Speaker 1: Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz in our week
Speaker 1: in Review.
Speaker 2: Ben Ferguson with you, And these are the major stories
Speaker 2: that we talked about this week, and well it was
Speaker 2: a big week in news. First up, Democrats still out
Speaker 2: to lunch, not understanding exactly why the policies they have
Speaker 2: on illegal immigration lost them the election. How do we
Speaker 2: know this because of new polling data that proves they
Speaker 2: were out of touch with reality on securing the southern border.
Speaker 1: We'll break that down for you. Also, the big.
Speaker 2: Lie you may remember, the left and the media said
Speaker 2: that there were not gangs from other countries that were
Speaker 2: taking over apartment complexes in Colorado. Well, we now have
Speaker 2: even more proof of just how extreme those gang members
Speaker 2: have become in those apartment complexes now kidnapping and torturing people.
Speaker 2: The details on that as well. And finally, we have
Speaker 2: a big fight over the debt ceiling taking place as
Speaker 2: we speak in Washington. So why is the dead ceiling
Speaker 2: so important? We'll break down the logistics of that as well.
Speaker 2: It's the weekend review and it starts right now. Finally, Senator,
Speaker 2: this is another story and the media is trying to
Speaker 2: figure this out. The Democratic Party is trying to figure
Speaker 2: it out, how do we lose this last selection? What
Speaker 2: caused it was it really our policy on migrants and
Speaker 2: illegal immigrants. And there was a very interesting conversation that
Speaker 2: took place, and people even on the left like, is
Speaker 2: this aha moment? And I laughed because it's something that
Speaker 2: you actually said on this show a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2: Jessica Tarlove and Katie Curic, we're talking about JP governors
Speaker 2: sending ilegal immigrants to other parts of the country from
Speaker 2: border states, and I want to play this clip for people,
Speaker 2: and they specifically we're talking about Rod DeSantis in Florida,
Speaker 2: Greg Abbott in Texas and this is what they said.
Speaker 1: In reaction on.
Speaker 3: The immigration front, there was a tendon see amongst democrats,
Speaker 3: and especially Democrats were discussing the issues of people who
Speaker 3: do interviews or are part of the media to minimize it.
Speaker 3: Over the first two and a half years, when there
Speaker 3: were a lot of people coming in here, and I
Speaker 3: thought that it was a stunt. You know, when they
Speaker 3: started bussing migrants they go to markets, vineyards. Yeah, it
Speaker 3: was the smartest thing they ever did.
Speaker 4: Well. It's interesting because I have a friend who lives
Speaker 4: in Florida, and I said, what did you think of
Speaker 4: of Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott taking some of these
Speaker 4: immigrants and moving them to northern States? And she said,
Speaker 4: I thought it was great because nobody really was paying
Speaker 4: attention before that. And I do think that this untold
Speaker 4: story was the strain on social services and communities, particularly
Speaker 4: along the border, this influx, huge influx of immigrants was
Speaker 4: having and I think the mainstream media, however, you find
Speaker 4: out these days, kind of ignored that story to its peril.
Speaker 2: I mean, wow, right, like, at least they're figuring it out.
Speaker 2: I don't want to say that all the media is
Speaker 2: figuring out, but it is pretty funny they figured out.
Speaker 2: The only problem is they were just a couple of
Speaker 2: years too late.
Speaker 5: Yeah, look at striking to hear Kitty Kurk admitting that now,
Speaker 5: as you know, this was an idea that I suggested
Speaker 5: three years ago. In October of twenty twenty one, I
Speaker 5: introduced a bill called the Surge Act. And the Surge
Speaker 5: Act was designed to create thirteen new ports of entry
Speaker 5: to send illegal immigrants. And here's here's what my press
Speaker 5: really said at the time. If Washington Democrats had to
Speaker 5: endure even a fraction of the suffering South Texas families, farmers, ranchers,
Speaker 5: and small businesses have had to face. Our nation's immigration
Speaker 5: laws would be in force, the wall would be built
Speaker 5: and remain in Mexico. Policy would be implemented. And so
Speaker 5: I introduced legislation to change the points of entry and
Speaker 5: add thirteen new places. Block Island, Rhode Island, Greenwich, Connecticut,
Speaker 5: Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Governor's Island, New York, Rehobeth Beach, Delaware, Nantucket, Massachusetts, Newport,
Speaker 5: Rhode Island, Scarsdale, New York, Palo Alto, California, Yuntville, California,
Speaker 5: Saint Helena, California, and North Hero Vermont, which is where
Speaker 5: Bernie Sanders vacations. And the idea was all the places
Speaker 5: where rich liberals sit and sip chardonnay and look down
Speaker 5: on people concerned about the open borders. And it was
Speaker 5: really striking. At the time I introduced this legislation, the
Speaker 5: leftist media went crazy, and in fact, the county executive
Speaker 5: at Martha's Vineyard attacked me, attacked me by name, and
Speaker 5: he said Cruise doesn't understand immigration. And he said we
Speaker 5: and Martha's Vineyard would welcome illegal immigran Well, several months later,
Speaker 5: Ron De Santis and Greg Abbott took me up on
Speaker 5: what I had suggested, and they did exactly that. They
Speaker 5: sent fifty illegal immigrants to Martha's Vineyard, and of course
Speaker 5: that same county executive within twenty four hours declared an
Speaker 5: emergency and ended up deporting the fifty who had been sent.
Speaker 5: And I'll tell you we actually covered this on Verdict
Speaker 5: several years ago, so I want you to play an
Speaker 5: old segment from Verdict. This is actually pre pre the
Speaker 5: great Ben Ferguson. This is back when when Michael Noles
Speaker 5: and I were doing it.
Speaker 2: Oh good Ford, Yeah, yes, the voice is about to
Speaker 2: change a little bit, right.
Speaker 5: But this is us talking about it three years ago,
Speaker 5: and it had a bit of foreshadowing. So give a listen.
Speaker 6: They've just sent airplanes full of illegal aliens to Martha's Vineyard.
Speaker 6: And I cheered when I saw the headline, and then
Speaker 6: I had to think, you know, there's a certain podcast
Speaker 6: hosted by a certain senator from Texas that has been
Speaker 6: calling exactly for that for many weeks now, and I
Speaker 6: just can't help but wonder if that may have had
Speaker 6: some effect on this policy going into effect.
Speaker 5: I was thrilled when the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott,
Speaker 5: took me up on the idea and began sending illegal immigrants,
Speaker 5: first to d C, then to New York, then to Chicago.
Speaker 5: It's had a fantastic event as these Democratic mayors have
Speaker 5: lost their minds and declared national emergencies. The mayor of
Speaker 5: d C declared a national emergency or a city emergency
Speaker 5: because six thousand illegal immigrants were sent to d C.
Speaker 5: Of course, we've had since Joe Biden became president. We
Speaker 5: have had four point two million illegal immigrants cross illegally
Speaker 5: with Biden as president. It is horrific.
Speaker 6: That's a crazy number. Four point two million. That is
Speaker 6: a crazy number. It is larger than many of the
Speaker 6: states of our union. I mean, four point two million
Speaker 6: since Joe Biden put his hand on the Bible and
Speaker 6: took the oath of office. That's what's come and it
Speaker 6: continues to get worse.
Speaker 5: And what is amazing about when red state governors, first
Speaker 5: Texas now Florida are shipping to blue strongholds is the
Speaker 5: Democrats who talk a good game immediately flipped tail. So
Speaker 5: I want to give you a quote on the from
Speaker 5: Martha's Vineyard. When I introduced the legislation, you had Democrats,
Speaker 5: Democrats and the House of Representatives slamm me. But I
Speaker 5: want to read from the county commissioner of Martha's Vineyard,
Speaker 5: Keith Chattenover, and here's the quote he said about my legislation.
Speaker 5: I would love to see Martha's Vineyard become a haven
Speaker 5: for new immigrants in the country. But Senator Cruz has
Speaker 5: no idea what he's talking about regarding a border crisis.
Speaker 5: He went on to say, immigrants make our country stronger,
Speaker 5: as evidence by immigration from zill in other countries to
Speaker 5: the vineyard. And he is trying to whip up racial
Speaker 5: anxieties for political gain, which is essentially the entire GOP platform. Anyhow,
Speaker 5: that's before they arrived. I want to see if after two, three, four, five,
Speaker 5: six ' ten, one hundred planeloads or bus loads, if
Speaker 5: the county commissioner has the same view.
Speaker 2: Three years ago you said that, Senator, and now we're
Speaker 2: seeing that Democrats are actually saying, man, this is really effective,
Speaker 2: Like this was really really effective. You did this as
Speaker 2: stopped the Surge Act in October twenty twenty one.
Speaker 5: And by the way, three years ago, notice that number
Speaker 5: four point two million illegal immigrants were now over twelve million.
Speaker 5: What has happened at our southern border is an experiment
Speaker 5: in radicalism that has never been tried in the United
Speaker 5: States of America. Our country is struggling the suffering that
Speaker 5: has occurred, and I will say the actual sending of
Speaker 5: planeloads and bus loads of illegal immigrants to Blue strongholds.
Speaker 5: It showed the complete and utter hypocrisy as every Democrat mayor,
Speaker 5: every Democrat governor, every Democrat county executive completely demonstrated everything
Speaker 5: they'd been saying was a lie, and it broke through
Speaker 5: the media freeze out in a way nothing else did.
Speaker 5: I think Katie Kirk's right that that single action of
Speaker 5: demonstrating Democrat hypocrisy on this issue could well have decided
Speaker 5: the presidential election last month.
Speaker 2: Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,
Speaker 2: you can go back and listen to the full podcast
Speaker 2: from earlier this week.
Speaker 1: Now onto story number two.
Speaker 2: Speaking of conspiracy theories, at six months ago they said
Speaker 2: we're not real, or five months or four months or
Speaker 2: three months, even two months ago, and then it becomes
Speaker 2: real That brings me to the second big topic that
Speaker 2: we mentioned earlier, and let's go back to Colorado. Let's
Speaker 2: go back to what the White House and the media said.
Speaker 2: They said that it was not happening, that there were
Speaker 2: not gangs that had been taking over apartment complexes and
Speaker 2: running these criminal gangs out of them in Aurura, Colorado.
Speaker 2: They said this was a lie, that it wasn't true.
Speaker 2: Then they said, well, it's only happening in a couple
Speaker 2: of them, not that many, so it's not a big deal.
Speaker 1: They changed their story again, and.
Speaker 2: Now we were right all along, a legal alien invasion
Speaker 2: in Colorado. Number one is real, and number two, you
Speaker 2: have fourteen detained in Aurora, Colorado in a horrific home
Speaker 2: invasion that are likely illegal gang members. Police are now
Speaker 2: staying saying when individuals were not only taken, but they
Speaker 2: were tortured.
Speaker 5: Well, Martha Raddits at ABC dismissed this, said, oh, it's
Speaker 5: only a handful of apartment complexes, which with the classic
Speaker 5: contempt of the elite left looking down on little people
Speaker 5: that live in apartment buildings who are being terrorized. But
Speaker 5: this story broke this week. The headline from Fox News
Speaker 5: fourteen detained in armed Aurora, Colorado home invasion are likely
Speaker 5: illegal gang members. Home invasion occurred at the Edge at
Speaker 5: Lowry Apartments, where viral videos showed gang members earlier this year.
Speaker 5: So the media tell told us, don't believe your lying eyes.
Speaker 5: Oddly enough, the same thing they're saying about the drone
Speaker 5: sightings of the sky. But here's what Fox reported. Quote
Speaker 5: Police at Aurora, Colorado say the overnight armed home invasion
Speaker 5: at a local apartment complex that resulted in fourteen suspects
Speaker 5: being detained was quote without question, a gang incident. Just
Speaker 5: before two thirty am on Tuesday, police were called to
Speaker 5: the Edge at Lowry Apartments for a reported armed home
Speaker 5: invasion in which the victims were kidnapped and assaulted, the
Speaker 5: Aurora Police said. Aurora Police Department Chief Todd Chamberlain said
Speaker 5: during the Tuesday news conference that thirteen to fifteen people,
Speaker 5: mostly males with some females, entered an apartment where two
Speaker 5: people were inside. Police say the suspects took the migrant
Speaker 5: victims to another apartment at the same location, where the
Speaker 5: victims were threatened and bound. One of the victims, a man,
Speaker 5: sustained a stab wound, but is expected to survive. Police
Speaker 5: said both of the victims are still at the hospital
Speaker 5: for treatment for their injuries. At some point, authority said,
Speaker 5: the suspects released the victims, who then called nine one one.
Speaker 5: Quote they were pistol whipped, they were beat they were mistreated.
Speaker 5: Chamberlain said, so does that fall in the category of
Speaker 5: torture for me? Yeah, it does. That's the chief of
Speaker 5: police in Aurora, Colorado. And he went on to say, quote,
Speaker 5: this is without question a gang incident. I don't know
Speaker 5: which gang they're affiliated with. Yes, Chamberlain said that quote
Speaker 5: there is a high assumption that they may be affiliated
Speaker 5: with the TDA, the trender Aragua gang, but he stopped
Speaker 5: short of declaring which gang in particular was involved because
Speaker 5: he could not be certain. At this time, we were
Speaker 5: told this wasn't true, and yet it is true.
Speaker 2: Well, and let's go back to Martha Raddick, because this
Speaker 2: was when she was getting into it with JD. Vance
Speaker 2: on this issue, and I want you to hear what
Speaker 2: she had to say. And again, this goes back to
Speaker 2: the lies. When people don't trust the media or the
Speaker 2: government when they lie to.
Speaker 7: Us, stop you. The incidents were limited to a handful
Speaker 7: of apartment conflicts apartment complexes, and the mayor said, our
Speaker 7: dedicated police officers have acted on those concerns. A handful
Speaker 7: of problems.
Speaker 6: Only, Martha, do you hear yourself?
Speaker 8: Only a handful of apartment complexes in America were taken
Speaker 8: over by Venezuelan gangs. And Donald Trump is the problem
Speaker 8: and not Kamala Harris's open border. Americans are so fed
Speaker 8: up with what's going on, and they have every right
Speaker 8: to be.
Speaker 2: By the way, if it's your apartment complex, I think
Speaker 2: it is a big deal when you have it being
Speaker 2: taken over by the.
Speaker 5: Government and stop lives an opulent She's a multi millionaire.
Speaker 5: It's not her problem. Her home wasn't taken over by
Speaker 5: Venezuelan gang, So why should she possibly be concerned? And listen,
Speaker 5: that liberal contempt for ordinary Americans is a big part
Speaker 5: of the reason we saw the overwhelming election results we
Speaker 5: did in November.
Speaker 2: Finally, Senator, I want to get to this other issue,
Speaker 2: and that is Uh, there's a study that has come out.
Speaker 2: It's really shocking and it is one where I guess
Speaker 2: you call it a poll that young people in this
Speaker 2: country actually are understanding of this assassin in New York
Speaker 2: City who killed the Healthcare CEO, saying it's almost justifiable
Speaker 2: that this is happening to people that work in industries
Speaker 2: they don't like.
Speaker 5: Yeah, this is really stunning. So Emerson College put out
Speaker 5: a poll, and they polled people's attitudes towards the healthcare
Speaker 5: ceo assassination. Here's what they concluded. Quote, a majority of voters,
Speaker 5: sixty eight percent think the actions of the killer of
Speaker 5: the United Healthcare CEO, Brian Thompson are unacceptable. So I
Speaker 5: want you to pause and think about that. Only sixty
Speaker 5: eight percent of Americans think it is unacceptable to murder
Speaker 5: someone in cold blood. Seventeen percent find the actions acceptable
Speaker 5: murdering someone in cold blood, mind you, while sixteen percent
Speaker 5: are unsure. Now, if you break it down a little more,
Speaker 5: here's what Emerson College continues. Quote, well, sixty eight percent
Speaker 5: voters overall reject the killer's actions. Younger voters and Democrats
Speaker 5: are more split. Forty one percent of voters aged eighteen
Speaker 5: to twenty nine find the killer's actions acceptable, while forty
Speaker 5: percent find them unacceptable. So, according to Emerson College polls,
Speaker 5: more young people age eighteen to twenty nine find the
Speaker 5: cold blooded murder of this ceo acceptable, then find it unacceptable,
Speaker 5: And it's forty one percent to forty If you break
Speaker 5: down that forty one percent, twenty four percent say it
Speaker 5: is somewhat acceptable, and seventeen percent say it is completely acceptable. Yes,
Speaker 5: murder of CEO. We've been trained like good little Marxists.
Speaker 5: Shoot them now. By the way, if you break it
Speaker 5: down on party lines, twenty two percent of Democrats find
Speaker 5: them acceptable, while fifty nine percent find them unacceptable. So
Speaker 5: over a fifth of Democrats think it's perfectly fine to
Speaker 5: murder a CEO, to murder a man in cold blood,
Speaker 5: to shoot him in the back, and the comparison among Republicans,
Speaker 5: twelve percent of Republicans find the actions acceptable and sixteen
Speaker 5: percent of independence find the actions acceptable. I got to say, look,
Speaker 5: of all of those polls, the one that is the
Speaker 5: most horrifying is forty one percent of young people find
Speaker 5: the killer's actions acceptable and only forty percent find them unacceptable.
Speaker 5: So a plurality of young people say, hey, no problem,
Speaker 5: murder someone who's a CEO. That is as stunning an
Speaker 5: indictment of the brainwashing that young people are receiving in
Speaker 5: school in K through twelve education in colleges and universities
Speaker 5: and through the media as anything I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: It is the doctrination.
Speaker 2: And it's also I think the radical left taking over
Speaker 2: education where and they're normalizing it. It's what you and
Speaker 2: I talked about on this podcast a couple of days ago.
Speaker 2: The left has normalized the idea of assassinating people you
Speaker 2: disagree with who are in positions of power and giving
Speaker 2: you reason to believe that it is justifiable.
Speaker 5: And remember Joy Bihar on the view said it was
Speaker 5: terrible that I said it was leftists who are saying this. Well,
Speaker 5: look that polling data shows it's Democrats and it's young.
Speaker 5: It doesn't break it down by liberal or conservative. But
Speaker 5: I am very confident a significant percentage of those young
Speaker 5: people that think it's acceptable would also identify as leftists.
Speaker 5: And we know that young people skew further left anyway.
Speaker 5: This is Look, let me repeat what ought to be
Speaker 5: a simple proposition. Murder is always, always, always wrong, whether
Speaker 5: you like the person or not. And by the way,
Speaker 5: all the people who think the murder of this CEO
Speaker 5: is is so horrible, they don't know anything about him.
Speaker 5: They don't know about any health care climate claims. He denied.
Speaker 5: He was CEO of a major healthcare insurance company. Now,
Speaker 5: I get a lot of people don't like insurance companies.
Speaker 5: I've got issues with insurance companies. But this guy may
Speaker 5: be a wonderful human being. We don't know. He was
Speaker 5: a father, he of two teenage kids. He was murdered
Speaker 5: in cold blood, and yet according to this poll, forty
Speaker 5: one percent of young people think perfectly okay to murder him.
Speaker 5: That is, we need to see people speaking out and
Speaker 5: saying this is wrong, period the end. Not like in
Speaker 5: when we covered this in Monday's podcast, Not like Elizabeth
Speaker 5: Warren and Bernie Sanders and AOC murder is wrong, but
Speaker 5: it's okayar I understand it here. People can only be
Speaker 5: pushed so far. No murder is wrong, period the end.
Speaker 5: That would actually be a good and sensible and moral
Speaker 5: and reasonable position and what was understood throughout American history,
Speaker 5: at least in modern times. But for the cultural Marxist
Speaker 5: murder of the enemy, no problem.
Speaker 1: As before.
Speaker 2: If you want to hear the rest of this conversation
Speaker 2: on this topic, you can go back and dow the
Speaker 2: podcast from earlier this week to hear the entire thing.
Speaker 2: I want to get back to the Big story number
Speaker 2: three of the week you may have missed.
Speaker 5: Here's the third principle. I want to say. There are
Speaker 5: some people arguing for eliminating the debt ceiling permanently, altogether,
Speaker 5: just getting rid of the death ceiling, never again having
Speaker 5: to worry about it. And by the way, one of
Speaker 5: the plans that's discussed is, well, the Democrats have always
Speaker 5: wanted to eliminate the death ceiling, so let's just do that,
Speaker 5: and that's how we get out of this. I pray
Speaker 5: that is not the end game here. Eliminating the debt
Speaker 5: ceiling would be the single worst step we could possibly
Speaker 5: take if you care about spending or deficits or debt. Now,
Speaker 5: why is that? Okay, let's do a little history. Historically,
Speaker 5: the debts has been the single greatest leverage Republicans have
Speaker 5: had to force spending restraint. Now, this has only happened,
Speaker 5: and it's only worked against the opposing party. So one
Speaker 5: of the challenges with the debt ceiling is when your
Speaker 5: own party is in power. Trump wants the dead ceiling raised.
Speaker 5: Every president wants the dead ceiling raised. Republicans, as a
Speaker 5: general matter, are not willing to exert massive leverage on
Speaker 5: their own parties president and force spending restraints. So when
Speaker 5: Trump was president the first time, the debt ceiling was
Speaker 5: not leverage against Trump because Republicans didn't want to do that.
Speaker 5: I understand that. But when Democrats are in the White House, Republicans,
Speaker 5: the debt ceiling is the single most effective lever point
Speaker 5: that has been used against Democrats to force spending restraints.
Speaker 5: And I want to point to a couple of examples.
Speaker 5: Number one, Graham Rudman Hollings. Graham Rudman Hollings, passed decades ago,
Speaker 5: remains the single most effective spending restraint that has ever
Speaker 5: been passed into law. Phil Graham, former Senator from Texas,
Speaker 5: was the lead author. How did that get passed? It
Speaker 5: got passed because of the debt ceiling. Got passed because
Speaker 5: Republicans forced it and said, we won't raise the debt
Speaker 5: ceiling unless you pass meaningful structural reform to reign in spending.
Speaker 5: And Graham Hollings was in effect for many years and
Speaker 5: had a very positive effect reigning in the growth of spending.
Speaker 5: I'll point to a second example twenty ten, the Budget
Speaker 5: Control Act. Twenty ten, Barack Obama was president and Republicans
Speaker 5: used the debt ceiling to force Barack Obama to agree
Speaker 5: to something called the Budget Control Act. The Budget Control
Speaker 5: Act again significantly constrained the growth of federal spending. It
Speaker 5: was only through the debt ceiling we got that. Now
Speaker 5: the argument. And by the way, today we the Republicans senators,
Speaker 5: we all had lunch. JD. Vance came to express his views.
Speaker 5: To the lunch, there were a number of Republicans saying, well,
Speaker 5: we should just get rid of the debt ceiling now.
Speaker 5: And I'll tell you I expressed my views. If we
Speaker 5: get rid of the debt ceiling, it would be utterly disastrous.
Speaker 5: If you care remotely about government spending, eliminate the debt
Speaker 5: ceiling would be a massive mistake. And I just put
Speaker 5: it up. If we get rid of the dead ceiling,
Speaker 5: there will come another Democrat president. I get the urge
Speaker 5: to live in the moment of we're in charge. Wuoha.
Speaker 5: But unfortunately, there will come another time when the American
Speaker 5: people elect a Democrat. And for anyone who has an
Speaker 5: attention span beyond twelve seconds, you recognize throughout history that
Speaker 5: politics has been a pendulum, and it goes from one
Speaker 5: party to the other so we will get another Democrat president.
Speaker 5: And I told my colleagues today at lunch, I said,
Speaker 5: all right, you get rid of the debt ceiling. Get
Speaker 5: ready for president Elizabeth Warren. And if you don't like
Speaker 5: a thirty six trillion dollar debt, get ready for fifty
Speaker 5: trillion dollar debt. Because the Democrats, Elizabeth Warren wants to
Speaker 5: eliminate the death ceiling. AOC wants to eliminate the death ceiling.
Speaker 5: Chuck Schumer wants to eliminate the dead ceiling because they
Speaker 5: want to spend us into oblivion. So I will say,
Speaker 5: one potential way out of this is to cut an
Speaker 5: absolute deal with the Democrats that gets rid of the
Speaker 5: debt ceiling forever. We will have given away what history
Speaker 5: has proven. And by the way, I'll go back. I'll
Speaker 5: go back to about a decade. I don't have the
Speaker 5: most recent stats, but about a decade ago, it was
Speaker 5: the case that of the previous fifty one times Congress
Speaker 5: had raised the debt ceiling, twenty eight of those times
Speaker 5: that had attached meaningful conditions to the death ceiling. So
Speaker 5: it's leverage. Remember my principal number two. As you was
Speaker 5: spending for leverage, this is related on principal number three.
Speaker 5: The death ceiling is about getting leverage for concessions. Now
Speaker 5: here's the problem I mentioned to you. There are a
Speaker 5: bunch of Republicans in the House who say they'll never
Speaker 5: vote for continue resolution. There are also a bunch of
Speaker 5: Republicans in the House who say they will never, ever
Speaker 5: ever vote to raise the debt ceiling. I got to
Speaker 5: tell you, I don't think that makes any sense. I've
Speaker 5: never said it, and I consider myself very much a
Speaker 5: fiscal conservative. But forty percent of every dollar the federal
Speaker 5: government spends is borrowed unless you're prepared to slash the
Speaker 5: federal government budget by forty percent tomorrow. And by the way,
Speaker 5: there is literally no serious person on planet Earth who
Speaker 5: is prepared to do that and is able to do that.
Speaker 5: Even if you would with a magic wand do that,
Speaker 5: there's no way to make that happen. Unless you're prepared
Speaker 5: to do that, the debt ceiling will have to be raised.
Speaker 5: My position has always been I'm willing to vote to
Speaker 5: raise the debt ceiling if we are getting concessions that
Speaker 5: are raining in the out of control spending that's bankrupting
Speaker 5: our country. However, in the House. There are a bunch
Speaker 5: of Republicans who simply say, I will never ever ever
Speaker 5: vote to raise the dead ceiling, no matter what. It
Speaker 5: doesn't matter what we get. My answer is no, that
Speaker 5: is a real problem. Let me make one final principle.
Speaker 5: Mike Johnson, who's the Speaker of the House. There are
Speaker 5: a bunch of voices on TV, a bunch of voices
Speaker 5: on talk radio, a bunch of voices on Twitter saying
Speaker 5: get rid of Mike Johnson, throw them overboard. I'm going
Speaker 5: to tell you something that I believe is an absolute fact.
Speaker 5: Mike Johnson is the single most conservative Speaker of the
Speaker 5: House that will ever be Speaker of the House in
Speaker 5: our lifetime. He is undoubtedly the most conservative Speaker of
Speaker 5: the House we have ever had in our lifetime. It's
Speaker 5: not even close, It's not even arguable. And I'm here
Speaker 5: to tell you listen, Mike Johnson may lose his job
Speaker 5: over this. He has a very perilous It's a tiny
Speaker 5: majority in the House. You've got a bunch of House
Speaker 5: members saying I'm going to vote against him. I will
Speaker 5: tell you this, if Mike Johnson is toppled a Speaker
Speaker 5: of the House, and he might be Kevin McCarthy was.
Speaker 5: Mike Johnson is orders of magnitude more conservative than Van McCarthy.
Speaker 5: It's not even close. If Mike Johnson is toppled as
Speaker 5: Speaker of the House, we will end up with a
Speaker 5: Speaker of the House who is much much more liberal
Speaker 5: than Mike Johnson. I think that is indisputable. I know
Speaker 5: Mike Well, he's a good man. He's a decent man.
Speaker 5: He's a strong Christian, he is a man of humility.
Speaker 5: And everyone on Twitter is saying, but he gave the
Speaker 5: Democrats concessions. I want to go back to the first principle.
Speaker 5: I said, count to two eighteen. If Mike Johnson could
Speaker 5: draft a bill that makes it out of the House
Speaker 5: with two hundred and eighteen Republicans, he would I don't
Speaker 5: believe that is possible. There's certainly nothing to indicate its
Speaker 5: possible right now. If you cannot get to two eighteen
Speaker 5: with Republicans because a bunch of Republicans say I will
Speaker 5: not vote for anything you propose, no matter what, then
Speaker 5: Mike Johnson is forced to get Democrat votes. To get
Speaker 5: Democrat votes, he must give Democrats things they want. And
Speaker 5: so I don't know what will happen. I think there's
Speaker 5: a reasonable chance somehow out of this we get some
Speaker 5: very short term cr a week or two or three,
Speaker 5: and then in mid January we're back in the middle
Speaker 5: of this mess again. That's possible. I'll tell you. In
Speaker 5: the state, we're all sitting there. We have no idea
Speaker 5: what's going to happen. I gotta tell you. I feel
Speaker 5: for Mike Johnson. I think he is trying with all
Speaker 5: his might, and I would just encourage you to focus
Speaker 5: on listen. I think we need people to be serious
Speaker 5: about changing the direction of the battleship of government, and
Speaker 5: to do so, you actually need a strategy that can
Speaker 5: get the votes to prevail. If you can't get the votes,
Speaker 5: it's easy to tweet about it. I mean that's from
Speaker 5: the cheap seats. Thirty eight Republicans voted No. One hundred
Speaker 5: and seventy four is not to eighteen, and so I
Speaker 5: don't know what the result is here. I think it
Speaker 5: is chaotic. We will get through this one way or another.
Speaker 5: But the fundamental structural dynamics, and it's one of the
Speaker 5: things look going forward into the next year. I'm really
Speaker 5: optimistic about the Trump presidency. I'm really optimistic about a
Speaker 5: Republican Senate in the House. But I'll tell you the
Speaker 5: Senate's going to be a lot easier. We've got fifty
Speaker 5: three Republicans coming in next year. By the way, we
Speaker 5: still have a Democrat Senate today, so I haven't even
Speaker 5: this whole discussion has ignored the fact that you've got
Speaker 5: to get Chuck Schumer and the Democrats to agree with
Speaker 5: whatever you do, which is even harder. But next year
Speaker 5: we'll have fifty three Republicans in the Senate. Fifty three
Speaker 5: is a big enough majority that we can lose three
Speaker 5: votes and still get things done. So I think the
Speaker 5: Senate will be able to pass pretty good legislation, not fantastic,
Speaker 5: not wonderful, but surprisingly good. The House worries me enormously
Speaker 5: next year because the majority is so excruciatingly small that
Speaker 5: if you lose a handful of votes, you cannot get
Speaker 5: to to eighteen. And so I think Mike Johnson is
Speaker 5: trying to work miracles right now. But the single hardest
Speaker 5: challenge of the next two years in terms of passing
Speaker 5: good legislation is going to be getting to too eighteen
Speaker 5: in the House. And I don't know what the answer is.
Speaker 2: To that as always, thank you for listening to Verdict
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Speaker 2: Ferguson Podcasts, and we will see you back here on
Speaker 2: Monday morning.