The Political Cesspool - James Edwards - Radio Show Hour 1

Oct. 5, 2025 - The Political Cesspool - James Edwards

54:48

Radio Show Hour 1 – 2025/10/04

James Edwards and Keith Alexander discuss the ongoing government shutdown with a guest who has experienced it twice as a Member of Congress: Former U.S. Representative Steve Stockman.
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	You're listening to the Liberty News Radio Network, and this is the Political Cesspool.
	The Political Cesspool, going across the South and worldwide as the South's foremost populist conservative radio program.
	And here to guide you through the murky waters of the Political Cesspool is your host, James Edwards.
	I'll tell you why that song is on my mind tonight, Keith.
	And the reason for that is when I was 16, when I was 16, my grandmother had cancer, and I would drive her up to Nashville at Vanderbilt University for her chemo treatments.
	And I was 16 driving her Cadillac, and we had, even in 1996, they still didn't have CD players in every car, you know.
	And so we would listen to a cassette tape of oldies.
	That song was on it.
	And I can remember listening to that, going back and forth to Nashville.
	And the reason it's on my mind is my daughter is going to be turning 16 in a few months, but she's got her driver's permit now and her learner's permit.
	And we don't let her drive.
	Sure, you can drive just to the mailbox and back.
	But it was a different time, I guess.
	I mean, I couldn't even imagine one of my kids driving to Nashville with a sleeping grandparent in the car.
	And my son, too.
	I mean, my son, Henry, you know, he'll want to ride his bike.
	Yeah, you can go ride your bike.
	Just, you know, don't leave the driveway.
	And I can remember riding all over town on my bike when I was his age.
	It's a different time, though, now, and not for the better.
	That's for sure.
	I'll give you a little bit of quick trivia on that song.
	So that was, you know, of course, a doo-wop song.
	That same group, the Rivingtons, had another song called The Bird is the Word.
	And then it was The Trash Men in 1963 with Surf and Bird, which is the one that people will remember.
	And can you imagine being in a band and naming your band the Trash Men?
	It's like a radio host naming his show The Political Cesspool.
	With that said, welcome to the show, everybody.
	We're back again tonight and another good one coming your way.
	We're going to be talking about Pete Hegseth's speech to the military commanders, the National Guard arriving right here in Memphis, and how the ADL and the SPLC are finally at long last.
	Makes you glad you lived this long at the wrong end of the government.
	All that coming up tonight.
	But first, we're going to talk about the government shutdown with a man who has been there in the halls of Congress twice in his career, none other than the great and good former United States Representative from Texas, Steve Stockman.
	Congressman Stockman, great to have you back tonight.
	You can for sure give us a lot of insights on what's going on in Washington this week.
	How are you?
	I don't know.
	They didn't want to elect me because every time they elect me, the government shuts down.
	I go, well, that means I'm doing a good job.
	That means you must have really been a threat to them.
	Well, I want to ask you about that.
	Well, there's no doubt about that.
	But I do want to ask you about this before we get on to the current current issue.
	And that is when you were in Congress the first time in the mid-90s, and then when you were in Congress the second time, about 10 years ago, there were shutdowns both times.
	Just maybe 30 seconds on this.
	What were the issues then in the 90s and 10 years ago that caused those shutdowns?
	Well, Newt, we wanted to cut the budget in the 90s, and we drew up a plan to cut a lot of agencies outright, and we tried.
	But it's kind of funny because now Clinton takes credit for the balanced budgets, and we forced his hand, including welfare reform, where we required work.
	And then, of course, the Democrats in later years reversed that where you get welfare without working.
	In fact, now it's even worse.
	You can get welfare without even being a U.S. citizen.
	You just cross the board, you pick up your check, you pick up your credit card, pick up your home voucher, and you get your Medicaid and everything.
	And they're really trying to break the America's bank.
	But anyhow, that was the issue at that time.
	And I was frustrated because Gingrich allowed to reopen the government and then he closed it again.
	And we were just in polling at that time in the 90s where people were starting to side with us.
	And I thought it was a mistake as we watched the polling to open it and close again.
	But they opened it so that Clinton could go to Japan and not embarrass him.
	I thought, no, that's exactly what you want.
	You've got to put pressure on him.
	Fight like a Democrat.
	So that's what happened in the 90s.
	And then again, we were fighting again for more of a balance.
	Actually, technically, right now, we're fighting to balance the budget again.
	And I have to tell you, people always say there's one unit party, but in reality, I think they really hate America, the Democrats.
	They do everything to undermine it.
	And I just, I don't know, maybe they should be declared a terrorist organization with Trend Vargo, whatever that group is, Venezuela.
	Yeah, anti-fight.
	It is trending in that direction on at least some of their surrogates.
	Keith.
	Steve, this is Keith Alexander.
	I just wanted to tell you, why is it not that having a government shutdown sounds like a conservative's dream?
	And if you're a true Republican and are conservative, this would be manna from heaven, at least as me as a layman see it.
	Well, that was actually something, Congressman, that you had talked about that the Republicans always got so fretful during this time where you saw it as a good opportunity.
	Exactly.
	In fact, I think it's a good opportunity.
	Now, by the way, Keith, it's good to hear your voice again and being with you.
	Good to hear yours, too.
	Yeah, still kicking, even though they try to silence my voice.
	No, I mentioned this earlier before it happened, as I said, this is a golden opportunity.
	And, of course, we have a senator from Texas, John Cornyn, saying, oh, don't do this.
	I mean, he claims to be a conservative, but he's the first one crying like a little girl, going, oh, no, don't cut government.
	This is a bad time to do it.
	Well, when's a good time?
	It's always a bad time.
	And this is a good thing.
	Well, what they'll do would be to cut a lot of jobs.
	And, you know, government employment has never, to me, seemed to be a big stronghold for Republicans.
	What are they afraid of with that?
	Well, people don't realize this, that the employment of government employees during the four years under Biden almost doubled.
	There used to be 3 million people laid off when we showed, you know, they call them unessential employees, which they're unessential.
	Why are they working or being paid?
	And now there's 7 million.
	So I get frustrated is that this budget that's called a continuing resolution or in vernacular CR, this is a continuation of the Biden budget.
	And the Republicans should be out going, hey, we're just having the Biden budget.
	You guys shouldn't be yelling.
	This is the Biden budget.
	And they don't know how to PR the thing.
	And it gets real frustrating.
	The Republicans are horrible.
	Trump's probably the best of anybody, though.
	But usually you have Republicans like John Cornyn who are like peeing their pants and getting upset over we may cut government.
	Well, we exploded, government.
	Let's just cut it back to five years ago.
	We'll balance the budget today if we did that.
	All right.
	Well, let's talk about the, and Cornyn, of course, for people that live outside of Texas or don't keep up with every United States senator is a senator from Texas who Stockman knows very well.
	So this is the Republicans are definitely on point with their messaging, whether it's the White House or Stephen Miller or any of the surrogates, the ubiquitous surrogates that you see on television.
	These are some of the messages that are coming our way.
	Breaking, it's official.
	The government is shut down thanks to the Democrats.
	I do not want to pay for illegal aliens benefits.
	Who's with me?
	Democrats shut down the government to demand free health care for illegals.
	That's Stephen Miller right there.
	President Trump on the impending shutdown, quote, will probably have a shutdown because Democrats want to give incredible Medicare to illegal immigrants.
	And what that does is keep them coming into our country.
	We cannot let that happen.
	So is that really what it's about?
	I mean, as I said to you on Wednesday when we talked about this with our friend Sam Bushman, I said, I don't even know what the Democrats are saying because I never really listened to their content.
	Are they admitting that this is what this is for, to give illegals benefits?
	I got to tell you, this is kind of hilarious.
	They had, I can't remember, it was a Democrat senator on there, a female Democrat senator.
	Yeah, it just excuse me who it was.
	But she's on a show, and she says it's a lie.
	Did Democrats ever want to give any benefits to illegals?
	He goes, I'm glad you mentioned it.
	Let's go.
	Let's roll the tape.
	And it's the presidential, this last presidential debate with everybody on the Democrat primary debate, presidential primary debate.
	And he goes, everyone in favor of illegal immigrants getting free Medicare, Medicaid, raise your hand.
	And they all raise their hand, all of them.
	And one guy said that we should pay for everybody's health care in the world.
	These are Democrats that are just, I mean, they don't have any concept of reality.
	We can't sacrifice American citizens to give that kind of money away.
	It's in the tens of thousands of dollars per person.
	And then we're talking about just in California alone, it's in the billions and billions of dollars.
	And this is just insanity.
	And for Democrats to propose this and advocate it, they keep lying, saying, no, it's a lie, it's a lie.
	But then it was really great.
	The speaker says it's page 55, subsection.
	Okay.
	I've got that right here.
	I had the clip, but I just took the transcript of it.
	It was a CNN appearance that Mike Johnson was on with Caitlin Collins, who's from Alabama, not Alabama.
	No, but really, well, interesting.
	Alabamians normally come out better than she did, but nevertheless, they, okay, she says it's just for legal immigrants like asylum seekers.
	Mike Johnson, the speaker, said no illegal aliens would be paid for by American taxpayers.
	Collins responds, not in the Democrats' proposal.
	Johnson says it's 100% what they're proposing.
	Go read it.
	And then, as you mentioned, he helped point out where it could be found.
	But, okay, so is that really, though, the sticking point?
	What are the Democrats saying the sticking point is?
	Well, it's not a sticking point.
	I mean, let's be frank.
	Schumer's voted for the continuing resolutions.
	They don't call it Christmas tree where they put a bunch of crap in it.
	This one's so stripped down.
	It's just like, I think 14 pages.
	It just says we're going to continue the spending that we spent before.
	And Schumer voted for 13 of those.
	This is really, to be honest with you, it's really about New York politics.
	And I don't understand why we have two New York politicians at the Democrat Party, but we do.
	And it's really worried about AOC running against him.
	He has to get the lunatics on his side.
	So he's trying to show that he's a lunatic.
	And it's not, so he's willing to throw the whole country in chaos just so he can prove to his New York base that he's not a bad guy.
	But in polling, AOC is beating him hands down for the Senate race.
	But AOC, I think, is going to run for president more than for the Senate, to be honest with you.
	I think, I mean, she's raised so much money and she's so popular that I don't think we should, and she's dumber, you know, as a box of rocks.
	She didn't know what a garbage disposal was.
	She didn't know food was, you know, she thought some of the food was grown in the store and stuff like that.
	You know, she's really quite not smart, but she's really a threat because she could win.
	I mean, we got a lot of not very intelligent people out here in the United States, unfortunately, and they'll vote for her because they like her, you know, her YouTube or whatever social media costs.
	Yeah, exactly.
	Well, let me ask you this.
	What is really going, how far down will the budget go if we have a shutdown?
	What essential services would be threatened?
	And what would go on just like Old Man River and keep rolling along?
	Well, I mean, you said it yourself.
	Essential services are all going to be fulfilled.
	In fact, there was a joke that says the government shut downs every weekend.
	No one complains.
	I can't remember the number.
	And maybe James, you could Google this and check it.
	But it's like 95 or something percentage, pretty high percentage of the government still operates.
	So you're not going to really know a dramatic difference.
	Like, for instance, unfortunately, the air traffic controllers will work without pay, but that doesn't happen until October 15th.
	And, you know, so there are some services where the people don't get paid, but they're still going to work.
	But they've always got paid afterwards.
	But Trump's saying now, well, we've got 7 million unessential employees that are taking leave right now.
	And I think we should trim that 7 million.
	I agree with that.
	I don't think it would hurt that much.
	But you got, like I was mentioning earlier, you got Republicans who are really worried about the midterms.
	And so that's why they're not.
	Well, you've talked about that, though.
	You've said Republicans have never lost seats during a shutdown and that it is an unsubstantiated fear and concern that they have.
	But of course, both parties just blame the other during a shutdown.
	So I don't see how it could hurt them more than the other side.
	Steve, how many government employees are Republicans versus Democrats?
	I think there's two, the president and the vice president.
	Well, but now you had said this earlier in the week, and it would be hard to imagine that the Democrats couldn't have anticipated this, but I do want to circle back to AOC in a second and what you said a moment ago.
	But you said that Trump was just laying in wait with this trap, waiting for them to walk into it.
	And that now, I mean, there's a lot of things he can do as the president in a shutdown that he would have been restricted from doing otherwise, correct?
	Yeah, I can tell you what he did.
	There's a great plan out there.
	People can get a heritage.
	I think it was called Heritage 25.
	That was the conservative roadmap to reducing government.
	By the way, the Democrats have the UN one.
	It says 2030, which you want to get aligned.
	Sometimes I wish you guys would do a show, just a whole show on the UN's 2030.
	You want to get alarmed and have hair stand up on the back of your neck.
	Study that one.
	Anyhow, the Democrats were really upset over this Heritage Foundation's 2025.
	And the guy that wrote it was a really excellent document.
	It's really lucid, very intelligently written and well mapped out.
	Well, the funny thing is, Trump invited him publicly, real loudly, let everybody in the Senate know.
	He says, I'm inviting him over to review what we can do to cut stuff.
	And I, you know, while he was probably grandstanding a little bit and trying to tweak the opposition and all troll him, I think he really should take some of the things that he recommends in that proposal and do it.
	He met with them, I think, the day before yesterday.
	And, you know, the government shut down right now is Saturday, but it'll be shut down Monday and Tuesday and all that.
	And no superhero.
	It's a great gift that the Democrats have given the Republicans.
	And the Republicans need to realize that.
	Yep, yep, yep, yep.
	But yeah, but like what James is saying, there's a lot of Republicans who live in fear of, you know, New York Times and Washington Post.
	Lindsey Graham's one of those, by the way.
	I think I told this story before.
	Lindsay, when we were elected together in 95 in Congress, and Lindsay came up to me and attacked me because I wouldn't read the Washington Post and New York Times.
	That was well known.
	I do remember you telling that.
	Yeah, I remember you saying that now.
	And he said, you need to read it.
	And he said, you've got to read it.
	And I said, Lindsay, I also don't drink out of the toilet either.
	Well, you said something.
	Pollutes your mind.
	Go ahead.
	I think the only people, only Republicans that would be scared of this are rhinos.
	It's like, you know, the charge of racism of, you know, a Republican, mainstream Republican candidate or congressman or whatnot, they would rather plead guilty to pedophilia than be accused of racism.
	You know, it's like it is to them or kryptonite is to Superman.
	Yeah, I was accused.
	It's ironic.
	You know, someone says it's really bad when you're in the foxhole and somebody that's in the foxhole, where you start shooting at you.
	I was in office when George Bush was president.
	And not George, but he was running for office or whatever.
	And one of his guys, because I introduced a bill that stopped, well, two bills.
	I introduced a bill to build the wall.
	And I also introduced a bill at that time they were called Anchor Babies where people fly here and have children intentionally so they can get to U.S. citizenship.
	In fact, China has a real big problem for that.
	And I was against it.
	And I got attacked now by, well, I got attacked by Democrats, but I was called a racist by the George Bush team.
	And it's kind of funny now.
	Aaron Fletcher was one of those people.
	And now he's on there talking about he's now acting like he's pro stopping immigration.
	I thought, what a disgusting, dishonest guy.
	Oh, yeah, Aaron Fleischer was, yeah, he was HW's, or excuse me, W.
	I get him mixed up with the initials.
	He was the younger Bush's press secretary, I believe.
	George H.W. Bush was the one bragging about globalism.
	But, I mean, again, all that tide has shifted, and then these people are just going to go float along with the prevailing current.
	But he attacked me, and now he's out there acting like he was Mr. Champion.
	It's so well, sure, he is because the tide has turned.
	I mean, we all understand that.
	I mean, it's insincere, and it's calculated, and it's the kind of things that make people hate politicians.
	It's not everything we need to purge from the Republican Party.
	Well, let's go back to AOC real quick.
	So you're saying that it's Schumer and AOC that are sort of the drivers behind this, if you really get down and boil it down to the nut.
	And as she did say, she did say this week that they're hanging this on her and that she welcomes that and they can come to her office when they're willing to make a deal.
	So she is sort of owning this.
	Yep.
	Yeah, and she's the Maytag repairman.
	Yeah, unfortunately, Maytag was bought by the Chinese, though.
	Now that that's crappy.
	Maybe she really will be.
	It shows you how old I am.
	You remember those commercials?
	Yeah, well, that's back when America, man, it's crappy.
	Now we got a Maytag, and we had the old Maytag.
	It literally lasted 18 years, and now we've got this new one that's like constantly breaking.
	I said, great.
	China took it over.
	Now we got crapped, you know.
	But anyhow, that's what Can Shouldn't have done.
	No, that's interesting.
	We like trivial knowledge here, and we'll have some more trivia 1960s music variety later.
	But as far as AOC, you can't do that.
	That's bumper music, by the way.
	You need to get a radio award for your bumper music.
	Well, we work hard at that.
	That is the highlight of the show, that's for sure.
	Except when we have people like you on.
	But thank you for that.
	But AOC, so you think there's some grand sending going on here that's going to help her, or at least in her mind, help her when she runs for a higher office?
	She is reveling in the fact that the government's shutting down.
	She is ecstatic about that.
	I'm telling you.
	You think she's going to be a real player in the Democratic Primary?
	Mark my words.
	I tell you what, I went to California years long ago before Camilla ran for Senator.
	Actually, as she ran for Senate, I spoke to the Redlands Tea Party, which is outside of L.A. up in the mountains.
	And I told him, I said, Camilla Harris is going to run for president.
	They said, no way.
	She's too dumb.
	She's never going to do it.
	And I said, trust me, she is.
	She was Obama's favorite acolyte.
	And for that, once you get in Obama's orbit like that, you know he was going to promote her.
	So that's exactly what happened.
	And I'm telling you right now, AOC will be what could, I think, has a strong possibility of being a nominee in 28.
	That would be it.
	Hey, and if she is, folks, you heard it here first.
	And I will tell you this.
	I've known Steve Stockman for a few years now.
	He's not just insightful.
	I mean, being able to bring on a guy who was in Congress during two shutdowns to talk about this shutdown is a great luxury if you're a talk radio host.
	We love that.
	That's insight.
	He's also prescient.
	He has an ability to read the current climate and make some predictions.
	And we interviewed you, Steve, last year about some predictions in advance of the conventions and how, in fact, the election itself would play out.
	And I think you hit everything.
	If you go back and you listen to it, folks, he hit everything.
	So if she does end up running for president, you can look back to October of 25, and here it is.
	So let me ask you this before we take our next break, and then we're going to get into some more forecasts in terms of how long do you see this dragging out and how does it end and who wins when it does.
	We'll get to that, but not until the next segment.
	What is the atmosphere like when you were in Congress for two shutdowns, 20 years apart, in fact?
	Are people excited in a way?
	Particularly is there a lot of discontentment?
	I mean, what is the overall atmosphere?
	Well, it used to be in a different room, but now they built a whole underground.
	They spent billions of dollars or whatever.
	And it's under, I don't know, if you go to the Capitol, there's more room almost underneath the Capitol.
	I dug this huge hole and put in special rooms and everything.
	So we meet down in the basement of that new room, and we meet frequently.
	The Republicans, it's called caucusing, the Democrats caucus.
	And then they have microphones.
	You get to talk to the speaker and say, this is what I think.
	Well, the first time around, I complained to Newt, and he goes, that's a great idea.
	And then he ignored it.
	But I said, we were shutting down the government along with Obama, because it really was his, I mean, Clinton.
	And so we, but we would pass a bill and then Glenn would veto it immediately and people didn't know it was vetoed.
	And so it says Republicans are doing nothing.
	And they pass it at 10 o'clock.
	And by 10:30, Clinton got and vetoed it.
	So the next morning, no one knew that we did anything.
	And I beg, beg Newt to get in the old pickup on one of those old Ford station wagons.
	Remember those old station wagons like, you know, like you had in the 60s, like get a 60 station wagon and have the actual bill and then go to state parks.
	All right, I'll let you go.
	No, well, no, no, no.
	I wanted to hear that.
	That's just the music.
	When the music starts, we still got 30, 45 seconds.
	And we normally just keep talking into the break half the time.
	But anyway, it's more of a guideline than a rule that you stop at a break here on this program, but probably we should.
	We'll take our bottom of the hour break.
	We'll come back and we'll let Congressman Stockman continue that story of his exchange with Newt Gingrich during the shutdown in the 90s.
	We'll be right back.
	Stay tuned.
	Proclaiming liberty across the land.
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	News this hour from Town Hall.
	I'm Mary Rose.
	Chances of ending the government shutdown quickly are dimming after Democrats have refused to yield in the Senate showdown.
	House Speaker Mike Johnson says Democrats keep insisting on things they know cannot be done.
	I don't have anything to negotiate.
	Leader Thun and I can't take off Republican priorities that we put in the CR and say, hey, is that better?
	Could you vote for that?
	Because we didn't put them on there in the first place.
	Why?
	Because Republicans are being responsible.
	We're operating in good faith.
	We're trying to get the Democrats to do their job and they won't.
	Democrats, Republicans dig in over funding battle.
	White House correspondent Greg Kluxton reports.
	The federal government shutdown will stretch into next week after the Senate failed again to pass a temporary funding measure to reopen the government.
	And neither side is showing signs of blinking.
	White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt slammed Democrats, saying this madness must end.
	At the Capitol, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries complained that President Trump and Republican congressional leaders are deeply unserious about ending the impasse.
	Greg Klugston, Washington.
	Alaska Republican Senator Dan Sullivan blames Democrats for this shutdown, saying the rejected GP bill that would have kept funding at current levels.
	This is a clean CR.
	And by the way, it's a bipartisan clean CR, both in the House and both in the Senate.
	By that, it just continues to fund government at current levels, no side benefits one way or the other.
	Sullivan was interviewed on the Salem Radio Network.
	More Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.
	A Goldman Sachs report says by 2033, 55% of workers will be living paycheck to paycheck, with the number going up to 65% by 2043.
	And that all includes rising costs combined with major life disruptions are hitting younger workers the hardest.
	More on these stories at townhall.com.
	Is war in the Middle East the revival of an ancient conflict recorded in the Bible?
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	Tune in to my weekly sermons at thetemplarchurch.com.
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	Beautiful, beautiful, quintessential late 50s sound.
	I don't know how it happened.
	I'll have to go back and listen to the archive, but Steve Stockman and I were both guests on Sam Bushman's show back on Wednesday earlier this week.
	And somehow, some way, that song got brought up.
	And I've been thinking about it ever since.
	Thought we'd share it with you folks.
	Keith, what were you doing in 1958 when that song came out?
	Well, I went over to England and I was dressed up like Elvis.
	I had my hair slicked back.
	How old were you in 1958?
	Eight years old.
	Eight years old.
	And what I did was I had a pair of, I had a pink taffeta shirt, some of those black slacks with a buckle at the back, and a pair of hardy flashes.
	They were plain black loafers with a white thunderstreak on the side.
	And the people in England thought that hell had come to earth.
	Well, I guess I wasn't doing much in 58.
	I guess I was an egg.
	My mom was one.
	But anyway, it is good stuff.
	And that song is sort of like the mirror image of Diana, which was the song by Paul Anka that came out in 1957.
	And that is about the unrequited love of a boy for a girl who had a lot of people.
	And they had the, remember, Puppy Love was.
	All right, all right.
	We got to get back to work.
	But nevertheless, back to Steve Stockman.
	Steve, always good to talk to you on this show or any other show we may be on together.
	And anyway, that was a fun moment in that show earlier in the week with Sam.
	But you were telling us a story about your exchange with Newt Gingrich and some advice you gave him during the mid-90s government shutdown.
	So I'd ask you to conclude that story and then tell us what you would recommend right now if you were back in Congress.
	Time in the 90s, we weren't getting coverage.
	You know, we didn't have the alternative media we have now.
	We had Rush Limbaugh.
	That was about it.
	But I thought we had to do things that were more communicative.
	I mean, Republicans will take out a slide rule and say, according to the, you know, they start talking about numbers.
	And then the Democrats will show, actually, I think it was Paul Ryan pushing an old lady off a cliff to communicate.
	And I thought we should do more things to communicate through visual what we wanted to do.
	And I said, take it in a station wagon, get like a family-type family, and then clip it and say, hey, we're trying to get this bill passed, and the Democrats won't, Clinton won't sign it.
	And it saves our family and we want to come to this park.
	So it flips the script on the Democrats.
	But anything I suggest like that, they would always say, that's a great idea, and then they wouldn't do it.
	I ought to have that station wagon going over a cliff like Thelman Louise.
	So what about now?
	If you were there right now, what would be the prescription?
	Because, you know, the times have changed, and there is a more aggressive GOP now.
	Yeah, but I mentioned it, and they're not doing it.
	This is a continuation of Biden's budget.
	They need to say every time, this is a continuation of the Democrats' budget.
	They're not doing it.
	They need to repeat that.
	First of all, Republicans are like herding cats.
	They need to get them all in the room and say, this is our message.
	Everybody say it, repeat it until you're blue in the face.
	And if someone comes up to you and says, I want to talk about rocket ships, you go, well, as soon as we pass the Democrats continuing resolution, they're refusing to sign because they want to give illegal aliens Medicare.
	That's the two things you do.
	This is a continuation of Biden's, and they want to fund Medicare for illegal aliens and make American citizens poor.
	You just say that over and over again, and they would cave like a cheap suit if they did that.
	Well, okay, let me ask you this: take hardboard outhouse in the rain, as they say.
	Talk about the scenes.
	What is really going on up there?
	Now, I know they're not there literally this minute, but when they are there last week and next week, what is really going on?
	Because you have called out some things that we see play out in the media as Kabuki theater.
	What is really going on there?
	Are they really upset?
	Are they really stressing this thing?
	Or are they all dialing in playing a role?
	Well, unfortunately, this time, this is really, to tell you the truth, this is the first time I've seen where it was Democrats that are in a bind because they kind of box themselves in.
	This is the first time I've ever seen that happen.
	And it really has to do with Democrat politics.
	So Republicans are getting nervous, but they shouldn't get nervous.
	They need to keep doing what I just said.
	And they need to drive it home.
	What happens is Republicans want results right away.
	But if they hammer the message over and over and over again, like they started to do, and keep going, even have Elon run ads in the districts, you know, you're going to get the message through.
	The problem is Republicans get too nervous and quit and capitulate real quick.
	So you've got Republicans calling up the Speaker and calling anybody else they can to say, oh, you know, this is going to hurt us in the midterms.
	That is a natural inclination of Republicans.
	They think everything that happens is going to hurt them.
	And remember, the number one thing that a congressman wants is re-election.
	So they focus on that to the exclusion of logic.
	And I think their IQ drops about 10 points when the government shuts down.
	That was actually a question I had.
	I'm glad you phrased it in that way because I was thinking about that, but I was thinking about it from the perspective of the other side.
	Is it the Democrats or some of these Democratic Congressmen that are afraid of retribution in their district and how that pertains to their reelection or their perhaps a future primary?
	Because if it is truly about giving subsidies and taxpayer money to illegal aliens, that is such an unpopular issue nationwide that it can only be popular in certain blue districts.
	Is that what may be going on here, or at least playing into it?
	Well, no, it's James, it's already passed the House.
	So really the House has nothing to do.
	I saw someone make a clip about how Republicans aren't there.
	It's because, well, the Republicans did a job, and they don't need to stick around.
	And the Democrats are begging to do something so they can prove that in polling, Democrat support is really down on the Democrats for not fighting Trump war.
	So this is almost a fight with themselves.
	And Republicans got to understand there's not much we can do except make them pay for their party interfight.
	And the way to make them pay for it is to point out that they're taking money from American citizens and funding illegal aliens.
	That is the most, that's like an 80-10 position or 90-10, sorry.
	But I would say let me ask you this as a follow-up.
	You are correct about it passing the House.
	But of course, we still see Democratic, well, AOC, for instance, is going on television.
	She certainly has to do with the pressure.
	Which is she's president.
	Trump just doesn't know yet.
	But is it do these Democratic congressmen, though, in these blue districts, you know, certainly they can apply pressure to their contemporaries in the Senate.
	I mean, is that going on?
	No, because we're not doing what I suggest.
	You know, Elon's got unlimited money.
	You know, for him to drop $100 million is like us dropping a dime on the ground.
	I wish Elon and the president would make up because really what needs to happen is Elon needs to take some money.
	I mean, because he lives here.
	This is his country now.
	And he's the only one of the few people that can say that.
	And he needs to run ads in those Democrat districts that are swayable.
	And they'll start calling the leadership.
	If you put pressure on Democrat senators and Democrat congressmen that are vulnerable, and you start running those ads, man, I'll tell you what, they'll come around so quick.
	You may.
	Because it really is.
	It's Biden's budget that they're asking to be prolonged.
	And what they want, the reason they're blocking it is because they want to give money to illegal aliens, which, by the way, if you remember, Obama gave that speech about Obamacare, which, by the way, there's just as many people uninsured now as there was back then because he said it was going to cure it all.
	But remember, one of the congressmen, I think he's from South Carolina, yelled out, you lie.
	And all hell broke loose, and he got attacked.
	Well, it turns out Obama did lie.
	And they are funding illegal aliens right to this day, which is criminal.
	And the people that orchestrate this should be put in prison.
	This is outrageous.
	It's robbing from our elderly and giving to people that came here illegally.
	They don't deserve it.
	They have no commitment of U.S. history.
	They have no commitment to our way of life.
	It's just ridiculous that they come here and expect to get a check.
	Milton Freeman said you cannot have an open welfare system and open borders inspect to survive as a nation.
	And this is literally undermining our country.
	Why in the world are the Republicans running scared or any of them?
	This is like a dream come true.
	This is like implementing Doge by the government.
	That's your problem.
	You're thinking a lot.
	You understand?
	Like I said, their IQ drops 10 points.
	They don't think.
	I spoke at the last shutout, shutdown, government shutdown.
	I think it was 2013, whatever, 14.
	And I was shocked because when I got there to speak, because they kept saying, oh, we're going to hurt in the conference.
	They kept saying we're going to lose elections in an election.
	And everybody talks, and I got there, everybody got caught.
	I go, oh, this is weird because I normally don't take a position or talk during that thing.
	I just listen.
	And I got there and said, I was here in the last shutdown with Newt Gingrich, and I'm here again.
	And we were afraid of losing, and we didn't.
	And I go, this is the same thing.
	And actually, if you go back and look at that, we did not lose because of the shutdown.
	It's just, it's a myth, but you can't get it out of the Republican congressman's mind.
	It's just there.
	And, you know, I don't know what you can do about it, but it's unfounded fear in my mind.
	Well, I've talked about your prescience before, and I've mentioned it again tonight.
	So I'm going to set you up to fail here with this question.
	How long does this last?
	I mean, a lot of times this ends at the 11th hour.
	Sometimes it goes a few days.
	A week or two.
	When all is said and done, more will be said than done.
	Well, something has been done here.
	They are in this so-called shutdown, although as Steve mentioned, it's not a total and complete eclipse or anything like anything near it.
	But these things are normally sorted out within a week or two, and that is really going deep into it.
	I don't even know.
	You could probably tell me what the longest shutdown is.
	I'll say it's probably 30 days.
	Really?
	A month?
	What would be the longest in life?
	If Republicans take my advice, well, in 95, it was five and then 22 days or something like that.
	And then the last one was 30 days, 29 days.
	So, I mean, that's about the point with tolerance of pain they can take.
	But if they would do, this is such an advantage.
	Right now, if we could do this, it would actually set up 20 for the midterms elections.
	We actually have them, you know, by the cones in the way.
	If they ran those ads that I'm describing, if they ran those ads in those swing Democrat congressional seats, we would mop the floor with them.
	No one likes their money being taken.
	How many people like waiting in line for a movie theater, airline tickets, something?
	Someone cut in front of them.
	This is what this is.
	These are people.
	They're even immigrants that came here.
	I talked to a woman the other day from Columbia.
	She's furious.
	She says, I waited eight years to get my citizenship.
	And she said, these people come in and cut.
	She's livid.
	She says, I follow American rules, and these people come in and cut in front of me.
	So we even can get votes that we don't think we can get when we say, look, they're cutting in front of your lines.
	They're taking your money.
	How do you like it?
	They don't like it.
	And I wish they would do that.
	If we did that, they would collapse in seven days.
	Well, it's like Winston Churchill said, I believe, or maybe it was Franklin Roosevelt, we have nothing to fear but fear itself, right?
	Well, okay.
	So you're saying it could go as long as a month, and that is pretty long for one of these things.
	A month, and at the end of the day, how do you see it?
	Yeah, hold on a second, though.
	That's only two pay cycles.
	It's really only one cycle.
	Well, they get paid Paid October 15th, I think around that time.
	So they would miss that paycheck.
	And then the second paycheck comes the 30th.
	Well, if they settle before the 30th, they're really only out one paycheck, and they get that paycheck on the 30th.
	So they get two paychecks on the 30th.
	So think about the employees.
	And by the way, most federal employees that get furloughed like this, they love it.
	They go on vacation.
	They don't tell that.
	By the way, you never saw when they were doing COVID, shutting down churches, shutting down shops, business going on.
	You never heard these sad stories.
	The Democrats didn't care because it was free enterprise.
	None of those stories did you hear.
	You never got someone interviewed.
	You know, oh, how are you doing?
	You lost your restaurant.
	You did this.
	None of that.
	But now it's government.
	Oh, my goodness, this is horrible.
	But when it was happening at free market, they didn't care.
	So the Democrats have given the Republicans if they'll accept it.
	And they're stupid.
	Two stars.
	100%.
	Okay.
	So do you think this will end?
	100%.
	Do you think this will end with a deal that both parties can live by?
	Or do you think that Trump?
	Well, and I will tell you this, though.
	I have to say, the GOP has been remade in Trump's image.
	It is a lot different than it was when he was eight months in or nine months in, however long we are in now into this administration.
	In October of 20, what was it, 17?
	You know, it was a totally different GOP.
	So this is a little bit different.
	It has been remade in his image.
	Do you think that they will drive a deal home that favors them or will it be something that both parties can live with?
	I hope it's not the latter.
	Well, the Democrats are, if you really look at their proposal, James, it's horrible, all the stuff they want.
	They want to re-undo the entire, they want NPR to get their money.
	That's another thing, too.
	NPR is not telling it, but the two things that the Democrats required was to extend the Medicare that were supposed to be temporary funding, the failure of Obamacare.
	And they also want $500 million for public radio.
	And I'm thinking $500 million a James show would be wonderful.
	We're used to living on scraps, table scraps.
	But see, a leftist, a liberal will not do anything unless they're extravagantly paid to do it.
	Well, hang on a minute now.
	If a little bit of that 500 mil comes our way, we'll have to reassess this.
	I don't think it's a good idea.
	Don't hold your breath.
	I don't think it's earmarked for us.
	James, they have the NPR, National Panhandle Radio, or the government.
	They have, listen to this.
	They have a private sushi chef that they get free sushi from.
	They have all kinds of perks.
	In order to produce a show, I doubt you have as many as they do.
	They have up to 90 people for one show.
	Tell them what we ate tonight.
	Papa John's pizza.
	That's exactly right.
	Yeah, where's your other 89 staffers?
	Yeah.
	We got a skeleton crew here at WMQM.
	Seriously, though, Steve.
	The Saturday Night Crew at MQM is spartan, that's for sure.
	But go ahead.
	I was going to say, if AOC and the Democrats make a really strong showing in the midterms, that's probably the best argument I can think of to revive the discussion about secession.
	Because quite frankly, we are so different from those people.
	I don't see how we can all live under the same government.
	I still don't see that happening.
	I mean, this is a totally different topic.
	Now, I don't even want to get off on this rabbit trail.
	But the Democrats still said, well, you tell me.
	You were there twice.
	They still seem rudderless and leaderless and aren't really on message as a uniform.
	Often in air, but never in doubt.
	They're not really on a unified message.
	They don't really have a unified message to combat.
	I mean, it still seems as though the GOP is pressing an advantage that has existed since January.
	And they're afraid to stomp the panel.
	Well, by the way, regarding secession, the problem is New Hampshire was going to be like the libertarian state.
	And what happened was, is all the Democrats, this is what drives me nuts because I was in New Hampshire a couple of years ago.
	And when I was up there, I was talking to them.
	All the Democrats from Boston and Massachusetts got tired of high taxes.
	And so they moved to New Hampshire for lower taxes.
	And guess what?
	The first thing they do, when they get there, they vote Democrat.
	And now the Democrats in New Hampshire are raising taxes.
	It's like it's so stupid.
	That's why in Texas, we really don't.
	A lot of Californians come here.
	And I'm sure they're coming to Tennessee.
	They're coming to Florida.
	I'm sure they are.
	We're happy about it.
	No, we don't want them coming here and voting for that.
	I mean, just because you're voting for the people that screwed up your state, you're fleeing from.
	It's very similar to these people from the Middle East who come here and complain and want to turn it into the country they left.
	And we say, well, if you like it so much, we need to ship you back.
	They want to enact Sharia law in Michigan, for example.
	You know what?
	You come here because it's not like where you came, and then now you're trying to change it into the asshole.
	You're on to something here.
	And to put a fine point on it, they flee these areas because of how terrible it's come, but they don't change their opinions.
	They continue to do the things that match their place.
	The whole thing about immigrants nowadays is they do not want to assimilate with us.
	They want to recreate their own society under more prosperity.
	That also includes blue state whites from California and other, you know, they come to Tennessee and start voting the same way.
	Anyway, some of the worst people in the world are white liberal women.
	They're nuts.
	I don't know what they're doing.
	No wonder the divorce rate is so high.
	All right.
	So two things very quickly.
	Yeah, two things very quickly to wrap things up.
	And I want to go back to this.
	Do you actually think that Trump will sack some of these government employees for good?
	I want him to.
	I've noticed.
	Well, no, I don't want him furlough.
	I want him terminated.
	I noticed this, but I'm getting the impression.
	I'm reading the tea leaves a little bit.
	I think he was going to do it.
	I think there's serious blowback because people are so worried about it.
	See, the midterm is only 13 months away.
	And I'm getting the feeling that he's getting wobbly knead, and he's not going to do it.
	I hope he doesn't.
	It's going to make a lot of Democrats unhappy.
	What's wrong with that?
	All right.
	Well, you know, again, these people weren't going to vote for him anyway.
	I don't see how it would really harm him that much.
	But again, when you're the president, you've got a lot of interest and a lot of people pawing at you and a lot of people trying to get you to consider this angle, that angle.
	It's a little bit different than ideologues like us here on the radio.
	But let me ask you this.
	Just in case, Congressman Stockman, that any of your former colleagues or present members of the House or Senate or Congress may be listening tonight as a guilty pleasure.
	What would you advise them to do, a clear and succinct path forward?
	What is it?
	Well, in terms of, well, I'll repeat it again.
	I think in order to end this and also do score and win the prior, win the general election next year, is to beat this issue to death.
	The number one people that turn out to vote are the older generation.
	And they're not real fond of their money being taken and given to people that don't deserve it.
	And you could drive such a wedge in there because they keep saying it's a lie.
	You hear Barney Sanders say that.
	They all say it's a lie, but it's not a lie.
	And Republicans drive a wedge in the Democrat Party that would give us victory.
	But I don't, you know, they're not going to do that.
	They need to do it.
	This is a golden opportunity.
	At the same time they're doing that, they could also cut these, you know, could take that 2025 from Heritage and execute it.
	And that would be two things I would do, but I'm not presidents, so they're not going to listen to me.
	They want to alienate their base to get one-tenth of 1% more of the black vote.
	Well, I don't even know if it's that.
	I mean, everything, they are, you know, everything is going.
	The things we're going to be talking about in the next hour, with Hegseth's speech to the top brass of the military, the National Guard here in Memphis.
	Stephen Miller was in Memphis earlier this week.
	We'll play his clip from his address here in town.
	SBLC and ADL now on the outs with the government and even the FBI.
	I mean, there is a lot of good things and good trends happening right now, but it's just, I mean, when you've done it, you've got to press it because it's not going to last forever.
	You're in Memphis.
	I'd like to hear what's going on there.
	Are you excited about what's happening?
	I'll tell you exactly what's happening.
	Of course.
	I'll tell you exactly what's happening.
	The white people are all for it and the black people are against it.
	Well, there is certainly a racial dynamic to it.
	And, well, I mean, and that correlates with the crime if you look who's committing these crimes.
	But nevertheless, there's white women out there.
	I'll guarantee there's some white liberal women out there that are against it because they're insane.
	Oh, there are.
	But you're in Memphis, not in New York.
	There's probably a, you know, that's not a big demographic factor in this.
	There are, yeah, and every white announcer on the local news will be against it, too.
	But, you know, those people meet them in a teacup.
	Well, they do exist here, but not the way that they exist in other cities.
	But nevertheless, Miller himself see a bunch of heads.
	Go ahead.
	No, no, I'm sorry, my friend.
	It was just, you know, Miller himself, and I believe Hegseth as well was in Memphis this week.
	We're going to talk about it in the next hour, but it was nothing but good news.
	I mean, we could certainly use a little backup down here, right, Keith?
	Absolutely.
	I tell you, everybody is, you know, on the Trump train, at least the people that we talk to and meet with on a regular basis.
	Well, I can tell you this.
	It's ironic because they're going to end up saving black lives.
	And like you said, a lot of black leaders are against it.
	But the thing is, it's demonstrated in Washington, D.C.
	The deaths of blacks went down when Trump did that.
	And it's amazing that he doesn't get credit for that.
	In terms of people like L. Sharpton, they've never gone down.
	Anything he's done has never helped.
	This is a good point.
	They want the black people want you to protect them from crime, but they don't want you to put any black people in prison.
	It's like they want you to tinker bell and put fairy dust on everybody.
	Well, it is true that, I mean, of course, when you're talking about black homicides, black murders, things like that, it is typically within their own community.
	But, of course, that does spell out as well.
	They're allowed to send Pookie to jail.
	All right.
	Anyway, we got off on that unintentionally.
	We will talk about the other stuff.
	I want to thank Steve Stockman for giving us some insights and some predictions on how this thing will shake out the current and ongoing government shutdown.
	Not entirely dissimilar to the two that he was privy to when he was in Congress.
	We'll see how it goes.
	Thank you, Steve.
	We'll talk to you again soon.
	God bless you guys.

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