July 3, 2025 • 19 mins
SHORT BLOG BECAUSE ROCKIES EAT THE SHOW AT 12:30 And I'm off tomorrow and Monday so we're talking Independence Day and the Not-So Big Beautiful Bill today.
OF COURSE THE BILL IS GOING TO PASS What did I say yesterday about the fake drama about the Big Beautiful Bill? I told you that there would be a good show of some of the members of the House who said this was a garbage bill and the Senate made it worse before they voted to move it along. And that is EXACTLY what happened. A seven hour procedural vote that cleared the deck for the bill to pass today, so everyone in the House can go home and talk about what a hard battle they fought but this is just how things work in Washington and gosh they wish it was different. So predictable. The bill should pass this morning. I have mixed feelings about this. I'm glad the tax cuts are permanent because if taxes had jumped right now it would crush people who are already being crushed by inflation's impact. But this bill just moves us closer to insolvency. I hope beyond all hope I'm wrong. Please let me be wrong.
WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE BILL? Well I've gathered up some stuff from people who think this bill is horrible and why. Here the Committee for a Responsible Federal Government shows how this bill is the biggest budget buster of ALL TIME. This column points out that the bill does nothing to deal with the crisis looming for Social Security and Medicare and even speeds up Social Security's demise. This column talks about the death of regular order, which will absolutely come back to bite the GOP again the next time the Democrats have a slim majority and big ideas, although that column does the best job of giving ALL the pros and cons and is worth a full read. This part on why they are using a reconciliation process instead of doing it the way it should be done is really good:
The bill’s secret weapon is something called budget reconciliation—a special process that allows legislation affecting federal spending, revenues, or debt to pass the Senate with just 51 votes instead of the usual 60. This procedural advantage was established by the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 to streamline budget decisions. But it’s become the preferred method for passing major partisan legislation when one party controls Congress by narrow margins. Reconciliation was originally designed to ensure that Congress could implement budget resolutions by reconciling actual spending and revenue legislation with overall fiscal targets. The idea was to prevent individual appropriations or tax bills from undermining broader budget agreements. Over time, creative lawmakers discovered they could use reconciliation for much more ambitious purposes. Any provision that affects federal spending, revenues, or debt levels can potentially qualify for the expedited process. The current bill qualifies because virtually every provision either raises or lowers taxes, increases or decreases spending, or affects government debt levels. Tax cuts reduce revenues. Healthcare changes affect Medicaid spending. Even seemingly unrelated provisions can be crafted to meet reconciliation requirements. Reco
OF COURSE THE BILL IS GOING TO PASS What did I say yesterday about the fake drama about the Big Beautiful Bill? I told you that there would be a good show of some of the members of the House who said this was a garbage bill and the Senate made it worse before they voted to move it along. And that is EXACTLY what happened. A seven hour procedural vote that cleared the deck for the bill to pass today, so everyone in the House can go home and talk about what a hard battle they fought but this is just how things work in Washington and gosh they wish it was different. So predictable. The bill should pass this morning. I have mixed feelings about this. I'm glad the tax cuts are permanent because if taxes had jumped right now it would crush people who are already being crushed by inflation's impact. But this bill just moves us closer to insolvency. I hope beyond all hope I'm wrong. Please let me be wrong.
WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE BILL? Well I've gathered up some stuff from people who think this bill is horrible and why. Here the Committee for a Responsible Federal Government shows how this bill is the biggest budget buster of ALL TIME. This column points out that the bill does nothing to deal with the crisis looming for Social Security and Medicare and even speeds up Social Security's demise. This column talks about the death of regular order, which will absolutely come back to bite the GOP again the next time the Democrats have a slim majority and big ideas, although that column does the best job of giving ALL the pros and cons and is worth a full read. This part on why they are using a reconciliation process instead of doing it the way it should be done is really good:
The bill’s secret weapon is something called budget reconciliation—a special process that allows legislation affecting federal spending, revenues, or debt to pass the Senate with just 51 votes instead of the usual 60. This procedural advantage was established by the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 to streamline budget decisions. But it’s become the preferred method for passing major partisan legislation when one party controls Congress by narrow margins. Reconciliation was originally designed to ensure that Congress could implement budget resolutions by reconciling actual spending and revenue legislation with overall fiscal targets. The idea was to prevent individual appropriations or tax bills from undermining broader budget agreements. Over time, creative lawmakers discovered they could use reconciliation for much more ambitious purposes. Any provision that affects federal spending, revenues, or debt levels can potentially qualify for the expedited process. The current bill qualifies because virtually every provision either raises or lowers taxes, increases or decreases spending, or affects government debt levels. Tax cuts reduce revenues. Healthcare changes affect Medicaid spending. Even seemingly unrelated provisions can be crafted to meet reconciliation requirements. Reco
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Bell and Pollock
Accident and Injury Lawyers. No, it's Mandy Connell, Mayna koam
ninem god wa stay and the Nicey's th three Bendy
(00:22):
Connell keeping Sadday. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to a Thursday feels
like Friday edition of the show.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
So altogether, now that is all right, all right, kids,
it is.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
The day before Independence Day, and we're gonna treat it
like a Friday, even though it's an extremely short show.
Rockies take over a twelve thirty, so you're just gonna
have to enjoy the next twenty or eighteen ish minutes
of the program.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Settle in.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
I've got a big blog even though I have a
short show, So you can go to mandy'sblog dot com.
Look for the headline.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Excuse me, I.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Got the hiccups. This is seven three twenty five blog
short show. So let's celebrate our independence. Click on that.
Here are the headlines you will find within. I think
you's in office.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
South American all with ships and clipments. And that's a
press plant.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Today on the blog short blog. Because the Rockies eat
the show at twelve thirty. Of course, the bill is
going to pass. What's wrong with the bill? Forty percent
of Americans say yes to the America Party. The economy
is still adding jobs. Representative Bobert has a bill to
protect farmers. Should Mount Evans be Mount Evans again? Was
there a dryer sheet in your mailbox? Imagine if this
(01:45):
were a Colorado Republican. It's the best time of year
for corn Denver. We'll be in a harmony this weekend.
Process meets are bad again. Put on close for the
office please. Christian Toto reviews the new Jurassic Park flick
Happy Day. Those are the headlines on the blog at
mandy'sblog dot com Tick Tech Toe. I know nance it
(02:09):
wasn't very long, but I don't have a long show.
And yeah, I did a lot of reading today about
the bill that is going to pass. It's a done deal.
It's a fate to complete, as they say. I have
two things at the very bottom of the blog that
I want to direct your attention to. One of them
is a video that I think I share it every
single year on Independence Day. And though there are a
(02:31):
few historical inaccuracies, they're minor enough that I feel comfortable
sharing this video because it's so good, and it is
a video about the Star Spangled Banner and how we
got the poem that led to the Star Spangled Banner
and now obviously our national anthem. And you may not
(02:52):
know this, but the Star Spangled Banner was not written
about the revolution. It was written about the War of
eighteen twelve. And the story behind how Francis Key wrote
that poem that then became our anthem is fantastic, and
as I said in this video, it was done by
a pastor like fifteen years ago. In the video, there
are few minor historical details that he did not get correct,
(03:14):
but they're so minor I feel comfortable with the rest
of it, and they don't change the trajectory in any way.
He didn't you know, he didn't gloss anything over or
anything like that. But that's on the blog today as well.
As I decided to look and see because not many
of us are going to pick up the Declaration of
Independence to read it. I wish we would, but I
found a reading of the Declaration of Independence that I
(03:36):
think is just lovely by a guy named Max McLain,
and he does it in a wonderful appropriate voice. You
know that you could it deserves to be read out
loud in I guess I should say so in the
next day or so. I would love it if you
would go to the blog and just watch those two videos.
If you don't do anything else on the blog there
at the very bottom, just scroll down and you can
(03:58):
find them there. So to Obviously, the Rockies take over
at twelve thirty, So I just have a little bit
of time and I want to spend it on the
big beautiful bill, as it is called by others. I
will not call it that because I'm not gonna call
it that. The bill is going to pass. And this
morning I started looking at different articles from different places,
(04:20):
including the Committee for a Responsible Federal Government and laying
out what the problems are with this Reconciliation bill. And
I found a really good column that did a fair
to good job. And I say fair to good for
one reason. Once you it's a long article that lays
out the pros and cons of this bill, everything that
(04:42):
it does different people, that it helps, different people, that
it hurts, and it's fairly even. But boy howdy, when
they got to the cuts on the green energy subsidies,
they're like, well, gonna die in their own way, right.
But there's one part in this and I link to
all of these on the blog. You can go read
it your own time. But I want to read this
(05:02):
one part because a lot of people don't understand what
we're doing with this reconciliation process, and they did such
a great job explaining it that I want to read
it to you. It's just a couple minutes long, because
I want you to understand that this is not how
Congress is supposed to work, and people like Thomas Massey
and Ran Paul who say we need to return to
(05:23):
regular order, this is exactly what they're talking about. So
this is a few paragraphs from that on the actual
reconciliation process. The bill's secret weapon is something called budget reconciliation,
a special process that allows legislation affecting federal spending, revenues
or debt to pass the Senate with just fifty one
(05:44):
votes instead of the usual sixty. This procedural advantage was
established by the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of
nineteen seventy four to streamline budget decisions, but it's become
the preferred method for passing major partisan legislation when one
party controls Congress by narrow margins. Reconciliation was originally designed
(06:07):
to ensure that Congress could implement budget resolutions by reconciling
actual spending and revenue legislation with overall fiscal targets. The
idea was to prevent individual appropriations or tax bills from
undermining broader budget agreements. Over time, creative lawmakers discovered they
could use reconciliation for a much more ambitious purpose. Any
(06:31):
provision that affects federal spending, revenues, or debt levels can
potentially qualify for the expedited process. The current bill qualifies
because virtually every provision either raises or lowers taxes, increases
or decreases spending, or affects government debt levels. Tax cuts
reduce revenues, health care changes effect Medicaid spending. Even seemingly
(06:55):
unrelated provisions can be crafted to meet reconciliation requirements. Reconciliation
comes with strict limits enforced by the Senate Parliamentarian under
rules known as the Bird Rule, named after former racist
Senator Robert Byrd. Provisions I added the racist part because
he is provisions must have had more than incidental budgetary effects.
(07:18):
Can't increase deficits beyond the budget window, and must relate
primarily to budgetary rather than policy matters. These constraints force
bill drafters to be creative about how they structure policies
to qualify for fast track treatment. Sometimes this leads to
awkward compromises or sunset clauses that make policies temporary when
(07:41):
sponsors want them to be permanent. The time limits built
into reconciliation, typically twenty hours of Senate debate, compress normal
legislative processes that might otherwise take months into just a
few days of intense activity. This speed prevents the kind
of detailed examination that complex legislation normally requires. That last
(08:07):
sentence right there, I gave it emphasis at the end.
That is a feature, not a bug. And Democrats have
used budget reconciliation to pass the American Reinvestment or Recovery Act,
they used it to pass Obamacare, They've used it to
pass all kinds of stuff. So this is a bipartisan
dumpster fire of a thing. And I know it's frustrating
(08:32):
for me because if we did have to bust up
all of these things into different bills, there's a zero
percent chance that we would be where we are today,
but in the era of partisanship that we have now,
where if God forbid, you try to work with people
on the other side of the aisle to come up
with real solutions to real problems, you are absolutely going
(08:53):
to be primaried. You are absolutely going to be targeted.
And now we've created a system that rewards the fringe
on both both sides of the aisle. The next time
that Democrats have control, just like this, expect some giant
crap sandwich to come through on their time as well.
This is this is a bipartisan shame for both parties.
(09:16):
And I think a lot of people don't understand. They
can't understand why we need these giant bills. And I
keep telling people, I've told people this a thousand times.
The only reason we have these giant bills is so
every maybe holdout member like Lisa Murkowski is a great
example in this bill. And I haven't even read the
bill yet, but in this bill, I guarantee you that
(09:40):
there is a specific carve out for Alaska when it
comes to Medicaid cuts. Because that's what she wanted, that's
what they gave her to buy her vote. But because
the bill is so big she will never be held
responsible in it. Well, she won't be held responsible by
the people in Alaska for sure, But you know, you
can't hold her responsible for that because it's full of
so much much pork and garbage and giveaways that we
(10:03):
the citizenry cannot possibly be expected to read the damn thing.
Neither can the members of the House that just are
about to vote yes on it. And that is by design.
It's by design because now when and I'm I'm gonna
pick on Gabe Evans for a moment, even though I
love him and I want him to win reelection. Now
Gabe Evans can come back to his district and when
(10:25):
people say, what the deuce, dude, how did you vote
for this thing that now has negatively affected me? This way,
Gabe Evans can look them in the face and say, wow,
I didn't know that was in there. Holy crap, how
did that happen? And Democrats do the exact same thing,
the exact same thing. Okay, I don't know how to
(10:46):
fix it, I really don't. It's a function of the
partisanship that we have now where you know, back during
the Reagan administration, Kip O'Neil, the Speaker of the House,
Democrat and Ronald Reagan were good friends and compromises were
made back in nineteen ninety four when the when the
(11:07):
Republicans were trying to balance the budget, there were Democrats
that work with them on that, and we're proud about it, right,
I mean, that's the thing people didn't run away from saying, Look,
I worked with someone across the aisle to solve this problem.
And here's the kicker. It does happen. There are lots
of bipartisan bills that are passed, but they're for stuff
that doesn't matter, right, They're for stuff that's like no
(11:30):
big deal. And now the stuff that really matters, the
stuff that's super important, like this, we're just gonna shove
it through. And when the Democrats take over, they're going
to shove their thing through, and we're all gonna be like,
oh my god, how could they do that? They did
it because they can absolutely Mandy dating myself, but in
(11:50):
the early sixties, when I was in grammar school, the
nun's favorite punishment was transcribe the Declaration or Independence or
the Constitution. Tonight. I had to do so multiple times
and had been eternally grateful since Happy Independence Day. That
from Rocky Mountain Bronx Bill.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
What are the odds that the line item veto will pass? Never?
Absolutely not? Just not anyway we have a I'm looking
at some of these. I can't read you guys. If
you text message me things that are just rude and
foul and have bad languages, I can't. I can't share
(12:31):
that on the air. So it might make you feel better,
but it's not gonna get you, you know, anytime on
the air. This from the Common Spirit Health text line. Mandy,
I shared yesterday's dad joke. It made many of my
friends smile. Thanks. I don't know about I don't remember
yesterday's dad joke. I think it was a groaner, wasn't it.
I just think so Does any amount of federal deficit matter? No,
(12:55):
it's by design with both parties. Ah, I'm hoping. I'm
hoping Texter that you're being sarcastic. I'm going to take
it that way because the notion that the federal debt
doesn't matter is the kind of hubrist that is going
to bring the country right in the crapper Mandy. Having
(13:15):
three people from the other side of the aisle is
not bipartisan. That's just a sham statement. Okay, three people
in this bill would have been a big deal. Don't
you think so? Don't you think so? I mean, you guys,
any bipartisanship, I granted. You know, when one person signs
on and they say, oh, it's bipartisan bill, you're like, okay,
but it wasn't truly bipartisan. But even people that worked
(13:39):
on the bill. Here's the thing. People will work on
a bill and then they will vote against it. But
in the process of working on the bill, they get
the stuff that they want in the bill, but then
they vote against the bill so they can go back
and tell their constituents, hey voted against the bill. But oh,
by the way, here's what I just got out of
the bill that I then voted against. I mean, it's all,
(14:00):
it's all just this kind of like I hate the
phrase kabooki theater because it's all it's been overused, and
I actually saw a kabooki theater in Tokyo. Yeah, drove
by one. But the reality is is there's so much
performative nonsense in Congress, and it's all designed by the
individual parties to give the people in swing states or
(14:23):
who have tough reelection campaigns, plausible deniability, Okay, they want
those people to be able to go tell their people, well,
you know, gosh, that's a that's a yeah, that's that's tough.
But I voted against it, you know. But if you're
in a safe state or you're in a safe district,
heck yeah, they're gonna want you to vote their way.
It's all about getting re elected. And I will say this,
(14:46):
you know, Senator John Hickenloper, I is he even in DC?
Most of the time, I never hear a word from
this guy. I never see him doing anything. I never
see him like running a bill, leading the charge. I've
never seen him do anything that gave me the opinion
that he was any kind of leader in the Senate.
(15:07):
Maybe he is, I don't know, but I've certainly never
seen any of it. But that guy voted for spending
bills under Joe Biden that added seven point six trillion
dollars to the deficit. So when I see him on
Twitter now talking about this bill is so dangerous, it
explodes what kind of crap is that?
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Like?
Speaker 1 (15:27):
What kind of spineless weasel do you have to be
to just just slam the door open on such blatant hypocrisy.
I dons the size of cantalops these people. I have
no respect for anybody, anybody who comes back and says
anything about this bill other than here's why I voted
(15:50):
for it and the alternative was worse, which is true.
By the way, It's absolutely true, Mandy Funny that Republicans
were always against the super bill until now. Why not
Line item too much? Congress gets paid too much for
as a little as they actually get done. Line not
and vetos are not necessary if Congress goes back to
doing their job the way they're supposed to. Congress is
(16:12):
supposed to do twelve appropriation bills every single time, every
single year, twelve and they have abdicated that responsibility because
they can't get along enough to figure out how to
make those budgets work. We have the most dysfunctional, idiotic
group of morons in Congress right now, save a handful
(16:35):
of people that I genuinely like, and they don't care.
They don't care about trying to get everything back to
regular order. They jumped on this bill because it takes
the onus off them, off them doing the hard work.
Now here's another question I have for you, and the
show's almost over, so we'll wrap it up on this thought.
In the regular appropriations process, you do committee meetings, and
(16:57):
in those committee meetings you have experts on different subjects
that come in and talk about things so you can
make good decisions about what that budget is. This entire process,
this budget reconciliation, absolutely completely negates the need for committees.
Why do we have committee meetings anymore? What are we
even doing?
Speaker 2 (17:16):
What is the point?
Speaker 1 (17:18):
It's all just performative. So yeah, I'm not dazzled by this.
I'm not impressed by this. I'm not even the least
bit interested in this, if I'm honest, because frankly, they
don't care about my kids, they don't care about your
kids and grandkids. They are willing to spend us into
absolute oblivion because they've decided that's the best way to
(17:41):
get reelected. And what's funny, really funny, is that in
doing so, they're all gonna be dead, you know, That's
I guess that's the way they figure it. They're all
gonna be dead by the time the bills really come due.
But I'm not gonna forget my kids, won't forget Mandy,
(18:01):
I forgot hickin Looper was even a senator. Oh, very funny.
Yesterday's dad joke was memory fails as we get old
or happy forth. Hey, guys, remember to say and I'm
not mad about Happy fourth, Happy Independence Day. We're not
celebrating the date. We are celebrating our independence and our
declaration of independence as we peeled our way off from
(18:23):
tyrannical leadership who probably ran things a lot like they're
being run right now. Mandy, are you gonna be on
the radio tomorrow for the fourth I am not. I'm
going to see my grandkids tomorrow. I will actually be
back Tuesday. We've got to deliver all of their all
of their treats from Japan, so I'm pretty excited about that.
I want every one of you to have a spectacular
(18:45):
Independence Day. Take a little moment to be grateful that
you were born or had the chance to move to
this country and become a citizen of our big, messy, crazy,
dysfunctional but still better than any other country in the
world in my opinion, nation, the United States of America.
(19:06):
To the person who said take a breath when you
got a half hour show, you gotta you gotta do
a lot, all right, guys, Colorado Rocky's coming up next
Happy Independence Day. I'll see you Tuesday.
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Bell and Pollock
Accident and Injury Lawyers. No, it's Mandy Connell, Mayna koam
ninem god wa stay and the Nicey's th three Bendy
(00:22):
Connell keeping Sadday. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to a Thursday feels
like Friday edition of the show.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
So altogether, now that is all right, all right, kids,
it is.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
The day before Independence Day, and we're gonna treat it
like a Friday, even though it's an extremely short show.
Rockies take over a twelve thirty, so you're just gonna
have to enjoy the next twenty or eighteen ish minutes
of the program.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Settle in.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
I've got a big blog even though I have a
short show, So you can go to mandy'sblog dot com.
Look for the headline.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Excuse me, I.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Got the hiccups. This is seven three twenty five blog
short show. So let's celebrate our independence. Click on that.
Here are the headlines you will find within. I think
you's in office.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
South American all with ships and clipments. And that's a
press plant.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Today on the blog short blog. Because the Rockies eat
the show at twelve thirty. Of course, the bill is
going to pass. What's wrong with the bill? Forty percent
of Americans say yes to the America Party. The economy
is still adding jobs. Representative Bobert has a bill to
protect farmers. Should Mount Evans be Mount Evans again? Was
there a dryer sheet in your mailbox? Imagine if this
(01:45):
were a Colorado Republican. It's the best time of year
for corn Denver. We'll be in a harmony this weekend.
Process meets are bad again. Put on close for the
office please. Christian Toto reviews the new Jurassic Park flick
Happy Day. Those are the headlines on the blog at
mandy'sblog dot com Tick Tech Toe. I know nance it
(02:09):
wasn't very long, but I don't have a long show.
And yeah, I did a lot of reading today about
the bill that is going to pass. It's a done deal.
It's a fate to complete, as they say. I have
two things at the very bottom of the blog that
I want to direct your attention to. One of them
is a video that I think I share it every
single year on Independence Day. And though there are a
(02:31):
few historical inaccuracies, they're minor enough that I feel comfortable
sharing this video because it's so good, and it is
a video about the Star Spangled Banner and how we
got the poem that led to the Star Spangled Banner
and now obviously our national anthem. And you may not
(02:52):
know this, but the Star Spangled Banner was not written
about the revolution. It was written about the War of
eighteen twelve. And the story behind how Francis Key wrote
that poem that then became our anthem is fantastic, and
as I said in this video, it was done by
a pastor like fifteen years ago. In the video, there
are few minor historical details that he did not get correct,
(03:14):
but they're so minor I feel comfortable with the rest
of it, and they don't change the trajectory in any way.
He didn't you know, he didn't gloss anything over or
anything like that. But that's on the blog today as well.
As I decided to look and see because not many
of us are going to pick up the Declaration of
Independence to read it. I wish we would, but I
found a reading of the Declaration of Independence that I
(03:36):
think is just lovely by a guy named Max McLain,
and he does it in a wonderful appropriate voice. You
know that you could it deserves to be read out
loud in I guess I should say so in the
next day or so. I would love it if you
would go to the blog and just watch those two videos.
If you don't do anything else on the blog there
at the very bottom, just scroll down and you can
(03:58):
find them there. So to Obviously, the Rockies take over
at twelve thirty, So I just have a little bit
of time and I want to spend it on the
big beautiful bill, as it is called by others. I
will not call it that because I'm not gonna call
it that. The bill is going to pass. And this
morning I started looking at different articles from different places,
(04:20):
including the Committee for a Responsible Federal Government and laying
out what the problems are with this Reconciliation bill. And
I found a really good column that did a fair
to good job. And I say fair to good for
one reason. Once you it's a long article that lays
out the pros and cons of this bill, everything that
(04:42):
it does different people, that it helps, different people, that
it hurts, and it's fairly even. But boy howdy, when
they got to the cuts on the green energy subsidies,
they're like, well, gonna die in their own way, right.
But there's one part in this and I link to
all of these on the blog. You can go read
it your own time. But I want to read this
(05:02):
one part because a lot of people don't understand what
we're doing with this reconciliation process, and they did such
a great job explaining it that I want to read
it to you. It's just a couple minutes long, because
I want you to understand that this is not how
Congress is supposed to work, and people like Thomas Massey
and Ran Paul who say we need to return to
(05:23):
regular order, this is exactly what they're talking about. So
this is a few paragraphs from that on the actual
reconciliation process. The bill's secret weapon is something called budget reconciliation,
a special process that allows legislation affecting federal spending, revenues
or debt to pass the Senate with just fifty one
(05:44):
votes instead of the usual sixty. This procedural advantage was
established by the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of
nineteen seventy four to streamline budget decisions, but it's become
the preferred method for passing major partisan legislation when one
party controls Congress by narrow margins. Reconciliation was originally designed
(06:07):
to ensure that Congress could implement budget resolutions by reconciling
actual spending and revenue legislation with overall fiscal targets. The
idea was to prevent individual appropriations or tax bills from
undermining broader budget agreements. Over time, creative lawmakers discovered they
could use reconciliation for a much more ambitious purpose. Any
(06:31):
provision that affects federal spending, revenues, or debt levels can
potentially qualify for the expedited process. The current bill qualifies
because virtually every provision either raises or lowers taxes, increases
or decreases spending, or affects government debt levels. Tax cuts
reduce revenues, health care changes effect Medicaid spending. Even seemingly
(06:55):
unrelated provisions can be crafted to meet reconciliation requirements. Reconciliation
comes with strict limits enforced by the Senate Parliamentarian under
rules known as the Bird Rule, named after former racist
Senator Robert Byrd. Provisions I added the racist part because
he is provisions must have had more than incidental budgetary effects.
(07:18):
Can't increase deficits beyond the budget window, and must relate
primarily to budgetary rather than policy matters. These constraints force
bill drafters to be creative about how they structure policies
to qualify for fast track treatment. Sometimes this leads to
awkward compromises or sunset clauses that make policies temporary when
(07:41):
sponsors want them to be permanent. The time limits built
into reconciliation, typically twenty hours of Senate debate, compress normal
legislative processes that might otherwise take months into just a
few days of intense activity. This speed prevents the kind
of detailed examination that complex legislation normally requires. That last
(08:07):
sentence right there, I gave it emphasis at the end.
That is a feature, not a bug. And Democrats have
used budget reconciliation to pass the American Reinvestment or Recovery Act,
they used it to pass Obamacare, They've used it to
pass all kinds of stuff. So this is a bipartisan
dumpster fire of a thing. And I know it's frustrating
(08:32):
for me because if we did have to bust up
all of these things into different bills, there's a zero
percent chance that we would be where we are today,
but in the era of partisanship that we have now,
where if God forbid, you try to work with people
on the other side of the aisle to come up
with real solutions to real problems, you are absolutely going
(08:53):
to be primaried. You are absolutely going to be targeted.
And now we've created a system that rewards the fringe
on both both sides of the aisle. The next time
that Democrats have control, just like this, expect some giant
crap sandwich to come through on their time as well.
This is this is a bipartisan shame for both parties.
(09:16):
And I think a lot of people don't understand. They
can't understand why we need these giant bills. And I
keep telling people, I've told people this a thousand times.
The only reason we have these giant bills is so
every maybe holdout member like Lisa Murkowski is a great
example in this bill. And I haven't even read the
bill yet, but in this bill, I guarantee you that
(09:40):
there is a specific carve out for Alaska when it
comes to Medicaid cuts. Because that's what she wanted, that's
what they gave her to buy her vote. But because
the bill is so big she will never be held
responsible in it. Well, she won't be held responsible by
the people in Alaska for sure, But you know, you
can't hold her responsible for that because it's full of
so much much pork and garbage and giveaways that we
(10:03):
the citizenry cannot possibly be expected to read the damn thing.
Neither can the members of the House that just are
about to vote yes on it. And that is by design.
It's by design because now when and I'm I'm gonna
pick on Gabe Evans for a moment, even though I
love him and I want him to win reelection. Now
Gabe Evans can come back to his district and when
(10:25):
people say, what the deuce, dude, how did you vote
for this thing that now has negatively affected me? This way,
Gabe Evans can look them in the face and say, wow,
I didn't know that was in there. Holy crap, how
did that happen? And Democrats do the exact same thing,
the exact same thing. Okay, I don't know how to
(10:46):
fix it, I really don't. It's a function of the
partisanship that we have now where you know, back during
the Reagan administration, Kip O'Neil, the Speaker of the House,
Democrat and Ronald Reagan were good friends and compromises were
made back in nineteen ninety four when the when the
(11:07):
Republicans were trying to balance the budget, there were Democrats
that work with them on that, and we're proud about it, right,
I mean, that's the thing people didn't run away from saying, Look,
I worked with someone across the aisle to solve this problem.
And here's the kicker. It does happen. There are lots
of bipartisan bills that are passed, but they're for stuff
that doesn't matter, right, They're for stuff that's like no
(11:30):
big deal. And now the stuff that really matters, the
stuff that's super important, like this, we're just gonna shove
it through. And when the Democrats take over, they're going
to shove their thing through, and we're all gonna be like,
oh my god, how could they do that? They did
it because they can absolutely Mandy dating myself, but in
(11:50):
the early sixties, when I was in grammar school, the
nun's favorite punishment was transcribe the Declaration or Independence or
the Constitution. Tonight. I had to do so multiple times
and had been eternally grateful since Happy Independence Day. That
from Rocky Mountain Bronx Bill.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
What are the odds that the line item veto will pass? Never?
Absolutely not? Just not anyway we have a I'm looking
at some of these. I can't read you guys. If
you text message me things that are just rude and
foul and have bad languages, I can't. I can't share
(12:31):
that on the air. So it might make you feel better,
but it's not gonna get you, you know, anytime on
the air. This from the Common Spirit Health text line. Mandy,
I shared yesterday's dad joke. It made many of my
friends smile. Thanks. I don't know about I don't remember
yesterday's dad joke. I think it was a groaner, wasn't it.
I just think so Does any amount of federal deficit matter? No,
(12:55):
it's by design with both parties. Ah, I'm hoping. I'm
hoping Texter that you're being sarcastic. I'm going to take
it that way because the notion that the federal debt
doesn't matter is the kind of hubrist that is going
to bring the country right in the crapper Mandy. Having
(13:15):
three people from the other side of the aisle is
not bipartisan. That's just a sham statement. Okay, three people
in this bill would have been a big deal. Don't
you think so? Don't you think so? I mean, you guys,
any bipartisanship, I granted. You know, when one person signs
on and they say, oh, it's bipartisan bill, you're like, okay,
but it wasn't truly bipartisan. But even people that worked
(13:39):
on the bill. Here's the thing. People will work on
a bill and then they will vote against it. But
in the process of working on the bill, they get
the stuff that they want in the bill, but then
they vote against the bill so they can go back
and tell their constituents, hey voted against the bill. But oh,
by the way, here's what I just got out of
the bill that I then voted against. I mean, it's all,
(14:00):
it's all just this kind of like I hate the
phrase kabooki theater because it's all it's been overused, and
I actually saw a kabooki theater in Tokyo. Yeah, drove
by one. But the reality is is there's so much
performative nonsense in Congress, and it's all designed by the
individual parties to give the people in swing states or
(14:23):
who have tough reelection campaigns, plausible deniability, Okay, they want
those people to be able to go tell their people, well,
you know, gosh, that's a that's a yeah, that's that's tough.
But I voted against it, you know. But if you're
in a safe state or you're in a safe district,
heck yeah, they're gonna want you to vote their way.
It's all about getting re elected. And I will say this,
(14:46):
you know, Senator John Hickenloper, I is he even in DC?
Most of the time, I never hear a word from
this guy. I never see him doing anything. I never
see him like running a bill, leading the charge. I've
never seen him do anything that gave me the opinion
that he was any kind of leader in the Senate.
(15:07):
Maybe he is, I don't know, but I've certainly never
seen any of it. But that guy voted for spending
bills under Joe Biden that added seven point six trillion
dollars to the deficit. So when I see him on
Twitter now talking about this bill is so dangerous, it
explodes what kind of crap is that?
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Like?
Speaker 1 (15:27):
What kind of spineless weasel do you have to be
to just just slam the door open on such blatant hypocrisy.
I dons the size of cantalops these people. I have
no respect for anybody, anybody who comes back and says
anything about this bill other than here's why I voted
(15:50):
for it and the alternative was worse, which is true.
By the way, It's absolutely true, Mandy Funny that Republicans
were always against the super bill until now. Why not
Line item too much? Congress gets paid too much for
as a little as they actually get done. Line not
and vetos are not necessary if Congress goes back to
doing their job the way they're supposed to. Congress is
(16:12):
supposed to do twelve appropriation bills every single time, every
single year, twelve and they have abdicated that responsibility because
they can't get along enough to figure out how to
make those budgets work. We have the most dysfunctional, idiotic
group of morons in Congress right now, save a handful
(16:35):
of people that I genuinely like, and they don't care.
They don't care about trying to get everything back to
regular order. They jumped on this bill because it takes
the onus off them, off them doing the hard work.
Now here's another question I have for you, and the
show's almost over, so we'll wrap it up on this thought.
In the regular appropriations process, you do committee meetings, and
(16:57):
in those committee meetings you have experts on different subjects
that come in and talk about things so you can
make good decisions about what that budget is. This entire process,
this budget reconciliation, absolutely completely negates the need for committees.
Why do we have committee meetings anymore? What are we
even doing?
Speaker 2 (17:16):
What is the point?
Speaker 1 (17:18):
It's all just performative. So yeah, I'm not dazzled by this.
I'm not impressed by this. I'm not even the least
bit interested in this, if I'm honest, because frankly, they
don't care about my kids, they don't care about your
kids and grandkids. They are willing to spend us into
absolute oblivion because they've decided that's the best way to
(17:41):
get reelected. And what's funny, really funny, is that in
doing so, they're all gonna be dead, you know, That's
I guess that's the way they figure it. They're all
gonna be dead by the time the bills really come due.
But I'm not gonna forget my kids, won't forget Mandy,
(18:01):
I forgot hickin Looper was even a senator. Oh, very funny.
Yesterday's dad joke was memory fails as we get old
or happy forth. Hey, guys, remember to say and I'm
not mad about Happy fourth, Happy Independence Day. We're not
celebrating the date. We are celebrating our independence and our
declaration of independence as we peeled our way off from
(18:23):
tyrannical leadership who probably ran things a lot like they're
being run right now. Mandy, are you gonna be on
the radio tomorrow for the fourth I am not. I'm
going to see my grandkids tomorrow. I will actually be
back Tuesday. We've got to deliver all of their all
of their treats from Japan, so I'm pretty excited about that.
I want every one of you to have a spectacular
(18:45):
Independence Day. Take a little moment to be grateful that
you were born or had the chance to move to
this country and become a citizen of our big, messy, crazy,
dysfunctional but still better than any other country in the
world in my opinion, nation, the United States of America.
(19:06):
To the person who said take a breath when you
got a half hour show, you gotta you gotta do
a lot, all right, guys, Colorado Rocky's coming up next
Happy Independence Day. I'll see you Tuesday.
The Mandy Connell Podcast News
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