December 9, 2025 • 8 mins
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Remember Phil Collins’ Missed Again? That’s America right now—getting taken for another ride while Congress crams $5+ billion in earmarks into a Christmas-time minibus no one can even find in the PDFs. A handful of Republicans are holding the line, but the rest are ignoring their own moratorium and greenlighting money for activist groups, sports arenas, fish tunnels, and foreign militaries. This is what happens when voters look away and Washington counts on it.
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watchdog-on-wall-street-with-chris-markowski/id570687608
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PtgPvJvqc2gkpGIkNMR5i
WATCH and SUBSCRIBE on:
https://www.youtube.com/@WatchdogOnWallstreet/featured
Remember Phil Collins’ Missed Again? That’s America right now—getting taken for another ride while Congress crams $5+ billion in earmarks into a Christmas-time minibus no one can even find in the PDFs. A handful of Republicans are holding the line, but the rest are ignoring their own moratorium and greenlighting money for activist groups, sports arenas, fish tunnels, and foreign militaries. This is what happens when voters look away and Washington counts on it.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast, explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader. Chris Markowski, Congratulations, America.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
We're about ready to get fleeced again. Remember that Phil
Collins song missed again? Well, we're about ready to get
fleeced again. And I told you it was going to happen.
Told it was going to happen. We mentioned with the
the continuing resolution and Biden policies moving forward, and we
were going to see all sorts of funky stuff happening
(00:40):
around Christmas time because nobody's paying attention. And guess what, hey,
Markowski's right again. Yeah, this is the story you're not
hearing about right now. You've actually got Mike Lee, Ron Johnson,
and Rick Scott have brought five appropriations bills to a
(01:03):
stand seal. Good for them. They're objecting to the ear
marks in the package. Uh yeah, last time I checked,
I thought Republicans were against these earmarks. And this hole
that they have right now could could push this past
Christmas and maybe even into January and then don't forget
(01:25):
you know, you got the funding deadline as January thirtieth
and a. Republicans are none too happy. And now they're
calling on the President, calling on the President to intervene
and to call up these senators and tell them to stop.
If not, he's going to put out some strongly worded
truth social posts about how awful they all are. Does
(01:48):
sound familiar to you?
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Is it getting old? No, it's it was old with
me a long time ago. Yeah. The GEO Senate GEOP
Conference rules include a moratorium on earmarks. Okay, this is
part of the rules. This is what this is what
you vote for. Okay. Again, all of you people that
(02:14):
actually give money to the I mean, I get it.
If you're buying a politician, Okay, I get it. If
you know, you know you're a mover shaker, you're trying
to get some earmark yourself or actually build, and you've
got to pay off some politician. I know how the
game is played. But all of you small donors out there,
(02:34):
you can't find a better place to give your money to.
You can't find, you know, some charity at your church
that would be much better served than to giving your
money to these two faced liars. Yeah, the Republican Conference
rules includes a moratorium on earmarks, and that has been
(02:58):
ignored again again and again. And I quote, there are
a number of earmarks in this package, and it concerns
me for a number of reasons. We've still got a
conference policy that's been in place since twenty eleven. It's
never been rescinded that says that it is the policy
of our conference that no members shall direct a Congressional
directed spending mining meeting an ear mark. Huh. It was
(03:20):
followed for ten years, then they gave up on the
entire thing. And Mike Lee pointed out that, Okay, Chuck
Schumer is getting a five hundred thousand dollars earmark for
a center that serves the legal aliens, three million dollar
ear marks submitted by Kirsten Gillibrand and Schumer for the
Fifth Avenue Committee, an activist left wing social justice group.
(03:45):
Again it's in there. But again those are in there
because Republicans have put in earmarks as well. So we'll
give Chuck Schumer his money in New York as long
as you send us our money. Do you vote for this?
(04:05):
Did you vote for this? I know I did five
billion dollars in earmarks. Five billion. Here's some two million
for a fish passageway in Rhode Island. Two million for
the AFL CIO in Michigan. We're now giving money to unions.
(04:26):
One million for the Atlanta Braves Foundation. Seven hundred and
fifty thousand dollars for the Lincoln Center in Manhattan, seven
million sports arena in West Virginia, forty two million single
school district in South Dakota. Three hundred and fifty thousand
(04:48):
to refurbish an elephant shape building in New Jersey. Oh,
I'll go real quickly. And this is the some of
the defense appropriations. Okay, four d million for annually for
Ukraine FISCO twenty twenty six and twenty seven, so they're
getting four hundred million both years. That's probably just a start.
(05:09):
Israel gets five hundred million for missile defense, eighty million
for anti tunnel cooperation, fifty million for anti drone cooperation.
Taiwan gets a billion Baltic Security Initiative, one hundred and
seventy five million overseas humanitarian disaster and civic eight one
hundred and three million, three hundred and fifty seven million
(05:31):
for Iraq Syrian militias and Curtis Security Forces and Lebanon
one hundred million for support to Middle East countries. And
it's defense money. I remind everybody we are thirty eight
trillion dollars in debt. We're paying over one point two
trillion in interest payments on our debt. Not to mention
(05:52):
the fact that the way that they put this into
the bills made them nearly impossible to Yeah, they're calling
the twenty twenty six appropriations bills called the minibus, a
package that bundles together several spending bills together for a
single vote. Two and eighty ear marks, five and a
(06:15):
quarter billion dollars, thousands of member directed pet projects slicing
through the discretionary budgets. Say this works. The longer you
stay there, you just more power you have, and you
just say, give me this money, give me taxpayer money,
and I'm going to just bring it home to my
(06:36):
district to make myself look good so I can continue
to get myself re elected.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Again.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Congress shutdown ear marks in twenty ten when the House
majority again. This is when it came in when Obama
lost big time. But the process came back in twenty
twenty one. Under the guise of member directed funding. They
(07:04):
changed the name. That's all they did. They changed the name.
No difference, like tomato tomato, okay, except they change the
name a little bit more than that. But it's the
same thing. Counting and tallying the fiscal year twenty twenty
six ear marks no easy task. Each appropriations bill includes
(07:25):
why way for a separate PDF listing it's ear marks,
but the layouts are inconsistent and often make it difficult
to copy and paste information from each page into a spreadsheet.
So they're basically trying to hide this from everyone so
they can't see exactly what they're doing. They all need
(07:49):
to go. You know, someone's got someone has to at
some point in time. It's got maybe a starting a
nationwide thing saying you know, that's it. Do not vote,
I don't care who it is. You do not vote
for any incumbent. Okay, They all have to go, each
(08:11):
and every one of them. We need to start over.
We need to start over. We need a reset button.
The founders screwed up there, the fact that we need
some sort of like okay, in case like we're at
the blue screen, a death type of the situation. Remember
the old Windows operating system that always used to screw up.
(08:31):
We're at that point in time. Prove me wrong, watch
Dog and Wall Street dot Com
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast, explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader. Chris Markowski, Congratulations, America.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
We're about ready to get fleeced again. Remember that Phil
Collins song missed again? Well, we're about ready to get
fleeced again. And I told you it was going to happen.
Told it was going to happen. We mentioned with the
the continuing resolution and Biden policies moving forward, and we
were going to see all sorts of funky stuff happening
(00:40):
around Christmas time because nobody's paying attention. And guess what, hey,
Markowski's right again. Yeah, this is the story you're not
hearing about right now. You've actually got Mike Lee, Ron Johnson,
and Rick Scott have brought five appropriations bills to a
(01:03):
stand seal. Good for them. They're objecting to the ear
marks in the package. Uh yeah, last time I checked,
I thought Republicans were against these earmarks. And this hole
that they have right now could could push this past
Christmas and maybe even into January and then don't forget
(01:25):
you know, you got the funding deadline as January thirtieth
and a. Republicans are none too happy. And now they're
calling on the President, calling on the President to intervene
and to call up these senators and tell them to stop.
If not, he's going to put out some strongly worded
truth social posts about how awful they all are. Does
(01:48):
sound familiar to you?
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Is it getting old? No, it's it was old with
me a long time ago. Yeah. The GEO Senate GEOP
Conference rules include a moratorium on earmarks. Okay, this is
part of the rules. This is what this is what
you vote for. Okay. Again, all of you people that
(02:14):
actually give money to the I mean, I get it.
If you're buying a politician, Okay, I get it. If
you know, you know you're a mover shaker, you're trying
to get some earmark yourself or actually build, and you've
got to pay off some politician. I know how the
game is played. But all of you small donors out there,
(02:34):
you can't find a better place to give your money to.
You can't find, you know, some charity at your church
that would be much better served than to giving your
money to these two faced liars. Yeah, the Republican Conference
rules includes a moratorium on earmarks, and that has been
(02:58):
ignored again again and again. And I quote, there are
a number of earmarks in this package, and it concerns
me for a number of reasons. We've still got a
conference policy that's been in place since twenty eleven. It's
never been rescinded that says that it is the policy
of our conference that no members shall direct a Congressional
directed spending mining meeting an ear mark. Huh. It was
(03:20):
followed for ten years, then they gave up on the
entire thing. And Mike Lee pointed out that, Okay, Chuck
Schumer is getting a five hundred thousand dollars earmark for
a center that serves the legal aliens, three million dollar
ear marks submitted by Kirsten Gillibrand and Schumer for the
Fifth Avenue Committee, an activist left wing social justice group.
(03:45):
Again it's in there. But again those are in there
because Republicans have put in earmarks as well. So we'll
give Chuck Schumer his money in New York as long
as you send us our money. Do you vote for this?
(04:05):
Did you vote for this? I know I did five
billion dollars in earmarks. Five billion. Here's some two million
for a fish passageway in Rhode Island. Two million for
the AFL CIO in Michigan. We're now giving money to unions.
(04:26):
One million for the Atlanta Braves Foundation. Seven hundred and
fifty thousand dollars for the Lincoln Center in Manhattan, seven
million sports arena in West Virginia, forty two million single
school district in South Dakota. Three hundred and fifty thousand
(04:48):
to refurbish an elephant shape building in New Jersey. Oh,
I'll go real quickly. And this is the some of
the defense appropriations. Okay, four d million for annually for
Ukraine FISCO twenty twenty six and twenty seven, so they're
getting four hundred million both years. That's probably just a start.
(05:09):
Israel gets five hundred million for missile defense, eighty million
for anti tunnel cooperation, fifty million for anti drone cooperation.
Taiwan gets a billion Baltic Security Initiative, one hundred and
seventy five million overseas humanitarian disaster and civic eight one
hundred and three million, three hundred and fifty seven million
(05:31):
for Iraq Syrian militias and Curtis Security Forces and Lebanon
one hundred million for support to Middle East countries. And
it's defense money. I remind everybody we are thirty eight
trillion dollars in debt. We're paying over one point two
trillion in interest payments on our debt. Not to mention
(05:52):
the fact that the way that they put this into
the bills made them nearly impossible to Yeah, they're calling
the twenty twenty six appropriations bills called the minibus, a
package that bundles together several spending bills together for a
single vote. Two and eighty ear marks, five and a
(06:15):
quarter billion dollars, thousands of member directed pet projects slicing
through the discretionary budgets. Say this works. The longer you
stay there, you just more power you have, and you
just say, give me this money, give me taxpayer money,
and I'm going to just bring it home to my
(06:36):
district to make myself look good so I can continue
to get myself re elected.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Again.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Congress shutdown ear marks in twenty ten when the House
majority again. This is when it came in when Obama
lost big time. But the process came back in twenty
twenty one. Under the guise of member directed funding. They
(07:04):
changed the name. That's all they did. They changed the name.
No difference, like tomato tomato, okay, except they change the
name a little bit more than that. But it's the
same thing. Counting and tallying the fiscal year twenty twenty
six ear marks no easy task. Each appropriations bill includes
(07:25):
why way for a separate PDF listing it's ear marks,
but the layouts are inconsistent and often make it difficult
to copy and paste information from each page into a spreadsheet.
So they're basically trying to hide this from everyone so
they can't see exactly what they're doing. They all need
(07:49):
to go. You know, someone's got someone has to at
some point in time. It's got maybe a starting a
nationwide thing saying you know, that's it. Do not vote,
I don't care who it is. You do not vote
for any incumbent. Okay, They all have to go, each
(08:11):
and every one of them. We need to start over.
We need to start over. We need a reset button.
The founders screwed up there, the fact that we need
some sort of like okay, in case like we're at
the blue screen, a death type of the situation. Remember
the old Windows operating system that always used to screw up.
(08:31):
We're at that point in time. Prove me wrong, watch
Dog and Wall Street dot Com
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