Congressman Massie talks with Brian Thomas this morning

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Clearing this election. Dot'll take Tam Harris five the talk
station ATO six.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
If you have Karosen talk station. I'm very happy Wednesday,
see me even extra special happyings by to the debate
last night. My disappointment, Congressman Thomas Massey, the best hour
of radio. From my perspective, we hear from you, and
then we could hear from Judge Ennitapolotan at the bottom
of the aar. Welcome back, Congressman Massi. It's always a
pleasure having you on the program.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
It's great to be back, but it's not great to
be back in the swamp. But after seven weeks of recess,
I think it was time for Congress to get back.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
To work seven weeks. Judge Record just got back from
one week of vacation, the first vacation he's taken in
twenty years, I think, And that's like seven weeks.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
I know what, every time you go on vacation, Brian,
he's still the producer.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Oh yeah, absolutely. I take my vacation days because you
know my old the old adage, smoke him. If you
got him, you're not going to be able to keep
them if you don't use them up. Let us before
we dive on it. I know you didn't watch the
whole debate last and you can get your impressions on
what you did see, but first I just want to observe.
It is nine to eleven, and I of course remember
it like it was yesterday, and the burning image in

(01:09):
my mind from that day and something that really truly
changed my entire outlook on life was the falling man,
the guy that had to jump out of a window
because he was either going to be burned alive or
jump out of a window. And I thought of, and
I have used that reflection moment if I was standing

(01:30):
there and I think about behind me as a raging inferno,
and in front of me is ninety floors of space
before I hit the ground, and your best option is
to jump. What's going through your mind before you make
that leap? Are you worried about what your neighbor's sexuality is?
Are you worried about anything that's irrelevant to our day
to day lives that we complain and moan about. No,

(01:51):
you're probably thinking, I wish I spent more time with
my family, or praying to God, or looking something broader
than just you know, the petty crap that we always
complain about.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah, it brings it all in perspective. And I know
we've mourned the loss of those people in the first responders,
But don't forget there are still families of the victims
of that who are who are still mourning. Oh yes,
and there's there's one woman in particular that I've been
trying to help. You know, Saudi Arabia was complicit in that,

(02:24):
either knowingly or unknowingly. Officials from Saudi Arabia assisted those hijackers,
and they should be the the families of the victims
should be able to litigate this in court and sue
Saudi Arabia, but they have been tied up. We finally
got the ability. This was when Obama was president. We

(02:47):
more or less forced him to give give those family
ability to sue Saudi Arabia. But then it's it's hit
some another stub in court. But don't forget there are
there our wives and husbands who lost their loved ones
who are still walking on this planet still morning.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
And what is the in fact, if I may be
so bold as to asking, will put you on the spot,
But what prevents them or what is currently the stumbling block?
Because you know, if some incident happened here and people
were killed wrongfully or intentionally, you can go to court
and sue them for damages and lost consortium or whatever else.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
What's holding it up, I'm not sure what's holding it
up now, but there was like a legal prohibition on
it at one point. But what's if you dug down
in it. What's probably really holding it up is foreign relations,
foreign affairs, the fact that America is trying to keep
a good relationship with Saudi Arabia, at least at the

(03:48):
State Department. That's probably the thing that's holding it up.
But it shouldn't be. No, you should be able to
get justice if whether somebody knowingly or unknowingly was complicit
in those deaths, then they are still liable. And this
includes the government of Saudi Arabia. I agree.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
And if they have the facts and evidence and can
prove it in court, they should have their right to
do so. So it would be a very interesting thing
to behold just hearing the evidence. And along those lines.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
Well, that's the other thing. Well, the late Representative Walter
Jones from North Carolina, who was one of my best
friends up here. He and I fought to get the
nine to eleven the report unredacted. There were several pages
that were reacted that showed that Saudi Arabia was complicit,
and we achieved that we were successful in doing that.

(04:38):
And so it's when you say, can they prove it
in a court of law? Congress has already proven it.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Wow, well, it would be nice for them to have
justice anyway, Congress, Amassy, your reaction to what of the
debate you saw? Joe told me in advance that you
had not, you know, sat there throughout the whole thing
like I did, screaming almost incessantly during the entire debates.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
No, I kept my sanity by not watching most of it.
I just I don't think it changed anybody's mind. That's
my takeaway. If you were for Trump before it, you
were for Trump after it. And if you were for
Camala before it, you were for her after it. And
I don't think it really moved too many independents. And
for the people who are saying, why why didn't Congress
and Massy watch this debate? Doesn't he care? Oh my gosh,

(05:27):
I've got so much stuff on my plate. I am
chairing a hearing today on pharmacy benefit managers. Oh geez,
yeahba so confusing, But they are responsible. I don't know.
We're going to find out in the hearing. I don't
want to say anything before we have the hearing, but
a lot of people believe they are responsible for high

(05:49):
drug prices, when in fact they were established to lower
drug prices.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Things don't always turn out the way you'll want it
when you have for a government program. They're an unnecessary
layer of bureaucracy that adds tremendous costs through the process.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
They're like that contractor. You know, when a school is built.
There's the contractor, the main contractor that's building the school,
and then they subcontract out electrical and you know, construction
parts of it. But then there's another contractor between the
main contractor and the government that's just taken a cut
almost all the time. And that's kind of what it's

(06:24):
starting to look like these PBMs are. And the other
problem we have. By the way I'm doing this is
part of my Anti trust subcommittee. So I chair the
Subcommittee of Judiciary that's in charge of antitrust and the
regulatory reform and the administrative state. And this falls under
could fall under anti trust because the way they do
pricing too. There's kickbacks. They literally call them kickbacks, but

(06:49):
Congress made it legal for them to do kickbacks with
the argument that if we can do kickbacks, then we
can save some money. The other thing is they're verticalized.
CVS has its own PBM, and then if you're a
small mom and pop pharmacy, you have to go through
these PBMs that are owned by your competition. Uh, and

(07:11):
then the competition sets all these rules on how the
small pharmacies can operate and what prices they have to charge.
It's it's really kind of crazy, but we're and it's
a very confusing topic. And I'm gonna have four witnesses
today and it's very unique. I got the Democrat ranking
member Luke Curea from California. He and I agreed on
all four witnesses. So it's not like there's a Democrat

(07:33):
witness and a Republican witness and we're gonna have one
person who's four PBMs. We've got to have one person
who's against PBMs, and we're gonna have a couple who
are like, well, they they need to be fixed, but
don't don't throw them out. Kind of arguments.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
All right, Well, I know you are the man for
the job on that one.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
Congress and Massy, they and we may have to we
may have to get into the c R after the hour,
but I'm holding yeah, I'm keeping that one after the break.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yes, I'm staring at that topic. And I know you
have a lot to say about and the SAVE provision
that's in there dealing with illegals having an obligation to
or well being able to vote, which I love that
SAVE provision, and I think perhaps perhaps it is designed
to get certain elected officials to reveal their true colors

(08:27):
about how they feel about the potential for illegal immigrants
voting in federal elections. So whether or not it goes through, ultimately,
I'd like to see a show of hands on the
floor to see where people stand on that one. We
will talk about that considering a break is right here
more with Congressman Thomas Massey. After a positive word for
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Speaker 1 (09:36):
This is fifty five KARC an iHeartRadio station.

Speaker 2 (09:40):
We're less than two weeks so what eight eighteen on Wednesday.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
I'm glad you're listening.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
If you're listening right now, Congress from Thomas Massy on
the program, I'm getting ready to talk about the continuing
Resolution and ultimately an omnibus spending bill, not dealing with
the twelve appropriations bills that you're supposed to deal with right, Congressman,
that's right.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
Like Congress being surprised about the end of the fiscal
year being September thirtieth. It's like a florist being surprised
by Valentine's Day. Like, I'm sorry, guys, this happens every year.
We had so much time to get ready for this,
and now the twelve separate bills have not been passed.
We haven't sent them to the Senate, so we've got

(10:18):
no argument to send to give to the Senate. They're
going to do a cr which stands for continuing resolution,
which is a cut copy paste of the horrible omnibus
that was passed this winter this past winter, and they're
doing nothing to cut spending. Now. The sweetener to get
Republicans to vote to just redo everything we did last

(10:42):
year and kick the can down the road is something
called the Save Act, which is a great bill, and
it puts the Democrats really in the crosshairs because it's
a Mike Lee bill supported by Chip Roy over here,
two of my best friends. And I hate this because
I'm on the other side of them tactically. You know,

(11:03):
on policy we agree one hundred percent, but on tactics
we are in disagreement on this. They say we should
attach the Save Act to the CR. So the CR
remembers twelve separate bills, so now we're going to make
it thirteen bills. So we're going to attach the Save
Act to the CR, and then every Republican should vote
for that and then send it to the Senate. And

(11:24):
then the Senate will finally have to take up the
Save Act, and it would do two things. Number One,
Democrats would have to vote to shut down the government
over here in the House because they want illegals to
be able to vote. It puts them in a tough spot.
And then in the Senate, Chuck Schumer would have to
do the same thing. He would have to refuse to

(11:46):
bring up the bill because he wants illegals to vote,
and then the government would shut down. Now here's the
problem with that strategy. Our conference Republicans, particularly Mike Johnson,
our speaker, is not going to shut down the government.
This is an election year. We are just weeks away
from the election. There is not going to be a

(12:08):
government shutdown. There might be one of the last two
or three hours, okay, Friday night or Saturday night, whenever
that day is, but there ain't going to be a
government shutdown, and there ain't going to be a Save Act.
And then here's the other thing. If you want to
put Democrats on record, we already voted on the Save Act.
We did that this summer, and five Democrats decided not

(12:29):
to walk the plank. Every Democrat voted to let illegals
vote in an election except for five. So that's the
problem with the strategy. The other problem with the strategy
is eventually you're just going to get clean CR That's
what's going to happen, and spending is going to go
on unabated. Here's the other problem with it. The CR

(12:49):
that Mike Johnson has proposed is a six month r
They're saying, well, let's get to March and hopefully Trump
wins the election, we take the Senate and keep the House,
we win the trifecta, and this AD buys us enough
time to get past the lame duck session. Should we,
you know, run the trifecta in November, which is it's
not a bad thing because I don't I definitely don't

(13:10):
want to be sitting here.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
I'm tracked, Christmas, I'm tracking where you're going. Go ahead, okay,
put on the cake.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
Okay, there is a provision okay, and it would the
CR ends on March thirtieth. I got a provision put
into law last year as a condition of the debt
limit that says, if you do a CR that goes
past April thirtieth, there's a one percent cut to everything.
Every bit of government gets cut one percent if you

(13:37):
take a CR past April thirtieth. That is, that is
in law. Joe Biden signed that in order to get
the debt limit increased, and it's still operable. They Mike
Johnson didn't use it last year. He could have used
it last year. Okay, he's a new speaker. He's getting
these legs underneath of him. But now he's had a
full year to think about this. All we need to do.

(13:58):
This is for everybody who's okay, Massy, you're trying to
blow up this CR. What is your plan? What is
your plan? Massy? Well, my plan I've hatched for ten
years and actually got it implemented. It is sitting in
law in statute. My plan, and it's like t ball.
All you've got. All Republicans got to do is walk

(14:19):
up to the plate and just hit that ball off
the tee because if they do a one year CR.
If Mike Johnson would put a one year CR on
the floor, clean CR, what happens is it sets up
a one percent cut on April thirtieth. The Democrats cannot
complain about because Joe Biden signed it into law a
year ago. I'm trying to play chess here with a
bunch of people who are chewing on the checkers. Yeah,

(14:41):
and if they could just see that's what that's the
way this works. Now, when you get to April thirtieth,
what do you have on your hands? If you've done
a one year CR, You've got a fight, not over
a shutdown. And by the way, we never win fights
over shutdowns. I'm okay shutting down the government, but there's
some republic who are worried about their election and they

(15:02):
you know, and it is. It is an inconvenience on
people in the military and air traffic controllers. So I'm
not saying it's not a fight worth having, but it
is inconvenient. Instead of having that fight, what the fight
you would have in April thirtieth is a fight over
whether we're going to do the twelve separate bills or
whether We're going to take a one percent cut. It's

(15:23):
a cut down fight, not a shutdown fight exactly. And
that's a fight you can win. You can go back
to your district and message it. We keep every Republican
on the team instead of having defectors, and we can
win that fight, and Mike Johnson can trade that one
percent cut for something else. Okay, maybe at that point
we could actually get the Save Act or something else.

(15:45):
By the way, the Save Act. Let's go back to
another I stood up in our GOP conference yesterday. This
is a private meeting, and I told the speaker. I
looked him in the eye. You get one minute at
the microphone. I said, your plan has fair retail levels
of unbelievability. Right now, there is. And I asked him
to address these two things. Number One, I said, you're

(16:07):
not going to shut down the government. You're not even
going to threaten a shut down of the government. So
Chuck Schumer and the Democrats are laughing that we think
we're going to get the Save Act on this. Number two,
this will go all the way to This fight will
go all the way to October first. The election is
November fifth. Do you think a law is going to
go into place on October first and effect an election

(16:27):
on November fifth. Absolutely not, absolutely not, because number one,
by October first, in these swing states, a lot of
the Democrats will have already voted, exactly. And also in
almost every state, I believe everybody who's going to vote
on November fifth is already registered to vote pretty much
by October first, So you're not stopping anybody from getting
registered to vote with the Save Act, it's and the courts,

(16:52):
like with every law, they'll be an injunction. They'll say
it's voter suppression. Oh you know, you're you're making people
afraid to go vote. So this is a constitutional issue,
and they'll get one injunction in one, you know, a circuit.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
The court system drags its heels, it'll be be delayed
for a while, the outcome will be inevitable.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
It'll be going in the law.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
And it's not a problem because it's already illegal for immigrants,
illegal immigrants to vote in federal elections. But I get
your point real quick. Judge of Paula Kina is listening,
and he's waiting in the wing so he can say
hello hello to him as we part company. Yes, what
is the response in that room, that private meeting, when
you point out your strategy, why wouldn't everyone just go, brilliant,
let's just do it.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
Three quarters that the Republicans do say that, and a
quarter who are un asked, and Foreign Affairs that's House
Armed Services to be in Foreign Affairs are worried about
a one percent cut to the military. This is our
Achilles heel. And so what Republicans and Democrats do instead
of saying, well, I'll cut one percent from my priorities
if you cut one percent from your priorities in order

(17:53):
to save this country, they get together and say I'll
increase mine five percent and let you increase yours by
five percent. They've got a deal. And so it's it.
And this what I had a private conversation with the
Speaker and he just told me the House Armed Services
Committees is not going to let me do this. And
I said, look, you don't have two hundred and eighteen

(18:15):
votes for anything here in the Republican conference. Anything that
passes in the House and Senate's got to have Democrats
and Republicans. But if you put a one year clean
cr on the floor, Democrats can't vote against that and
shut down the government and if they if they bally
ache about the one percent cut, you know, if he
puts a one year CR on the floor, they can't
not vote against him. And they also can't demagogue that

(18:37):
one percent cut that happens on April thirtieth. We call
it the Massi Plan here in Congress because Joe Biden
signed that into law.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
I like your strategy, and that's why you're so brilliant,
why we love you so much. And I know the
Judge Paul Tanna loves you as well. He'll probably say
so when we get back that comes.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
I love the judge, but you tell him.

Speaker 2 (18:55):
He just told him. He's listening, right Congress and Massy,
you always have a welcome was fired here in the
fifty five care see morning ship. Thanks for doing what
you do and if you have a brilliant strategy, I
just wish more people would lock arms with you and
move forward with it. Sure could use a one percent cut,
that's for sure. We'll talk soon, my friends. Stay well.
Thanks for your tome A twenty seven judge of Poltonill.
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Speaker 1 (20:11):
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