Sen. Fischer on the All-Nighter Vote-a-Rama

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcoming Nebraska US Senator Deb Fisher back to the program
and back to the state after some really tough sessions
there in the Senate. Senator, good morning, Good.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Morning Gary, how are you doing well?

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Thanks for coming on. What was that like? That all nighter?
I barely got and ended up with a tie and JD.
Evance broke the tie. That must have been intense.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, you know, in the Senate we have these bodoramas
every now and then, but this one over, the one
big beautiful bill, lasted a long long time. You learn
to snatch a little little sleep sitting up and yeah,
I was up over thirty nine hours. So you get

(00:43):
your second wind, your third win, and you just keep
going because you know we're going to get it done.
It's going to be a great bill for the people
this country, give them relief. We're going to have safer communities.
It's going to support the egg industry, it's going to
secure the order, it helps our military. So you just
keep going to get it done.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Speak to that a little more specifically, if you're with
the what does it do because this is ground zero here,
as you know for agriculture, what does it do for
Nebraska farmers? And ranchers.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Well, when you look at part of the tax reform
that we did in twenty seventeen, we wanted to make
sure that that was extended. So it blocks that four
trillion dollars tax increase. It blocks a twenty four one
hundred dollars tax increase on the Nebraska families. When you

(01:37):
look at farmers specifically, we were able to get some
core pieces of a farm bill into this big, big,
beautiful bill. Sander Hogan was talking about it the other day.
It extends the death tax and increases that that helps

(01:59):
farmers and rants. That helped small businesses. It puts a
lot into looking at crop insurance to strengthen that that
farm safety net. It's going to boost trade, It's going
to expand markets getting into the weeds a little bit.
It increases the price reference prices for ARC and PLC

(02:23):
egg producers out there, know what I'm talking about on that.
It builds in reference price increases with an inflation adjuster
there and improves the price escalator. So it's really looking at,
you know, indemnity program for lifestock to be able to
make sure those payments are out there. We had a

(02:45):
hard time getting a farm bill passed. We didn't get
it passed the last two years. With Center Stabin now
as chairman of the committee, we aren't sure how things
are going this year. You know, there's so much division.
We've had Democrats say they're not going to vote for
anything anything. So we wanted to make sure the ag

(03:05):
economy here in Nebraska was going to be secure because
it is the economic engine of the state. So really, really,
please get those core pieces in.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
The overall picture is most Republicans, and they're debating now
in the House. Most Republicans are saying, the overall picture
is better to vote for this than to vote against it.
We know, however, it does at least the corner of
the projections massively increase our debt and deficit. Where are
we headed to make any progress on that after this bill.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Passes, Well, you know, we're looking at the largest decrease
in spending when you get to thirty seven trillion dollars
like the federal government staff where this country's at. If
you can get a cut of one point six trillion,
that's helpful. It puts us on the right path. It

(03:59):
looks it looks long term when you look at programs
like Medicaid where I just read a quote from Scott Jennings,
that guy that's on CNN, you know, and he's talking
about the work requirement that it's a good thing because
Medicaid it's not supposed to be a lifestyle. He said,

(04:20):
it's a lifeline for people who truly need it. That's
what government should do. That's what government should do, is
to provide for the people that really need it, for
the people the program was designed for. So these reforms
are going to help with that. And when you look
at the work requirement, you know that eighty hours, whether

(04:40):
it's work classes, community service, volunteering, that is not a
burden to put on able bodied people.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
Senator deb Fisher with US deb we're already spending a
trillion dollars a year in defense. How does this improve
the military and why does the military need more than
a trillion dollars a year?

Speaker 2 (05:02):
You know, I think what you have to do is
recognize the threats that we face as a country, and
I push that all the time. I want to unclassify
some of that material so that the people of this
country understand the threats we face. I really worked in
this build to make sure that we were going to

(05:22):
continue on a path that helps our military and the
members of our military be able to meet those threats.
One thing that I worked really hard on again this
one's kind of in the weeds, but I really worked
on the spectrum issue. The Department of Defense. They have
specific spectrum bands right now, the lower tree and seven

(05:43):
and eight, and that helps them to put those exquisite
assets in space, so we have sensors and radars. It
helps when we're going to get the Golden Dome missile
defense shield done, lies on those bands as spectrum, and
so I was able to get in the Bill of

(06:05):
carbaut the first one ever from an FCC auction authority
that's going to safeguard the missile defense of this homeland. Again,
that's looking ahead, but it's also recognizing the threads we
have now that we face from China, that we face
from Russia. With regard to the defense of the homeland.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
I always intercontinental hypersonic missiles. It's a different world. We're
no longer protected by two oceans and two friendly countries.
Cenator Fisher, we have to leave it there for the moment.
Thanks for the time this morning, and happy fourth of July.
Senator deb Fisher here on kfab's morning News