Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome.
It is time to visit with Congressman Josh for Ken and Josh, it's
been nothing but busy. Now in the holiday season, we've got busy.
And then when we got the holiday season and everything coming at you like trying
to get a drink from a fire hose in Washington, d C. That's
a different kind of busy. Yeah, it's been an interesting year. I
had an interview where someone asked me to describe the last year, and I
said that for those that have been up there ten years, fifteen years,
twenty years, you hear them studying around water throoler conversations saying, oh my
gosh, there's never been a year like this. I'll take them for their
words. Interesting. Now, we got a lot going on here. I
know that you've been working real hard trying to convince your fellow people in Congress
that we need to get a hold of this spending issue. Tell us a
little bit about where we are there on a budget and getting all these things
taken care of the need to be taken care of. Well, there's a
bright spot. To Mike Johnson in January February, the latter a CR.
He said that that would be the last time that that you know, he
was handed a mess, and he made a statement, We're gonna, you
know, do the next forty five days and then that will be the last
time we'll do a continuing resolution without policy and spending modifications. And so you
know that workers before us. I take him at his word. He's known
to be a person of his word. But Tom we're in a mess.
I've said this. I don't know if I've had a chance to tell you.
When you look at the latest numbers, one point seven trillion dollar deficit.
That's how much that our our spend exceeded our income last year. And
then our entire discretionary budget last year was one point seven million. So all
that we spend on the discretionary side, that the discretionary side is those things
that is not inclusive of medicare so security veteran benefits, meaning you know the
benefits that's because of their service, and Medicaid and food stamps, those elements
medicare solid security. Of the bulk of that those are on the mandatory side.
All Congress doesn't adjust eligibility, and those are paid for mainly by the
payroll tax mandatory spending. All Congress can do is set the eligibility requirements.
That's how Congress operates because most that's supported by the payroll tax. But the
discretionary side is where Congress appropriates fun that's the annual appropriation bills. So out
of a six point five trillion dollars budget, two thirds of it's the mandatory
side, mostly medicure, it's those security. So when you have a one
point seven trillion dollar deficit and you have a one point seven trillion dollars discretionary
spending, that tells you the entire discretionary budget is borrowed money last year one
hundred percent of what we spent. And by the way, half of our
discretionary budget is defense. That means of what we spent to pay our troops,
of what we spent, you know, in construct military contracts. That's
the entire Department of Education, the entire Department of Energy. You go right
on down the list of the ABC agency's Homeland security. One hundred percent of
what we spent last year outside of Medicare, Social Security, veteran benefits,
medicating food stamps was borrowed money. Wow, we're in a mess. We're
in a mess, and some of us to go to the for some of
us to go to the floor, and we're advocating, and I've got amendments
and say let's go back to twenty nineteen spending levels, and we can't even
get the votes to do that. I mean, every dollar we're spending on
the discretionary side is borrowed money. You can't get people to even want to
go back to twenty nine. Team. Holistically, there's about one hundred to
one hundred and twenty five of us out of the Republican Party, have a
few hundred and twenty Republicans that are elected that will vote to go back to
twenty nineteen. There's twenty nineteen todd but it's not enough on the non defense
discussionary side. To balance our budget is a herculean task. But look,
I don't believe in hercules. I believe in God. I believe in miracles.
And that's what my hope is, that we can have a revival in
this country that will turn people away from being so selfish that they start looking
out for the interest of others, not just themselves. And what's put us
here is is our selfishness and voting for people who promise us more and more
and more without stopping to ask the question, wait a minute, it paid
for? Are you stealing from my kids to do this? Ma goodness sake?
You know. I was told by a politician in many, many years
ago, he says, yeah, you get reelected by how much baking you
bring home. I said, how much bacon you bring home? He said
yeah, but when the other guy does it, it's pork. And I
thought to myself, Wow, that that just pretty much puts it in a
nutshell right there. I read a story about a person that's resigning, been
there a number of years, we'll say, twenty five thirty years, and
the entire home newspaper article about this person was is, we won't be able
to make it without this person because they're the ones who's made sure this contract,
this, this this sweetheart deal that's created jobs in our congressional district.
Without this person, you know, then we can't make sure that they'll earmark
for that. I was disgusted because I read that, and I think,
how ignorant do you have to be understand what's happening in this country that if
congressional district by congressional district, people think like that tome, that's what's bankrupt
in our country. And for a newspaper to just talk about you know that
this person's irreplaceable because they're keeping this contract alive. You know, if your
congressional district, your congressional district can't be healthy, if your nation's not healthy,
if for everybody wanting their quote slice of the pie. I think that
that's why you elected a member of Congress, is to bring home the bacon.
It's that ideology that's destroying this country financially. We've got a lot of
things going on. I know that trouble at the southern border hands not eased
at all, and that can that still is a big thorn in a lot
of people's signs. Yeah, I heard over the weekend. I sent a
text to the lead policy guy for Speaker Johnson. I was proud. Speaker
Johnson went on one of the Fox programs, I don't know if it was
one of the morning programs, had a group of people sitting around, and
he made the point that we are not moving forward with anything Ukraine unless we
see results at the border. And so I see him starting to draw a
very distinct line prepared to you know, uh prior leadership, which would have
entertained Ukraine absent that, and so that was very encouraging. I send his
lead policy guy just to you know, a compliments to the team and bold
colors wow, because you know, if we can't, if we can't start
seeing that, we don't have the money. Number One I just went through,
We don't have the money to pay for any of this. Anything we're
sending to Ukraine, tom is not taken from anybody in the United States,
is taken from from generations from now and nobody could just not paid for.
It's just it's just it's just money take borrowed and and so if we can't
solve our own border, we don't have the business. We don't have the
financial prowess any longer to be able to continue things. You know, in
the eighties, when you know, there was a people were talking about,
you know, spending and spending and spending to help other nations, other countries.
We're not there anymore. Economics, curity is national security. We had
a one trillion dollar gross national debt in nineteen eighty and and we're thirty four
trillion now and we don't have the we don't have the finances to do this,
and I'm greatly concerned that it's our economic condition that China is waiting for
to pounce on. There's only eleven other countries that have a greater debt to
GDP ratio than the United States of one hundred and ninety five countries. That
old statement, if there's no enemy on the inside, the enemy on the
outside can't do you any harm. I'm convinced it's China and Russia and Iran's
desire to see us fall apart to where we can't affward things any longer,
and that you know, the Confucius institutes and money to the classroom, that
China is trying to change our ideology and what you see with you know,
with this this radical ideology that's against the nation of Israel maintaining. But it's
not only been the last century, but in the last thousands of years that
kind of ideology and the riots supporting Hamas reaching out and having massive amounts of
people demonstrating it tells you we've got internal rot in our ideology. A lot
is coming because we're funding colleges who are at advancing this top of idiocy.
Well, it seems to me that many of the people who are voicing their
support for Harmos might be the first person to be asked to pick a building
to which to be thrown off, or to how sharp of a blade would
you like for a beheading, because these are the type of people that Hamas
really doesn't have any room for inclusistivity over there. I said, through a
whole much security briefing on Iran and just the support that Iran is beginning to
receive in the United States, and there is a member and we're going to
say high out on this as our office. But they looked at these diversity
equity and inclusion offices that are popping up in college is all across the country.
Okay, these dei that are focusing on the LGBT community, they're focusing
on critical race theory, I mean the d diversity equity inclusion. And they
said that this organization began to monitor in the last year or two the people
who worked for them off our social media posts, and they found out that
they were like two times the amount of posts were going to be specific to
supporting China compared to I guess the normal posts of these employees of these deis
across the universities all across the country. They I think you look like eight
hundred eployees. And then they said, when it came to Israel, these
off our employees, college employees worked for these DEI entities that they found that
ninety five percent of their personal posts social media posts were anti Israel. That's
what these DEI offices are doing in these colleges across our nation. So I
mean, I I'd cut the funding form in a heartbeat. Question is how
you can convince the rest of our colleagues to understand how destructive these these aren't
just you know, advocating for sexual morality. They're advocating for Jews in the
United States. Yeah, you're you're talking about going after taking people's lives,
and you can't have that. You can't have that. Oh, I don't
asked the question in that committee. I said, you know, look,
we can't get the support to defund all this stuff. How we can't even
among the Republicans, which is a sad reality, Okay, And I said,
how are you going to get the Democrats when they see these statistics and
know that ninety five percent of the post are anti Israel. They're coming from
these people that are employed in these colleges that are being supported by taxpayer money.
How do you do you? What do the Democrats say to this?
I didn't get a response, but I look forward to hearing a Democrat defend
the DEI office employees ninety five percent opposition to use having existence in Israel.
We're speaking with Congressman Josh Rourkeen and other than that. Congressman, how are
things in Washington. I'm kidding, well, I know that it's kind of
dire, but in your in your work, it's a reflection of our culture.
It's a reflection of our culture. It is we've thrown virtue out in
the last forty years, Biblical virtue out, and so well, you don't
know what right and wrong is. It's no wonder you missed the mark on
all these other things that were common sense. These are things that were common
sense thirty forty years ago for both parties. But because you embraced you know,
evil, and you know when you in the description of Proverbs, it
says, do not remove the ancient boundary which is set there by your father's
talking about you know how they do the difference between what was my property and
your property? Because when they were pulling the stones out of the out of
the ground. They would put it on the border or a wall, and
you know, and they didn't have GPS, but nobody wanted to go through
the heartache and lifting those tons of stones to protest. Thought exactly the boundary
line. Once those stones got laid there, it was going to be the
boundary line. And yet that's what we've done. Our founding fathers put in
common sense, they put in biblical virtues, they put in constitial adherents,
and we think we've become so smart that, you know, in the last
really, you know, ten years, you see the wreckage of ideology.
It's just really sad. I had a how much security secretary of my worker
is in front of our committee couple weeks ago, and I said to him,
you have started this culture of lawlessness, and so what's happening with cartel
being enriched, and what's happening with people that are detained? And because Ice
is not deporting him because of his leadership, because of Biden's leadership, lawlessness
is compounding lawlessness. He didn't like that, but I don't think he really
liked us. When I used the scripture and Ecclesiastes, a part of my
commentary where it says, when the cenis for a crime is not easily quickly
carried out, the heart of the people is induced to the scheme for evil
things. And so he didn't care for my comments. I was, you
know, I wasn't mean spirited. I was just saying at the top,
you want to know why people are lifting taking these loaders and lifting up the
razor wire the Texas Department of Public Safety has had to put down because our
own border leadership is undermined it. I said, well, that's, mister
secretary, because of leadership, any business, any any company, leadership,
you'll see it downstream be reflected. And so the lawlessness of this country,
the disregard for federal law, disregard for our borders, disregard for you know,
what's right, what's wrong, they've opened the box. Josh Burket is
our guest. In our last segment here on our talk the I word impeachment,
you talked about Secretary of Majoritis, but now we're talking also about the
possibility of President Biden undergoing the impeachment inquiry. How far along are we on
this well? And my hope is before we get to the end of the
year that the Speaker is going to bring forward both. I was in a
meeting with Chairman Green home land Security, Marjorie Taylor Green was in that meeting,
and on home land security we talk about border a lot. It could
be that that committee I'm on will actually be the committee that brings forth the
impeachment of my work is at a committee. I wait to see what happens.
Marjorie's on to something. And people, you know, for the eight
people that voted not to impeach my workers last last month, who contend,
well, it's not going to be conviction on the Senate side, So why
do it? Because Tom, every time that you allow somebody to operate in
the rule of law and you don't have any action, and I just quoted,
then you know in the hearts of people are induced to do more evil,
and the hearts of more bureaucrats are induced to defy federal statute, to
defy the Constitution. So even if the Senate doesn't take it up with what
we do in the House, the House has its responsibility and um cover and
used to say whatever you tolerate you in power, we can't tolerate it.
And when when the rule of law is broken, when costecial laws broken.
Forget what the Senate's gonna do. What are we going to do? Yeah,
we've been talking with Congressman Josh King, Josha, how can folks reach
you? I know that you answer your your your correspondence quite well. You've
got to find team that gets everything to you. You have a good team.
Yeah, urkeen b R E C H E E N at house dot
g o V at house dot g o V. And then of course they
can call us and get in touch with somebody, whether in our DC office
or in a Claremore office. If they're casework specific, medicare eligibility uh,
social Security eligibility, true eligibility issues, veteran issues, UH, immigration issues,
legal immigration issues, Tom Yeah, uh, then then call our Claremore
office at nine to one, eight two, eight three six. Very good,
Josh. Always a pleasure for having you, ladies and gentlemen. Congressman Josh Pecuine