives. But I think the speaker has been very clear.

[00:25:43] And interestingly enough, within our conference, I think that the members from California have been clear that they don't really feel we should be putting money in without conditions placed on it for how that money would be spent. My guest is Congressman Pastor Mark Harris from North Carolina's 8th Congressional District. First-termer? First and a half-termer? Maybe. Maybe, because you kind of won last time. Anyway. Another story. Can you stick around for another segment? Sure. Okay, cool. All right.

[00:26:11] If you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events. And I know you do, too. And you've probably heard me say, get your news from multiple sources. Why? Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with Ground News. It's an app, and it's a website, and it combines news from around the world in one place so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check.ground.news.pete.

[00:26:39] I put the link in the podcast description, too. I started using Ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The Blind Spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check.ground.news.pete. Subscribe through that link, and you'll get 15% off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature.

[00:27:08] Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. I'm joined by Congressman Pastor Mark Harris from the North – see, now it sticks. That's why I asked you. From the North Carolina 8th Congressional District. So we were talking during the break, and the topic of the House Freedom Caucus came up. Your predecessor, Dan Bishop, was a member of the Freedom Caucus.

[00:27:35] Is this something that you want to be in, and how would that happen? Well, first of all, a lot of times people ask me that, and when I ran in the campaign, I made it very clear to folks that I certainly aligned with the ideas and the principles of the Freedom Caucus. But the Freedom Caucus isn't something that just members join as they would maybe Main Street Caucus or others, but you have to actually be invited to it. So I tell people – I was asked this question just this week. Are you going to join the Freedom Caucus?

[00:28:02] I said, well, I don't want to presume anything, but certainly if I was invited to be a part of the Freedom Caucus, then I would assume those invitations would come up fairly soon. It is certainly an organization that I have had a lot of respect for. Mark Meadows, Jim Jordan, those guys were folks that I aligned with very early, even when I was just getting started in running in this arena. You know, just for fiscal sound government.

[00:28:31] And I think that that is so important. I mean, when I was in this, Pete, early on, I remember several years ago, I was talking about $21 trillion of debt and how horrible that was and what we had to do. And now we're hitting $37 trillion of debt. And it's just – it is so rapid that it just – I think people are just quickly just letting it go out of their minds. And yet our nation is in peril. Yeah, it's literally incomprehensible. It is. Like the number is unfathomable.

[00:29:00] People cannot understand what – how large of a number that is. And we cannot – look, I'm for – we've got to extend the tax cuts. So please understand what I'm going to say. But as much as we grow the economy, we will not grow ourselves out of $37 trillion of debt. We have got to cut spending. There's going to have to be some places that we find. That's not going to be popular in some cases. It's not going to be easy.

[00:29:26] But there are going to be decisions that have to be made that ultimately are going to fall on this Congress. And I believe we do have a rare opportunity with this thing called reconciliation that you're going to be hearing more and more about in the coming weeks. And the speaker has set us on a course that is very aggressive as far as timetable. By the end of February, we're going to have that top-line budget number. By the time we get to early April, we're expecting to have a reconciliation bill passed out of the House. So no regular order?

[00:29:55] Well, I think there's going to come regular order at some point. I know that that's the main thing thereafter. We need to have 12 appropriation bills that we pass out. Going through committees, hashing out the spends and the asks and everything. Absolutely. And listen, I'm blessed to be on three committees. I'm going to be on Judiciary Committee, I'm on Agriculture Committee, and I am on Education and Workforce. Those are three great committees to be a part of.

[00:30:22] And the subcommittees that are part of that are important as well. And one of the things I've seen in ag, obviously so much of that budget is spent with SNAP and that program, that we have seen the Biden administration just exploded the eligibility for that. But that's not where the most money is, right? I mean, the most money in spending is where? Well, you're going to get into Medicare and Social Security, those mandatory spending. Right. And that's true.

[00:30:50] But, again, you can't discount the billions, I mean, billions with a B, dollars that, I mean, $251 billion just expansion in SNAP from 2021 coming out of COVID. So I think we're taking every committee is taking a serious look at areas where we can claw back. I mean, this whole energy deal of the Green New Deal that the Biden administration put intact, fortunately, a lot of that money hasn't been spent yet.

[00:31:18] And if we can claw that back, that's going to be an important piece of it. So it's going to be an exercise. No question. You raise the devil in the details as mandatory spending. Yeah, I mean, that's the, I mean, because you could, even what, it was Ramaswamy or Musk, I forget who, one of them said, look, yeah, we probably can't, we're not going to be, we're not, we can't find $2 trillion. Right. In the budget to cut. Like, it's probably not going to be there.

[00:31:45] So without touching some of these other programs that are the, quote, third rail in politics. I think the key is going to be when we get to that point. And again, I'm new. We've not gotten to that point yet in the conversations I've been a part of. But I think we're going to have to look at ways to make adjustments to the program for the future so that benefits are not hurting people that are dependent on those today. Right. And in the near future.

[00:32:14] I think that's the whole key. And I have never heard a proposal ever in 20 plus years that has called for cuts to existing benefits. Right. It's always future, like, because I'm Gen X and I remember getting into the workforce. I knew at that time Social Security is not going to be there for me.

[00:32:36] So that's why ever since I had a job that had a 401k, I've been putting money into the 401ks because I knew, and I still don't ever plan on my retirement plan. Like, I talked to my financial guy and I'm like, don't ever count anything from Social Security. Absolutely. Because I don't, yeah, I don't know if anything's going to be there. But I promise you this, somebody is going to be left holding the bag. Yes.

[00:32:57] If we don't do it now, when you get to 2034, and you're not that far away from that at all, somebody's going to be having to explain to everybody why they're taking 20% cuts in benefits then. Not because of any policy, just because the money is not there. Right. And we've got to look at those serious challenges. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

[00:33:18] And giving people an option, that's the, like, that's my, would be my recommendation is to give people the option to say, let me take some of this that is being diverted out and put it someplace else that will make up more, that will make me more money in the law. I've always felt that made the most sense. Especially the younger people are. Right. The opportunity to make some decisions in that. So I think all of those ideas are going to be on the table.

[00:33:45] I think the president is committed that we're going to protect those that are depending on Social Security now and Medicare now. We've got to protect those benefits. But we do have to begin to make plans for the future. And I think as we go forward, we're going to have to look at that. But I think in this immediate future with a reconciliation, we are going to look at shrinking the size of government, shrinking some of the spending. I just think to get the votes that we have to have on the Republican side, you're going to have to do that.

[00:34:15] Because reconciliation allows you to get through in a quicker manner. The Senate with 51. Yeah. The Senate does not need 60 votes. So nobody can filibuster 51 votes passes. That's how we got Obamacare. That's how we got Obamacare. That's how we got the Trump tax cuts in 2017. That's true. Because we had the trifecta. Yeah. So this is a moment you've got to be wise as a serpent and innocent as a dove in this very moment. Congressman Pastor Mark Harris, North Carolina District 8. Good to see you again. Good to see you. You're looking well.

[00:34:44] And best of luck up there in the swamp. We appreciate you. Thank you very much. Appreciate you. All right. That'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecalendershow.com. Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.