Sen. Ernst on Shutdown, COVID Origins
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24 segmentsTen hours on my feet, traffic, noise, everybody needing something from me. My head is spinning. I just need the world to stop for one second. But then I get home, shoes off, phone out, and I open Modo Casino. Hundreds of slots. Classic table games. It's my instant reset. The variety I want and the quiet I need. Moto Casinos, the social casino board where prohibited. No purchase necessary. Visit motto.us for more details. Download the Moto Casino app today. Must be 21 plus. America's Social Casino. We welcome Iowa, U.S. Senator Joni Ernst, back to the program for a few minutes. Senator, good morning. Hey, good morning, Gary. Thank you. Excellent to have you with us. And one of the latest pieces of news relative to this preposterous government shutdown is that what is it, about 10% of flights are going to be. either reduced severely or cut back because of the shortage of air traffic controllers at the most highly high busy airports. Is anything going to move the needle with these Democrats as far as getting five of them to vote to end the shutdown? I hope so, Gary. And we do have at least, oh, I would say between 10 and 12 of the Democrats that in one way or another have expressed a desire to open the federal government. But there is always such a great fear of retaliation from Chuck Schumer during this Chuck Schumer shutdown. You know, he has such a tight fist. You know, it's literally his hand around the necks of all these Democrats and keeping them in line. So if we can just get that handful of Democrats to, you know, cross their leader and join us and doing the right thing and opening the federal government, it would be so much better. And then, you know, as the president has promised, at that point, he's happy to negotiate. on, you know, their demands on Obamacare. So let's open the federal government. Let's put this to bed. We're wasting taxpayer money. We have air traffic that will be disrupted over one of our biggest holiday seasons. We know it's unsafe, having weary, weary, worn out air traffic controllers working overtime shifts, additional shifts. We can't keep doing this to them, and they are not getting paid right now. We have SNAP benefits that have run out. We have women infants and children fund that has run short on dollars. You know, he's not, Chuck Schumer's not worried about any. He doesn't care. If he cared, he would be allowing the Democrats to join us in opening up the federal government. But you're absolutely correct. It's going to start impacting, not just those that are vulnerable and live with the food assistance, but also just the traveling public. It's going to affect everyone. It is. Well, yeah, Pete Ricketts told us that, unlike the Republicans, the Democrat caucus, has a rule where the leader can strip people of their committee assignments if he doesn't like the way they vote. So that's his leverage, I guess.
Yeah, absolutely. And it's the control of the committee assignments, but also, you know, in addition to that, think about during campaign election times, the funding of different candidates, large in part is determined by the leader. So Chuck Schumer will be the one telling donors, yes, give to this. campaign, give to that campaign. And if they're on the outs with Chuck Schumer, he's going to direct more money away from those campaigns into other campaigns. So, yeah, it's a rough situation for them. I get it. But you know what? Their constituents are suffering. Yeah, no doubt. You also are doing some work, Senator, right, to try to get more information out there about, get to the bottom of the origin of the COVID. disaster that we had five years ago what's happening yes absolutely we continue to push on that and while i don't know that we'll ever have a very conclusive um you know detailed response to where it came from. You know, I and many others in various intelligence agencies believe that the origins did come from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. There has been such a huge cover up there. But in addition to the finding out the origins of COVID, we also know that our federal government expended a lot of money during that period of time. You know, $4.5 trillion was shoveled up. the door by the federal government with, I mean, truly a good purpose of trying to keep small businesses in, you know, in business, trying to help out those that were suffering because of COVID. But we still have a slush fund out there for COVID. And it's at the tune of $65 billion. And you know what, when we are a country that's $38 trillion in debt, we shouldn't have secret slush funds. What's that being used for? Well, it is set aside and think about it. All these different programs that the federal government established during COVID to support small businesses or to encourage outdoor entertainment, you know, things like that. there is still money sitting in those funds, again, that were established during COVID for COVID uses. It's still out there. And so we've seen examples, you know, I detail this with all of my squeal work. The COVID cash was spent on things like drag shows for high school students, an ice cream truck in California, massage chairs in Montana. I mean, you name it. They were throwing money at it, but there's $65 billion still sitting in those funds. So what I am saying is, and I have a bill to do this, it's Returning Unspent COVID Funds Act, and it would claw back that $65 billion and help us bring our debt down, you know, spend it on things that we need to be spending it on, not on.
COVID, you know, you name it. We're not in COVID anymore, Gary. I don't get it. Well, you know what? I'm sad to say. I mean, it's always difficult to get 60 votes on anything, but now with the absolute true radicals having captured the Democratic Party, they're not going to vote for anything that that Zohran Mamdani doesn't want, that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doesn't want that these radicals don't want. You can't get anything done. Yeah, it has been really difficult, but I do think we're at an impasse here. Tonight we are going to take a first vote in a series where I hope we can gain Democrat support and allow them to move forward. I mean, it's just become so untenable. So, you know, we need to shake some of them loose. We've got some more discussions, I'm sure we'll be having with some of our Democratic friends across the aisle, and hopefully they vote with us tonight. But, yes, socialism is on the rise, and we saw this Tuesday with the election of that Zohran Mamdani out in New York City. But, you know, my message there is, hey, if you don't want to be part of that socialist, communist, mess, hey, we welcome you in the heartland. Just don't bring your crazy politics with you. If you want common sense, you know, the Hawkeye State is the place to be. Do you think there's a chance that John Fetterman is thinking about switching to the Republican Party? I don't think he will ever become a Republican, but certainly, you know, it is possible that he would become an independent, like we saw many of those disenfranchised Democrats do. I think he still has some philosophical differences with the Republican Party, but most certainly he has been... just a true ally in moving forward on this government shutdown nightmare. He has voted to open the federal government every single time with us, and I'm grateful for that. Senator Joni Ernst, hey, thanks you again for the time this morning. Always good to have you on. Absolutely, Gary. Thanks so much. John Daly here. You know what day it is? Neither do I. I live life daily. That's why I only spend on Moto Casino. Moto's got daily free bonuses, daily tournaments, new slots out of daily. And the best part, guaranteed daily jackpots. You can't beat that. So today's the day you're gripping and spend it with me on Moto. America's Social Casino. Playful free on Moto.com.
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