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C-SPAN, Democracy Unfiltered. | |
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| Welcome back to Washington Journal. | ||
| Joining us this morning is Congressman Randy Fine of Florida, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee to talk about Venezuela. | ||
| Congressman, thanks so much for joining us this morning. | ||
| Thanks for having me. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Well, this is your first time on the program, so let's just dive right in. | ||
| In a recent interview, Congressman, you said that capturing the Venezuelan former president Nicolas Maduro was an example of putting America first. | ||
| What did you mean by that? | ||
| Well, I think Venezuela was serving as a launch pad for the people who hate us. | ||
| They were allowing Hezbollah terrorists to operate there and raise hundreds of millions of dollars. | ||
| They were going to make it a launching pad for China and Russia in Iran. | ||
| And worse, they were using it as a narco-drug empire to send their drugs into the United States to kill our people. | ||
| So there's no more important duty of government than to protect Americans and America. | ||
| And I think going and taking Maduro did exactly that. | ||
| So I'm very proud of the president. | ||
| He did a great job, and we all owe him and the soldiers who did the work a great deal of gratitude. | ||
| As a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, I wonder, do you view taking Maduro, capturing him now, obviously bringing him to New York to face charges, but do you view that as an act of regime change? | ||
| And do you view that these actions are legal both in the U.S. and international law? | ||
| Well, I view it as seizing a drug dealer. | ||
| So the president doesn't need to check with us every time he wants to go and arrest a drug dealer. | ||
| Maduro was not the democratically elected president of Venezuela. | ||
| In fact, there was an election and he lost and he lost overwhelmingly and he said, I don't care. | ||
| I'm not giving up power. | ||
| So he was a drug dealer. | ||
| And so the president had every right to go and get him. | ||
| That's not a violation. | ||
| It's not the use of military forces. | ||
| Well, how else would you go and get a narcissist? | ||
| In a different country. | ||
| Well, I understand, but the fact that he committed crimes in the United States doesn't get him off the hook. | ||
| And so I think what he did was absolutely justified. | ||
| And so I believe we put the interests of America first. | ||
| Making sure Americans aren't dying of fentanyl-laced cocaine is important. | ||
| Making sure Muslim terrorists can't operate with impunity in our hemisphere is in our interest. | ||
| And I think this is a big win. | ||
| The biggest win is for Venezuelans. | ||
| Look at how the Venezuelan diaspora is responding in Florida and around the country and the world. | ||
| Unbelievable, yeah, my home state, unbelievable celebration. | ||
| So the Venezuelans are happy with what we have done. | ||
| So we win, Venezuela wins, everybody wins, I guess except the drug dealers. | ||
| I wonder if you have any concerns of whether or not this action could lead to further military intervention in Venezuela. | ||
| Obviously, the president has said that they are prepared to do a second wave of strikes if this current Venezuela government, the former vice president, now interim president, doesn't basically acquiesce to the U.S.'s concerns or requests. | ||
| I wonder if you feel that there is a potential for boots on the ground. | ||
| Well, I'm not particularly worried. | ||
| It seems like they've gotten the message. | ||
| With Donald Trump in charge, America is back. | ||
| And if people don't do the right thing, there's going to be hell to pay. | ||
| I think, look, we saw the announcement yesterday that we're going to get 30 to 50 million gallons of our barrels of oil to repay us for what we've done. | ||
| I think we won't have to do it. | ||
| I think as the American oil companies go back in and get the assets, to keep in mind the Venezuelan government stole from them, they will bring security to make sure things are safe as well. | ||
| I think this is a win for Venezuela. | ||
| It's a win for America. | ||
| Venezuela, what happens in every communist country? | ||
| They take control, then everything falls apart. | ||
| They'll now be able to produce more oil. | ||
| That's good for their economy. | ||
| It's good for the world. | ||
| I just think this is a win for everybody, except, again, people who just want to complain. | ||
| I want to ask you more about oil in a second. | ||
| But I want to bring up this Washington, I mean, this Wall Street Journal report that says the headline is, CIA concluded regime loyalists were best placed to lead Venezuela after Maduro. | ||
| And it cites a recent classified U.S. intelligence assessment. | ||
| One, I want to know if you've read it. | ||
| But basically, it says that a recent classified U.S. intelligence assessment determined top members of Nicholas Maduro's regime, including Vice President Del Codriguez, would be best positioned to lead a temporary government in Caracas and maintain near stability if the autocrat lost power. | ||
| People familiar with the matter said the president was briefed on this. | ||
| Other top officials were briefed on this. | ||
| And that is despite the fact that multiple people, potentially in the region, felt that Machado, the opposition leader, or others would be put in place if the regime were to fall. | ||
| I wonder what's your response to that? | ||
| Did you have any knowledge of this assessment? | ||
| And from folks in Florida, were they surprised at the president's comments, basically saying that Machado did not have the ability to lead? | ||
| Well, I think if you look at from the perspective of what's going to be the least disruptive, basically allowing that same government to continue to operate with the removal of the drug dealer is the easiest in the short term. | ||
| And the challenge in bringing in the group that lost the election a few years ago is they're not in a position to simply take over and stand up the government. | ||
| Many of the opposition figures left the country. | ||
| You can't blame them. | ||
| They were being killed and all sorts of other terrible things being done to them. | ||
| I think what we're talking about with the current government is temporary until they can have an election so that a legitimate government comes in and maybe Machado will win. | ||
| Maybe someone else will win. | ||
| But I think this is just to get us through that transition with the minimal disruption, the minimal amount of American military force and what's best for Venezuelans and what's best for America. | ||
| But President Rodriguez or acting President Rodriguez is still, you know, Maduro's number two. | ||
| A lot of their military generals are still in place. | ||
| I wonder, do you view them as a credible working partners despite the fact that they were handpicked by Maduro? | ||
| I think it's a short-term solution. | ||
| I think what they've seen is bad actions will yield consequences that they won't like. | ||
| You know, when you've got to discipline your kids and you say, if you don't do what you want, I'm going to take away the iPad for a few days. | ||
| Well, when the first time you take away the iPad for a few days, often they get the message and the behavior changes. | ||
| And I think that's what's happened here. | ||
| They've shown that we're willing to go after and get Maduro. | ||
| I think the people that are there are going to go, okay, I better act differently. | ||
| Maybe I shouldn't be putting on drugs on boats and driving them into the United States. | ||
| I think they know we are watching and we'll see how they behave. | ||
| The other thing is a fish rots from the head. | ||
| The head has been removed, aka Maduro, and we give folks a chance to see if they'll do the right thing. | ||
| What timeline do you think the administration should require Venezuela to have elections? | ||
| Obviously, Marco Rubio has said in the past few days that there is no immediate timeline. | ||
| I wonder from your perspective, particularly because you have a lot of folks from the Caribbean in your district in Florida, do you think that they should call for elections? | ||
| Well, I think we're talking about something that's sort of within months to a year. | ||
| And I don't know the exact timeframe. | ||
| Because remember, we want them to have an election. | ||
| But if we say you have to have the election next week, you know, that's not enough time. | ||
| We also don't need to give them five years as well. | ||
| So we want there to be a robust election so people have a shot to come in. | ||
| And so whoever wins has the ability to go and take control. | ||
| I'm excited because I can see the enthusiasm among Venezuelans in Florida for this. | ||
| And I also want it set up so that the 700,000 to 800,000 Venezuelan refugees that are in the United States, they can go home. | ||
| And that will reduce the pressure on social services in the United States. | ||
| It will reduce what we're spending on welfare programs as these folks return to their home country. | ||
| So I want to make sure that we've set Venezuela up to allow those people to go home. | ||
| A few more questions here before we turn to our callers. | ||
| But, Congressman, a classified briefing for the full House and Senate is expected to happen today with administration officials on their efforts in Venezuela. | ||
| What questions do you have? | ||
| Well, I don't have that many. | ||
| I'm there to listen. | ||
| Look, I trust the judgment of Donald Trump. | ||
| He has never let me down, and I don't expect him to do anytime soon. | ||
| I want to learn what happened. | ||
| I want to learn why they felt they needed to do this. | ||
| I want to learn how it went down. | ||
| I want to learn how we were able to so successfully go in, capture them in a few minutes. | ||
| And how did none of our assets get taken? | ||
| None of our people get hurt. | ||
| I think this is a story that we need to learn. | ||
| We need to trumpet, and we need to send this message to the rest of the world that our military is by far the most prepared in the world. | ||
| So I'll be going to listen, but not to jockey like some of the Democrats will to just ask questions and cause trouble. | ||
| But obviously, the results speak for themselves. | ||
| One of the world's worst people was taken into custody, and now he'll be held accountable for that. | ||
| And last question here before we turn to calls. | ||
| An NBC article from an exclusive interview with the president, he said that Trump, the headline is, Trump says the U.S. government may reimburse oil companies for rebuilding Venezuela's infrastructure. | ||
| This has been a topic of conversation. | ||
| I wonder, do you support taxpayers reimbursing oil companies that would invest in Venezuela's oil infrastructure to rebuild over an unknown amount of time? | ||
| Well, he didn't say how. | ||
| And when you, I'm just going to read in between the lines. | ||
| When you're getting 50 million. | ||
| He said, and then they'll get reimbursed by us. | ||
| But through revenue. | ||
| Reimbursed through what form of funding? | ||
| When we just learned yesterday we're getting up to 50 million gallons of barrels of oil. | ||
| That's going to be billions of dollars. | ||
| My assumption is that will be the vehicle to do that. | ||
| But isn't that, I talked to one expert from University of Houston yesterday who said that the U.S. produces about 50 million barrels of oil every four days. | ||
| And that was the top of the estimate that President Trump put in that to social. | ||
| So I wonder, isn't that kind of just a drop in the bucket, although significant for Venezuela? | ||
| I mean, when we're talking about whether or not the taxpayers are paying for some of this, I wonder if you have any concerns or you believe that that money should go to oil companies to reimburse them for their efforts. | ||
| Well, if it is only 50 million, and that could be a first, a drop in the bucket, to use an analogy, that would still be billions of dollars. | ||
| And I don't know how much money they actually need. | ||
| The point that the president is making, though, is that Venezuelan oil coming onto the market will help bring oil prices down in the United States. | ||
| That's good for our consumers. | ||
| It'll also make us more economically secure. | ||
| And it potentially takes away an asset that's going to feed our enemies in China and Russia. | ||
| So I think it's a win across the board. | ||
| And I think when the president's talking about reimbursement, I suspect it's from those 50, that starting point. | ||
| I don't think that'll be the end of those 50 million gallons. | ||
| So you don't believe it'll be with taxpayers? | ||
| No, I don't think we're going to, I doubt that we're going to take taxpayer money to do that. | ||
| I mean, I think, again, he's already starting with several billion dollars from that. | ||
| I don't even know how much money they need to be reimbursed, but I suspect that's what he's talking about. | ||
| Brian from Morrisville, Pennsylvania, and Independent. | ||
| You're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Good morning, Brian. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks for taking my. | |
| Yes. | ||
| A couple of things. | ||
| With respect to Venezuela, no doubt Meduro was a brutal, evil dictator, not unlike Saddam Hussein, not unlike Gaddafi and Libya, and obviously many, many other examples throughout history. | ||
| That being said, you know, it's arguably a win to not have him in power for the Venezuelan people and sounding Caracas. | ||
| But at the same time, you know, look, we're rejecting the woman who actually fairly won a Democratic election, which seems kind of bizarre. | ||
| We're then enshrining a woman who was the vice president of this brutal regime, also head scratching. | ||
| The claims by your guest, Mr. Fine, Congressman Fine, that they're a huge narco supplier or exporter of drugs into the United States is largely untrue. | ||
| I mean, it's actually a drop in the bucket. | ||
| Mexico is obviously far, far more influential in that regard. | ||
| And obviously, it would be utterly insane for a variety of reasons to do anything to attack them. | ||
| You know, as far as what comes in in the vacuum within Venezuela, you know, who knows? | ||
| And then with respect to oil, look, I mean, I think this is insane. | ||
| You have Senator Thoon, obviously the Republican leadership in both the House and Senate seemingly getting behind Trump in terms of using oil revenue to prop up the United States taxpayer and large multinational oil companies here. | ||
| This is imperialism. | ||
| This is a return to 19th century spheres of influence. | ||
| So, Brian, I wonder if you have a question for the Congressman. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I have a lot of questions for the Congressman, frankly. | |
| Hi, Congressman. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| You're a Harvard-educated man. | ||
| Your dad, it looks like, was at MIT. | ||
| I mean, you must be a very, very smart individual, but you're so happy to say, well, I trust the president. | ||
| I have no questions at this briefing. | ||
| I'm just there to listen. | ||
| I wonder if you could respond to that. | ||
| Well, what I would say is this. | ||
| I trust the president because I know the president, and I've asked him a lot of questions. | ||
| I just heard him yesterday. | ||
| I was with him yesterday. | ||
| There was a lot there, but I think that while Machado did win the election a couple of years ago, taking someone who's effectively been held prisoner and saying, hey, you're in charge of a country, just go take over is a very disruptive thing to do. | ||
| Keeping the current infrastructure in place is what prevents us from having to send in the Marines to take over the whole country. | ||
| I'm not saying she won't be the leader. | ||
| I think they'll have another election. | ||
| The election didn't happen yesterday. | ||
| People are thinking about this through the lens of the United States, where the opposition could just show up and everyone would be okay with it. | ||
| It will be very disruptive. | ||
| And taking a few months, having a new election, whether she wins or someone else, I think is the right way to go. | ||
| As it relates to drugs, I was asked about that. | ||
| I mean, we blew up enough drug boats to make clear it was a little bit more than a drop in the bucket. | ||
| And anything we can do to bring the reduction in drugs to the United States, that's something that we ought to be doing. | ||
| So I'm very happy. | ||
| I am looking forward to the briefing to learn more, but I trust Donald Trump's judgment. | ||
| He's never let me down in all of the time that I've known him. | ||
| And he didn't let me down when we went into Venezuela a few days ago. | ||
| John from New York, a Republican? | ||
| You're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So I find that Mr. Fine is the representation of everything that's wrong with this country. | |
| He's a very proud Israel first supporter. | ||
| And George Washington, our first president, said it was our true policy to steer clear a permanent alliance with any portion of the foreign world. | ||
| We spent inflation-adjusted $8 trillion supporting Israel, which for whatever reason can't get on their own two feet. | ||
| And we have now the great noticing where people are realizing that there's no interest whatsoever in us having an alliance with Israel. | ||
| There's no benefit whatsoever. | ||
| And I find it troubling that he found the fact that Palestinian children were starving funny because it doesn't look like Mr. Fiennes ever missed a meal. | ||
| And Christians? | ||
| Yeah, we do not tolerate any attacks against our guests. | ||
| The congressman is here spending his time with us. | ||
| And so I would say just don't make those remarks. | ||
| Congressman, I wonder if you can just talk broadly about your views on Israel. | ||
| Well, we're talking about Venezuela. | ||
| Mind talking about Israel. | ||
| Look, I take a lot of attacks. | ||
| I'm the first congressman in the United States history to wear a kipah, which you can see on my head today. | ||
| And I'm very proud to be Jewish, and I'm very proud of the relationship we have with Israel. | ||
| I mean, Israel is a bulwark that fights the wars that we don't have to. | ||
| And anyone who doesn't think that supporting Israel doesn't support America hasn't been to Israel. | ||
| When I go with Christians to Israel and they want to visit the holiest sites in their religion, they're cared for by the state of Israel. | ||
| I can tell you, those sites that are not cared for by the Jews in Israel are not in as good a shape. | ||
| But looking at Iran, which Israel largely handled for us, Iran sought to build nuclear weapons and still does nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles that can hit the United States. | ||
| Their goal is not to build missiles to hit their neighbors. | ||
| Their goal is not to build missiles to hit Europe. | ||
| They're focused on building missiles that can make it all the way here. | ||
| So when George Washington was alive, and obviously one of our greatest presidents, he didn't have to worry about intercontinental ballistic missiles flying over from across the ocean. | ||
| We do. | ||
| And standing with our allies like Israel protects the United States. | ||
| I wonder one question, though. | ||
| Do you believe that Israel should be allowing more aid to go into Gaza for some of these folks who are suffering from hunger? | ||
| Sure. | ||
| I think that Hamas needs to follow through on the peace deal and surrender. | ||
| The problem with putting the aid in is these aid organizations smuggled weapons and other things in with the aid. | ||
| The people who've hurt the Palestinians are the people who've been in charge of the Palestinians. | ||
| If Israel knew that every truck that went into Gaza only had flour and food and other things for people to eat, they'd say let it all in. | ||
| But what slows it down is the search for weapons and things that they use to kill people. | ||
| Think about all of the weapons that were used on October 7th and after. | ||
| Those all had to get there. | ||
| And the problem is they've continued. | ||
| Even the UN organizations allowed weapons and other devices that were used to hurt people in. | ||
| I think that's the biggest threat to people who live in the Gaza Strip is Hamas and the people that are in charge. | ||
| It's not the Israelis. | ||
| Marilyn from Illinois Democrat, you're next. | ||
| Let me press the button. | ||
|
unidentified
|
For Congressman Flynn, first of all, I'm Jewish and I'm opposed totally to that dictator in Israel. | |
| He's a dictator just like supposingly the dictator of Venezuela. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| We went into Venezuela because supposingly he, the head of it, was a dictator. | ||
| Well, explain to me something. | ||
| Why don't we go into China? | ||
| He's a dictator. | ||
| Why didn't we form an alliance with Saudi Arabia? | ||
| Their dictators are North Korea or Russia. | ||
| Congressman? | ||
| Well, great question. | ||
| I think what makes Venezuela different is two things. | ||
| Number one, we didn't go and get him because he was a dictator. | ||
| We went and got him because he was an indicted drug trafficker. | ||
| I mean, he has been indicted since 2020 in the United States. | ||
| He was indicted for the entirety of Joe Biden's term. | ||
| Democrats, until Donald Trump did it, thought that he should be gotten and deposed as well. | ||
| So we went and got a drug dealer. | ||
| That's the most important thing. | ||
| The second thing that makes it different is this is in our hemisphere. | ||
| And going all the way back to James Monroe and the Monroe Doctrine, we take a different view of what happens on our side of the world. | ||
| We believe that American interests should be predominant in the Western Hemisphere. | ||
| And to allow the northernmost country in South America to be the launching base for our enemies, whether they're Muslim terrorists in Hezbollah or China, is just not something that we can deal with. | ||
| And this goes all the way back to John F. Kennedy. | ||
| Look at the Cuban missile crisis. | ||
| Now, Cuba was closer to the United States, or is closer to the United States, than Venezuela is, but the same principle has been adopted by Democrat presidents as well. | ||
| If it's in our backyard, we need to make sure we are safe. | ||
| And that's different than Saudi Arabia or China, for example. | ||
| I wonder what you make of the latest response on Greenland from the administration. | ||
| They say that all options, including military, are open when it comes to acquiring Greenland. | ||
| Marco Rubio reportedly said that the president wants to buy Greenland. | ||
| I wonder how those comments mesh with Greenland, which, of course, is a NATO territory. | ||
| Sure. | ||
| Well, look, Greenland has incredible strategic importance to the United States. | ||
| If you look at a map where you're looking down at the North Pole as opposed to the traditional map that we look at, you can see how Greenland is basically what's in between Russian military forces and the United States. | ||
| And so us being able to have access to that to secure sea routes and to make sure we're safe when we build and erect the Golden Dome, I think it's very, very important. | ||
| And look, Denmark is a country that we have protected for decades through America funding NATO. | ||
| Hopefully we'll be able to come to a deal with them that allows us to keep it. | ||
| But what about Denmark's, you know, basically warning that if the U.S. were to try to move against or move towards Greenland against NATO, that that would be the end of NATO? | ||
| I think I'm very optimistic that President Trump will work things out. | ||
| He's a great negotiator. | ||
| He makes clear what we need. | ||
| And I think Greenland being part of the United States is in the United States' interest. | ||
| And frankly, I think it's in NATO's interest because Russia is a threat, not just to them, but it is to us. | ||
| And it is easier for Russia to get to the United States through Greenland than it is through Europe. | ||
| Again, we all think of the map that we learned in elementary school, but we don't ever look at the world by looking from the top down. | ||
| And if you do that, you see how important Greenland would be for the United States. | ||
| And I'm optimistic that Secretary Rubio, who, by the way, is a fellow Floridian, we are incredibly proud of, I think that he'll be able to get the job done there, like he has done everywhere else. | ||
| Doug from Danville, Illinois, an independent, you're next. | ||
| Doug, are you on the line? | ||
| Doug, one more time. | ||
| Richard from Louisville, Kentucky, a Republican, you're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Yes. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| United States needs to do whatever it can to buy or take over Greenland. | ||
| It's important to the national security of the United States, and I definitely agree with that. | ||
| But I called, there was a gentleman called earlier, an independent, that wanted to know why Trump didn't put that lady that apparently won the election against Maduro, but Maduro overthrew her anyway. | ||
| And then she's been in hiding for quite a while. | ||
| Maduro's been in office for 15 years. | ||
| He has people everywhere. | ||
| He controlled all infrastructure. | ||
| He controlled the police, all their Secret Service. | ||
| And you take him out. | ||
| Trump was not going to put this lady in that situation. | ||
| She wouldn't have lived two days. | ||
| They would have killed her. | ||
| Time's going to come. | ||
| They're going to get everything straightened out. | ||
| And Donald Trump's going to force Venezuela to have free and fair elections. | ||
| And Mr. Fine, don't apologize to these people about being Jewish. | ||
| You're a good man. | ||
| You continue to work hard. | ||
| And I'm behind you 100%. | ||
| Thank you, sir. | ||
| Well, thank you for that. | ||
| I don't ever apologize for who I am, but I appreciate you saying that. | ||
| And I actually think you made the point very well. | ||
| People who think we could have just put her in charge are looking at the world through an American lens, where we would allow that sort of thing. | ||
| But we removed one person, but that entire regime is still there. | ||
| If we sent her in, she would have failed. | ||
| And so having, taking a few months or a year or however long it takes to create the culture where there can be an election that everyone will buy into. | ||
| And more importantly, there will be a transition of power. | ||
| I think that is what is most important. | ||
| Sticking in a person who sits over the former regime, it wouldn't have worked. | ||
| And I think that's why they made the decision that they did. | ||
| Joanna from Germantown, Maryland, a Democrat, you're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, Chair. | |
| I have two quick questions. | ||
| The first one is, can you assure us that neither Donald Trump or his family will monetarily profit from his actions in Venezuela and his plans? | ||
| And number two, can you assure us, because it's estimated it will take hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild the oil industry and rebuild Venezuela, that no taxpayer money, no American taxpayer money will be spent in this effort. | ||
| Well, what I would say is this, is President Trump has lost an incredible part of his fortune dedicating his life to public service. | ||
| I mean, it's been unquestionably a challenging move. | ||
| The guy was shot at, shot once, shot at a second time. | ||
| They tried to put him in jail. | ||
| I mean, he's spent hundreds of millions of dollars on legal fees. | ||
| And unquestionably, it seems to me being president has not been a great financial move for him personally. | ||
| And that shows how committed he is to our country. | ||
| As it relates to American tax dollars, I think the amount of oil potential out of Venezuela makes it unnecessary for us to do that. | ||
| American oil companies are going to be willing to come in and do what is necessary. | ||
| And I think that whatever resources are needed to get the job done, I think President Trump proved by talking about that first tranche of 30 to 50 million barrels of oil, the money is going to be there to do it. | ||
| I think President Trump is not going to make the mistake that's been made in the past, and that is, you know, go and win a conflict and then not take any of the spoils from it. | ||
| We could see that yesterday. | ||
| Just a quick fact check here. | ||
| Forbes article from September 2009 to 2025 says that President Trump had the most lucrative year of his life, the president now worth a record $7.3 billion up from $4.3 billion in 2024. | ||
| Jake from Mississippi, you're a Republican? | ||
|
unidentified
|
You're next. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Good morning, Congressman Fine. | ||
| I had a quick question on, I know Scott Besson, Secretary Scott Besson, was talking about needing a growth ratio of around 5% GDP in order to outgrow debt. | ||
| I was wondering if you had any thoughts on how this oil could be used to grow GDP beyond 5% so I think we'd actually start taking down our debt and also to finally utilize that growth to start regrowing the middle class in America. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Well, that's a great question. | ||
| Look, I think the biggest existential threat facing the United States is not Venezuela. | ||
| It's not China or Iran. | ||
| The biggest existential threat facing the United States is our debt and our inability, whether it's Republican or Democrat, frankly, to spend within our means. | ||
| Now, I don't know that Venezuela is the solution to the debt problem. | ||
| I mean, I think it could help us grow the economy and growing the economy will help with it. | ||
| But what we're going to have to do as a country is stop spending as much as we do. | ||
| We have a fundamental problem. | ||
| This country went off the rails when we went from raising tax money for public goods, like parks and police and the army, to when we said we're going to take money from the public to give to other people. | ||
| And it went from public goods to private goods. | ||
| And so I've got a lot of bills that would deal with this. | ||
| I'll give you one example. | ||
| One would say that immigrants to the United States, not only illegal but legal, are not eligible for welfare. | ||
| We're spending billions of dollars giving money to foreigners who come to our country. | ||
| If you want to come for freedom and opportunity, we can have that debate. | ||
| But if you want to come for free stuff, you probably ought to stay home. | ||
| And so there's a lot that we have to do to cut spending because the caller is correct. | ||
| I mean, the debt is something that's what keeps me up at night. | ||
| You know, we're celebrating the 250th anniversary of the country this year. | ||
| We won't make it another 25 years if we don't deal with that problem. | ||
| And again, Republicans have contributed to it. | ||
| Democrats have contributed to it because no one wants to go through the pain that will be involved with cutting spending. | ||
| I'm prepared to do that because I fear the judgment of my children more than I fear the judgment of the voters. | ||
| My kids will forgive me for being away from them today if I solve this problem. | ||
| They won't forgive me if I don't. | ||
| And so the call is a good reminder of that's the problem that we really all need to be focused on. | ||
| A bit a different topic than the debt, but I wonder just quickly what your vote will be on the Affordable Care Act subsidies discharge petition that Hakeem Jeffrey says that he's bringing to the floor this week. | ||
| Well, that's easy. | ||
| That's a hard no. | ||
| It's a terrible idea. | ||
| It only affects 7% of Americans. | ||
| And what people should know is almost 50% of the people on these plans don't even know that they're on them. | ||
| So one of the things that happened with these plans is there are now Obamacare plans that you don't pay any premium. | ||
| And so there are companies out there that are signing people up for Obamacare, and the people don't even know that they're on it. | ||
| So Obamacare is riddled with problems. | ||
| And keep in mind, these subsidies, Obamacare was supposed to be called the Affordable Care Act. | ||
| If it's affordable, we should not need ever-increasing subsidies from the federal government to pay for it. | ||
| We need to make health care affordable again. | ||
| We don't need to keep subsidizing the Unaffordable Care Act. | ||
| Dave from Lynchburg, Virginia Independent, your line is open. | ||
| And Dave, we've got about 30 seconds left. | ||
| So what's your question or comment for the Congressman? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks for taking my call. | |
| Thank you for C-SPAN. | ||
| I wonder if you attended the conference of Republican House members last night, Congressman. | ||
| Yesterday. | ||
| I did. | ||
| It was great. | ||
| It was all day. | ||
| Speaker Johnson did a policy forum. | ||
| I don't know how much of it was broadcast. | ||
| I know the president's speech was. | ||
| But the rest of the time we talked about our agenda for this year and how we're going to focus on making America more affordable for Americans, whether it's energy prices, health care prices, food prices, so that we can continue to deliver for the American people. | ||
| It was a great day with my colleagues at the Trump Kennedy Center, and I'm ready to get over to the Capitol now and get to work implementing that agenda. | ||
| Are you confident that the Republicans will maintain the House in the midterms? | ||
| I do, because I look at the crazy on the other side. | ||
| I mean, look, I know we're supposed to be somewhat nonpartisan here, but many of the policies that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle push are just insane. | ||
| And so, I mean, again, we're now talking about the warm collectivism of socialism in New York. | ||
| I don't think that's what Americans want. | ||
| And so I think we need to continue to focus on putting points on the board, delivering for the American people. | ||
| And I do think we're going to have a great win. | ||
| I think we'll expand the majority in November. | ||
| Congressman Randy Fine, thank you so much for joining me this morning. | ||
| Anytime. | ||
| Thanks for having me. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Congressman Cohen, welcome to the program. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| It's good C-SPAN still funded by the government. | ||
| It is not funded by the government. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What do you mean? | |
| Well, I thought you didn't get any money from the government at all. | ||
| No, not at all. | ||
| And we never have. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What a disappointment to Elon Musk. | |
| I'm sure he liked to doge to you. | ||
| Thanks for having me. | ||
| Love C-SPAN. | ||
| Appreciate the opportunity to come out. | ||
| You know, I wish we could have a thousand C-SPANs across the media spectrum. | ||
| Unfortunately, we don't. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think C-SPAN is a huge, huge asset to America, not just the coverage that we get of both chambers on one and two, but programs like Washington Journal that allow policymakers, lawmakers, personalities to come on and have this question time during Washington Journal. | |
| So it's a huge benefit. | ||
| I hope that all these streaming services carry C-SPAN as well, because it's an important service to the American people. | ||
| I'm actually thrilled that this time in Washington Journal, I'm getting a lot of really substantive questions from across the political aisle. | ||
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