Congressman Troy Balderson calls in about The Big Beautiful Bill

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Mark Blazer over there, that's Chuck Douglas in case you
didn't recognize him, because I mean, he's losing a lot
of weight.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
I don't even recognize me half the time.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
I know he's got a shirt on today that at
all as opposed to other days when he doesn't have
a shirt on when he comes in. No, I'm kidding,
but he's he you know, says to me in the hall.
It's like I said, I love that shirt, and you go, yeah,
when I first bought it, I couldn't wear it. And
you should see how I could actually slip in there

(00:28):
with you, I think, And maybe Zach, would.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
You like to? Well maybe, but not while we're on
the air. We can't.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
We have to charge for that one of those frosties
you were talking about yesterday.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
You'd be amazed what I do.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Oh, I'm not amazed. I've known you a long time.
There's nothing amazing. I know what you're capable of. So yeah,
and it still might be amazing quite frankly, but wait,
this just.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
Took a horrible turn. I think it seems like.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah, well you know sometimes it happens. Turn on the GPS.
You'll get back where you were going.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Stand by because in a little while here we'll break
down the wine.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
And you know he waited to break down wine. Let's
do that kind of like a cardboard box.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Well, we'll break him down and put him in recycling
until eleven forty two. Last night he waits to sign
the budget. Well some of it.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
Anyway, and some of it. Is he a grand standard
or what?

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (01:27):
Ever, since that's the too wine blasted.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Afternoon, he wants everybody to stand around waiting on him.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, wine with the wine. Need I say more? I
think you understand what I'm saying, So more on that later.
Right now, let's bring in Congressman Troy Balterson joining us
and Troy, how are you, sir?

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Welcome to the show.

Speaker 4 (01:51):
I'm doing fantastic, chuck, Congratulations and glad you got the
shirt on.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Thank you, sir.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
Not more glad than I am. Not more glad than
I am, I'm telling you.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
But looky here, see me, see me, see me?

Speaker 3 (02:09):
Uh So where are you? If I can ask, are you?
Are you in the Swan?

Speaker 4 (02:13):
I feel you can ask. I am en route to
the John Glenn Columbus Airport. I pulled off seventy here
at thirteen look in my direction. So as I told
you I would probably do, I'm in that parking lot
off off thirteen thereby. Yeah, Legend Valley, the old Legend Vallet.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
Oh yeah, yeah, I remember that. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
I saw some great concerts there, Holy Cow, over the years, clearly.

Speaker 4 (02:38):
Oh yeah, I mean a lot of us did, didn't we? Woah?

Speaker 3 (02:41):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:41):
And as Legend Valley, is that what became Buckeye in
the center place?

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Okay, yeah, same place, different names, But yes, man, I
saw Uh do you remember the band Tool?

Speaker 3 (02:52):
Of course? You do you remember Tools?

Speaker 4 (02:54):
Absolutely? Yes, I do.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
I actually I saw them there. And not only did
I see them there, once upon a time I was
able to interview them. This is when they were first
getting started. Undertow had just started to hit, and Sober
was their first hit off of that one, and it
hadn't quite exploded yet. But Maynard I was interviewing him,
and it was in an RV, this old kind of

(03:17):
smelly like RV thing seventy win a bag, I mean, yeah,
and it was it was a very interesting, uh correspondence,
shall I say? But and then right after that they exploded,
and uh, but what an interesting guy he is and
he never really changed. I watched over the years different interviews.

(03:38):
So I'm like, that's the same guy, the same big weirdo.

Speaker 4 (03:41):
Yeah, he.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Was wearing a shirt.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
He was wearing a shirt case.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
See everybody does that to you.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
Yeah, well he was wearing a shirt. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
So so anyway, so Troy, I mean the Senate Republicans.
It's the headline is Senate Republicans begrudgingly passed Trump's big,
beautiful bill. And I think there was some of the
biggrudgingly kind of thing. And I guess, once again, our
vice president had to be the tie breaker, didn't he.

Speaker 4 (04:12):
Yeah, JD came up. JD actually got to this morning
about six thirty. Is the reports that we were getting
because they knew that they didn't you know, they were
gonna be a little shy on the boats, and they
wanted him there just in case, which is perfect opportunity. Look,
this is, this has been all in conversations. They knew
they may have to do this. The likelihood of JD
breaking the tie was more than likely going to happen.

(04:35):
And it's predominantly from you know, the fiscal hawks on
the Senate side that weren't happy with the deficit, you know,
going up as it has. So, Look, I was in
constant communication with Bernie and John through the whole process.
I mean talked to him and talked to him this
morning and talked to them mostly which today, Tuesday, Sunday night.

(04:58):
So and that's a that's a great thing to be
able to have. We actually have two Republican senators in
the US Senate, and we talk to each other, we communicate,
we keep each other informed as to what's going on.
So you know, we're going to start reviewing the bill.
As I said, we have a good idea what changes
were made, just because we've been communicating with them and

(05:20):
we're watching what's happening. So now it's in the House
RULs committees started meeting at one thirty today and the
process starts. So we need to get this done for
not only mister Trump, but for the country. We got
to get this done.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
More importantly for the country obviously. And then as far
as the deadline got, well, first of all, let me
back up, because you said you do you do know
some of the changes that have happened.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
Are you able to speak on those as of yet.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
Or is that something that you're going to kind of
hold off on until you see everything.

Speaker 4 (05:52):
No, no, no, no, I mean I'll give you some
of the ideas. Some of the some of the IRA
the Green New Deal stuff was scaled back from what
it was in the House. House. They made some other
changes with the tip portion of it for for the
tax on tips. I think those are just some of
the day I don't know the exact date time frames
of that from from what they were, you know, extended to,

(06:15):
or how long they're going to last. So that's part
of the reason, you know, there's there's a little bit
more deficit in the Senate package than there is the
initial House package.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
Yeah, I was actually I was reading that Troy that
and Congressman Troy Balders is joining us now. The Senate
added I think I read six hundred plus billion to it.
Is that right, something like that.

Speaker 4 (06:34):
Yeah, something like that. And I haven't seen the final number,
but it was right up there at Blazer.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (06:38):
And you know, and and Mike Johnson has been communicating
with Thune through the whole process, saying keep this thing,
don't don't change the House version it is. I can
get this pass. Because now what happens is, you know,
they made their changes in the Senate it's got to
come back to the House, right, you know now that
work's going to have to change, you know, to make

(06:58):
sure that it passed by one and vote when we
voted out of the House a couple of weeks ago.
I mean, so that that puts Mike and you know,
members in a tough position of what we're going to
do next. So Trump's going to come in He's good.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
Huh is that worrisome to you?

Speaker 1 (07:17):
I mean, knowing that it was so it was so
I mean just barely gets out and that was in
the form that it was in. Now it's been amended,
and so now coming back, does that worry you?

Speaker 4 (07:28):
I would say, worry Blazer. I mean it's you know, well,
we'll see what happens. But look, President Trump his new
nickname is the Closer. Now look some of those folks
that were know the last time that went to Yes,
the President's going to be working as hard. And I've
I've witnessed him as he's worked the phones. He has

(07:49):
them come down to the White House and look, he
tells these guys, we're going to do this. Promises made promises,
cap I mean, this is this is you all knew
what I was going to do and I got in office.
Don't start waivering on me now that you knew what
was coming. So let's get it done.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
Trump's convincing, isn't he.

Speaker 4 (08:08):
Very He's very convincing. And I just you know, he
wants this done. And look, all our members want to
get it done too. They want to do it. Some
have concerns about some things. We all do. I mean,
everyone's going to have some concern about something. There's never
a perfect bill, and that's sometimes the best bill. And

(08:33):
I just I know that we've all worked very hard
on this. Yeah, and it's something to get wrapped up.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
Troy, Well, my my big, and I think I probably
speak for a lot of people right now. The Senate
version comes back to the House with the elimination of
that the illegal immigrants and Medicaid and so forth. Is
there the result in the House to get that back
in and is there the negotiating boss possibility between House
and Senate to make that something we can get back in.

(09:00):
Is that is that is paramount in this whole issue
of you know, medicaid reduction and oh they're going to
take it away from us. That that's the balance, that
that piece of balance is really really needed, and I'm
just I'm hoping we can get that back.

Speaker 4 (09:15):
In it becomes a parliamentary issue with the bird roll, Chuck,
or else it would be back in. Now. You can
say we can do this the Department, but we don't
have the time for that. So what we were going
to do, what we're going to look at in due
time is you can do separate legislation on this, so
we can take this back up again and get this done. Yes,

(09:38):
it was in the House version. We had it in there.
We wanted it in there, I said on the committee
that put it in there. So I don't think. I
don't want to sit here and make any promise with anybody,
but I think it will become very challenging because the
Senate Parliamentary said it was not acceptable due to the
bird role. So I don't know if they getting that

(10:00):
back and forth and not.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
What's interesting too, I'll see Troy about this is this
just came from the White House. I'm on their what
do you call it email list or what have you?
And protecting medicaid from American citizens who need it. This
strengthens medicaid for Americans who rely on it, like pregnant women, children, seniors,
people with disabilities, and low income families while eliminating waste, fraud,

(10:25):
and abuse. And this has become kind of it's come
to the forefront these last few days, going look, if
you're able bodied, twenty hours is the magic number with
regard to that, and they start talking about if you're
able to be working and so on, the taxpayers should
not be supporting you kind of a thing. And so
that makes perfect sense to me if in fact that's

(10:47):
the way that this thing is worded and the way
that it's laid out. I'm not going to pretend that
I understand every facet of this, because clearly there here's
a lot of moving parts to this. But like I've
been hearing, it's like, look, most of this is exactly
what Trump has run on, and and kind of to
your point with him telling telling you know, members saying hey,
look this is what this is what I ran on.

(11:09):
You guys knew this, and come on, we got to
get this thing done.

Speaker 4 (11:13):
And we were working with the president leader Trump, Speaker
Johnson had us communicating with him. I told you this
off sideline Mark, we you know, we started this in
October September these conversations that were happening. So, and let
me go back the hours work requirement and whatnot. Don't
forget you don't necessarily need to work community service, go

(11:35):
back to school or work, and that's all. It's simple.
And how's that hard to argue with? And and going
back to Chuck's piece too, I mean, look, they did
a standalone amendment in the Senate version. To Chuck, I'm
sure you caught that. You're you're pretty in the middle
on this stuff. So and that and that and that

(11:56):
had failed. I didn't I didn't hear the exact number
where that was us, but they were trying to do
aroundabout there. Now I don't know what the vote number
was of why it failed or whatnot, But look, I
do I have to insist to you you are spot
on and illegals cannot get services that are deserving to

(12:18):
people of this country.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
Illegal alien recipients right now is about the same as
all of the threats of who was going to lose
their Medicaid coverage. So if the illegals are no longer
getting the Medicaid coverage, then the American citizens have nothing
to worry about. This is the balance. That's that is
such a common sense point of view there that I

(12:42):
don't understand why there was any any disagreement on the
Senate side. But as you said, hopefully this will be
a separate bill afterwards and we'll get it through because
it's logical.

Speaker 4 (12:52):
It's probably one of the commons, as you just said.
And look, you're wearing your shirt today. You got more
common sense than anybody.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
It's for the good of all mankind, trust me, Ain't
that the truth?

Speaker 4 (13:05):
Man?

Speaker 1 (13:06):
Especially when and it's it's tough when you have everybody
who has different agendas, different areas they represent of the country,
their constituents and so on, and all the different things
that are important to all the different people. Getting them
all on the same yes vote or no vote is
quite the feat, which is what we're witnessing right here
right now. But it looks like this thing is hopefully

(13:28):
about to be put to bed. Troy, would you say
it's a very distinct possibility tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (13:33):
I know you guys vote in the morning.

Speaker 4 (13:35):
I think, right, yeah, that's what he's trying. Look, I'm
I'm positive we're going to get it done tomorrow morning.
I don't know, but I think it's done before July
fourth and that's what matters. So look, we're going to communicate,
we'll talk it through. Johnson'll get everybody together, He'll get

(13:57):
the and and you know, Mike has gone a little
bit more credit than what he was getting beforehand. But
I'm here to tell you guys, and I know there
was a lot of concern when he was first elected,
but he has done a masterful job of getting this done.
He got the other pieces of big legislation that he

(14:18):
needed a doin. He got that done when people said
he wouldn't get it done. And he has pleaded. That's
probably the biggest. He has pleaded with Senator Thunne to
make this thing match up as much as you can
with the House version. And I give him a lot
of credit for that and a lot of that wrap
around amendment that they did today this morning. The sendent

(14:39):
did I mean Mike Johnson was going over there today
and communicating, look, changes do as much changees back to
the House version as you can now. So to this.

Speaker 1 (14:50):
Credit, Congressman Troy Balerson on his way back to the
swamp here momentarily, and then the big beautiful bill.

Speaker 3 (14:56):
The voting begins tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
Hopefully we get all this figured out and put this
thing to bed, move on and get to the next thing.
But Troy, thanks for taking a couple of minutes and
hanging with us. Appreciate it so much. Man, Safe travels always.

Speaker 4 (15:07):
I'll keep you posting.

Speaker 3 (15:08):
Okay, thanks brother, appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
Yeah, it's a gosh, so much on the line.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
Yeah, man, he's got to get down there, get voting,
and get back here because I'm sure there's gonna be
like a big brew haha at the Boulders in the
States for the Independent State Celebration this weekend.

Speaker 3 (15:26):
Probably you got invited, didn't you. Sure?

Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yeah, that's how he is with us.

Speaker 3 (15:31):
He was looking around here. I don't think, all right, I'm.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
Going down by seven eleven. I'm going to have an
independent slurpe that day.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
I don't I can't find our invite anyway, nowhere to
be found.