partisanship | Michael Patrick Leahy

Americans for Prosperity-Tennessee’s Grant Henry Weighs in on the Infrastructure Spending and the Use of Budget Reconciliation

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 Grassroots Engagement Director of Americans for Prosperity-Tennessee Grant Henry, who weighs in on infrastructure spending and budget reconciliation in a partisan Democratic Congress.

(Mitch McConnell clip plays)

Leahy: That’s Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. I have two thoughts on his statement. First, it’s very obvious that inflation is a problem. Second, we need to have him here in the studio, and I need to give him a cup of the TriStar Trio coffee because he sounds like he’s asleep. (Laughter)

Ogles: Unlike the rant we just heard a moment ago.

Leahy: Unlike the three of us who are duly caffeinated and ready to rock and roll. Grant Henry, grassroots director for Americans for Prosperity of Tennessee. This infrastructure bill.

I can’t see any other direction – the consequence of this infrastructure bill – other than to dramatically continue the increase of inflation. What’s your thought on that?

Henry: Milton Friedman told us that inflation is essentially taxation without legislation and typically hits the lower-income individuals. Von Hayek told us that he said this: “I do not think it is an exaggeration to say history is largely a history of inflation. Usually, inflation is engineered by governments for the gain of governments.”

Leahy: Okay, now let me pause. People know who Milton Friedman is. You say it like he’s your best buddy, von Hayek, (Laughter) and he probably is your best buddy.

Friedrich von Hayek, a great, great economist. His famous work, The Road to Surfdom. That’s the guy you’re talking about there, right?

Henry: That is correct.

Leahy: And he is your best buddy.

Henry: (Laughs) Sure. Let’s say that. Let’s go with that.

Leahy: Andy Ogles, I look at what they’re trying to do, and there are a couple of elements here that really strike me. Number one, I don’t see how this is at all consistent with the American tradition of the legislative process. What’s your reaction to that, Andy?

Ogles: I mean, anytime you’re using budget reconciliation to legislate, it’s a slippery slope.

Leahy: Let’s talk about that. Explain to the audience what we mean by budget reconciliation. The Senate has a procedure by which they can essentially allocate monies and appropriated dollars for things that otherwise did not go through the normal legislative process. That’s a simplified version.

Leahy: And they’re supposed to be able to do it once, maybe twice a year, right?

Ogles: Yes. Look at legislative intent. This is something that should be done only as of the option, of last resort, and where there’s something that has to be done at the last minute. Otherwise, that could not flow through the normal process.

But what’s happened is that Congress is so partisan that it now is just the normal course of business, which is now stripping we the people of our normal representation. Because whoever is a majority controls the purse strings.

Leahy: Right. And it’s not a give-and-take legislative process. It’s my way or the highway with no give-and-take whatsoever from the Democrats. That’s what it seems like to me.

Ogles: The Senate has a lot of very formal rules that they can use, like the filibuster and things like that. And so it’s now become an issue of which side is better manipulating the rules to control what happens in the Senate.

Leahy: Grant Henry, you’re a graduate of law school, and my question to you is, the parliamentarian plays a role in the Senate.

Are you familiar with what their job is and how they can determine whether or not something should be included in this budget reconciliation process?

Henry: I’m not as familiar as I should be. And frankly speaking, I think there are very few people out there that are qualified to comment on that. There are a few.

Leahy: I may not be qualified, but I’ll comment on it. (Laughter)

Henry: But here’s what I’m saying. I think Mayor Ogles is correct that in the early 1970s we had this process of a reconciliation that was introduced primarily because we said, look, if we’re entering the day and age of partisan politics, we still have to pass a budget. We still have to spend money and make the government operate effectively or at least at all.

Leahy: This is a very interesting point because before the 70s and before the 80s, Congress ran through what they called regular order. That is, all bills would start at a subcommittee, and then they’d be vetted and then they’d to move up to a committee, and then they’d be vetted, and then they’d be going to the rules committee to see if they could go to a vote.

At each step back and forth continued, and then there would be a vote on the floor. Regular order has been disbanded by the Democrats, Nancy Pelosi in particular. And so they’re just in the land of the jam-through is what it seems like to me.

Henry: Yes. And I think that jam-through, which you really see a lot of times, is coming through this thing called the Byrd Rule, which is where this sort of parliamentarian is supposed to play a major role.

Leahy: Now the Byrd Rule, we’re talking about the former Ku Klux Klansmen, Robert Byrd, right?

Henry: I believe so.

Leahy: From West Virginia. He’s a Democrat by the way and his big ally in the Senate, Joe Biden.

Henry: So the primary thing about the reconciliation process that people need to understand and why your voice matters so much now is that the reconciliation process does not require 60 votes in the Senate. You can get it through with just 50 votes. And a Kamala Harris flip, right.

That’s the point of the reconciliation process that you don’t need bipartisan support to push something through. This Byrd Rule is a process by which Republicans should – in big air quotes in the studio here – should be able to say these certain things that are included in your $3.5 trillion package have nothing to do with what said that we’re spending money on.

That being if you’re gonna spend $3.5 trillion or rather, $500 billion on healthcare spending and call it an infrastructure spending, we’re gonna cut that out of your spending package through this Byrd Rule.

Now, much of that, I think, is left up to this sort of parliamentary procedure or that one individual to say what is and is not considered a part of the spending within that overall proposal or package.

That’s again, why I personally believe your voice matters so much now, to contact those senators, contact your legislators. Let them know if it’s this razor-thin, listen to me now more than ever.

Leahy: Andy Ogles, so there is a parliamentarian, and that recently appointed parliamentarian has ruled, that you can do it once and maybe twice, but only with certain circumstances.

What do you think Chuck Schumer is going to say if the parliamentarian says, you know what you want to do in that reconciliation package on the infrastructure bill? You can’t do it. What do you think Chuck Schumer is going to do?

Ogles: Well, just my opinion, but I don’t think they’ll care. The question is, can he move forward without an official ruling? I’m not a huge Mitch McConnell fan, I won’t go into the details. But all that to say, he has been a master of the Senate rules, which is why he’s been such an effective leader over the years.

This is where the Republicans are going to have to use the rules to their favor to try to block this, because, again, they’re not trying to pass a basic budget.

They’re not trying emergency spending for troops that are overseas or something that really necessitates this emergency action. And I think that’s really how you should look at budget reconciliation.

This is, again, the option of last resort. It should only be used where, again, you’ve hit gridlock to the point where basic functions of government are no longer working.

Leahy: The problem with that is that the Democrats have abandoned the concept of bipartisan cooperation. It’s my way or the highway.

Ogles: And they’ve abandoned the Constitution altogether. Look at what they’ve done during COVID.

Leahy: Minor point. Minor point. Actually a very good point.

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.

Star News Network’s Washington Correspondent Neil McCabe on S1 Fail and Biden’s Agenda Coming to a Halt

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 National Correspondent Neil McCabe to the newsmakers line to discuss the S1 ruling in the Senate, Biden’s failing agenda, and more spending despite hidden signs of inflation.

Leahy: On the newsmaker line, the very best Washington correspondent in the country, Washington Correspondent for The Tennessee Star and the Star News Network, Neil McCabe. Good morning, Neil.

McCabe: Michael, very good to be with you, sir.

Leahy: Big news last night. S1, the Corrupt Politicians Act, or, as the Democrats call it, the For the People Act, would have nationalized all elections went down in the Senate on a filibuster vote was 50 to 50, purely partisan.

All the Democrats voted for it. All the Republicans voted against it. It didn’t reach the 60 vote threshold. That deal is done. What do you make of that, Neil McCabe?

McCabe: I think what we have to recognize is that the entire Biden program is coming to an all-stop. Let’s just go through a shortlist. You may come up with something else but think of all of the things we were worried about on January 20. D.C. statehood, Puerto Rican statehood, packing the Supreme Court, ending the filibuster, the federal takeover of local voting prerogatives, increasing the taxability or getting rid of the cap on the tax-deductibility of local and state taxes, raising capital gains, bringing back the estate tax, and the infrastructure bill.

And we’ve got a Senate that now is taking off for two weeks. We basically have a House of Representatives that will be voting through July first. Then they’re taking a two-week break. They’ll be back from July 19 to the 30.

And then after July 30, they’ll be gone, in effect, except for sort of committee work, they will be gone from July 30th to September 20th when they will be back in town for the budget cut.

The Democrats still have the opportunity to use the reconciliation process. You’re allowed one bite of the apple and basically, you are allowed to pass a budget that is exempt from sort of the filibuster and other procedures. It’s a privileged motion because you don’t want someone to be able to stop the federal budget.

But that’s there. They have one bite of the apple and you can only do so much. And we saw that the restrictions on the reconciliation rule and why we didn’t get as big a pot from the 2017 tax bill, because that was passed through reconciliation. So that’s basically the state of play right now, Mike.

Leahy: Neil, let me ask you this question. So the legislative agenda of Joe Biden is stalled, but Crom thinks that’s a head fake. Why don’t you pose your question to Neil about that?

Carmichael: Neil, the administrative state is forcing many of the issues forward that the hard left would like to see pass in legislation. They’re doing it through the administrative state.

For example, when the Secretary of Defense, often unilaterally just came out and said that the Court of Military Justice and that whole procedure will now not apply to cases of sexual harassment in the military that will move over to the Department of Justice and out of the purview of the military.

He did that on his own with a stroke of a pen. There are corporations all across this country, I mean, thousands of corporations that are being forced to have sessions where white employees are being shamed by Black employees.

These are meetings and Zoom calls where Black employees are actually encouraged to tell white employees how terrible they are as people under critical race theory. And that’s going on because it’s being forced on companies and banks.

And the FDIC is using its power to tell banks who to lend money to, who not to lend money to, and under the threat of having bank examiners race in and wreck the banks.

Leahy: So what do you think about that, Neil?

McCabe: Well, listen, the great Andrew Breitbart said that the media is more powerful than the government, and the media is controlled by the left. And the media has created that permissive environment where all of these things can happen.

And that is true. And, yes, the president has enormous power to do things administratively. And Biden has a unified administration. He doesn’t have what we had for the previous four years which is Donald Trump and a bunch of establishment Republicans.

Because Trump tried to run a coalition government with the Republican establishment, and the Republican establishment basically blocked him at every turn. All of the leaks coming out of the Trump White House were about how bad Trump is.

Whereas, like I said last week, all the leaks coming out of the Biden White House are factions, one faction versus another faction. But nobody’s saying we are defending America from this crazy President.

Which is what Trump’s own people were saying. I would say the vast majority of Trump’s staff was working against him. And so he was not able to exercise that extreme power that he has as the executive.

In the next midterm, the Republicans take back the House, and the Republicans probably pick up three Senate seats and things change. And when you control the House and the Senate, you can then restrict the presidency and the administrative state.

And I like what Senator Inslee said. He said hey, instead of making a one-term President will make him a half-term President. And I think that’s basically the mindset. But, you know, it’s up to the Republicans.

Basically, if McCarthy flipped five Democrats will become Republicans today, he would be the Speaker of the House today. He does not act like a guy who is within five seats of becoming the third most powerful person in the government. And that’s the problem. He’s trying to run out the clock. He’s got three and half years to go.

Carmichael: Let me ask you a quick question. When we get to September, will we have a giant budget that passes or we have a continuing resolution?

McCabe: They’re going to have continuing resolutions. And it’s going to stop and start from, say, the end of September to Columbus Day from Columbus Day of Veterans Day from Veterans Day to Thanksgiving.

And then they’ll sort of careening into the end of the year. And when all of these Congressmen and senators have to go home and they start to whiff the jet fumes from Reagan Airport, they’ll just pass whatever they have to pass to get out of town.

Leahy: Yeah, it’s the get out of town and pass whatever is in front of me by Congress. Go ahead.

Carmichael: I guess what I’m asking is Biden’s got a 6 trillion dollar budget that he’s put in front of the House. Will a 6 trillion dollar budget eventually pass in December?

McCabe: The Democrats and the Republicans will write a 6 trillion dollar budget. And there may be something of Biden’s priorities in there but it’s just going to be a continuation of the same.

And they’re going to pile on because there is a permissive environment for spending right now. And you’re going to see this empire strikes back on inflation is incredible. Read all the articles telling you that inflation is not a problem.

And it’s like a lot of people in Washington know that inflation is a problem. Let’s just get one more budget in before people figure it out.

Listen to the 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.