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Speaker 1: On this episode of newch World. President Joe Biden signed

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Speaker 1: Congress's one point two trillion dollars spending package on March

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Speaker 1: twenty third, twenty twenty four, which will keep the government

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Speaker 1: funded through October first, almost halfway into the fiscal year.

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Speaker 1: The passage of the bill ends a month long struggle

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Speaker 1: in Congress to secure a permanent budget resolution instead of

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Speaker 1: passing stopcap measures. Several of the last minute measures nearly

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Speaker 1: led to a government shutdown. But hidden within the pages

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Speaker 1: of this four hundred page bill are plenty of earmarks,

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Speaker 1: also called pork barrel spending. That is, when you're represented

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Speaker 1: in Congress requests direct government spending for projects in their district.

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Speaker 1: Here to talk about the spending bill, I'm really pleased

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Speaker 1: to welcome my guest, David Ditch. He is a senior

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Speaker 1: policy analyst and the Grover M. Hermann Center for the

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Speaker 1: Budget at the Heritage Foundation. David, welcome, and thank you

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Speaker 1: for joining me in the News World.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.

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Speaker 1: Prior to joining Heritage, you were a budget analyst for

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Speaker 1: the Senate Budget Committee, where you oversaw appropriations. With that background,

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Speaker 1: will you walk us through the general process of funding

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Speaker 1: the federal government.

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Speaker 2: Every year sure, So typically the first step is that

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Speaker 2: federal agencies put together documents in conjunction with the presidential administration,

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Speaker 2: and they end up putting together what's called the Presidence budget.

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Speaker 2: This provides Congress with lots of information about both the

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Speaker 2: functioning of the agencies, what they're doing, how they've been

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Speaker 2: using the money, and also what theministration would like to prioritize. Traditionally,

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Speaker 2: Congress uses the agency guidance to help inform them, but

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Speaker 2: they tend to ignore what the president is asking for

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Speaker 2: unless the President and Congress are both controlled by the

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Speaker 2: same party, which this year is obviously not the case

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Speaker 2: when you have Joe Biden sitting in the Oval Office

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Speaker 2: and Republicans having taken over the House of Representatives. After this,

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Speaker 2: ideally both the House and the Senate will produce budget

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Speaker 2: resolutions to determine how they're going to spend money for

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Speaker 2: the following year, but unfortunately that increasingly doesn't end up happening,

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Speaker 2: especially when there's a party split between the House and

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Speaker 2: the Senate. Republicans have tended to try to produce budget

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Speaker 2: resolutions responsibly. Democrats tend to see that as a technical

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Speaker 2: issue that they aren't overly concerned about one way or another.

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Speaker 2: Congress ends up establishing a spending level, and then a

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Speaker 2: portion of the spending called discretionary spending, which is what

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Speaker 2: funds the normal operation of federal agencies like the Department

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Speaker 2: of Defense, the Department of Health and Human Services, and

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Speaker 2: so on. What we're called appropriation committees use the budgetary

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Speaker 2: limits that have been established and figure out how they

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Speaker 2: want to divide up this part of the federal budget

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Speaker 2: between all the different agencies and programs. Of course, what's

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Speaker 2: unfortunate is that the portion of the federal budget that

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Speaker 2: Congress spends the most time on is becoming a smaller

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Speaker 2: and smaller portion of what the federal government spends. Because

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Speaker 2: in addition to these discretionary programs, there are also mandatory

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Speaker 2: programs that operate almost entirely on autopilot. So for example,

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Speaker 2: social Security, medicare, medicaid, food stamps. These programs take up

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Speaker 2: an increasing share of the federal budget and are growing

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Speaker 2: very rapidly relative to the size of the economy.

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Speaker 1: Let me stop you for a second, as I understand why,

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Speaker 1: for example, social security or medicare is hard to touch,

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Speaker 1: but why are food stamps mandatory?

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Speaker 2: That's a very good question to me. We should try

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Speaker 2: to determine how to prioritize what the federal government does

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Speaker 2: across the board. There shouldn't be certain things that are

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Speaker 2: all limits. As you mentioned food stamps are considered mandatory.

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Speaker 2: Congress should be able to say, based on the economic conditions,

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Speaker 2: we think this is an appropriate amount of money to spend,

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Speaker 2: and tell the executive branch and tell the states, Okay,

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Speaker 2: we want you to spend this money based on these guidelines.

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Speaker 2: But it's easier for the elected officials to move as

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Speaker 2: many things as they can off to the side, put

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Speaker 2: them on autopilots so that they don't have to worry

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Speaker 2: about them.

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Speaker 1: But of course that just means you have escalators that

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Speaker 1: are uncontrollable. They go up every year.

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Speaker 2: Kicking the can down the road has been sort of

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Speaker 2: the default in a lot of areas of federal policy

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Speaker 2: for a long time now, and that's part of why

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Speaker 2: the hole that we are in right now has gotten

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Speaker 2: so deep.

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Speaker 1: So you have those things which are already permanently funded

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Speaker 1: in effect, often with an escalator clause attached either to

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Speaker 1: number of people or other kind of things, to the

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Speaker 1: inflation rate, for example. Then you have what's called discretionary,

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Speaker 1: which is the amount that is relatively easy for Congress

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Speaker 1: to control, except that it doesn't control it. Explain that

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Speaker 1: to us man, why have we been on the steady

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Speaker 1: upward cycle which I sort of understood during COVID, but

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Speaker 1: I thought COVID was going to be kind of a peak,

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Speaker 1: and then we go back down to the norm and

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Speaker 1: the Democrats have managed to turn it into a plateau,

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Speaker 1: and we're now spending I think, a bigger share of

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Speaker 1: money through the federal government than ever in American history.

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Speaker 2: So, from about two thousand through to twenty twenty, interest

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Speaker 2: rates on the national debt were steadily going down, and

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Speaker 2: a lot of members of Congress and most of the

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Speaker 2: presidential administrations over that time saw that to mean that

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Speaker 2: it was a pre launch. They could spend whatever they want,

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Speaker 2: they could add whatever they wanted to the national debt,

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Speaker 2: and there weren't going to be consequences, and they went

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Speaker 2: as far as they could. And then after the pandemic happened,

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Speaker 2: after what I determined to be a seven point five

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Speaker 2: trillion dollar spending spree, that's trillion with a T, they

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Speaker 2: went so overboard. Debt markets were not able to absorb

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Speaker 2: all of it, which was led to not only higher

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Speaker 2: interest rates on the national debt, interest rates we haven't

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Speaker 2: seen in many years, leading to the cost of maintaining

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Speaker 2: the national debt hitting record levels, but the overspending also,

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Speaker 2: I believe was the number one factor driving the inflation

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Speaker 2: that we saw in twenty twenty one in twenty twenty two,

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Speaker 2: and the reason why inflation is still so much higher today.

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Speaker 2: The interest rates might never come back down. Unfortunately, so

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Speaker 2: many members of Congress feel entitled to a certain amount

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Speaker 2: of spending every year on all their different pet programs

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Speaker 2: and all their pandouts to all their special interests. They

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Speaker 2: can't even conceive of getting rid of even the smallest programs.

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Speaker 2: One of my favorite examples is that there's a special

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Speaker 2: program within the Department of Agriculture to subsidize maple syrup,

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Speaker 2: which pretty much just goes to the state of Vermont.

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Speaker 2: If you were to say, Okay, the federal government has

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Speaker 2: tens of trillions of dollars in debt, Social Security and

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Speaker 2: medicare are going to go bankrupt in the next decade.

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Speaker 2: What can the American people afford to get rid of

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Speaker 2: within the federal government. I feel like something like the

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Speaker 2: maple syrup program would be pretty easy to just sort

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Speaker 2: of lop off. But nothing can ever be allowed to

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Speaker 2: go away. Nothing ever gets eliminated. And because every few years,

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Speaker 2: especially when Democrats are in power, you have new bureaucracies

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Speaker 2: being created, new programs, and those always operate indefinitely, so

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Speaker 2: called discretionary side of the spending equation that keeps going

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Speaker 2: up and up and up.

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Speaker 1: So in a sense, save our syrup program becomes a

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Speaker 1: major battle cry. Yeah, so we have a maple syrup program.

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Speaker 1: Do we have a molasses program?

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Speaker 2: I don't know that we do, but I'm sure there's

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Speaker 2: something comparable in there. So on the one hand, there

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Speaker 2: are some people when they talk about the federal budget,

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Speaker 2: all they want to talk about are the benefit programs.

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Speaker 2: But I believe that there's not a proper understanding of

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Speaker 2: what's going on inside a lot of these federal agencies,

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Speaker 2: the kind of damage that's being done. I've done some

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Speaker 2: research over the last few months looking at agencies like

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Speaker 2: the Spartment of Education, National Science Foundation that are promoting

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Speaker 2: a lot of deeply radical left wing ideology, the critical

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Speaker 2: race theory, very transgender ideology aimed at children. These are

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Speaker 2: parts of the federal government, where if you ask the

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Speaker 2: average person what these agencies are doing, it's not going

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Speaker 2: to seem like they're controversial. But when you look at

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Speaker 2: how they're operating now, especially under the Biden administration, it's

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Speaker 2: not just that they're wasting tax dollars. It's that they're

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Speaker 2: using tax dollars to undermine America's fundamental values. And in turn,

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Speaker 2: these are agencies that, through the discretionary spending process, have

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Speaker 2: been steadily getting more and more and more money with

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Speaker 2: bipartisan support year after year.

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Speaker 1: If you would, Devid, tell me about some of the

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Speaker 1: more outrageous earmarks that you found.

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Speaker 2: There were two earmarks, one that goes to a group

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Speaker 2: in Rhode Island, another that goes to a group in

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Speaker 2: New Hampshire. The way that they're labeled is very in

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Speaker 2: a fact, But then when you look at what these

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Speaker 2: groups actually do, these organizations that provide late term abortions,

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Speaker 2: and this is over two million taxpayer dollars going to

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Speaker 2: these organizations. Even if the money isn't directly for abortions,

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Speaker 2: money is fungible, and the federal support for these organizations

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Speaker 2: helping to keep the doors open and keep the lights on,

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Speaker 2: means that taxpayers are de facto subsidizing these abortions.

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Speaker 1: Well, I think it's particularly egregious when you start talking

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Speaker 1: about late term, you know, in the eighth and ninth month,

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Speaker 1: sometimes even on the last day. It's just remarkable.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And obviously there remains a very heated debate about abortion,

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Speaker 2: about what the legal status should be in the country.

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Speaker 2: I feel like, at a bare minimum, we should be

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Speaker 2: able to agree that people shouldn't be forced to go

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Speaker 2: against their conscience. People who are pro life shouldn't be

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Speaker 2: forced by the IRS to provide their hard earned tax

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Speaker 2: dollars to the federal government and then have the federal

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Speaker 2: government turn around and help prop up abortionists.

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Speaker 1: Why are Republicans so weak on controlling government.

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Speaker 2: You have some Republicans, the more conservative wing, who are

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Speaker 2: willing to go to the mat on spending. Unfortunately there's

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Speaker 2: only so many of them. When you head more towards

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Speaker 2: the left flank of the GOP, you have many members

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Speaker 2: who are not just passively willing to accept a bigger government.

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Speaker 2: You have many members who actively enjoy seeing the federal

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Speaker 2: government grow, seeing these frederal bureaucracies obtain more power, obtain

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Speaker 2: more control over more parts of our day to day lives. Frankly,

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Speaker 2: I don't understand the appeal some of these members who

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Speaker 2: will talk about how wonderful business investment is, how important

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Speaker 2: it is to have a pro gross tax code. They'll

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Speaker 2: say that on one hand, then on the other hand,

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Speaker 2: you look at the legislation that they're supporting, whether it

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Speaker 2: becomes law in some cases even it doesn't become law.

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Speaker 2: But they consistently also support growing the federal behemoth, deepening

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Speaker 2: the swamp in Washington, d C. They're going against what

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Speaker 2: they claim to be in favor of. But ultimately, one

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Speaker 2: of the saddest realities about Washington is the easiest way

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Speaker 2: to tell whether a piece of legislation is going to

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Speaker 2: become law is if it increases spending and has Republican support.

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Speaker 1: They build HR forty three sixty six had about four

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty nine billion dollars in discretionary spending for

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Speaker 1: fiscal year twenty twenty four across twelve federal departments and agencies.

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Speaker 1: That bill includes over six thousand, six hundred projects requested

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Speaker 1: by individual lawmakers. Isn't that almost an explosion of pork.

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Speaker 2: This is one of the biggest tragedies of the last

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Speaker 2: few years I believe is that Congress had actually taken

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Speaker 2: a step towards being more responsible. They had decided on

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Speaker 2: a bipartisan basis to get rid of these pork barrel

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Speaker 2: projects entirely. And then as soon as Democrats took control

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Speaker 2: in twenty twenty one, the ear marks came back. And

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Speaker 2: unfortunately bringing them back has also had bipartisan support. You

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Speaker 2: even had a majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives,

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Speaker 2: I believe last year voted to keep this in place.

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Speaker 2: And while Republicans tend to be using these line items

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Speaker 2: spending measures to support fairly routine things like highway expansions

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Speaker 2: or work on inland waterways, unfortunately that gives the green

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Speaker 2: light for Democrats to spend on what they're most interested in.

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Speaker 2: And so oftentimes what the Democrats are interested in is

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Speaker 2: promoting far left ideology on things like critical race theory,

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Speaker 2: things like the LGBTQ agenda. And again, it's one thing

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Speaker 2: if a private individual or a private entity wants to

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Speaker 2: promote these ideas. It's a free country. I really resent

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Speaker 2: when they're using public tax dollars, and I resent it

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Speaker 2: even more when they're spending money we don't have.

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Speaker 1: But what you have here is borrowing money in order

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Speaker 1: to spend the money on propaganda that the government launches you.

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Speaker 1: So in essense, you're paying for your own endoctrination.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that is absolutely the case. So one example, Senator

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Speaker 2: Van Holland of Maryland secured a half million dollar earmark

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Speaker 2: for the NAACP, which once had somewhat of a noble

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Speaker 2: mission back in the nineteen sixty civil rights movement, but

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Speaker 2: which is now almost entirely devoted to promoting racial animosity.

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Speaker 2: This is a group that is extremely partisan how it operates.

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Speaker 2: It's a de facto wing of the Democratic Party. It

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Speaker 2: has no business receiving one cent of taxpayer dollars, and

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Speaker 2: yet they're getting half a million taxpayer dollars.

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Speaker 1: The list just sort of goes on and on and

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Speaker 1: on about where money's being spent in Is it largely

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Speaker 1: just sort of I take care of your district, you

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Speaker 1: take care of mine.

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Speaker 2: When you look at how a lot of middle of

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Speaker 2: the road Republicans who are on board of their marks,

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Speaker 2: I think that's how they're viewing it, because again they

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Speaker 2: aren't quite as deeply ideologically driven. They're looking at it

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Speaker 2: in terms of, oh, my district might need help reservicing

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Speaker 2: a road, and my district will get this money, so

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Speaker 2: in turn, we'll let this Democratic district have some money.

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Speaker 2: Democrats are being much more strategic with how they want

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Speaker 2: to use these taxpayer dollars. They fund what I call

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Speaker 2: the infrastructure of the left, which means all these left

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Speaker 2: wing institutions, both inside and outside of government. I think

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Speaker 2: there are times where everyday Americans might be looking at

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Speaker 2: what's in the news and saying, why are there organizations

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Speaker 2: that are paying people to block highways, Why are their

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Speaker 2: organizations that are promoting transgender ideology in our schools? Why

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Speaker 2: are there all these groups protesting in the streets and

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Speaker 2: support of hamas terrorists. This is all possible because the

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Speaker 2: far left has institutions that fund radical activists, and unfortunately,

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Speaker 2: the moderate Republicans have signed off on getting Democrats slush

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Speaker 2: funds to work with, and then the Democrats use our

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Speaker 2: tax dollars to fund these left wing institutions. It's something

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Speaker 2: that has got to stop.

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Speaker 1: Part of the side effect of this is that the

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Speaker 1: national debt now is up to thirty four and a

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Speaker 1: half trillion dollars, which is really pretty staggering. The federal

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Speaker 1: debt keeps going up, and you go back one hundred years,

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Speaker 1: it was four hundred and three billion dollars in that

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Speaker 1: frankly included part of the World War I costs because

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Speaker 1: it was going down at the time, and now it's

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Speaker 1: jumped all the way up into the thirty four and

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Speaker 1: a half trillion. And it seems to me when you

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Speaker 1: have that big a debt, then you have a huge

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Speaker 1: interest payment on the debt. And if interest rates keep

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Speaker 1: going up. The federal government is the largest debt or

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Speaker 1: in the world, so it's interest payments is going to

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Speaker 1: go up. I mean, doesn't this become a dangerous cycle?

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Speaker 2: It absolutely does. We're likely going to spend over one

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Speaker 2: trillion dollars on interest on the national debt, which is

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Speaker 2: somewhere around six thousand dollars for every household in the country,

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Speaker 2: just this year, just to maintain the national debt where

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Speaker 2: it is. And it's not as though this is paying

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Speaker 2: down the debt, because the national debt is going to

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Speaker 2: be increasing by around one point five to two trillion

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Speaker 2: dollars every single year moving forward indefinitely, which is completely unsustainable.

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Speaker 2: It's absolutely possible for interest rates to have a sudden

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Speaker 2: spike because the global markets for buying the US debt

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Speaker 2: can only afford to buy so much, and if interest

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Speaker 2: rates go much higher than they are, very quickly, you

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Speaker 2: would see just interest payments on the debt absorbing all

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Speaker 2: of the income tax dollars that the US economy produces

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Speaker 2: every single year, and in that case, we're not going

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Speaker 2: to have money for covering the other core expenses of

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Speaker 2: the federal government, like veterans benefits, like national defense. Also,

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Speaker 2: the higher the interest payments go, the more deficit spending

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Speaker 2: we have, and the more deficit spending we have, the

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Speaker 2: harder it's going to be to ever start catching up

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Speaker 2: on all the economic gains that we've lost to inflation

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Speaker 2: over the last couple of years.

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Speaker 1: It seems to be one of the great problems is

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Speaker 1: that the Federal Reserve is trying to use interest rates,

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Speaker 1: which primarily affect the private sector. But if you have

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Speaker 1: a government pouring over a trillion dollars a year in

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Speaker 1: unpaid for spending, they're going to inflate the amount of

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Speaker 1: currency that's available at the very time that the Federal

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Speaker 1: Reserve is trying to constrain it. So you end up

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Speaker 1: with a very very heavy bias towards crushing the private

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Speaker 1: sector while expanding the government sector, which is part of

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Speaker 1: why I think forty percent of all new jobs have

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Speaker 1: actually been directly or indirectly tied to the government. But

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Speaker 1: isn't this whole problem of very large deficit spending almost

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Speaker 1: inevitably inflationary.

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Speaker 2: It absolutely is, And you're right about the cost to

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Speaker 2: the private sector. The higher borrowing cost mean there's going

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Speaker 2: to be a lot less private investment, which is going

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Speaker 2: to reduce economic growth. It's going to reduce job creation.

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Speaker 2: We're caught in a bind as long as Washington keeps

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Speaker 2: avoiding physcal responsibility. Right now, we've got both high interest

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Speaker 2: rates and elevated inflation. If you try to lower interest rates,

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Speaker 2: that's going to get you higher inflation. If you try

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Speaker 2: to push harder against inflation and raise interest rates even further,

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Speaker 2: you risk crashing the economy altogether. The only way to

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Speaker 2: fix it so that we can start bringing interest rates down.

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Speaker 2: By the way, another big problem with high interest rates

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Speaker 2: is it's now very difficult for young families to afford

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Speaker 2: to buy a home, and that means we're going to

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Speaker 2: have fewer young families, fewer babies, and that only makes

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Speaker 2: everything worse. Down the road. In terms of our budget problems,

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Speaker 2: everything just compounds on itself. The longer we wait to

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Speaker 2: take action on bringing the size and scope of the

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Speaker 2: federal government back to a realistic size, the harder the

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Speaker 2: solutions are going to be.

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Speaker 1: So the longer we go down this road, the more

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Speaker 1: painful it's going to get to be. At the same time,

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Speaker 1: the more difficult any kind of corrective action becomes. Yes,

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Speaker 1: in your mind and from your background as an analyst,

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Speaker 1: did you see anything in the recent bill that begins

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Speaker 1: to move towards less spending.

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Speaker 2: There are a small number of specific programs in federal

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Speaker 2: bureaus that either had their spending frozen, which you could

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Speaker 2: view as a reduction when you adjust for inflation, which

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Speaker 2: also a few small areas that were cut. By and large,

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Speaker 2: what this spending bill does is keeps things frozen in place.

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Speaker 2: The problem is that the year before there is a

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Speaker 2: huge spending increase. So if you compare the most recent

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Speaker 2: bill to where things were just two years ago, it's

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Speaker 2: still a very real spending increase overall, And again we're

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Speaker 2: in a place where we can't really afford spending increases anywhere.

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Speaker 1: At the Heritage Foundation, you've been developing a budget reform program.

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Speaker 1: I mean, what are your recommendations for Congress to address

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Speaker 1: budget reform?

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Speaker 2: Yes, thank you for mentioning that the Heritage Foundation has

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Speaker 2: what we call a budget blueprint that would dramatically reduce

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Speaker 2: wasteful spending across the board. We have I believe, about

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Speaker 2: one hundred and eighty different spending reduction options right now.

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Speaker 2: There's so much of the federal apparatus that everyday Americans

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Speaker 2: get absolutely no benefit from whatsoever. So the Heritage budget

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Speaker 2: plan would not only reduce lots of wasteful parts of

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Speaker 2: the federal bureaucracy, would also makes also security and medicare

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Speaker 2: survive rather than go bankrupt. It would also reform the

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Speaker 2: tax code because there's a lot of what's essentially spending

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Speaker 2: is done through the tax code, so enabling us to

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Speaker 2: maintain a pro gross tax code, this plan would really

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Speaker 2: benefit in terms of economic growth while also making sure

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Speaker 2: that the country doesn't go broke.

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Speaker 1: Which you also have some pretty dramatic reforms, such as

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Speaker 1: repealing the Davis Macon Act, which has been there since

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Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there are programs that the Heritage Foundation has been

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Speaker 2: going after since it was founded. In the nineteen seventies

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Speaker 2: the Davis Bacon Act, which requires that projects receiving federal

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Speaker 2: fundels have to utilize essentially union mandated wages. There's also

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Speaker 2: something similar on work rules. This is something that I

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Speaker 2: have honestly don't know why Republicans have been willing to

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Speaker 2: sign off on it for so many generations. But what

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Speaker 2: ends up happening is it prevents contractors who aren't unionized

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Speaker 2: from bidding on government projects. You have a smaller number

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Speaker 2: of bidders who are able to then demand higher prices.

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Speaker 2: So then when the federal government is funding a project,

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Speaker 2: that means that project is going to cost a lot more,

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Speaker 2: it's going to tend to take longer to get completed.

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Speaker 2: Another thing that does is that undermines the right to

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Speaker 2: work states, which is now a majority of the country,

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Speaker 2: because there's no right to work when the federal government

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Speaker 2: gets involved.

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Speaker 1: So in a sense, this is a good example where

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Speaker 1: prices are made more expensive, the competitive pool is much smaller.

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Speaker 1: And one of the places I've mentioned to look at

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Speaker 1: is rebuilding the bridge in Baltimore and whether or not

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Speaker 1: all these things apply to make it more expensive and

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Speaker 1: more difficult and make it take.

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Speaker 2: Longer very important bridge. And while I generally am someone

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Speaker 2: who doesn't think the federal government should get involved, if

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Speaker 2: the federal government was in a position to make the

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Speaker 2: bridge construction go faster, you make that process happen more smoothly,

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Speaker 2: that's something that might be worth spending a little bit

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Speaker 2: of money on. There's a couple problems there. Of course.

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Speaker 2: Number one, they don't need to pass additional spending. They

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Speaker 2: just passed a huge infrastructure program a couple of years ago.

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Speaker 2: The money is already there, they just need to draw

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Speaker 2: from it. But then, of course, on the other side,

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Speaker 2: you have all the red tape about what business is

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Speaker 2: very able to bid, where the materials are allowed to

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Speaker 2: come from. And then in turn, the Biden administration imposes

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Speaker 2: lots of mandates on infrastructure programs that have nothing to

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Speaker 2: do with any law of Congress past related to things

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Speaker 2: like diversity, equity and inclusion, environmental justice, racial justice, climate change.

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Speaker 2: When you add all that red tape together, we're spending

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Speaker 2: multiple times more than we need to on the projects.

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Speaker 2: They take years longer than they need to. I mean,

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Speaker 2: right now, the expectation is rebuilding this bridge would take

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Speaker 2: ten years, even though the initial construction only took five years.

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Speaker 2: That's absolutely not how we should be doing things in America.

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Speaker 1: I just did a newsletter at GAINID three sixty on

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Speaker 1: rebuilding the Baltimore Bridge, and we've had some examples. One

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Speaker 1: in Minneapolis that was remarkably fast, got the job done.

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Speaker 1: The north Ridge earthquake when Governor Wilson was in charge

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Speaker 1: in California got the job done remarkably fast. You can

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Speaker 1: do it, but it requires breaking out of the mindset

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Speaker 1: of federal red tape and federal regulatory overreach. And it

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Speaker 1: will be interesting to see whether or not the Biden

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Speaker 1: people decide that getting Baltimore back to work is more

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Speaker 1: important than filling out the next ten thousand pages of regulations.

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Speaker 1: And I think that's going to be a big discussion

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Speaker 1: over the next few weeks for that very reason, because

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Speaker 1: it involves so many jobs. And the other thing I've

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Speaker 1: been pushing is they should insist that the shipping company

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Speaker 1: and its insurance companies pay for the bridge. This is

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Speaker 1: a ClearCase where you have somebody who's responsible, and while

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Speaker 1: I think we might loan them the money to keep

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Speaker 1: moving while we fight over it, I think this should

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Speaker 1: be a specific goal of trying to get the total

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Speaker 1: costs of the bridge repair done by the people who

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Speaker 1: are responsible for hitting the bridge, which fits perfectly in

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Speaker 1: insurance law.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, the federal government wasn't operating the ship, State of

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Speaker 2: Maryland wasn't operating the ship. A private company was operating

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Speaker 2: the ship. They have the primary responsibility. And while it

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Speaker 2: might take a few years for different lawsuits to determine

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Speaker 2: whether it's going to be the shipowner or the people

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Speaker 2: who are responsib for the crew who exactly bears the

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Speaker 2: private side responsibility, we don't have a couple of years

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Speaker 2: to sit around waiting for the legal process to sort out.

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Speaker 2: We do want to get the rebuilding process started, but absolutely,

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Speaker 2: I think it's really important for the federal government to

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Speaker 2: keep its eye on the ball and make sure the

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Speaker 2: taxpayers are paid back by the companies involved.

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Speaker 1: We could loan the money to an organization set up

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Speaker 1: to build the bridge, with the understanding that that organization

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Speaker 1: would then take whatever legal steps are necessary for the

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Speaker 1: shipping company and the insurance companies to get the money

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Speaker 1: back for the taxpayers, and just that attitude would be

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Speaker 1: a good step towards moving back towards a balance budget, which,

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Speaker 1: as you know I helped author the only four balance

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Speaker 1: budgets in your lifetime, so I know it can be done,

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Speaker 1: but it takes a totally different attitude and frankly, a

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Speaker 1: lot of mental toughness in order to get it done. David,

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Speaker 1: I want to thank you for joining me. I want

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Speaker 1: to encourage our listeners to go to Heritage dot org

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Speaker 1: to read your latest articles analyzing the spending bill the

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Speaker 1: earmarks within it. I think it is so important for

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Speaker 1: us as a country to realize that we will never

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Speaker 1: lower the federal debt unless we curtail spending, and another

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Speaker 1: more triman earmarks would be a great first step. Thank

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Speaker 1: you very much, Thank you to my guest David Ditch.

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Speaker 1: You can read more about the earmarks and the one

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Speaker 1: point two trillion dollar spending bill on our show page

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Speaker 1: at Newtsworld dot com. News World is produced by Ganglish

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00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:38,560
Speaker 1: three sixty Antiheartmedia. Our executive producer is Guarnsey Sloan and

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00:31:38,640 --> 00:31:42,520
Speaker 1: our researcher is Rachel Peterson. The artwork for the show

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00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:46,280
Speaker 1: was created by Steve Fenley. Special thanks to the team

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Speaker 1: at Ganish three sixty. If you've been enjoying Newts World,

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Speaker 1: us with five stars and give us a review so

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Speaker 1: others can learn what it's all about. Right now, listeners

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Speaker 1: of New World can say for my three free weekly

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Speaker 1: columns at gingriishtree sixty dot com slash newsletter, I'm newt gingriichh.

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Speaker 1: This is Newtsworld