Christmas From Capitol Hill Part 1

On a recent trip to Washington, Stigall sat down with 14 different members of the House from across the country. In this two part episode, hear from leadership as well as rank and file members on their successes of 2025 and their plans to win the mid terms in 2026.
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's bring up Christ to Golf.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
It is Chris to God Risk Gall.

Speaker 3 (00:03):
I'm joined now by Christigall, most of.

Speaker 4 (00:05):
The Christ of Goall Show, so let's brand talk radio
host Chris Togall.

Speaker 5 (00:08):
Also his podcast is a musk listen every day Christa
Gall Show podcast.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
And host of the Christgall Show.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Let's Bring in Christa Gall. Pay You welcome Chris Speak
Gall to.

Speaker 6 (00:18):
Chris to Gall podcast is presented by US Medical Plan
dot com. Save big money monthly and get better health
covers at US Medicalplan dot com.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Hey, they're merry Christmas, and I guess I will say
a happy New Year. Welcome into the Christagall Show podcast.
I want to say thank you for another tremendous year
of support. Your downloads and your regularly scheduled attention to
this show means more than I can say. Our entire
family that puts the show together every day, they work
so hard to give you content, hopefully quality content you enjoy.

(00:50):
We didn't want to leave you without quality content during
the holidays. While we're taking some time away, we've put
together from some various shows, some special long form interviews.
There will be some repeat content of some shows and
segments that we really enjoyed. Maybe they're new to you
if you missed them before. But over the next few days,
while we're away taking some time with family, I hope
you're able to as well. But we never want to

(01:10):
leave you without something to enjoy and listen to. And
today's show and future shows hopefully will be.

Speaker 7 (01:17):
No exception.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
We're going to be back with brand new programming on
January fifth. But one thing that I want you to know,
if you're an Obamacare person, and you are now, it
appears officially under the gun because Congress is not going
to be able to figure out how to keep your
rates from jumping. I don't want you going without health
insurance in the new year. I don't want you thinking

(01:38):
you have to just sit around being victimized by a
jump and Obamacare rates. John Ruhlman, who is my friend
and sponsor, is as much a help right now in
this era of Obamacare debate as anybody I know. It's
an honor to call him friend and yes, sponsor, but
most of all he can help. Genuinely, he is a help.
He and his company US medical plan dot Com right now.

(02:01):
You can reach out to them today and find out
he works with one hundred different health insurance companies find
out if they can reach out and get a better
rate for you. Odds are they can. They'll tell you
if you're doing the best that you can do, but
odds are they're going to find you a better rate.
I've told you my parents have saved four hundred dollars
a piece on their supplemental Medicare insurance. I told you

(02:23):
I have a dear friend who saved six hundred dollars
a month. She's in between jobs. She had to get
a Cobra plan and that was going to cost her
a ton, and it turned out John and his team
found them found her something much cheaper. People that have
no insurance, that have never bought it before and think
they can't afford it. John finds amazing rates small business
owners and those of you who buy it for your

(02:43):
whole family. I have a friend John saved one thousand
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you're not going to know unless you give them a
second eight seven seven four one zero forty three twenty
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one or US Medicalplan dot com. Thrilled to be on
the hill and invited to something that I don't know,
I'll be honest a lot about. So I'm hoping he's

(03:05):
going to tell us. The chairman of the Republican Study Committee,
he represents the eleventh District of Texas, August Fluger, Congress.
Been good to be with you, sir, Well, thanks for
having me. Tell us about the Republican Study Committee. What
is it you guys do?

Speaker 8 (03:16):
So, we're a fifty three year old organization, the largest
policy organization with one hundred and ninety members. It's actually
the largest committee in Congress. We meet weekly, we talk
about policy. We are obviously conservative, and our principles are
really to be the conservative conscience of Congress. So we
advocate for things like lord taxes and a smaller government

(03:37):
and a strong national.

Speaker 9 (03:38):
Defense and the things that just kind of makes sense,
common sense. That's what we advocate for.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
This has been I think this year by most metrics
in terms of what the House has been able to
achieve with a narrow majority. The Big Beautiful Bill was
a huge part of that. But you know, the news
cycle is fickle, you know, the electorate is fickle, And
now we've shifted to the word affordability, there's an election
going on as we speak. We won't know the outcome

(04:04):
of it issue and I talk, but it's a tight
race in Tennessee and a lot of people are pointing
to this word affordability. What are you guys in the House.
I mean, I know you're only one chamber of Congress,
but what can you do to impact this thing as
we close it on twenty six.

Speaker 8 (04:17):
Well, we've already been doing it, and we inherited a
mess from mind. They were regulating everything, so if you're
a private business, or you're an energy company or whatever
you did, you had to compete with the government, which
drove costs up. Their approach to everything was over regulate, overburdensome,
subsidize everything, hand out free college tuition to everybody.

Speaker 7 (04:40):
And it just doesn't work.

Speaker 8 (04:41):
And we knew Obamacare was going to be a disaster,
and it is, so we are unwinding it.

Speaker 9 (04:46):
That's what we did with the One big, Beautiful Bill.

Speaker 8 (04:48):
Which by the way, is putting four to five thousand,
six thousand dollars back into every American family's pockets. There
is more to be done, especially on healthcare, which is
a complete disaster.

Speaker 7 (04:59):
Obamacare has cost.

Speaker 8 (05:01):
Year over year more for every family, and what are
they getting out of it?

Speaker 9 (05:05):
You know, drug prices are high. The President is working
on that and more hand in hand there.

Speaker 8 (05:09):
So I think, in a very short summary, we want
to see competition, transparency, We want to cut the fraudwayte
and abuse out of these government programs.

Speaker 9 (05:17):
Look at what Waltz did in Minnesota.

Speaker 8 (05:20):
Billions of dollars to know their little stockpile for whatever
use with no accountability.

Speaker 9 (05:27):
That has to end. And that's what we are for.

Speaker 8 (05:29):
It doesn't happen overnight, but that's what the Republican Study
Committee applicates for.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
If you spend any time on social media, you see,
particularly younger voters. How real it is or quantifiable it is,
I don't know, but there seems to be this growing
attitude and sentiment that younger voters are warming to the mamdanis,
the aocs, the socialism angle because they feel they can't
get ahead. Now, whether that's real or whether that's perceived,
I don't know. Is that a discussion amongst you Republicans

(05:55):
and is that something you can message against?

Speaker 4 (05:59):
It?

Speaker 8 (05:59):
Absolutely discussion because it's very scary what's happening in New
York City it's very scary what these very radical, polarizing
figures are wanting to do. Which Marxists or socialist you know,
whichever approach they take, we know it will fail, but.

Speaker 9 (06:13):
I think we're fighting back with it.

Speaker 8 (06:15):
The thing that you know, and you guys report on this,
but I would say mainstream media is not. What about
the turning Point USA events that are happening at college
campuses around the country. They're not just sold out, they're
double capacity. People are standing outside for days in some
cases to get in and participate in this. So I

(06:37):
think you're seeing a dichotomy here where there is a
group that wants everything for free, has no accountability, but
then there's a larger group of people that care about
the American family. They're in college and they want to
live the American dream and raise their own families and
go to Charlie kirk Way in that path.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
Do you think there's a way the private sector? I
not to sound too self aggrandizing, but there's something I've
been mulling over. Is there a way the private sector
could engage in lending too potential future home buyers, maybe
even rolling student loan dead end where individual investors could
make a buck or two in the market, but help

(07:13):
younger people buy in without going the traditional lending route.
Is there like a creative way we could talk about
that for young people? Do you think?

Speaker 10 (07:20):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (07:20):
I think it's a great idea. We need young people
to be able to live the American dream. And what's
the centerpiece of that. It's owning a home. By the way,
one of the things that the Republican Study Committee is
championing is, let's get rid of the capital gains taxes
on a home when you sell a home.

Speaker 9 (07:36):
Let's get rid of that. Why do we pay taxes
on that.

Speaker 8 (07:39):
Let's have mortgage portability where when you get a good
interest rate and you want to sell that home with
no capital gains taxes and go buy another home, you
can take that mortgage with you.

Speaker 9 (07:49):
And there's a lot of things that we are championing,
pieces of.

Speaker 8 (07:52):
Legislation that have come out of the House that's not
being reported, But we are championing this because we know
that the centerpiece is buying a home. And I love
your idea of having private, private industry help out.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
I'm going to send you what I call the stick
All Plan, just my thoughts on the and I think
even private investors. I think, like you know, people that
have really made a buck or two in just the
private sector maybe could be a part of it. But anyway,
that's another discussion. Let me ask you this the Senate.
We know, no matter what you guys do in the House,
you've got to get it to the Senate. And that
sixty boat threshold we know is tough. Are you a

(08:26):
eliminate the filibuster guy over there?

Speaker 8 (08:27):
Well, that's a rule for them. And you know, I
love the institutions. I think the history and the legacy
of the institutions and what our founders set up was important.

Speaker 9 (08:38):
So I'll leave that to them.

Speaker 8 (08:39):
But let me offer this, Let's do another reconciliation plan,
and we are leading on that. In fact, we've had
meetings in the last week with the Speaker talking to
the White House trying to advocate and guess what the
centerpiece of it is. Affordability. Affordability for healthcare, affordability for
buying a home, affordability for everything.

Speaker 9 (08:58):
Energy is part of that. We want to protect the
American family. How about this.

Speaker 8 (09:02):
Sanctuary cities that don't prosecute crimes of illegal immigrants don't
get federal funding. There's got to be a hook there
that we need law in order to be restored. So
these are things that we're thrown out there that helps
us get to just a fifty one vote margin, not
sixty votes in the Senate.

Speaker 2 (09:19):
I know you're busy, so I'll ask you quickly. I
know you're part of Homeland Security as we talk about
these guardsmen who were attacked. But also what this report
that came out of the FBI that says there's consternation
there and the leadership's maybe not great there. What can
you speak to in terms of leadership inside our institutions
at present? Are you competent in them or do they
need some reforms or looking at or where do things stand?

Speaker 8 (09:39):
Well, it's tragic what happened to the National guardsmen. I mean,
we're praying for the families. What a tough time. I
served in the military. In fact, I'm still a reservist,
so that hits home for me because these are people
that I served with. Our institutions under Joe Biden were
completely broken.

Speaker 9 (09:59):
They let millions of illegal immigrants and they didn't check anything.

Speaker 8 (10:02):
These are criminals and gang members, people that came from
Afghanistan and a lot of good people in Afghanistan, but
I advocated at the time for a better vetting system,
and they wanted to let everybody in with no checks
at all, and that's coming back to haunt us.

Speaker 9 (10:18):
So yes, I'm confident in what President Trump has done.

Speaker 8 (10:20):
By the way, not a single person an illegal alien
in the last six months has been released into the
United States. They are actually meeting border patrol agents at
our southern border in going through the right process because
we're enforcing the law now.

Speaker 9 (10:35):
That didn't happen for four years.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
And this critical piece that came out on in the
New York Post, you probably read it or heard about
it on the FBI. I'm just curious your take on it.
I have no real opinion on it. Miranda Devine has
done the reporting. I know she was on with Laura
Ingram this week. Dan Bongino, I know, is pushed back
on social media. What do you know about what's going
on in the FPI.

Speaker 9 (10:52):
Well, no more than what's been reported.

Speaker 8 (10:55):
But I do trust that the FBI is getting back
on track, that the CIA, John Ratcliffe is back on track,
that our intelligence community and our law enforcement are doing
the job to keep us safe from Vinnal to keep
us safe from terrorists around the world. That didn't happen
for four years, and now I'm happy that we have
President Trump to actually enforce the law.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
Chairman, You're welcome on the show anytime. We know we've
got a lot of audience in Texas, in your home district,
and we thank you so much for your time today.

Speaker 9 (11:20):
Well, thanks for loving to be.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
Great to be here on Capitol Hill on a rainy,
kind of a cold post Thanksgiving. Congressman, it's great to
see you from the great state of Virginia.

Speaker 11 (11:28):
Chris, good to be with you.

Speaker 2 (11:30):
This is a really critical time now as we turn
the corner and head into a new year with limited time.
As you well know, you guys are up for reelection
every two years, and the thing is, midterms are traditionally
not friendly to the party in control, particularly when all
three branches are well i should say, at least the
executive and the legislatorre in total control of one party.

(11:51):
How do you plan to change that historical.

Speaker 11 (11:54):
Course, Well, communication is going to be key. It's always
part of the mid terms when the People's House gets
a stance for re election, and we want to make
sure we inform the public about all of the great
achievements of this Congress. HR one included so many beneficial
parts for working families, from no tax on tips, to

(12:16):
no tax on overtime to the increased child tax credit.
Families are going to be saving a lot come April
when they do their taxes. We are optimistic that they
will realize the benefits of this legislation and it will
drive home just how much House Republicans are working for
the American people.

Speaker 2 (12:36):
That's my question. Do you think it's a matter of time.
It's hard to tell people when they feel or they
sense or they really are struggling financially, be patient, but
is there an element of four years of economic ruin
require a little bit of patients because you can't turn
a battleship on a dime. It's sort of been my
point of view, But again, I know when people struggle,

(12:58):
they don't want to hear patients. But the reality is
it may take a minute.

Speaker 11 (13:01):
Yeah, And you know, the American people understand that during
Joe Biden's tenure, inflation was rampant, approaching ten percent.

Speaker 2 (13:08):
It was raising prices.

Speaker 11 (13:10):
Everywhere at the pump, at the grocery store, in their
energy bills. Combine that with the grant, the Green New Deal,
and all of the inflation spending that they did. The
Inflation Control Act was anything, but it actually exacerbated inflation
across the country. And so now we've brought it back down.
The President's policies are holding inflation down. But we still

(13:34):
have these concerns among the American people about high cost,
high cost of healthcare because of the ACA. The affordability
under the ACA has gone away, so now you have
unaffordable health care. On energy costs, you know that they
passed the Green New Deal bill to address energy and
it ends up increasing energy costs.

Speaker 2 (13:56):
Housing.

Speaker 11 (13:57):
They put so many regulations on housing markets. They've increased
cost of housing for Americans. And you know, you look
at your electric bills, you look at the fortunately gas
prices are down. But we have to communicate to the
American people where these high prices came from and what
we are doing to address.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
Young people voting if in fact they vote in the
numbers that we've seen in places like New York. Now again,
I think sometimes people look at New York and Mamdani
and they think, well, that's New York. I don't know
if the energy is with a younger generation that's gravitating
toward Madani AOC, that lady in Tennessee who's making it

(14:37):
entirely too tight today. Frankly, do you are you worried?
There's a real energy for that kind of hard left
progressive politics. If things don't turn around for young people
in the country.

Speaker 11 (14:47):
It's not so much what the left is selling, because
young people understand that you don't get something for nothing.
Nothing is free in this country, and American people get
the young people across America get that.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
But they also the left.

Speaker 11 (15:03):
Is has Trump arrangement syndrome.

Speaker 7 (15:06):
They are furious.

Speaker 11 (15:08):
About the actual accomplishments of this administration of this Congress.
They are mad that we are undoing a lot of
the Green New Deal and Joe Biden's massive spending bills,
and so they are the ones who are trying to,
I don't know, I guess, express their anger at this

(15:29):
administration by being motivated to turn out the polls. That
is something we have to combat from our side with
information for the public about for independence, for people who
support the president, about.

Speaker 7 (15:42):
The great work that's being done.

Speaker 11 (15:44):
That we can't sit on our laurels, that we can't
just sit back and expect that everyone will understand all
of the great things that we've been doing. We have
to get out there and explain. And so that's what
we are doing today and every day.

Speaker 2 (15:56):
Yes, they're a creative way. And I've been kind of
talking about something on my own show. Is there a
creative way the private sector could get involved in investing
in home lending for young people that doesn't involve government,
Where somebody that's got a few million and it's willing
to invest it, they get a return, they underwrite young
people in housing and maybe even rolling student loans in it.

(16:18):
I mean, can we can we get creative for young
people and say hey, we've got away a private, free
market way we can help you without turning socialist.

Speaker 11 (16:27):
Absolutely, And the Financial Services Committee, which has tor siction
overhousing issues, is going to be putting out several bills
here in the next few weeks to deliver on that promise,
to send the message to young people that the American
dream is still possible, that you can afford a home
at a young age, and that it's something that's not
going to put you underwater or in debt to the

(16:50):
exclusion of all the other important things in life, and
part of that is removing all of these regulations from
the housing industry.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
If you go to who build.

Speaker 11 (17:00):
Houses, say what's the biggest cost driver, they're going to
say all the rags, all of these environmental rags that
are being put on, from the type of insulation, to
the type of energy efficiency, to the type of building materials.
It all comes back to the mandates from government. You
remove those and you make it cheaper to build a
house where you can actually afford to either buy a

(17:22):
house or rent, and that makes more people invested in
the in the market and in the process. So we've
got some great packages that we're going to be rolling
out in the next few weeks that will help deliver
on our promise of affordability for your own people.

Speaker 2 (17:36):
You're only one half of the legislature, though it always
goes over to the Senate, and we know right now
that filibuster proof majority has to be sixty Are you
keep the filibuster guy, blow the filibuster out of the
water guy.

Speaker 11 (17:48):
Well, I tend to respect the other body and their
decision making. I do think that when it comes to
shut downs and the funding of the government. You know,
this was caused by the Democrats because they couldn't find
eight senators from the Democratic side to join all of
the Republicans save one or two to actually keep the

(18:10):
government operating, And that shut down really soured a lot
of Americans on the process. And so to prevent that
from happening, I think that appropriations, which I serve on,
should be able to move their legislation without this type
of brakesmanship from the minority party. So maybe some exceptions
to the filibuster rule might be in order and we

(18:33):
can go from there. But I do think some reforms
are needed from the especially in the Senate, which I'm
friendly in a friendly way called the Body of Lesser Number?

Speaker 2 (18:46):
Do you think we'll see more decisions doge? Inaccurately? It
sounds like had been reported as dead, omb I think
later came back and said, that's not dead. We've just
incorporated DOGE into the way we operate. Are there still
meaningful recisions to be made and ways to cut spending?
Here on Capitol Hill?

Speaker 11 (19:06):
There are plenty of ways to cut spending, and on
the Republican Study Committee and the budget that we put out,
we show a path to exactly where you can cut
and how you can save money and balance the budget.
Because r SC has put out the only balanced budget
save the Budget Committee's product that actually shows you a
path to get there. We're going to continue to work

(19:27):
on that. DOOSE is still going to be part of
the process. But as far as recisions go, when you're
trying to rescind money that's been appropriated by the party
the other party, yes, we should continue to try and
defund the Pelosi Schumer Biden agenda. So as far as
recisions go there, I think we should when it comes

(19:49):
to a Republican House, Republican Senate, and President Trump's legislation,
when that appropriations get signed in the law that reflects
our priorities, that's less likely to necessitate a recision because
you're cutting from something that you've already kind of cut
from and put through a lesser level of spending that

(20:10):
is going to help drive the economy and help address
affordability issues.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
I come up this as not a trick question, and
this is my final one, and that is Marjorie Taylor Green,
who has now famously said she's done here at the
turn of the year. How are we to read that
and kind of the shots she's taken at the GOP
on her way out of the door.

Speaker 11 (20:28):
Well, you know, this job is one of service, and
she has served the constituents of her district well, and
I think that she will continue to play a role
to find a way to serve not just her community,
but the entire nation. The conservative issues that she champions
are issues that are shared by so many of us

(20:50):
in the conference. There'll be a lot of opportunities for
us to work together.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
And difficult to lose a Republican vote though at this time,
at this critical time, I mean, you need everybody you can, right.

Speaker 11 (20:59):
We do, and I'm sure there are a lot of
folks who would rather that we all stay throughout the
two years that were elected to But you know, everybody
has individual priorities and needs and demands on their time,

(21:20):
and so for her to make that decision, I'm going
to leave that to her.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
That's diplomatic. Congressman. We appreciate your time today, sir, Thank yous.
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(23:53):
From the Great State of Texas, Mark Davis Country No less,
It's Congress when Beth Bendine of the twenty fourth District,
good to meet you.

Speaker 1 (24:00):
So you love Mark Davis.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
We were just talking a little while ago about my
colleague and friend Mark Davis and the good people of Dallas, Texas,
where we broadcast each and every day. You you appear
on local radio in Dallas pretty regularly and value it,
and I wanted people to.

Speaker 4 (24:14):
Know that, Yeah, no, absolutely, I have been a local
elect official. So I started out in city council back
in two thousand and four, and Mark was one of
the first interviews that I've had. You guys, you're so loyalty,
and I was telling you, I said, you know, it's amazing.
When I'm on the Mark Davis Show, I get more
people texting me about that than I do when I'm
on Fox.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
There you go, Davis, there's your drop. Go ahead and
cut that, use it. He's going to use that for
promotional material like you guarantee. That's awesome. No, we love
Mark and he's great. He fills in for me from
time to time too. We really appreciate him. So here
we are talking with the Republican Study Committee on Capitol
Hill today. The invitation was sent out to all of
us who were considered media and new media to kind
of message I think as we turn the corner and

(24:54):
get in twenty twenty six, And I've been asking several
of your colleagues, what is the message, particularly given right
now the media is trying to drum up the idea.
You guys are up against it, your backs are against
the wall. Things aren't getting better, In fact, they're getting worse,
and there's nothing you can do, and it's going to
be a landslide, crushing defeat for Republicans in twenty twenty six.
That's the narrative.

Speaker 4 (25:14):
You say, Well, I say, you've actually got adults in
the run right now that are trying to unravel the
problems that have been building up over the last several
decades under Democrat leadership. Under four years of the Biden administration,
we saw one point eight trillion dollars of burdens, of
regulatory burdens push down our businesses that we are trying
to unravel. We saw record amounts of inflation that we

(25:35):
are trying to unravel. We saw massive amounts of taxation
and unfair business practices put on our US manufacturers that
basically made them uncompetitive for the rest of the world.
We're trying to unravel that. We're looking at mortgage costs
that made it impossible for people to buy be able
to buy homes. We are trying to unravel that with
a tax package. We are looking at tariffs that have
put businesses again US businesses in horrible positions. We are

(25:59):
trying to make that more fake. We are looking at
tax positions over the Biden administration that took more money
out of people's pockets that increase inflation, and we're trying
to put money back into people's pockets. So I think
under the Trump administration, what they've been able to do,
working with a Republican majority in the House and in
this Senate. What we have been able to do in
the last ten months is remarkable. Now people are not
going to feel it immediately because when you added trillions

(26:21):
of dollars onto our.

Speaker 1 (26:23):
Deficit, that takes a toll.

Speaker 4 (26:25):
I mean, for four years, they're running up a credit
card debt that we're now having to pay off.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
We've warned about this forever.

Speaker 4 (26:32):
We're looking at health healthcare, which is healthcare versus healthcare.
Insurance is a much different different thing, and we are
looking at ways that people could be able to get
better healthcare, holding insurance companies accountable.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
Those are all the things that we are focused on.

Speaker 4 (26:46):
These are everyday meat and potatoes issues that working families
are struggling with. But it's going to take some time
because of the massive amount of damage. And by the way,
I didn't even talk about what was going on at
the border under the Biden administration and how they have
been able to unravel that and actually protect our borders
right now, and then we're looking at what's happening in
crime within communities.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
Do you guys in Texas know it better than most
that border situation? What are you hearing from your constituents
in Texas because many you know, people to your north
don't really understand the impact of a wide open border
quite like people and maybe Texas or California or Arizona do.

Speaker 4 (27:24):
What's been the MP We had over sixty percent of
all the folks who entered our country illegally entered through
our borders in Texas because we had a federal government
that was unwilling to do its work. So I want
to thank our a state for taking the cost over
eleven billion dollars of actually trying.

Speaker 1 (27:40):
To protect our our borders in in protect our state.

Speaker 4 (27:43):
But the fact is is that we still had almost
twenty million people who came in illegal in the last
four years into the Biden administration.

Speaker 1 (27:50):
What we're hearing in our districts.

Speaker 4 (27:51):
Is seeing you saw increases in feedinal deaths, you saw
increases in sex trafficking, you saw increases in gang activity,
which I am very appreciative of the Trump administration from
basically day one, within thirty days, they got control of
that border.

Speaker 1 (28:06):
Not by any new rules, not by any new.

Speaker 4 (28:08):
Laws that had to get passed by Congress, but by
simply by simply enforcing the laws that were already on
the books, which showed that the Trump that the prime
administration was completely ignoring them. That being said, we are
trying right now to make sure that the criminal elements
that are in our districts, especially those who are here illegally,
are deported.

Speaker 1 (28:27):
We are working.

Speaker 4 (28:28):
You know, you're seeing mayors, You're seeing our state being
able to work very diligently with federal law enforcement officers to.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
Make sure that happens. And we're trying to do that
throughout the country.

Speaker 2 (28:37):
It sounds like, and I've heard Vice President of Vance
State very recently that housing prizes skyrocketing the way they are.
One of the things he says is illegal immigration. Do
you see that correlation and explain that if so.

Speaker 4 (28:50):
Well, when you have federal dollars that are being spent
on housing on immigrants who are here illegally in our
country that are paying market rate, you're rising up the
cost of the market rate. You're also taking out housing
from people that live here legally that could be living
in and instead you're putting people who are here illegally
in those housing because we already have a housing shortage.

(29:11):
We know that. So yes, absolutely, we got twenty million
people that you're bringing in and you're having to figure
out where they're going to live, and then you're having
federal dollars have to pay for that. That is absolutely
driving up the health care costs or housing costs. Another
thing that drives up the healthcare housing costs is regulatory issues,
in costs of taxes, in permitting fees. And it's amazing
when you start thinking about some of the most expensive

(29:33):
areas in the country for housing, it's really the local
and the state taxes that they've got the permitting how
difficult that they make it, whether or not that's San Francisco,
on the New York, Washington, d C.

Speaker 1 (29:48):
They do it to themselves.

Speaker 4 (29:49):
And in fact, in California, this is an often I
quote this fact often to build a new home in California,
nearly forty percent of the cost of building a new
home is some type of government of fee.

Speaker 7 (30:01):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (30:02):
So if we were to take those regulations and start
pairing them back instead of forcing it on the private sector,
the government sector has a lot to do with that.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
And what we find is that a lot of it
has to do with.

Speaker 4 (30:12):
The massive blue blue areas, whether or not those are
cities that are run by democrats or states that are
that are that have horrendous housing policies.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
And I've been asking all of your colleagues the same question,
and I'll ask you collectively or individually, are you all
aware of what seems to be this kind of media
driven narrative realer perceived young people housing particularly, but affordability generally,
they're very unhappy and they're almost willing now to warm
to a mundami or a AOC because they figure, what

(30:42):
the heck, things can't get any worse. That's that's a
theme I hear. Whether that's real or perceived, I don't know,
But are you hearing that? And can you message against it?

Speaker 4 (30:49):
If so, when you're having when you're having hard time
finding a job that actually pays the bills, and you're
having somebody who's going to promise to be able to
pay for free bussing, free housing, free healthcare, free education,
that can sound very appealing, but the problem is is
that somebody's going to end up paying for it, and
our youth right now are the ones who are going
to end up paying for it, because that sticker, that

(31:10):
sticker shock is going to be paid for them with
taxes for the rest of their lives and so nothing
is free.

Speaker 2 (31:16):
This individual down in Tennessee today, as we speak, that
race tighter than I think many in the Republican Party
would like it to be. She's selling many of those things.
I don't know if she's victorious as we talk, but
is that disconcerting that in Tennessee that message is working?

Speaker 4 (31:32):
And again, you know, I think right now you've got
two campaigns that are fighting. I don't buy polls, you know,
I buy actual election results. They see what the election
looks like. You know, what the numbers look like. But
the fact that that is resonating again. People are having
to pay more money right now than they ever have
right for food. We've seen energy costs go down a
little bit. We've seen price of mortgages, you know, go

(31:54):
down a little bit. Again, this is I think as
a direct result of our tax bill that we just
passed a few months ago. You're starting to see some
of the effects of that. But when you are promised
free things, which is what the Democrats promise, I'm going
to give you free healthcare, I'm going to give you
free busting, I'm going to give you free food. And
that's a great message as opposed to Republicans saying we
can't afford it.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
That is the responsible message.

Speaker 4 (32:15):
That is the message that we actually need to be
but to be sustainable, to be able to be successful
in the future. But it's not a message that you
want to hear when you're struggling to try to pay
your bills.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
Yeah, Russias, it's hard to run against Santa Claus. I
remember the great rustling in law used alway say it's
hard to run against Santa Claus congress Woman. It is
a real pleasure to meet you. I hope you'll come
back on the show. I know people in Dallas and
your larger district would love to hear from you anytime
you can.

Speaker 1 (32:37):
I love it, Mary Christmas A Foy Pressure, thank you.

Speaker 4 (32:41):
Hey.

Speaker 2 (32:41):
Everybody's trying to save money where they can. If you
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dot Com. Always good to be back with Congressman Derek Schmidt.
He represents the second Congressional District of Kansas. Good to

(33:45):
see a congressman. Great to be here.

Speaker 7 (33:47):
Thanks gres.

Speaker 2 (33:47):
The issue of affordability, as you well know, is the word.
That word, and it seems like it kind of popped
up out of nowhere. Not that people were happy with
the cost of things. But I felt like progress has
been made in this first term of President Trump, and
then all of a sudden, it's like, I don't know,
a switch was flipped in here late in the year.
Now the narrative is, I don't think it's that people

(34:12):
aren't struggling, but there seems to be this persistent message
of things are bad and getting worse. I don't perceive
it that way, but I don't want to discount that
people do struggle. I understand that. Is it a lack
of the market correcting as fast as everyone would like,
or are we just not making progress the way we
should or how do you see things?

Speaker 5 (34:32):
You know, sometimes, Chris, when you're sick, you take the
medicine and it takes a while for your symptoms to
go away, and you're feeling better, but you still got
to do the medicine. Yeah, And I think there's a
sort of an element of that in how Republicans have
approached this instead of just trying to, you know, real quick,
like pass a big inflation reduction act that didn't reduce
inflation and just printed and threw a bunch of money
into the economy, or the other things that happened in

(34:53):
the Biden years. Instead of doing those things, we've actually
worked on trying to fix the underlying problems. Runaway growth
of federal spending. A lot more to do, but for
the first time we actually started to bend the spending
growth curve downward instead of upward. With the one point
one trillion dollar top line reduction in reconciliation. Build this
summer a tax structure that is permanent and people can
rely on and make plans on, and make investment decisions

(35:16):
on because they know it's not going to change. For
the giant tax increase at the end of this year.
More money in the pockets of working families with the
other provisions and the tax pund no tax on tips,
and tax on overtime, and reduce taxes on seniors, all
of those things. On the regulatory side, trying to I mean,
the President's done a great job of putting the brakes
on regulatory growth.

Speaker 7 (35:34):
We need to continue to do more, as we're going
to do on the floor.

Speaker 5 (35:36):
Today with some of the small business provisions, trying to
start to peel back those regulations that are piled on
and that are hugely costly and they get passed on
so I do think it's an issue of when you
actually try to fix the problems, sometimes it takes a
bit longer to see the results, but you get lasting results,
and that's where we are.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
So when we talk about next year in the midterms,
I've been asking all your colleaguesists today, there's this kind
of conventional wisdom that loss is inevitable. It's just degrees
of loss that Republicans will be navigating next Pall, do
you accept.

Speaker 7 (36:11):
That or no, No, I don't.

Speaker 5 (36:13):
I think at the end of the day, every election
is different, and you know, we've seen midterm elections in
the past where the incumbent party has done well.

Speaker 7 (36:20):
We've seen ones where they haven't done well.

Speaker 5 (36:22):
The people that get paid to think about and talk
about these things for a living, you know, they have
their top line narratives.

Speaker 7 (36:27):
Which are worth about what you pay for them. But
at the end of the day, it's what voters decide.

Speaker 5 (36:31):
And I believe we are delivering on the things that
we said we were going to do when voters trusted
us to change the direction of America in twenty twenty
four and get us back in the direction that most
Americans and certainly most.

Speaker 7 (36:42):
Kansas believe we need to be headed. We are fixing
those problems. Voters will see that we're fixing those problems.
What we have to do is stay on focus.

Speaker 5 (36:50):
And that's one of the reasons I think it's so
encouraging that everybody from the President on down now is
talking about the affordability issues. It's a reminder of what
people sent us here to do.

Speaker 7 (37:00):
Stay focused. Voters will see it, they'll vote accordingly.

Speaker 2 (37:02):
You think that spring, early summer, or even that late
will there be a different economic story to tell than
where we sit at the moment.

Speaker 5 (37:10):
I've seen a lot of election cycles in my life,
and it is pretty common that what seems inevitable in
January of the election year looks very different by the
fall running up to the election, not just because of
current dynamics, that's just the way things tend to unfold.

Speaker 7 (37:23):
I imagine this will be one of those years as well.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
As you watch what's happening in Tennessee with a special election,
are you surprised it's this tight in a place like Tennessee.

Speaker 5 (37:30):
No special elections are, Somebody said to me the other day,
they're special, They're always unique turnout. It's always a problem
it's you know, people aren't accustomed to showing up in
special elections, especially in this case, deep red districts.

Speaker 7 (37:43):
A lot of times.

Speaker 5 (37:44):
Republicans don't show upcause they don't think they're needed, and
they're not otherwise going to the ballot because it's a
special election. It's not a regularly scheduled election that they plan,
and there's lots of issues that they you know, go
out and vote on or vote on candidates, So it's
always a turnout driven issue when it comes to specials.

Speaker 7 (37:58):
I think that'll be true here.

Speaker 5 (38:00):
It'll be tighter than the district tends to normally.

Speaker 7 (38:03):
Show, but that's because it's a special election.

Speaker 5 (38:05):
And I think we're going to win that race here today,
and I think once we do, that's going to be
a CEE easily hold in the next cycle.

Speaker 2 (38:12):
Agriculturally speaking, Kansas is so well known for it. Obviously farmland.
China owns a lot of it in this country, which
I find unbelievable, but it's true. Can we reverse course
on that? Should we outlaw that outright?

Speaker 5 (38:26):
Why is that we absolutely need to put a stop
to that. You know, we passed a provision earlier this
year became law just about a month ago, as in
the Agriculture Appropriation Bill, that makes it harder for China
and other adversary countries to acquire real estate farmland in
the United States.

Speaker 7 (38:42):
And I think under this administration that.

Speaker 5 (38:44):
Will have the effect of having stopped it, because I
don't think this administration is ever going to approve those
purchases going forward, and with the changes.

Speaker 7 (38:51):
We made in law, they will be in a position
to disapprove them.

Speaker 5 (38:55):
I would like to go further, frankly, and be a
little tougher because we won't always have this administration, and
I'd like to make sure that we don't have adversaries
buying up land in the United States that they may
intend to use for nefarious purposes against us, you know,
regardless who.

Speaker 7 (39:08):
The president is. But we have at least moved in
the right direction. You know. It's funny. I don't pretend
to be a farmer.

Speaker 5 (39:14):
I mean, I've grown up around it all my life
and sort of advocated braggard culture, a big believer in it,
but that's not how I've made my living. But somehow,
the Chinese, they seem to be smarter than we are.
In one sense, They've figured out from their vantage point,
the most fertile and productive land in the United States
happens to be close to our military installations.

Speaker 7 (39:33):
Isn't that a remarkable coincidence?

Speaker 2 (39:35):
Yeah, No, it's creepy. Frankly, I hope we figured that
out soon. And then in terms of meat beef in particular,
I've talked with a couple of your colleagues about this today,
the big four meat packers in the country. President Trump
says he's investigating that. I think with the DOJ at present,
what do you say about that? And to those who

(39:56):
are farmers and ranchers in.

Speaker 5 (39:57):
Your district, Well, when I was Attorney general in can
Kansas state law did not allow us to initiate an
investigation of potential anti trust abuse. This is in the
meatpacking sector. There's a provision in Kansas state law that
didn't allow that to happen. So rather than doing that ourselves,
we asked the federal government to initiate a review at
that point, and they told us they did, although they
never let us inside to see what was happening. So

(40:18):
this isn't a new issue from my vantage point, and
I think it's good that the administration is taking a
look the law to be enforced, and if there's a
problem there, I don't know what the facts bear out,
but there's certainly a reason for concern, and so if
there's a problem there, you know, there ought to be
an enforcement action. What I don't think we need to
do is have the government get deeper into trying to
manipulate the market in the beef space or generally. I'm

(40:40):
not a believer in that, but certainly not in the
beef space. There are a lot of reasons that prices
have fluctuated dramatically.

Speaker 7 (40:46):
If a piece of that is.

Speaker 5 (40:49):
Forbidden by the anti trust law, then there ought to
be an investigation and enforcement action.

Speaker 7 (40:53):
But there are other factors at play.

Speaker 5 (40:54):
I mean, certainly the drought of many years, the reduction
and heard size it's driven up prices makes it much
more a track active for folks to liquidate and take
the cash, then to build a herd back up, which
can tie up cash for long periods of time.

Speaker 7 (41:06):
We call those market cycles. We've seen them many times
in our lifetime.

Speaker 5 (41:09):
We're in one right now where prices tend to be
higher and herdcount tends to be lower.

Speaker 7 (41:14):
That will reverse if we leave the market to its ways.

Speaker 2 (41:18):
Pivoting to school choice. Christian school We've got a lot
of colleagues that follow this issue closely. The state of
school choice in the country, the Department of Education, I
don't know the President's trying to scale back on that,
and Linda McMahon, the Secretary of Education, has said, we
were closed for forty three days and nobody missed us.
What's the state of school choice in Kansas? The district

(41:40):
you represent Christian schools in particular homeschoolers. What do you know?

Speaker 5 (41:44):
What vast majority of education policy in this country is
And my view should be made at the local and
the state level. The federal government should be a support player,
not a central driver of the direction of how we.

Speaker 7 (41:54):
Educate our kids. I think the federal government is too involved.

Speaker 5 (41:57):
In my view, most of those decisions related to choice
are state level decisions and games this is. You know,
there are some small steps in the direction of choice.
There's some tax credit provisions, for example, that have been
very supportive of some schools that in my view, have
been successful providing education with.

Speaker 7 (42:14):
Kids who weren't getting what they needed from the traditional system.

Speaker 5 (42:18):
And I think that's where most of those decisions ought
to continue to be made. It would be very helpful
if the federal government could, to the extent practically get
itself out of the way. We don't need, you know,
it this huge federal bureaucracy that's second guessing what the
large enough state bureaucracy that it's self second guessing what
the local decision makers are deciding on how local people
educate their local kids. And so, you know, I'm one

(42:41):
who's always believed that educating kids is not a one
size fits all endeavor. For some kids, the traditional public
school system is great. It works very well. I'm a
product of that system, and I was very pleased with it.
For other kids, you don't reach the kids that way.
And to give folks the opportunity to find the best
fit for their kids, whether it's a parochial school, another

(43:01):
private school, a home school, a public school, a public
school of a particular type, whether it's Montessori or you know,
whether it's another you know, sort of subset. I think
that makes perfect sense. It's the way we ought to
do it, and it doesn't work as well in every
part of the state.

Speaker 7 (43:15):
And I'm from a rural area.

Speaker 5 (43:16):
We didn't have a lot of choices because frankly, there
weren't that many schools available, but where it works.

Speaker 7 (43:22):
It ought to be available.

Speaker 2 (43:24):
Do we have to talk about security in private schools
Christian schools like we do public schools? I mean, I
know public schools have dealt with things like magnetometers and
things like that for a while. Now is are we
a place where we have to start thinking about that
for Christian schools too?

Speaker 7 (43:36):
Well, you never say never.

Speaker 5 (43:37):
It has to be a decision of each individual institution,
maybe each individual building. And obviously everybody wants their kids safe.
And if you're a school administrator, a teacher, parents, school
board member, whatever, you know, you feel that responsibility uniquely
for the kids who are intrusted to your care and learning. So,
you know, but I think we ought to be supportive
of those local decisions and so far in general, you know,

(43:58):
I think it's a generally true statement that we've seen
more of that manifest itself in public schools and we
have in private schools. But honestly, nobody is immune from
one imbalanced person with an intent.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
To kill all of you have to go home and
make your pitch every two years. And so as we
head toward twenty twenty six, your pitch to your voters
will be well.

Speaker 5 (44:23):
We're only halfway through this term, so we need to
see how things unfold. I have every expectation we're going
to be able to go home with people in the
eye and tell them here the things we promised we
were going to focus on if you gave us this chance.
But the Biden administration did tremendous damage to this country,
whether it was the wide open southern border, whether it
was explosive spending, whether it was refusing to deal with
issues like ongoing health care costs, or excusing to deal

(44:44):
with issues like the looming tax increase and the affordability crisis.
We said we were going to deal with those things,
and we have. We have largely fixed the border. We
still need to change the law to lock those in,
but the border is night and day better today than
it was just a year ago. We have largely fixed
the tax code problem. You can always do more and
here and there, but we have avoided the largest tax
increase in the history of this country, and we've provided

(45:06):
more relief for working families throughout this district. We have
focused on reducing the regulatory burden. There's more to do,
but we are making progress in that direction. We're staying
on point doing the things we said we were.

Speaker 7 (45:16):
Going to do. You can trust us to do that.
There's more work to do. We'd like to do this
for two more years.

Speaker 2 (45:22):
Congressman, thank you so much for your time today. Thanks
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pillow dot com. Great to be with Eric Burlison of
Missouri and Congressman. Is a pleasure to see you. The
last time we were here on Capitol Hill, we had
a great conversation, and I will I you didn't have
a really rosy forecast at the time about where things

(46:28):
were headed. Okay, how do you feel today?

Speaker 10 (46:31):
Look, I think that.

Speaker 12 (46:32):
We have passed a great bill in the one big
beautiful bill had a lot of the tax reforms that
we needed to address, but we did not take on
the topic that I was I was harping about to
our conference, which was healthcare and the affordability crisis. And
here we are staring us in the face, and I
think we we will fail the American people if we

(46:54):
don't properly address it.

Speaker 2 (46:56):
And so to that in you have you do have
a plan. I mean, while everybody else says we've got
to do this, we've got to do that. You've put
it down on paper.

Speaker 10 (47:03):
Yeah, what do you think we have? I've architected a plan.

Speaker 12 (47:06):
I took a lot of the best ideas from other
members in the past, right, some of the bills that
really I thought kind of shepherded us back to a
free market and took the best of those ideas, put it,
put it together, and added a few of my own.
And I call it the Maha Plan or the MAHA counts.
So the idea is, you create, you let let people
keep if they you know, don't touch the other stuff Obamacare,

(47:27):
leave it alone. Right, If people like their crappy Obamacare,
they can keep it, they can truly keep it.

Speaker 10 (47:33):
But we're going to give people a better product. And
this MAHA account.

Speaker 12 (47:37):
So instead of your buying you buying insurance through your employer,
for example, your employer writes the check to your MAHA
a count and you can put in your own money,
tax free into MAHA it. You can get charitable donations
or maybe government help into your MAHA count and then
you get to go out on the on the insurance
market and pick whatever insurance policy you want.

Speaker 10 (47:57):
Maybe you want a health sharing ministry.

Speaker 12 (47:59):
Paul's maybe you want an association policy, maybe you want
a state sponsored plan, or or god forbid, you want
the ACA. You can have that, but let people pick
and pay the premiums for the product that they want.
And guess what happens when you do that. You get
to pick your network. You get to pick your doctors
and which doctors are in the network or what hospitals

(48:20):
are in your network.

Speaker 10 (48:21):
If you want to do direct primary care, you can
do that.

Speaker 12 (48:24):
You also would be able to pay for deductibles tax free,
You be able to pay your co pays tax free.

Speaker 10 (48:30):
And so this is I think this idea is gaining speed.

Speaker 12 (48:35):
And then one of the ideas that you know in
conversations with the Bobby Kennedy team, it really is about
we got to address the healthy issue in America, not
just health care costs. And so the American people are
not healthy. The food that we're eating isn't healthy, and
we end up paying for it on the back end
with expensive medical bills.

Speaker 10 (48:55):
Why not flip the script and reverse that?

Speaker 12 (48:57):
Why not encourage people through their MAHA account each month
to be able to purchase healthy food right, and I
mean unprocessed protein produce, you know, basically meat, vegetables, vitamins, supplements,
things like that.

Speaker 2 (49:14):
Housing the tax code to encourage behavior like we have
in the past.

Speaker 10 (49:17):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (49:18):
That's right, family, that's right.

Speaker 12 (49:20):
And so that's something that at the end of the day,
wouldn't you love to be able to buy your steak
tax free?

Speaker 2 (49:27):
I love the idea. Yes, I'm all for it. Tax
free market based solutions. You're offering them, that's what's we
need more of it. I mean, you're here to solve problems.
That's what you're clearly passionate about doing. Yeah, and I
know you've got to go vote, but I wanted to
talk to you before we left because I love this plan.
How likely is it we're going to get somewhere with it?

Speaker 12 (49:42):
We've I've had a lot of conversations with leadership and
with members of the committees. We're gaining steam, and I
just need the American people to reach out and kind
of if they like this idea, get behind it.

Speaker 2 (49:52):
It's called the Maha Plan. Can people read more about it?
I'll put it up on.

Speaker 12 (49:55):
My on my social media. We're tweeting about it all
the time.

Speaker 2 (49:58):
I will repost on my social media to people that
are listening. If they want to follow along Eric Bergliston's plan,
the Maha count Plan. Congressman, great to talk to you,
Thanks for make good to see you again. Chris, We'll
see you, Sue. Merry Christmas.

Speaker 10 (50:09):
Merry Christmas to you.

Speaker 2 (50:10):
Congresswoman.

Speaker 3 (50:11):
Is great to see you, Nice to see you.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
Thanks for time to day. You guys just came from
the floor and voted on something called the Score Act,
And I was kind of reading about it because I
didn't all their particulars. What can you tell us about
that bit of business.

Speaker 3 (50:22):
Yeah, we're trying to do a framework for name image
enlightenment out of fairness to the university students who are
it's kind of the wild wild West right now in
terms of the NIL deals and everything that's going on
in the competitive nature. We do think there probably needs
to be a framework. That's what we're trying to get
across the floor.

Speaker 2 (50:40):
Yeah, and I heard it was kind of close maybe. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (50:43):
So the rule vote, it was a rule and if
the rule doesn't pass, then the bill can't proceed to
the House for a vote.

Speaker 2 (50:50):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (50:50):
We can bring bills to the floor in a number
of ways.

Speaker 3 (50:52):
One is on suspension, which means we suspend the rules
it has to get two thirds majority to pass.

Speaker 1 (50:57):
But if we bring it to the floor under a rule,
it can.

Speaker 3 (50:59):
Pass the simple majority, but the rule itself has to
pass first, Okay. And so today was the rule vote
and I left the chamber and it was the vote
was still open.

Speaker 2 (51:08):
Wow, all right, So I guess we'll wait to see
how that ends up shaking out.

Speaker 3 (51:13):
Yeah, there are some there are some concerns that have
been raised about free markets and whether this is the
role of the federal government to weigh in on this issue.
I think there's an interstate commerce argument plus higher education
argument to be made that the federal government does maybe
have a role to play here.

Speaker 2 (51:28):
Federal dollars going to colleges of course, right right, that's
probably one of the considerations for sure.

Speaker 1 (51:33):
So we will see if it passes.

Speaker 3 (51:35):
If it doesn't, we could we could go back to
the Rules Committee, which I serve on, and you know,
try to formulate a new path forward.

Speaker 2 (51:43):
I've been asking your colleagues all day long about you know, midterms.
I know you guys are always kind of thinking about
the next election, particularly in the House. It's every couple
of years. What is your sense of things right now?
It's always kind of this understood, given that the party
that's in total control, and then as the White House
loses in the midterms of the following year, do you
accept that Do you think that dynamic could change next year?

Speaker 3 (52:06):
You know, I am optimistic about the mid terms. I
think that we will see a lot of patriotism going
into the next year for the two hundred and fiftieth
anniversary of the country. And I also think that we
have a lot of wins that we have sort of
chalked up on our side of the Ledger that we
can point to for American families. We are constantly working

(52:27):
toward improving affordability. Let's not forget that the healthcare crisis
that we have was created by the Democrats and by
the passage of Obamacare. So we've been saying, look, we're
going to formulate a path forward that is health care affordability.

Speaker 1 (52:42):
If you like your Obamacare.

Speaker 3 (52:43):
You can keep it, but we're going to move forward
with a plan that has puts patients and doctors and
does not get in between their relationship, includes competition, and
really puts the American family first in terms of cost
and health care affordable.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
Do you think this affordability issue, which has now become
the word, and I can almost watching the news every
day and doing commentary on the news every day. It's like,
almost out of nowhere, this word became the buzzword. And
not that people aren't aware of what things cost. I
don't mean that. I just mean it seems that all

(53:22):
of a sudden, the focus on somehow things are getting worse,
when I just know literally on paper that's not true.
But we're kind of being pushed.

Speaker 7 (53:33):
That.

Speaker 2 (53:33):
Maybe the sentiment is things are not great and getting worse.
Do you sense that?

Speaker 3 (53:38):
Yeah, I think it's a little bit organic, because when
I did go home over the break, there are concerns
that are being raised by constituents on housing affordability.

Speaker 2 (53:46):
And is it getting worse.

Speaker 3 (53:48):
I think it's getting better. I just don't think it's
getting better fast enough for their liking. Yes, so I
do think it's getting better. If you look at inflation
rates versus the first Trump administration, then skyrocketing under Obama,
are under President Biden, and now it's back down to
I think two and a half percent and trending in
the right direction. But families just really aren't feeling it yet,
particularly in the housing market. I would hope that Jerome

(54:11):
Powell would reduce interest rates so that we could eventually
start to free up this frozen housing market. But when
you inject twenty million people into this country, that is
going to cause a housing problem. It's going to cause
a supply chain problem, it's going to cause work employment
problems and wage problems. It's going to drive down wages,
and it's going to drive up housing costs, and we
are going to suffer from that until we can finally

(54:33):
turn the page on not only Biden's economy, but Biden's dacked,
disastrous immigration policies.

Speaker 2 (54:38):
I was told about something you're working on specifically called
parents over Platforms. I was intrigued by that. Tell us
about it.

Speaker 3 (54:44):
Yeah, so jacocin class, he's a Democrat. We're working on
this together. And where you know a lot of kids
online safety legislation, we know that the state of affairs
today and risks to kids is more than the playground
and more than the neighborhood, it's the whole entire globe.
With the access to the Internet and these social media platforms,
we think strongly that no child under sixteen should have

(55:06):
access to some of these apps, and so we have
these parents over platforms to put parents back in charge.
I have a personal experience with my own daughter who
when she was thirteen, she got access to Instagram without
our knowledge or consent. She hacked around our parental controls
and was on her phone. They find a way. Parents

(55:31):
are overwhelmed with an amount of apps that are out
there and the number of different iterations of parental protections
and parental controls. So we're trying to streamline that at
the federal level. Make sure that sixteen is the standard,
not under sixteen. Just like you can't drive a car
before you're sixteen, you can't have social media before you're sixteen.

Speaker 1 (55:49):
It's just too dangerous a platform.

Speaker 3 (55:51):
We know that it's dangerous for kids under that age.
We've seen it. We don't have to see more research.
So we're putting a line in the sand there and
hoping that this will get legislatives.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
Does so, I say you're working with a Democrat. Does
that mean there's strong bipartisan support? Do you have a
sense of it.

Speaker 3 (56:05):
I would say that there is bipartisan support for sure.
I think that there are some Democrats who still think
that a thirteen year old should be able to have
access to these social media platforms without any parental knowledge
or consent. There are still Democrats that feel that way,
that don't want us to. They want us to take
care of children's privacy, but they don't. They're less concerned

(56:26):
about sexual exploitation or sexual content that a child might access.
This is going to be the issue of our time.
A colleague today, a friend of mine and Energy and Commerce,
said that Facebook is the new Philip Morris, and it
really is a danger to our kids these social media applications.

Speaker 1 (56:45):
We've got loads of data to prove it.

Speaker 3 (56:48):
When the Kids Online Privacy Protection Act was first passed
in nineteen ninety six, at the time, policymakers thought that
thirteen year olds might need access to the Internet for homework.
We are well beyond that today and we know what
we need to do. We just have to have the
courage to get this done.

Speaker 2 (57:05):
Boy, we're going to pay close attention to that. I
hope you'll come back as that hopefully progresses through Congress.
But in the meantime, just in closing twenty twenty six,
I know we've still got lots of time before that
midterm election, But what would you say to Americans right
now as we get into Christmas. What's your pitch the Republicans,
the GOP here in the House, where things stand and
where you're going, why they should continue to support your efforts.

Speaker 3 (57:26):
Well, House and Senate Republicans, along with the leadership of
President Trump, we were just getting started.

Speaker 1 (57:31):
We've already put in the.

Speaker 3 (57:33):
Largest tax increse or tax reduction in history. We've prevented
the largest tax largest tax increase in history from going
into effect with the Working Family's Tax Cuts Act. We've
got record numbers of deportations. Crime is going down, prices
are going down.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
We are all trending in the right direction.

Speaker 3 (57:54):
Let us keep doing our jobs, let us keep working
for the American people, and really get this America First
policy platform in effect.

Speaker 2 (58:01):
By the way, we're going to get an extra seat
in Indiana or no, you might get two, maybe two.
You think that's going to happen.

Speaker 10 (58:07):
It may.

Speaker 3 (58:08):
It's up to the General Assembly whether or not they
want to do this. Indiana is a very republican state.
Ninety percent of our local elected officials in Indiana are Republican.
So if Indiana were to draw a nine zero map,
I think it would certainly be in line with the
value set of the majority of Hoosiers.

Speaker 2 (58:26):
That'll be interesting to watch. Congresswoman. Great to meet you,
hopefully come back to you too.

Speaker 3 (58:30):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (58:31):
So that's a wrap for another Christi Gall Show podcast.
Thanks for committing to it listening to it all the
way through. You're a fighter. I like that about you.
Hope you'll leave it a five star review and a
written review Apple Podcasts, Spotify. We'll see you next time
here on The Christiagall Show Podcast. The christ Gall Show
Podcast