← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
A Sincere THANK YOU Plus Omnibus Disaster & An End To The Military Vaccine Mandate
00:38:25
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- [00:00]
A
Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. I hope you had a fabulous Christmas with your family center. I missed chatting with you over the last several weeks, and I know so many people have been reaching out to you. That same with me, giving warm wishes and prayers for you and your family. I know you miss talking to the audience a lot, obviously, but you've been spending some great quality time with your family.
- [00:26]
B
Well, Ben, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. I hope everyone listening had a fantastic Christmas with their family. As everyone knows, the podcast has not been airing for the last several weeks. I've been dealing with a family emergency here at home. And I just want to say thank you to all of you who've reached out with your prayers, with your support, with your encouragement. It means an enormous amount. Everyone's doing okay right now, and we're grateful for the love that has been expressed. Heidi and I have spent the last several weeks just here at home with our kids, and we appreciate also folks respecting our family's privacy. And so I don't intend to be talking publicly about what we're dealing with other than just to say we appreciate the prayers, the love and support. And in this holiday time, you know, Christmas is a wonderful time to be with your family, to hug your kids, to hug your parents, to. To hold on to the people you love, and it's never more important.
- [01:29]
A
No, no doubt. No doubt about that. And I'm glad to get to spend some more time with you today. And so many people been reaching out. We've seen all your tweets. I can promise you that. And I'll say it as just being around you. There have been so many people that reached out and they've been. And you guys are wonderful that have done that. So thank you. Thank you for everyone that's done that as well. It means the world. I know when you see those messages. And there's some other breaking news. You've also gotten older since the last time I talked to you. Happy birthday. A few days late as well.
- [01:59]
B
Well, thank you. I mean, technically, we've all gotten older.
- [02:02]
A
But I feel like it's just. I gotta stick that one in there.
- [02:04]
B
Sender, you know, so December 22nd, I turned 52. We had a nice birthday celebration at home with the family. And yet another day. I'll tell you what I tell my mom. My mom's 88 now, and every birthday she has, I tell her, okay, you're halfway there. She's. She's groaning more and more as I say that on more Recent birthdays.
- [02:28]
A
That's hilarious. 52, congrats. Happy birthday to that one. There's been a lot that's happened in the last couple weeks. And I do want to get your thoughts, Senator, on this omnibus spinning bill. Right before Christmas, it was kind of a stick it to the American people moment. People wanted to fly home. They wanted to beat the storm that's affected so many Americans, especially you know, that are east of Mississippi. There was a lot of senators that said, just get me home. I don't care what it costs. And it cost us quite a lot of money. Well over a trillion dollars in this new budget. Instead of just passing a cr. How did this happen and why did so many Republicans go along with this?
- [03:13]
B
Well, I have to tell you, this omnibus was absolutely disgraceful. It is a massive bill. It is 4,155 pages. It's $1.7 trillion of new government spending, and it is a massive spending bill on the way out the door. It is a giant gift to Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. In just a few days, we're going to have a Republican House of Representatives in Washington. Nancy Pelosi obviously doesn't want to enact the policy priorities of a Republican House of Representatives. So Pelosi and Schumer decided to team up together and ram through this final omnibus bill, this massive spending that funds the federal government through most of next year, all the way through September 30th of next year. Now, they could not do so without the active assistance of Senate Republicans. And the reason for that is in the Senate we have the filibuster, which means it takes 60 votes to move this bill forward. At the end of the day, they got 60 votes because a total of 18 Republicans voted with Nancy Pelosi, voted with Chuck Schumer, and voted to fund the Pelosi Schumer spending bill and simultaneously to pull the rug out from the brand new incoming Republican majority in the House. I gotta tell you, I am furious. I'm flabbergasted. There are things I've seen in Washington. They're spending bills that are indefensible. But it's one thing when Democrats act like socialists. It's another things when Republicans actively facilitated. And it was a galling and horrific thing to watch.
- [05:13]
A
You know, so many Americans right now, Senator, are struggling. And we've seen what's happened with inflation, with interest rates. There's been a lot of wealth that's been lost over the last year. People in their 401k retirement funds those that invest. And when you're spending this type of money now, it costs you a lot more because this is money we don't have. We're going to borrow this money and it puts us into even more debt at a much higher interest rate. And that's where many economists have been saying, hey, you guys don't understand that the day of reckoning is going to come for the United States of America. You guys have spent this next generation into oblivion. I mean, you've got so much government waste. Rand Paul came out with his annual Festivus report, $482 billion in government waste. There were some idiotic items in there. 3 million to watch hamsters fight on steroids, 2.1 million to tell Ethiopians to wear shoes. I mean, these are some of the things that your tax dollars actually went for. And this is just another year of wasteful government spending that has happened. And now it's going to cost even more to borrow this money.
- [06:23]
B
Well, look, the spending is massive. The debt goes up. It locks in Democrat priorities and it also defangs the incoming Republican majority, which is what Senate Republican leadership wanted. If you look at the 18 Republicans who voted for it, you've got Roy Blunt from Missouri. He's retiring. He's not going to be there next year. You've got John Bozeman from Arkansas. He was just reelected, so he has six years till he faces the voters. You've got Shelley Moore Capito from West Virginia. You've got Susan Collins from Maine. You've got John Cornyn from Texas. You've got Tom Cotton from Arkansas. You've got Lindsey Graham from South Carolina. You've got Jim Inhofe from Oklahoma. Jim Inhofe is retiring as well. He's not going to be there next year. You've got Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader who helped Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi pass this massive funding bill. You've got Jerry Moran from Kansas. You've got Lisa Murkowski from Alaska, who was just elected in November. You've got Rob Portman from Ohio, who's retiring. You've got Mitt Romney from Utah. You've got Mike Rounds from South Dakota. You've got Richard Shelby from Alabama, who's retiring. You've got John Thune from South Dakota, who was just elected in November. You've got Roger Wicker from Mississippi. And you've got Todd Young from Indiana, who was just elected in November. And, and I gotta say, and there were a couple of others. Marco Rubio voted initially to move this Bill forward. He didn't vote for it at the end of the day, but. But he refused to vote against cloture at the outset to stop it. I gotta tell you, Ben, I cannot tell you why these Republicans voted for it. There is no explanation that I think makes any sense. I can tell you what they were telling Republicans privately in the lunches. They were saying, okay, there are a variety of different talking points. One, they say we need to get our work done. I don't even know what that means. Our work done doesn't mean passing the Schumer Pelosi priorities. That's not, in fact, the work that the voters elected us to do. They also said it was interesting. One of the arguments they made is they said, well, this is doing a favor to Kevin McCarthy and the House Republicans, because if they have to come in and actually vote, vote for government funding, there'll be a big fight. And they don't want to have a big fight. So if we just take this off the table, clear the decks is what they call it. That's. That's Washington speak. It'll be good for them. I'll tell you who disagreed with that really strongly, was Kevin McCarthy. And actually, the House Republicans were loudly and repeatedly saying, do not do this. Do not pass this bill. Do not enable the Democrats to roll our incoming Republican majority. And yet, I'll tell you, a number of those folks retiring. It will not surprise anyone to see them opening up a lobby shop. And that thing was filled with earmarks. It was filled with pork. It was filled with wasteful spending. And this was the swamp in all of its hideous glory.
- [09:38]
A
It's. It's one thing to see the Democrats do this. You expect it when you see the Republicans do this. And, and it, and if you just need to see how excited Democrats were, all you had to do was look at Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi's reaction. They touted this. And the White House is a massive policy victory, a policy victory that they could not accomplish without Republicans joining them. You mentioned some of the reasons why. But how much of this just came down to give me what I want for my state, give me my share for the people that are lobbying me, that I need them to take care of me in the future, and then you can get my vote. I mean, there were some people on that list that you just mentioned that I think shocked a lot of people in the conservative movement. Tom Cotton, for example, is one of those where there was a lot of fodder. I saw people going, I understand Some of these others, right, I get Alaska, I get Murkowski and others like that. But that one was shocking.
- [10:37]
B
Look, I have no explanation. You're going to have to ask Tom. There are some Republicans who pointed to, well, there was more defense spending in this. You know what? We could have done that next year. I don't think that remotely justifies voting for Schumer and Pelosi's budget. And that's what they did here. Listen, Washington is a town that is inherently corrupted. And one aspect of this that hasn't been fully understood is the important role that earmarks played in making this pass. So earmarks are the provision where a member of the House or a member of the Senate can specially designate spending in their district for something they want. And it is the grease that turns the wheels of big government. And when we had the Republican takeover in 2010 of the House of Representatives, one of the big reforms, one of the great conservative victories was ending the policy of earmarks for Republicans. And so we had a decade where we didn't do earmarks. Well, Unfortunately, Republican leadership didn't like that, because earmarks are how you buy off a problematic member. If someone's going to vote against you, if someone's talking too loud, if they're objecting to what you're trying to do, you just shovel a little bit of cash in their district and they shut up. It's. It's the gateway drug to the rest of big government spending. Well, unfortunately, in this, earmarks are back and are back in. In incredible force. And that that has included spending. So Pat Leahy, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee from Vermont, he's retiring. He named a huge program up in Vermont, the Pat Leahy program. Richard Shelby, the leading Republican from Alabama on appropriations, he's retiring also. He named a bunch of things after himself, Richard Shelby. I got to say, Ben, I think it is fundamentally corrupt for any member of Congress to name a damn thing after themselves. And I don't think anything should be named after a member of Congress as long as they're still alive. If someone kicks the bucket, you want to name something after them, great. But my view, if you want the Ben Ferguson building, you got a real simple way to do it. Pull out your checkbook and write a check for it. But when you're in Congress, you're not spending your money. You're spending the taxpayer money. And the idea that you have members of Congress sticking their name on it, I think is just, on its face, corrupting and a corrupt practice.
- [13:24]
A
There was an interesting threat that was made by the House, many House members. And I want to know your thoughts on do you believe this is just political theater or is this going to actually be backed up where there were Republicans, including some in the new leadership, who said for any of these Republicans that vote with the Democrats on the side of a spending bill when they could have done a cr, they could have said no, they could have allowed the next Congress to do a better spending bill with some accountability in it. They said, you can, you can kiss your initiatives and this new Congress goodbye, your bills goodbye. We're going to hold you accountable for this vote. Right before everybody just wanted to get out of town. Do you believe there's going to be some real accountability in that way from the House, or was that more just political theater to get the headline out there that you're standing up to the senators on the Republican side that basically sold us out?
- [14:16]
B
Well, look, I hope there's real accountability. The congressman who led that effort is Chip Roy. Chip Roy is a congressman from Texas. Chip is a very good friend of mine. I know Chip very, very well. Chip was my very first. Huh.
- [14:29]
A
We did a bus tour stop with him, in fact.
- [14:32]
B
We did. And Chip was my very first chief of staff when I was newly elected in 2012, arrived at the Senate in 2013. Chip started with me on day one as my chief of staff. And Chip is a warrior. He's a conservative warrior. The battle against Obamacare that resulted in a shutdown, but that also resulted in the biggest Republican victory in decades in the 2014 election. Chip was my chief of staff throughout that. Chip is the one who leveled this threat, and a number of other House Republicans joined him. I don't know if they'll be able to carry through on will prove difficult given that among the people supporting this omnibus are all of the members of Republican leadership. And so for a House member to say we're going to block anything they support, the threat is significant. But at the end of the day, blocking anything Republican leadership supports at a minimum may prove difficult to execute.
- [15:35]
A
Senator, I want to go back just before we move on from this to the price tag on this omnibus spinning bill. How did we get to a point where we could even imagine enough stuff to spend money on that is almost $2 trillion?
- [15:49]
B
Well, look, the Democrats today have handed their agenda over to the radical extremes that many of the Democrats in the House and Senate are openly embracing socialism. They're happy to spend all the money they can, and far too many Republicans are eager to be complicit in it and that you roll this all together to buy up votes. The earmarks help you buy votes. But there are all sorts of provisions of this bill that reflect the fact that it was written by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. So, for example, the funding for Customs and Border Patrol explicitly prohibits that funding from being used to improve border security. Let me read you the language. None of the funds provided in this subsections shall be used to acquire, maintain, or extend border security technology and capabilities, except for technology and capabilities to improve border patrol processing. In other words, you can use this money to let illegal aliens go more quickly, but you can't actually use it to secure the border and stop them from entering. By the way, that same budget allocates $410 million towards border security for Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Oman. It's really striking. So we're funding border security in other countries, but not here in the United States. And they're writing into law a prohibition on the money being used to improve border security. There's. There's 1.5 billion for membership in global organizations, including the United Nations. All right, you want to know how you buy off votes? Here's an interesting thing. Pick a really random word that you would not think appeared in this bill, Much less appears 48 times. Take a guess.
- [17:56]
A
I'm thinking of the worst people in the Congress riding this thing. So is it handout? Is it government aid? I mean, what's their favorite word when they're.
- [18:04]
B
No, no, no. Be more parochial than that. The word salmon, as in the fish real.
- [18:09]
A
Okay, I was in a totally different world.
- [18:12]
B
Appears 48 times in the bill. What else is there? There's $3 million for bee friendly highways.
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A
That's important. I know, I know. That was one of your top agenda items when you were running for the Senate, right?
- [18:26]
B
You know, you got to take care of the bees, and this is the birds of the bees. Because I got to tell you, the taxpayers are getting screwed. This is a lesson in Washington, birds and bees.
- [18:38]
A
You mentioned the border. I just. I have to get back to that for a second. We're securing the border. In other countries, you had Zelensky that flew in and got, you know, was. Was the rock star of, of Congress this past week, you know, kissing with Nancy Pelosi. We're giving him money, literally to secure his border instead of sending that money down to secure our own border. Did that frustrate you at all that they're like, advocating and how much do you need? You got to secure your border, sir. Ours is wide open. We know there's a thousand, two thousand, five thousand, ten thousand coming across the border. Can't wait for, you know, title 43 to end, and then they're going to all come rushing across. And even the Democrats accidentally slipped this last week, saying, well, they admit there is a crisis at the border, but we're, quote, handling.
- [19:28]
B
Is absolutely insane. And I will say the adulation for Zelensky was bizarre. I think the Democrats, it's become almost cult like and at the same time a complete refusal to have any meaningful accountability as to the money that's being spent there. Listen, I'm someone that believes it is important for our national security interest for Russia to lose, for Putin to lose. And so I've been an active advocate of supporting Ukraine. But for the Democrats, it's a blank check. And it's a blank check, not just for military weapons to defeat Russian soldiers, but for just billions of dollars that get poured into rat holes and are subject to corruption, are subject to embezzlement. And it is bizarre. But you also asked me, how do we get there in the debate over this bill? One of the strangest things that was said is Mitch McConnell at a press conference said, I think the number one priority for most Republicans is funding Ukraine. Now, Ben, that is strange. I don't get the mindset that says that I believe defeating Russia is important, but I don't know anyone in real America. I don't know any Texans. I don't think I've ever encountered anyone who says, you know, the number one priority for me, for America right now is funding Ukraine. Just that that's the Republican leadership right now.
- [21:00]
A
When he said it, it was something that went viral quickly in Republican circles, conservative circles, online. But, but he meant it. It wasn't a, it wasn't a slip from McConnell. He, he genuinely was saying, this is the number one priority. Not you, not your safety, not your country, but Ukraine. And if you're not with us, then, then, then you're on the side of Vladimir Putin. I didn't like the way how in the last several weeks this has been, this framing is if I ask any questions, oh, you're with Putin. I got yelled at on TV the other day for this center where I was like, look, I'm in favor of stopping Russia aggression. I'm not in favor of us funding the entire thing. I'm not in favor of us being the one that's writing the check with no accountability or with no auditing, no accounting of where the money is actually going. And the rest of the world, especially in Europe. And I said this, they claim they were going to get involved. We're overwhelmingly funding this, this Ukrainian war. They're not stepping up to the plate either. And I'm tired of America always being the first one to say here, the American taxpayers will write you a $50 billion check. And then you look at all the countries in Europe who by the way, are buying oil from, from, from Vladimir Putin for decades, keeping him in power. When we warned them, Donald Trump warned, you know, that he warned Europe, you guys need to stop doing this. You're going to make him powerful. He's going to be able to control you. And now they're putting hardly any money into this fight against, against Russia and they're doing nothing really to help Ukraine.
- [22:28]
B
Yeah, listen, it is bizarre. The cult like support. Democrats are showing the complete unwillingness to have any accountability that the desire to just have a, write a blank check. The unwillingness to hold Europe to account for them to pay their fair share of it. The Democrats don't believe it. And of course the utter irony of this whole thing is it was Joe Biden that caused the damn war in the first place. And we've talked about that at length, how the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, the sanctions that I authored had stopped Russia from invading Ukraine. And then Joe Biden waved the sanctions on Russia and Putin and caused this war. And now they're trying to cover up for their cleanup on aisle six the mess that they made by just shoveling cash. It really makes no sense at all.
- [23:19]
A
I do think it's important that people hear, and this is again in Washington D.C. mitch McConnell making it clear that he's going to spend your money on his top, top priority. Here he is, in his own words.
- [23:33]
B
Providing assistance for the Ukrainians to defeat the Russians. That's the number one priority for the United States right now, according to most Republicans. That's sort of how we see the challenges confronting the country at the moment.
- [23:52]
A
There's a lot of things that are, that are, that are right now, you know, confronting this country. And when you go to Washington center, you sit around, is this truly how out of touch they are with the reality of the American family who's dealing with inflation? I mean, USA to Ukraine, you have 45 billion within the omnibus bill. You had 1.8 billion and another package and 68 billion has already been sent. And he says this is the number one priority of the GOP is focused on this. That is a hell of a lot of money that we're borrowing Again we don't have this money. We're going to have to borrow it and we're going to have to pay interest on it.
- [24:34]
B
Well, Ben, look, that's a big part of the reason why I helped lead the leadership challenge to Mitch McConnell just a few weeks ago, because our leadership is fundamentally out of touch. That doesn't reflect the priorities of the American people. And I think that's an enormous problem. You look at some of the elements of this bill. Beyond that. There's 65 million for two programs named for Senator Pat Leahy. There's a federal building named for Nancy Pelosi. There's $3.6 million for the Michelle Obama Trail. There's $477,000 for, quote, anti racist training from the Equity Institute. There's $3 million for the LGBTQ Museum in New York. There's $1.2 million for services for DACA recipients. There's 4.1 million in career programs for Fairfax County, Virginia, one of the richest counties in the country. It renames 25 post offices. There's 524 million for a DEI and structural racism subdivision of the National Institute of Health. There's $300,000 per year for the continuous plankton recorder. This is, is Washington corruption, plain and simple. And it is a result. We expect Democrats to be a train wreck. We expect them to be socialists. What we should be willing to expect is for Republicans not. And the maddening thing is this didn't take anything particularly complicated or difficult to stop it. All we had to do was have 41 Republicans stand up and say no. The last four times there was a shift in control of one of the houses of representation, the Congress. Each of the last four times did not pass an omnibus funding bill. The incoming party who was getting control had enough cojones to stand up and say, hell no, we just won an election. We're going to set the spending priorities. Now, look, there's reference to the Uni Party. I got to say, for the, the, the Republicans who supported this, I get the ones who are retiring, why they did, although it makes you wonder what the hell they were doing previously. But I don't understand anyone who cast, cast a vote for this. And I think, I think a lot of the voters are pissed off and I think they have good reason to be pissed off.
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A
How much of this is an age thing? And I say that because you look at Nancy Pelosi at her age, you look at Mitch McConnell at his age, you look at Joe Biden at his age, and you and you look at Chuck Schumer at his age, they know that when the, you know what hits the fan, Senator, they're probably not going to be around to have to deal with it. There is going to be a catastrophic event economically within our government, within this country, to pay back this debt at some point. And is part of the reason why they just can do this so easily is just the fact they say it ain't my problem. Literally. This is not going to hit the fan when I'm in office, much less. I may not even be alive by then. Yes, it's going to affect my grandkids, right, or even my kids, but not me. So screw it, I'll go with it.
- [27:58]
B
Yeah, it's not just age. I mean, the people that voted for this ran the gamut of the age. Look, there are people in the senate who are 142, so. So there are definitely some folks who are long in the tooth. But, you know, Tom Cotton is one of the youngest members of the Senate. He voted for this. Todd Young is a relatively young member of the Senate. He voted for this. Marco Rubio voted to take this up initially. He's younger than I am, one of the youngest members of the Senate. So it's not just an age thing. But I'm going to let them speak for themselves. They can explain why this spending bill was better than. Than a spending bill that was passed with a Republican majority in the House. I promise you, a House Republican majority is not going to write into the bill the funds in this bill cannot be used to secure the border. That's something Pelosi and Schumer do. But for Republicans, they're willing to. At least some of them are willing to roll over and allow it to happen.
- [29:01]
A
How much does the national debt keep you up? I mean, I know there's a lot of issues you have to deal with, you have to vote on, but I sit here right now and I look at it and it really is now becoming more of a constant kind of thought process for me of realizing that we are not as strong as we need to be as a nation, specifically economically. And I am concerned now that we've gotten so far into debt that for many of these people on the left, it could be on purpose. Just because they know that when the American people are hurting, they're more dependent on them and that's how they gain power and control over you, is that when they can be your God, your savior, financially, every 30 days, you're going to vote for them. That's the thing that I worry the most about this is if we go into some serious, hard, tough economic times, it is only going to, I think, help the Democrats in that moment go, well, hey, we can turn this war into kind of a, you know, a socialist country and we'll take care of you. Granted, your life is going to be terrible, but at least you're living.
- [30:10]
B
Look, I think for the Democrats, they don't care. I think the Democrats, their solution at the end of the day, we're seeing it right now. Their solution at the end of the day is inflate their way out of it. Just print so much money, have hyperinflation that the debt as a percentage of, as the value of the dollar goes down, the debt becomes less relevant. And for them, it's about power. Look, we've seen socialist governments do this all over the country, all over the world, rather. And I think that's on the left where it comes from for Republicans. Listen, I think most Republicans in the Senate, if you ask them, they are concerned about the debt, but they're more concerned about being criticized. They're more concerned about the media saying something mean about them. They're more concerned about not having, not being reelected. And spending a bunch of cash is a great way to buy votes and try to get reelected. And so it is. This is, I've been in the Senate 10 years. I've never seen it this, this bad with, with Republicans literally undermining the ability of Republicans to pass a Republican budget. That's what they just did.
- [31:42]
A
Yeah, it's, it's truly incredible. And it's going to, it's going to hurt this country, I think, in so many different ways, including protecting this nation in general from adversaries for foreign and domestic. I do want to end this year on a, on a, I would say, an incredible note. And it's something that you let on, Senator. And this was the vaccine military mandate. This happened. A lot of good men and women in uniform were, were discharged from our military because they refused to get vaccinated. There were many of them that were not given religious exemptions and pretty much they were laughed at when they tried to go that route. And now we have some. We have a victory for those men and women. Is it a little bit too late for some of them? Are we going to be able to get some of them back in the workplace again and back in the military doing their jobs, getting back to their careers?
- [32:36]
B
Well, look, I'm glad we're ending this pod with a note of optimism and a note of good news. And we do have some good news, which is the military vaccine mandate has ended. And that is a fight. I've been leading the fight against the vaccine mandate from the very beginning, from when it was first imposed. I think the vaccine mandate was wrong on day one. It's been wrong every day that it's continued. And in the military in particular, it's been horrific. I've spoken. I've visited with multiple soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines who were discharged because they made the choice not to get the COVID vaccine. And I think that was fundamentally wrong. It was abusive. It was stupid. I visited with Navy SEALs who spent years training, who fought to defend this nation, who Joe Biden has fired. And so Congress took up at the end of the year, the ndaa, the National Defense Authorization act, and I joined with several other senators. We drew a line in the ground and said we should stand together and say, we will not pass this bill unless you end the vaccine mandated. The Democrats beat their chest and said, we'll never do it. We'll never do it. And wonder of wonders, Republicans actually held the line and the Democrats caved. And so Joe Biden signed into law the bill ending the military vaccine mandate. That is a terrific victory, one that we should celebrate because it's the right thing to do. Now, while we're celebrating, I think our celebrations need to be tempered because you asked the right question, Ben. It's right going forward. The Biden military will not fire people because they didn't get a COVID vaccine. Unfortunately, this bill is prospective only. It does nothing retrospective. I've had legislation I introduced that would allow every one of the servicemen and women who were dismissed because of not getting the COVID vaccine to be reinstated in the military if they so desired. If they made the choice, if they'd been. If they'd been kicked out and they wanted to go back in, it would let them back in. It would also change their status. There were a number of people who were exited from the military with a less than honorable discharge. That has enormous consequences for retirement, for health care benefits, for veteran status. And so my bill corrected that to ensure that those who were fired because they didn't get the COVID vaccine and who would choose. They didn't want to go back now, that they would, at a minimum, be deemed honorably discharged so they would get full credit for their time served. That's a matter of justice. It's a matter of fairness. I had an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act. I did it with Ron Johnson from Wisconsin and we had a vote on the Senate floor on my amendment. And the amendment, unfortunately was voted down. The vote was 40 to 54. So 54 voted no. There were some who weren't there. The Democrats all voted no. And there were four Republicans who voted no. Bill Cassidy from Louisiana, Susan Collins from Maine, Mitt Romney from Utah, and Mike Rounds from North Dakota. I gotta tell you again, I don't have a good explanation. You got a Navy SEAL who spent 10, 12, 15 years fighting to defend this country. He gets fired because Joe Biden decides to throw him out because he didn't get the vaccine mandate. I don't know how to articulate why even one senator would vote to say, nope, we're not letting that Navy SEAL back in. I don't care that we have a recruiting shortage. I don't care that we don't have enough men and women to defend our nation. I don't care that, that we're no longer firing people for doing this. That guy is, is, is out of luck. I. It was infuriating that that particular amendment didn't pass. So the people, and it is, at minimum, thousands, and it may be in excess of 10,000. We have not been able to get an actual accurate and fair accounting of just how many servicemen and women have been forcibly discharged. So as we go into the new year, let's celebrate. The military vaccine mandate has been ended. It's been ended because millions of Americans stood up alongside me and many others and fought to end it. That's a victory. But the victory should have been much broader. And I hope we use that as encouragement then to lean in and redouble the fight in the new year coming forward.
- [37:32]
A
No doubt about it. Senator, I know you're going to take a week with your family. You guys are going to get to enjoy each other through the New year. And I know you're looking forward to that. So for everybody, just so you know, we're going to get back to a normal schedule on Wednesday the 4th. 4th. And we'll get back to our three shows a week starting on Wednesday the 4th. But I know you're going to get to spend some time with your family through the New year break as well. So many people getting to do that with their families. And I know you're excited about it.
- [37:59]
B
Absolutely. I hope everyone has a wonderful, blessed New year. Have fun on New Year's Eve. Stay safe, hug your family. And, and next year, I hope 2023 is an incredible year for this, this incredible nation.
- [38:15]
A
Happy New Year, Senator. And, and again, to everybody listening. We will see you on January 4th. Have a safe and happy New Year, and we'll see you back here. We'll get back to it on the fourth.