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Sept. 30, 2022 - Firebrand - Matt Gaetz

24:43

Episode 73 LIVE: Inappropriations (feat. Mike Robertson) – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

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	Thank you.
	In battle Congressman Matt Gates.
	Matt Gaetz was one of the very few members in the entire Congress who bothered to stand up against permanent Washington on behalf of his constituents.
	Matt Gaetz right now, he's a problem in the Democratic Party.
	He can cause a lot of hiccups in passing applause.
	So we're going to keep running the stories to keep hurting him.
	If you stand for the flag and kneel in prayer, if you want to build America up and not burn her to the ground, then welcome, my fellow patriots!
	You are in the right place!
	This is the movement for you!
	You ever watch this guy on television?
	It's like a machine.
	Matt Gaetz.
	I'm a cancelled man in some corners of the internet.
	Many days I'm a marked man in Congress, a wanted man by the deep state.
	They aren't really coming for me.
	They're coming for you.
	I'm just in the way.
	Welcome back to Firebrand.
	We are live in room 1721 of the Longworth office building here in the Capitol complex in Washington DC. I've got very important information that you need regarding a government funding bill that Nancy Pelosi was able to pass with a lot of Republican support.
	Shameful, really bad for the country, going to exacerbate the border crisis, the inflation crisis, and It's even going to allow Nancy Pelosi to rule with a dead hand after she's no longer likely to be Speaker of the House.
	My Legislative Director Mike Robertson will be joining us in just a moment to go over that and to go into some of the real bad funding decisions that are reflected in the continuing resolution that was passed in the Congress today.
	We're also going to talk about some of the anti-big tech legislation that we also were able to pass.
	I voted for that.
	I think these large technology platforms have too much power, should not be able to engage in some of the mergers and acquisitions that give them the ability to stifle thought and speech.
	Certainly something critically important.
	We're on Twitch now.
	That's new news.
	A lot of folks are commenting.
	I look caloric on Twitch, gives a shout out to the MAGA nation and says that it is time to rise up, rise up indeed.
	I kind of think this new press secretary for Joe Biden is obsessed with me.
	She keeps tweeting at me.
	Go ahead and put up this tweet, guys.
	Here's Corrine Jean-Pierre tweeting, While we're focused on Hurricane Ian, at GOP leader, just said his top priority is repealing the Inflation Reduction Act.
	Meaning that it's a commitment to raising drug prices, hiking energy bills, a tax giveaway for corporations.
	And then she writes, even Matt Gaetz says it's about helping lobbyists.
	No.
	What I said is that when you engage in a legislative agenda that is not driven by the needs of the people, but by the needs of the donor class inside of Washington, D.C., that that inevitably benefits those lobbying groups It gives them more power.
	It gives them more access.
	That's why I've opposed it.
	But to hear Karine Jean-Pierre lecture us about hiking energy bills The Joe Biden presidency has been the worst presidency for energy consumption, certainly in my lifetime, probably going all the way back to Jimmy Carter.
	So to be lectured by the Biden administration on energy is quite something.
	And when they talk about tax giveaways for corporations, give me a break.
	When we passed the Trump tax cuts, we were able to repatriate dollars back to our country.
	You see, The complicated tax system that offshores money, that's not available for regular working class people.
	That's something that the powerful use to avoid paying their fair share.
	Well, when Trump lowered those rates, then actually we got more taxes.
	Lower rates, more taxes, and more taxpayers because it was an invitation for broader participation in the American economy.
	Lifting people out of poverty, giving people opportunities for jobs, careers, and better lives.
	You know, Karine Jean-Pierre, obsessed as she is.
	And I guess I understand why it's a challenging time to work at the White House right now.
	Joe Biden this week demonstrated just such a bizarre lack of self-awareness or factual awareness.
	Take a look.
	I want to thank all of you here for including bipartisan elected officials like Representative Governer, Senator Braun, Senator Booker, Representative Jackie, are you here?
	Where's Jackie?
	I didn't think she was going to be here.
	What happened in the Hunger event today?
	The President appeared to look around the room for an audience member, a member of Congress who passed away last month, and seemed to indicate she might be in the room.
	So the President was, as you all know, you guys were watching today's event, a very important event on food insecurity.
	The President was naming the congressional champions on this issue and was acknowledging her incredible work.
	He had already planned to welcome The Congresswoman's family to the White House on Friday.
	There will be a bill signing in her honor this coming Friday.
	So, of course, she was on his mind.
	She was of top of mind for the President.
	He very much looks forward to discussing her remarkable legacy of public service with them when he sees her family this coming Friday.
	Jackie, are you here?
	Where's Jackie?
	She must not be here.
	No, I totally understand.
	I just explained.
	She was on top of mind.
	What we were able to witness today and what the President was able to lift up at this conference, at this event, was how her focus on wanting to Deal with, combat food insecurity in America.
	And this is something that he was lifting up and honoring.
	And, again, he knows that he's going to see her family this coming Friday.
	There's a bill signing that's going to happen in renaming a VA clinic in Indiana after the late Congresswoman.
	He knows that he is going to see her family, and she was at top of mind.
	If you ever look up second-hand embarrassment, I think that's probably what you would get.
	It is painful to watch Corrine Jean-Pierre have to explain that when Joe Biden was asking whether or not someone who had tragically and very publicly passed away months earlier when he was calling that person's name and asking if they were there, she is now trying to spin that as to some sort of recognition as to what's on the top of Joe Biden's mind.
	I mean, is it a mind left at all, one has to ask at this point, with Joe Biden often not knowing where he is, where he's going, who he's talking to, or even who is dead or alive in the United States Congress?
	It just should have been acknowledged.
	Like, you know, everybody can make an embarrassing mistake behind a microphone a time or two.
	But when you do that, you should just say, oh, look, that was a really embarrassing mistake.
	I'm sorry, and I'll try to be more focused next time.
	But instead, he sends out the press secretary to act as though, like, oh, just top of mind.
	Very strange.
	That brings us to a segment we like to call Today in Congress.
	Music Today in Congress.
	Today in Congress we reflect on the passage of critical legislation regarding big tech.
	That's right, we passed a bill that was sponsored by Ken Buck and David Cicilline that gives us the chance to raise filing fees on mergers over a billion dollars.
	Doing that will limit the ability of big tech to engage in the anti-competitive practices where if there is a potential competitor, if there is another technology, if there is another vector or plug-in, they just go and gobble them up and acquire them.
	And you know how we know that?
	In the House Judiciary Committee, we conducted a two-year bipartisan investigation into big tech, and we saw the emails and the messages and the strategy slides where Mark Zuckerberg himself is directing these acquisitions explicitly to harm the marketplace and to limit consumer choice.
	And when that power concentrates in big tech, we see the results.
	Censorship, shadow banning conservatives, Getting to a world in which the terms of service on Twitter feel like they're more important than the values that undergird the United States Constitution.
	Of our antitrust laws.
	And to engage in that enforcement, we are going to raise filing fees on the 13% of mergers and acquisitions that occur over a billion dollars each and every year.
	So this is not companies with an acquisition, a merger valued at less than a billion dollars.
	That's 87% of them.
	And actually for those, we are able to lower the filing fees.
	This is something that big tech lobbied heavily against.
	There were some who said, oh, well, this isn't really anti-big tech.
	It might help big tech.
	But the reality is big tech descended their lobbyists on Capitol Hill like a swarm of locusts to try to kill these bills.
	And the reality is we got them passed anyway.
	We also passed legislation that will allow every attorney general in America to be a part of the infrastructure legally to hold Big Tech accountable.
	Used to be Big Tech could always get home venue in California where they're likely to get friendly judges, friendly juries.
	Now, with the venue bills that we passed, big tech operating everywhere can be sued everywhere.
	And I hope that we get some really bright, aggressive attorneys general who are able to assemble the human talent to build the cases that these companies are committing fraud in some circumstances, violating their own terms of service.
	They may be involved in RICO in some events with predicate criminal acts.
	So I'm glad that that power is now being vested in the states where it should be.
	One thing that did happen in Congress today was also the passage of legislation that harms our federalist system, deprives states of the ability to innovate, and it continues the failures of the federal government on a continuing resolution into December.
	Now, why December?
	Well, everyone expects the Democrats are going to lose the House in November.
	And so after losing the House, Nancy Pelosi still wants the opportunity to dictate budget terms into potential Republican control.
	And some Republicans were so dumb, they went along with this.
	And it's not just that it empowers Nancy Pelosi, it includes bad policy as well.
	Joining me now is my Legislative Director, Mike Robertson.
	And Mike, you have been going through this continuing resolution.
	Share with folks what's in it that's got you concerned.
	You've got to get the mic right up to you.
	Right up here.
	Well, first with the December 16th, this is a symptom of what are our legislators on the right side of the aisle actually here for?
	We can't meet today, by the way, you know, 930, September 30th is the end of the fiscal quarter, end of the fiscal year, and by kicking the can down the road, We are not really making any progress as a party or as a country because we're allowing the same exact appropriators that couldn't meet a deadline on September 30th to get another strike at this.
	And a lot of these members are retiring, they've got their coffers lined up for some earmarks, and they've got everything lined up on this.
	Another thing to look at, let's begin, this was conducted on a shell bill for a price control on insulin.
	This isn't a standalone budget bill, and that's just a symptom of some people on the right and a lot of people on the left are of this doctrine of price controls and evading the traditional budget process in this country.
	We're supposed to have 12 separate appropriations bills.
	We thought we were close.
	We have six of the twelve passed.
	But instead, we're going to buy some time.
	And the reality is it's more than buying time and keeping funding levels the same.
	We've got all sorts of bad spending tucked into here, starting with Ukraine.
	Over $12 billion of more funding for Ukraine.
	And it's ironic because I thought we were trying to fund the United States government.
	Of this $12 plus billion, we have $4.5 billion for economic assistance to support government operations in Ukraine.
	So that's a little suspect to me.
	So we can't fund our own government, but we've got broad bipartisan agreement to fund Ukrainians.
	No problem.
	Everybody always says in a $100 billion European war, it's always the last $12 billion that wins it for you.
	Yeah, it really kicks in the door is what I heard.
	So, well, again, CR, in the minority, it's really not a bad idea to keep...
	Stringing along to stop all this excessive spending, but conservatives and Democrats alike have polluted this process by upping the spending in the billions of dollars.
	And then on top of the $12 billion for another country, we've got $1.8 billion to keep the borders, the refugee assistance open in this country.
	It's really going to backfire.
	This is basically the federal government's human trafficking fund.
	Yeah, essentially it is, to the HHS. That's what people have to realize.
	When your members of Congress, when your senators vote for this continuing resolution, they are voting to fund the infrastructure that is turning our border into a turnstile.
	that is not just releasing people in our country, but quite literally drawing them from across our border to the United States and then giving them transportation, education, health care, cell phone, you name it, all at the expense of the American taxpayer.
	So I really think, for me, the continuing failure at the border would be reason alone to vote against this $1.8 billion.
	So $12 billion for Ukraine, $1.8 billion to continue the Biden administration's failures on the border.
	What else is in here?
	Yeah, that's just scratching the surface.
	So those are the main moving items in terms of dollars and cents.
	But I just have to keep going back to this as a continuing resolution.
	We're supposed to, in an emergency situation, we didn't have a full year to pass a budget.
	We're going to keep spending where it is, resume in December 16th.
	We've got a half a billion dollar increase on the cap for Social Security spending because the Democrats and some Republicans don't really want to fix that problem that's continually...
	Just keep kicking the can down the road.
	Let the economy worsen.
	And they're just pointing on having some solution I haven't heard from leadership myself.
	One thing that really we must take note of is there are not a lot of people calling for balanced budgets anymore.
	We used to at least have the stalwarts who would beat the table and demand balanced budgets.
	Now it is just about how far out you want to kick the can down the road, not even toward A resolution of these critical entitlement funds.
	That's right.
	And I noticed that this extension kicking down the can happens to extend past election season before November.
	And, you know, everybody's out of pocket for November because it's really a symptom that a lot of politicians care more about getting reelected than a balanced budget in this country where we can be sustainable.
	Well, and they love to have the budget run out in December.
	Oh, yeah.
	Because members of Congress always have their Christmas travel plans, their Christmas family plans, and the lobbyists and the swamp monsters in this town can get anything they want out of Congress when Congress is backed up against a Christmas break.
	And I mean, you know, it's shameful, really, because you think about...
	George Washington crossing the Delaware River, you know, at a time when the German Hessians were celebrating holiday and having festivity, and it was that, like, raw patriotism that carved our country out of wilderness and won our freedoms.
	And now you have a Congress that can't be bothered to actually go through appropriations, but that just sets up this cliff around Christmas that we all know will result in more of the same, more failure and more empowering the Biden administration.
	Right, and in my heart, I don't think that George Washington would be very proud to say we're spending our December doubling the allocations for agriculture and FDA, suicide hotlines, and other things that may sound great in principle, and we do rely on those things, but this is not to be tucked away in an extension deadline, Bill.
	That's for the budget, which we don't have yet.
	So it's bad process.
	You have to understand what Mike said.
	This was a piece of legislation regarding insulin prices.
	And they attached the entire funding of our government and Ukraine's to that bill so that these programs and these policy choices would not be subject to committee review and to hearings and to markups and amendments Because they don't want you to be able to amend what's part of their deal that enriches them at the expense of the people in this country.
	And we have to do better.
	We as Republicans have to be willing to grind this corrupt place to a halt if necessary to deliver wins for our people.
	And here's one that I've been discussing with some of my colleagues, Mike.
	Shutting it down over work requirements.
	You want to talk about something that unites Republican, Democrat, independent business owners, people out in the workforce?
	It's the notion that we shouldn't be paying people not to work if you've got a bunch of able-bodied, childless adults getting a whole lot of welfare programs.
	So I actually think that we could unify a Republican caucus around the theory that we don't fund these entitlement programs anymore without work requirements for able-bodied, childless adults.
	100% agree and maybe we wouldn't run out of money so quickly if people were back to work in this country.
	Amen to that.
	Well, thank you so much for that briefing about what's in the legislation, Mike.
	And now we watch as Hurricane Ian barrels down on the Carolinas, having ripped across Florida.
	We have got a lot of folks still out of power.
	Remember that you got to take notice of what local officials are putting out regarding boil notices for water.
	We want to make sure if people are using generators that they've got the right ventilation.
	We never want to see loss of life.
	And There's a lot of trees falling.
	There's a lot of debris around.
	And there'll be a lot of chainsaws getting fired up in the state of Florida over the next 48 to 72 hours.
	So please, please be safe.
	After major hurricanes like this, we always end up with folks in our emergency rooms who were fine during the storm, but who experienced some challenge or had some malady thereafter when working to rebuild.
	And we do note that there is something special about Florida where we've got the muscle memory for this.
	We're tough for hurricanes.
	We are innovative.
	We know how to take what is around us and put it to our uses to make sure we can still get the job done.
	No better example of that than this local news anchor reporting during Hurricane Ian describing how she keeps her microphone operational.
	Take a listen. - A lot of people are asking, what is on my microphone?
	It is what you think it is.
	It's a condom.
	It helps protect the gear.
	We can't get these mics wet.
	There's a lot of wind.
	There's a lot of rain.
	So we gotta do what we gotta do.
	And that is put a condom on the microphone.
	There's always a little MacGyver element to everything that Florida man or Florida woman does and you know what I'm proud of Floridians for being tough and resolute and for helping each other in this time of need and there'll be a lot of folks who do need help rebuilding getting their lives back together and we always want to be gracious and lend that helping hand to our fellow Floridians and to our fellow Americans.
	Thank you so much for listening, for joining us today.
	If you're listening on Apple iTunes, please do me a favor.
	Give us that five-star rating.
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	And the only way you know every time we go live is if you hit that little bell, turn your notifications on, and join us each and every day for Firebrand.
	Let's roll the credits.

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