Ryan Schmelz from Fox has your year in review

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ryan smiles our Fox correspondence in the c I thought
we'd run down some of the highlights from twenty twenty
five when it comes to Congress, and some of the
low lights as well, and maybe a little snippet on
what's happening with this budget and keeping our government open,
deadlines looming in January. Ryan, welcome in, Thanks for being here.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Yeah, happy to hear JJ.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
All right, buddy, Happy new year to you. So we're
wrapping things up here. There were some good things about
twenty twenty five when it comes to Congress, and not
so many things went the wrong direction in some areas.
So first of all, let's start with some highlights.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
What are you thinking, Well, I think for the Republicans,
you know, John Thune's you know, pace in which he
was able to confirm President Trump's nominees was was pretty
quick compared to other administrations, even going back to the
first Trump administration and the Biden administration. And then also
you factor in and keep in mind he did that
with a lot of delayed tactics that were used by Democrats,

(00:54):
so they did not make it easy on him. Then
you also factor in, you know, the One Big Beautiful
Bill Act and you know, when you when you consider
the odds for getting nothing passed, and the fact that
Peaker Johnson had to work with a unbelievably slim GOP majority.
I had to work with a pretty slim majority as well,
and they were still able to get it across the

(01:15):
finish line. You know, those are probably some of the
big victories on the Republican side when it comes to this.
And you know, we can go in to negatives now
if you want to.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yeah, you know, of course I want to hear about
some of those too. But I tell you that the
Metal Honor Act, I thought that was pretty good, you know,
raising pensions for recipients and yeah, you know, a lot
of good things going on there. The industry support. Congress
expanded some you know, disaster relief for a lot of
farmers and uh in different parts of the country there.

(01:44):
So in the text Lake and.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Riley Act on the Republican side to that passed. Yeah,
that passed earlier this year as well.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Absolutely, all right, some of the missteps for Congress.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
This year, well, I mean, look, the chaos is still there.
It's still very toxic place. There are people retiring just
because they can't stand it. Anymore. You know, I think
I think for President Trump, you know, seeing two of
his biggest loyalists, one is just kind of leaving Congress,
and she still could have a political future, but that's
the least a phonic Going from you know, being a

(02:17):
shoe in for the UN ambassador to no longer being
in Congress is quite a quite a change from where
she was at the start of the year. And then
I would also go with, you know, the the Marjorie
Taylor Green, you know situation where you know, they they
no longer see eye to eye, and she's now doing
scathing interviews with The New York Times about President Trump,

(02:38):
and President Trump is firing off true social posts about
her and they I think some of those are probably
maybe some of the the negatives on President Trump's side
of things.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Yeah, I still think the good outweighs the bad in
this first year here. You I mean, when you talk
about the big beautiful bill, that one right there at
the top, I mean the tax cuts that you know
are going to be coming here, let's not talk you know,
forget about the trillion dollar I think it was a
trillion dollars Pentagon and all you know infusion there one
hundred and fifty billion, and did the Pentagon alongside that

(03:10):
nine hundred billion spending a proof for you know, the
National Defense Authorization Act and also the mass deportations. That's
a big plus there. And let's not forget about the
you know, the repealed regulations that the Biden administration put
on so many you know, companies and things around our countries.
So a lot of those are gone. Now, if Congress
can just figure out what to do to keep the

(03:31):
government open and not go through another record breaking shutdown
with the deadline at the end of January, what are
you smelling and hearing on this one?

Speaker 2 (03:40):
You know, I think there's a lack of appetite to
go through all that again. Now what that means they
can still avoid something I don't know, because the healthcare
fight is still lingering out there. You know, we got
do have to keep in mind that these appropriations bills, though,
are being negotiated buying closed doors with Republicans and Democrats.
So if they are able to come to an agreement

(04:02):
on what the bills are going to look like, well
our Democrats going to vote no, especially if they help
negotiate some of these bills. You know that that's going
to be kind of one of the mysteries. But you know,
also if they put the bills on the floor and
there's the spending levels are too high, there's some some
pieces of legislator or some some provisions in there that

(04:23):
that certain people don't like. Do you lose Republicans. There's
a lot of different questions about the appropriations process that
we haven't really seen play out. Because, you know, the
first three bills that got passed as part of the
last government funding package to reopen everything, that was kind
of a unique situation. It will be a little bit
different this time.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
Well, in twenty twenty six, there's going to be no
shortage of things to talk about when it comes to
our Congress being an election year as well, So will
people adjust just get votes? Not in politics? Right? All right, Ryan,
Happy new year to you.