Tom Giovanetti, President / Institute for Policy Innovation. Joins Houston Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Six two. By the way, here in Houston's Morning News
for Jen republicans voted against it, maybe not because of
the Save Act, but for other reasons. Tom Giovannadi, John Gievitt,
Tom Giavannetti, there we go. Hey, easy for me to
say at six twenty two of the Morning President the
Institute for Policy Innovation joins is. Thanks for coming on
so early. Tom. It looks like it wasn't really a

(00:21):
vote for most of these Republicans who voted against it.
It wasn't really a vote against the Save Act. There
was a vote against it for other reasons.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah, I think this has nothing to do with the
Save Act. I mean, let's remind folks that the Save
Act is a federal legislation that would require people to
show proof of citizenship before voting. And of course that's
a that's a no brainer, right, I mean, that clearly
should pass. But that's not the reason that this that
this bill failed. The reason this bill failed is that

(00:49):
you've got various groups of Republicans who object to it
for various reasons. There's this group of Republicans who are
insisting on spending cuts, and there's no spending cuts in
this continuing resolution, So they voted against it for that reason.
This was a six month continuing resolution. There's a group

(01:09):
of Republicans who don't want a six month continuing resolution.
They want a three month continuing resolution, so they voted
against it for that reason. So you've got two or
three different groups of Republicans who voted against this for
different reasons. But it has nothing to do with the
Save Act. And I think what's eventually going to have
to happen is that the Save Act is going to

(01:30):
have to be voted up or down as a standalone.
It's going to have to be taken. It's going to
have to be removed from this continuing resolution. And I
want listeners to understand that anytime you hear the phrase
continuing resolution, what that means is that Congress has failed
to do its job. The core job of Congress, setting aside,

(01:54):
you know, any other legislative issues, the core job of
Congress is to pass a budget and to pass appropriations bills,
spending bills. And for over a decade now, Congress has
failed to do this. And so you get to you
get to September, Remember that the fiscal year of the
federal government ends, September thirtieth. The federal government is not

(02:16):
on a calendar year fiscal year. They're on this weird
fiscal year that begins October first and ends September thirtieth.
So every September we get into the situation where the
federal government is going to run out of money. And
the reason it's going to run out of money is
the Congress has not done its job of passing these
appropriations bills, and so you get this issue of these

(02:38):
continuing resolutions, and all the continuing resolution is is let's
just spend the same amount of money next year that
we spent this year. So it's an aggregation of Congress's job.
It's a failure of Congress to do its job. So
we're already and like a lows the we're already.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
So yeah, but cutting to the chase here, you know,
we were talking a lot about Republicans. Let's just say
Democrats were flat out against all of it, and they
were trying to use the whole thing of having it
tied to the budget in order to make if we
did have to start shutting down the government, because they
were going to they were going to shut it down.
They were going to blame Republicans for it. So we're
just playing into their hands by saying it's all the

(03:21):
Republicans fault. Schumer, it was never going to pass the Senate.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
It is all the Republicans fault, and I'm a Republican, okay,
but it is all the Republicans fault because the Republicans
do have the majority in the House of Representatives and
will likely after the next election, have a bigger majority.
And so that's that's part of the Republican thinking is
let's just roll this thing into January where we will

(03:48):
have a bigger majority, because that is the likelihood. The
likelihood is that the Republicans are going to have a
bigger majority both in the House and the Senate.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
Okay, I'm not arguing. I'm not arguing about the House.
I'm arguing about the Senate. Schumer was not going to
let that pass, and Biden would have vetoted if it had,
I mean, just done, you know, and then the Republicans
would have gotten the blame for closing down the government.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Again, Schumer would not have allowed it to pass if
it included the Save Act. But Schumer is a supporter
of just a normal continuing resolution. So what will likely happen.
I mean, Mike Johnson did what he needed the Speaker House,
Mike Johnson did what he needed to do. He took
a shot at getting a continuing resolution pass that included

(04:32):
the Save Act. Because it failed, now he's free to
move a continuing resolution that does not include the Save Act,
and that will probably pass. And the fact of the
matter is is that issues like the Save Act. And
again I'm a supporter, I think it's a no brainer
that only citizens should be allowed to vote, but issues

(04:52):
like the Save Act really should be should be passed
on a standalone basis. We should force every member birth
Congress and every member of the Senate.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
To go on the record. Yeah, to go on the record, Yes, exactly.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
I agree with you.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
Only citizens should be allowed to vote.

Speaker 3 (05:08):
Right, I agree with you on that.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
You either you either support it or you don't. We
want to know, Tom, Thanks for Johnny. It's got to run.
Tom giavann Eddie, President of the Institute for Policy Innovation,