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Nebraska Republican Don Bacon is back with us covers in Bacon.
Before we get to this week on Capitol Hill, I just want to get you to reflect a bit on a month ago today, Election Day.
This is the lead from a recent piece in the Nebraska Examiner.
They write, Republican Congressman Don Bacon defied the blue dot for a second straight presidential election.
He won Nebraska's Omaha-based second congressional district in another year in which the district's voters backed a Democrat over former President Donald Trump.
National results show how unusual that is.
What do you credit for that victory and that unusual move among your colleagues?
I believe it's eight years of a record where I've worked across the aisle to get things done for our district and for our country.
I was rated the most effective Republican in the House by the Center of Effective Lawmaking.
I've passed more legislation than any Republican in the last three years.
And I was also rated the most bipartisan member of Congress by common ground.
So, you know, the Democrat side, at least the D.C. Democrats, were trying to say that I was a super MAGA radical.
And I was able just to counter it with, you know, University of Virginia data and people that are not, they're not partisan, but they're bipartisan in their ratings.
So I think I was able to show the voters, hey, I work for you.
And I think that was the biggest thing.
I also think there was a disheartening feeling throughout the country and even in our district.
The average American was 4% poorer today than they were four years ago because of inflation outpacing wage increases.
Further, the border was a disaster.
And I think Afghanistan was the beginning of the end for the Biden administration.
I don't think ever recovered from it.
That probably hurt the Democrat chances in the Senate and taking back the House when you put all that together.
Do you think Americans want bipartisanship?
Is that the lesson from election 2024?
Well, you have, you know, you got some of the wings of both parties that they don't want you to compromise at all.
I don't think that works.
James Madison designed a government with a bicameral, three branches of government, checks and balances where you have to work together.
But we have, you know, the wings of our parties don't like it.
However, the reality is the mass majority of Americans are fed up with Congress getting very little done and our government just sort of creeping along because we're yelling and screaming at each other.
So the people want us to work together to solve the border.
They want us to cut spending because that led to inflation, the hyperspending.
And I think they'd like us to work together to figure out how to handle, you know, Russia and China and Iran.
And it can't be party first.
It's got to be America over party.
And they don't see enough of that.
How do you get things done in a Congress in which Republicans will have one of the smallest majorities ever?
The headline from the New York Times talking about the 220 to 215 majority for Republicans, though with vacancies early in the 119th Congress, it may be as slim as 217 to 215.
We just got to realize that if we don't work across the aisle and try to find areas of consensus, you're not going to get much done.
And that's just a fact.
And we did that this last two years.
You know, we had a wing of our party that didn't want to cooperate on a lot of things.
So Speaker Johnson had to work in a bipartisan way.
We did that with FISA.
We did that with a lot of the appropriations bills.
We're going to do it with a defense bill.
In the end, because the way Madison designed our Constitution, you've got to find consensus on the other side of the aisle.
And so it'll just be a reality.
I do think when you look at the Republican Conference in the coming Congress, it is more collegial, more cohesive.
A lot of the folks who created the most arguments and the most division within our own ranks on the Republican side are gone this time.
And so I think we have a more, we've got 220 Republicans, but there's much more of a teamwork mindset.
So I think we're going to be in a better spot.
Who are those folks who created that division that are gone now?
Well, I don't like throwing people under the bus, but I would say the three biggest rabble-rousers on our side, the ones who went after Mike McCarthy, went after Steve Scalise, tried to go after Mike Johnson, they're gone.
And I'll just leave it at that.
I don't like throwing people under the bus.
But the three worst guys when it comes to building a cohesive team on our side are not in this upcoming Congress.
Do you want to name them?
No, I would prefer not naming them.
Let's go to this week.
We have to be polite.
It's good.
This week on Capitol Hill, you don't get a vote on confirmation hearings in the Senate, but you are on the House Armed Services Committee.
Pete Hegseth, your thoughts on him being the next Secretary of Defense.
You know, I've liked what he's had to say on Fox when I listened in on Fox News.
So I want to give him that credit.
I know he's a smart man.
But I do think he has an uphill battle.
He's going to have to really work hard to convince, to get the 50 senators to support him, I believe.
There's only two areas of contention.
One is he prepared to lead the Department of Defense with 2 million people in it.
And he's going to have to make that case that he's ready for it.
And I think also for many senators and for many Americans, character still matters, right?
And there's these allegations.
I think they're more than allegations.
And he's going to have to show that that was his history, that he's changed, and that he's a different man.
The military still kicks people out of the military if you have affairs.
I know generals who I served with that were fired and removed from the military for having an affair.
So these topics are relevant when you talk about the military because we still have the Uniform Code of Military Justice and these standards still apply.
I had a three-star general when I was a colonel, when I was the wing commander at Ramstein, and he was a brand new three-star.
I was brand new coming in as the base commander at Ramstein.
He says, Don, I will fire you if you have a bottle problem, a zipper problem, or if you send somebody to combat that's not prepared.
And I never forgot those words of wisdom, but that's the code that we live by in the military.
What's the biggest challenge facing the next Secretary of Defense, whoever it is?
I think the biggest challenge is we're not spending enough on defense.
Right now we're spending 3.3% GDP on defense, which is the lowest going back to before World War II.
The norm has been 4% in the Cold War, sometimes 6% under Ronald Reagan, for example.
It was 8% in the 1960s.
3% is not enough to modernize our ICBMs, our bombers, our submarines, to buy the F-35s that we need, the attack submarines, and also provide a quality of life for the men and women who serve.
You know, today we have many military members who are on SNAP.
They rely on food banks.
That's not right.
The greatest military in the world and the greatest country in the world, we shouldn't have military members relying on food banks to put food on the table.
We've had failing scores on our dormitories and barracks.
We've got to fix that.
Our military spouses are the largest demographic in the United States for unemployment.
That could go on and on.
So we've got to provide a quality, we've got to improve the quality of life for the military.
And I'm here to say that 3% GDP is not enough to do all that.
And so the Secretary of Defense, and I've talked to Secretary Austin, but also I've talked to the service secretaries.
They're having to make decisions on how to modernize a military that could counter China, and they don't have a big enough top line.
That is the challenge.
Bernie Sanders this week tweeted about the Pentagon failing to pass another audit, its seventh audit.
How do you justify to the American people spending more money on the military when the Pentagon can't pass a simple audit?
Yeah, you know, in fact, most of the federal government cannot pass an audit.
So it's not just DOD.
People want to highlight the DOD, but it's the entire federal government that does a bad job of tracking the money and where it goes.
Now, I'm not opposed to looking at programs in DOD, figure out where we can cut.
I think that's good.
Where we find waste, by all means, let's go for it.
But we also can't be a military that can only build one attack submarine a year.
That is unacceptable.
Attack submarines are one of the most important things we have to counter China.
And we're saying we're going to modernize to counter China.
One attack submarine is not going to do it.
We've got to have F-35s.
We're going to need the next generation of air dominance fighter.
The Air Force is looking at cutting the sixth generation fighter before we even have it designed because they said there's not enough money to do it.
So I'm just, I'm not opposed to cutting wasteful programs where we find it, but you've got to have military equipment at a quantity and quality that can counter China, Russia, and Iran.
And we're not doing it right now.
As usual, plenty of calls for you, Congressman Bacon.
Phone lines for viewers, as usual, Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.
We'll put them up on the screen.
But this is Stephen Upfirst out of Wyndham, Connecticut, Independent.
Go ahead.
Hey, good morning, Representative Bacon.
I know you don't have a vote, but a lot of your observations about Pete Hegseth, I agree with.
And, you know, not only it's a huge bureaucracy, you know, when you got a lot of young people and you are an alcoholic or a womanizer, it's not helping the team.
It's just not helping our team.
And I think we can do better.
And the budget problem goes across the, like, we have an aging population.
That's cutting into the military budget.
I'm not the one to solve that problem.
But I would vote personally now if I was in the Senate against Pete Hegseth.
I think we can do better.
I have nothing against the guy.
Comes across like a good guy.
But you're dealing with a lot of young people.
And, you know, character does matter.
Thank you for letting me have my say.
Well, I appreciate the comments.
I'll give you an anecdote.
When I was a captain and then a major when President Clinton was the president, when that scandal came out on Monica Lewinsky, I would tell you the military, I'm not going to say for, I can't speak for everybody, but by the huge, vast majority is like, we would have got fired for that.
And I'm just saying, and I think this same scenario applies when we're talking about the nominee for the current Secretary of Defense.
The military has to live by a high standard, and we still have rules on the book.
You can't have affairs.
You can't fool around with subordinates.
If you do, you get fired.
If you're a commander, you're going to get kicked out of the Air Force.
And I think these are good standards.
We have a saying in the military, and I think it's viable, and I appreciate it.
If your wife can't trust you, neither can I.
And that's the code that we live by.
So I appreciate the comments.
I also want to talk about the budget crunch that is hurting the military.
So right now, we have about two workers for every retiree.
We're getting close to that.
In 1950, it was 15 workers for every retiree.
So what this has done, the shift to an aging population, is really grown the Social Security outlays and the Medicare outlays, the Medicaid outlays.
And so today, 72% of the budget is called mandatory spending, and only 28% is discretionary, of which half of that discretionary is defense.
And every year that number gets smaller, and it's putting huge pressure on trying to fund our military.
I support a debt commission where it's half Republicans, half Democrats.
Both sides will get wins and losses.
We've got to find a way to balance our budget, save Social Security, save Medicare, but it's going to hurt.
It's going to hurt, and both sides have got to have ownership of this.
But if we don't do this, it's going to get harder and harder to fund the things that we need to, and it's not going to get easier with each year to save Social Security.
We've got to make tough decisions now, and it's got to be a bipartisan solution.
If Republicans try to do this on their own, they're going to get destroyed in the next election.
If Democrats try to do it on their own, they're going to get destroyed.
It's got to be an American solution to this, and we've got to just face the facts.
Louisville, Kentucky, Bernie Democrat.
Good morning.
Good morning, sirs.
The situation in South Korea, it seemed like it happened so quickly, and I've listened to the radio, and then six hours over, it's basically over.
What is our position with that?
Did anybody see that coming?
And one other quick question.
Sir, would you ever consider running for higher office?
Bernie, do you want to see him run for higher office?
I do.
We talked before on the phone, and I actually had a candidate.
I had a person who could run with him, and I mentioned it.
But I think we need somebody from the House of Representatives.
I think we've had a lot of senators, governors, and the private businessmen run.
I think it's about time to get a new perspective from the House of Representatives and Don Bacon.
You've got a great name.
Everybody loves Bacon.
Well, thank you so much.
What was the first?
It was about South Korea.
Oh, South Korea.
I got thrown off by the second part of the comments there, so I...
Well, we'll get to that.
But, you know, I don't think anyone saw it coming that I know of.
I didn't have the intel briefing, but from the folks I've talked to, it was a surprise.
And obviously our position is America's position would be we would be opposed to martial law.
But I'm a half-glass full guy when you look at South Korea.
I mean, look at the imagery at night with the infrared satellites.
South Korea shines bright.
It's one of the best economies in the world.
It is a democracy, though it had a hiccup with this martial law declaration.
Then you look at North Korea.
There's like one little speck of light at night in Pyongyang, and the rest of the country is dark.
The average North Korean is a couple inches shorter than the average South Korean because they don't eat as well.
And they're shut off from the rest of the world.
It's a dictatorship.
So I look at South Korea and I see a success story that America can feel so proud of our involvement in the Korean War and the sacrifice made by roughly 40,000 U.S. military who lost their lives there.
But look at what we have today, one of the greatest, most prosperous countries in the world.
So I want to be the half-glass full guy on this.
And my future, I just, I'm a Christian.
I pray for God's will and wisdom on how to go forward.
You know, doors will shut, doors will open.
When I retired from the military in 2014, I never guessed I was going to run for Congress in 2016.
I was campaigning for the Republican there, and he ended up losing that election.
And suddenly I've become on the short list for nominees.
And so I just pray that I'm ready and able to serve in whatever capacity when those doors open.
I love our country.
I love Abraham Lincoln, studying him.
I love Winston Church.
I love people who make a positive difference.
Like reading about people that have moral courage that do the right thing when it's not popular, but they end up doing the right thing.
And later, their country sees just how, like Abraham Lincoln's a case of point, he saved our country.
God put him there, I believe, but he was very unpopular at the time.
But when you look backwards, he had this moral courage and he had this wisdom to do the things that he did, and he saved our country.
And I want to make a positive impact on our country.
Esperanza out of Florida, Republican, is next.
You're on with Don Bacon.
Yes, we would like to make just an observation with regards to Peter Hedsek, and that is that constitutionally he is protected and innocent until found otherwise.
So this whole thing that everything now, every time somebody gets nominated, it's just one allegation after another to an end.
So I just wanted to be in complete support of Pete Hedseth's nomination for Defense Secretary.
Thank you very much.
I appreciate the caller's input on that.
I agree, especially when it comes to crimes, right?
And he's not being charged with a crime.
You are innocent until proven guilty.
But we also have a very high standard to be the Secretary of Defense.
And I think that standard is higher than versus charging somebody with a crime and going to a jury.
But Mr. Hegseth's going to have a chance to make his case in front of 100 senators.
He's going to have that chance in hearings.
And, you know, I wish him well.
I just think he has an uphill climb.
What do you think of reports that Donald Trump is possibly considering Ron DeSantis as a replacement nominee for Pete Hegseth?
I know it's just reports.
I don't know if it's true, but I think that the Governor DeSantis will make a great Secretary of Defense.
And he has proven himself that he can lead at a very high level, that he can lead a 2 million person organization.
I mean, he's the governor of Florida, and he's been tremendously successful as the governor of Florida.
Plus, he has experience in the U.S. House.
I served with him in the 115th Congress.
So I know he'd be very good, and I think he would be easily confirmable.
Athens, Georgia, Jimmy's an independent.
You're next.
Good morning.
Thank you for being a centrist.
The one quote that stuck in my head that you said is: if your wife doesn't trust you, then neither do I.
And I guess that's the reason I did not vote for Donald Trump and I voted for Kamala instead, because I don't think even Melania is going to trust Donald Trump.
But that being said, I do appreciate your opinion.
And I think that Pete's wife doesn't trust him either.
And that's just coming from his mother.
It was Pete's mother.
The other thing that people have been calling in and complaining about, it's the liberal media who've been attacking Pete.
But I learned on Fox News, which is not the liberal media, that his mother wrote a letter saying that he had low character because he was cheating on his wife.
And so that right there, I think, should be enough to disqualify this man.
There are a lot of good people who deserve to be Secretary of Defense.
Thank you.
Have a great day.
I don't know if I have anything to add to that, John.
I would say about the presidential race in my district in Omaha, they call it the blue dot, but we like to call it the Bacon dot.
Vice President Harris won our district by five points, and we won it just under two.
And so, and we had these comments all the time, like, how can you vote for this person or how can you vote for that person?
I would just tell people we all have a right to our priorities.
You know, I think many of the Republicans put the border as the top priority, and I think that's a very valid concern.
We had 10 million people across here.
We've had innocent people murdered by criminals who've come across the border.
Other people put the economy as the number one issue because the wages didn't keep up with inflation.
Other people put the character issue on January 6th.
And I would just tell people: no one has a right to tell you that you can't vote your priority and what's important to you.
Because what I saw during the election was a lot of shaming.
Shame on you for supporting this person or shame on you for supporting that person.
We live in the United States of America.
We have a right to support who we want without having someone point their finger at you and saying, shame on you.
And so I appreciate the caller's perspective.
And I know a lot of people shared that.
I just would also point the other side of it, the border and the economy.
We're the top two issues in this election.
And that's why we have Donald Trump as the nominee today.
Charlene, California Democrat.
Good morning.
Mr. Bacon, I wanted to compliment you on showing your spirit through your character.
You know, truth is the light.
I think instead of all them expensive Bibles in the schools and everything, I think some great wallpaper with the Ten Commandments on it throughout the White House would be a great place to start, a great investment, and wouldn't cost this much.
You know, I don't care if you call it truth.
I don't care if you call it lies.
It doesn't matter.
There's a difference.
It's simple.
We try to complicate things.
But you know what?
The sulfur is caked.
We cannot allow it to unite.
Ignite.
Ignite.
We can't allow it.
And the only way to not allow it is to stay in truth.
Mr. Bacon?
Thank you.
You're a good man.
Keep shooting.
I hope my wife's listening in and my dad right now.
So I thank you so much for the kind words.
Maybe I'll give you a couple anecdotes on this.
I mean, I was at a county party meeting, and I saw I'm a Christian first, I'm an American second, then I'm a Republican.
And this man yells at me, he goes, that's why we don't like you.
And I go, which part?
The Christian part or the American part?
I feel like we're in this society today.
It's called the post-truth society, or some people call it the post-Christian society.
And it's more important, and in this culture, it's more important to win than to do the right thing.
But I don't think that's healthy.
I'd love to see your country go back where it's more important to do the right thing and try to stand for what's right.
And I get it.
Good people can disagree what that means at times, and good people do disagree.
But if we're trying to pursue what's right and what's honest, then you can find consensus and you can come up with policies that are more bipartisan.
But if it's the most important thing to win, then it's very hard to govern our country and to have a successful culture and a successful society.
So I appreciate the kind lady's feedback.
Less than five minutes left with Congressman Don Bacon.
I know you're on the Ag Committee as well.
What's the status of the farm bill?
It looks to me like we're going to have to do an extension until next year, and I don't like it.
We had a good farm bill that came out of the House or came out of the House committee, but the Senate has not produced an Ag Bill out of committee.
And so they've been negotiating off of our bill, but it's not ready yet to pass.
They don't have an agreement yet on a Senate and a House Ag Bill that both sides can agree on yet.
So we're going to do an extension, I believe, this month into next year, and hopefully we can get this done as soon as possible.
Our farmers need it.
You know, one of the worst egregious things in this current administration, in my view, they inherited an agriculture trade surplus.
Now we have about a $50 billion trade deficit in agriculture.
And we're the breadbasket of the world.
We need a president fighting for our trade and opening up doors for our agriculture products.
And I think it's just Terrible that America has a trade agriculture deficit, the breadbasket of the world.
And so we need a farm bill that helps out our farmers and ranchers.
Hillsboro, New Jersey, John, Independent, thanks for waiting.
Yes, my question is: you were talking earlier about the deficit and the military, how they need money.
Why can't the government do like they did at the end of World War II and tax the rich like 80% until we have enough funds to pay down the deficit and make everything reasonable again?
What I like.
I like World War II.
I'm surely not a proponent for 80% tax rates myself.
I know we had one at one time at 90%, even.
I guess I have the reverse view that Americans work and it's their money and it's not the government's money.
So I come from that philosophical background.
But I do think we need to do, we're going to have to make some hard decisions.
Our discretionary spending, our income taxes more than cover it, easily cover it.
So we pay for our discretionary spending relatively easy.
It's the mandatory spending, and we tax that by doing withholdings right through our paychecks.
And we have a Medicare withholding, we have a Social Security withholding.
And it worked when it was 15 workers to one retiree.
Now we're going to two to one.
And so we're going to have to sit down, Republicans and Democrats together, and there's going to have to be hard decisions.
And I do believe there will be more taxes involved.
There's going to be a combination of things that we're going to have to do to do it.
And it's going to be painful.
However, our country facing bankruptcy is even more painful.
And when we have a country that can't pay for its defense, that's more painful.
And we have real adversaries out there in China, Russia, Iran.
We still have ISIS.
We still have Al-Qaeda.
And it's more painful to lose to an adversary than to make the tough decisions now.
So we've got to be grown-ups, be responsible, and make tough decisions.
Last call, 90 seconds left.
This is Tim in Gasville, Arkansas, Independent.
Go ahead.
Good morning.
Good morning, Mr. Bacon.
Listen, for years I've been with you, and most of what you say I like.
But look, Pete Hegseth is a good man.
Matt Gates was a good man.
And every time Donald Trump, now that he got the votes, and listen, in your little district, you got a million votes, he got 74 million.
And he wants this person, and I want him to have who he wants.
Now, when Mike Pence refused to reject unconstitutional ballots, okay, he did what most Republicans do.
When they're in power, they shrink.
They mope.
They whine.
Okay, you got the power.
You got the reins.
Donald Trump got the votes.
We don't need to be second-guessing and spreading rumors about a good man.
Tim in Arkansas.
I'll give you the final word, Congressman Bacon.
I appreciate the callers' comments, but I think we would have had a constitutional crisis if Vice President Pence didn't do what he did.
Frankly, I studied the law.
He had no other recourse than to do what he actually did.
And I studied the law of 1879 that guides our Electoral College vote.
So I want to defend him on that.
And by the way, President Trump's going to get 90 to 95 percent, if more, of his nominees.
There's some great ones.
Collins for the VA, Stefanik going to United Nations, Bergdum going to the Interior Department.
Many of these are just outstanding nominations.
But we have a checks and balance of the system.
James Madison put in into the Constitution that the Senate has a constitutional duty to confirm and to give consent on these nominees.
And if someone doesn't can't get the 50 votes there, that's part of the checks and balances that we have.
And that's one of the roles of the Senate.
And they should do their duty.
And they need to do due diligence.
And they should give Pete Hegshuth a chance, give him a chance to defend his record and these allegations.
But in the end, they get to confirm and provide their consent, and we got to support that.
And we will end it there, Congressman.
There was a caller who was talking about you running for president earlier.
I would just note, political homeless Tony on Twitter opens up this campaign slogan for you if you want it.
Everything is better with Bacon.
Well, thank you.
And by the way, I want to say Tom Swazi is coming on.
He's a great friend of mine, and he's one of the best guys to work across the aisle with.
So I just want to compliment him before he comes on.
I appreciate that.
And that's our promo for our next segment.
Congressman Bacon.
Appreciate the time.
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