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Federalist Radio Hour
Fiscal Conservatives Still Have A Champion In The Senate
00:39:09
On this edition of The Federalist Radio Hour, Republican Senator Ron Johnson joins Federalist Senior Elections Correspondent Matt Kittle to discuss the future of the Senate Budget Committee in the aftermath of Chairman Lindsey Graham's death and...
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- [00:02]
A
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- [01:18]
B
And we are back with another edition of the Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Matt Kittle, senior elections correspondent at the Federalist and your experience Sherpa on today's quest for knowledge. As always, you can email the show at radiohefedralist.com follow us on x@fdrlst. Make sure to subscribe wherever you download your podcast and of course to the premium version of our website as well. Our guest today is Senator Ron Johnson, Republican and senior senator from the great state of Wisconsin. Senator Johnson is poised to take over the Senate Budget Committee following the sudden death earlier this month of Senator Lindsey Graham. Senator Johnson, thank you so much as always for joining us on the Federalist Radio Hour.
- [02:04]
C
Well, man, hope you're doing well.
- [02:06]
B
Yeah, you too. Especially where you are, of course, right smack dab in the middle of the swamp and all kinds of swampiness going on. I want to begin here with the death of Lindsay Graham. I think that surprised just about everybody. We all know that Mitch McConnell, Senator Mitch McConnell, his health had been ailing. We weren't exactly sure where all of that stood. And then all of a sudden we get these reports that there was a sudden cardiac event for Lindsey Graham and it cost him his life. What did you think immediately when you started hearing the news?
- [02:46]
C
Well, we were all shocked. I think we all recognized how unique an individual Lindsey was, really irreplaceable in the conference. I mean, he generally moved the Conference with his wit. Sometimes he'd move it with his passion. He was so well respected around the world because he worked his tail off. And I think if anything should be remembered about Lindsey Graham is he loved this country. He, he dedicated his life to it and he probably paid with his life in the end. People don't realize how arduous this congressional travel is. I mean, people think these as boondoggles, but certainly the way that Lindsey did it was you put in a full week in the Senate, you hop on a plane Thursday night, you fly overseas for 8, 10, 12 hours, don't sleep well, you get off the plane, solid day of meeting, have some dinner, try and get some sleep with jet lag, do that for a couple days, then fly back to a full schedule in the Senate again. So it's not easy. He was in traveling a couple weeks before he died, just got back from Ukraine, talked to the President and the aortic aneurysm. And again, that level of stress, that level of just arduous travel, which quite honestly, he confided me in 2025 as we were going through the one big beautiful bill, he talked about the toll that it had on him in terms of his personal life and his health, just all that travel.
- [04:12]
B
Yeah. President Trump had made the comment after learning of the passing of Lindsey Graham that, you know, he didn't take care of himself in, didn't take much time for, for rest, you know, to slow things down. And I know we talk a lot about the Senate and you know, sometimes it does, it does seem, and I, I, I think there is truth to it that, you know, the schedule can be as short as two and a half days a week for doing business in the Senate. But there are other things that go on and if you are a member of, of a very vital committee, you, you do work a lot more. Now, not everybody does, but I'm told Lindsay Graham really did. I mean, he, he kind of, to use a historical reference here, he kind of James K. Polked himself, which, you know, for those who, who know about President James K. Polk, he said he was going to run for one term and he was going to accomplish everything that he laid out. And he did. And within a month or two months later, he was dead.
- [05:19]
C
Well, you know, speaking of the House, I'll first defend them. And they're always, the election cycle, they generally have smaller districts, not all, but most members have smaller districts and they travel the districts and they meet constituents all the time. So, yeah, maybe a short maybe isn't a full five day work week here in D.C. but then they're back in the state and they're attending events over the weekend and don't spend a whole lot of time with family. And it's not that much different for a senator either. And most senators have, obviously the full state to, most senators have full states to, to travel as well. So no, it's, it's, this is not a job for somebody who's lazy. Now, you know, there's ways of probably sitting back. But you know, most of us don't, I mean, most of us are, you know, we did this for a reason. You know, there are many, you know, challenges facing this nation and we're doing everything we can to, to try and address those, those challenges. That's just true across the aisle as well. So I think, I think again, people ought to have nothing but kind thoughts about Lindsey Graham and his dedication to this country.
- [06:21]
B
Well, a huge area of concern that is going to take some extremely heavy lifting. Nobody knows that more than you Is this massive monster of a US debt quickly approaching $40 trillion. Give us a little perspective, I guess on where that debt stood when you were elected in 2010 and began serving in the Senate in 2011. And I bring all of this up in context, of course, because you are indeed line in line to take the chairman's gavel that Lindsay Graham held for, for so long for the, the all important Senate Budget Committee.
- [07:02]
C
So I ran in 2010 because I knew Obamacare would not work and it'd be a disaster. And it has been. I mean, they're papering it over with, you know, these subsidies and stuff. As freedoms have skyrocketed, they just make up for it with the ever growing government subsidies exacerbating the problem. But the main reason is we were mortgage our children's future. I literally did. Parades say it's about freedom. We're mortgage our kids future. It's wrong, it's immoral. It has to stop. That was my campaign message, quite honestly. And back then we were $14.7 trillion in debt. Now we are approaching 40 trillion. CBO estimates that it'd be on average about $2.6 trillion deficits over the next 10 years, landing us well over $60 trillion if we don't do something about it. It's amazing to me we haven't already had a debt crisis. We haven't had a failure in a bond auction, but it hasn't happened. And as a result of it not happening, we have the public and their elected officials just by and large Whistling by the graveyard. Fiscal conservatives like myself are vastly outnumbered here. You know, people, again, they're just whistling by the graveyard hoping that this doesn't end up in a calamity on their watch. And so the, the only way I know to solve a problem is, you know, why I did. In the private sector, manufacturing is first a admit you have a problem and the public, you know, maybe in theory they kind of do. But my experience is most of the public wants and likes their free federal benefits. Right. You know, what, whatever it is, what, whatever grant money the federal government sending to their state or their city, they want it, they want more of it.
- [08:42]
B
Stimmies, remember that of the COVID era. People love their stimmies. Their stimulus package cash. And that's, you know, that's all of us, but we're all contributing to it. But our federal government and the, the people who hold the purse strings are signing on to it. Although it's been extremely irresponsible, it's just, it's, it's even more so today than it was when you were running saying we are mortgaging our kids and our grandkids futures. So we are in some very difficult positions. We, we. It shouldn't come as any surprise, but the Social Security system is expected to be insolvent by what, 2032. We're six years away from, from that cliff. And while that doesn't mean that it is bad bankrupt, it does mean that the people who have struggled and paid into that system all of their lives will get maybe 80 cents on the dollar on that. And that's, that's a crime to me. So how do we deal with this Leviathan?
- [09:43]
C
So again, first let me finish my point in terms of. Yeah, the fact that, the fact that the public isn't demanding fiscal responsibility means their elected officials certainly aren't going to do it. So until you have the public understanding the depth of the problem, the reason that things are unaffordable is because we devalued our currency value held in as late as recently as 2019 is only worth 79 cents today. Go back to 1998, that dollar is only worth half, about 50 cents. So you know, Social Security, we've already crossed the Rubicon. Let's quick describe the problem here. It is a legalized Ponzi scheme. Ponzi scheme is where investment advisor takes funds from an investor, does invest it, use those funds to pay out earlier investors and plumps up there you're making 50% return but there's nothing there. And eventually it all collapses. Well, Social Security is the exact same thing the federal government forced people to save. They said they were going to put this money in savings. They didn't. They spent the money. It's gone. In its place are US Government bonds, which if held by private individual, has value, but when held by a government agency, it has no value. It's worthless. We pass through kind of benefits, exceed revenue. And so what the trustees do, they take those U.S. government bonds, they turn them into the treasury, and the treasury has to issue another U.S. government bond. Okay, so there's no money there. So we're already. Are we plussing up benefits to match what was promised from the revenue shortfall? We're plusing those up to honor the promises. One of the things we ought to do is just take the calamity off the table here and just acknowledge, no, we're going to honor those promises. We're going to plus them up. But in order to do that, we better have the financial wherewithal out of the general budget to do so. And if we keep incurring $2.6 trillion deficits, at some point in time, we're going to have a debt bond go off. We're not going to be able to borrow money. The interest rates will be so high because we are in such a risky bet in terms of investing money in terms of savings. Now, I would have expected that to occurred before now. It hasn't. Yet I can't exactly predict when it is. All I know is it is fiscally irresponsible to keep running kind of deficits. We are. And again, we have a spending problem, not a revenue problem. We spent $4.4 trillion in 2019. This year we'll spend about seven and a half trillion dollars. That's about a 70% increase when our population has grown less than 3%. And yeah, we had Biden's record inflation, but still. So again, I proposed a number of different pre pandemic levels of spending. Take actual spending from Clinton, 98, Obama from 2014, Trump from 2019. Exempt Social Security, Medicare and interest. Spend what you need to spend, but everything go back to those, those actual outlays, plus them up by inflation, population growth, and use that as your spending baseline. You know, that's been, you know, not even considered seriously, which is unfortunate. Again, it's an approach, it's kind of approach a business would use if, you know, budgets got way out of whack.
- [12:55]
B
No doubt about it. It is unfortunate and it's, it's certainly not sustainable. And you're Right. One of these days we're going to have to pay for it. We have seen other nations have to do that. I'm reminded of, you know, in the 2000s, the whole crisis in Greece and their austerity campaigns. Are we going to eventually get to a point where it is an austerity campaign? And I'm not talking about what you're talking about. What you're talking about is getting back to a reasonable baseline. We don't have Covid anymore. We shouldn't be spending like we have this pandemic and yet we're spending like drunken sailors. But do you think we're going to get to a point where we're just absolutely going to have to cut these so called entitlements and other things in the federal government because we can't pay for them anymore?
- [13:46]
C
Well, what will happen is you'll have a failure of the bond auction. So, you know, treasury, you know, again, we're carrying $2 trillion deficit. They've got to borrow an additional $2 trillion plus they have to refinance debt that's expiring because very irresponsibly so much of our debt is short term because the interest rates are lower on short term debt. So we're having to refinance, I think $9 trillion a year just of debt that's coming due. They have to refinance. So the danger will be if there's a failure in the bond auction where you've got to raise $100 billion and you can't, not at the offered interest rate and all of a sudden say, well okay, how about paying Instead of paying 4%, how about 6%? And you still don't have takers. Well, how about 8%? And of course you finally get takers. But now your interest expense is just going to start growing exponentially, crowding out the other spending. Again, it's no different than your own personal finances. If you are spending more than you're taking in. Up to a certain extent you can load up your credit cards, you can take home equity loans, but at some point in time, just the cost of servicing the debt crowds out the other things you want to do. The exact same principle, it's just on different items, is true with the federal government. So at some point in time our debt load would just be too massive. Again. We're already seeing what I always call a chronic debt crisis. That's the devaluation of the dollar. That's the fact that again, it's $2019 worth 79 cents. That's chronic debt crisis. What I'm talking about is an acute one like we saw, which is the breaking of the Buck in 2008, which produced the Great Recession, mortgage backed securities, that type of thing. There was no reason to have that Great Recession at that point in time, but just that loss of confidence of one money market breaking the bot that set up a contagion. And our economy, our financial system runs on confidence.
- [15:42]
B
Yes.
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C
There's so much leverage here. People have to have confidence that you know, what they've invested in the bank will get paid back, you know, there's something to back it up or you know, the loan they've made or you know, again, it requires confidence and really bad things happen really fast when that confidence, you know, suddenly crumbles.
- [16:02]
B
Yeah. And I think our government often runs on fantasy because here it is, and you mentioned it before, and I think that is so critical is that there is this disconnect when you see poll after poll of people saying once, you know, they are given that point in the question, wow, this massive debt, it's, it's not sustainable. Yes, I, I would like to see the debt cut and at the same time they don't want to lose, you know, the programs that, that they've enjoyed or you know, the tax cuts and they should expect tax cuts, don't get me wrong. But you got to pay for all of that some way. So how do you deal with that, that debt disconnect with people in Congress talking about, yes, we've got to do something about this and then proposing, you know, massive new spending items?
- [16:53]
C
Well, the only way I know is through recognizing reality, educating them. You know, we were falsely accused of slashing Medicaid in the one big beautiful bill. Right?
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B
Yeah, right.
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C
Wall Street Journal article last week pointed out that Medicaid spending is up 10%. Oh God. Inflation, population growth didn't equal 10% this, this year. There's no reason for Medicaid spending increasing 10%. So as chair of the budget Committee, I've been approved by the conference. We have to go through the resolution on the floor. But by this evening, I will be officially the chair of the Senate Budget Committee. I'll start holding hearings laying out this reality. And it won't be fun to look at. I mean, people won't look at it, they'll try and ignore it. But again, I will just be relentless at holding hearings. Here's the reality here, here's the reality with this. Here's the reality with that. Again, Social Security, we had one hearing in a finance Subcommittee and everybody sort of, here's the solution. Back up, folks, back up. And let's really analyze the problem here, okay? I mean, the problem starts with the fact that it was a legalized Ponzi scheme. Worked great when we had a couple dozen workers for every retiree. Now we're under 3 to 1, moving to 2 to 1. And we didn't invest that money. Had we done that in like a stock index fund. I've done spreadsheets on this. I realize there weren't stock index funds when it first started, but had we done that, actually invested a real asset, we'd have probably 8 to 15 trillion dollars of hard assets. We'd be talking about how much more should we be given to retirees for their retirement. That's basically what happens when you invest in your own retirement. You end up with a lot of money. But that money was invested, it was spent, it's gone. Because it was managed so irresponsibly by your elected officials. Again, because they didn't understand the problem. They didn't even know. They don't realize, oh, yeah, you're right. A U.S. government bond in the hands of the U.S. government agency that doesn't have any value. I used to say on the campaign trails, if you have a piece of paper and you write 20 bucks on it and say, I owe me $20 and you stick it in your pocket and you go, I got 20 bucks. No you don't. All you have is a piece of paper. That's all the federal government has. I've seen a picture of it. The Social Security Trust fund is literally a four drawer file in, I can't remember which settings. Some, some city in West Virginia. It's a four drawer file.
- [19:14]
B
That's it in West Virginia. A file somewhere that is, you know, all of this is sad. It is depressing. And so much for the lockbox that we used to hear about so long ago. Our guest today is Senator Ron Johnson, Republican senior senator from the great state of Wisconsin. And as he just told you about to become the next chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. Let me ask you this. As we, we talk about the work ahead, is this your dream job? Because, you know, people always, I have heard it because I, you know, I come from Wisconsin and I've known you for a long time and you, you've laughed about it and joked about it. People say, oh, there's Johnson again with his spreadsheets. You know, he's always got the spreadsheets out. He's, he's a kind of A wonk guy. First and foremost, I'll tell you, this spreadsheets may have saved the President's life, the President of the United States, from that whole horrible moment in Butler, Pennsylvania, two years ago this month, the President actually turned his head to look at one of your spreadsheets about a fiscal matter. And that may have been all of the difference in the world, all of that.
- [20:30]
C
It was actually a chart, a chart that showed the, you know, the monthly incursion of encounters or illegal immigrants in this country. And so I've been working on that chart for years as chairman of Homeland Security, and we just continue to extend that. And I show that to him. It's quite honestly showed him on Trump Force One on the flight up to the Green Bay rally in, in April of 2024. Yeah, I mean, and kind of the rest is history. He liked the chart, gave it to his staff right away. He put a couple red arrows on it, used it that day, used it ever since, and he turned his head to look at that chart, the immigration chart, and that's what saved his life. So, yeah, I mean, so I can't say all my charts will be life saving, but hopefully country saving, country saving
- [21:12]
B
and budget saving, that's for sure. Was this your dream job all along, do you.
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C
Would you say? It's certainly one of the committees that I'm, I'm very well suited for, you know, high qualified for. Probably the dream job would be chairman of Finance Committee, but. Oh, sure, there's a pretty long line of seniority lined up for that one. This one just sort of the serendipity. Again, it's not the way I want to become chairman. You know, the passing of Lindsey Graham. But other people in charge of, in front of me in seniority have other chairmanship. Right now. Senator Grassley is chairman of the, the Judiciary Committee. Senator Crap was Chairman of Finance. So, you know, it's the next in, next in line that doesn't have another chairmanship. So again, there's a certain serendipity to it, but, no, this is a position I'm very well qualified for. There aren't a whole lot of accountants or numbers people in Congress, and we actually need more.
- [22:02]
B
Oh, yes, we definitely need more. We should have had many more before we got to this point. But you talk about education, and that's what you plan to do is not only educate Americans about this, but first and foremost, educate your, your colleagues about this. And sometimes I think of it, it's, it really, it's, it's basic as a Mom or dad explaining to their kid, you know, if you spend all this money right now, you're not going to have any money later. And if you borrow some money from your, your sister, you're going to have to pay that back. But this is so much worse because you talk about the bond issue, you talk about the interest rates, and as that debt soars, you're not going to secure anything close to a reasonable interest rate. And ultimately the taxpayers are going to have to pay for it, aren't they?
- [22:55]
C
Yes. And I think you're well aware of the fact that during the debate of the one big beautiful bill, I was pretty critical that we weren't going far enough to return to a reasonable pre pandemic level baseline. We just weren't serious about doing that. Yeah, I still think that was a huge opportunity. Blown up, voted for it because we had to avoid a massive automatic tax increase. And there was, there were some very good things we did in there. We took some important first steps. But the advantage we have now versus then is we have the Nick Shirley videos, we have Dr. Oz identifying the fact that a third of all hospice centers are in Los Angeles. And so you figure that can't be possible. Right. So he stopped funding 400 of them. Not one of them complained, which means those 400 were all fraudulent. If they're a real hospital center that qualified for federal funds, they'd be screaming to get their funds reinstated. None of them even complained because they're all fraudulent. So the amount of fraud in government is massive. I don't think the public wants to tolerate fraud. Now, unfortunately, we held a hearing in Homeland Security under Chairman Paul. The only Democrat that showed up was the ranking member, Peters, and basically to denigrate Nick Shirley, then he left. Yeah, not one other Democrat showed up to even question and get educated about the massive levels of fraud that the hearing was about. So again, Democrats have no problem with,
- [24:16]
B
they've benefited from the fraud. I mean, let's face it, you take a look at Tim Walls in Wisconsin, neighbor Minnesota, and you know, these are folks, it may not be directly, but they certainly have been very cozy with, with a lot of these constituents, a lot of these NGOs and organizations that have pumped in a lot of cash into their campaign coffers and they weren't holding them accountable. And that's. You go around the country and you see that happening over and over again.
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C
You just mentioned NGOs. I asked Russ Vote, the head of OMB, say, Russ, how much of federal government spending flows through NGOs. Didn't know. We don't keep track of it.
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B
Amazing.
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C
And that's just part of the problem. There are so many things that the private sector does to prevent fraud in their organizations. They have to, have to or else they don't exist, they go bankrupt. That we don't do in the federal government. One of the first things that Doge found out, the treasury is literally issuing hundreds of billions of dollars through checks that really had no authentication code, didn't do well. What's this for? I just write the check. Again, just basic financial controls that every, even small business employees don't do in the federal government. And again, it's just all about spending money, pushing out the door. You got grantees and then sub grantees and then sub, sub grantees. We don't keep track of it. And of course probably the biggest area from my standpoint in terms of fraud is the 9 to 1 match under Obamacare, the Medicaid expansion, where for every dollar we spend on a disabled child, the federal government kicks on in on average about $1.33. For every dollar state spends on a working age, able bodied, childless adult, the federal government kicks in nine bucks and oh, by the way, provider fees and provider taxes charged by the state. It's not health care. It just artificially drives up the cost of health care so they get more money from the federal government. So again, there's just legalized forms of fraud built into these programs that again, we just can't, we can't tolerate. And then of course you have the absolute fraud, the illegal fraud that we saw in Minnesota, Somali community, the hospice centers, that type of thing that also are out of control because the states don't have skin in the game on nine to one match. They don't care. They cover that dollar with the nine to one match and they split up. All they're concerned about is telling their constituents, hey, we're providing free healthcare, we're providing free transportation services, we're providing you free hospice center. And they don't even look at who's eligible. So that dynamic has to change. You've got to have states with skin in the game so that they do the on site monitoring and make sure that people who are ineligible for these federal government programs don't get it.
- [27:03]
B
What we're talking about here are crimes. I mean that should immediately be understandable when you use the word fraud. But this hasn't been treated as a crime, this massive fraud that we've seen in Minnesota and California and states across this country. So the question Is do you think anybody will ever really be happy? And when I say anybody, I don't just mean anybody. There have been some Somalis who are in prison or going to go to prison. Okay, good. They committed these crimes. They were aided and abetted by greedy government officials and NGOs. Once again, that played a major part in these things. Anybody from that line ever going to be held accountable in your estimation?
- [27:52]
C
Government does a pretty good job of exempting itself from being held accountable. Does a pretty good job of exempting people who carry out government programs on its behalf, holding them accountable as well. So it's going to be difficult, particularly when you write the rules to make it easy to commit fraud. Again, we used to call these the Medicaid gimmicks, like provider fees, provider taxes. I mean, again, it's not health care, but it's a gimmick that the states use to plus up the reimbursements from the federal government. I mean, that's why that's legalized fraud. It's legal. As a matter of fact, during the debate, the one big beautiful bill, we wanted to drastically cut that back. We capped it, we were timed it out and as a result, Wisconsin passed a law to increase our priority tax from 1.8% to 6%. So thank you, state legislature and Governor Eagers. I mean, okay, you're gonna get more money from the federal government, but that money is literally going to, you know, what you're gonna get reimbursed is gonna cost Wisconsinites patients more money for the healthcare. I mean, but again, people don't understand this. When we proposed limiting provider fees and taxes. You're slashing Medicaid. Well, yeah, it would have reduced the amount of money the federal government spends on Medicaid, but also should have reduced health care costs because now all of a sudden states aren't assessing provider fees and provider taxes on health care. I mean, I thought this was pretty easy to explain, but apparently not. I thought it was pretty easy to explain. Okay, the nine to one match, the way you take care of that, okay, we're not going to kick anybody off of Medicaid. What we'll do is we'll just not allow states to sign up single, able bodied, working age, childless adults under the nine to one match. If you want to cover an individual like that who really ought to be working rather than collecting or being on Medicaid, do it, but do it at the reimbursement rate of a disabled child. Again, I thought that was a pretty easy political argument to make. We didn't have enough votes in Republican conference to make that reform. Okay, so that's our problem. You know, guys like me are vastly outnumbered in Washington, D.C. yeah.
- [29:57]
B
Is it any wonder that Democrat far left governor Tony Evers is fighting like hell to keep federal auditors from looking at his book, federal investigators from looking at his Medicaid books and his welfare funding programs and of course painting it as oh, that, that Trump, he's just after his political enemies now. The political enemy, the, the real enemy to the taxpayer is anyone who wants to hide the books. The enemy to the taxpayer is anyone who turns a blind eye to all of these leering centers and all of these corrupt entities and keeps pumping out the cash to, to feed them. There is a, an interesting, some interesting context surrounding your job coming up as Senate budget chairman. How much more difficult do you think this is going to be? It already is. It's sometimes I would imagine you will feel like Atlas trying to lift the world. But how more difficult is it going to be when we have these knucklehead DSA members running around, you know, telling the, the next generation of Americans, you know, socialism is the answer and oh, we're just going to tax the rich and then it'll pay for expanding government. We'll get more and more government benefits. The government get bigger, you will have all the services paid for. How difficult is that going to be? Because not only are you going to have to represent those folks, a lot of those folks are now becoming representatives.
- [31:37]
C
Well, again, this goes back decades. You know, Saulinsky's rules for radicals taking over all these institutions of America, the radical left. So, you know, we've got hate to even call them educational institutions. They're indoctrination institutions. Now when you've got young people coming out of colleges after the butchery of Hamas on October 7, protesting in favor of Hamas. Again, when you have socialism being preached at these colleges as a valid economic model, Even though after 100 years we know no socialism, communism that results in tyranny and the brutal murdering of tens of millions of the citizens of those countries that have embraced communism or socialism, Soviet Union, Venezuela, Cuba. So again, I can understand back in the 30s, after the great Depression. Yeah, okay, you're looking for a different economic model, but we've tried it for now, for 100 years and it's utterly failed. I mean, it's destructive. Okay. And yet we've got colleges and professors preaching this to our young people, indoctrinating them and by the way, telling all of your, all of our children you Gotta get a four year degree. First of all, how false that is, what it implies. If you don't have a four year degree, what are you, some kind of second class citizen? Like being in the trade deal, doing real things, building things, has less value than a white collar job. Well, we've enticed our kids collectively to incur $1.7 trillion. So now they're getting out of college with a degree that employers don't value, that won't earn enough to pay back their massive college loans. They're in debt up to their neck. They can't afford to buy a house, they feel they can't afford to get married and start having a family, start living. I mean the disservice we've done to our children, it's about time we own up to that fact and fix it. Start, start telling kids, look, you have all kinds of options out of high school. Listen, if you've got a valid four year degree to get to do something you want to do great, you know, fully supportive of it. But how about two year degree? How about technical college? How about just going to work, how about an apprenticeship program? I often tell high school kids, the kids that my kids grew up with, my kids are now 40. The really smart kids went to college, got graduate degrees. Some of them are 2, $300,000 in debt. The ones that weren't as academically gifted went into the workforce, got a really good paying job, plumbers, electricians, they work for 8, 10, 12 hours a day, go home, can forget about it, to their home, to their boat, they go fishing. Who's the smartest one?
- [34:14]
B
Yeah, right.
- [34:17]
C
So again, we've just done such a disservice to our young people and it's all given to you by the radical left. This is their ideology, this is their utopia. And it's turned out to be a nightmare for young people. And so the exact problem the left caused, the solution is more leftism. Drives me nuts, Drives me nuts. That again, these guys destroy economies and their solution is destroy more and they're
- [34:46]
B
laughing all the way to the bank. The most infuriating the thing that I think that makes me furious. And I know a lot of, a lot of people like me feel the, the same way. And that is we are paying for these institutions of higher indoctrination and the, the professors, the, you know, the experts to do this to our kids and to push this whole thing on. It would be one thing if all of this money spent would ultimately lead to, well, wouldn't lead to that. These Young people are buried under and are buried under for such a long time. But as you said, that's not doing it. And we have a lot to work on on that front. Final question for you. And I know you're getting tired of this question from me because I've asked you this on many occasions. I would imagine your answer would be the same. But there is a bill that's still out there that is still so critical. The President has talked about it over and over again. But we cannot get this U.S. senate to, to make it happen. And that is the Save America act, that bill that would do what 80, 90% of Americans want to see happen, and that is make sure that only citizens vote in our elections. You've got to have proof of citizenship to register. You've got to have photo ID to vote. Where do you think all of this is right now as we speak, noting that it's subject to change?
- [36:23]
C
Well, again, I'll correct you. It's Democrats in the United States Senate that prevent it from being passed. I mean, it's Democrats who are opposed to what 80% of Americans want. They want election integrity. They want to make sure that their legitimate vote's not canceled out by a fraudulent one. So why wouldn't Democrats go along with what 8% of the American people want? Well, it's because they want to cheat. They want to turn America into one party nation. That's why they open up the borders, flood people into their sanctuary cities and states, plus out the census, get more members of Congress so that they can get elected, get in the position where they will eliminate the filibusters so they can pack Supreme Court, turn Puerto Rico and D.C. into states. That's the game plan. And any election integrity measure that doesn't allow them to remember the Senator from Michigan, Senator Slotkin said, well, if we pass, say America act, it's going to be really hard for Democrats to get elected because we can cheat. It's about the only thing we got to cheat in order. Our plans aren't sufficient to actually win elections. Although again, I'm concerned by the indoctrination institutions that, by the way, that $1.7 trillion collectively, the student loan debt that all went to those universities, those indoctrination centers, to their staff, to the administration and some of their radical leftist professors. So $1.7 trillion, our kids are in debt. They went into those institutions of indoctrination. It's pretty galling. It's pretty sick. And they're not held accountable for it. Instead, what the radical Left wants is for people who didn't go to college or paid off the student loans to pay them off for them now, you know, through their taxes or additional borrowing that helps mortgage their future. So but anyways, Save America act unless we eliminate filibuster. I mean there are things we can do through reconciliation where we provide grant money to encourage states to, you know, clean up the voter rolls to provide valid IDs. You know, Real ID requires you to prove citizenship. I mean when I got my real ID and was cast, I'd taken my birth certificate. It wasn't that big a deal. And I think it's the least we ought to do to exercise our right to vote. But again, Democrats just refuse any election integrity measure. They don't want to restore confidence in election, they just want to win. It's all about power for them. And that's why it's not passed in the Senate. Again, I keep urging my Republican colleagues, guys, it's time to end the filibuster. Most of it's gone anyway. We're distorting reconciliation way outside the bounds of where what it was ever intended for. Apparently it was initially intended only to reduce the deficit. Well, we busted out of that many, many decades ago. So, you know, just pull the band aid off. Democrats will do it. We ought to beat him to the punch.
- [39:09]
B
Yeah, you're right. That is the double edged sword of expanding reconciliation. That's something we don't talk about a great deal and probably should always enjoy our conversations. And I, I congratulate you and the best of luck and I mean that with every fiber of sincerity I have in my body because you're going to need it on that budget committee, no doubt about it.
- [39:31]
C
Well, appreciate it. Stay well.
- [39:33]
B
You too. Thanks to my guest today, Senator Ron Johnson poised to take over the Senate Budget Committee. And that happens pretty much as we are speaking right now. We'll be back soon with more on the Federalist Radio Hour. Until then, stay lovers of freedom and anxious for the fray.
- [40:09]
A
Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. Earn four times the points on your favorite brands now through July 28th on eligible items like Pantene Moisturizing Shampoo, Gillette Razors and Refills, Secret Clinical Strength Deodorant, Herbal Essences, Hair Care, Old Spice Deodorant, Pampers, Swaddlers Diapers and Crest Clean Breath Toothpaste. Enjoy savings on top of savings. When you shop in store or online for easy pickup or delivery, restrictions apply. See the website for full terms. Yeah, Maxing is so maxing right now, bro. Get ready for spicy chicken maxing because Carl's Jr. Is saving you big with a 5.99 maxed out double strike double stack Double stack Spicy chicken sandwich. Seriously. Just $5.99 double stack spicy chicken. This is unreal value in the bromosphere. The new spicy chicken Max Wallet Friendly Max Tasty only at Carl's Jr available for a limited time at participating restaurants. Tacked not included. Not valid for use within a combo or a combination with any other offered discount.
- [41:05]
B
In the next rare well done the Thrive team helps two people with CIDP tackle the tricky issue of friendship. Hello, they say the quiet part. In the event my CIDP worsens, my friends might decide it's too much get
- [41:21]
A
nudged outside their comfort zone.
- [41:23]
C
I don't know if I want to
- [41:25]
B
to forge stronger connections. It's the best thing that's ever happened to me.
- [41:29]
C
Our friendship to Rory.
- [41:30]
B
Watch Rory and Michelle take on the friendship factor on the next episode.
- [41:34]
A
A rare well done.