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Jan. 27, 2023 - Firebrand - Matt Gaetz
46:19
Episode 85 LIVE: Backbenching with Burchett (feat. Rep. Tim Burchett) – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz
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Time Text
Thank you.
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 those stories to get hurt again.
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 canceled 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.
Matt and Ginger Gates, my congressman buddy from Florida.
Florida, Matt, little Matthew.
He's on the nice list this year and will probably be as long as him and Ginger and she's in his life, I don't see him getting off of that nice list.
And that really makes me feel good in my heart because when you watch someone for so many years and then you see them turn their life around, that means a lot.
It's exciting to me.
It really is.
That was Tennessee Talks with Tim Burchett.
Tim Burchett, Congressman from Tennessee, will be our guest tonight.
That's his podcast.
You're going to want to subscribe and have your notifications on for it.
He was recently interviewing Santa, and I felt the need to offer my rebuttal.
First of all, nobody calls me Little Matthew, so I don't know what the deal is there, Santa.
And then to suggest that I've turned my life around, it's a whole lot of judgment from a guy who lives with elves, abuses animals, and isn't real.
So I'm glad I got the chance to respond.
Even more thrilled that I'm here with Tim Burchett.
Make sure you follow his podcast, Tennessee Talks.
Tim, there's so much I want to discuss with you.
We've titled the episode Backbenching with Burchett because you are my seatmate.
A lot of people know that after the first week of the 118th Congress, but you and I sit together each and every day, share our perspective on the legislation before the floor.
And it used to be a pejorative to call someone a backbencher.
It meant you weren't up front.
It meant you weren't in the action.
It meant you weren't, you know, in the corner office with all the new and exquisite staff telling you, you know, that your jokes are funny and that you've lost weight.
And yet we sit there perched on the backbench, and I wear it as a badge of honor, my friend, because sometimes...
The folks have to come to the back bench in order to ensure that we're doing the right thing for the American people.
So, really wanted to start welcoming you and say, how do you see, you know, you've been in Congress a little bit now.
You've been here a couple terms.
What's your assessment of the place and how do you see your role here?
It's exactly what I thought it would be.
I've spent 16 years in the legislature, 8 years as county mayor, and I've had my ups and downs.
It's pretty much what I expected it to be.
I wasn't overly impressed.
My biggest disappointment with D.C. is the food.
I haven't really found a good barbecue place up here.
Hill Country is not terrible barbecue.
Not terrible.
If you're from an SEC state, you've got a different standard for barbecue than Washington can usually provide.
We've got folks watching right now on the live stream from all over the country.
Indiana, Oklahoma, Ohio, Syracuse, New York, Florida.
Thanks for letting us know you're watching.
Even some foreign viewers from Ontario and our podcast is actually currently rated in Canadian politics.
So thank you for watching from Ontario.
Tim, we have elements of our districts that are rural and there are times in Congress when I really wonder whether or not rural America gets a fair shake because a lot of the folks Who serve with us have spent most of their lives in big cities and live in big cities and have businesses and enterprises in suburban and urban areas.
What's your assessment of the representation that rural America gets in the Congress?
Well, it's a lot of times the battles are not Democrats and ours.
It's rural versus urban areas, it seems to me, if you want to really break it down to that, because it seems to folks of those belief systems matriculate to those areas.
And I feel like a lot of times the rural folks don't have the representation because, frankly, they're working.
They don't have time to sit around and watch C-SPAN and get on the Internet and contact their legislators.
So I feel like they're underrepresented a lot of the times, and I feel like folks like myself and you can kind of voice their opinion.
The underdog is always, it seems to be, my dog.
Yeah.
Write that down.
The issue that I think really ripened that dynamic was the issue of rising gas prices.
Because, you know, a lot of people who live in urban areas that, you know, hop in a taxi or use a metro card, they don't feel the impact of filling up that gas tank like folks in Knox County, like folks in Okaloosa County feel it.
And oftentimes people in rural America have to drive as a part of work, have to drive to get to work.
It's a shock to me, a lady that It works up here for me in campaign mode.
Her husband doesn't even have a dadgum driver's license.
I mean, you know, I had that learner's permit.
The day I remember dad getting, it was the only day I got up early at that age, and I got up and we went down the highway patrol office.
You know, I hopped in a little VW Bug and 4-speed.
And I drove it through and got my license.
And, you know, folks up here in big cities, you're right.
It's Uber.
It's everything else.
And if I couldn't burn some gasoline, I'd probably go hungry, as a lot of the people in my legislative district would as well.
And I think a lot did feel that pressure because Joe Biden has no problem playing politics with energy.
And he really played politics with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Now Trump, understanding the value of hard assets as a businessman does, when gas was cheap, when crude was cheap, but he topped off the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
So if anything happened to our country, we would be secure, we would have a place to go.
But Joe Biden converted his political emergency into an emergency justification to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
You and I are just stepping off the House floor where the House of Representatives is working to advance legislation To stop Biden from playing politics with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, are you pleased with the Republican majority's focus on energy policy and what that's going to mean for our constituents in rural areas?
I am.
So far, I am.
I would hope, though, in the future that we make sure we let the American public know exactly how important that Strategic Reserve is.
You know, you have an area that you represent.
A lot of military folks, a lot of folks in active duty in your area, and a lot of folks in my area, there's some, but mostly retired military.
And that strategic reserve was something that was designed, I believe, for emergency situations, not for an election, which Joe Biden obviously used it for his election.
And, you know, and I always say this, too.
When these hardcore liberals like Biden say, I'm coming after your guns, I'm going to do away with internal combustion engines.
I'm going to raise the price to $7.
Dadgum, you better believe them, because that's exactly what their intents are on doing.
And then by saying that he's going to release the reserve to bring the prices down, I mean, that's a joke.
It didn't go down.
It didn't do anything.
And Trump understood that, being from a business background, not from a grifter's background, as the occupiers of the White House are now.
And that's not to say that there aren't issues on energy policy, on waste policy, where we should and can work across the aisle to try to get some things done.
You've got composting legislation that you've worked on, and you've even had some interesting assistance from across the aisle on that bill.
Yeah, I'm working.
Well, Adam Schiff is one of them, and of course AOC. They've got some big issues with it up in D.C. I mean, in New York.
Is big business comes in and what they'll do is they'll say, oh, we're going to try to say, they use gas stoves.
They're going to say, it's for the environment, it's for the environment.
And really what it is, is big business is going to put some crazy regulations, like they did in the meat industry, in the meat processing, where the only people that can do it are the big multinational corporations, which you and I would have little or no control or say over.
The American public would not.
And then they say, they hide it under the guise of safety.
And then they pass these crazy rules and regulations, and then nobody's going to compost except the big corporations.
And then it's the same way there was an issue a while back, if I can digress, when I was county mayor, grease traps.
We were getting too much grease in our sewage system.
It causes the composting or the decomposition of sewage waste to stop, and it clogs up the system.
So what did they do?
Instead of educating the public that say, hey, when you wash off your fork, you know, don't Wipe it off with a napkin and throw that in the trash instead of wiping it down the sink.
So they said, all the big businesses said, we're going to put these grease traps in to stop...
We're going to mandate that everybody put them in.
Everybody said, well, that's great.
That's great for the environment.
But the only people who could do it were the big multinational corporations, McDonald's, those kind of folks.
And then what did it do?
It drove the little man out of business.
We lost three businesses in my area when I was mayor when they started enforcing this grease trap law.
And as it turned out, it was a big EPA law, and that's exactly what they're going to do with composting, I'm afraid.
I would abolish the EPA and devolve that authority to our states.
I mean, when the EPA was established in the 1960s, there was this belief that all human talent that was valuable and smart would be assembled in Washington, D.C., and the enlightened people could then make decisions for everyone else.
And the reality is we've got sensor technology now.
That where folks in county government and state government are able to really protect the environment that is around them.
And we're not for letting every business pollute our beautiful waters and air and land.
You and I think that, you know, part of being America first is keeping America splendid and lovely.
And you spend a lot of time outdoors.
I do, too.
And we want to be able to do that.
I want to farm.
I want to keep it.
And I don't even allow any chemicals on it other than organic stuff.
So, I mean, I'm...
100% there.
So in the comments on the live stream on Rumble, they are loving the use of dad gum.
Dad gum has been democratized out of the country and they're digging that.
Catherine on Facebook made an interesting point.
Christine also making the point on Facebook about the help farmers need.
But Catherine made the point That the intention of some of these policies that the left pushes is actually to drive people off of the farm.
And they believe that our wilderness areas, our wild areas, our farm areas should really not be occupied by humans and that all humans should be forced into the city.
Do you think, do you agree with Catherine on Facebook that the policy's goals are that depraved?
100%.
I see it all the time.
I saw it when I was mayor.
I was the county mayor and we had the city mayor and we We'd always fight.
See, in Florida, if my neighbor was burning my tire, or burning tires, I wouldn't need the federal government's help.
You'd have to come right, you wouldn't.
All you'd have to do is call county codes, and they'd put the smackdown on them quick in Knox County.
And so, that's exactly what these big government liberals who think, I know more than they do.
Let me handle this.
And then they just drive everybody out, and then it consolidates.
It's the same way with...
You know, I've seen it in a lot of these road projects that are coming down the pike now, no pun intended.
It's primarily for mass transit and not for somebody like me who wants to ride his dadgum motorcycle down the middle of the street because I'm an American and I want to do that.
Or I ride my little Volkswagen Carmen Ghia convertible, which was my graduation present from high school.
You know, that's freaking America, man.
And I get sick of it.
I watch this stuff happen and we...
Us good conservatives, we say, well, let's go along with them.
No.
Heck no, man.
Stop this stuff.
We've got to stop it or we'll lose everything.
And that's what they want.
They want control.
I mean, Biden, again, I see him whispering, I'm going to raise gas to $8 a gallon and drive them out.
Well, that's exactly what he wants to do.
And it just shows in all this big government program.
Sorry, I got worked up.
No, I completely agree.
And frankly, you know, there are a lot of folks chiming in right now saying that they think that the government is being weaponized against a way of life.
And what I think the left needs to realize is it was farmers and small merchants who built this country, who created a value system, a connection to faith, a connection to the land, a connection to family, to one another, to community.
And those are uniquely American values.
Tim Burchett is our guest.
He's got a great podcast called Tennessee Talks.
I'm a regular listener, so you'll see his episodes posted on my feed as well.
But you also serve on the Foreign Affairs Committee.
And I want to get into some of your work there because as we approach these budgeting questions, a lot of people wonder why we borrow money from one country to give it to another country.
And you have had a chance to observe the And even kill some pretty frivolous spending in the foreign affairs space.
Talk about what you see in terms of how we spend money abroad.
Well, it's virtue signaling with your money.
When Trump was trying to build the wall, I remember they said $4 billion.
You remember that?
They were saying, we can't afford that.
And then it's $100 billion plus tanks, everything else to Ukraine.
And then they're fighting us for even accounting for the dollars that are spent.
So, I'm really, in Foreign Affairs Committee, the original chair of that was Benjamin Franklin, oddly enough.
And Benjamin Franklin's probably the original libertarian.
He lived a pretty cool life, and I kind of dig that.
I don't know about all the clothes and stuff, but he traveled and had a good time with life.
But, anyway, back to my original point.
In Foreign Affairs, we tend to...
You know, everybody in this world doesn't have to be like Americans, and we shouldn't have to force our values on us.
And I think we're going to get into some real trouble in these wars, Matt.
My daddy fought in the Second World War.
Mama lost a brother fighting the Nazis.
Daddy was fighting the Japanese.
My mama flew an airplane during the Second World War.
She was a badass, if I can say that.
Can I say that on there?
Hey, we're on Rumble.
You can say whatever you want.
Good deal.
And I think about that, and I think about when we start down this path of fighting these wars, We're good to go.
And I was sitting there, when everybody was cheering for the, and I was sitting beside you, we were on Senators Row back there, although a Democrat took my seat, which I wasn't sure about.
We're not happy about that.
Still not happy about it.
But I remembered I said to one of the liberal members, I said, I hope y'all start cheering when China rolls in on Taiwan.
Are y'all going to obligate us to that?
Because I guarantee you they won't.
They're gutless, and they'll run from it.
This is a war.
It is a war.
It's horrible.
What do you think about the decision to send the Abrams tanks?
I'm not a supporter of that.
I think it's a slippery slope.
Biden, again, said, we send trains, tanks, and planes.
That's World War III. Well, guess what they said today?
They said, send us some planes.
Oh yeah, they want the F-16 now.
They want our F-16s.
And what people need to realize is this is not like an Ikea delivery.
We don't just like pack up an M1 Abrams in a shipping container and send it over.
It takes a logistics package to go along with it.
There is a maintenance supply chain that has to exist for those tanks that Americans have to be involved in.
And you see Russia's response to that decision saying that they view this as direct involvement in the conflict.
And while we don't let them set terms, it also seems like we have to think about where in this fight the tanks are going to be used.
And it's not going to be to defend Kharkiv and Kiev and these urban centers.
You're talking about the Donbass region, and that is an area where Even the Ukrainians called it the ungoverned region prior to the February invasion.
And so you're not supportive of the M1 Abrams tank.
But you know, as we look at budgetary issues, do you think we could save money by sending less abroad?
100%.
I think we should.
We've, you know, we have no clear direction.
You know, we pull out of Afghanistan.
The last person to get killed was a kid from my district, Ryan Knoss, Staff Sergeant, Army.
And You know, it's just tragic.
And we have no clear plan.
This president, as I've been told, is very arrogant in his way of thinking.
He thinks he knows it all.
And it's got Americans killed.
It got us embarrassed.
And now you'll see those weapons, that weaponry, I don't know how many billions it was.
But they will show up elsewhere, and I suspect they'll show up.
That's a prediction.
You're saying that you believe U.S. materiel will show up outside of our intended distribution of that material into this conflict?
100%.
And I'm worried, too, about these tanks and things.
My degree was technological adult education.
You would call it shop.
But I dig the trades.
You know, welding, if you want me to burn your house down, I could probably do that because I don't know how to do the wiring very well, but I can weld pretty well.
And I can work on equipment.
I can rebuild carburetors and work on internal combustion engines, cars, motorcycles, you know, cool stuff like that, occasional lawnmower.
But when we sent those tanks over there...
We're not just going to send a manual.
At some point, are we going to have somebody on one side of the border that's telling them how to do this?
And at what point do we say are Americans over there?
I mean, when you send the tanks, the Americans are over there.
Yeah.
There's no veneer that we are not there.
Best tank in the world, but they'll tell you they're prone to break down, just the nature of that much metal, that much stress.
The tolerances and things like that.
Tolerances are pretty tight.
It's a well-made machine.
It's supposed to be the best one in the world right now.
Oh, and I believe it is.
I think it's great we make them.
I think that it's great to provide them to our allies.
But did you believe the theory that the national security apparatus and the Biden administration put out that, well...
We have to send these tanks literally as a virtue signal to unlock Germany's ability to then send leopards.
I mean, if Germany wanted to send the leopards, why wouldn't they just send the leopards?
Send the dadgum leopards.
And I'm not against Germany choosing to send the leopards.
But it's Europe.
It's a European war, Matt.
Exactly.
And everybody's saying, well, this country's going to fall if we don't.
So, what about all the other countries in the world that we're ignoring right now because of this This thing that the media and the national media, this is our moment.
No, it's not our moment.
It's Ukraine's moment.
It's Ukraine's moment.
And by the way, I hope they coalesce and are successful in stopping this carnage.
There's not a single American, not a single member of Congress whose heart doesn't break when observing this terrible carnage in Ukraine.
At the same time, why do we have to act like it's just as big an issue to us as it is to Europe and Germany?
Why isn't it okay to say, you know what, if Germany sends the tanks, that's okay?
And by the way, if some of our allies that have purchased F-16s want to give them to Ukraine and want to be there in theater to provide logistical assistance to training and joint operations, let them do that.
Do it.
Estonia was the number two country for the longest time in supporting this, behind the American taxpayers.
They have a vested interest.
They do, and they should be.
But I'm just saying, the point is that they were so far ahead of Germany and the rest of Europe, it's just ridiculous to me, and I don't see the need.
Our Facebook is going off with the farm talk still.
They're saying no farmers, no food.
Can I say one other thing about the farm?
I meant to say, I wish folks would pay attention to meat processing right now.
This is another thing where the big liberals said, oh, we're not doing this safely.
We've got to do it safer.
So what'd they do?
They drove it out of the hands of the mom and pop meat processors, and now it's controlled by...
Two big companies, one's owned by China, one's owned out of Brazil, I believe.
We have got to get back control of that because our states are regulating this to, at Tennessee, for instance, I mean, they had some of the, had some pretty strict regulations that put some of my farmers out of business to the point where they have to, you have to, When you take a cow to get processed or slaughtered, what we used to call it, but that's not politically correct.
When you get one processed, sometimes, dadgum, you've got to wait six months.
Six months!
Because we can't do it like we used to do it anymore.
That's a hell of a wait for the cow.
Yeah, it is.
Yeah, it is.
It's a hell of a wait for the farmer who's got all that.
You know that you're six months away and you have to sit there and endure the wait.
Well, he doesn't know it.
I mean, you know, you just kind of sneak it up on him.
You go, oh, we're going to see Aunt Susie.
And then whack!
You know, then he's on the buffet at the Sizzler.
We have always had a lot of animal lovers and pro PETA people watch the podcast, so this will probably be their last episode.
I'm sorry.
But I am glad that the people watching understand and appreciate this, and it's just a classic example of how issues that affect the quality of life of our constituents Often get ignored in this place.
And you're right.
We shouldn't have foreign countries and foreign entities and foreign businesses owning what is essential to the food supply chain of our country.
How is that even a debatable point?
And during the Second World War, Matt, I'll give you an example.
During the Second World War, radio stations were owned by foreign entities.
And they made that, the Congress stepped in and said, in fact, no, that is illegal.
They have to be American-owned.
I don't know now if they do, but back then, because radio was such a vital part of our communication structure, And when I was in the state legislature, I put an amendment in that said that the toll roads, because they were trying to do some toll roads, and the company was out of Belgium, as I found out.
I'm not a fan of toll roads.
And I said, you know, they don't need to be foreign owned.
And then it killed the bill, of course, when the amendment came on.
They said, hey, we're out of business.
We're not going to do it.
But it goes back to that.
It's a creative way to kill a toll.
Yeah, it was.
I was not a big fan of that.
I'm not a big fan of government spending, period.
There you go.
Or too much government collection of the resources out of the pockets of our constituents.
We are here with Tim Burchett, my seatmate on the back bench.
We wouldn't have it any other way.
He's got a great podcast called Tennessee Talks.
Make sure that you subscribe.
I want to get to the debt limit next.
So Joe Biden has come out and said, we're $32 trillion in debt, but I will not negotiate with House Republicans for any, for one penny of spending reduction in You just have to increase the spending limit on the national credit card past this $32 trillion.
Your thoughts?
Ridiculous.
Totally ridiculous.
Again, he has a very short memory.
I don't know if he's pathological or if he's just cognitively lacking right now.
I always say to give this example is when I send my little girl Isabel down to Longmire's IGA. And I always say, we trade down there.
And she said, Dad, nobody says that.
They say they buy down there.
I said, well, we say it because we're out in the country, honey.
So we trade down at Longmire's, and I send her down there with a $10 bill.
And she says, I spent $15 or $20.
And I say, hell no, baby.
It ain't going to work that way.
It's $10.
That's it.
Get your energy drink and your whatever that I don't like.
And we get in the car.
We're going back to the farm.
But that's not the way this is.
And they're trying to spin it.
Well, this is money we've already spent.
And here's what happens.
Every dadgum time, Matt, we, on the side of conservatism, And the moderate Republicans, we say, okay, we'll cut this deal with you.
We're going to put this...
And I know they're going to say every plan that's been a reduction...
Sorry, I'm pointing.
Every reduction plan lasts 30 years.
Has had an element that raised the debt ceiling.
Because they cut a deal with the left, and the left sticks, and we don't stick.
They do not honor their dadgum word, and then boom, where are we at?
We're spending more dadgum money.
We're back higher in debt, and that's how we're $32 trillion, whatever the heck that is.
There is $31 plus trillion now in debt.
And that's how it happens, every time.
Two dad gums on the debt limit.
Tim Burchett says we've got to cut spending.
I love it.
They're loving it.
On Rumble, they're saying, dad gum, drink.
Right on.
They dig it.
The way we get those spending cuts, I want to talk through a little bit of strategy with you.
And you're right.
First, the notion of just conceiving of $31, $32 trillion.
If you started counting today, I'm sorry, if you started counting the day Jesus was born, You would not be at a trillion yet.
Not at one yet.
And, you know, the magnitude of it is remarkable.
So one of our colleagues, Republican Don Bacon of Nebraska, said on Meet the Press recently that it's a non-starter to have any reduction in entitlement spending.
That whatever clawbacks or reductions we do cannot touch any entitlement that anyone has.
Do you agree that that's a good frame for negotiation?
Or are you more open-minded than that?
That's a terrible thing to say, I think.
We're going to have to reduce, you know, entitlements are just that.
In Tennessee, I remembered when I was trying to do some welfare reform, I said, unspeakable, I said, well, some of these folks need to work, you know?
Yes!
And so I said, and then everybody was labeled a racist, I was labeled everything.
This was years ago.
I mean, pre-911, I was saying these countries that are terrorist countries, When they send people over here, they need to register when they go to colleges at their college police stations.
About six weeks before 9-11, and then I was a racist, and then Bush did it automatically.
But going back to your point, yeah, they need to work.
Okay, so let's go into this specifically because a lot of folks don't realize how these work requirements get flushed out.
In state legislatures, there are a lot of people who say that they want work requirements not even because it's their state budget that is strained by it because so much of the money comes down as a drawdown from the federal government, but they want the policy of Of getting people who are on welfare off of welfare into the workforce.
The problem is when states have applied for waivers to go from welfare to work, the federal government doesn't grant those waivers.
So you raised it.
Here's the math.
If you just had work requirements for food stamps, for SNAP, Not for seniors, but just for able-bodied, working-class people.
You would save $412 billion during the budget window.
$412 billion in savings on work requirements.
Shouldn't that be something that we could get 222 Republicans behind?
You would think, but I bet you, as I stated, our moderate liberal Republicans would not go that route.
Well, let me throw another one at you.
But I'd be all about it.
When Obamacare was expanded, there was a massive Obamacare expansion for able-bodied, working-age people.
Now, I mean, should the rest of our constituents pay for the healthcare of able-bodied working-age people?
You know, because to me, when you tie healthcare to your job or to the government, you're not able to ever drive down the cost of care because people aren't able to have a cafeteria plan.
To select the coverage that is relevant to their family and their circumstances.
So if you just did that, if you just eliminated Obamacare for able-bodied working-age people, $1.1 trillion in savings over a 10-year budget window, is that something you think all Republicans should support?
That is 100%.
All Americans should support it.
If you're able-bodied, unless you're a Marxist, a lazy Marxist, I would say, yes, that would be the thing to do.
See, these are concrete ideas.
Often I see our Republican colleagues in interviews and they're asked, well, you know, what would you cut?
What do you want for the debt limit?
Here's my advice to my fellow Republicans.
Don't talk about this just in terms of the numbers.
The numbers are important.
We have to show people that savings are real and not imagined.
We have to talk about the policies that we would change that would result in better quality of life for people in a more fair and just society while at the same time not bankrupting our nation and indebting our entire future to China.
Another one I want to throw at you.
Right now, illegal aliens earn a ton of tax credits.
They get the earned income tax credit.
They get the child tax credit.
If we just abolished Tax credits that are obtained by illegal aliens, $75 billion.
What do you think about that?
I love it.
100%.
100%.
Man, I... I go to this little place called Ball Market, and they do a little business on Western Avenue.
Ball Market, number three, when you come to Knoxville, I'll bring you there.
They cash checks, and when they're cashing the government check day, it's unbelievable.
It just makes you sick.
People will come in, and it'll be a whole family, and everybody will hand Mama their check.
And she'll just...
And she puts it all in her pocketbook, which is...
I'm not sure how that works.
I just don't understand why Americans who are here legally, who are working legally, should have to fund tax credits for illegal aliens.
That is ludicrous to me.
And I would hope that these would be ideas that unite Republicans.
Because here's the math.
Here's the truth.
If there's a debt limit strategy that 5, 6, 10, 20 moderate liberal Republicans peel away from, then we lose.
Then Joe Biden wins.
And so our appeal here is not just to the Firebrand audience, it's to our colleagues to embrace some of these policy reforms that I know you would campaign on in your elections.
And now that you're here, you got a chance to do something about it and something to fight for.
I want to move on to sort of the bicameral system here because I really admire the Senate delegation from Tennessee.
I would suggest, I'd make this argument, that Tennessee and Florida have to be number one and number two, top to bottom, on the Senate delegation.
Because there are other states that have got great Senators.
Ray and Paul, terrific.
But then you've got to pair that with Mitch McConnell.
Ted Cruz, out of this world, awesome.
You've got to pair that with John Cornyn.
Is there a better one-two punch in the U.S. Senate than Tennessee?
Well, Marsha Blackburn, Hagerty, they're both good buddies of mine.
Rock-solid conservatives.
You wouldn't trade your two senators for any other delegation straight up?
None.
None whatsoever.
The only one I could think I would trade mine for would be Tennessee.
I like Rubio and Scott, but Tennessee, you've got a very special breed of conservative that you guys have sent to the Senate, and I think that that's to be celebrated.
I was in the state Senate with Marsha, Senator Blackburn, and we had great times back then.
It was crazy fun.
Actually, I took out her daughter one time, Because I thought it would make her mad at me.
And then she invited me.
She found out I was taking her out.
And so she invited me out with the family.
And I was like, whoa, whoa, this is going a little fast here.
I had to...
It's Firebrand After Dark with Tim Burcham.
Got into some places we didn't entirely expect.
But you know what?
While we're getting weird, let's go intergalactic weird, Tim.
You are widely known in the Congress as one of the experts on the UFOs.
You've been to some of the hearings.
You assess the data.
You meet with experts.
What do you think the American people need to know about UFOs?
I think that it's the biggest cover-up there is.
I think, you know, they changed the name to UAP to kind of throw everybody off.
I was at the Intelligence Committee meeting, which, by the way, I wasn't allowed to be on.
I tried to get on, but I don't think I'll ever be on an A committee.
No, they ensure that you don't have too much intelligence to be on the Intelligence Committee.
As I like to say, I don't kiss enough butt and I don't raise enough money to do that, to get much farther than I am.
Do you think even the Intelligence Committee is fundraising-based?
I don't know if it's intelligence.
Well, it's...
There's some...
Well, it all is.
I'll just say it all is.
Everything up here is.
That's the one thing that really hacks me off both parties.
If this...
That guy, I mean, if Congress was the NFL, Peyton Manning would still be waiting to get in.
I mean, seriously, you know.
But back to the UFO thing.
I'm at the Intelligence Committee meeting, and this was one that was open to the public, so I'm not telling any double secrets, you know, no X-files stuff.
So I'm told I'm going to get to ask a question, right?
And then I'm going to ask a question, because I know something about this issue.
I know about issues where there's been unidentified flying objects that have flown over nuclear plants, and they've had issues.
With the power and things like that.
And I want to ask specifics about things going on.
Right before I get up to ask my question, I get a text and say, in fact, no, you'll not be able to ask a question.
So, the one person who asked a question during the whole dadgum meeting, believe it or not, was Adam Schiff.
That was a good question.
Because they showed these two bureaucrats who were heading it up, they couldn't spell UFO. You know, it was ridiculous.
They asked them, They were asking them questions that were just simple stuff.
I mean, could these cats even spell Google?
I don't know.
They could have Googled it.
And so they show this video, Matt, and it's inside the canopy of an airplane.
And the pilot's filming it with his cell phone.
And there's some kind of speck or something on the thing.
And it's 20 seconds.
And Adam Schiff, I remember he said, I have a question.
He said, what exactly am I looking at here?
I thought, finally.
And the guy says, well, let me explain it to you.
And he wasn't really even sure.
And he said, can you slow the video down?
Most technologically advanced country in the world.
Isabel Burchett could have stopped.
He could have figured that thing.
My little girl, 15 years old.
She's a genius.
And so he couldn't even slow the video down to show us exactly what we're showing.
And we had a pilot in the audience who was a Navy pilot.
And he was on one of the more famous videos, and I would encourage people to YouTube this, Tic Tac, not Tick Tock.
Don't say, hey, Boomer.
My daughter said, hey, Boomer, it's Tick Tock.
And I said, no, baby, it's Tick Tac like the candy.
60 Minutes did an expose, and the only reason we're talking about this is because it was leaked.
Some very brave Navy pilots were following a UFO, and it had no vapor trail, and I've been briefed on it by people that are not in the government but that are associated that know this.
It had no vapor trail.
It had...
Characteristics of nothing in this world.
And they wouldn't even show that dadgum video.
So I'm walking by the press after it's over with.
They're putting up all their stuff.
And there's a big table up here and all these seats reserved for congresspeople.
I'm the only member of congress who's not on the freaking committee that's sitting there.
So I sit there and the press said, what do you think, congressman?
I said, we got hosed.
And then immediately it was Matt Gaetz time.
You know, all the cameras were on me.
The boom was that furry...
They put that boom with the furry thing.
It was hanging over me.
And I talked about it.
And I said, you know, what the heck's going on with this thing?
I said, this is crazy.
This is the biggest cover-up.
Alright, so Joe on Rumble asks you this question.
He wants to know, do you think that the UFO cover-up is as big as the cover-up of the COVID origins in China?
That's the question.
Well, UFO cover-up has been around since at least...
1947 during Roswell.
There was a Roswell incident.
If you don't know, the Army Air Corps predates the Army Air Force.
Army Air Corps, there's some kind of collision in the air.
Farmer finds this stuff out there.
The military's press office puts out a thing that says, saucer recovered.
Goes nationwide.
Next day, oh no, it wasn't a saucer.
It was a dadgum hot air balloon, and they show this poor kernel hole in this piece of a hot air balloon.
Big cover-up.
Now look, let's be honest.
I, you know, and I go back to this.
I'm a Christian.
I'm not a very good one.
Read your dadgum Bible, first chapter of Ezekiel.
Ezekiel saw the wheel, although it's translated from King James Version, and it describes basically a UFO. We have Apollo astronauts who describe at A training facility out in the desert somewhere.
There was one of our facilities.
A craft comes down, lands, and he describes it.
They videoed it, or they taped it, not video, but taped it.
They end up sending it to the base, and then they claim they never had it.
So Corey on Facebook wants to know what you think the motive is for this cover-up.
Yeah, that's a great question.
It's a couple of things.
It's arrogance and it's money.
It's so compartmentalized that I represent an area in Knoxville.
A lot of people in Oak Ridge National Laboratory work in the district I represent.
And I would talk to them when I was first running for office, people that actually worked on the atomic bomb.
And a guy told me one time, he said, you know, my wife worked, I worked on the fuse and she worked on something else.
And he said, but we didn't know what each of us did.
That was back in the day before cell phones and everybody was having a book deal.
And it was compartmentalized.
The knowledge that we gained back in those days from the people that had it have died off.
So what has happened is that it's been passed on to industry.
I believe there's probably...
I think there's recovered craft.
I think there's...
We have...
Well, you believe that the U.S. government has recovered craft that is not from the planet Earth.
At some point, I believe that has happened.
And what's your strongest basis for that belief?
Too many people that in the know have told me that.
And that we've...
We had to do something with these multiple craft that have crashed.
And we do not have the technology.
We reverse engineer everything.
And I believe that...
I just believe it in my heart.
I've talked to too many people.
I've talked to too many pilots.
Top, top pilots.
Our Navy pilots.
Best pilots in the world.
That have said that this...
What they've seen.
The human body would become a catch-up package.
Turning at these G's.
And there's no vapor trail.
It just...
It can turn.
And I'm...
I've talked to too many people.
What I'm really worried about, too, is the rat hole.
Somebody will send you information.
People will send me pictures of UFOs and things.
I have access to some folks who have analyzed several of these.
On one thing, there was three different.
Two of them, one of them they said was not, but two of them they said were definitely not.
Tim Burchett thinks your government is lying to you.
He doesn't want them to send your money to Ukraine.
And he wants you to be able to live a rural life and to be able to fill up your car with gas and maybe go get some protein that was processed in the United States by a company that is owned in the United States.
That's the kind of life I want to live, Tim.
I'm glad I get to sit by you.
On the back row in the House of Representatives, we'll be backbenching as long as these good folks keep sending us and we're able to give them high-quality representation.
Tell folks where they can follow your content on Twitter.
I know you do a lot of live videos and also where they can get your podcast.
Yeah, at Tim Burchett is, you know, the little squiggly thing, and then Tim, T-I-M-B-U-R-C-H-E-T-T. And my podcast are Tim Talks, and I'm looking over at Rachel.
How do they get them, Rachel?
I don't know how to get them.
YouTube, anywhere you get podcasts.
Thank you.
That was easy enough.
See, I listen to mine on Apple.
If you're listening to this on Apple, you want to go get that excellent podcast in your feed.
You also want to make sure to give us that five-star rating.
Make sure you're subscribed.
And hey, we go live at different times during the day.
So the only way to know when you're going to get the first listen to a talk like this is to make sure that you have that bell.
Clicked.
You've got the notifications on and you're always with us with the great firebrands of Congress.
We've got a lot of work to do ahead on the debt limit.
Thank you to everyone for your feedback.
Thank you, Tim, for joining me.
Thanks for being my friend.
Let's roll the credits.
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