AFP - Make Government Work

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Into Tylersville. He's found on two seventy five erect.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Just after you get passed the Cold Raine Split Chuck
Ingramont fifty five KOC the talk station. It's seven twenty nine,
fifty five KRSD talk station and a very happy Wednesday
to you one hour from now, Judge Enna Politana preceded
by Congressman Thomas Massey in the meantime, Welcome back to
the fifty five KRC Morning Show from Americans for Prosperity,

(00:24):
Donovan and he it was always great having you on
the show, Donovan.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Brian, always a pleasure to start my Wednesday.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
With you, and I've been laughing all morning at the
subject matter is just make government work campus like? Is
that even possible? They have to be open to get
work done, apparently, although they were able to approve one
hundred and seven of Donald Trump's nominees and positions yesterday,
fast tracking that. But they had a solution for that
that didn't require sixty votes in the Senate. They need
that many votes to get the government open again. So

(00:51):
absent and open government, I doubt it's going to be working.
Some of my listeners are actually quite pleased about that.
Before we jump to the Make Government Work program. Your
reaction to the Democrats ligne in the same position on this.
I mean, we keep going back to the fact that
the premium supplements were waved. The cap was waved because
of COVID, and they put an end date in that legislation,

(01:14):
which is the end of this calendar year. That was
by the Democrat's own hand. It's something they agreed to.
They're going to end. COVID is over. We have no
reason to continue this. And yet they're the Democrats are
insisting that we give all kinds of people, including illegal immigrants,
but even people who make two hundred and three hundred,
four hundred thousand dollars a year or whatever amount over
sixty two to five they're going to get a break

(01:35):
and have their premium supplemented by the American tax payer.
I don't get how they have any traction on this
at all, Donovan. I just want to get your reaction
to their position relative to the Republicans.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
Well, yeah, and the reality is there is zero connection
between this government shut down and the demands of Chuck
Schumer on these COVID subsidies. This is their entire and
wholly unrelated and the fact that this narrative continues to
be able to exist, you know, in traditional media, and

(02:08):
that they're not being laughed out of Washington, DC the
Democrats over this is just unbelievable, zero connection, Brian, between
our government not functioning right now, military pay at risk,
federal employees pay at risk next week, and these COVID
subsidies totally unrelated.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
And it's such a black and white there's no gray
area in this. The continued resolution offered by the Republicans
is the Biden level of spending. So the Democrats aren't
complaining about all of the evil Republicans CR wants to
cut this, that and the other thing. No, it doesn't,
so that argument isn't there. So we really are talking
about extending these COVID era supplements that that message the

(02:48):
reality the black and the reality of the black and
white nature of this dispute, that it isn't resonating or
maybe is lost on the American people. That's a struggle
that you deal with Americans for prosperity all the time.
If people don't pay attention, if they don't bother looking
into the whys and wherefores, they're just going to listen
to a SoundBite from the Democrats or the Republicans as
the case, maybe, but they're going to be in a

(03:09):
factual vacuum.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
Yeah, and I think that's part of what we've been
out there driving and I think Speaker Johnson and the
Republican majority in Congress have done a great job of
driving that home. We have to reject the Democrats premise here.
There's no need for a deal, that it's a manufactured
crisis that is easily resolved with the clean Continuing Resolution
that's already passed out of Congress is over sitting.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
With the Senate and just takes sixty votes.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
It'd be great to get one hundred, right, to get
everybody to agree we're just going to keep our government
running while we proceed through the normal order of business
of getting these budget bills completed and sent to the President.
And so yeah, the idea here, Brian right, is reject
the premise of what Democrats are putting for because it's bogus,
it's not real. They're unconnected issues, and the crisis exists

(03:58):
only because I Chuck Schumer wants to use the September
thirtieth end of the federal fiscal year. He used the
September thirtieth, end of the fiscal year, to create a
crisis and try to score some partisan wins on an
issue that they can talk about, debate, and discuss beyond
the government shutdown.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Well, you mentioned Johnson when he was he did his
press conference on this issue. He was bulletproof, rock solid,
very just laid out point by point reason why this
is all on the Democrats corner. The point that I
just boiled down a moment ago about these COVID nineteen
year or something.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
I mean, you couldn't.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
It was just easy to unpackage and easy to listen to.
But if no one's listening to that message. I heard
a talking head comment on that that you know X
number of people actually watched it or clicked on the
replay on social media versus Bernie Sanders or whoever else
rambling about the evil Republicans which had millions and millions

(04:56):
by contrast clicks on it. So if you're hiding in
that factual back, can you not interested in hearing what
Johnson's going to say? You're not going to see how
bulletproof is logic is. So there's that uphill struggle we
constantly deal with waking the American people up and getting
them to try and pay attention. So let's pause. We'll
bring Donovan O'Neil back and talk specifically about how you
and I can help make government work. To the extent

(05:19):
that's a good idea. We'll continue to detalk Station Brian
Thomas with Americans for Prosperities Dominant O'Neill on the concept
of make government work. Over at makegovernmentwork dot org. You
can find all the I love this one, Donovan particularly.
You have five specific acts, the rer Organizing Government Act,
to Prevent Government Shutdowns Act, the RAINS Act among them,

(05:40):
and each one would go a long long way to
accomplish the goals of my listeners and I are really
hoping to see someday, you know, getting rid of inefficiency,
getting rid of bureaucracy, streamlining processes, making government more efficient,
and preventing the government from shutting down in the event
they can't resolve things. So let's talk about some of these.
Congressman Massey has brought up some of these particular acts before.

(06:00):
But an opportunity you've made so easy for our listeners
to get engaged. Just give them your name and your
email address, and so they'll send you a call to
action from time to time. This is the well oiled
machine that we need on our side of the political ledger,
much in the same way those leftists and Marxists and
socialists have such a well low machine when it comes
to social media. So help you, help yourself, help Americans

(06:21):
for our prosperity. Let's talk about some of these Donovan,
the Reorganizing Government Act.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
Yeah, this is this is a piece of legislation from
Kentucky Representative James Comer. It's active legislation. I've got nineteen
co sponsors right now. And what it would require is
an independent review for waste and overlapping services, provide Congress
with reorganization plans right to help sort of pinpoint from

(06:48):
independent analysis what needs to be done to get you know,
the duplicative regulatory bodies and just the bloat and overweighted
government streamline so it can actually operate efficiently. And these
aren't like I mean, they are pie in the sky
ideas Brian right. But like outside of government, large organizations,
large complex organizations are able to do this stuff, and

(07:11):
we just need to bring some of those practices and
ideas to government to make it work at a cost
effective way with the precious tax tape pair dollars we
give it so that it can function without chaos and craziness.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Well, because the free markets out here in the real world,
where real work has to be done and they have
to make a real profit, they're allowed to streamline and
engage in rifts and reorgs and elimination of departments without
fear of litigation. Because most of the employers have the
freedom to hire or fire at will. You don't have
that in the federal government. They have rules, regulations, unions
protecting the government employees. And there's so much red tape

(07:48):
involving eliminating a position. It just gets bigger and bigger,
and no one ever seems to get fired.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
Well, yeah, and I think you know, we see glimmers
of this the early days of Trump forty seven. Right,
just a few short months ago, there was a there
was that energy existed, I think in Washington to make
some of those reforms. Now you're taking you know, you're
going up against what is that that an immovable object
and an unstoppable force, right, yes, kind of colliding here,
but you know it's it's legislation like this, right that

(08:16):
it has the opportunity of Congress has the courage to
reassert its authority and right size the ship. It's possible,
it's constitutional, and we appreciate Senator or Representative Comer for
bringing this forward. And we're kind of beating that drum
out there on this as a key solution to fixing
the bloat and wasting government.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
And there is no reason to be against the Prevent
Government Shutdowns Act. We wouldn't be in the middle of
this stupidity if we had this. And this is one
of the ones that I've talked about with Congressman Massy.
Remind my listeners about this one.

Speaker 3 (08:45):
Yeah, So this is from Senator James Langford, and this
actually has been around for a few sessions of Congress.
It came about in twenty nineteen when we had the
thirty five day shut down. Shutdowns are a more recent
in art in American history phenomenon. It actually came out
of the nineteen seventies and an interpretation from the Carter

(09:05):
administration on the function of government when it fails to
pass a budget, it's created a crisis to crisis environment
where like we're seeing right now right wholly unrelated issues
like COVID era, health ACA subsidies are trying to be
connected to the normal funding of our federal government at

(09:26):
current levels.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
Totally unconnected issues.

Speaker 3 (09:29):
We can prevent government shutdowns though, by automatically funding government
at current levels un till the budget process is done
and putting some accountability measures like hey, congressman, you can't
use taxpayer dollars to get out of Washington.

Speaker 1 (09:42):
Go home, and.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
You know, you know peacock in front of your constituents,
you got to stay in Washington till the job is
done and you get the budget.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
It's the most essential function of Congress, Brian.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
We know this right is to fund our federal government
and manage it to prevent government shutdown.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
Act.

Speaker 3 (10:00):
It would eliminate the crisis to crisis approach that exists
right now when Congress government can shut down because Congress
Build Act.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
All right, moving over the Comprehensive Congressional Budget Act.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
Yeah, So what this would do when we budget at home? Right?

Speaker 3 (10:17):
And I know Congress in Washington, DC aren't like budgeting
at home, but you put everything together, right, You don't
get to just say, hey, you know, my mortgage payment's
over here and you know date night with the wife
budget is over here. It's all one big budget, right,
you have one paycheck and it all gets you got
to budget it all out right Now, Congress has shrunk

(10:39):
discretionary spending is only about twenty five percent seventy five
percent or more? Is this direct spending like Social Security, Medicaid,
Medicare these these programs that are sort of I would
describe as being on autopilot for budgeting. We need to
put the whole picture together and have a full picture
of what our federal government is in taking and outgoing spending,
so that we're actually making decisions about the total ledger,

(11:03):
not just that small percentage that is discretionary. We want
Congress to be in control of the purse, and what
this would is would require that.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
So they take in X, they've got mandatory spending, which
is a pile that represents why so X minus Y
is what's left over, and that has to be allocated
responsively among what's left the non discretionary spending. So if
you have a finite amount of cash left over in
the pile, you limit your spending to what's left over.

(11:34):
That's responsible budgeting, which means a lot of stuff is
going to have to get cut because it isn't really
truly a priority.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah, I think you know cut adjusted.

Speaker 3 (11:43):
You know, not that I would advocate or we would
aedogate for this, right but if you you know, Congress
deems this a priority, we're going to have to raise
taxes or some other form of revenue to get it done.
But right now we kind of look at these things
in pieces and parcels. We want Congress to look at
this as the whole picture, right Congress, Like you said,
it takes an X, it's got to spend.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
Why what do you what are the actual priorities?

Speaker 3 (12:05):
Where can the where is the federal government best position
to be impactful or have programs? But again, right now,
as long as it's sort of sliced and diced and
split up, more of it's on autopilot. When we actually
want Congress to take a more active approach to governing,
that's what we send them there to do. We elect
them to go there and do that a handful do
we need all of Congress.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
To do that?

Speaker 2 (12:27):
And the next one's come up quite frequently. Again, again
I've talked with Congress from MS about the Rains Act.
This is a really important one.

Speaker 3 (12:34):
Well, absolutely, once we get the and we can get
government reorganized. We can get you know this, this shutdown
threat removed from the equation in.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
Washington, d C.

Speaker 3 (12:44):
And you get the budgeting figured out. You also got
to make sure the bloat doesn't come back, right, And
each of these are important on their own, but the
Rains Act in particular, you know, as we start, especially
this Trump administration with Doe starts clearing out rules and
regulations and streamlining permitting if we can clear out the cobwebs.
But what we need to do is by enacting the
Rains Act, keep that proliferation of rules and regulations from

(13:08):
coming back, and it would the regulations from the executive
in need of scrutiny. Is good for both Republicans and
Democrats because it'd keep these most egregious, economically harmful rules
from going into effect without at least Congress taking another
look at him and saying, yeah, this is what we intended.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
We believe this is important and it's right now. Got
ninety two co.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
Sponsors, including Ohio's and Dave Taylor from southern Ohio, so
we appreciate.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
That cool from him.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yeah, Well, and force the Democrats to defend what they want,
which is egregiously intrusive and irresponsible regulations. Make them justify it.
Now at least the conversation will be will air all
this out in the public.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
Now.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
Finally, we have the Midnight Rules Relief Act. I'm not
familiar with this one, Donovan.

Speaker 3 (13:53):
So this is from Arizona Representative Andy Biggs, and this
is an important piece in that How many times do
we hear?

Speaker 1 (13:58):
Right?

Speaker 3 (13:58):
You get to December, Jamnuary when a new administration is
coming in and the outgoing lame duck president starts writing
rules and auto penning rules whatever they're doing, right, they're
just going on a flurry of enacting the things that
might have been politically unpopular in the early part of
their tenure of their administration. But they jam that stuff through.
We shouldn't be doing that stuff. What it would do

(14:19):
is it would target some of these late term regulations.
So anything sort of that you're the administration is trying
to do in the final year an office, give that
a little more scrutiny. Expand the Congressional Review Act to
be able to bundle some of those reviews together, where
right now I believe they have to do them sort
of individually, with each individual rule ultimately saving time and
taxpair dollars. Some rules need to be implemented, right, but

(14:42):
we want to reassert that congressional authority that if you
know you're on the Biden administration and you're you're on
your way out, you don't get to put all this
stuff in, you know, Monday night and Tuesday morning. When
the next president comes in, they've got to figure out
what's the damage is and what actually needs to.

Speaker 2 (14:59):
Be just I couldn't agree more with that. So, as
we typically end on the call to action, I know
the website is Makegovernmentwork dot com. How can my listeners
get engaged?

Speaker 1 (15:11):
Well, go to that website.

Speaker 3 (15:13):
And the important part about this toolkit why I wanted
to join you and talk about this today is so
many of our friends on the left say, well, Republicans
have no solutions, Conservatives have no solutions to these problems.
We have solutions, Brian, Makegovernmentwork dot com.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
It's a place you can go.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
There's five active pieces of legislation in Congress right now
that would solve many of the structural problems that have
put us in the situation we're in here today, eight
days into a government shutdown. Go there, arm yourself with
some information and go out and have that conversation with folks.
And if you want to join us, go there, share
your information. We'll reach out and we'll get you plugged

(15:48):
into some of the events and activities we have going
on around the Buckeye State.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
I know you will. You always have and you'll continue
to do so. Americans for Prosperity head on over to
Make Government Work dot com just trek. We'll put a
link about my blog page fifty five dot com in
case you can't remember that. Donovan O'Neil, thanks for what
you and Americans for Prosperity do each and every day.
Appreciate your willingness to help out voters here in the
state of Ohio get involved, as well as dealing with
national legislation, which of course is the scope of this

(16:12):
Make a Government Work plan. Donovan will get you out
back on real soon. Have a great day and keep
up the excellent work.