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Good morning, good morning, good
morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome.

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It's time now to visit with Congressman
Josh mc keene. And you've been

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very busy a recent vote on that
TikTok situation. That kind of break that

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down for us and then tell us
you know how you went on that.

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Yeah, Tom, it was truly
a tough decision. It's tough because people

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were ascribing First Amendment rights to this, and so I want to just decide

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for that. And so that's that's
not what was going on. This was

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not about content. You've got Supreme
Court cases that will you know, verify

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that when it's about the conduct.
And I'll give you an analogy. I

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think it's actually a Supreme Court case. I think it covers a library.

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It is either a library or a
bookstore where a man came in and robbed

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the store and and something along that
effect. And what they what, what

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the lawsuit intended was this illicted activity. May it may not have been a

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theft of somebody stealing out of the
store, It may have been embezzlement.

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But nonetheless, whatever the crime was, they contended and said you can't do

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it then, because they're the first
Amendment right, and we're peddling information.

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So they tried to use the excuse
of the first Amendment was in play in

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you know, surrounding the illicted conduct. And so the Supreme Court ultimately said,

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look that the conduct, not the
content of what's going on in the

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business enterprise is what matters here.
So it's the same thing with with what's

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happening with TikTok is their conduct of
espionage. Of since twenty seventeen, China

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passed the law no business that has
nationals ties anybody that's in ownership citizenship in

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China can hold proprietary information. It
has to be subject to the CCP.

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And so we know that this information
is not safe. So what this bill

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simply said was if you want access
to the market of the United States,

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then you're going to have to go
in this US entities and control of it

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because of what you know your gun
store purchases. So but there's that element.

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Then there's also the element of the
influence pedaling. And Article one,

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section eight is Congress the authority of
its at enemerated powers the opportunity to regulate

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commerce. And so when we have
influence peddling that is stiming what information comes

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in. If you were to type
in the Chinese virus and on TikTok bill

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totally defraud you on that term.
Whereas you look at any other information source

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Chinese virus that will come up,
they're purposely not providing true information, which

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you know, of the course of
one generation and another is going to lead

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people to an understanding it's not truth. So Congress has authority to regular commerce

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is you will divest if you want
access to this market. And so ultimately,

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you know, Chip Roy, myself, a number of conservatives that were

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you know, right at the wire, really concerned about how this thing would

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would would be implemented, ultimately felt
like that the greater good was a yes

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vote on it. Thanks for very
much for explaining it, because a lot

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of folks were thinking, oh my
gosh, you gonna take my toy away

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off my phone, and that wasn't
the case at all, and that what

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again was coming from TikTok I believe
it or not, a lot of we

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also know that people say, well, you take this away, you're gonna

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you know, take away the authority
of people to have information. Number one,

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there's a high propensity that people have
TikTok also have Facebook and Instagram and

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all these other social media platforms,
so they're already using these other platform I

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would say that to begin with.
But the second thing is it's gonna be

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somebody that's going to purchase TikTok's US
market, and so there's not going to

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be an infringement of of access to
TikTok. It'll just be a matter of

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who has control of the information,
who has stroll over influenced peddling. Very

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good. Uh. Now, money
it seems to be one of those things

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that you can't do without, and
it seems like we're when we talk about

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our nation's budget, we're doing a
lot without real money. Wow, it

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seems to be a sore spot with
you, and it's a smart spot with

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a lot of our listeners. Our
nation's budget or lack thereof one. Yeah,

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Look, I I was a no
a couple of weeks ago on the

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one point six five trillion dollars.
It's gonna spend more than we had under

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Nancy Pelosi's discretionary budget. The broker
deal with the Democrats after two crs three

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crs, and yet this week they'll
complete that with a sick appropriation bills that

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are left, and I'll be know
on that. I believe the better play

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was to do what Thomas Massey had
made sure was a part of the FRA

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of last summer, which was a
one percent cut. And I'm one of

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those that believes across all discretionary portions
that we could live with the one percent

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cut at least as a as a
retraining of people. There's such a a

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a bad habit in Congress whi's always
increasing spending. In members of Congress,

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they don't know how to say no. They don't know how to go back

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home and defend a no vote because
of increased spending. So even as small

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as the one percent across the board
cut, to start giving members with leadership

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saying come on, we've got to
start doing this to training making it a

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habit because one hundred percent of our
discretionary budget has borrowed money. One hundred

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percent of what we're spending twelve months
debating is stolen from our kids. There's

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not a dime of it. It's
not borrowed from our from our kids.

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And so to have leadership it says
we can't continue this. That's what real

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leadership, I think got to look
like I'm gonna be a no. And

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there's only about eighty to one hundred
and twenty Republicans out of the full two

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hundred and twenty moments of those who
probably will vote no. It just shows

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you we've got a real problem in
the Republican conference of those who will not

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support spending cuts. That's the reality
we would be doing the one percent across

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the board cut. Look, you've
got Democrats who are saying, why can't

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you guys just agree on a one
percent cut? Do it every year for

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a while, and as long as
it takes, people just eventually would think

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that the lines would cross of revenue
to restraining government spending. You got Democrats

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that are even saying this. Yeah, We've got Republicans that going about twenty

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Republicans on consistently it won't go that
pathway, and it's going to take an

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outcry for their constituents otherwise we're going
to be up against what I continue to

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talk about a sovereign sovereign debt crosses. Either we choose how we respond to

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the debt crossis is looming, or
it's gonna be forced upon how we on

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us how we respond. I would
rather control that. Indeed, we're talking

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with Congressman Josh Rockeen, and Josh, I understand you're going to be back

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home doing what you do and have
been really kind of famous for not only

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here, but even the New York
Times takes interest in your town hall live

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town hall meetings. How dare somebody
in a representative republic go out and ask

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people real questions and seek their opinions
in person and live. We're going to

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be covering the southern half of the
second Congressional district, of course, the

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second this is the lower half of
it south of a forty rather and we'll

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be doing fourteen town halls, you
know, in a little over a week.

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Wow, and and so yeah,
Palm, look, that's it just

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goes to show you that, you
know, people are aren't doing these things.

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Part of it's because technology has made
it easier to interact, but there's

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nothing that can replace face to face
interaction. I don't care, you know,

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we do the telephone town halls also, it's a good place for us

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to get our message out, to
get some questions for constituents in but you

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know the course of our town hall, our telephone town halls, we don't

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get the kind of questions. People
can't read your body language. They can't,

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you know, decipher whether or not
you're genuine or if you're you know,

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operating the theatric town halls are a
place for your constituency to examine you.

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That's the value and so then to
put you on the spot. And

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so we're going to continue to do
those. Yeah, you had I encourage

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them. I encourage them too.
I love them. You had a reporter

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from the New York Times one of
the times you were here in Bartlesfield for

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a town hall, following you around
because there was some sort of disbelief that

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this actually could take place and somebody
would actually do this. Yeah, people

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have stopped doing it. You know, out of the four hundred and thirty

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five members of the House, I'm
not sure talking about nationwide. I know

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that there's a few I've heard of
that are continuing to do a strong number

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of town halls, but most most
of that has dissipated over the last end

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of fifteen years. So I of
course, like many overstaffers of Tom Kober

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and got to see him do this, continue to do it, and you

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know, I'll watched people stand up
these downhall meetings with him, and it

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happens with us. People will disagree
with us. We've tried to em Besides,

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we do it civilly so that we
can, you know, hear from

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each other and really hear from each
other. You know, a moment somebody

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starts yelling at you, you're not
really gonna hear. They don't really hear,

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you don't hear. All it does
is, you know, cause discontent

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in the room. But we encourage
civility people to their great credit. Out

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of the seventy to eighty of these
things we've done since last year, I'm

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know about seventy to eighty live town
halls, we've had great civility people come

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in. They may disagree with me, people are are kind and how they

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do it, and I respond in
the same way. And if people give

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people a chance to really, you
know, make sure are you really listening

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to all sides? Are you so
locked into a framework that you can't hear

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other sides? And so I want
to be teachable tom and and I tell

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people often if you can tell me
constitutionally how what I'm doing is wrong,

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then you got my ear. And
so that's my challenge to anybody in there

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and by the way I'm representing them, show me constitutionally how I'm doing this

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different than what uh the founders would
demand. And uh and you promise you

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You've got an attentive year, and
I will hear you out and try to

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do everything I can to respond in
accordance with fixing where I've aired. And

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if folks have a question or comment, you have both a website and you

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know email that the folks can get
a hold of you that way. Imagine

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yeah, that's yeah, So they
can get hold of our Clairemore office.

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And nine to one eight two eight
three six two six two is our phone

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number. I call the Claymore office. So they can find that number on

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our website at www dot Rourkeen the
r E C H E and Burkeen dot

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house dot g O V. They
can also call our Washington DC number.

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Actually read those call reports that come
in to hear also how people are voicing

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their opinions and that number in d
C two O two two two five seven

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zero one. Thank you once again, Josh Burkeen, our god. We's

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been here from a congressional district too
in Oklahoma. Appreciate it and hopefully we'll

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see you on the road here pretty
soon. Thanks Tom, appreciate you having

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us back on