Live from Music Row Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed The Tennessee Star’s National Political Editor Neil McCabe to the newsmaker line to discuss the status of the Build Back Better bill and the fate of Nancy Pelosi.
Leahy: On our newsmaker line by the best Washington correspondent in the country and the National Political Editor for The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network, Neil McCabe. Good morning, Neil. How are you?
McCabe: Phenomenal, Michael. Great to be with you.
Leahy: So the bill back broker bill, it passed November 21st in the House. It’s before the Senate. The Congressional Budget Office says, oh, it’s going to cost $3 trillion extra or some big huge number. Where does that stand in the Senate, Neil?
McCabe: Yeah, I think that bill is on the morphine drip right now, and I think they’re just going to have to tell the family that it died in its sleep. I just don’t see Mitch McConnell doing what he needs to do.
And they’re going to have to break it up into some of its more popular components. But this idea that you could just basically throw everything into the salad bowl, mix it up and pass it, it’s just not going to fly between now and Christmas.
Leahy: Another failure for the Biden maladministration. Of course, they’ve been slapped down in federal court. A half a dozen federal courts have slapped down their vaccine mandates. But the good news for the Democrats, Neil, Nancy Pelosi has announced she’s going to run for reelection in San Francisco in 2022. Your thoughts. She’ll be 82.
McCabe: Well, let me talk about Pelosi for a second. I do want to point out that we’re focusing that tremendous leverage on the debt series. Every Republican senator voted against raising the debt ceiling, like yesterday.
But a week ago, the Republicans voted to basically allow it to go through without the filibuster. So they basically created procedural things so that the Democrats didn’t need their vote. Like yesterday they go ahead and pass it so that it goes through but a complete charade.
Leahy: That sounds like a Mitch McConnell’s special, right. That’s how he does things.
McCabe: The only problem is that she can’t stand Steni Hoyer who is the number two House Democrat. She will not step aside to let Steni Hoyer take over. She doesn’t want Clybourn to take over who’s the number three.
And basically, there is no successor. She’s been unable to groom a successor. So basically she has to stay on because otherwise, the whole thing will fall apart. She’s the only one.
Leahy: Now, she will run if she runs in 2022, as she says she will and she’s elected in San Francisco, which is a given. She’ll be 82 years old.
But, Neil, the probability that the Democrats lose the House is very high as we speak right now. If the Democrats lose the House of Representatives, will Nancy Pelosi stay on as minority leader in the next Congress?
McCabe: (Inaudible talk)
Leahy: We lost Neil there. Crom, let’s talk about this. I like what he said.
Carmichael: How do they break it apart, though?
Leahy: I don’t know.
Carmichael: Neil made an interesting point. But if they break it apart, then they lose the ability to lie about it. When I say that, I mean that in the truest sense of the word because they’re using 10 years of revenue to pay for 24 months of spending.
So they’re going to spend all the money in two years and then raise the money over 10 years. So if they break it up, then that tactic or that strategy becomes completely apparent. They can’t lie about it.
Leahy: Well, they can.
Carmichael: Well, no. Then it takes us 10 years to raise them. The one thing they can pass, and this is one that Trump tried to pass, but Pelosi wouldn’t let him and that is that Medicare can negotiate with Big Pharma. And that one actually makes great sense. And if they were to just simply advance that as a bill I believe that that would get bipartisan support.
Leahy: Well, you mentioned Big Pharma. I got to go with this. One of the problems that we have in the country right now is inflation, right? It’s huge. The highest it’s been in 40 years or so. And depending on the measurement, it’s from seven percent. I’ve seen others say wholesale prices are up 10 percent.
Carmichael: And if you just do rent, food, and energy, it’s close to 20 percent.
Leahy: Yeah, it’s terrible. And it’s all at the feet of the Biden maladministration.
Carmichael: Yes.
Leahy: Because they’re spending like drunken sailors with apologies to drunken sailors because they’re more fiscally responsible than Joe Biden is. But listen to this. This was a statement made by Jen Psaki yesterday.
Our Fox News correspondent, Peter Ducey asked her, how do you explain inflation? And her answer was this, wait for it…let me give you an example of why prices are going up. Here’s one. Why are meat prices going up? Well, this is due to, wait for it…the greed of the big meat conglomerate. Big meat. Who knew?
Carmichael: Well, you had big meat and big oil. Big something else. Everything has to have big before it.
Leahy: This is the worst possible propagandize you can ever see. This is Orwellian because it is an utter rejection of our free market system that has led to economic efficiency and lower prices over two centuries of time.
But now they are trying to vilify companies that have been producing goods and services at a decent price. Prices are going up because Joe Biden and the Democrats are spending like drunken sailors.
Carmichael: Yes.
Leahy: That’s why prices are going up, giving money away.
Carmichael: You have a whole bunch more money chasing a static, essentially amount of goods.
Leahy: But the villain and the piece, the big meat. The greedy big meat conglomerate. Who knew?
Carmichael: Bread prices are up because of big buns.
Leahy: Big buns. (Laughter)
Carmichael: Big buns.
Leahy: Or, big bacon.
Carmichael: Big bacon. Big bacon. (Laughter) Big chicken.
Leahy: Is there a more accomplished liar in the country than Jen Psaki?
Carmichael: Well, let me say this. Jen Psaki enjoys calling on Peter Ducey because she enjoys the back and forth. She thinks she’s smarter than Peter.
Leahy: Well she thinks in that back and forth that she is better. She thinks.
Carmichael: Yes, that’s what I’m saying. She thinks she’s smarter than Peter Ducey so she wants to best Fox News.
Leahy: And so obviously, when he asks about inflation and she blames the greed of the big meat conglomerate in her mind, she thinks she won that exchange.
Carmichael: She thinks she won the exchange.
Leahy: I’m all in favor of big bacon personally.
Carmichael: Yeah, I like big bacon, but it’s going to be interesting, but I want to get back to this breaking things up. If he breaks up Big Pharma, if he brings that one out, that would pass in a heartbeat.
But then the question is, if you pass that, then there’s really nothing else in it. There’s really nothing else in it that makes any sense. And if you pass the big Pharma that Medicare can negotiate, that actually doesn’t cost anything. It’ll save money.
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed creator of the Huey Report and direct mail expert, Craig Huey, in-studio to discuss the HR1 bill that would put the country in danger allowing for voting regulations that encourage fraud and wins for Democrats.
Leahy: Tennessee remains one of the 35 states out there where freedom is still a possibility. California is one of the 15 states where freedom really is not a possibility. And living evidence of that in our studio right now Craig Huey who escaped from California and wants to make sure that doesn’t happen to Tennessee. There’s a Californian in Washington. Her name is Nancy Pelosi, and she embodies everything that’s wrong with America. But she has power right now. And she has introduced a bill that’s passed in the House. HR1.
It’s about to go to the Senate. Perhaps the worst bill in modern American history. Let me just read from Joel Pollak my colleague at Breitbart. House Democrats passed HR 1. This was back on March 4. The so-called for the people act on Wednesday. The bill would radically change American democracy, nationalizing elections, and making permanent changes to voting rules that would virtually ensure Democrats never lose another election. Let’s just pause for a moment, Craig. This is dangerous stuff.
Huey: Michael, it is the most dangerous bill possible. And the reason they’re pushing it hard is they know they have this window of opportunity right at the beginning more so than the in anytime in the next two years. It’s their number one priority. If they can change the election they will permanently be able to win 2022 and 2024.
They will change the election in the entire United States. This HR1, for example, legalizes in every state in the union what’s called ballot harvesting. Ballot harvesting is outlawed in most states. 39 states have it legal in some form or another. I come from California. California was one of the first states to pass ballot harvesting.
Leahy: And let me just interject. When I hear ballot harvesting, I think this is a way for Democrats to cheat. That’s what I think.
Huey: It’s voter fraud on steroids. This bill legalizes voter fraud. And basically what happens is this. Let’s say if that passes then Tennessee is forced to allow ballot harvesting that means political operatives people who are trained political door to door knockers can go to a house, show them how to vote with a voter guide, pick up that ballot, and they can deliver 50, 100, 500, 1000 ballots a thousand ballots to the voter booth and nobody knows who this person is. They could throw away Republican ballots. They could order ballots. They can go to nursing homes go out and pick up all the ballots.
Leahy: So in other words, they can go to somebody’s house and they say hey, fill out the ballot. I’ll take it to the registrar for you.
Huey: Yes. Michael, I’m going to send you a video that you can use of a professional ballot harvester and she knocks on the door and she’s got the data. And she knows the parents who have opened the door are Republican. She doesn’t want to talk to him. She’s been to that house 10 times to talk to the daughter.
The daughter is her target. She wants to pick up her ballot and she says I’m from the Democratic Party as a service to help pick up the ballot and deliver it. And she then will be able to go all the way from school board to governor or president depending on the election as to who to vote for. It transforms politics by 10, 15, 20 percent. And basically, it comes who is the most organized wins. That’s what it is. Who can get at the most ballots.
Huey: And then if you add the fraudulent part…
Leahy: It’s prone to fraud because with ballot harvesting you could go to the house of an elderly Republican couple. They could take the ballots. They could throw them away.
Huey: Totally. Throw them away or older them. And then you’ve got in California 450,000 ballots were sent out to people who are dead. People who have moved. Kids who have gone off to college. Duplicate ballots 40 to 50,000. Now if I go to an apartment and I see these mailboxes I see ballots there. I could pick them up before they’re delivered. If I know who’s getting duplicate ballots I can get those duplicate ballots and hand in a couple of ballots. It opens the door to fraud that you can never overcome.
Leahy: Yeah, and that’s before the Senate. 50 Republicans, 50 Democrats. And it looks like the Democrats are going to try to jam this through.
Huey: They’re going to try to jam it through. They have a very good chance. It will be universal mail-in ballots without a clean voter roll. Voter ID is the number one way to prevent fraud. It makes it illegal to have a voter ID.
Leahy: Which is ridiculous.
Huey: Totally.
Leahy: Talk about transforming our country from a constitutional republic to something like the old Russian Communist party.
Huey: It also tries to get people to register all online. I had a dog registered online (Leahy laughs) in California. Three elections I got the mail-in ballot for the dog at my office address. And when I moved to Tennessee, the ballot followed me.
Leahy: The dog can still vote.
Huey: Yes. There’s no control in doing online registration. And then it also demands that anybody is put on the voter roll who’s on welfare, Obamacare, any type of government agency whether they’re legal or not they’re put on as voters. This is corrupt. This is wrong. And it must be stopped.
Leahy: Well and you kind of get to really the existential element of the survival of our constitutional republic. We are there right now.
Huey: Yes.
Leahy: Of course now 20 attorneys general in the United States have called this unconstitutional. It is unconstitutional because supervision of election is a state function. So now the national federal government is usurping the state authority.
Huey: Unconstitutionally because it is.
Leahy: Here’s the problem. Let me be totally blunt here. The federal courts have in many regards abandoned originalism. And certainly, the big effort by Donald Trump was to put a lot of conservative originalist jurists in the federal court. And they succeeded to a degree asterisk. What is it about a judge that purports to be conservative?
Once they are on the bench you look at their opinions. I’ll give you an example. Big, big push. So Donald Trump names three “conservatives” to the Supreme Court. Big political battles over all of them. A lot of political capital was spent to get them on. New Gorsuch confirmed. Brett Kavanaugh confirmed. Amy Coney Barrett confirmed.
Now if you look at their decisions, Gorsuch is really kind of a libertarian. Not exactly a Scalia originalist, textualist. Kavanaugh and Barrett, let me be blunt, are huge disappointments. Their votes are more like John Roberts and Anthony Kennedy than they are like Anthony Scalia. Do you see that as well?
Huey: I see it but I have hope that you’re going to see from the Supreme Court to the lower bench appointments at the transformation of the judiciary but it still has appointees in there that are judges that are judicial. I think there is a step forward. We have to be prepared now for Biden who will be using the bench to transform society, culture, and politics from the bench. They’re going to legislate from the bench. So we’re now really in a four-year period of danger.
Leahy: Big-time danger. No question about that. And I pray for the health of Clarence Thomas and Justice Alito every day.
Listen to the full third hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.