Nick Lindquist - Political Strategist Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fourth of July is not that far away. And by
the fourth of July, send the Majority Leader John Zoon
wants to send that big, beautiful bill to President Trump
to sign. He wants to have it on his desk
by the fourth of July. Nick Lindquist joins US political strategist.
You know, I always I always knew that Congress acted slowly, Nick,

(00:22):
But you you don't realize just how slowly they act
until you see how fast Trump acts.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Oh absolutely, I mean this bill and members of Congress
are still saying they're not sure it's going to be
done by fourth of July. Like they move at a
glacial pace, especially when it comes to budgets, and especially
with what Donald Trump wants to do at the budget.
A lot of them are not going to like that,
but they need to do it well.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
And if they don't get it done by the fourth
of July, that doesn't bode well for the economy, does it.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
No, not at all. I think I think a lot
of a lot of the volatility with the economy right
now is due to just uncertainty about what the federal
government is going to do with its money. So you
know this, this really does need to happen on an
expedited track. But I guess you know, I think I

(01:16):
think a big problem with this is going to be
the House. There's a handful of House members with concerns
about some of the cuts, and a lot of them
are in you know, your your usual suspects states, the
moderate uh, sort of blue states with with Republican members
in it. New York. Yes, yes, I mean your your

(01:39):
usual suspects basically New York and California. They're all concerned
about Medicaid cuts. And then the EPA cuts is from
from what I understand.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Here, here's what well, here's the part of that I
don't understand, and maybe you can explain it to us,
and that is what cuts are they fearful of, because
the I think the President has been pretty clear there's
no benefit cuts coming where they're they're cutting fraud, they're
cutting waste, they're cutting abuse, and nobody can make a
sane argument that there isn't plenty of that in virtually
every department run by the federal government.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yes, yes, that is a good point. So, yes, Donald
Trump has said there are no benefits cuts coming, But
you know what, these members are still going to make
excuses because unfortunately, the budget process has been mismanaged for
so many decades that it's basically treated as a like
a festival where each member gets their little piece of

(02:33):
the pie so they can bring it back to their
district and say they spent this money on the district
and you know this this time around and going forward,
they just can't do that anymore. We don't even have
we can't afford that. So I think that's the main
issue is they're they're not getting their little slice of
the Their slice of the pie is smaller. Now there's

(02:54):
you know, research grant cuts, which could affect a lot
of districts if, for example, uh An NGO operates out
of that district and they were getting that money, you know,
things things like that, I think is the real issue.
And they're gonna blame uh They're gonna blame Medicaid somehow,
and it's it's just ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
No doubt about it, all right, But they come through
this time though, Nick, thank you appreciate it. Political strategist
Nick lind Quist