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- [00:01]
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- [00:31]
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- [01:00]
Ben
Congressmember Jared Moskowitz Just want to start off by asking you, how you holding up there in Washington, D.C. how are things going there?
- [01:10]
Jared Moskowitz
Fine, Ben. Why? Do. Do you know something that I. I don't know. I. I haven't been watching the news over the last couple weeks. It's. Something been going on. I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm doing fine. So. But. But you wanted to talk to me during lunchtime, so I hope you don't mind if I just, you know, pour myself some money, eat while we talk. I'm sure. I'm sure everything is fine then, you know.
- [01:37]
Ben
Yeah, you seem to be a. Okay, but Congressmember, we, we absolutely.
- [01:46]
Jared Moskowitz
Is there something going on in D.C. that I'm unaware.
- [01:49]
Ben
We absolutely need you in the fight. So let me start off by asking you this question, though, which is Elon Musk. There was a declaration that was submitted either on his behalf or by the Federal. By the Trump White House, basically saying Musk is not running Doge, or he's not an employee of Doge, but he's an advisor to the White House. You sit on the Doge Subcommittee. What is Elon like? What's his role if he's saying that he's not actually working for Doge?
- [02:20]
Jared Moskowitz
Well, we don't. We don't know. Right. And I'm a part of the Doge caucus. I joined very early because I do believe Americans don't Want the status quo with government. I do believe government become more efficient. First of all, they're using computer systems from like decades ago. Okay. So I do think government become more efficient and I do think we can probably save a lot of money in government. And if you look at some of the things that Doge has found, by the way, these programs go back decades in the government, Democrat and Republican administrations, Democrat and Republican Congress. And so I do think the American people want to see us save money. But we don't know Elon's day to day role or his involvement. We've not had that transparency. Now Elon, look, Elon's a very smart guy. We can't take that away from. He's created some unbelievable technologies, there's no doubt about that. And, and he feels very comfortable in his ability, tweeting or xing, whatever we call it nowadays, you know, three, 400 times a day. So probably he should come to Congress and tell us he doesn't think much of us or any of our abilities. So he shouldn't be afraid to come. He should want to come. No one should make him right, like we really like make him come. But he should want to come. He should come and talk about all the things that he has found. Tell the American people, tell Congress. I mean, remember, they're going to need Congress to do something. And I've talked about this, Ben, they can find fraud, they can find ways, they can find abuse and they can, you know, nix it in the executive. But at the end of the day, the only way we're going to get at the debt issue, which is one of the principles of doge, is to get at the debt issue is they're going to have to come to Congress. So this is going to have to happen. And March 14th is the date that it's going to have to happen by otherwise the government is going to close. Because I just don't believe that we can continue doing what I think Mike Johnson, Speaker Johnson wants us to do. Speaker Johnson is going to propose us to do a clean CR to fund the government. Well, by the way, if Doge has found all this fraud, waste and abuse, again, that's what they say. So if we take them at their word that they have found all this, we can't do a clean CR because that would refund all the fraud, waste and abuse. They would love to trap Democrats with that. So Speaker Johnson needs to come with his 12 spending bills, individual spending bills, which by the way, he promised to do, but so far has taken no steps to do. So all of this is going to come to a head on March 14, in my opinion.
- [04:50]
Ben
I want to talk about the 12 individual spending bills that Speaker Johnson claimed that he was going to bring, but he's not. I want to talk about the clean cr, clean continuing resolution and what that means. But, you know, we know that it's possible Elon Musk is going to be watching this interview. These clips circulate far and wide. So maybe you speak to him right now and make that invitation for him to show up in the Doge subcommittee. Why would you tell him to show up if he's watching this right now and you could speak to him directly?
- [05:23]
Jared Moskowitz
Well, hi, Elon, how are you? I, I'm Jared. So, I mean, here's what I would say. I think the time for staying in safe spaces is over, right? Twitter is a safe space for her. X is a safe space for him. Okay? I mean, I did Jesse Waters the other night on Fox. That's not a safe space for me. You got to get out of your safe spaces, right? Go talk to the American people. Not on Fox and, you know, not next to the president and not, you know, on X. Go come to Congress, okay? And talk to the American people. Have to mix it up with Democrats. He shouldn't, I don't think he's afraid to do it, but he should do it. If, if he thinks he's so right and has the winning issue, he should, he should come and do that and, you know, embarrass the Democrats with the information if that's what he thinks he can accomplish. Come do that. But by, by, by hiding and not coming and just xing about what they found without showing the American people what they found. Again, this is going to come to a head on March 14th. They're going to have to bring those documents, in my opinion, in order to keep government open. Because you can't. What Speaker Johnson's trying to do, and it's Speaker Johnson who's going to close the government, not the Democrats. The Democrats shouldn't want to close the government as a strategy. They should not employ that. And I will, as one Democrat, not employ that. I've never believed in just doing this hostage thing. But what we should say is, Speaker Johnson, you're saying that all this fraud, waste and abuse is over here. You can't ask us to fund it in a clean CR. So you're going to have to either do the 12 individual spending bills or actually, as Chip Roy suggested, you're going to have to show us the list of everything you found where there's fraud, waste and abuse. And we're going to have to attach that to a continuing resolution and defund those programs. Otherwise we're just going to refund it all, which makes absolutely no sense. Elon should come and talk about that.
- [07:20]
Ben
You know, it's not normal. I think we should, you know, let our viewers and listeners know that this constant use of continuing resolutions to keep the government going and funded. Explain to people in layman's terms why that's not how it worked usually when Democrats were in control and the way the budget process, and I'm not asking for an hour lecture, but break it down in a quick way of how the process is supposed to work so people see why this CR approach is kind of a cop out and how it's not really addressing what Congress's main function is like the most basic function of what it is. And Johnson and the Republicans can't do the most basic stuff. Explain. Explain that if you can.
- [08:10]
Jared Moskowitz
Well, continuing resolution is, is how these programs that are either old, outdated or no longer needed, that some, that some of these programs are finding how those continue. They continue because when you do a continuing resolution, you just continue the budget from the previous years. You make no changes to it. And that's something that the Republicans now have done for the last two years while they've been in control of the House going into a third year. Now as they do a continuing resolution. By the way, the reason Kevin McCarthy lost his job was over doing a continuing resolution. And Democrats have had to be the adults in the room to help our Republican colleagues try to keep government open. But now, again, now that the American people, whether some of my colleagues like it or not, the American people voted for change and they voted, they voted for to not have the current status quo, to change the status quo. And the way Speaker Johnson is trying to keep government open is with continuing resolutions, we have to pass budgets for each department. Maybe you plus up some things, maybe you deduct some things in all of those departments that what you should do. Republicans actually started that. They had done about seven of the 12 appropriations bills and then completely abandoned the process. Why not because the Democrats. Because they were fighting amongst themselves. Fighting amongst themselves. And the reason why Speaker Johnson, in my opinion, isn't starting the appropriations process like he promised to do is because he knows he can't do it amongst his own members. He can't do it amongst his own members. And so he's going to bring a CR and he's going to expect Democrats to go vote for a cr. Not this time, Mike. Not this time. Because this time we have a list of fraud, waste and abuse that has been found. So they say. And we can't go fund that. Mike can't fund it. Right. Because then what you would love, what Mike would love is to put a CR on the floor. Democrats are the majority who vote for it. Right. Maybe we get a couple, you know, Maybe we get 100 Republicans, but the Democrats are the ones who vote for it in order to keep government open. And then you can be like, can you believe the Democrats refunded all of these things? They're. The Democrats refunded their condoms to Gaza, which was never a thing, but that's what they'll say. And so we can't walk into that trap. And quite frankly, it's not good practice once we've identified programs that shouldn't exist anymore. And so Speaker Johnson, he's in charge, remember mandate, they have a mandate, huge mandate. Even though they have a three vote majority in the House, you know, that's not a mandate. But they say they have a mandate. So we're going to go with that. Well then speak. Speaker Johnson's the one who's got to put these things on the floor. But he won't. It's clear he's going to wait till the end. He's going to throw a clean CR on there. Maybe he'll throw California emergency funding in there. Thinks like that's some sort of catnip and that Democrats are going to go for it. And I'm advocating. We can't. The American people don't want us to. The American people don't want the status quo. A CR is the status quo.
- [11:08]
Ben
So if they were to propose a CR though, and not the individual spending bills and it was just the status quo, how would you vote on that?
- [11:17]
Jared Moskowitz
I'm a no vote. A clean cr. I don't think we can do that. Ben, Listen, one of the things that, and I'm new to Congress, I don't have all the answers, but the game has changed in Washington and there are still some of my colleagues that have been there longer than I have who are playing a game that no longer exists. It doesn't exist. The way we used to conduct our business, the way we used to communicate, all of that has changed. All of that is new and we're still stuck and have not changed with the times. And so, you know, there are some of my colleagues who are just like, we got to vote for whatever. We got to vote for to keep the government open. I have bad news. I want to keep the government open. But I'm not just voting for anything to do that. We got to do it the right way. That's what the American people want. And Republicans are completely in charge. They have the House, the Senate and the executive branch. So if government closes, it's on them. We have to force them now to do the right thing in Congress, if you can believe that. And the right thing in Congress is if you found all this fraud, waste and abuse and we got to defund it. Otherwise you're just lying to the American people. Right. And we're not. I'm not going to fall into that trap where they can just blame us. And look, this is part of the strategy than that Republicans are playing, right. I'm going to fix the price of eggs on day one. That didn't happen. Eggs are the highest they've ever been. I'm going to solve the Ukraine war on day one. That didn't happen. It's still going on. Europe and the US Are now fighting. It's become very complicated. Right. That didn't happen. I'm going to get inflation under control on day one. That didn't happen. Inflation had a bump last month. Right. So all these day one promises, you know, day one, look, I obviously knew it was hyperbole. Right. Didn't happen on day one. So since we can't solve that on day one. Right. Trump is a very good communicator and he understands the American people. You want to know why you sit in traffic for 25 minutes when there's a fender bender on the highway? It's because we love that. We watch it, we slow down, we look at it, we analyze it. And Trump is just giving that to us over and over. Oh, I can't fix the price of eggs, but, hey, we're going to get Greenland. I can't, you know, solve inflation, but, you know, we're going to get Gaza. You know, how you going to get. God, you're going to buy it, Mr. President, we are not. We're just going to get it. You're going to send the military. No, we're not. We're just going to get it. Osmosis, potentially, you know. Oh, what about Panama? We may take Panama, you know, and then Governor Trudeau, that was kind of funny. I did laugh at that one, but I give him credit for that joke. Governor Trudeau, Canada is going to be the 51st state, which of course, by the way, would. If Canada became the 51st state between Canada and California, Republicans could never win an election again. But hey, we're going to talk about Canada being the 51st state and the legacy media just eats this stuff up. I mean, that literally just. Just total distraction. He puts it on a platter and they just pounce, you know? And I hear the people like, no, Jared, we got it treated seriously. What if we actually turn Gaza into the Riviera? Guys, that's not going to happen. Okay, but yet they go for it. Now, look, sometimes there's a little bit of strategy in his madness, right? The Gaza thing, we're not going to get Gaza, but it is making the Arab countries take notice and move. There is a summit that's going to be going on. The Egyptians are leading that and they're going to be coming up with a proposal. And it's because of that strategy that perhaps the Arab. Arab countries are going to take more of an active role in what should happen there. But these things he's putting out there are to distract us from these other topics, and we're going for it. And James Carville said the other day that. And he's right. We gotta stop, right? Just let Trump cook, okay? Let him say some of these things. And we just gotta just like not give that the oxygen. We gotta focus on these other issues. But, you know, we're like Squirrel G. Squirrel Greenland, right? And we're just. That's. That's not what the American people voted for. Although I will say this, I do feel. I mean, I'm not. I'm not happy that they're executing on Project 2025. But, you know, I'm sure, like, maybe like Republicans and Independents were looking at Democrats carrying around this giant book, you know, like Moses carrying around two tablets, right? And they were like, why are these Democrats carrying around this giant book? They look ridiculous. And we're like, Project 25. These are all the things they're gonna do. And Republicans are like, nope, we're not gonna do any of that. And now that they're actually doing it, like chapter and verse from the book, I guess I feel a little vindicated. I'm not happy about it. But at least we were right. We don't look crazy carrying around that book anymore.
- [16:03]
Ben
Well, look, your constituents, many of them maybe thought that no tax on tips was gonna be the first priority, which it isn't in the budget or no tax on Social Security. We don't see that in the budget or no tax on overtime. And, you know, the priorities seem to be, how do you help the billionaires and the, you know, DECA millionaires and how do you focus on them? But, like, you know, do you think, though, it is a little bit breaking through to some people that, well, even if they're now waiting. Whoa, whoa, whoa. What about these things? Do you see at all, you know, people in your district starting to call your office and ask questions like, we feel a little bit rug pulled here or not yet. I'll give you the final word.
- [16:48]
Jared Moskowitz
So chaos. It's been chaos right now. I'm a former emergency management director, so I know how to deal with that. But it's the chaos that has people worried, because if everything is chaotic, they start to care about their things like Social Security or my veterans benefits or my Medicare or my Medicaid. They start to worry about these programs that people depend on. People that voted for Donald Trump, by the way, Donald Trump only lost my district by one and a half points. And there are people who voted for him that are on Social Security, and there are people who voted for him that are on Medicare, and there are people voted for them about their veterans benefits. And with all the chaos about getting into these systems and changing all these things, you know, that breeds a lot of anxiety, which then breeds a lot of those phone calls, because it breeds a lot of uncertainty. And so I'm seeing a lot of that with the folks, the folks I'm talking to. And so. And Elon has created a lot of that by, you know, the. All of these stories that Doge is going everywhere. Remember we were told Doge is going to do like an audit and then develop a list, but that. That's clearly not what they're doing. They're firing people. They're turning on programs, Turning off programs. Right. And they're gonna. They're making mistakes. Elon even said they're gonna. They're gonna make mistakes. Some of these mistakes could be, you know, very damaging to firing all the folks that work on our. On nuclear weapons. That clearly, you know, was. Was a big one. And so, you know, that's the anxiety that folks are. Are. Are seeing in my district. And I tell. And some people are like, this is not what people voted for. No, no, no. This is what people voted for. I'm sorry, I totally disagree with that. I understand Donald didn't talk about all of these things on the stage. I mean, he talked about Hannibal Lecter. I'm still waiting for that dinner. Okay. But, you know, we. We had him as president for a whole four years. And so the idea that we're getting you know, 2.0 or. Or, you know, the second movie, which is never as good as the first, usually. Okay, this is. Should be no surprise to people. This is what the American people voted for. They were going to get a level of chaos. But you know what? You know what I think about that? At the end of the day, Ben? That is also a reflection on where the Democratic Party is. Right? That's. That's on a reflection that they voted for this and were willing to take that risk than what we were selling. And the Democratic Party has still not had, in my opinion, that introspection, that inflection point on they voted for this instead of what we were pitching. That is an indictment on us. And unless we recalibrate and figure out how to make our tent bigger and start acting a little more normal, by the way, you know, we may be in this position for some time.
- [19:32]
Ben
Well, we'll have you back on. You got to keep us posted on all the developments in your state.
- [19:38]
Jared Moskowitz
And my shirt, how I feel.
- [19:41]
Ben
Show me the shirt. I can't see the.
- [19:43]
Jared Moskowitz
It's a capybara. You know, they're very in right now. Capybara. So in.
- [19:48]
Ben
You're. You're too cool for me. I just. I just record YouTube videos all day from my living room so I don't get out. I don't get out of.
- [19:57]
Jared Moskowitz
Oh, come on. Before, it was like tiny little hippos. Now it's capybara. Capybara.
- [20:03]
Ben
All the rage, Congressman.
- [20:06]
Jared Moskowitz
They're large.
- [20:07]
Ben
Thank you for your time, Congressman.
- [20:09]
Jared Moskowitz
You're welcome.
- [20:10]
Ben
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