April 8, 2025 • 10 mins
“Of course there is!” That’s what Congressman Robert Garcia said when asked if government waste and fraud exist. But what about right here in Long Beach? Shouldn’t we be demanding answers from our city council and mayor?
In this episode, we break down:
🔹 The new subcommittee on government efficiency led by Elon Musk
🔹 Congressman Garcia’s viral moment in Congress
🔹 Long Beach’s budget shortfall – could waste be the issue?
🔹 Should we be holding local leaders accountable for wasteful spending?
💬 Do you think our city is spending tax dollars wisely? Let us know in the comments!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
ABC News (00:00):
So, let me ask you this then.
(00:01):
Do you believe there is fraudand waste in the government?
Let me start there.
Do you believe there is fraudand waste in the government?
Congressman Robert Garcia (00:09):
Absolutely.
I was mayor of my city for eight years.
I mean, of course thereis, of course there is.
Announcer (00:15):
All in Long Beach, we're breaking it down News and events from all
around town Business, politics, lifestyletoo Food and fun, we bring it to you
Stuart - All In Long Beach (00:30):
And hello, friends and neighbors.
Welcome to the All in Long Beach podcast.
Stuart Takahara here, your hostof the All In Long Beach podcast.
And today, Boy, I don't know how manyof you heard it yesterday, but there's a
new subcommittee on Doge, the Departmentof Government Efficiency, which is
being held at, headed by Elon Musk.
So now Congress wants to createtheir own subcommittee, and it's
(00:53):
being led by Marjorie TaylorGreene, and on this committee.
is Long Beach's own Robert Garcia,our former mayor, former city council
person, now congressman, who representsyou and represents me in the United
States House of Representatives.
(01:15):
And yesterday, in subcommittee,this is what he had to say.
Congressman Robert Garcia (01:20):
Now, I find it ironic, of course, that our
chairwoman, Congresswoman Greene, isin charge of running this committee.
Now, in the last Congress, ChairwomanGreene literally showed a dick pic in
our oversight congressional hearing.
So I thought I'd bring one as well.
Stuart - All In Long Beach (01:35):
And he turns over his shoulder and one
of his people has a huge picture,a huge picture of Elon Musk.
And then you can kind of hear thechamber's little echo a little bit, and
kind of like, ha ha, a little laughter.
And then I couldn't help but this guyto the left, I don't know who it is, but
the guy to the left of Robert Garcia,he kind of looked up, and he saw this,
(01:57):
and he kind of, he kind of moved away.
He kind of like, you know howsomeone says something, and you kind
of want to like distance yourselfa little bit from that person?
That's exactly what this guy did.
He kind of looked at it, he goes, Oh crap.
This is gonna be makingthe news everywhere.
I don't want to be a part of this.
I need to, I want to see if Ican try and get out of this shot.
Unfortunately, the camera's kid cameout and did a wide shot to get the
(02:18):
photos in so you can see everybody.
You can just see he was like,oh my gosh, what is he doing?
What are we doing here?
This is, how is this helping?
How is this helping?
Congressman Robert Garcia (02:26):
And it's important that we actually call out
What is happening at this subcommittee?
This is not about working withthe richest man on the planet.
This is actually about empowering.
This committee wants to empower therichest person in the world to hurt
people so they can take all of thismoney that they so called want to save
and then give it to themselves, theircompanies, and their billionaire friends.
. Stuart - All In Long Beach (02:50):
I have not maybe been paying the
most attention to what's going on.
I'll read the headlines and I'll seesome of this crazy spending that's
going on in the federal government.
I think that we can all agree, atleast for my entire adult life,
new existed like ridiculously, butI had no idea that it was this.
But uh, CongressmanGarcia here is claiming.
(03:12):
And maybe he has proof that is out there.
Maybe he knows something that Idon't know about this, but he's
saying that they're going to takethe money from the taxpayers and give
it to, I don't know how that works.
We are saving money.
This committee, the DOJ committee issupposed to be saving us, the taxpayers,
a ridiculous amount of money becauseof all this ridiculous spending,
(03:34):
all this waste that's going on.
There's no evidence.
I don't see how they're going totake this and funnel it to you.
They're billionaire friends, as,as Congressman Garcia is saying.
I don't know how that's going tohappen unless they create movements.
I, I want to, here's what I wantto see out of this committee.
So I want two things.
I want my taxes to go down, and Iwant the national debt to go down.
Congressman Robert Garcia: that is the attack that is (03:56):
undefined
happening in this committee.
And across this country, and it'simportant that we call it out.
Stuart - All In Long Beach (04:02):
So we're trying to figure this out, right.
We all have to try and work together.
Democrats have been sayingthat forever and ever and ever.
Even when Kamala Harris wasrunning for president, she's
like, we have to work together.
We have to come together.
We're a united front.
We're, you know, all this other stuff.
And now all of a sudden she doesn't win.
Doge is doing exactly whatthey said they would do.
(04:25):
And now they don't want to play nicely.
And here's Congressman Garcia's onthe same day on MSNBCs morning, Joe.
Congressman Robert Garcia (04:32):
I
Stuart - All In Long Beach (04:32):
would say that, um, first I have zero interest.
working with Marjorie Taylor Greene, ourchairwoman on this committee, or the House
Republicans on this committee, to helpthem with anything as it relates to DOJ.
Did you just hear what he said there?
I have zero interest, zero interest inworking with Marjorie Taylor Greene, House
(04:53):
Republicans on this committee, to helpthem with anything as it relates to DOJ.
Well then what the heckare you doing there?
Congressman Robert Garcia (05:01):
What we're there for, and what we're there to do,
is to fight, to push back on the lies, tobring attention to what's going on right
now at our agencies, and to make sure thatpeople know that we are going to fight
every single day to ensure that we getElon Musk out of our private information.
But let's make no mistake about it.
We are not going to be workingwith the House majority, and we're
(05:22):
certainly not going to be workingwith Marjorie Taylor Greene.
I think folks, I think folks todayare going to see us get really engaged
and ask really tough questions.
Stuart - All In Long Beach (05:31):
Really tough questions, like, is Elon Musk a dick?
Those are the tough questions that'sbeing asked by congressmen today.
So Congressman Garcia has his moment.
All the cameras are on him.
All the eyes are on him.
And he has this moment toactually say something meaningful.
(05:55):
And he blows it.
By doing the exact same thingthat he calls out President
Trump for doing so many times,which is badgering, name calling.
And he's right out there doingit again, and he's fine with it.
He's fine with it.
He actually says that he wantsto bring the same kind of fight.
And I'll have the clips of thisis somewhere in my archives.
(06:15):
He says he wants the same kind of fight,same kind of tools for the bar fight.
He actually refers this to thiswhole doge thing as a bar fight.
Now, granted, I know we'reall from Long Beach, right?
We understand what barbar fights are like.
We've all been, you know,to some of these places.
That maybe aren't the safest or the areasyou turn on our news all the time and we
see stabbings and shootings and thingslike that going on at bars in Long Beach
(06:36):
and throughout Southern California.
But this is how he sees this.
He sees himself as in a bar fight withthe President of the United States
and the richest man in the world.
But with all that beingsaid, let's talk about Doge.
Let's talk about their mission.
Let's talk about why theyeven are there to begin with.
That same day, Robert Garcia,he's making the rounds.
(06:58):
I mean, like, he's everywhere.
And today, on ABC News, he gets asked thequestion that I think we should be asking.
And that question is, do you believe thereis fraud and waste in the government?
Do you believe there is fraudand waste in the government?
(07:18):
And this is his response.
Congressman Robert Garcia (07:19):
Absolutely.
I was mayor of my city for eight years.
I mean, of course thereis, of course there is.
Stuart - All In Long Beach (07:24):
Can we just, can we just stop right here?
I was mayor of my city for eight years.
I mean, of course there is.
Of course there is.
We need Doge to come intoLong Beach right now.
This is a great question.
I think we should be asking our currentmayor and our current city council,
(07:51):
where is this waste that our previousmayor, our now congressman says.
exists.
What can we be doing on this local levelto say, listen, it's been admitted by
our former mayor of eight years thatof course there is waste in the, in
the government system, in the LongBeach, that's where we need to be.
(08:11):
We're talking about a 30 million fiscal
shortage, budget shortagefor upcoming fiscal year.
What are we going to do about that?
Can this be solved without allthese crazy tax increases that, that
they're already starting to plot for?
This Measure A stuff that's beengoing on with the sales tax stuff.
Why don't we do this?
Why don't we look around andsay, let's go find the waste that
(08:36):
Congressman Garcia, our formermayor, says exists in this city.
That's going to do it for this episodeof the All in Long Beach podcast.
Let's take some action here.
Let's ask the city council,where is this waste?
Let's ask the mayor,what is he talking about?
Let's ask Congressman Garcia,what are you talking about?
Where is this waste?
(08:57):
He admitted it's there,so let's go find it.
Let's go find it.
Let us know what you think of thisepisode in the All in Long Beach podcast.
Be sure to give us a ratingswherever you're listening to this
on your favorite podcast player.
Find us on Facebook and Twitter,formerly X or X formerly Twitter
and Instagram, All in Long Beach.
Give us a follow, get us your comments,let us know what you're thinking here.
(09:19):
Until our next episode,we'll see you later.
Thanks for listening.
Bye bye.
Announcer (09:23):
Thanks for listening to the all in Long Beach podcast.
Tell us what you thoughton our Patreon page.
Join for free and accessour chat about this episode.
Paid memberships start at just 5per month and get access to early
episodes, our exclusive member chat,exclusive content, our private discord
community, after episode discussion,live pop up videos, and much more.
You can even suggest topics andguests for upcoming episodes.
(09:46):
And you can sign up to become a co hostof this podcast in a future episode.
The link to join for free is inthe show notes, or type in patreon.
com slash all in long beach.
That's patreon.
com slash all in longbeach again, patreon.
com slash all in long beach.
Thanks for listening to this episodeof the all in long beach podcast.
We will catch you in the next episode.
So, let me ask you this then.
(00:01):
Do you believe there is fraudand waste in the government?
Let me start there.
Do you believe there is fraudand waste in the government?
Congressman Robert Garcia (00:09):
Absolutely.
I was mayor of my city for eight years.
I mean, of course thereis, of course there is.
Announcer (00:15):
All in Long Beach, we're breaking it down News and events from all
around town Business, politics, lifestyletoo Food and fun, we bring it to you
Stuart - All In Long Beach (00:30):
And hello, friends and neighbors.
Welcome to the All in Long Beach podcast.
Stuart Takahara here, your hostof the All In Long Beach podcast.
And today, Boy, I don't know how manyof you heard it yesterday, but there's a
new subcommittee on Doge, the Departmentof Government Efficiency, which is
being held at, headed by Elon Musk.
So now Congress wants to createtheir own subcommittee, and it's
(00:53):
being led by Marjorie TaylorGreene, and on this committee.
is Long Beach's own Robert Garcia,our former mayor, former city council
person, now congressman, who representsyou and represents me in the United
States House of Representatives.
(01:15):
And yesterday, in subcommittee,this is what he had to say.
Congressman Robert Garcia (01:20):
Now, I find it ironic, of course, that our
chairwoman, Congresswoman Greene, isin charge of running this committee.
Now, in the last Congress, ChairwomanGreene literally showed a dick pic in
our oversight congressional hearing.
So I thought I'd bring one as well.
Stuart - All In Long Beach (01:35):
And he turns over his shoulder and one
of his people has a huge picture,a huge picture of Elon Musk.
And then you can kind of hear thechamber's little echo a little bit, and
kind of like, ha ha, a little laughter.
And then I couldn't help but this guyto the left, I don't know who it is, but
the guy to the left of Robert Garcia,he kind of looked up, and he saw this,
(01:57):
and he kind of, he kind of moved away.
He kind of like, you know howsomeone says something, and you kind
of want to like distance yourselfa little bit from that person?
That's exactly what this guy did.
He kind of looked at it, he goes, Oh crap.
This is gonna be makingthe news everywhere.
I don't want to be a part of this.
I need to, I want to see if Ican try and get out of this shot.
Unfortunately, the camera's kid cameout and did a wide shot to get the
(02:18):
photos in so you can see everybody.
You can just see he was like,oh my gosh, what is he doing?
What are we doing here?
This is, how is this helping?
How is this helping?
Congressman Robert Garcia (02:26):
And it's important that we actually call out
What is happening at this subcommittee?
This is not about working withthe richest man on the planet.
This is actually about empowering.
This committee wants to empower therichest person in the world to hurt
people so they can take all of thismoney that they so called want to save
and then give it to themselves, theircompanies, and their billionaire friends.
. Stuart - All In Long Beach (02:50):
I have not maybe been paying the
most attention to what's going on.
I'll read the headlines and I'll seesome of this crazy spending that's
going on in the federal government.
I think that we can all agree, atleast for my entire adult life,
new existed like ridiculously, butI had no idea that it was this.
But uh, CongressmanGarcia here is claiming.
(03:12):
And maybe he has proof that is out there.
Maybe he knows something that Idon't know about this, but he's
saying that they're going to takethe money from the taxpayers and give
it to, I don't know how that works.
We are saving money.
This committee, the DOJ committee issupposed to be saving us, the taxpayers,
a ridiculous amount of money becauseof all this ridiculous spending,
(03:34):
all this waste that's going on.
There's no evidence.
I don't see how they're going totake this and funnel it to you.
They're billionaire friends, as,as Congressman Garcia is saying.
I don't know how that's going tohappen unless they create movements.
I, I want to, here's what I wantto see out of this committee.
So I want two things.
I want my taxes to go down, and Iwant the national debt to go down.
Congressman Robert Garcia: that is the attack that is (03:56):
undefined
happening in this committee.
And across this country, and it'simportant that we call it out.
Stuart - All In Long Beach (04:02):
So we're trying to figure this out, right.
We all have to try and work together.
Democrats have been sayingthat forever and ever and ever.
Even when Kamala Harris wasrunning for president, she's
like, we have to work together.
We have to come together.
We're a united front.
We're, you know, all this other stuff.
And now all of a sudden she doesn't win.
Doge is doing exactly whatthey said they would do.
(04:25):
And now they don't want to play nicely.
And here's Congressman Garcia's onthe same day on MSNBCs morning, Joe.
Congressman Robert Garcia (04:32):
I
Stuart - All In Long Beach (04:32):
would say that, um, first I have zero interest.
working with Marjorie Taylor Greene, ourchairwoman on this committee, or the House
Republicans on this committee, to helpthem with anything as it relates to DOJ.
Did you just hear what he said there?
I have zero interest, zero interest inworking with Marjorie Taylor Greene, House
(04:53):
Republicans on this committee, to helpthem with anything as it relates to DOJ.
Well then what the heckare you doing there?
Congressman Robert Garcia (05:01):
What we're there for, and what we're there to do,
is to fight, to push back on the lies, tobring attention to what's going on right
now at our agencies, and to make sure thatpeople know that we are going to fight
every single day to ensure that we getElon Musk out of our private information.
But let's make no mistake about it.
We are not going to be workingwith the House majority, and we're
(05:22):
certainly not going to be workingwith Marjorie Taylor Greene.
I think folks, I think folks todayare going to see us get really engaged
and ask really tough questions.
Stuart - All In Long Beach (05:31):
Really tough questions, like, is Elon Musk a dick?
Those are the tough questions that'sbeing asked by congressmen today.
So Congressman Garcia has his moment.
All the cameras are on him.
All the eyes are on him.
And he has this moment toactually say something meaningful.
(05:55):
And he blows it.
By doing the exact same thingthat he calls out President
Trump for doing so many times,which is badgering, name calling.
And he's right out there doingit again, and he's fine with it.
He's fine with it.
He actually says that he wantsto bring the same kind of fight.
And I'll have the clips of thisis somewhere in my archives.
(06:15):
He says he wants the same kind of fight,same kind of tools for the bar fight.
He actually refers this to thiswhole doge thing as a bar fight.
Now, granted, I know we'reall from Long Beach, right?
We understand what barbar fights are like.
We've all been, you know,to some of these places.
That maybe aren't the safest or the areasyou turn on our news all the time and we
see stabbings and shootings and thingslike that going on at bars in Long Beach
(06:36):
and throughout Southern California.
But this is how he sees this.
He sees himself as in a bar fight withthe President of the United States
and the richest man in the world.
But with all that beingsaid, let's talk about Doge.
Let's talk about their mission.
Let's talk about why theyeven are there to begin with.
That same day, Robert Garcia,he's making the rounds.
(06:58):
I mean, like, he's everywhere.
And today, on ABC News, he gets asked thequestion that I think we should be asking.
And that question is, do you believe thereis fraud and waste in the government?
Do you believe there is fraudand waste in the government?
(07:18):
And this is his response.
Congressman Robert Garcia (07:19):
Absolutely.
I was mayor of my city for eight years.
I mean, of course thereis, of course there is.
Stuart - All In Long Beach (07:24):
Can we just, can we just stop right here?
I was mayor of my city for eight years.
I mean, of course there is.
Of course there is.
We need Doge to come intoLong Beach right now.
This is a great question.
I think we should be asking our currentmayor and our current city council,
(07:51):
where is this waste that our previousmayor, our now congressman says.
exists.
What can we be doing on this local levelto say, listen, it's been admitted by
our former mayor of eight years thatof course there is waste in the, in
the government system, in the LongBeach, that's where we need to be.
(08:11):
We're talking about a 30 million fiscal
shortage, budget shortagefor upcoming fiscal year.
What are we going to do about that?
Can this be solved without allthese crazy tax increases that, that
they're already starting to plot for?
This Measure A stuff that's beengoing on with the sales tax stuff.
Why don't we do this?
Why don't we look around andsay, let's go find the waste that
(08:36):
Congressman Garcia, our formermayor, says exists in this city.
That's going to do it for this episodeof the All in Long Beach podcast.
Let's take some action here.
Let's ask the city council,where is this waste?
Let's ask the mayor,what is he talking about?
Let's ask Congressman Garcia,what are you talking about?
Where is this waste?
(08:57):
He admitted it's there,so let's go find it.
Let's go find it.
Let us know what you think of thisepisode in the All in Long Beach podcast.
Be sure to give us a ratingswherever you're listening to this
on your favorite podcast player.
Find us on Facebook and Twitter,formerly X or X formerly Twitter
and Instagram, All in Long Beach.
Give us a follow, get us your comments,let us know what you're thinking here.
(09:19):
Until our next episode,we'll see you later.
Thanks for listening.
Bye bye.
Announcer (09:23):
Thanks for listening to the all in Long Beach podcast.
Tell us what you thoughton our Patreon page.
Join for free and accessour chat about this episode.
Paid memberships start at just 5per month and get access to early
episodes, our exclusive member chat,exclusive content, our private discord
community, after episode discussion,live pop up videos, and much more.
You can even suggest topics andguests for upcoming episodes.
(09:46):
And you can sign up to become a co hostof this podcast in a future episode.
The link to join for free is inthe show notes, or type in patreon.
com slash all in long beach.
That's patreon.
com slash all in longbeach again, patreon.
com slash all in long beach.
Thanks for listening to this episodeof the all in long beach podcast.
We will catch you in the next episode.
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