Jay Weber Show transcript 3-12-25
So...the ‘expected’ happened and house speaker Mike Johnson was able to get the continuing resolution passed in the house- which would keep the govt funded thru September-which is the rest of the fiscal year- so that the GOP members could start to focus on getting their spending cuts, tax cuts, and larger priorities passed as part of a reconciliation bill-to follow.
It was ‘expected’ that speaker Johnson would be able to pull this off-but it wasn’t a certainty- given that he only had a single vote to work with.
This was a 216 to 214 vote-with one republican, Kentucky’s Thomas Massie, voting against it-just because when it comes to spending bills- he’s just a jag and always does.
Sincerely. He and his decisions are not smart or strategic. He’s not reviled within the house caucus as ...say.... Matt Gates was.... but... Massey is known to be difficult. Very smart guy. I like him. But on this stuff, he’s just a blunt force object.
So, he voted no-and that had President Trump vowing to find someone to primary him next year and remove him as a ‘problem that’s not worth it’...as trump put it on truth social. As in-let’s just primary this guy and get him out of there if he’s not going to help us or do what’s smart.
I think Massie survives, anyway. He’s very popular in his home district.
And now this mini-budget moves to the senate, where Chuck Schumer and the dems need to decide whether it’s smart to filibuster it- or just let it pass with only bloviating objection.
And speaker Johnson and his team- did a really smart thing- in terms of both crafting this CR and coming up with a strategy to get it past democrats.
First-instead of just pass a ‘clean CR’ that would have kept govt running all fiscal year without changes- he added a few small conservative changes that he wanted- hoping it encouraged house and senate democrats to vote no-
Which, in turn, unified his caucus-and hopefully the GOP caucus in the senate- and set up chuck Schumer for a showdown.
Now- in the senate- if dems want to kill off this funding bill-they’d need to launch a filibuster ...and if that’s the case...then it’s clear ‘which side’ is shutting down government on Saturday, isn’t it?
Schumer and the dems would shoulder all the blame. Meanwhile, if just seven democrats in swing states choose to join republicans, it passes anyway.
Listen to former senator Claire McCaskill...who popped up on some left-wing cable show...to explain this.
She’s right.
But-the long-term strategy is: if Schumer and the senate dems-do- cave on this spending bill...they lose a lot of their leverage for the remainder of this year- and into 2026.Because- remember- the big, beautiful reconciliation bill can be passed with a simple majority in the senate and so, dem votes aren’t needed and the filibuster threshold won’t apply.
So- dems will find themselves sitting on the sidelines of that-entire debate. Completely unable to affect it- so long as GOP senators and house members are smart enough to stick together- as they have been- so far.
Bottom line-this was a very good start to the republican’s overall ‘spending agenda’...which is due to play out between now and July fourth or so.
As the national review editors say: even this continuing resolution is a decent spending bill...on a small scale.
In fact, speaker Johnson was asked a good question by a reporter yesterday.
The reporter said: you refused to vote in favor of continuing resolutions as a rank-and-file member. You’ve said you are ‘done’ with short term CRS as speaker...and so.... Why are you changing your mind about this one?
Johnson said:
I will rewind and replay the Chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, Dr. Anthony Harris, who said it so well. This is a different CR than anything we've seen in our careers in Congress. I've been here eight years, he's been here a bit longer.
It normally is something that is a patchwork to give us more time to try to get to the appropriations process. This is totally different. A yearlong CR, which is the first I think we've had. I don't know that there is a precedent or an actual year-long CR. It solves the problem because it freezes federal spending, it takes care of these immediate priorities that have been articulated here, and it allows us to move forward with changing the size and scope of the federal government.
There is a seismic shift going on in Washington right now. This is a different moment than we have ever been in. The DOGE work is finding massive amounts of fraud, waste, and abuse. We have a White House that is actually dedicated to getting us back onto a fiscally responsible track. We are going to scale down the size of the bureaucracy and agencies, which has become the fourth branch of government.
None of that was present or true before. When I became Speaker, I inherited a real mess. We had Joe Biden in the White House. We had a divided government. And it was a very difficult thing for us to navigate through. I didn't get to do anything I wanted or thought was really important for the country. I did what we had to do, what was necessary, and what we could get 218 votes for.
This is a totally different scenario. By doing the CR this time, it actually is the responsible play and the conservative play because we are conserving the resources of the American people. This is something that all of us who wanted to do our whole careers now have the opportunity.
REPORTER: So, will this be your last CR? Would you support another CR in the future?
HOUSE SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON: That is what I expect. This White House is going to actually do its job. What a concept. The White House will send us a budget. This hasn't been done in a while. This White House will send us a budget that will request funding for a smaller, leaner, more efficient, accountable federal government. That is a new paradigm for us. We are excited about that.
That's what we are working on as we get this off the table, we turn to FY-26, and that's when we have all of the cuts and savings that will be actualized at that point.
There is a process, as I've explained here. You have to qualify the savings, you have to quantify them, and then you codify them. The codification process comes with FY-26. You will see the administration and Congress working in tandem to provide and present a better government for the people. and that is something many of us ran for Congress to do. That day is now upon us and we're excited.
And Johnson is correct: this actually-is- a different scenario. This actually-is- a responsible ‘stop gap’ to fund govt through the end of the fiscal year. It’s not like a normal CR that only funds govt for another few months.
And-it sets up the conservatives and president trump to deliver on their fuller 2024 campaign promises and overall agenda.
Also-related to the fact that Pelosi and Obama- then Biden and his team-refused to actually ‘do budgets’ because they didn’t want to be held accountable for the trillions in excessive spending-
A more reasonable federal budget is coming- and there’s a chance that it might even be a ‘balanced’ federal budget-which is quite doable and yet hasn’t been done ‘in forever’.
This leads to ‘big things. And the dc democrats know it- which is why they are engaging in early smear campaigns that don’t at all reflect GOP priorities -and are full of blatant falsehoods.
The dems are flat out lying about cuts to social security, and disability, and health care, and veteran care...etc. That’s all pure invention and scary tactics- and it’s a shame that so many gullible people fall for it.
Speaker Johnson also addressed this yesterday and said democrats didn’t even wait to see this continuing resolution and what was in it before they started lying about it. And it’s the same old lies.
Every liberal media outlet-so far as I’ve seen-is simply lying about these things to scare seniors, the poor, and our most vulnerable.
And it’s unconscionable. Marc Pocan’s doing it. Tammy Baldwin’s doing it. Gwen Moore’s doing it.
And-
Sadly- all sorts of rabid Trump haters and lunatic liberals in ‘your own families’ are doing it. I’m hearing from a lot of you, asking: Jay, clarify this for me...
Or...Jay...reassure me: there are no cuts to veteran care, or disability, or food stamps, or Medicaid, anything else coming, right?
Right. The dems are lying.
The only thing that is even being talked about is putting on a work requirement on Medicaid -but for only healthy, young, childless adults who have no elderly dependents, either.
That is literally the only change that’s even being considered.
And yet, I’m hearing from people who are saying: my 26-year-old daughter has my ill mother convinced that Trump’s taking away her disability benefits. Reassure me that’s not true.
It’s not true.
And what sort of a ‘hag’ of a daughter do you have that she’d torture her grandmother like that- even if it was!- true? Know what I mean?
If grandma’s sick- you really have a trump-hating daughter that keeps telling her ‘Trump’s going to take away your disability and kill you’?
It must be simply lovely to be in that home-but that’s what I’m hearing.
The Trump derangement Ebola is hitting new heights of ‘meanness’ and ‘nastiness’ this time, even if it isn’t as widespread.
photo credit: Getty Images
audio version of the segment here > Johnson gets it done in the House