Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome.
Speaker 1: We have a Senator James Lankford on with us today,
Speaker 1: and Merry Christmas to you, sir, Gay.
Speaker 2: Merry Christmas as well. It's nice at December time period
Speaker 2: and we are officially in the Christmas season.
Speaker 1: Well, I got to tell you it is really something
Speaker 1: else to have you on board here today. We got
Speaker 1: a couple of things. First of all, the Defense Bill.
Speaker 1: How's that coming along?
Speaker 2: It is best case scenario next week now. We have
Speaker 2: been pushing this. It actually came through committee on a
Speaker 2: five part of the basis last summer, so it's been
Speaker 2: sitting out there and Chuck Schumer has held it now
Speaker 2: for five months and not allowed it to be able
Speaker 2: to come to the floor. So we're hoping that actually
Speaker 2: gets to the floor. But that is right now in
Speaker 2: Chuck Schumer's hands. There's a lot of negotiations on the
Speaker 2: final pieces of it. But I have worked a lot
Speaker 2: on this bill on getting Smokeklahoma priorities into it. Obviously,
Speaker 2: we are a military state, very very grateful for our
Speaker 2: military service and the number Vestans that live in our state,
Speaker 2: so it is very important we actually get this bill.
Speaker 1: Done Senator, we got another thing that you do kind
Speaker 1: of every year, kind of goes along with a waste
Speaker 1: in my golly, where does all that money to you?
Speaker 1: Kind of identify some of the bottomless pits. You got
Speaker 1: that report ready to roll.
Speaker 2: We have done for years. Will we call several fumbles
Speaker 2: to be able to outline areas of waste inefficiency to
Speaker 2: government and things that we could do better to be
Speaker 2: able to save taxpayer dollars. We have done that year
Speaker 2: after year. We send it up to committee members, we
Speaker 2: sent a staff, We release it publicly for people that
Speaker 2: want to be able to go through it. But our
Speaker 2: goal is to get everyone's attention and to say there
Speaker 2: are areas where we could save significant amount of taxpayer dollars.
Speaker 2: I am grateful now that Elon Musk confusing Ramaswami had
Speaker 2: been assigned by President Trump to be able to step
Speaker 2: up and coordinate all of that work to move it
Speaker 2: from we're talking about it to actually doing it. This
Speaker 2: has been my press for years to say everybody's got
Speaker 2: to stop saying we're inefficient to start actually fixing it.
Speaker 2: So a meeting later today with Vi Ramaswami and Elon Musk,
Speaker 2: and we're going through a lot of those ideas to
Speaker 2: be able to lay it out, try to figure out, Okay,
Speaker 2: which ones first, which one are we going to take on? Second?
Speaker 2: How do we actually get this stuff implemented. So grateful
Speaker 2: to be able to have the additional support on it,
Speaker 2: but we need to get something fixed. We're tired of
Speaker 2: talking about gooty grants like our federal tax dollars paying
Speaker 2: for drag shows and Ecuador and studying the secret language
Speaker 2: of butchers in Paris and Russian studies on COVID. It's
Speaker 2: just amazing to meet the amount of waste that we
Speaker 2: have in the government, the grants and things that are
Speaker 2: done that are inefficient. We've got to be able to
Speaker 2: get on top of this. And I'm grateful now that
Speaker 2: President Trump saying let's do it well.
Speaker 1: This is great. Now with the holiday season about, you
Speaker 1: got a lot of work to wrap up in Washington, DC.
Speaker 1: You're talking about the Defense bill coming home for a
Speaker 1: little bit, aren't.
Speaker 2: You well, And when we get our work done, I'll
Speaker 2: come home a week because of the bill to be
Speaker 2: able to get done. We also have twelve appropriation bills.
Speaker 2: We have a farm bill extension that needs to be done,
Speaker 2: we have disasser rate for North Carolina. There's a lot
Speaker 2: that still needs to be done in the next two weeks.
Speaker 2: And again, unfortunately Chuck Schumer continues to be able to
Speaker 2: drag his speedes. He's trying to be able to press
Speaker 2: judges rather than doing the key essential legislative work that
Speaker 2: we've got to get done. So we're going to press
Speaker 2: to be able to get that done and that will
Speaker 2: just stay until it's finished.
Speaker 1: Well. President Trump has wasted no time, a lot different
Speaker 1: than the last time around, and trying to get his
Speaker 1: cabinet picks out and ready to roll. Have you met
Speaker 1: with several of his picks already.
Speaker 2: I've met with a few of them. They've just really
Speaker 2: started this week on it. And it's based on the
Speaker 2: committee's of jurisdiction that draw the different meetings that we've
Speaker 2: had so serve of the Finance Committee, which will handle
Speaker 2: all the tax issues. We'll meet with Congressional Budget Office leadership.
Speaker 2: I'll meet with RFK Junior deal with Medicare Medicaid. We'll
Speaker 2: meet with the new Treasury Secretary nominee. We'll go through
Speaker 2: the Homeland security issues. That's Christy Nome that has been
Speaker 2: nominated we'll meet soon. So there's a lot of those folks.
Speaker 2: I met yesterday with Elie Staphonic, who has a wanted
Speaker 2: to be the UN ambassador for US. So there's a
Speaker 2: lot of key positions that we've just started getting a
Speaker 2: chance to connect with on it. Grateful to do that.
Speaker 2: President has the right to be able to pick their staff,
Speaker 2: just like I have the right to pick my staff.
Speaker 2: President has the right to do that with one thing
Speaker 2: that there is a constitutional obligation as well for what's
Speaker 2: called advice and consent to the Senate. That's why all
Speaker 2: these different folks are coming by to be able to
Speaker 2: visit with senators because we are a part of that process.
Speaker 2: But the President always gets first pick on that.
Speaker 1: Very good watch this as a layman, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: not an internal guy by any stretch of the imagination,
Speaker 1: but I notice a lot of these picks from the
Speaker 1: President have been coming from Congress. Is that something that
Speaker 1: has anybody a little concerned?
Speaker 2: You know what's interesting is actually a couple of three
Speaker 2: of them have come from the House or representative. One
Speaker 2: of them has come from the Senate. That's Marco Rubio
Speaker 2: for Secretary of State, which you do a terrific job.
Speaker 2: He's got great experience there. So only actually a handful
Speaker 2: of those have actually Congress, and most of them he's
Speaker 2: brought in their business leader, a lot of investment folks,
Speaker 2: a lot of folks that are entrepreneurs that started companies
Speaker 2: or run large companies. He's looking for people that's quite
Speaker 2: frankly like him, that have business experience and background and
Speaker 2: want to be able to seek greater efficiency in government
Speaker 2: and operation. So that'll be interesting to be able to
Speaker 2: walk through learning the bureaucracy of government. Does take a
Speaker 2: little bit of time, but it can be done. So
Speaker 2: just because someone has no government experience, that doesn't mean
Speaker 2: they can't actually step in and do it. I had
Speaker 2: no government experience when I was first elected, and I
Speaker 2: can step in and be able to do the job.
Speaker 2: So it's just a matter of somebody that's committed to
Speaker 2: doing it and has the perspective they're going to make
Speaker 2: a difference.
Speaker 1: All Right, we're hanging into Christmas and New Years. A
Speaker 1: word to the everyone who is listening today at Glory
Speaker 1: is yours well.
Speaker 2: I am grateful for the Christmas season. The Christmas season
Speaker 2: is one of my favorite times of the year as
Speaker 2: it is for a lot of people on it only
Speaker 2: for a couple of things. One is, people start turning
Speaker 2: and trying to figure out how they're going to serve
Speaker 2: their neighbor and how they're going to give to each other.
Speaker 2: And it changes our hearts be able to focus less
Speaker 2: on us and more on others. That's a good gift,
Speaker 2: but quite frankly, for me as a follower of Jesus,
Speaker 2: this is a great time of celebration to remember that
Speaker 2: God did not forget us and leave us alone. He
Speaker 2: came to us to be able to show us who
Speaker 2: he is, and the Christmas season reminds us again that
Speaker 2: we are not forgotten by God, that he loves us,
Speaker 2: cares for us, and is willing to come pursue us.
Speaker 2: So I hope everybody gets a chance to be able
Speaker 2: to enjoy the scenes and find us a family