12-21-24 The Weekend Hour 1: The "Crisis" That Wasn't. Government Shutdowns Are A Farce

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good night. Michael Brown joins me here, the former FEMA
director of talk show host Michael Brown. Brownie, No, Brownie,
You're doing a heck of a job. The Weekend with
Michael Brown.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Well, Merry Christmas, Happy Honikah, soon to be. Let's see
we got prosperous new Year. What else do I want
to wish you? Happy Kwanza? Man, not gonna do that.
And let's see a little Festivus, the Festivus for the
rest of us or whatever the phrase is. I'm not
quite sure when Festivus is this year, but anyway, Merry Christmas,

(00:30):
Happy Honikah, and happy New Year. And it is the
Weekend with Michael Brown. And I'm really glad you've tuned in.
We are live today, so yeah, no, I'm working. I'm
actually here. We got some rules of engagement which you
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(00:51):
three one zero three three three one zero three, And
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(01:13):
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(01:33):
go follow me on X at Michael Brown USA. So
I woke up this morning assuming that the United States
Senate had passed the continuing resolution for which we heard,
you know, that was all the news all week long.
Is the government going to shut down? Is they're going
to shut down? Oh my gosh, it's going to be

(01:53):
your crisis of the government shuts down. The government never
shuts down, although we've had what like like nineteen shutdown
in the past, I don't know, ten years or something,
whatever the number is I don't care because I don't
care about government shut downs. You know that it's not
even a dirty little secret anymore. But I remember years
ago trying to explain after I'd left my after I'd

(02:17):
left the White House and the government, and I was
explaining to people something about whatever the government shutdown was
about toccur. I tried to explain to people first and foremost, Yes,
there are some bureaucrats that will not get a paycheck.
Although the majority of them will, some will not. But
those people who are not getting a paycheck can go

(02:39):
to any bank, credit union, you know, mobster on the corner,
you know, payday, loan shop, wherever they want to go.
They get the health bills, they get, come to me exaid.
I'd be charging them twenty five percent interest, and I
give them a loan. You know why I give them
a loan because having them assign their back pay to

(03:01):
me is guaranteed income. So I would get the back
pay plus you know, twenty five percent, maybe twenty five
percents a little high. If that's the case, then maybe
I should charge them thirty five percent. But whatever the
rate would be, they're gonna get paid. They're gonna get
the back pay even if they don't work. Everything else

(03:21):
is predominantly automated. Now. The US military is troops are
still in Syria, they're still in Europe, they're still in
South Korea, they're still in South America, they're still everywhere.
And the ships at sea are still you know, the
ships don't just stop and everybody just says, okay, shut

(03:43):
her down, you know what, just you know, go play, go,
go play some racketball or whatever. Go up on deck
and get your fishing gear out and go fish. Or
the submarines just you know, okay, we're going to service
and just sit here for a while. No, that's not
what happens. Everything continues to move along, checks continue to
go out. If now, the only thing that might affect

(04:06):
something like Social Security or food stamps would be if
you are a new applicant. So if you are, let's
say the governments, let's just pretend for a moment it
really did shut down, and it's going to be shut down,
you know, through Christmas, and you are a new person
that's applying for welfare benefits, or you are a new

(04:27):
person applying for Social Security or Medicare, you may have
to wait until the government reopens. Oh, it's the end
of civilization, right, No it's not. But if you're already
on Social Security, if you are waiting on a IRS
refund check, or you're waiting to reload your EBT guard,

(04:48):
that's still going to happen. If you're flying, let's again
pretend for a moment, if the government's shut down. If
you're flying today or tomorrow, or going somewhere, you know,
to see Grandma or to see the grandkids or whatever
you're doing, air traffic Control is still controlling air traffic.
So everything continues on as usual, but they will do

(05:11):
stupid stuff to make you feel the pain. Now, maybe
not so much in the wintertime, because I don't know
how many people really go, you know, hiking in the
National forest in the wintertime, unless you're going snowshoeing or something,
or if you're in DC, they might shut down, and
you know, the monuments or the Air and Space Museum
might be shut down, which will be shut down on

(05:32):
Christmas anyway, So they don't the government just does not
shut down. And the other thing that drives me crazy crazy,
you know, I've got a real uh bugaboo about language
and the language that we use for just everyday conversation

(05:52):
because that language tends to morph. And then it's you
have the media, the cabal. You have people in the
media that will use certain words and then they use
certain inflections with those words to really honestly, they're just
trying to make you scared. They're trying to instill fear.

(06:13):
So what's the word that you would associate with the
government shutdown? But what's the one word? It's two syllable word.
See six letters. Had to stop your account for a minute.
What's the one word crisis? It's going to be a
crisis if the government shuts down. This morning, I wake

(06:35):
up and after walking the dogs and just you know,
having some breakfast and stuff, open my computer. I've been
turned on the radio, haven't turned on the TV, haven't
opened the computer or anything. So I open up the
computer and turn on the TV simultaneously, and then boom,
there it is. Crisis is averted. I mean that was

(06:59):
literally those are the first words I heard. Crisis is averted.
And I'm not exaggerating, I'm not lying to you. I thought,
what crisis? Does something happen? Was there like uh, you
know some you know, nuclear ballistic missile headed our way
and we shot it out of the air.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
What was it?

Speaker 2 (07:19):
Oh, it was the shutdown, really, And that's exactly I'm
not exaggerating about. Oh, crisis is averted. And it was
the local news channel here in Denver. It was our
Fox thirty one affiliate, and they were talking about how
this crisis had been averted. And I thought it was
it's not a crisis, but everyone may you know, and

(07:40):
in fact, not only does the media want you to
think it's a crisis, but the politicians themselves, there's members
of Congress. They want you to think it's a crisis.
The only thing that's a crisis that is truly a crisis.
And I talked about this on my local program yesterday,
is my fear of a government default because if we
default on our debt that has worldwide implications that would

(08:05):
probably rip us apart domestically. We would no longer be
the world's superpower. Capital would flow out of this country
like crazy, and the country itself would wretch our way
into a depression, and the dollar would no longer be
the reserve currency of the world, and we would be

(08:26):
just a two bit little country again, like you know,
England or Germany or France who themselves are falling apart.
So if this is a crisis, what would really happen?
Let's think about that. It's the Weekend with Michael Brown.
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(08:47):
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I'll be right back. Hey, welcome back to the Weekend

(09:12):
with Michael Brown. Glad to have you with me. I
hope everybody's ready for a great holiday week. Be sure
and follow me on x It's at Michael Brown USA
and on your podcast app if you'd like to. I'd
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for the Situation with Michael Brown and hit subscribe, and
then of course leave a five star review. So what happened?

(09:37):
Congress once again, you know, waits until Christmas. They're all.
You know, I heard somebody on I made this Fox
News yesterday describe me that there's this secret air duct
inside the Capitol Building and it starts at about you know,
noon on the Friday before they head out for Christmas,

(09:59):
blowing the fumes of burning jet A into the building
to remind them that they got planes waiting out at
Reagan National Airport and they've got to hurry up and
do something to get out of town because that's what
they really care about. So they know that if they
wait until, if the leadership knows that they wait and
keep putting the vote off, later and later, they're going
to finally get people to cave and just get whatever

(10:20):
they want. Because these these Congress critters really care more
about getting home for the holidays than they do for
actually doing their job and making sure that the country functions. So,
you know, I wake up this morning and find out
that they did pass a last minute continuing resolution, and
maybe we should define what that continuing continuing resolution is.

(10:42):
That is just a continuing resolution with nothing else in it,
just says that whatever your department and agency has been
spending on a per month basis, you will continue to
spend that amount of money until a date certain. And
now the dates certain under this cr is this coming?

(11:02):
I think March twenty five. I may not be exactly
right on the date, but I think it's March twenty five.
So Michael, my producer, and I were talking during the
break about so we're just going to have this chain
of crisis coming up, and I said, yeah, the next
one's going to be about springtime, about spring break time,
when all the rug rats are getting out and you know,
college is out and everybody's going out on spring break.

(11:23):
There'll be another crisis. Everybody will be trying to figure
out what's going on, and the process that they go
through usually ends up angering all the different factions of
whoever's in control. In this case, it happens to be
the Republicans. So every faction within the Republican Party is
exposed and then they all start, you know, fighting each other,

(11:45):
and the Democrats just sit back and watch. When the
Democrats are controlled, they somehow know that, look, we know
the this this would be you know, if it's still
Nancy Pelosi speaker or it was you know, Chuck Schumer
in the Senate. They'd be going to any dissident members

(12:06):
and saying, look, and they'd read on the Riot Act
you want X, I'll eventually get you X, whatever it is,
but right now, I need you to vote on this.
We'll sit down, shut up, vote on it, and then
we'll worry about what you want later on. And of
course they're willing to do that because they know that
eventually they'll get what they want. Republicans don't know how
to govern. Republicans are still learning after that forty years

(12:32):
in the wilderness from nineteen ninety four backwards. Whatever that
forty years would be nineteen why would they be nineteen
fifty four. They were in the minority for forty freaking years.
So in their DNA, it's all about being the opposition party.
Well since nineteen ninety four in Newt Ginrich's contract with America,

(12:53):
that was the first year that they really had a
chance to govern it. And quite frankly, Speaker Ginrich did
a wonderful job of governing. Put together a list of
specifics and said here's what we're gonna do, and then
set about doing them. And he was able to herd
the cats and get ninety percent of it done. Speaker

(13:13):
Mike Johnson, on the other hand, started out with Plan A,
which was a continuing resolution with all that stuff I
just described plus the Christmas presence, and the Christmas presence
was just about everything you could possibly imagine, including a
pay raise. Now it was you know, it was originally
point reported that it was a forty percent pay raise.

(13:36):
It wasn't quite that much, but it was nonetheless a
three point eight percent cost of living allowance. Hmmm, how's
your cost of living doing? Did you get your cost
of living allowance this year? So these jerk butts members
of Congress actually had the audacity to put into a
continuing resolution a pay increase so that when they go

(14:00):
through the next election cycle and you have a ninety
eight percent re election and incumbency rate, well they're going
to get a pay raise. So they're in essence voting
themselves a pay raise. And that was just one of
the things included in it. One hundred billion dollars in
disaster relief, of farm Aid bill, funding of the State
Department's Global Engagement Center, which is, in my opinion, a

(14:21):
censorship tool. The pay raises, all of this stuff, and
it got shot down because Elon Musk and Donald Trump
objected to it, so then you get Plan B. And
the new plan was a smaller cr that included the
disaster funding farm relief, but extended the suspension of the

(14:42):
debt ceiling so that Trump could make permanent his middle
class tax cuts and began mass deportation operations without running
into what's considered an arbitrary limit on spending, because tax
cuts count as government spending because they reduce revenue, but
they really don't. Tax cuts actually increase government revenue. Well,

(15:04):
that failed because deficit hawks like Chip Roy and Thomas Massey.
Let me just make sure you understand why how I
feel about Chip Roy and Thomas Massey. I adore Thomas Massey.
I think he's a genuinely conservative Republican that generally wants
to fix things. Chip Roy, I think is an opportunist.

(15:24):
So all of you Texans that he represents chip Roy
is remember chip Roy wanted to impeach Donald Trump. He
voted for impeachment. He voted against the first articles. He
wanted them revised, he wanted them kind of rewritten, but
he was still for impeachment. So he's not really a conservative.
But both of them said they would not vote to
continue the suspension of the debt ceiling, though Trump pointed

(15:46):
out that Congress had already done that to benefit Joe Biden,
So why don't you do it to benefit me? I mean,
this is what I find mind boggling about Republicans being
unable to govern, because, oh, when you don't have control
of the House, you will vote for it, and you'll
horse trade with Joe Biden. But you won't horse trade
with Donald Trump, who says, hey, listen, I need that

(16:08):
suspended because I am going to have to spend some
extra money. And I thought, that's what we want. I thought, yes,
we want to reduce government spending, but we know there's
going to be a bump and spending to do these deportations,
there's going to be a bump, you know, to continue
the tax cuts. Do you want your taxes to increase? No,
we don't work to do. We want the corporate tax
rate to go up because of this corporate tax rate.

(16:28):
Tax rate goes up, that means the cost of goods
and services that you buy from all these companies that's
going to go up too. Even if it's an ELM
and pop shop, those prices are going to go up.
So I don't know. Mike Johnson just does not seem
to me to be able to know how to govern effectively.
Now I don't want another Don't get me wrong, I
don't want another fighter of the speakership because when when

(16:51):
Congress reconvenes and they start voting, remember there's a couple
of members of Congress that are going to work for
the Trump administration going to be out of the picture.
They're not going to be in Congress. So our five
member margin might be reduced to two or three members
or maybe even fewer than that. And then if somebody
gets sick, who knows. Can you imagine a Democrat getting

(17:15):
elected speaker because we've got two that went to work
for Trump, and then we have two or three that
get get involved in a car accident or they have
a heart attack, or they're they're in the er and
they're indbated and they can't vote, can't do anything. Can
you imagine that? And so now Democrats actually have the majority,
even though it's only a majority in numbers, not in
elected seats. But still that's what it takes to become

(17:37):
the speaker, just a majority of those present. Got to
think about that stuff. You really have to think about it.
But when we get back, I want you to think
about this. The panic and the use of the word crisis.
If the government shut down and didn't pass a funding bill,
well that's how the media covers it. But during predis shutdown,

(18:00):
what terrible things happened. I'll give you a list. It's
The Weekend with Michael Brown. Takes the word Michael, Michael
to three three, one zero three. I'll be right back.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
Tonight.

Speaker 3 (18:13):
Michael Brown joins me here, the former FEMA director of
talk show host Michael Brown.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
Brownie, no, Brownie, You're doing a heck of a job
the Weekend with Michael Brown.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
Hey, welcome back to the Weekend with Michael Brown. Glad
to have you with me. Do me a favor, you know, Mike,
you know what I went from all of you for Christmas?

Speaker 1 (18:29):
A follow on X.

Speaker 2 (18:31):
So if you're not on X, you ought to be.
If you're on NEX, you ought to be following me
at Michael Brown USA, At Michael Brown USA. I am.
I'm a greedy bastard. I just I always see these
numbers and I'm nineteen thousand, one hundred almost nineteen thousand,
two hundred and it's like, okay, let's get to twenty
thousand now, so go follow me on X at Michael

(18:53):
Brown USA at Michael Brown USA. So the crisis was
averted and you were able to sleep through the night
and you woke up this morning and life was as usual.
Now what's interesting is they, you know, once the House
passed the bill, and I don't know what time last
night they passed it, call somebody that cares because I don't.

(19:15):
But at some point he gets over to the US
Senate because you know, remember remember those of you old
enough Sesame Street, How Bill becomes you know, mister Bill,
How Bill becomes a law or whatever that stupid cartoon was, Yeah, yeah, uh,
what was it wrong? Yeah? Okay, cool house rocked and

(19:37):
that little character would talk about how he you know,
it becomes a bill. And so the House passes the
Continuing Resolution with all the appropriations in it and the
little Christmas tree presence, you know, the disaster and the
farm Aid and all of that, and then they send
it over to the Senate. Well, I don't know what
time it got to the Senate, but they start vote,
they start voting, but they don't vote until that They

(19:59):
don't actually passed the bill unt left for midnight, So technically,
technically the government really did shut down for about twenty
or thirty minutes between midnight and you'll say twelve thirty
in the morning. Now, nothing happened, obviously, because you don't
just like, where's the big giant, you know button that
you go push and the government just stops? There is

(20:20):
there is no such button.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
But what I.

Speaker 2 (20:23):
Find funny is we go through the night and in
the morning they talk to us about how the crisis
was averted, although the government technically was out of money
for about thirty minutes. But you know, duh, nothing happened.
But what if they hadn't What if we had woken
up this morning and we were still in crisis mode.
Remember John Stossel, the guy that he used to be

(20:46):
the reporter on ABC News, and he always had these
stories about how you know, here's what they tell you
that something's good or bad for you, but here's the
truth behind it. What they say is bad for you
is really good, or what's good for he's really bad.
Or they tell you that if you do this X
will happen. Well, here's what really happens if you do X. Well,
He's out with a little YouTube video that pretty much

(21:07):
says about how life will go on, and government just
showed us how needless most of it is.

Speaker 3 (21:16):
The government truckdown continues longer than any in history.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
I'm told this is a crisis, government shutdown crisis.

Speaker 4 (21:23):
Another Trump generated crisis.

Speaker 3 (21:25):
In this crisis, crisis crisis, it's causing chaos, confusion, pain.
It's just too much, say the Washington Post, the New
York Times. But wait a second, looking around America, I have.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
To ask, where's that crisis?

Speaker 3 (21:45):
Most everything seems pretty normal there anything today life.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
He's showing people at grocery stores, kids on playgrounds, this
is a waitress in a restaurant. It's just everything that
you and I would continue to do goes on.

Speaker 3 (22:00):
Hun speak is if government's the most important part of America,
But it isn't. We need some government, But most of life,
the best of life goes on without government, much of
it in spite of government, of course.

Speaker 2 (22:15):
You know, I really think that's probably one of the
most important points he makes, is that those things which
are most important, and even those things which may not
be the most important, but which are critical to us,
you know, just living our lives it goes right on
in spite of government.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
If you're one of the eight hundred thousand federal workers
who aren't being paid, the shutdown is a big deal.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
Are you freaking kidding me again? Seriously, the FRALID workers
get a lot of attention.

Speaker 4 (22:45):
They're not getting paid, but they will get paid.

Speaker 3 (22:48):
They all us do after shutdowns. Don't get me wrong,
The shutdowns are real problem. Columnist Paul Krugman giggles about
it being Trump's big libertarian.

Speaker 2 (22:59):
Experi This is an article from twenty nineteen, by the way.

Speaker 1 (23:04):
But it's not libertarian.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
Government's endless rules are still in effect, and soon workers
will be paid for not working. This is a most
unlibertarian experiment, but there are lessons to be learned. Under
President Obama's shutdown, government officials wouldn't allow people to enter
public parks.

Speaker 5 (23:24):
The National Park Service is blocking access to parks and
monuments this shutdown.

Speaker 3 (23:28):
The administration's allowing people in parks, So PBS finds a
new crisis, too much garbage.

Speaker 5 (23:35):
National Park services can't clean up the mess until Congress
and the President reach a spending deal.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
But now volunteers sometimes pick up the trash.

Speaker 3 (23:44):
Private citizens will step in to do some.

Speaker 1 (23:47):
Things government workers used to do.

Speaker 3 (23:51):
The Washington Post finds another problem, farmers aren't receiving government
support checks.

Speaker 1 (23:56):
But why do farmers even get support checks.

Speaker 3 (23:59):
The purpose of the subsidy was to protect the food supply,
but most fruit and vegetable farmers don't get subsidies, and
they do fine. There's no shortage of tangerines, pears of broccoli, grain, cotton,
and corn. Farmers could suck it up and do fine.
Too much of government, we could just get rid of.

(24:21):
The New York Times says shut down curtails FDA food inspection.

Speaker 1 (24:25):
Oh no, we'll be poisoned.

Speaker 3 (24:28):
But if you read the smaller print, you'd learn that
eighty percent of food inspection is done by the Agriculture Department,
and they're still inspecting. But more important, the main reason
food is safe is not government.

Speaker 1 (24:40):
It's competition.

Speaker 3 (24:42):
Fear of getting a bad reputation inspires most food producers
to employ more safety inspectors than government requires.

Speaker 2 (24:50):
What do you think happens, for example, when there's an
equal I breakout? You know, remember we had recently at McDonald's.
I think it was traced onions or something I forget.
I don't know, but Suddenly McDonald's is panic stricken, and
so are the vendors, the suppliers that supplied McDonald's with
whatever it was, the the hamburger patties or the youngers,
whatever it was. Now they're all on the panic. They

(25:13):
don't want Now are there fly by night operations? Yeah?
But do you think flat do you think McDonald's uses
a fly by night operation? No competition, just pure, unadultraateed competition.
You want to make sure that your product is the best,
that it never gets recalled, that it's really, you know,
safe and easily consumable. You want all of that because

(25:35):
you're competing with others who are trying to drive you
out of business. Competition is great.

Speaker 3 (25:42):
Beef carcasses undergo hot steam risks and microbiological testing that
go well beyond what government demand. Yeah, politicians want us
to think it's all about government or government work is needed,
privatize much of it, even security work, like what the
TSA does.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
Is oh, hang tight. That's coming later in the program,
because I'm going to get my rectal examination tomorrow by
the TSA.

Speaker 3 (26:08):
Done better by the private sector. Go to San Francisco's airport.
You'll notice the lines are shorter and they move more quickly.
And passengers say the screeners are nicer.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
Well, here are currently and willing to help.

Speaker 3 (26:22):
Not only are they nicer, the TSA acknowledged that they
were better at finding contraband. That's because they're private contractors.
They have to be better or they might get fired.
Government never fires itself.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
We shouldn't shut it down the government over a dispute.
And you want to shut it down, you're talking about
the last time, Chuck, you shut it the.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
No, no, no.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
Finally, it's absurd that this shutdown is supposedly about appropriating
five point seven billion dollars for part of a border wall.

Speaker 1 (26:52):
That's less than what Washington spends every day. Fifty four
billion dollar increase in the defense budget.

Speaker 2 (26:58):
Well, the Sunate has passed the Farm Bill, a multi
billion dollar legislative package.

Speaker 1 (27:03):
Our debt will soon reach twenty two trillion dollars?

Speaker 2 (27:06):
Isn't that funny? Does that tell you how old this
video is? Our debt will soon reach twenty two trillion dollars? Uh? Yeah,
our debt will soon reach thirty two trillion dollars, because
I think we're currently at thirty one trillion. So we
since this was done. I think this video is maybe
maybe four years old, three at the most, and he's

(27:29):
talking about, oh my gosh, su it's gonna reach twenty
one trillion dollars. And here I am playing it now
for this particular purpose, and we already have thirty one
trillion in debt.

Speaker 1 (27:40):
Government squanders money on useless thing.

Speaker 3 (27:43):
They spent three hundred thousand dollars studying whether Japanese quail
are more sexually promiscuous on cocaine. So when government workers
protest and say we are all essential, real essential, I
say say say, I.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
Say no, no, actually you're not. You're you're not essential.
The point is there's no perspective, none whatsoever. There is
not a crisis, and a crisis was not averted. The
only crisis is in the minds of all of those
politicians who want to make certain that their little pork

(28:22):
project got funded and that whatever constituency they have. And
when I say constituency here, I'm not talking about you
as a voter that might live in their state or
their district. I'm talking about the constituents that are the
bureaucrats that work in those areas that they're particularly interested in.

(28:44):
It's those constituents. It's those programs, it's those people that
get you know, government's become nothing more than a giant
money laundering scheme. That's pretty much it. It's the Weekend
with Michael Brown. Texta word Mike or Michael to this
number three on zero three. Start your message with the
word Mike or Michael, and don't forget to follow me
on X at Michael Brown USA. I'll be right back. Hey,

(29:11):
welcome back to the Weekend with Michael Brown. Glad to
have you with me. Hope everybody has a fantastic holiday.
So the one thing that was not included in this
continuing resolution was an increase in the debt ceiling. Now
we will eventually increase the debt ceiling. We have to

(29:32):
do it because while you know, two things are going
to happen simultaneously, particularly in the first two years of
the Trump administration, and that will be that the vike
Ramaswamy and Elon Musk and I think many Republicans themselves,
including people like Thomas Massey, will be searching for ways

(29:52):
to make government more efficient and to decrease government spending
at the same time. In order for Trump to who
accomplish many of the things that he wants to do
in other areas of the government. There will be some
increase in government spending, and it won't always be a
you know, one to one offset, And in fact, I
think there will be probably slight increases in overall debt.

(30:15):
It's inevitable. And honestly, while I do think it makes
a difference in the short term, it does not because
once again we have not yet reached that tipic. And
by the way, and thanks for reminding me, Yeah, thanks
a lot for reminding me that the debt's currently at
thirty six trillion or thirty two trillion, like I thought, Yeah, well,

(30:37):
you know, I slept last night. Give me a break,
I slept last night. So yeah, when I went to bet,
it was thirty two trillion. You know, I wake up
this morning it was thirty six thirty six trillion, and
you all jump all over my case, like you know,
I'm like, I'm a dumb ass. Well maybe that's true,
but nonetheless those two things are going to happen simultaneously.

(30:58):
But Molly Hemingway yesterday said something that I think is
worth noting. But I think people interpret what she said
for the wrong reasons.

Speaker 5 (31:07):
Molly, we were just discussing that Axios has come out
with a report just the last few minutes at the
House Minority Leader King Jeffries, who we saw there, has
privately floated embracing the wholesale elimination of the debt limit.
Debt limit was supposed to be in this for a
couple of years, it's not. Now what are the debt
limit politics?

Speaker 1 (31:24):
Like?

Speaker 4 (31:25):
We've had people in both parties actually talk about just
getting rid of this because it's such an ordeal to
get it raised. The whole point, though, is that we
need to be cutting our spending and doing it in
very serious and strategic ways, and that's not happening at all.
I can see why a Democrat like haw Kim Jeffries
would want to do it, because generally speaking, even though
both parties are horrifically bad spenders, Democrats have more to

(31:46):
gain from increasing it.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
That's key. Both parties are big spenders, and we're going
to have to spend some extra money in the next
couple of years to start deporting ill aliens and quite frankly,
to start unwinding some contracts. Do you know that to
eliminate a government program sometimes it actually costs money to
do so. Now you may think yourself, how is that, Well,

(32:12):
because if you're going to terminate a contract, there's a
there's there's a termination clause in there, both in the
private sector and in the public sector, because companies enter
into contracts, whether it's with another company or with the government,
and they are relying on that contract for those revenues
in the future. Well, if you even if you contract

(32:33):
with the government, you may have to increase the number
of employees, do some capital allys whatever, in order to
fulfill the terms of the contract. So there's usually a
termination provision that says if either party terminates this contract,
you know, on such and such notice or within you know,
five years of expiration, then the party that terminates the

(32:55):
contract will pay a termination fee in And when you're
talking about you know, billions of dollars in a contract,
it may cost you hundreds of millions of dollars to
terminate the contract. So the Department of ad or a
Department of Commerce or DHS or anybody enters into a
contract with a private contractor to provide a service or

(33:17):
equipment or whatever it might be. And then we come
along as Republicans and conservatives and want of to cut spending,
and we see a contract that we don't think is necessary.
In order to terminate that contract, we're going to have
to pay out for it. And that's money you have
to pay out immediately that you can't pay out over time,
So your spending goes up temporarily. So we're going to

(33:38):
have to spend some extra money to start saving some money.
I know that sounds crazy, but that's just exactly the
way it is, and people have got to I want
people to understand that. But she raises a point that
I think that most people don't fully comprehend.

Speaker 4 (33:51):
A Democrat like Haiking Jeffries would want to do it
because generally speaking, even though both parties are horrifically bad spenders,
Democrats have more to gain from increasing it.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
Democrats have more to gain from increasing the debt limit.
Now why is that? Why do they have to gain?
Because they know how to horse trade. So they say
to Republicans, who are generally speaking fiscal conservatives, Oh, you
want to increase the debt. Huh, well that's going to

(34:22):
cost you. So if you want to increase the debt,
here are the five, ten, fifteen, twenty one hundred things
that we want in exchange for increasing the debt. So
Trump wants to increase the debt or he wants to
remove the debt ceiling so he doesn't have to have
that negotiation and that fight in the first two years
of his presidency. He wants to shove that off. Democrats

(34:44):
want to keep it because they know they can horse
trade for it. Because they know that if we're going
to start streamlining government, terminating contracts, reducing spending, and we
have to increase the debt limit to do that, because
it's going to take time to accomplish all of those things,
they're going to horse trade and they're going to get

(35:04):
things they want. I don't know what it is. I
don't know whether it's in the DNA of Republicans, but
when it comes to negotiations and horse trading, they're the
absolute worst, absolute worst. So I think I don't want
people to hear what Molly Hemingway says and just think that, well, yeah,
of course they've got more to gain, because you know,
they somehow always want to increase the debt because they

(35:27):
want to spend more money. No, they're horse traders. They're
going to increase the debt limit regardless. But in order
to get their votes, which they need in a narrow
margin like we have coming up for the at least
the next two years, they'll get things that they want.
And so I just want you to understand that that

(35:47):
you have all of these moving parts going on as
we are trying to simultaneous reduce spending, which may cost
us more money, and we're doing things that we voted
for Trump to do, like deeport illegal aliens, build the wall.
Think about that fiasco. There's fifty six whatever it was,
fifty six million dollars or fifty six billion, even a

(36:09):
million a billion, who's counting of of steel and concrete
and everything else down on the southern border that's been
wasting away because Biden shut down the construction. Well now
they're selling that off and we're going to have to
buy it back. Yeah, we live in an insane world,

(36:30):
absolutely insane world, and I just want you to understand
how that insane world actually operates as we move into
even more of the insanity. So Weekend with Michael Brown
takes the word Mike or Michael to three three one
zero three, don't forget go follow me on X It's
at Michael Brown USA. That's All I want for Christmas
is just a follow at Michael Brown USA. We'll be

(36:52):
right back