Loading summary
Transcript62 lines
- [00:00]
Buck Sexton
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:04]
Clay Travis
We all know those GLP1 injections work wonders, but that price tag almost gave me a heart attack. When my insurance denied coverage, I was staring at a choice between paying my mortgage or paying for weight loss. Talk about a rock and a hard place. Then I found Elevate Health Compounded semaglutide at just $58 with payment plans that don't require a second mortgage. Same medication, same results, but a price that real folks can actually afford. Visit joinelevate.com today. That's J O I N E L E V A T E dot com. Your wallet will be as happy as your waistline. This medication is not FDA approved.
- [00:45]
Team 47 with clay and Buck starts now.
- [00:49]
Buck Sexton
It is big, it is beautiful, and.
- [00:51]
It is now long. The big, beautiful bill has just moments ago passed in the United States Senate. Ok, I know Trump has to sign it, but you know it's happening. Trump's going to sign his big, beautiful bill. So the big beautiful bill has gone through. It will be on the president desk. This is huge. It is huge. We will get into some of the final items that were in this. We will discuss some of the no votes. There were some no votes. We'll also talk about how Elon Musk, formerly of Doge fame, pretty unhappy with the situation here of the $5 trillion debt ceiling raise.
- [01:33]
Clay Travis
I think they're still potentially buck a little bit of drama because I think the House will now have to come back and agree to some.
- [01:41]
Buck Sexton
Oh, they have to go on the reconciliation side. I got ahead of myself. They're too excited. Too excited.
- [01:45]
Clay Travis
So there will. There will be some drama.
- [01:48]
Buck Sexton
That's a reconciling. It's going to go through. The House has already passed it. It's going to go through. But thank you for the. Yeah, so here we go for the.
- [01:56]
Clay Travis
Nerdy addition where there will continue to be drama.
- [01:58]
Buck Sexton
For how long is that going to take, though?
- [02:01]
Clay Travis
I don't know. I just. We have not spent a ton of time on the minute by minute because we knew that this was going to pass and it will pass on some level, but they still have some maneuvering. I think Trump wants it by July 4th. Right. Is the ideal day that he would sign it, which is Friday. And so I imagine that they are hoping that the House will sign off on the changes made by the Senate at some point in time in the next several days. But that's the timeframe. So that is the last drama to be had before this thing is officially signed and underway with Trump it's not.
- [02:39]
Buck Sexton
Gonna be, it's not gonna be any drama. I mean they're gonna, you know what I mean? Like, come on, what's the drama gonna be, Clay? Someone's really. The Republicans aren't gonna actually do the thing that they've already said they were gonna do. I don't, I don't see it. But yes, procedurally speaking they have to reconcile it. Right. So the House says the Senate, the Senate says the House. Okay, so let's get into what is in the big beautiful bill, which I do believe is its official, is its official name. I'm just seeing now, I think it happened so recently, Clay, that all the, the news sites live and in real time here are still updating it legitimately.
- [03:15]
Clay Travis
Passed as we came on the air like that. Yes, as the second absolute latest breaking news.
- [03:21]
Buck Sexton
That's why I got all excited. Ok, so it was happening in real time. We got to open the show with ah, this Pastor said it 5150 and J.D. vance had to step in to.
- [03:33]
Clay Travis
Right.
- [03:33]
Buck Sexton
J.D. vance. I'm reading this in real time because it just happened. Just so you understand, this wasn't like an hour ago. It happened seconds or minutes ago. Three Republicans, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, not running next year. Susan Collins of Maine joined Democrats to vote against the bill. Paul opposed the legislation's $5 trillion debt limit, et cetera. Okay, so Susan Collins, not a surprise, Rand Paul being Rand Paul, Trump's probably going to have some truths for him that are not very nice. And Thom Tillis here, Lisa Murkowski was the final piece. She backed the bill after discussions with Thune. 24 hours of motions and amendments. Senate Republican leaders altered the bill right up to the final moments. So this was, this was down to the wire, everyone to get the things they wanted to get into in here. Hundreds of billions for border security, national defense, increased budget deficit by about 3.3 trillion through 2020, 2034. Yeah, look, it's, I'll tell you, the White House is very excited about this. I think the economy is going to look really good as a result of this. Or rather there's going to be a lot of good things that happen, Clay. We knew it would get through. Yeah. Tie breaking vote from J.D. vance. So it was a, it was a close run thing here. We knew it would get through. It's getting through now. Okay. The House reconciles it on their end. What are your thoughts as we sit here and bask in the glow of maga? Another win up on the Board.
- [05:11]
Clay Travis
So I think the big question is going to be how fast can the economy grow? So now that this bill is done, the ability to grow the economy is how we end up keeping from having to massively increase the overall debt. And so that is my biggest question. Can we get this economy moving at 3% growth? It doesn't sound outrageous to me, but it is better than we have been growing the economy over the past decade or so, 15 years on average. And so to me, the biggest question out there is how fast can we grow the economy? To me, the secondary question on this is can we get the Fed to lower interest rates? Our interest rates are about 2% above where the EU is right now at 4.25. 4.5. You guys can correct me in the, in the studio if I get the percentages wrong. I think the numbers need to be around two and a half, frankly, where the EU is. If that were to happen, then mortgage rates in theory are going to come back. That would unlock the housing market, which is I think the most frozen aspect of the American economy right now. So many of you got the 2 and a half or 3%, 15 and 30 year mortgages, congrats. But it's been several years and we accelerated those so rapidly that lots of people are unwilling to sell their homes or move despite changing life circumstances because the difference between a 2 and a half and a 3 and a 7% mortgage rate is so massively substantial. If that starts to get unfrozen, then I think a lot of the other aspects of the economy will start to fire on all cylinders.
- [06:58]
Buck Sexton
So the House Freedom Caucus, I was asking who's gonna cause drama here. I was all excited, like, okay, this is finally happening. We're looking at a holiday coming up here, a great holiday weekend. Country's kicking ass. Things going really well. House Freedom Caucus says, and this is as of the last 24 hours, House Budget framework was clear. No new deficit spending in the one big beautiful bill. The Senate's version adds 651 billion to the deficit. And that's before interest costs were which nearly double the total. That's not fiscal responsibility. That's not what we agreed to. The Senate must make major changes and should at least be in the ballpark of compliance with the House budget framework. Are they really going to do this? I really going to do this?
- [07:44]
Clay Travis
I think they're going to be some drama associated with this. And I think ultimately everybody, if the.
- [07:51]
Buck Sexton
Drama is just so they get attention and then they let this go through, they're just being Annoying. I'm just going to say this because we've already, we've already had this discussion.
- [07:58]
Clay Travis
I get it. This is the best you're going to get. And there's people out there who are going to say, look, Rand Paul's right about the deficit. I think he is. Chip, Chip, Roy is right about the deficit. I think he is. This is the best bill that's going to pass. And you just saw. I have yet to see anyone come up with a bill that could get passage in the Senate and the House and do as much of this bill does. Politics is the art of the possible. I get people out there that are upset about the debt, the deficit. I am. Look, the reality is nobody wants to address the fact that entitlement spending, Social Security and Medicare make it virtually impossible to largely restrict the size of the federal government. And as soon as you mention that, we get flooded and every politician does with, hey, that money is mine, I want it back. And so the structural issues we have at play here, and this is a challenge, and I don't want to be the want want guy, but the structural issues we have in play is there are way more older people now than there are younger people in many advanced countries in the world. And entitlement programs are predicated on there being way more younger people than there are older people. And if you are around our age, the math doesn't add up for us to get the Social Security dollars back that we put in. And that's just the reality. Without adjusting based on retirement ages, based on just looking at population tables, I presume that I'm going to get virtually nothing from Social Security. That's me. I'm 46. You know, people can start taking Social Security, I think, at 62. So I'm not that far away. Well, I don't think it's going to be there.
- [09:48]
Buck Sexton
This is why I find the whole thing frustrating. And, and I appreciate that Rand Paul wants to. Senator Paul wants to have his voice heard on this. And mathematically he's right. But politically he's wrong because no one's going to do anything about this right now. And there's no willingness among the American people, even people who say they want to tackle the debt, to do it. It's like having a debt ceiling fight. It's a fake fight because we always raise the debt ceiling and we're. And then if they default, they don't really. Rather there's discussion about default. They're not really going to default. So it just becomes tiresome and you lose it's the boy who cried wolf. You lose public interest. And I think that, yeah, until people want to talk about entitlements, just keep spending the money we have to spend to achieve the priorities of the Republican Party. If we don't have a secure border and we don't deal with the illegal immigration issue, Medicare and Social Security in 30 years going to be the least of our problems because we're not going to have a country anymore. So the hundreds of billions of dollars that are going toward border security and the deportation efforts of the illegals who piled in under Biden is absolutely essential. A lot of the things that are covered in the big beautiful bill are going to be, I believe, rocket fuel for the economy. Growth is also really important. Remember, nobody's factoring in the. Trump wasn't, I should say factoring in Trump's tariffs into financial and fiscal matters for the country. It's already $120 billion and it's just getting going. So, you know, there are other pathways maybe that could be considered here that might make the situation better now. I mean, I did, I will say I know that Trump had to sign itself. I forgot that now the House has to reconcile on their side for a second. And I think they're just going to.
- [11:22]
Clay Travis
Do what they do.
- [11:22]
Buck Sexton
We're going to get a bunch of windy speeches about the debt, the debt, the debt, and then they're going to, and then they're going to vote for it. I don't understand what's. We all get it. We all understand. There's nothing else to be said until, until you want to deal with entitlements, everybody, you don't want to deal with the debt. End of story, full, full stop, end of conversation. And nobody wants to deal with entit, gentlemen. So let's just do what we can to achieve the agenda we've got while Trump's running things.
- [11:45]
Clay Travis
I think that there's going to be a recognition that entitlement spending is out of control and everybody's going to have to get their benefits cut. And we should have, we should have a real conversation about Social Security and the fact that it's actually not a very good deal. And most Americans just don't really look into it because it's been established for a long time. The government takes your money, they give you a 3% return roughly on it. And if you die, this is all falling on dead. Never get it.
- [12:22]
Buck Sexton
You know that this is all falling on deaf ears. People love their. People love Social Security. And you know what the problem Is, Clay, the lunatic communists who are certainly right now sitting around, a lot of them praising the Mamdani wing of the Democrat Party. They're not going to get into what you're talking about. They're just going to tell people they're taking your Social Security and then you lose and then the communists are in charge and then they ruin everything. So this is, this is the political reality of America right now. And Trump sees it. And that's why I have my patience for this thing and my patience even for beyond. Yeah, of course. Hear it out, make the case, tell everybody the numbers. But standing in the way of the Trump agenda because you say that you're not getting the cuts you want, you're not getting the cuts. Ok, it's not happening. You're not, you're not, you're not actually going to deal with the debt. It's $37 trillion not happening.
- [13:07]
Clay Travis
How many people do you think even understand Social Security? What percentage of the American population?
- [13:13]
Buck Sexton
I mean, they know that they get money when they're, when they're older and they need it. I mean, that's all they care to know.
- [13:18]
Clay Travis
But the fact that it's an awful deal and if you got to keep your own money and you just put it in index funds, you would.
- [13:26]
Buck Sexton
People don't trust themselves. People don't. They would spend it. People would spend it on a jet Ski and then they'd say, oh, but I need help now. And, you know, this is the, this is the problem, people, everybody wants somebody else to pay for their stuff, not realizing that they're the ones paying for the stuff they think is coming from other people.
- [13:41]
Clay Travis
I think the biggest challenge is it's so embedded now that most people don't even examine the underlying concept, which is basically a big pyramid scheme. And it's predicated on there always being way more young people than there are old people. And we're not in that era anymore, Clay.
- [14:03]
Buck Sexton
The average person pays in to Medicare less than half of what they take out of Medicare in terms of the actual cost of their care. But if you tell anybody that you're going to change Medicare, you know what they say? I paid for that. It's not welfare. It's an entitlement. I've paid for it. I deserve it. Okay, well, if I give you money for one ice cream cone, but you keep giving me two ice cream cones, you're going to run out of ice cream cones. Nobody wants to hear it. And honestly, that's, I'm excited about the border. I'm Excited about saving the country. I'm excited about the Trump agenda being funded. You know, I, I'm with Stephen Miller on this stuff, man. Like, we got to save the country now, so we'll figure out the debt later. When people want to have big boy conversations about it, they don't actually. The American people do not want to have the conversation.
- [14:45]
Clay Travis
The answer then becomes the growth rate is everything. Yep. Because the growth rate of the country is what can turn this into a net positive bill. So if you were optimistic on AI, if you want to unleash individual American meritocracy, if we ever got the country growing at 4% again, all of these issues vanish, basically, right? 4% a year. 4% a year. 4% A year. We're growing at like 1.5% a year, 1.8% a year. The overall growth rate of the American economy is the key. If overall spending is not going to be addressed and there doesn't seem to be a political will, unfortunately, as you and I believe believe there should be, if you look at just the basic books, the political will isn't there to address the spending. And so we live in a magic.
- [15:36]
Buck Sexton
We have to understand. We have to understand it's not convincing Republicans to tackle the debt. It's dealing with the fact that Democrats will call you heartless, you know, ruthless, throwing old ladies off their Medicare and taking away Social Security from hardworking Americans so they can seize power and act like communist maniacs. That's the problem. So this is. It's not just like we're having a talk on our side.
- [16:01]
Clay Travis
And also the concept of cut, which the media, I think, does a poor job of slowing the rate of growth, is not a cut. It's still a growth. But they have managed to create this idea. Well, we're going to dial back the growth of the, of the, of the overall spending, and that is seen as a cut. Oh, you're cutting spending? No, spending, still growing. It's just not growing at the same rate. And honestly, I think a lot of this is just communication failure. I don't think people know the details. I think a lot of people don't care to know the details.
- [16:31]
Buck Sexton
Spoiler alert. It's going to pass, and Trump's going to end up signing it. And everyone who's chirping about this from the Congress in the meantime is going to go along with what's basically there, just throwing it out there for everybody.
- [16:41]
Announcer
This July 4th, celebrate freedom from spills, stains and overpriced furniture with Annabe. The only machine washable sofa inside and out where designer quality meets with budget friendly pricing. Sofas start at just $699, making it the perfect time to upgrade your space. Annabe's pet friendly stain resistant and interchangeable slipcovers are made with high performance fabric that's built for real life. You'll love the cloud like comfort of hypoallergenic high resilience foam that never needs fluffing and a durable steel frame that stands the test of time with modular pieces you can rearrange anytime. It's a sofa that adapts to your your life now through July 4th get up to 60% off site wide@washablesofas.com every order comes with a 30 day satisfaction guarantee. If you're not in love, send it back for a full refund. No return shipping, no restocking fees, every penny back. Declare independence from dirty outdated furniture. Shop now@washablesofas.com Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.
- [17:41]
Clay Travis
We all know those GLP1 injections work wonders, but that price tag almost gave me a heart attack. When my insurance denied cover, I was staring at a choice between paying my mortgage or paying for weight loss. Talk about a rock and a hard place. Then I found Elevate Health Compounded semaglutide at just $58 with payment plans that don't require a second mortgage. Same medication, same results, but a price that real folks can actually afford. Visit joinelevate.com today. That's J-O-I-N E L E V A T E dot com. Your wallet will be as happy as your waistline. This medication is not FDA approved.
- [18:20]
This is Team 47 with clay and Buck.
- [18:24]
Buck Sexton
The big news of the day at the top of the show. Just to recap right as we came on air, I mean, within moments, the Senate had passed on a 5150 vote. The big beautiful bill. J.D. vance had to be the tie break on that one. Thom Tillis, Rand Paul, who was the third. Somebody else didn't get. Oh, Collins didn't vote for it. So. Yep, that was what happened there. Now thank you Clay for the catch. It goes back to the House side before it goes to the president's desk for signature. The House is going to there's going to be some squawking from the Freedom Caucus about it. I don't think they're going to sabotage the Trump agenda at this late moment on the big beautiful bill, but they're gonna, they're gonna, you know, look, they're allowed to have Their say on it, and they will. So that will be a thing that occurs in the next few days.
- [19:19]
Clay Travis
And we're.
- [19:20]
Buck Sexton
We're probably gonna get to a signature before the holiday. Hopefully that is how this will go. So that. That's the big news. And then we had the most interesting visit of the day. Was Donald Trump going down to Alligator Alcatraz, which is in Ochapi. Ochapi, Florida, which is near Everglades City, which I can tell you is not really much of a city. It is really middle of nowhere ville. I think Ochopee is. It has a hundred people, something like that lives in. Lives in the. In the. It is unincorporated territory. So it's not even, I think, a township per se. It's quite small. But that was the one. If you were wondering, it wasn't Lake Okeechobee. I know Lake Okeechobee. Ocho was the. The new place. So that's where they have this airstrip that is a place to put illegal migrants, illegal aliens before they are deported. And Trump is saying, if you try to run from the gators or swim from the gators, it's going to be a bad day for you. So there's all that going on. And then he got into Commie mumdani. Do you have anything in the alligator Alcatraz? The team is saying that all you have to do is be able to not zigzag, but outrun the nearest person to you.
- [20:44]
Clay Travis
Which that is. That is always true.
- [20:46]
Buck Sexton
And that is mean. That's very mean. Clay would. Clay would not leave me behind to get eaten by gators. Right, Clay?
- [20:54]
Clay Travis
Correct. I would be. Again, I've said on this program before, I am prepared to save anyone from an alligator attack. If you see me near a swamp, I've got your back. So just don't go in the water. But if they come out of the water like in Crocodile Dundee, I know that's crocodile versus an alligator. Then I'll be like Mick Dundee right there to protect you. By the way, that movie also still a lot of fun if you've got kids and you want to watch some movies during the July 4th holiday. Weather's not great. Maybe you're sitting around. We've been watching all the Harry Potter movies in the Travis household, and they're still really good. So props. J.K. rowling. I think she may have a future in this creative industry space. But that Alligator Alcatraz thing, and I think. I know we said it last hour, but I do think it's so important. Trump and Desantis are a whale of a team. And I know Ron DeSantis only has, whatever it is, a year and a half left basically as the governor of Florida. But I would not be surprised if DeSantis ends up in some form or fashion as a part of Trump 2.0 cabinet. And what I mean by that is there's constant doing these jobs takes a lot of. So so far, we have had pretty great stability in Trump 2.0 cabinet universe. But at some point, some of these guys, probably after end gals, after the midterms, are gonna start to say, hey, I wanna do something different. I'm burned out. Two years of going full speed doing X, Y or Z. There's something else that I wanna do. It wouldn't shock me if Trump comes back to DeSantis. Remember, there was some talk about DeSantis potentially being the Secretary of Defense when it was uncertain about whether Hegseth was going to be confirmed. And that's another example of J.D. vance breaking a tie. 50, 50 in the Senate, J.D. vance gets the vote to get Hegseth in. And Pete has done a very, very good job. Since this is also an example, on the big, beautiful Bill, you've got J.D. vance breaking the tie. This is why having a little bit of a buffer in the Senate, 53, 47, uh, man, it would be great to be up to 54 or 55 or 56 as it pertains to where we're headed on next. But the Trump DeSantis relationship, very strong. And I think it's important to point out that by and large, most of you out there who voted Trump, I really can't hardly point to anything in the first six months and say, hey, I think Trump could have done a better job on this politics, the art of the possible. So I understand that people are saying, oh, this is my number one issue. And this hasn't been addressed completely to the, to the ability that I would like. You can't make people do what there is, not the political will for them to do. So you and I, buck, we talked about this some earlier. We're very troubled by the national debt. When the Tea Party got its start, national debt was $10 trillion. National debt is soon going to be $40 trillion. That's untenable. But until there is a political will to address it, and you can't solve it by increasing tax rates, that doesn't work. Ultimately, I think you're going to have to dial back spending. This is inevitable, but that political will is not there yet. So in the Meantime, you have two options. You can either whine and complain, and some people are choosing that because it's not kick your legs, scream like a child, have a temper tantrum, or you can do what you and I are talking about now. Hey, this bill is going to pass. And now it's time to try to figure out how do we grow the economy as rapidly as we possibly can to help to lead to a surplus through growth as opposed to a surplus through cuts. That is the new hope. And to me, if we can get it to 3, 4% growth, everything changes.
- [25:12]
Buck Sexton
Yes. So that's the, that's the case for optimism and I agree with you on that. The case for optimism is not that everyone's going to see the wisdom of Ron, of Ron, sorry, Rand Paul's math and, and make massive changes to the biggest spending programs and priorities of the United States government now and for the last, well, all of our lifetimes. So, yeah, that's not gonna happen. So hopefully Trump just has the economy so juiced and so en fuego that some very good things can happen. What will make things a lot worse is if the commie mom, Donnie is able to take control. Trump spoke about this. There's some Marine One noise in the background, but he wanted you to hear this. This is cut seven.
- [25:57]
This is.
- [25:57]
Look, even President Trump's win. And we all see this. This is concerning. When somebody gets the wind at his back in some someplace as important as New York City. Play it.
- [26:08]
I think he's terrible. He's a communist. The last thing we need is a communist. I said there will never be socialism in the United States. So we have a communist. I think he's bad news and I think we're going to have a lot of fun with him watching him because he has to come right to this building to get his money. And don't worry, he's not going to run away with anything. I think he, frankly, I've heard he's a total nut job. I think the people of New York are crazy. If they go this route, I think they're crazy. We will have a communist in the for the first time. Really? A pure true communist. He wants to operate the grocery stores, the department stores. What about the people that are there? I think it's crazy.
- [26:53]
Yeah, Clay, it is crazy. And I understand that there's this sense that it's limited to New York, but AOC and Bernie Sanders, they co sign really all of this stuff and they're the Democrats that have the most currency with the base and it is A Democrat Party that came within a few hundred thousand votes of Trump, even after lying about Biden's dementia and putting forward the worst candidate in our lifetime in Kamala Harris. So, I mean, I would argue even worse than Dementia Guy, which tells you a lot. So we have to take this seriously. People ask, how does the Democratic Party come back? It's not hard. They were close even in this election, in aggregate numbers, when you really look at it, there are a lot of people who are voting Democrat, no matter who they put forward, no matter how crazy the idea is. And Mamdani, I think, is just a symptom of that larger malady.
- [27:49]
Clay Travis
And again, I'm going to keep hammering it. If there is not a coalition that arises to all come together to oppose Mom Donnie, if you have Eric Adams running as an independent, Andrew Cuomo running as an independent, and you have a situation where Curtis Sliwa is the Republican, that trio is going to assure that Mamdani wins. So the only way New York City rejects Mom Donnie and has some form of sanity in terms of who it's selecting as its next mayor is if there's a understanding that they cannot all run and there is a coalition of opposition that comes together to try and defeat Mamdani. My concern is everybody's going to look out for their best interest. Meaning you're going to get more attention if you stay in the race and everybody else loses and there isn't a coalition brought together to come against him. And I think what Trump is talking about in general is the opposition that he sees from all these sanctuary cities as the process is underway to deport so many different people is a direct opposition to the federal government and should not be acceptable. And at some point, I think there's going to have to be a test case of someone, probably a mayor, that is one of these sanctuary cities that is directly defying federal law. Um, and we're gonna have to have the court's rule about whether or not that is permissible or appropriate, because I don't understand. We made this argument and the Supreme Court has said it quite clearly. The President of the United States is in charge of border related policies, immigration, all of those things. How can we allow all of these individual cities and certainly governors of states, but it's really being driven more by mayors of cities that have decided that they are sanctuaries. How can we allow them to directly defy federal law? At some point, that conflict is going to have to be resolved in some way by the larger court system. It feels inevitable to me team 47 with Clay and Buck. We head up to Washington D.C. now where Senator Ron Johnson I imagine a lot of people are heading to the lakes up north in Wisconsin for this time of year when it is spectacular. But you are working Senator and we had you in studio a couple of weeks ago breaking down the big beautiful bill and you changed your vote at the last minute or signed on with the bill at the last minute. What is the latest, what can you tell us about where we are compared to when we talked about talked with you on air last?
- [30:32]
Senator Ron Johnson
Okay, yeah, I should be trolling for walleye right now but we're here working on the big beautiful bill. Ian, as far as the primary components of this bill, I'm fully supportive of. Right. We're going to make sure that we don't have a massive automatic tax increase. That's about, that's about $4 trillion the score by the way. Nobody wants that. Nobody wants to default on our debt. Unfortunately Democrats left these enormous messes the open border. So we have to provide funding for border the wars. We had to provide funding for the defense massive four year average deficit of 1.9 trillion. The seven years before the pandemic our deficit average 660 billion. Four years afterwards under Biden and Democrats 1.9 trillion. So again it is true the House provided us with spending reduction about historic spending reduction about 1.4 trillion tend to actually has about 1.6. Our difference in our scores is we make sure the business expensing provisions are permanent versus short term. So that's the main difference between the House and the Senate. Now you know we're hearing from the House, they're not real happy and we're short from their math somewhere around $600 billion. Rick Scott has an excellent amendment which was not included the base bill and that was really the sticking point on the motion. Proceed. We got the commitment of the leadership to not only offer amendment vote but with it and try and make sure this thing gets passed. I'm hoping President Trump helps us get this thing passed because that depending on the date. So here's what the amendment does. It doesn't kick anybody off of Medicaid. What it does is it stops enrollment into the Obama care addition to Medicaid which threatens traditional Medicaid for disabled children, for example. So at some point in time in the future we're debating that you just don't allow states to enroll them under the $9 to $1 match. I think you guys realize that right for a disabled child for every dollar the State puts into Medicaid, the federal government matches it for $1.33. But for the Obamacare, single, working age, able bodied, childless adults. For every dollar the state puts in, federal government kicks in nine. That's a huge incentive for states to game the system. Provider taxes, provider fees, which aren't health care by the way, but they get reimbursed $9 for every dollar the states kicks in there. So again, it's a financing scam. We're trying to end that because it's causing the outflow of hundreds of billions of dollars out of the federal government. We don't have the money. So that alone could fill about $500 billion of that gap if we give states until the first part of 2029. And the scam, very reasonable proposal most Republicans support in the Senate, we've got some holdouts and that's where we need leadership to pressure people. You know, there are, there are other things in the bill, some extraneous tax credits that, you know, when we're $37 trillion in debt, do we really have to add tax credits for this, that and the other thing? So again, I think this is entirely doable. It's going to take the president to weigh in, it's going to take Republican leadership to make sure that we can satisfy the House requirements. And then when all said and done, this would be a huge achievement, repealing at least the most damaging part of Obamacare, which was the addition to Medicaid, which puts at risk the Medicaid for disabled children. Do you think it's fair that for a disabled child the federal government kicks in a Dallas 33, but for a working age person that should be working, getting healthcare from their employer, we provide nine DOWs for everyone. It's just out of whack.
- [34:11]
Buck Sexton
Senator Johnson, people are reading about, I think many of them, if not for the first time. It's certainly a helpful reminder about the senate parliamentarian Elizabeth McDonough, who has been in this role since 2012. This is not an elected office. This is a, it's pretty fascinating actually, right? The, the, this started sometime around what, the 1920s, 1930s, so it's about 100 years ago. There's somebody who helps with administrative procedures, rules within the Senate, I guess like when you guys are allowed to have bathroom breaks or I don't know, whatever it is. And now there's somebody who is stripping out parts of the bill like the NFA National Firearms act and silencers. No longer being an NFA item because the parliamentarian, what is going on here. And by the way, talk to me about that NFA silencers or suppressors issue.
- [35:03]
Senator Ron Johnson
Well, I believe that was included. So this is incredibly complex. I mean, this all has to do with the Budget act sets up this reconciliation process where we can reduce mandatory spending or cut taxes or increase taxes with a simple majority vote. Because of that process, Senator Robert Byrd had rules in terms of what would qualify for that, what wouldn't qualify. From my standpoint, the parliamentarian has been pretty even handed. When Democrats wanted to include things or more policy than budget, she didn't allow it. She's done the same thing here, by the way. We modified things that she was going to kick out. We listened to her instructions, we got it back in. So I realized that ends up being kind of a bone of contention. What we don't want to do is eliminate the filibuster. I know a lot of people want us to, but the filibuster has protected us from all kinds of massive Democrat spending programs because in the minority, Republicans had the right to block some of that stuff. So I realize at the moment it's like, get rid of that so we can get everything we want. That would be pretty short sighted thinking. But again, we've got a way to do this. You know, Rich Scott knows health care like nobody else. Okay, brilliant proposal. Doesn't kick anybody off. Medicaid just ends the Medicaid scam a few years in the future. Gives states, gives providers a chance to readjust how they're budgeting. Basically, states and providers are basing their budget off of this financing scam. That has to end. We simply can't afford it.
- [36:34]
Clay Travis
Where do we stand? Now, I know that Chuck Schumer made the entire bill be read aloud in the Senate chamber, and that took a long time. There's talk that Trump wants to get this thing signed on July 4th. You're in the Senate right now. What is the timeframe look like for everybody out there and where do we go from here?
- [36:55]
Senator Ron Johnson
But we're in the voterama, so it's unlimited amendments, so I don't, I can't predict how long it'll go. Again, we're in very close conversation with conservatives in the House. They're telling us this product right now is dead on arrival. I actually take them seriously. You know, we, we kind of ignored their formula, their math. They looked at this differently than we did. We're, I think about $650 billion short. You know, from my standpoint, I'm, I'm fine at satisfying their requirement. Again, use Rick Scott's amendment and enroll enrollment for new Obamacare $9 to 1, match. Those guys can go under standard Medicaid, get reimbursed, same things as disabled child. Okay, do that. Start of 2029, that saves us about $500 billion. Get rid of some of these extraneous measures, some of these new tax credits that just some Republican senator thought, oh, this is an important thing, you know, just, we're $37 trillion in debt. This is not a time for additional tax credits for junking up our tax code further. So I would have no problem taking a look this, going look at this and say, okay, no, we can reduce the deficit by 650 billion. Not a problem. Again, politically, you've got constituencies, you got people that apparently like to spend money, like to offer new tax credits, refuse to do what they promise to do. You know, repeal Obamacare, rip it out by the root and branch. This is just one root that is probably the most damaging aspect of Obamacare. And we've got Republicans now that aren't willing to do it. This is where we need presidential leadership. Say, honor your promise, get that additional deficit relief, get this passed in the Senate, get this passed in the House, and then we really will end up with one big, beautiful bill.
- [38:32]
Clay Travis
Outstanding stuff. Senator Ron Johnson, we appreciate all the work you're doing and keep us updated. You can hop on anytime.
- [38:39]
Senator Ron Johnson
Have a great day.
- [38:41]
Clay Travis
Thanks for listening to Team 47 with Clay and Buck.
- [38:44]
We all know those GLP1 injections work wonders, but that price tag almost gave me a heart attack. When my insurance denied coverage, I was staring at a choice between paying my mortgage or paying for weight loss. Talk about a rock and a hard place. Then I found Elevate Health Compounded semaglutide at just $58 with payment plans that don't require a second mortgage. Same medication, same results, but a price that real folks can actually afford. Visit joinelevate.com today. That's J O I N E L. Your wallet will be as happy as your waistline. This medication is not FDA approved.
- [39:24]
Buck Sexton
This is an I Heart podcast.