The Debt Ceiling deal is a farce
(00:00.586)
Yes, we got the net ceiling farce. Just what I expected in regards to this. However, however, could the Republicans have gotten much better on this? No, no. And this is a thing I’ve been trying to get across to people here is that for crying out loud, elections do happen to have consequences. They do.
(00:30.594)
The Republican party has the house right now. Barely. The Republican party blew the Senate the last two times. And when the Republican party had the presidency, the house, and the Senate, they didn’t do a damn thing about out of control spending. Period. The end. I’m sick and tired of make America great again. How about we get make America solvent again.
(01:01.118)
Anyway, I’m gonna go back. This is not that long ago. Again, I’m banging my fist on the table and I’m yelling and screaming on a podcast and a radio show. I’m on Mornings with Maria and we’re talking about this very topic. Not too long ago, we’ll go to, we just gotta go back to 2022, when the Republicans in the Senate decided to allow the omnibus spending bill to go through.
(01:29.93)
Rather than push the spending into the Republican House when the Congress was gonna switch over, no, no. Greedy pork barrel Republicans, the lot of them who were retiring at the time, Richard Shelby for one, wanted to send tons of pork barrel spending, earmark money back to their district. So they allowed it to pass.
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So do me a favor, okay? And this is the thing that drives me nuts, okay? Well, you get certain Republicans out there yelling and screaming, oh, about all this ridiculous spending. Where the hell were you on this? Oh, some of the conservatives came out against this. Rand Paul has always been basically drawing the line. He always puts out his pork book every single year. Come on, people.
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You’re full of shit. Okay? The Republican party has been full of shit for ages and ages and ages. The Kremlin takes me back in time. This is back when Obama, Obama comes in and they’re having all the handouts and making homes, what was it? Making homes affordable, what was it again? The Hemp program, there was so much. And when it comes to handouts and giveaways, bailing out the automakers, all this stuff. Tea party.
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It’s April 15th and I’m giving a speech, thousands of people, I used to live in southwest Florida there, and I’ve got to go back to it. My first statements that I made in that, I was going after Obama, I was going after Democrats, going after Republicans because they don’t do what they say that they’re going to do. Democrats, at least you got to hand it to them. They push their agenda.
(03:26.998)
They push their agenda, the Republican Party, they just cave. I left the Republican Party, whew, it could be almost two decades ago for crying out loud. Why am I going to be a member of a party that just is full of it? Because they are. She’s rah rah this. And I vote for certain candidates is who I vote for. And this is, man, this is his best, you’re going to, probably the best deal that you’re going to get, the reality. Anyway, let’s go back.
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Again, this is talking about the omnibus killing the bill. Let’s see a piece by Larry Kudlow. This is going back to December of 2022. Save America, kill the omnibus bill. It’s a good place to start tonight. Stop the lame duck spending spree being conducted by the Democrats in both houses. Okay, this is where Larry you’re wrong. Wasn’t Republicans in both houses, okay?
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It was with Republicans as well. Not to mention the fact Larry, you were in the Trump administration, my friend. You were. I didn’t see you pushing back on all of the ridiculous spending that that Trump had pushed as well. I didn’t see you doing it. Then you got, you know, again, talking about Richard Shelby. Richard Shelby, he talked about the amount of money, you know, his earmarks and omnibus spending bill, $650 million.
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Jim Inhofe, Oklahoma, 511 million bucks. Lisa Murkowski, 490 million dollars. Oh, don’t tell me give a damn about spending. You really don’t, okay? When it comes time, when push comes to shove, all of you members of Congress, that’s all you do. You keep getting reelected again and again and again, and that’s due to the stupidity of the electorate here in this country. Keep voting in.
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Hey, we’re real fit. Yeah, we’re real don’t get so bloody stupid crying out loud. What’s that? Was it that Seinfeld episode back in the day? And that’s when, you know, George was working for the Yankees. He was the assistant to the traveling secretary. Remember that? And part of Seinfeld’s standup routine was talking about, you know, how players are moving from team to team to team. And he said, you’re basically rooting for laundry.
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It’s basically what you’re doing when it comes to political parties as well. Anyway, let’s, let’s get into Kevin McCarthy. Um, again, this is his deal. And again, I’m not faulting Kevin McCarthy for this. I’m not. Yeah. The old, uh, Clint Eastwood there, dirty hairy man’s got to know his limitations. Speaker of the house has got to know his limitations as well. He got to know how far he can push this, right?
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Good, publicans blew it, blew it. They didn’t win the Senate again. You know, all that winning that was going on that Trump talk, keep winning. So much winning going on, it’s been crazy. You guys have been getting your ass kicked for some time now, all right? Since 2016, you’ve been getting your ass kicked. Every single election, oh, red wave. My ass red wave. Anyway, debt ceiling worth passing. The deal is.
(06:51.162)
a significant victory for GOP priorities and return for raising the debt ceiling that had to be raised anyway. Mr. Biden tried to jam the GOP into a clean debt increase. Republicans forced him to the table when they passed the Limit Save and Grow bill. The lesson is that political unity pays. The deal lifts the current $31.4 trillion debt limit into 2025.
(07:17.998)
capping non-defense discretionary spending at $704 billion. Again, it’s higher than what Republicans wanted, but the reality is it was $757 billion. It’s down a little bit. Again, oh, they’re clawing back $28 billion of COVID funds. They could have done a hell of a lot more than that, but again, couldn’t really, you didn’t win.
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Uh, you didn’t win. Um, again, you got, you got Republicans, you get the two leading candidates. I mentioned this last week on the program. No one wants to touch entitlements. Donald Trump doesn’t want to touch entitlements. Joe Biden doesn’t want to touch entitlements. Fine. Don’t touch entitlements. You’re just going to get cut by 25% in less than 10 years. It’s nothing really serious here, people. Okay. There’s no great shakes in this thing at all.
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Um
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Another thing as well, I got to get into this. If you look into some of the provisions in this, and you’re going to see Republicans point to this, you’re going to see them point to say this is a big win when it comes to permitting reform.
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or two-year time limit to complete environmental reviews for energy and infrastructure projects. The bill allows a project’s developer to sue if the review isn’t completed in time. Currently review is required under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970. Take an average of four and a half years to complete and can involve multiple agencies. The deal calls for a single agency to assume responsibility for the study.
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and Republicans have wanted to speed up these reviews. And again, this also talks about this Mountain Valley pipeline, which is a 303 mile natural gas pipeline between West Virginia and Virginia. That’s, I think it’s 95% completed and permitting and lawsuits are holding that up. Again, Republicans are gonna point to that as a big win. Again.
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being a little bit skeptical. I’m thought about this today and it reminded me of said that German folklore story Hansel and Gretel how the witch lures Hansel and Gretel and she’s got the gingerbread house and all the sweets and cupcakes and all that good stuff because she wants to fatten up Hansel and Gretel because she wants to eat them. What do you think is going to happen?
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now. What do you think is going to be approved and fast tracked right now with Joe Biden in the White House and controlling all of these government agencies? It is going to be a free for all right now with green energy projects. Each and every green boondoggle out there because they get held up too.
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They get held up too with all sorts of permitting stuff. Well, guess what? Guess what? They’re gonna get shoved down our throats. That’s real. Again, this’ll flip. This’ll flip if the Republicans can ever take back the White House and assume some power. But for now, boy oh boy, I feel sorry for all the, I feel sorry for the whales. I do. I feel sorry for the whales because they’re gonna continue to put up more eyesore.
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windmills offshore and we’re going to continue to see whales wash up onshore as well. But anyway, push comes to shove. My ultimate breakdown on this is I think Kevin McCarthy got the best deal he possibly could. You’re going to have a lot of conservatives out there already have coming out, putting out tweets, can’t do this, this is ridiculous.
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Lindsey Graham, none too happy about defense spending. It’s not enough because of inflation. I think that the defense spending increasing at an average pace about 3%, not good enough for Lindsey, who loves, you know, loves, you know, starting wars and being involved in all that good stuff. Other Republicans are basically saying that this is a joke and I get it guys, but what are you supposed to do?
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Well, again, maybe if you did a little bit more of this winning that was supposed to be happening, we’re supposed to get so tired of all the winning that’s going on that you might have a better bargaining position. Guess what? You haven’t been winning. Oh yeah, well, you got a wee little majority in the House, lost the Senate again, and you don’t have the presidency. So again.
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The hell is Kevin McCarthy supposed to do?
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What is he supposed to do? Again, I get it. You know, debt ceilings are times when you’re supposed to really force the issue. And I think you forced it about as far as you’re going to be able to. Again, I have to tell you here, people. Okay, I don’t know what to tell you. I really don’t. And it’s one of the things that frustrates the hell out of me.
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You know, some of the emails and comments and the stuff that I get sent in and people complain about government spending, but then you vote for presidents, you vote for people that have no interest at all in controlling government spending. Zip, zero, zilch, nada, none.
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Anyway, there’s your debt ceiling farce. And hey, I’m going to make a prediction here. Again, I’m not somebody who gambles, but I would take the over. Okay. I would take the over on Democrats voting for this over Republicans. Again, they compromised a little, they cut a little bit of their spending, but it’s business as usual. Again billions, trillions, whose count? Watchdog on wallstreet.com.