This episode is presented by Create A Video – US Sen. Thom Tillis is accusing his fellow Republican Sen. Rand Paul of inserting a "poison pill" into a Helene relief funding bill.
Help with Western NC disaster relief: Hearts With Hands
Subscribe to the podcast at: https://ThePeteKalinerShow.com/
All the links to Pete's Prep are free: https://patreon.com/petekalinershow
Advertising inquiries: Pete@ThePeteKalinerShow.com
Get exclusive content here!: https://thepetekalinershow.com/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
[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 thepetekalendershow.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] ABC News reports Republican lawmakers grilled FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell on her agency's handling of hurricane recovery efforts, including about allegations of political bias.
[00:00:44] The two House hearings over seven hours came after FEMA Supervisor Marnie Washington got fired after allegedly directing employees to avoid homes that had Trump signs in them.
[00:01:00] Remember, then she went on to the podcast and told Roland Martin that this was standard. This was done all over the place.
[00:01:08] This is this did not just happen down in Florida.
[00:01:13] Deanne Criswell, the FEMA Administrator, repeatedly told lawmakers that the incident was an isolated act and FEMA is continuing its investigation with no additional incidents found beyond Marnie Washington's actions.
[00:01:29] However, after being asked to launch an inspector general investigation, Criswell said she had already formally requested additional assistance.
[00:01:40] In the aftermath of Washington's firing, an unidentified FEMA employee claimed the directive came from a superior.
[00:01:51] So that seems like another example, like another incident.
[00:01:57] Criswell told lawmakers that although her agency has questioned other personnel, no other evidence has emerged to corroborate that claim.
[00:02:08] With regard to Marnie Washington's reported claim that her directive was for safety reasons, Criswell said safety training for FEMA workers is all about reacting to perceived threats.
[00:02:22] Quote, never has it been directed to be proactive or to avoid a situation.
[00:02:35] That doesn't seem right.
[00:02:37] That doesn't that.
[00:02:38] Yeah, that doesn't seem right.
[00:02:41] Remember, we went over the guidance that they give to their workers and volunteers and such.
[00:02:48] And so the first.
[00:02:51] The first step is avoidance of a threat.
[00:02:54] Right.
[00:02:55] If if you perceive a threat, you should avoid it.
[00:02:57] And the problem, I think, is that maybe we have a lot of people of younger generation that think like everything is a threat because they have not been presented with enough challenges to overcome as they grew up.
[00:03:14] You know, you heard about helicopter parents.
[00:03:17] Right.
[00:03:18] That would just kind of hover around the kid the whole time.
[00:03:20] They got replaced by bulldozer parents who would just bulldoze any obstacle out of the way for their kid.
[00:03:28] And that's why the kids don't build up any resiliency.
[00:03:33] You know, like ideas, you're never challenged.
[00:03:36] You don't build strength.
[00:03:37] You don't build strength.
[00:03:38] So.
[00:03:41] Maybe that's part of the problem.
[00:03:43] When you think words are violence, when you feel unsafe.
[00:03:48] By somebody's political opinion.
[00:03:51] I don't know.
[00:03:53] But if you are telling your people to avoid situations.
[00:03:59] That are perceived to be threatening.
[00:04:02] That seems like guidance if the person that's working for you perceives a Trump sign as a threat.
[00:04:08] Right.
[00:04:11] Jim Jordan cited another anonymous FEMA employee who alleged that Washington received, quote, very clear guidance from her supervisors.
[00:04:20] Asked if that person was also lying, Criswell maintained the matter's under investigation.
[00:04:26] FEMA's mission is to help all people, she said.
[00:04:29] During the line of questioning by Jim Jordan, he showed text messages of FEMA employees being told to implement best practices while reaching out to victims.
[00:04:42] These suggestions included avoiding high salt diets.
[00:04:49] Right.
[00:04:49] Because you may not get enough to enough water to drink while you're in these disaster zones.
[00:04:54] That's pretty good advice.
[00:04:55] I probably cut down on the salt.
[00:04:58] Maybe avoid the coffee, which is to me blasphemy, but I understand.
[00:05:04] Don't go anywhere alone.
[00:05:05] That was another one of the tips.
[00:05:07] Don't go anywhere alone.
[00:05:08] That makes sense.
[00:05:09] And avoid homes that advertise Trump.
[00:05:11] Right.
[00:05:12] So all of that.
[00:05:13] Oh, wait.
[00:05:13] No, hang on.
[00:05:14] No, that last one.
[00:05:15] No, that one seems problematic.
[00:05:18] That's a screenshot.
[00:05:21] That Jordan produced.
[00:05:22] Text messages of FEMA employees being told to implement best practices.
[00:05:28] And that's one of the best practice.
[00:05:30] Now, maybe every single person that sent this stuff over to lawmakers, all these anonymous whistleblowers at FEMA, maybe they are all, you know, subordinates to Marnie Washington.
[00:05:42] I don't know.
[00:05:43] Like, maybe she was sending all of this stuff out to, like, you know, hundreds or thousands of FEMA employees.
[00:05:48] I don't know.
[00:05:51] Jordan said, we do have the text message itself, but you're still saying that Ms. Washington and this other person aren't telling the truth?
[00:06:00] Even though it's said all the practical things, the part about avoiding Trump homes, that's not a best practice.
[00:06:08] That's not commonplace.
[00:06:09] Is that what you're saying?
[00:06:11] And Criswell said, quote, that is nowhere in our policy.
[00:06:18] Okay, so it's not in the policy, but it is being directed.
[00:06:23] Is that what's happening here?
[00:06:26] You know what this reminds me of?
[00:06:28] Peter Strzok.
[00:06:31] Crossfire Hurricane.
[00:06:34] That's what this reminds me of.
[00:06:37] This also reminds me of the targeting of the Tea Party groups by the IRS, who, for the record, I love the IRS.
[00:06:47] I think everybody that works there is fantastic.
[00:06:49] And, yeah, they do fantastic work all the time.
[00:06:53] Love the IRS.
[00:06:54] Just want to put that on the record there.
[00:06:56] Just make that very clear.
[00:06:58] Pete loves the IRS.
[00:07:00] Okay.
[00:07:02] But when it came out that there was targeting of these Tea Party groups so they couldn't organize under IRS law for nonprofit status or whatever,
[00:07:20] so they could organize, they could start collecting donations, they could make expenditures and that sort of stuff.
[00:07:26] And instead they were getting, like, these, you know, 20-page questionnaires asking them to divulge all of their members and everything else.
[00:07:34] And that was chalked up to a rogue field agent in Cincinnati.
[00:07:42] And everyone said, oh, it's not the policy.
[00:07:44] See, it's not our policy.
[00:07:47] Well, it doesn't have to be the policy.
[00:07:48] Because you remember what happened before that.
[00:07:50] Barack Obama gave a State of the Union speech.
[00:07:55] And the Citizens United case had been decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.
[00:08:01] And he started ripping the Supreme Court justices that were sitting right in front of him at the State of the Union.
[00:08:10] And you don't need a policy directive written out and published in an email, sent to all of the workers.
[00:08:17] You don't have to.
[00:08:17] He said it at the State of the Union speech.
[00:08:20] Right?
[00:08:20] When you send these types of messages,
[00:08:24] something Gary McFadden, our sheriff here in Mecklenburg County, might want to keep in mind,
[00:08:30] that when the leader goes out and makes public comments and statements saying,
[00:08:36] this is wrong, these people are, you know, engaging in some nefarious activities and stuff,
[00:08:42] people who are in the agencies that the leader leads will take those comments as directives.
[00:08:52] They don't need to be issued an email to tell them to go, you know, provide a probe into every single Tea Party group.
[00:09:00] They don't have to be directed to do that.
[00:09:02] So it's nowhere written down in the policy.
[00:09:06] Chris Well told lawmakers she had requested an inspector general investigation into the incident and reassured them there would be no cover-up or obstruction.
[00:09:17] Thank goodness.
[00:09:18] Thank goodness.
[00:09:20] Right?
[00:09:21] Because, see, if you're doing a cover-up, you would never tell people that you're not doing a cover-up.
[00:09:28] That's rule number one of cover-ups.
[00:09:31] Right?
[00:09:31] If somebody says, hey, are you trying to cover all this up?
[00:09:34] You have to say you are.
[00:09:36] Everybody knows that.
[00:09:37] You have to do it.
[00:09:38] It's one of the rules.
[00:09:39] You have to admit to the cover-up if somebody asks.
[00:09:42] So she's just saying right up front, no cover-up here.
[00:09:45] We're not going to be doing any cover-ups and we're not going to be doing any obstruction.
[00:09:50] Oh, also, we need a whole bunch more money.
[00:09:53] That was the gist of the FEMA appearance.
[00:10:00] I feel very good about it.
[00:10:01] You know, stories are powerful.
[00:10:03] They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences.
[00:10:07] Stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending generations.
[00:10:10] They help us process the meaning of life.
[00:10:13] And our stories are told through images and videos.
[00:10:16] Preserve your stories with Creative Video.
[00:10:18] Started in 1997 in Mint Hill, North Carolina.
[00:10:21] It was the first company to provide this valuable service, converting images, photos, and videos
[00:10:26] into high-quality produced slideshows, videos, and albums.
[00:10:30] The trusted, talented, and dedicated team at Creative Video will go over all of the details
[00:10:35] with you to create a perfect project.
[00:10:37] Satisfaction guaranteed.
[00:10:39] Drop them off in person or mail them.
[00:10:40] They'll be ready in a week or two.
[00:10:42] Memorial videos for your loved ones.
[00:10:43] Videos for rehearsal dinners.
[00:10:45] Weddings.
[00:10:45] Graduations.
[00:10:46] Graduations.
[00:10:47] Family vacations.
[00:10:48] Birthdays.
[00:10:49] Or just your family stories.
[00:10:50] All told through images.
[00:10:52] That's what your photos and videos are.
[00:10:55] They are your life.
[00:10:56] Told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you.
[00:11:00] And they will tell others to come who you are.
[00:11:02] Visit creativevideo.com.
[00:11:06] So I mentioned FEMA needs more money.
[00:11:09] They say they need more money.
[00:11:10] This is from the Associated Press.
[00:11:13] The money available to help communities hit by disasters has shrunk after back-to-back
[00:11:21] Hurricanes Helene and Milton and the funding problems might jeopardize the government's ability
[00:11:27] to respond to a new emergency that might pop up in the future.
[00:11:31] According to the FEMA chief, Deanne Criswell, she warned senators during a hearing with other agency heads
[00:11:39] that FEMA's disaster relief fund is down to less than $5 billion.
[00:11:47] The Biden administration has asked Congress for nearly $100 billion for a disaster rate.
[00:11:54] The largest chunk of that money, about $40 billion, would go to FEMA's disaster relief.
[00:12:02] I don't know where the other 60 goes.
[00:12:05] So FEMA needs $40 billion, so we're going to ask for $100 billion.
[00:12:10] The agency draws on the fund to pay for things like debris removal, helping communities rebuild
[00:12:16] public infrastructure, giving money to disaster survivors for costs that include renting hotel
[00:12:22] rooms if their homes are uninhabitable, for getting all of those FEMA trailers.
[00:12:29] Oh, remember, I think it was yesterday we got a call from a listener, or maybe two days ago.
[00:12:34] I think her name was Joanne.
[00:12:36] She asked about all the FEMA trailers sitting down in Florida, and why won't they bring them up here?
[00:12:40] And I said, I don't have any information about that.
[00:12:42] I did learn yesterday that there are FEMA trailers that are sitting unused in Hickory, North Carolina.
[00:12:53] They're just, I've seen the pictures.
[00:12:55] I've had people that drove by, took more pictures.
[00:12:59] I've seen Cassie Clark, who does a North Carolina culture podcast.
[00:13:07] And she goes by the handle on Twitter, Dogwood Blooms.
[00:13:11] And some state lawmaker apparently reached out to her and asked her about these FEMA trailers
[00:13:21] and showed her that FEMA's response, showed the response that they had gotten from FEMA that was like,
[00:13:28] yeah, we can't get them over to Western North Carolina at this time.
[00:13:33] They're just empty trailers that people can live in versus, you know, the tents that they're sleeping in
[00:13:40] as the snow is moving in and the temperatures are in the teens
[00:13:43] and these people are living in tents on the sides of mountains.
[00:13:47] And you have trailers in Hickory and you can't figure out how to tow them.
[00:13:56] I have an idea.
[00:13:58] It just came to me.
[00:14:00] Do you know how many people in the mountains of North Carolina have pickup trucks?
[00:14:06] I don't know the exact data, but it's a lot.
[00:14:09] Okay.
[00:14:10] There are a lot of people that live in the mountains have trucks.
[00:14:14] And these trucks, it's my understanding, are able to tow things.
[00:14:19] So how about you let them come and tow the trailers to the Asheville area?
[00:14:27] How about that?
[00:14:28] So just spitballing here.
[00:14:30] Again, I'm not a professional trailer mover, nor do I even own a pickup truck.
[00:14:35] I'm just throwing it out there as a potential solution because you know me, I am all about solutions.
[00:14:39] So the rest of the money, the $40 billion, $24 billion for farmers who have experienced crop losses
[00:14:50] and livestock losses, $12 billion for the Department of Housing and Urban Development's block grant programs.
[00:14:57] It's only up to, what is that, $36 billion.
[00:15:02] Another $8 billion for rebuilding and repairing highways and bridges.
[00:15:06] And $4 billion for long-term water system upgrades to try to mitigate future damage from natural disasters.
[00:15:14] FEMA got $20 billion as part of a temporary government funding bill passed by Congress last month.
[00:15:23] They're sorry, September, two months ago.
[00:15:25] But a little less than half of that money went towards recovery from disasters that have already happened.
[00:15:32] Criswell says the agency has more than 100 disasters on the books right now that it's still paying out money for.
[00:15:39] She says FEMA has paid $8 billion in federal assistance in response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
[00:15:49] And then there was the fight between Tom Tillis, U.S. Senator Tom Tillis from North Carolina, and U.S. Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky.
[00:15:58] All right, hey, real quick.
[00:15:59] If you would like to get your product or service in front of about 10,000 people multiple times a day,
[00:16:05] send me an email at Pete at the Pete Calendar Show dot com and ask me about advertising.
[00:16:10] It's super affordable.
[00:16:12] It's baked into this podcast forever.
[00:16:13] And podcasts have a higher conversion rate than other social media platforms, making it the best bang for your buck.
[00:16:19] Send me a message, Pete at the Pete Calendar Show dot com, and I can show you how it works.
[00:16:24] Run the numbers with you.
[00:16:25] Again, that's Pete at the Pete Calendar Show dot com.
[00:16:29] Let's go to the phones now.
[00:16:30] Real quick, here is Dale.
[00:16:31] Hello, Dale.
[00:16:33] Hey, how you doing?
[00:16:34] Hey, I'm all right, man.
[00:16:35] What's up?
[00:16:36] Your comment earlier that you were making about the campers up there in Hickory, you know there's enough people here in the Charlotte area,
[00:16:45] Mount Hollweg, Gaston, you know, that are campers, and I'm sure if they had to reach out to us,
[00:16:52] that you can get a lot of people to volunteer on a Saturday to transport those campers to Asheville and other surrounding areas,
[00:17:01] make a big convoy, and take them up there.
[00:17:03] Yeah, it seems like a very easily solved problem to address.
[00:17:08] It requires somebody in a position of authority to address it.
[00:17:13] Maybe the governor, Ray Cooper, while he's up in D.C. talking about, you know, federal disaster relief money for the state,
[00:17:22] maybe he could ask about it.
[00:17:24] I don't know.
[00:17:25] Yeah.
[00:17:25] Yeah.
[00:17:26] Just, you know, doing what we can to put the word out, have my good friend Ray maybe help some people with that.
[00:17:32] But, yeah, I think there are enough people, like you, Dale, like you say, I think there are enough people that are willing and able to do that work.
[00:17:39] It just has to be asked for, you know?
[00:17:45] So about the funding, thanks for the call, Dale.
[00:17:48] I appreciate it.
[00:17:50] Regarding the funding from the federal level, again, this is not the state level stuff.
[00:17:56] This is the federal, the FEMA money.
[00:17:58] So FEMA is asking for more disaster relief funds.
[00:18:04] And there was legislation introduced to help small businesses recover from natural disasters.
[00:18:12] According to EENews.net, which is part of Politico.com, this legislation fell victim to a dispute on the Senate floor about clean energy loans.
[00:18:31] Republican Senators Tom Tillis and Ted Budd from North Carolina, along with Democrat Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, attempted to pass a bill by unanimous consent.
[00:18:43] And the bill would refill the Small Business Administration's disaster loans account.
[00:18:49] It ran out of money last month amid a surge in loan applications following Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
[00:18:58] Okay.
[00:18:59] So this is the SBA.
[00:19:01] And the SBA has this loan program and ran out of money.
[00:19:07] So they're like, hey, we would like to put more money into this fund.
[00:19:15] $550 million.
[00:19:19] But they had to pull their bill in the face of opposition from Senator Rand Paul.
[00:19:27] Rand Paul offered an amendment.
[00:19:29] And that amendment would have paid for the $550 million SBA infusion.
[00:19:37] By what they call clawing back.
[00:19:40] They claw back.
[00:19:42] So like, hey, we allocated money for something, but we're going to take it back.
[00:19:47] We're going to claw back.
[00:19:48] And so he says, hey, you're asking for $550 million.
[00:19:52] Let's claw back that amount or more.
[00:19:56] $810 million out of the Inflation Reduction Act that was allocated for the Department of Energy's loan programs office.
[00:20:09] Right.
[00:20:09] So Rand Paul is making the argument that we should pay for this.
[00:20:13] We don't have to borrow it.
[00:20:15] We're already crazy in debt.
[00:20:17] So let's go ahead and just pay for it.
[00:20:20] And we'll just take it from the Inflation Reduction Act allocation.
[00:20:24] So claw it back.
[00:20:27] And Tillis says this will kill the legislation because Democrats won't do it.
[00:20:37] Democrats will not allow for this money to be taken back out of the Inflation Reduction Act.
[00:20:43] So if you're going to try to do what they call a pay for, if you're going to try to take the money out to pay for the $550 million infusion into the SBA,
[00:20:53] Democrats will vote it down and then we're not going to get any money.
[00:20:57] And so here's how that debate sounded.
[00:21:00] Our state motto is esse quam videri.
[00:21:03] It says to be rather than to seem.
[00:21:08] This is a disingenuous offer to amend my bill.
[00:21:13] Let me tell you why.
[00:21:14] Maybe it will even be a fundraising campaign later this week.
[00:21:17] I'm fighting to dismantle the Green New Deal until it's objected to doing that today.
[00:21:23] This bill, if it got amended, has no prayer.
[00:21:28] I came to the Senate to make a difference, not to make a point.
[00:21:32] I get the point.
[00:21:34] There are a lot of things in the Inflation Reduction Act and the Green New Deal that need to be clawed back.
[00:21:40] And I look forward to, under President Trump's leadership, having that vote.
[00:21:45] I assume that Senator Paul knows how to count votes.
[00:21:50] He has to know that he doesn't have the votes to get this bill done if it's amended.
[00:21:55] To be rather than to seem.
[00:21:58] I'm focused on getting North Carolina back on track and not playing a game on this Senate floor.
[00:22:04] I'm going to object to this, Mr. President, in a minute because it's a game.
[00:22:10] We never fund disaster supplementals because we know that people are hurting.
[00:22:16] You take that case to Ukraine, to Asheville.
[00:22:20] You take it to Burnsville.
[00:22:21] You take it to Banner Elk.
[00:22:23] You take it to Cashier's, Senator Paul.
[00:22:25] And I'll go with you.
[00:22:27] And I'll see if they're as worried about that or if they're just worried about making sure that their families have a place to live
[00:22:32] and their businesses have a chance to survive.
[00:22:35] Mr. President, I object.
[00:22:37] All right, so Tillis is objecting to the amendment to make this funding available by taking it out of the inflation reduction at the Green New Deal.
[00:22:49] And the Ukraine component there was that Rand Paul was saying,
[00:22:54] you guys vote, and Tillis was in support of this, to send money to Ukraine.
[00:23:00] Well, you sent all the money over there, and so now we don't have money for here, right?
[00:23:05] Sound familiar, right?
[00:23:06] You've heard this argument before.
[00:23:08] And so what Tillis is saying is that if you put this, if you do this amendment, this thing is going to fail.
[00:23:16] Here's Rand Paul's response.
[00:23:18] Objection is heard to the modification.
[00:23:21] Is there objection to the original request?
[00:23:26] Reserving the right to object.
[00:23:28] Hang on a second.
[00:23:29] All right, let's pick up the debate here.
[00:23:31] Senator Tom Tillis accusing Senator Rand Paul of basically inserting a poison pill into a relief spending bill
[00:23:41] that would put $550 million into the Small Business Administration's disaster loans account,
[00:23:47] which has been drained, and businesses in western North Carolina need this funding.
[00:23:54] And Rand Paul says, well, we should just take the money out of the Inflation Reduction Act funds.
[00:24:00] And Tillis says, if you do that, Democrats are going to vote against it.
[00:24:04] And Rand Paul says, well, then let's have them vote against it.
[00:24:08] And Tillis is saying, screw the political gamesmanship.
[00:24:12] Get the funds out the door.
[00:24:14] Here's Rand Paul's response.
[00:24:16] Senator from Kentucky.
[00:24:19] The insinuation has made that there's a better time.
[00:24:21] We'll vote on this at another time.
[00:24:24] Maybe, you know, young men, it's just not the time.
[00:24:26] It's not the time nor the place.
[00:24:28] Well, actually, it is the time or the place.
[00:24:29] And the only vote against the disaster bill today will be the senator from North Carolina.
[00:24:35] He will today vote to kill the disaster aid.
[00:24:38] Now, he says, well, there aren't enough votes.
[00:24:40] We won't know because he's objecting.
[00:24:42] He isn't allowing the Democrats to object because they always object to anything that's paid for.
[00:24:46] But by his objection, he's not allowing the system to play out.
[00:24:50] If Democrats want to object, we'll find out that they're opposed to pay for us
[00:24:54] and we'll further the definition of who's for not paying for stuff and who is.
[00:24:58] But to say that we as Republicans are never for paying for disaster relief
[00:25:02] is to say that we are equally, or the Republicans are for this,
[00:25:07] are equally complicit in the accumulation of $35 trillion worth of debt.
[00:25:10] So no matter how good the cause is, I don't care whether there's a fire or a tornado or a flood or rain
[00:25:17] or all the damage, it all should be paid for.
[00:25:20] It's the responsible thing to do no matter how terrible the disaster is.
[00:25:25] And it's not like I'm saying, well, let's just wait two years
[00:25:28] until we can earn enough money to pay for Asheville.
[00:25:31] We have the money.
[00:25:33] We're a rich country.
[00:25:34] It's sitting here.
[00:25:35] I just simply ask, take it from something here that is a wasteful corporate bailout
[00:25:40] to green energy companies and put it over here.
[00:25:44] But the fact that the senator from North Carolina is going to kill his own bill today,
[00:25:48] he's going to vote not to allow it to be heard.
[00:25:51] We have no idea whether there are enough votes or not.
[00:25:54] He can say there's not enough votes, but he's now the vote
[00:25:57] that stops the spending from getting easy passage.
[00:26:00] All right.
[00:26:01] So this has to go to the House, as I understand it as well,
[00:26:04] and Tillis makes the point that, look, if it goes over to the House,
[00:26:07] they're going to find the pay for.
[00:26:11] So they came back at this.
[00:26:13] This was the other day.
[00:26:15] This is now the latest chapter in this fight.
[00:26:18] Senator from North Carolina.
[00:26:20] Thank you, Mr. President.
[00:26:21] I'm not going to get into the debate before the floor,
[00:26:24] but I heard the city of Asheville reference to the last debate
[00:26:27] from the gentleman from Kentucky.
[00:26:29] And I have to tell you, I'm not happy with that.
[00:26:32] I sat here last week and tried to do a unanimous consent request
[00:26:36] to fund the Small Business Administration loan,
[00:26:39] and my colleague from Kentucky objected.
[00:26:43] But don't pretend like this debate tonight
[00:26:45] has anything to do with Asheville, North Carolina,
[00:26:49] a town that just got drinking water two days ago.
[00:26:52] You want to argue this, don't argue it on the merits of something
[00:26:56] that you objected to me trying to accomplish last week
[00:26:59] for the city of Asheville.
[00:27:00] I yield.
[00:27:01] Mr. President.
[00:27:02] Senator from Kentucky.
[00:27:04] Sometimes in Washington, memories get clouded and foggy,
[00:27:08] even after a week.
[00:27:10] The senator from North Carolina will remember
[00:27:12] that he objected to aid in North Carolina.
[00:27:15] He objected to small business loans.
[00:27:18] He objected to them simply because they were paid for.
[00:27:22] I offered unanimous consent,
[00:27:23] and it was blocked by the senator from North Carolina.
[00:27:27] I offered unanimous consent to immediately infuse more loans
[00:27:33] through the Small Business Administration for North Carolina
[00:27:37] that was hit hard by the flooding.
[00:27:39] The senator from North Carolina blocked his own bill
[00:27:42] because I proposed that it be paid for
[00:27:45] by taking green energy boondoggle loans.
[00:27:49] So don't be tricked by any flimflammery
[00:27:52] or any sort of making up of history.
[00:27:54] The senator from North Carolina last week
[00:27:57] blocked his own aid passage
[00:27:59] that I agreed to let go unanimously
[00:28:02] as long as it was paid for
[00:28:04] by taking some extra money
[00:28:05] from another part of the budget.
[00:28:07] All right, so this is...
[00:28:09] I got to come down with Tillis on this one.
[00:28:12] I like Rand Paul,
[00:28:13] but I understand the point he's trying to make,
[00:28:18] but like Tillis, he can count the votes.
[00:28:21] Rand Paul can count the votes too.
[00:28:23] And you making a point
[00:28:26] means delaying the funds for these small businesses.
[00:28:30] I understand the point.
[00:28:33] And so maybe I'm one of the,
[00:28:35] oh, it's not the right time,
[00:28:36] but, well, yeah, I mean,
[00:28:40] I did not think I would take Tillis' side
[00:28:42] against Rand Paul on really anything,
[00:28:44] but here we are.
[00:28:45] All right, that'll do it for this episode.
[00:28:47] Thank you so much for listening.
[00:28:48] I could not do the show without your support
[00:28:50] and the support of the businesses
[00:28:52] that advertise on the podcast.
[00:28:54] So if you'd like, please support them too
[00:28:56] and tell them you heard it here.
[00:28:57] You can also become a patron at my Patreon page
[00:28:59] or go to thepetecalendershow.com.
[00:29:02] Again, thank you so much for listening
[00:29:04] and don't break anything while I'm gone.
[00:29:06] Thank you.
[00:29:06] And I'll see you next time.

