February 25, 2025 • 36 mins
Hour 2 of A&G features...
- DOGE cuts, college donors linked to China & Teamsters
- AP's Style Book is ideological
- Congressman Tom McClintock talks to A&G
- Kamala at the LA wildfires & Jack's silk pillowcase
Stupid Should Hurt: https://www.armstrongandgetty.com/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio of the
George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Arm Strong and Jetty and no he Armstrong and Yetty.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
But apparently our nation civil service is now synonymous with waste.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Fraud, and abuse. The gravy train.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
For a lot of these folks, it's been on biscuit
wheels and it's about to run off the dead gum tracks.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
It's about time.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
First of all, there is no way you actually talk
like that. No way, you're a congressman from Tennessee. You
didn't spring fully formed out of a primordial cracker barrel.
All of this help burocra see is a shot uga shoot, shoot.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
To approp this boil on the flat jacks.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Very funny from the Eastern media elite to media elite. Michael,
very very well chosen. We'll have a chat after the show.
I know plenty of people who talk like that.
Speaker 5 (01:17):
I do too, but we need to take it down
a little on the right with the clever sayings.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Just too many of them, I feel.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Yeah, John Kennedy, we're looking at you.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5 (01:33):
They've just realized, if you want to get on TV,
a little blurb on Fox News or whatever. You have
some clever, little homespun saying, and that'll get you on.
May I apologize to the audience for lying. I said
that Congressman Tom McClintock would kick off this hour of
the program. Indeed, we will visit with him at the
bottom of the hour, but are looking forward to it
very much. I just read his editorial Washington Times. Great stuff. Yeah, yeah,
(02:00):
I look forward to asking him about this stuff.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Part of the.
Speaker 5 (02:02):
Problem with framing Doge in all this is waste, fraud
and abuse is that it misses the point that, even
if it's all legitimate, we can't afford it.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
So oh yeah, well said I.
Speaker 5 (02:17):
Mean you if you I've been here before when I
I was broke, sometimes you look at like where can
you cut and you think I need all of these
things I'm spending money on, but you still don't have
as much money coming in as going out, and something
has got.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
To go right, right.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Indeed, it might be helpful to say waste, fraud, abuse
and overreach. Yeah, or or at some point and some
point soon it's going to be which of these things
that we like and need do we like and need?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
The least because sure the rubber is going to meet
the road at some point anyway before.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Yeah, Mike has got to go in favor of need,
because like is spending us into oblivion.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Back to you.
Speaker 5 (03:01):
Starbucks announced their coffee chain is laying off eleven hundred jobs,
seven percent of its non retail staff. Is there gonna
be a big media scramble to get to Starbucks employees
and have them on there.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
I thought I'd get to work at Starbucks forever. I
just moved here for this job.
Speaker 5 (03:18):
I was working really hard because that would I'm sure
plenty of them would say that. But they lost their
jobs because here in the private sector, that happens all
the flip and time.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Right.
Speaker 5 (03:28):
Another economic thing that I thought was interesting that I
will explain why I think it is a big deal.
In the second, Apple said it's gonna invest half a
trillion dollars in the United States over the.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Next four years.
Speaker 5 (03:41):
So half a trillion over four years and open a
new factory in Houston to build AI servers. I gotta
wonder if maybe they had they wouldn't have built that
in China or something.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
If this were twenty years ago. Oh yeah, one hundred
percent and.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Now it's gonna be built in the United States for
you know, all the reasons that you know. But at
the same time, brit Hume tweeted this out and thought
this was a big deal. Huma Fox. I follow him
because I generally think he's right. The President just released
a new policy that does some big things. It's an
economic policy. It makes it easier for friendly nations to
invest in the United States, and makes it harder for
(04:16):
hostile nations to invest in the United States. And it
makes it harder for hostile nations to steal American technology.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Those are all big things that are definitely welcome.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
I would like to see, and this is an issue
nobody talks about. I would like to see China booted
the hell out of our housing markets.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Oh my god, Yes, oh my god.
Speaker 5 (04:35):
Yes, conglomerates buying up like every house for sale they
can renting them, and.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
It becomes impossible to get a house.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
Yeah, in my town, absolutely, that what goes on. When
I was trying to buy a house. I'm a renter.
When I was trying to buy a house and all
these houses that seem ridiculously overpriced were selling, That's what
real estate agents told me.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
No the Chinese.
Speaker 5 (04:56):
The Chinese, various entities and businessmen are buying up pay
cash and they don't care what they cost, And yeah,
that is a distortion. And I butt head sometimes with
my libertarian brethren on this topic because foreign investment in
the United States is one of the reasons we all
have such a great standard of living, and that's absolutely true.
But a commodity is limited and incredibly necessary is housing,
(05:21):
which is then limited so severely by government policies zoning
and environmental stuff and whatever. That just causes a distortion
that beats down American families, American workers. And it reminds
me of what we were talking about last hour, where
David Leonhardt, a fairly moderate guy at the New York Times,
is writing, Hey, all these left wing governments from the
US to France, to Germany to Canada to Australia, when
(05:46):
their working class was saying, hey, this rampant the immigration
is hurting us badly. They were told shut up by
their left leaning governments, and now it's coming home to
coming back to bite them.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
I think the housing thing is similar. People are They're
screaming for relief and we've got our communists over lords.
Snap it up houses.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
It can't last well.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
Last week we were talking about Senator Tom Cotton's new
book Seven Things You Can't Say about China, and we
hope to talk to him soon. One of them, I
don't know if he mentions the housing market at all
in the book. We'll have to ask him about that,
because that's interesting. But one of them is how China
sending their bright young people over here to attend our
colleges at full freight and eating up all the slots
(06:30):
in the colleges and distorting the price of college because
they don't care what it costs. They just want to
send their students over here to get the best engineering degrees,
invest this and that, and also occasionally a spy distorted
the whole college market. Always a spy had this headline
sitting around, hadn't get gotten to it yet. Under Biden,
American universities raked in nearly a billion dollars from offshore donors,
(06:53):
including many link to China. Yeah, China, and cutter and
all sorts of loathsome regimes have utterly perverted the curricula
of American universities. Again, we fell so in love with
the whole global thing. We forgot that not everybody's nice
like we are. It's funny, the great Satan, the big
(07:14):
belliger in America. No, we're like the nicest people on earth.
We think everybody wants to be our friend worthy the proverbial,
if somewhat insulting naive corn pone from Iowa buying fake
rolexes in Manhattan because we don't know better as a country.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Which is really crazy.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
As the superpower, it's it's almost endearing, but the evildoers
are starting to really exploit it, and it's time to
get tough.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
I bought a fake rolex.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
I knew it was a fake rolex in Times Square
in New York once, and it was quite cheap. It
did not work and felt very flimsy. My son has
a great fake rolex that he bought on Amazon for
seventy dollars.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
It was like super cheap.
Speaker 5 (08:01):
It is great, really heavy, good metal runs. Wow, looks
real your son or rapper he gets. He gets compliments
on it all the time. It's just the look though
a teenage boy with a road.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
It's a little odd, but you know, teach their own
u So speaking of economic matters, and then we'll take
a break because we've got something just great to get to.
Two years ago, you might remember Teamster's boss Sean O'Brien.
You remember him spoke at the Republican Convention and said
I hate Republicans. He touted a historic labor agreement with UPS.
(08:40):
United Parcel Service. Now comes the rest of the story,
and it's not pretty. UPS shares are plunged recently after
it announced workforce and delivery reductions. Workers who lost their
jobs can thank mister O'Brien once again.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Interview the UPS of people that lost their jobs. I
thought I could work here forever. I just moved here
for this job.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
Like the government employees, UPS is having to shrink, shrink
its contracts, just do less work and make less money
and less profit because in Amazon, one of the big clients,
is not going to do more of their own deliveries
because UPS can't do it at a cost anywhere near
Amazon can. Because Amazon's drivers aren't unionized. The Teamsters, according
(09:24):
to the General Editorial Board, have found little success trying
to organize Amazon workers. The UPS agreement increased average compensation
from full time drivers over five years to one hundred
and seventy thousand dollars a year. Teamsters at UPS get
up to seven weeks of vacation and don't pay healthcare premiums.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Yes, I was a teamster.
Speaker 5 (09:45):
It was the most amazing healthcare I ever had in
my entire working life. It was insane, but as actually,
you shouldn't have healthcare this good as a guy who
stacks boxes for a living. I mean, it's just it
doesn't really make sense. Loved it, of course, but it
was pretty ridiculous given US standards.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
So UPS is firing thousands of workers and management closing
two hundred sorting centers. You know, union to have their
role and certainly have in history, but a union like
this one, in this case, all it does is concentrate
wealth in the hands of its members and leaders. It
has nothing to do with work. We're for working people,
We're for labor. No, you're for yourself and your members,
(10:25):
which is fine, but society and UPS need to recognize
that and encounter it. It's just hundreds and thousands and
thousands of workers are losing their jobs so that the
chosen few can get artificially high salaries.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Oh that's just lovely. Ah.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
The Trump versus the AP fight is way more important
than you might think. It's not over the Gulf of America.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Well, it kind of is, which is funny, but it's
about something much more interesting and important.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
We'll talk about that in a second.
Speaker 5 (10:58):
When I was a team stur at ups, the insurance
was I had one hundred percent coverage on medical, no deductible,
one hundred percent deadal noductible, and no do and no payments.
I should have gotten all my teeth pulled and had
several babies. I just should have taken advantage of it.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
You're a fool.
Speaker 5 (11:15):
We got all that stuff Joe mentioned, And we're going
to talk to a Republican Congressman, Tom McClintock coming up
this hour. I look forward to talking to Tom McClintock
as a fiscal conservative and a member of the House
of Representatives, a Republican where he is on the whole
doage thing.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
Yeah, oh yeah, I have a feeling, I know, since
he's been a fiscal hawk, since he was a.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Knee high to a grasshopper. Oh that's right.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
We're not going to be charmingly homespun anymore. There's too
much of that in our nation's discourse. Uh So, one
of my many jihads is against conservatives and even moderates
who for some reason conformed to the language demands of
the left. They say, don't say this that anymore, say this,
(12:01):
and we obey them, even though that change in language
is deliberately designed to pervert the argument or to win
the argument in advance, Like gender affirming care that settles
the argument. Well, all you're doing is affirming the poor
child's gender. Now it's a sex change experiment.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Anyway.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
Trump and the administration are in a bit of a
frakis a bit of a sparring match with the Associated Press.
You may have read about it, the particulars of their
band from the press room, temporarily whatever, the Gulf of
America thing. That's all a distraction because the main issue
is the AP and its style book, which if you're
(12:42):
not in journalism you might not realize is incredibly influential
and has been for decades. It essentially says, all right,
here's how to word something. Here's what words are acceptable unacceptable,
here's the punctuation you should use. From the very mundane
to now. And this is a new development in the
last you know, several years now, it's become extremely ideological.
(13:04):
For instance, and we mentioned this late in the show. Yesterday,
AP began capitalizing black when used as a racial designation,
but not white, because no, no black especial white is
just well, you are white people, and you're bad people.
There are a bunch of other examples. You can't use
alien it's banned, or illegal immigrant in discussing immigration, even
(13:28):
though those are both statutory you know terms. You can't
say chain migration, anchor babies, and they have all sorts
of euphemism, like when CNN infamously described the George Floyd
riots as a mostly peaceful protest that was partly in
deference to the the AP saying don't.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Use riot, oh wow, too hard. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
And then there is its twenty nine hundred word ideological
Manifesto that says, quote, do not use the term transgenderism,
which frames transgender identity is an ideology. It is filled
with bizarre assertions and jargon which reporters are mandated to
accept as if they supersede the facts of life. According
(14:13):
to the guide, a child isn't born a boy or
a girl quote rather.
Speaker 5 (14:16):
Sex is quote usually assigned at birth by parents or attendants,
and can turn out to be inaccurate, which happens one
out of ten thousand times. Examples of gender identities include
non binary, bigender, agender, gender fluid, gender queer, and combinations
of identities such as non binary woman. This is all
radical gender theory.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
Which nobody knew about, cared about, or thought about, and
certainly didn't believe until a cup of coffee ago.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
And they say the dead.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
Naming a transgender person, that is accurately reporting such a
person's given name, even posthumously, in obituaries or other coverage,
is often considered disrespectful to the deceased, their survivors, and
any transgender people. So if you work for the AP,
you'd have to say Aitlyn Jenner won the decathlon in
nineteen seventy six.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
For example. Hey, I got a question.
Speaker 5 (15:06):
Has anybody encountered like you're gonna have a baby and
you you have the doctor?
Speaker 2 (15:11):
You know telepens a boy or girl? Do they like
fudge their language?
Speaker 5 (15:15):
Do they just say we see a penis or something
like that to not declare it a boy?
Speaker 2 (15:20):
I wonder if they do that.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
And there's more about how reporters are instructed to squelch
any challenge to the accepted authorities on sex and gender.
Don't quote people speaking about biology or athletic regulations unless
they are experts with a proper background, which is why
Katanji Brown Jackson infamously said, I can't define woman. I'm
not a biologist, which is one of the most idiotic
(15:43):
things ever said. But then I came across a bunch
of other examples. Blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Buh.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
The AP wants refer to former Vice President Kamala Harris,
one of the most liberal senators to serve in the
Senate in the twenty first entry as a centrist. The
AP style book is widely used manual guiding editorial decisions
for thousands of newsrooms. It says, use the term anti abortion,
not pro life, oh wow, but use the term abortion
(16:15):
rights for those who are in favor of abortion. So
pro lifers are stuck with the anti tag. Pro abortion
goes with rights.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Cute.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
There was an AP memo in twenty twenty one instructing
all reporters staffers not to refer to the border crisis
as a crisis that's under Biden.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
Remember, and I could go into the numbers of border crossers,
but it's astounding. A few years before a memo went
out when Donald Trump was president and said few would
argue that a humanitarian crisis is unfolding, and.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Again they are.
Speaker 5 (16:50):
We'll go ahead, the point being that this battle between
Trump's White House and AP is not just about Gulf
of Mexico.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
It's all this other strint and using the two pregnant
people instead of women, for instance, Congressman Tom McClintock next
gonna talk.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Doge Armstrong and getty.
Speaker 6 (17:10):
Lots of confusion here. We should point out that Elon
Musk is not an elected official, not Senate confirmed to
run any agency and is asking employees to report outside
of their chain of command. And that is what these
unions are saying is essentially illegal. And now these unions
are suing and we learned about them amending an existing lawsuit.
(17:30):
That hearing for that lawsuit against this email set by
Elon Musk is set for hearing this Thursday.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Hilarious.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
The mainstream media is so concerned with the flow of
power and who has the right to do what when
it's cutting government jobs or it's the Trump administration versus
Joe Biden doing all kinds of crap that he wasn't
supposed to be able to do well, speak for yourself,
I for one, am heartbroken at the whole reporting outside
the chain of command thing.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Is that terrible?
Speaker 4 (17:56):
To discuss this and the activities of the doge Fellas
and more. Please, welcome to the show. Congressman Tom McLintock
of the fifth District of California. If you don't know Tommy,
he's often described as the gold standard for fiscal conservatism
in Congress. Tom, always a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (18:11):
This is my pleasure. Thanks for having me back.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
We're wondering where you are on the whole doage thing.
Speaker 5 (18:16):
And Elon telling federal workers they got to justify their
job with five things they did last week in all
of the hubbub.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Well, it this a pretty simple situation. A new boss
takes over, he brings it an auditor. The auditor calls
in the staff and says, folks, I'd like to see
your expense account receipts, and the staff absolutely freaks out, Well,
what does that tell you about what's been going on
all that time? And this discussion about well, Musk is
an unelected official. Well, I've got news for these people.
(18:45):
The only elected official in the entire executive branch of
our government is the president. All of the executive authority
is vested in the president, not some of it, all
of it. So under the Constitution there's no executive authority
that's independent of the president. Musk is acting under the
President's direction, as is every one of the some two
(19:06):
million employees in the executive branch.
Speaker 4 (19:10):
Not only that, but as you know, regulation and agency
overage is a big part of the effort, and I
don't think most Americans fully appreciate. Not only do we
have a fourth branch of government, the bureaucracy, it's not
in last place in terms of power. It's really important.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Day to day.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Well, it actually now passes ten times the number of
laws that the Congress passes, and not coincidentally, you have
about ten times a greater chance of being hauled before
an administrative law court than an actual Article three court
that respects all of your rights. Of this is entirely
contrary to the entire central architecture of the Constitution, the
(19:51):
entire vision of the American founders, which was to separate
the three functions of government into three quite separate brand is.
We all learned that in grade school, but it seems
more and more of us have forgotten. Is the debate
goes on.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
I'm going to throw you the all time fat softball
to a guy like you.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Is the government too big?
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Well? Yes, the only thing who's keeping us afloat right
now is the fact that there are still capital markets
willing to lend us money. But the fact is, every
dime of our discretionary spending, that's the entire government, including
the Defense Department, every dime of that is now borrowed
of the interest on our thirty seven trillion dollars of debt.
(20:37):
Just paying an interest on what we've already spent now
costs us more than the entire defense establishment. You know,
it was what about twelve or thirteen years ago now
that Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
warned that in his professional military judgment, the greatest threat
(20:58):
to our nation was the nation debt. And that's when
the national debt was about half less, in fact, less
than half of what it is right now.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
Would you agree that if we cannot successfully communicate that
to the American people before the disaster strikes, it's time
to abandon democracy and try monarchy again, because well, I mean,
it's not like you know, we've stepped in front of
a bus, or we're heading toward a cliff. I mean,
we're heading toward the biggest cliff in the world. There
are giant signs that say cliff aheads stop running.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
It would just it would.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
My head will explode if we can't get our heads
wrapped around this or.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Do something about it.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Yeah, that was what the election was all about. I mean,
there were two central questions, both of which are these
warnings that history is shouting at us. Countries that cannot
defend their borders aren't around very long, and countries that
bankrupt themselves aren't around very long. Because before you can
provide for the common defense or provide for the general welfare,
(21:58):
you have to be able to pay for and you
can't pay for it if you are running up a
debt so huge that it threatens your ability to continue.
And that's where we are.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
How do we get entitlements back on the table as
a conversation, though since both the last two presidents, Trump
and Biden have said they're off the table.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Well, I mean, the first and obvious thing to do
is to restore the Clinton era work requirement in all
entitlement programs we forget. That was Bill Clinton. Remember, he
said we were going to end welfare as we knew it,
and he did. He installed a very strong requirement that
(22:41):
able bodied people have got to be looking for a
job and accept one off one's offered as a condition
of receiving all federal welfare grants. And you know what happened.
We saw about a fifty percent reduction in welfare roles
because people went back to work, and by the way,
we saw their lives improved dramatically because they were now
(23:05):
earning productively in the private sector. We saw our tax
revenues go up, and the economy took off like a
bat out of hell. So, I mean, that's the first
and obvious thing to do is restore that work requirement
that there was lost during the Obama years. Get that
back in place. That's not a new law, that's an
old law. Would simply be bringing back an old law
that worked, and that would mean enormous just in medicate.
(23:30):
Aloness estimated that would say about one hundred and nine
billion dollars a year.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
And as we've said many times in discussing this stuff,
you'll hear somebody occasionally say, well, this is just clipping
around the edges what Elon and the Doge boys are doing.
And the one hundred million here and twenty million there.
I mean, that's just a tiny percentage of the federal budget.
But we think a culture of accountability and thrift is
the big kahuna, and I just wish we could get
(23:58):
that going among the American people.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Yeah, well that's that old ever at Dirkson Line. A
million dollars here and a million dollars there, and pretty
soon you're talking about a lot of money. Well, now
we're counting it in billions and now occasionally trillions. You know.
Think about it this way. Every billion dollars that we
spend in Washington, that's eight dollars from your family's budget.
So a trillion dollars, that's eight thousand dollars from your
(24:22):
family's budget. And you pay for it one way or another.
You either pay for it through direct taxes, you pay
through it through the deficit, which is future taxes and
interest on that borrowing, or you pay for it through inflation.
And we just came through the worst inflation in forty
years paying for the Inflation Reduction Act Doges.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
I'm a quintalk of the Fifth District, California on the line.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Go ahead. Jack Doge is.
Speaker 5 (24:46):
Up against obviously just an entrenched everything lifestyle attitude, offices
and people, and in some cases a protection of the
bureaucracy in so many ways around on the how optimistic
or pessimistic are you about Doge actually getting anything accomplished.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
I think it's already accomplished quite a lot. They say
that the most closely guarded secrets of the government are
not those that are labeled top secret. They're those that
are labeled embarrassing. And Musk has already succeeded in embarrassing
the political establishment and that goes a long way to
engaging the American people. You mentioned in American democracy, Well
(25:32):
it works. That was one of the key issues that
decided this election. And now we have an elected president
who is fulfilling his commitment to bring spending back under
control before it crushes American families.
Speaker 4 (25:47):
Something I've been howling for years, and I think California
may be lost at least temporary attempt. Rarely on the
score is that if government itself and government workers become
an important enough lobbyist of government, people are doomed. Because
it's just it's a perpetual motion machine of self interest.
How close to that are we in the federal government?
(26:08):
Can we the people overcome the bureaucratic class?
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Well, I do worry about that because of you know,
you hear the left talk about the importance of our
independent agencies. Well, well that begs the question independent of home. Well,
what they mean is independent of the president, which means
independent of the people. Well, that's the very definition of tyranny.
I think one of the the real threat to democracy
(26:37):
is an unelected bureaucracy that acts on its own whims,
irrespective of how people vote. You know that the Democrats
are telling us it's it's undemocratic for a democratically elected
president to question how the unelected bureaucracy is executing the laws. Well,
you know, those are laws the presidents elected to uphold.
(26:59):
How can can he faithfully execute those laws if he
and his deputies can't clearly and accurately see where the
public money's going, verify that it's being spent in accordance
with law, and put a stop to it when it's not.
And that's what this fight is really all about. It's
about whether or not the executive branch of government is
responsive to the people, or has taken on a life
(27:20):
of its own.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
What's the next big move we can expect to see
from dogs you're the president.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Well, the budget resolutions on the House floor today. That's
going to set a framework to reduce federal spending by
about two trillion dollars over the next decade and stop
the massive tax increase that will be going into effect
if we don't act. That tax increase is going to
cost a family earning seventy five thousand dollars about fifteen
(27:46):
hundred dollars a year in added taxes. By reducing spending
by that two trillion dollars, that's going to relieve every
family on the average of about sixteen thousand dollars of
expenses over that decade. And that's just the beginning that
has to be done in order to get the reconciliation
process in place. That process will then enact the reforms
(28:06):
that are necessary to bring that spending down. At the
same time, does we will be able to put into
that reconciliation bill a great deal of the statutory changes
that DOGE needs to implement its recommendations.
Speaker 5 (28:21):
I'm sure we'll have you back on in the midst
of the tax battle, because that's going to be epic.
I was not used to seeing the United States on
the side of Russia and North Korea in a vote
in the UN yesterday. Where do you come down on that,
on the United States not wanting to condemn Russia for
invading Ukraine?
Speaker 1 (28:41):
You know, well, I'm still catching up with that, but uh,
you know I will. I am willing to cut the
President considerable slack right now as he tries to h
to to bring this war to an end. You know,
I believe that Russia was the clear aggressor. I voted
for the military aid to prevent Ukraine from being defeated
(29:04):
by Russia because I thought it was so important to
send that message around the world that you cannot succeed
by this kind of wanton invasion. But a lot of
that money disappeared without being spent for Ukraine's military defense.
This has gone on way too long, and if the
President can put a stop to this war and bring
(29:26):
about a negotiated settlement, I'm willing to cut him quite
a bit of slack right now.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
Congressman Tom McClintock is fifth District California, often described as
the gold standard for fiscal conservatism in Congress.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Tom always great to talk. Keep fighting a good fight.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Thanks guys, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
You got it. His tendency is toward optimism.
Speaker 5 (29:45):
I don't know how optimistic I am toward doje accomplishing
that much it's worth the effort. Oh oh, absolutely absolutely.
I'm not in the camp of this is a waste
of time at all.
Speaker 4 (29:58):
I don't think people have a serious concept of how
close we are to a terrible, terrible crisis.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Ruin Yeah, in short, ruin yes. A quick word from
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Speaker 2 (31:00):
I think I.
Speaker 5 (31:01):
Bought some snake oil over the weekend. I kind of
knew there was a decent chance I was doing that.
I have a squeaky snake. You know how it is
various products that claim they're going to do all these
different things, and you think, YE know that day. But
I went ahead and pulled the trigger. I'll tell you
about coming up, among other things.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Stay here.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
When lunk had be Kamala Harris lost the election, proving
that there is a god, we lost a truly unique
voice on the American scene. Although she's like ahead of
those totally stupid, meaningless polls about who the Democratic comedee
ought to be next time around.
Speaker 5 (31:41):
Plus she'll be governor of California soon.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Enough, oivey. Anyway, but haven't we missed her? Pearls of
wisdom goes through your mind when you see this. You're here,
You're now seeing it up close.
Speaker 7 (31:55):
It's not only saying it, Alex. You can smell it,
feel it, right, So it's seeing it with our eyes.
And many people have seen it. You all are covering it.
But to literally be on the ground here, you can
smell the smoke that was here. You can feel the toxicity, frankly,
(32:17):
of the environment. You can feel the energy of all
of the folks who are still here on the ground.
Speaker 4 (32:25):
She's not good at kamala at the wildfires. Yes, I
should have not that I'm good at talking nor thinking.
Often the two go hand in hand.
Speaker 5 (32:36):
So somehow I got on this list from the New
York Times and I remember what it's called, but it's
a they recommend products, and I get their emails all
the time, and been a lot of really good stuff
on there. And it's not always an expensive product like
this one. It's often quite cheap. But it's like the
every day I get when it's like the best coffee
cup or the best I don't know, anything you can
think of, the best ironing board or whatever. And they
(32:58):
have their critics go through like you know, we'll go
through five hundred different ironing boards and pick out the
one they think is the best for the price, and
they'll have the best luxury model gratifying work if you
can get it.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
But I mean just anything.
Speaker 5 (33:10):
It might be sink sponge, I mean just it, socks,
pair of socks, I mean just anything you can think of,
and sometimes I really like them. Anyway, they had one
the other night for pillowcases, and I've been really having
trouble sleeping lately, so I got my attention.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Whatever.
Speaker 5 (33:21):
But anyway, it's this silk pillowcase, which I've never slept
on silk before. Katie, are you a silk person.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Yes, because it's supposed to be good for your hair.
Jack Well, it's supposed to be good for lots of things.
Speaker 5 (33:33):
It might be the ultimate snake oil of the modern
world with these silk pillowcases. Listen to some of the
verbiage around here. It's really hilarious. Clinically shown and it's
got an asterisk next to it. It's clinically shown them
down at the pillowcase clinic. Yes, to visibly improve the
(33:54):
appearance of fine lines on your face, skin hydration, skin texture,
and smoothness skin radiance, luminosity, or brightness. So I'm just
wondering if any of you have noticed any increased luminosity
out of me since I started using the silk.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
You're glowing, Yeah, just sunglasses to do the show.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Yeah, I know, neighbors.
Speaker 5 (34:14):
Are you pregnant? You're just glowing? Nope, I've been using
this new silk pillowcase thingy. Over ninety percent of users
agreed that they their skin felt more moisturized and hydrated
after it.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Also claims they didn't.
Speaker 5 (34:28):
It also claims creates forty three percent less friction on average.
Oh finally, Oh is that a thing you deal with
with your pillow cases currently?
Speaker 4 (34:39):
For the friction, I never really thought about it. I
wake up with blisters on my cheek. There's so much
fris sometimes bleeding.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
That's right.
Speaker 5 (34:46):
Well, I particularly liked that they were able to nail
it down specifically to forty three percent less friction, because
that's a.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Very specific lumber.
Speaker 4 (34:53):
Boy, it's a real it's a masterclass in how to
bulls consumers. Yeah, weirdly, specific numbers seem more credible.
Speaker 5 (35:03):
Yeah, that is exactly right, because you just have an
automatic belief that, well, they wouldn't if you said.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
About forty percent, you could be making up.
Speaker 5 (35:11):
If you say forty three percent, clearly you did some
science to come up with forty three percent. I like,
they got a picture of this young woman. Two nights
on a regular pillowcase, she looks all gloom, two nights
on this slip silk pillowcase, she's all happy.
Speaker 7 (35:31):
You know what.
Speaker 5 (35:32):
And if you're wondering how big a sucker I am
for snake oil, I did spend one hundred.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Dollars one pillow case.
Speaker 5 (35:38):
Whoa, it's a desperate I am for decent sleep jack.
There's this tiny little website called Amazon you can usually find.
This is from the website of the of the stupid product.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
The New York Times.
Speaker 5 (35:55):
They're actual, actual reporters said they really really noticed the
difference on their sleeping and it was huge. And I
mean they're not paid by the companies or anything for that.
They stressed that, and I thought, well, man, if it
made a difference the way I've been sleeping.
Speaker 4 (36:08):
Coming up next hour, why is Trump kissing up to Russia?
Does he have a bigger plan in mind?
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Stay with us, Armstrong and Getty
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio of the
George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Arm Strong and Jetty and no he Armstrong and Yetty.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
But apparently our nation civil service is now synonymous with waste.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Fraud, and abuse. The gravy train.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
For a lot of these folks, it's been on biscuit
wheels and it's about to run off the dead gum tracks.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
It's about time.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
First of all, there is no way you actually talk
like that. No way, you're a congressman from Tennessee. You
didn't spring fully formed out of a primordial cracker barrel.
All of this help burocra see is a shot uga shoot, shoot.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
To approp this boil on the flat jacks.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Very funny from the Eastern media elite to media elite. Michael,
very very well chosen. We'll have a chat after the show.
I know plenty of people who talk like that.
Speaker 5 (01:17):
I do too, but we need to take it down
a little on the right with the clever sayings.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Just too many of them, I feel.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Yeah, John Kennedy, we're looking at you.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5 (01:33):
They've just realized, if you want to get on TV,
a little blurb on Fox News or whatever. You have
some clever, little homespun saying, and that'll get you on.
May I apologize to the audience for lying. I said
that Congressman Tom McClintock would kick off this hour of
the program. Indeed, we will visit with him at the
bottom of the hour, but are looking forward to it
very much. I just read his editorial Washington Times. Great stuff. Yeah, yeah,
(02:00):
I look forward to asking him about this stuff.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Part of the.
Speaker 5 (02:02):
Problem with framing Doge in all this is waste, fraud
and abuse is that it misses the point that, even
if it's all legitimate, we can't afford it.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
So oh yeah, well said I.
Speaker 5 (02:17):
Mean you if you I've been here before when I
I was broke, sometimes you look at like where can
you cut and you think I need all of these
things I'm spending money on, but you still don't have
as much money coming in as going out, and something
has got.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
To go right, right.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Indeed, it might be helpful to say waste, fraud, abuse
and overreach. Yeah, or or at some point and some
point soon it's going to be which of these things
that we like and need do we like and need?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
The least because sure the rubber is going to meet
the road at some point anyway before.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Yeah, Mike has got to go in favor of need,
because like is spending us into oblivion.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Back to you.
Speaker 5 (03:01):
Starbucks announced their coffee chain is laying off eleven hundred jobs,
seven percent of its non retail staff. Is there gonna
be a big media scramble to get to Starbucks employees
and have them on there.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
I thought I'd get to work at Starbucks forever. I
just moved here for this job.
Speaker 5 (03:18):
I was working really hard because that would I'm sure
plenty of them would say that. But they lost their
jobs because here in the private sector, that happens all
the flip and time.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Right.
Speaker 5 (03:28):
Another economic thing that I thought was interesting that I
will explain why I think it is a big deal.
In the second, Apple said it's gonna invest half a
trillion dollars in the United States over the.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Next four years.
Speaker 5 (03:41):
So half a trillion over four years and open a
new factory in Houston to build AI servers. I gotta
wonder if maybe they had they wouldn't have built that
in China or something.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
If this were twenty years ago. Oh yeah, one hundred
percent and.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Now it's gonna be built in the United States for
you know, all the reasons that you know. But at
the same time, brit Hume tweeted this out and thought
this was a big deal. Huma Fox. I follow him
because I generally think he's right. The President just released
a new policy that does some big things. It's an
economic policy. It makes it easier for friendly nations to
invest in the United States, and makes it harder for
(04:16):
hostile nations to invest in the United States. And it
makes it harder for hostile nations to steal American technology.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Those are all big things that are definitely welcome.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
I would like to see, and this is an issue
nobody talks about. I would like to see China booted
the hell out of our housing markets.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Oh my god, Yes, oh my god.
Speaker 5 (04:35):
Yes, conglomerates buying up like every house for sale they
can renting them, and.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
It becomes impossible to get a house.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
Yeah, in my town, absolutely, that what goes on. When
I was trying to buy a house. I'm a renter.
When I was trying to buy a house and all
these houses that seem ridiculously overpriced were selling, That's what
real estate agents told me.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
No the Chinese.
Speaker 5 (04:56):
The Chinese, various entities and businessmen are buying up pay
cash and they don't care what they cost, And yeah,
that is a distortion. And I butt head sometimes with
my libertarian brethren on this topic because foreign investment in
the United States is one of the reasons we all
have such a great standard of living, and that's absolutely true.
But a commodity is limited and incredibly necessary is housing,
(05:21):
which is then limited so severely by government policies zoning
and environmental stuff and whatever. That just causes a distortion
that beats down American families, American workers. And it reminds
me of what we were talking about last hour, where
David Leonhardt, a fairly moderate guy at the New York Times,
is writing, Hey, all these left wing governments from the
US to France, to Germany to Canada to Australia, when
(05:46):
their working class was saying, hey, this rampant the immigration
is hurting us badly. They were told shut up by
their left leaning governments, and now it's coming home to
coming back to bite them.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
I think the housing thing is similar. People are They're
screaming for relief and we've got our communists over lords.
Snap it up houses.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
It can't last well.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
Last week we were talking about Senator Tom Cotton's new
book Seven Things You Can't Say about China, and we
hope to talk to him soon. One of them, I
don't know if he mentions the housing market at all
in the book. We'll have to ask him about that,
because that's interesting. But one of them is how China
sending their bright young people over here to attend our
colleges at full freight and eating up all the slots
(06:30):
in the colleges and distorting the price of college because
they don't care what it costs. They just want to
send their students over here to get the best engineering degrees,
invest this and that, and also occasionally a spy distorted
the whole college market. Always a spy had this headline
sitting around, hadn't get gotten to it yet. Under Biden,
American universities raked in nearly a billion dollars from offshore donors,
(06:53):
including many link to China. Yeah, China, and cutter and
all sorts of loathsome regimes have utterly perverted the curricula
of American universities. Again, we fell so in love with
the whole global thing. We forgot that not everybody's nice
like we are. It's funny, the great Satan, the big
(07:14):
belliger in America. No, we're like the nicest people on earth.
We think everybody wants to be our friend worthy the proverbial,
if somewhat insulting naive corn pone from Iowa buying fake
rolexes in Manhattan because we don't know better as a country.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Which is really crazy.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
As the superpower, it's it's almost endearing, but the evildoers
are starting to really exploit it, and it's time to
get tough.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
I bought a fake rolex.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
I knew it was a fake rolex in Times Square
in New York once, and it was quite cheap. It
did not work and felt very flimsy. My son has
a great fake rolex that he bought on Amazon for
seventy dollars.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
It was like super cheap.
Speaker 5 (08:01):
It is great, really heavy, good metal runs. Wow, looks
real your son or rapper he gets. He gets compliments
on it all the time. It's just the look though
a teenage boy with a road.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
It's a little odd, but you know, teach their own
u So speaking of economic matters, and then we'll take
a break because we've got something just great to get to.
Two years ago, you might remember Teamster's boss Sean O'Brien.
You remember him spoke at the Republican Convention and said
I hate Republicans. He touted a historic labor agreement with UPS.
(08:40):
United Parcel Service. Now comes the rest of the story,
and it's not pretty. UPS shares are plunged recently after
it announced workforce and delivery reductions. Workers who lost their
jobs can thank mister O'Brien once again.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Interview the UPS of people that lost their jobs. I
thought I could work here forever. I just moved here
for this job.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
Like the government employees, UPS is having to shrink, shrink
its contracts, just do less work and make less money
and less profit because in Amazon, one of the big clients,
is not going to do more of their own deliveries
because UPS can't do it at a cost anywhere near
Amazon can. Because Amazon's drivers aren't unionized. The Teamsters, according
(09:24):
to the General Editorial Board, have found little success trying
to organize Amazon workers. The UPS agreement increased average compensation
from full time drivers over five years to one hundred
and seventy thousand dollars a year. Teamsters at UPS get
up to seven weeks of vacation and don't pay healthcare premiums.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Yes, I was a teamster.
Speaker 5 (09:45):
It was the most amazing healthcare I ever had in
my entire working life. It was insane, but as actually,
you shouldn't have healthcare this good as a guy who
stacks boxes for a living. I mean, it's just it
doesn't really make sense. Loved it, of course, but it
was pretty ridiculous given US standards.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
So UPS is firing thousands of workers and management closing
two hundred sorting centers. You know, union to have their
role and certainly have in history, but a union like
this one, in this case, all it does is concentrate
wealth in the hands of its members and leaders. It
has nothing to do with work. We're for working people,
We're for labor. No, you're for yourself and your members,
(10:25):
which is fine, but society and UPS need to recognize
that and encounter it. It's just hundreds and thousands and
thousands of workers are losing their jobs so that the
chosen few can get artificially high salaries.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Oh that's just lovely. Ah.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
The Trump versus the AP fight is way more important
than you might think. It's not over the Gulf of America.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Well, it kind of is, which is funny, but it's
about something much more interesting and important.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
We'll talk about that in a second.
Speaker 5 (10:58):
When I was a team stur at ups, the insurance
was I had one hundred percent coverage on medical, no deductible,
one hundred percent deadal noductible, and no do and no payments.
I should have gotten all my teeth pulled and had
several babies. I just should have taken advantage of it.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
You're a fool.
Speaker 5 (11:15):
We got all that stuff Joe mentioned, And we're going
to talk to a Republican Congressman, Tom McClintock coming up
this hour. I look forward to talking to Tom McClintock
as a fiscal conservative and a member of the House
of Representatives, a Republican where he is on the whole
doage thing.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
Yeah, oh yeah, I have a feeling, I know, since
he's been a fiscal hawk, since he was a.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Knee high to a grasshopper. Oh that's right.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
We're not going to be charmingly homespun anymore. There's too
much of that in our nation's discourse. Uh So, one
of my many jihads is against conservatives and even moderates
who for some reason conformed to the language demands of
the left. They say, don't say this that anymore, say this,
(12:01):
and we obey them, even though that change in language
is deliberately designed to pervert the argument or to win
the argument in advance, Like gender affirming care that settles
the argument. Well, all you're doing is affirming the poor
child's gender. Now it's a sex change experiment.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Anyway.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
Trump and the administration are in a bit of a
frakis a bit of a sparring match with the Associated Press.
You may have read about it, the particulars of their
band from the press room, temporarily whatever, the Gulf of
America thing. That's all a distraction because the main issue
is the AP and its style book, which if you're
(12:42):
not in journalism you might not realize is incredibly influential
and has been for decades. It essentially says, all right,
here's how to word something. Here's what words are acceptable unacceptable,
here's the punctuation you should use. From the very mundane
to now. And this is a new development in the
last you know, several years now, it's become extremely ideological.
(13:04):
For instance, and we mentioned this late in the show. Yesterday,
AP began capitalizing black when used as a racial designation,
but not white, because no, no black especial white is
just well, you are white people, and you're bad people.
There are a bunch of other examples. You can't use
alien it's banned, or illegal immigrant in discussing immigration, even
(13:28):
though those are both statutory you know terms. You can't
say chain migration, anchor babies, and they have all sorts
of euphemism, like when CNN infamously described the George Floyd
riots as a mostly peaceful protest that was partly in
deference to the the AP saying don't.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Use riot, oh wow, too hard. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
And then there is its twenty nine hundred word ideological
Manifesto that says, quote, do not use the term transgenderism,
which frames transgender identity is an ideology. It is filled
with bizarre assertions and jargon which reporters are mandated to
accept as if they supersede the facts of life. According
(14:13):
to the guide, a child isn't born a boy or
a girl quote rather.
Speaker 5 (14:16):
Sex is quote usually assigned at birth by parents or attendants,
and can turn out to be inaccurate, which happens one
out of ten thousand times. Examples of gender identities include
non binary, bigender, agender, gender fluid, gender queer, and combinations
of identities such as non binary woman. This is all
radical gender theory.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
Which nobody knew about, cared about, or thought about, and
certainly didn't believe until a cup of coffee ago.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
And they say the dead.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
Naming a transgender person, that is accurately reporting such a
person's given name, even posthumously, in obituaries or other coverage,
is often considered disrespectful to the deceased, their survivors, and
any transgender people. So if you work for the AP,
you'd have to say Aitlyn Jenner won the decathlon in
nineteen seventy six.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
For example. Hey, I got a question.
Speaker 5 (15:06):
Has anybody encountered like you're gonna have a baby and
you you have the doctor?
Speaker 2 (15:11):
You know telepens a boy or girl? Do they like
fudge their language?
Speaker 5 (15:15):
Do they just say we see a penis or something
like that to not declare it a boy?
Speaker 2 (15:20):
I wonder if they do that.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
And there's more about how reporters are instructed to squelch
any challenge to the accepted authorities on sex and gender.
Don't quote people speaking about biology or athletic regulations unless
they are experts with a proper background, which is why
Katanji Brown Jackson infamously said, I can't define woman. I'm
not a biologist, which is one of the most idiotic
(15:43):
things ever said. But then I came across a bunch
of other examples. Blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Buh.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
The AP wants refer to former Vice President Kamala Harris,
one of the most liberal senators to serve in the
Senate in the twenty first entry as a centrist. The
AP style book is widely used manual guiding editorial decisions
for thousands of newsrooms. It says, use the term anti abortion,
not pro life, oh wow, but use the term abortion
(16:15):
rights for those who are in favor of abortion. So
pro lifers are stuck with the anti tag. Pro abortion
goes with rights.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Cute.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
There was an AP memo in twenty twenty one instructing
all reporters staffers not to refer to the border crisis
as a crisis that's under Biden.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
Remember, and I could go into the numbers of border crossers,
but it's astounding. A few years before a memo went
out when Donald Trump was president and said few would
argue that a humanitarian crisis is unfolding, and.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Again they are.
Speaker 5 (16:50):
We'll go ahead, the point being that this battle between
Trump's White House and AP is not just about Gulf
of Mexico.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
It's all this other strint and using the two pregnant
people instead of women, for instance, Congressman Tom McClintock next
gonna talk.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Doge Armstrong and getty.
Speaker 6 (17:10):
Lots of confusion here. We should point out that Elon
Musk is not an elected official, not Senate confirmed to
run any agency and is asking employees to report outside
of their chain of command. And that is what these
unions are saying is essentially illegal. And now these unions
are suing and we learned about them amending an existing lawsuit.
(17:30):
That hearing for that lawsuit against this email set by
Elon Musk is set for hearing this Thursday.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Hilarious.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
The mainstream media is so concerned with the flow of
power and who has the right to do what when
it's cutting government jobs or it's the Trump administration versus
Joe Biden doing all kinds of crap that he wasn't
supposed to be able to do well, speak for yourself,
I for one, am heartbroken at the whole reporting outside
the chain of command thing.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Is that terrible?
Speaker 4 (17:56):
To discuss this and the activities of the doge Fellas
and more. Please, welcome to the show. Congressman Tom McLintock
of the fifth District of California. If you don't know Tommy,
he's often described as the gold standard for fiscal conservatism
in Congress. Tom, always a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (18:11):
This is my pleasure. Thanks for having me back.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
We're wondering where you are on the whole doage thing.
Speaker 5 (18:16):
And Elon telling federal workers they got to justify their
job with five things they did last week in all
of the hubbub.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Well, it this a pretty simple situation. A new boss
takes over, he brings it an auditor. The auditor calls
in the staff and says, folks, I'd like to see
your expense account receipts, and the staff absolutely freaks out, Well,
what does that tell you about what's been going on
all that time? And this discussion about well, Musk is
an unelected official. Well, I've got news for these people.
(18:45):
The only elected official in the entire executive branch of
our government is the president. All of the executive authority
is vested in the president, not some of it, all
of it. So under the Constitution there's no executive authority
that's independent of the president. Musk is acting under the
President's direction, as is every one of the some two
(19:06):
million employees in the executive branch.
Speaker 4 (19:10):
Not only that, but as you know, regulation and agency
overage is a big part of the effort, and I
don't think most Americans fully appreciate. Not only do we
have a fourth branch of government, the bureaucracy, it's not
in last place in terms of power. It's really important.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Day to day.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Well, it actually now passes ten times the number of
laws that the Congress passes, and not coincidentally, you have
about ten times a greater chance of being hauled before
an administrative law court than an actual Article three court
that respects all of your rights. Of this is entirely
contrary to the entire central architecture of the Constitution, the
(19:51):
entire vision of the American founders, which was to separate
the three functions of government into three quite separate brand is.
We all learned that in grade school, but it seems
more and more of us have forgotten. Is the debate
goes on.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
I'm going to throw you the all time fat softball
to a guy like you.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Is the government too big?
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Well? Yes, the only thing who's keeping us afloat right
now is the fact that there are still capital markets
willing to lend us money. But the fact is, every
dime of our discretionary spending, that's the entire government, including
the Defense Department, every dime of that is now borrowed
of the interest on our thirty seven trillion dollars of debt.
(20:37):
Just paying an interest on what we've already spent now
costs us more than the entire defense establishment. You know,
it was what about twelve or thirteen years ago now
that Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
warned that in his professional military judgment, the greatest threat
(20:58):
to our nation was the nation debt. And that's when
the national debt was about half less, in fact, less
than half of what it is right now.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
Would you agree that if we cannot successfully communicate that
to the American people before the disaster strikes, it's time
to abandon democracy and try monarchy again, because well, I mean,
it's not like you know, we've stepped in front of
a bus, or we're heading toward a cliff. I mean,
we're heading toward the biggest cliff in the world. There
are giant signs that say cliff aheads stop running.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
It would just it would.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
My head will explode if we can't get our heads
wrapped around this or.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Do something about it.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Yeah, that was what the election was all about. I mean,
there were two central questions, both of which are these
warnings that history is shouting at us. Countries that cannot
defend their borders aren't around very long, and countries that
bankrupt themselves aren't around very long. Because before you can
provide for the common defense or provide for the general welfare,
(21:58):
you have to be able to pay for and you
can't pay for it if you are running up a
debt so huge that it threatens your ability to continue.
And that's where we are.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
How do we get entitlements back on the table as
a conversation, though since both the last two presidents, Trump
and Biden have said they're off the table.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Well, I mean, the first and obvious thing to do
is to restore the Clinton era work requirement in all
entitlement programs we forget. That was Bill Clinton. Remember, he
said we were going to end welfare as we knew it,
and he did. He installed a very strong requirement that
(22:41):
able bodied people have got to be looking for a
job and accept one off one's offered as a condition
of receiving all federal welfare grants. And you know what happened.
We saw about a fifty percent reduction in welfare roles
because people went back to work, and by the way,
we saw their lives improved dramatically because they were now
(23:05):
earning productively in the private sector. We saw our tax
revenues go up, and the economy took off like a
bat out of hell. So, I mean, that's the first
and obvious thing to do is restore that work requirement
that there was lost during the Obama years. Get that
back in place. That's not a new law, that's an
old law. Would simply be bringing back an old law
that worked, and that would mean enormous just in medicate.
(23:30):
Aloness estimated that would say about one hundred and nine
billion dollars a year.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
And as we've said many times in discussing this stuff,
you'll hear somebody occasionally say, well, this is just clipping
around the edges what Elon and the Doge boys are doing.
And the one hundred million here and twenty million there.
I mean, that's just a tiny percentage of the federal budget.
But we think a culture of accountability and thrift is
the big kahuna, and I just wish we could get
(23:58):
that going among the American people.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Yeah, well that's that old ever at Dirkson Line. A
million dollars here and a million dollars there, and pretty
soon you're talking about a lot of money. Well, now
we're counting it in billions and now occasionally trillions. You know.
Think about it this way. Every billion dollars that we
spend in Washington, that's eight dollars from your family's budget.
So a trillion dollars, that's eight thousand dollars from your
(24:22):
family's budget. And you pay for it one way or another.
You either pay for it through direct taxes, you pay
through it through the deficit, which is future taxes and
interest on that borrowing, or you pay for it through inflation.
And we just came through the worst inflation in forty
years paying for the Inflation Reduction Act Doges.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
I'm a quintalk of the Fifth District, California on the line.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Go ahead. Jack Doge is.
Speaker 5 (24:46):
Up against obviously just an entrenched everything lifestyle attitude, offices
and people, and in some cases a protection of the
bureaucracy in so many ways around on the how optimistic
or pessimistic are you about Doge actually getting anything accomplished.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
I think it's already accomplished quite a lot. They say
that the most closely guarded secrets of the government are
not those that are labeled top secret. They're those that
are labeled embarrassing. And Musk has already succeeded in embarrassing
the political establishment and that goes a long way to
engaging the American people. You mentioned in American democracy, Well
(25:32):
it works. That was one of the key issues that
decided this election. And now we have an elected president
who is fulfilling his commitment to bring spending back under
control before it crushes American families.
Speaker 4 (25:47):
Something I've been howling for years, and I think California
may be lost at least temporary attempt. Rarely on the
score is that if government itself and government workers become
an important enough lobbyist of government, people are doomed. Because
it's just it's a perpetual motion machine of self interest.
How close to that are we in the federal government?
(26:08):
Can we the people overcome the bureaucratic class?
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Well, I do worry about that because of you know,
you hear the left talk about the importance of our
independent agencies. Well, well that begs the question independent of home. Well,
what they mean is independent of the president, which means
independent of the people. Well, that's the very definition of tyranny.
I think one of the the real threat to democracy
(26:37):
is an unelected bureaucracy that acts on its own whims,
irrespective of how people vote. You know that the Democrats
are telling us it's it's undemocratic for a democratically elected
president to question how the unelected bureaucracy is executing the laws. Well,
you know, those are laws the presidents elected to uphold.
(26:59):
How can can he faithfully execute those laws if he
and his deputies can't clearly and accurately see where the
public money's going, verify that it's being spent in accordance
with law, and put a stop to it when it's not.
And that's what this fight is really all about. It's
about whether or not the executive branch of government is
responsive to the people, or has taken on a life
(27:20):
of its own.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
What's the next big move we can expect to see
from dogs you're the president.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Well, the budget resolutions on the House floor today. That's
going to set a framework to reduce federal spending by
about two trillion dollars over the next decade and stop
the massive tax increase that will be going into effect
if we don't act. That tax increase is going to
cost a family earning seventy five thousand dollars about fifteen
(27:46):
hundred dollars a year in added taxes. By reducing spending
by that two trillion dollars, that's going to relieve every
family on the average of about sixteen thousand dollars of
expenses over that decade. And that's just the beginning that
has to be done in order to get the reconciliation
process in place. That process will then enact the reforms
(28:06):
that are necessary to bring that spending down. At the
same time, does we will be able to put into
that reconciliation bill a great deal of the statutory changes
that DOGE needs to implement its recommendations.
Speaker 5 (28:21):
I'm sure we'll have you back on in the midst
of the tax battle, because that's going to be epic.
I was not used to seeing the United States on
the side of Russia and North Korea in a vote
in the UN yesterday. Where do you come down on that,
on the United States not wanting to condemn Russia for
invading Ukraine?
Speaker 1 (28:41):
You know, well, I'm still catching up with that, but uh,
you know I will. I am willing to cut the
President considerable slack right now as he tries to h
to to bring this war to an end. You know,
I believe that Russia was the clear aggressor. I voted
for the military aid to prevent Ukraine from being defeated
(29:04):
by Russia because I thought it was so important to
send that message around the world that you cannot succeed
by this kind of wanton invasion. But a lot of
that money disappeared without being spent for Ukraine's military defense.
This has gone on way too long, and if the
President can put a stop to this war and bring
(29:26):
about a negotiated settlement, I'm willing to cut him quite
a bit of slack right now.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
Congressman Tom McClintock is fifth District California, often described as
the gold standard for fiscal conservatism in Congress.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Tom always great to talk. Keep fighting a good fight.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Thanks guys, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
You got it. His tendency is toward optimism.
Speaker 5 (29:45):
I don't know how optimistic I am toward doje accomplishing
that much it's worth the effort. Oh oh, absolutely absolutely.
I'm not in the camp of this is a waste
of time at all.
Speaker 4 (29:58):
I don't think people have a serious concept of how
close we are to a terrible, terrible crisis.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Ruin Yeah, in short, ruin yes. A quick word from
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Speaker 2 (31:00):
I think I.
Speaker 5 (31:01):
Bought some snake oil over the weekend. I kind of
knew there was a decent chance I was doing that.
I have a squeaky snake. You know how it is
various products that claim they're going to do all these
different things, and you think, YE know that day. But
I went ahead and pulled the trigger. I'll tell you
about coming up, among other things.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Stay here.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
When lunk had be Kamala Harris lost the election, proving
that there is a god, we lost a truly unique
voice on the American scene. Although she's like ahead of
those totally stupid, meaningless polls about who the Democratic comedee
ought to be next time around.
Speaker 5 (31:41):
Plus she'll be governor of California soon.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Enough, oivey. Anyway, but haven't we missed her? Pearls of
wisdom goes through your mind when you see this. You're here,
You're now seeing it up close.
Speaker 7 (31:55):
It's not only saying it, Alex. You can smell it,
feel it, right, So it's seeing it with our eyes.
And many people have seen it. You all are covering it.
But to literally be on the ground here, you can
smell the smoke that was here. You can feel the toxicity, frankly,
(32:17):
of the environment. You can feel the energy of all
of the folks who are still here on the ground.
Speaker 4 (32:25):
She's not good at kamala at the wildfires. Yes, I
should have not that I'm good at talking nor thinking.
Often the two go hand in hand.
Speaker 5 (32:36):
So somehow I got on this list from the New
York Times and I remember what it's called, but it's
a they recommend products, and I get their emails all
the time, and been a lot of really good stuff
on there. And it's not always an expensive product like
this one. It's often quite cheap. But it's like the
every day I get when it's like the best coffee
cup or the best I don't know, anything you can
think of, the best ironing board or whatever. And they
(32:58):
have their critics go through like you know, we'll go
through five hundred different ironing boards and pick out the
one they think is the best for the price, and
they'll have the best luxury model gratifying work if you
can get it.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
But I mean just anything.
Speaker 5 (33:10):
It might be sink sponge, I mean just it, socks,
pair of socks, I mean just anything you can think of,
and sometimes I really like them. Anyway, they had one
the other night for pillowcases, and I've been really having
trouble sleeping lately, so I got my attention.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Whatever.
Speaker 5 (33:21):
But anyway, it's this silk pillowcase, which I've never slept
on silk before. Katie, are you a silk person.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Yes, because it's supposed to be good for your hair.
Jack Well, it's supposed to be good for lots of things.
Speaker 5 (33:33):
It might be the ultimate snake oil of the modern
world with these silk pillowcases. Listen to some of the
verbiage around here. It's really hilarious. Clinically shown and it's
got an asterisk next to it. It's clinically shown them
down at the pillowcase clinic. Yes, to visibly improve the
(33:54):
appearance of fine lines on your face, skin hydration, skin texture,
and smoothness skin radiance, luminosity, or brightness. So I'm just
wondering if any of you have noticed any increased luminosity
out of me since I started using the silk.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
You're glowing, Yeah, just sunglasses to do the show.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Yeah, I know, neighbors.
Speaker 5 (34:14):
Are you pregnant? You're just glowing? Nope, I've been using
this new silk pillowcase thingy. Over ninety percent of users
agreed that they their skin felt more moisturized and hydrated
after it.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Also claims they didn't.
Speaker 5 (34:28):
It also claims creates forty three percent less friction on average.
Oh finally, Oh is that a thing you deal with
with your pillow cases currently?
Speaker 4 (34:39):
For the friction, I never really thought about it. I
wake up with blisters on my cheek. There's so much
fris sometimes bleeding.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
That's right.
Speaker 5 (34:46):
Well, I particularly liked that they were able to nail
it down specifically to forty three percent less friction, because
that's a.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Very specific lumber.
Speaker 4 (34:53):
Boy, it's a real it's a masterclass in how to
bulls consumers. Yeah, weirdly, specific numbers seem more credible.
Speaker 5 (35:03):
Yeah, that is exactly right, because you just have an
automatic belief that, well, they wouldn't if you said.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
About forty percent, you could be making up.
Speaker 5 (35:11):
If you say forty three percent, clearly you did some
science to come up with forty three percent. I like,
they got a picture of this young woman. Two nights
on a regular pillowcase, she looks all gloom, two nights
on this slip silk pillowcase, she's all happy.
Speaker 7 (35:31):
You know what.
Speaker 5 (35:32):
And if you're wondering how big a sucker I am
for snake oil, I did spend one hundred.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Dollars one pillow case.
Speaker 5 (35:38):
Whoa, it's a desperate I am for decent sleep jack.
There's this tiny little website called Amazon you can usually find.
This is from the website of the of the stupid product.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
The New York Times.
Speaker 5 (35:55):
They're actual, actual reporters said they really really noticed the
difference on their sleeping and it was huge. And I
mean they're not paid by the companies or anything for that.
They stressed that, and I thought, well, man, if it
made a difference the way I've been sleeping.
Speaker 4 (36:08):
Coming up next hour, why is Trump kissing up to Russia?
Does he have a bigger plan in mind?
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Stay with us, Armstrong and Getty
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Jack Armstrong
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