Audience (00:00):
It's too cold in here (Laughing).
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[inaudible 00:00:00] like an evergreen, you know.
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No.
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(Laughing) go, let's go.
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Did you see the…[inaudible 00:01:25].
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No, when is it?
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She's an editor.
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Yeah, she sent me [inaudible 00:01:42].
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I love…[inaudible 00:02:28]
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How are you?
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Yes I love…[inaudible 00:02:51]
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(Music)
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(Coughing)
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Hello.
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(Laughing)
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Hey.
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Oh, you're good, you're good.
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No, I know. You gotta kind of roll around and snap a couple pictures.
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Hi, how are ya?
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I'm great. You doing okay?
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You know, hanging in there.
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You're still single?
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What? I feel great.
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(Laughing)
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I mean I…there…
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(Sneeze)
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Oh wait, I know.
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You know all those people from…
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We didn't go bankrupt…[inaudible 00:06:39]
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The Wranglers.
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No, the…[inaudible 00:06:45]
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How are you?
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Good. How are you?
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(Cough)
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It did not.
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(Laughing)
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(Laughing)
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One of these is going to be, one of these is more important than the other one.
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Yeah.
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(Cough)
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Well no, you know it was funny. I took it off… I found one [inaudible 00:09:48] I took it off. I did not find that, someone found it. [inaudible 00:09:56].
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Well yeah, yeah.
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(Cough)
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What you're saying is…[inaudible 00:11:12]
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(Clears throat)
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Heads up.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Good morning. So good morning everyone. I want to start with last week videos of protesters yelling at members of Congress went viral, but the content focused on the confrontation, not the why. Some of the people that hijacked those town halls are happy with the bloated status quo. They want the bloated status quo to continue. They don't want to get our country back on track. And to make matters worse, even the DNC chair openly suggested that the outrage at the town halls across the country was orchestrated. But here's the truth, getting us out of nearly 37 trillion in debt, it's not going to be easy.
(13:53)
President Trump and the White House Republicans have started the conversation on wasteful government spending, and 77 million voices outweighed those voices at the town halls. We got our marching orders. We listened to the American people and they told us they wanted change. And buckle up, because that's exactly what we're giving them. And our friends on the other side of the aisle, please keep going down the path of defending and even advocating for government waste, fraud, and abuse. The message they all are sending is clear and we see whose side they're on. Look no further than their newest messaging strategy.
(14:44)
The minority leader unveiled it last week, it's called share your story. Can you guess whose story they're sharing? It's government employees, like a locksmith from Yosemite National Park. Not the stories of lives lost due to illegal immigration, they're not asking to share those stories. Not the stories of innocent lives that were lost due to fentanyl that came from across the border. Not the stories of hard-working Americans struggling to make ends meet. Democrats are sharing the stories of government employees, and this sad attempt of fearmongering that makes Democrats look even more deranged. It is absolutely insane that they think making government work more efficiently is a bad thing.
(15:39)
Remember that government efficiency is a constitutional crisis in the Democrat's minds. They continue to defend and advocate for waste, fraud, and abuse. They don't want it to stop. Democrats are ignoring the American people and siding with the swamp. They keep defending DEI employees and USAID while Republicans fight the bloated and inefficient bureaucracy, and we fight it for the American people. For years, we've heard about delays at the IRS, lost social security checks, mistreatment at the VA. Did the Democrats do anything about it? Did they set up a listening session to have people tell their stories? No, I think they only care about Washington and bloated bureaucracy in D.D. It is truly a shame despite the American taxpayers wishes. They're doubling down on the broken system, and they are the ones that broke it.
(16:47)
While Democrats keep displaying their derangement, telling out-of-touch stories, let's talk about those who can't tell their stories. Like Laken Riley who was raped and murdered by an illegal alien. Did the Democrats tell their story? How about Zach Cullen, who died of fentanyl poisoning? Did the Democrats set up a hotline to listen to their stories? Or how about a pastor in Michigan, Steven Singleton, who was killed by an illegal immigrant? Did they tell their stories? No. And you know why? They can't tell their stories because they're dead. Yet Democrats are soliciting sob stories from bloated bureaucrats with six- figure salaries. Give me a break.
(17:32)
Now it's time for us to tell our story, and that's what we're going to do. We're going to turn our attention to this week. House Republicans will focus on saving lives and taxpayer dollars. Then President Trump has been clear. He wants one big, beautiful bill that unlocks his full agenda, not just part of it, everything, and that's what our one big, beautiful bill does. This week, House Republicans will take the next steps in the process to deliver President Trump's full agenda. The House budget resolution invests in border security and our national defense. It also saves taxpayer dollars by rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse. It will encourage investment in the energy industry to increase production and to actually lower costs.
(18:27)
If we don't pass this bill, Americans will suffer the largest tax increase in history. The budget committee passed it with unanimous GOP support. And remember, this is just the starting point to unlock the process. After the resolution passes, committees will begin the real work, the work to find savings and create investments, savings in our budget to make America competitive and investments to make our country secure. That's what the president and the American people want, and who would go against their agenda? We're helping the president keep his promise. Because the American people gave us a decisive mandate, secure the border, unleash American energy, restore peace through strength, and make America competitive again.
(19:22)
If we remain united, we can pass this transformational legislation, and when we do, we will be remembered as the most successful conference in American history. I will now turn it over to Rep Tim Moore from North Carolina to speak about the budget as he serves on the budget committee. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Thank you, ma'am.
Tim Moore (19:44):
Excuse me, sir. Good morning. I appreciate the opportunity to join the Republican leadership team today in support of this House budget resolution that puts America back on the path of fiscal responsibility and economic prosperity. Before coming here, I guess I've been a member about what, six weeks so far? It feels a lot longer, Mr. Speaker, just saying. The time I've been here, I've had the opportunity to see how things work, but for 22 years as a member of the State House, 10 years as Speaker of the State House, had a part in changing our budgets that made North Carolina one of the most competitive states in the country. We took a budget shortfall and turned that into a surplus. We cut taxes. Frankly, we did a lot of the things that I'm seeing this leadership team work to try to do here at the national level. And that success ultimately happened then and will happen here, because we prioritize taxpayers, the real hardworking people, and not bureaucrats.
(20:42)
As a member of Congress, I want to help bring that same common sense attitude and track record that we did in the States here, and I can tell you that all of the new members of Congress have come in with that same view of what can we do to help move the country in the right direction? The American people spoke this year. They spoke loudly. President Trump is in the White House. You have a Republican majority in the House, a Republican majority in the Senate, and these bodies are ready to go to work to get this done. This bill is a huge step forward in that direction. Addressing energy independence, addressing the border. Finally reining in out-of-control spending, it's great to see this happening. They say the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over and over again to expect a different result.
(21:27)
Finally, finally, we see real change in Washington to get this spending under control, and there's a lot of fearmongering out there right now, people claiming that this is going to be cut and that's going to be cut. Look, nobody's going to want to hurt hard-working American people, that's not anywhere in here. Those are frankly just lies that some folks are telling. This bill is going to rein in wasteful spending. It's going to rein in fraud. It's going to rein in abuse, it's going to do all those things. And I just want to give a shout out to the leadership team really for being so engaging.
(21:58)
I can tell you as a new member of Congress that every member has been invited to be a part of this process. We've had weeks and weeks and weeks I believe with the listening sessions being fully briefed. And I can tell you that Chairman Errington on the budget committee really worked very hard to reach out to everyone to make sure everyone's voices were included. So I'm proud to be here with the leadership team today and proud to be in support of this budget bill. Thank you.
Whip (22:30):
On November 5th, 77 million Americans gave Donald Trump a mandate to deliver on our America First agenda. Americans voted to secure our borders, unleash American energy, grow the U.S. economy and bolster our great military, and prevent the largest tax hike in American history. They voted to make America great again by reversing the damage Joe Biden and Kamala Harris did to our country over the last four years. And House Republicans have put forward a budget that establishes a clear path to do just that. Now is the time to act and get a budget over to the Senate. And it's important to remember that our budget resolution merely unlocks the opportunity for committees to begin drafting legislation, that is where the real work is going to be begin.
(23:21)
So I'd caution the media against echoing Democrats hysteria on where savings will come from. Our budget resolution is a blueprint to save America, and rein in reckless and wasteful spending while delivering on President Trump's campaign promises. We have been given a historic opportunity with a Trump trifecta, and every member of our conference plays an important role in ensuring that we get it done. This is our moment. Now it's time to go out there and do it. And I turn it over to our majority leader, Steve Scalise.
Steve Scalise (23:59):
Thank you, Whip. It's
Speaker 3 (24:00):
It is a really important week. When you think about what we've laid out in our agenda. The culmination of months of work has gone into what we are doing this week to finally start delivering on the mandate that President Trump, House Republicans and Senate Republicans were given by voters across the country in November. Voters said they want a secure border. We deliver in this budget that we're going to pass this week. Voters said they don't want a tax increase, and believe me, that was on the ballot because Donald Trump said, "I want to keep the 2017 tax cuts in place." We don't want an increase for anybody and we want to build on it. He added more things. Kamala Harris said she wants those tax cuts to expire resulting in a multi-trillion dollar tax increase on the American people. The voters decided very clearly with President Trump, they don't want that tax increase to hit. We deliver that in this budget.
(25:04)
The American people said in November, they want more American energy to be produced. We deliver in this budget and we do a lot of other things too, but it all starts by getting this budget passed. And so as you watch this process start, you would think the Democrats would want to be joining with us in recognizing that the American people asked for all these things that we're going to be doing, but what are the Democrats doing? They're all going to vote no. Every Democrat will vote no on this budget. Now, they're not going to go to the American people and be truthful and say why they're voting no. They want Washington to keep more of your money so that you don't get that money back. They want a multi-trillion dollar tax increase. They set it during the campaign and they lost, but they still want that tax increase so they will all vote no. They don't want a secure border.
(25:57)
They set it for the last four years. They still haven't accepted the results of the election, so what do they do if they can't deal with the truth? They've got to lie. Just listen to what you've been hearing the last couple of days. Some of you have even been reporting it. I'm going through the budget. This is the House Republican budget that was passed unanimously by Republicans. Every Democrat voted no. Go through this entire bill. Do you know that for every Democrat talking point where they talk about the horrible things that this budget's going to do, they talk about Medicaid cuts. Everybody's going to be thrown according to Democrats into all these horrible situations. There's only one problem. The word Medicaid is not even in this bill. This bill doesn't even mention the word Medicaid a single time, and yet all Democrats are doing is lying about what's in the budget because they don't want to talk about the truth of what we're voting to start.
(27:01)
We're voting to start a process. This doesn't end the process. This allows 11 committees in Congress to go on OPENView, on C-SPAN to have hearings in March where you can all watch, you can all hear the debate, you can watch the amendments fly back and forth where we're going to be debating how government can work better for the people of this country, how we will deliver as Republicans on the promises that were made and the mandate was given by the voters in November. And Democrats are against all of that. And so instead of just sitting back and licking their wounds that they're completely out of touch with the American people, their only choice is to resort to lying about what's in this vote today.
(27:46)
There is no Medicaid in this bill. There are no Medicaid cuts in this bill. Yet, that's all they're saying. They're talking about millionaires and billionaires. Now they're just talking about Elon Musk. Democrats are so infatuated with Elon Musk that they will vote against low tax rates for hard-working middle-class families. Do you know that the last time we checked, Elon Musk does not work for tips, but you know who does? Millions of hard-working Americans that will get the no tax on tips promise that President Trump made that we will deliver on starting with the passage of this budget. Millions of Americans will benefit from that provision that we're going to add into our reconciliation bill.
(28:30)
Do you know the average pay for a tip worker in America? The average pay is $32,000 and we will be helping millions of those families who average $32,000 so that they don't have to pay tax on tips or they don't have to have the 87,000 new IRS agents that Biden added going after them trying to get them to pay thousands more in taxes when all they're trying to do is put food on the table for their families, working two or three jobs. Again, that's not Elon Musk we're talking about, that's millions of families who average 32,000 a year that Democrats will be voting against helping. They will be voting Democrats against helping millions of small businesses in America. Over 130 million families in America will see their individual tax rates go up when Democrats hit the red button and vote no on this budget, but house Republicans are committed to defending those families, to standing up for those families, to stopping a tax increase from hitting those families.
(29:40)
The corporate rate is already locked in. It's a permanent rate at 21%, so we're not talking about the big multinational corporations. They're lying talking about millionaires and billionaires when millionaires and billionaires aren't even 1% of who benefits. 99% of the people that would see a tax increase with a no vote are people that make less than a million dollars. Less than a million dollars. That's who Democrats want to see a tax increase on while they lie and use the names of billionaires, they're going to be kicking in the gut, the hard-working people of America. We don't want that to happen. That's why we're going to move this budget and start this process and start delivering on the mandate that we were all given. And the man who's been the most patient person I know listening to everybody who's got every issue, and I know a lot of you are saying, "Oh, gee whiz, do you have the votes? Are you going to vote? And I've heard this guy's a no."
(30:36)
Every big vote we've taken and I've been the whip before, I've been the minority whip, majority whip, majority leader. Every time we've had a big vote on the house floor, we're talking to members all the way up until the moment the vote closes. During the vote, we're talking to members, go look at every big vote we've had, today is no different. Sure, we're still talking. We talked to the speaker and I were in a meeting last night for over an hour talking to a lot of members that had questions. We ended that meeting with every one of them finishing as a yes vote. We still have more conversations to have today just like we do on any day of any big vote, so we're not going to stop working because millions of people are counting on us to deliver for them the mandate they gave us. Introduced to you to Speaker of the House.
Mike Johnson (31:23):
Well, thank you so much. Good morning. It's a big day in America. Big day on Capitol Hill. I'm glad to see full participation by the media and the press corps here this morning. A lot going on. I want to thank the leadership team for their extraordinary work and their patience. This has been going on for quite some time, prepare us for this day, this week and the consequential actions that we'll be taking as a House Republican majority to move this ball forward. We'll talk about it a little bit. I want to thank also Representative Tim Moore, very talented member from North Carolina's 14th District, and if he sounds like he's done this before, he has, he was the Speaker of the House in North Carolina for 10 years and he's an example of the high caliber of freshman class, the new members, new House Republicans who have joined us doing extraordinary work.
(32:07)
He took on the heavy load early on and the budget committee's not an easy assignment, but I thank him for that work and all of our colleagues, Chairman Jodey Arrington and all the budget committee members who've been working so hard. Before we get to that, let me just say last week marked one month of the Trump administration. It's just been a month. It seems like much longer than that because so much has been accomplished. What a difference the last 30 days have made. America once again has a real leader in the White House and you see the effects. He's taking action to make America safer, stronger, and more efficient, and we are delivering on our campaign promises. It was not just the promises of President Trump, it's the promises of house Republicans. And just as we promised, I was on the campaign trail all last year, went all around the country and I told them these things would happen. Just as we promised by his executive authority and instructing federal agencies to follow the law, illegal border crossings are now down dramatically and you've heard some of the numbers.
(33:04)
Illegal alien encounters are down 87%, known gotaways are down 93%. This is what real leadership looks like and deportations of violent, illegal aliens are well underway as you know. In other areas, just as we promised on the world stage, America is showing strength again. We maintain peace through strength. That's the core principle of our party. President Trump understands that. He more than understands that, he acts upon it. Before he even took office, he secured a ceasefire agreement and return of hostages in Gaza, Colombia quickly reversed. They reversed their course and they vowed to accept citizens who were in America illegally from that country. Canada and Mexico quickly agreed to bolster their border security. Canada now has a border czar and they're going to help us make sure that Fentanyl doesn't flow over that border.
(33:57)
Just as we promised, president Trump is making transformational change to the bloated federal bureaucracy. Every single person understands. The government is too big, it does too many things, and it does almost nothing very well. We've got to fix that and we will. The DOGE auditors are doing work that Congress has not been able to do because we could not crack the code. We could not get inside these agencies to get the very important information that we have long needed, but they have found tens of billions and waste fraud and abuse, and it's only been a month. That process continues. Just last week, DOGE uncovered a $2 billion grant to a Stacey Abrams affiliated group that only had $100 in their bank account, a cheap website and zero experience in managing energy projects. That was the subject of that grant. Just one glaring example of the enormous misuse of taxpayer dollars, and we're finding that every day we're learning more and more about what has been hidden from Congress for so long, and this is going to change the way the federal government works and operates. It is truly transformational. Just as we promised, as President Trump works to clean up the mess, President Biden has made. Congressional Republicans are taking action to do the same. Last week, leader Scalise released a list of Biden administration rules that house Republicans will roll back through the Congressional Review Act legislation. This week you're going to see that, you heard a little bit about it. We'll focus on the EPA rule. This EPA rule imposes a significant fee on methane emissions from oil and natural gas facilities. And what the effect of that is that it raises prices and it reduces energy production, domestic energy production. It makes no sense. We'll also roll back a Department of Energy rule, which effectively bans certain natural gas water heaters from the market. Democrats rather bizarrely chose home appliances as their target of their Green New Deal agenda and House Republicans will stand up for consumer choice and common sense and overturn this rule.
(35:55)
Not only are we taking action to roll back Biden's agenda, we're also working to codify
Mike Johnson (36:00):
… by President Trump's agenda. We can't allow a future administration to unwind all of these important reforms, so we're planning to take up our budget resolution as early as today, which is a major step as you know to unlock the process in delivering President Trump's America First legislative agenda. We're very close right now. And as you just heard, the leader, Leader Scalise explain, there's always more work to do right up to the end for a big vote like this, and this is a big one. We're very, very close, and we're excited about the progress, and I'm very positive and I'm absolutely convinced we're going to get this done. There's a lot of misinformation about the budget resolution. You've heard some of this being cleaned up this morning. I won't repeat it all, but this resolution itself contains no policies.
(36:42)
It is a framework only, and it's the product of months and months of work completed with the input of over 95% of the individual members of the Republican Conference. We held dozens of listening sessions. We met with nearly every member of the conference multiple times, and truly, this has been a bottom-up approach to the process. So we're proud of the final product, the work product. And again, it's the kickoff in what will be a four-quarter game, and that very important, very consequential game begins as soon as we get this thing passed. This has been necessary because we promised to deliver President Trump's full agenda, not just a part of it. We're not just going to do a little bit now and return later for the rest. We have to do it now.
(37:23)
And that one big beautiful bill will include securing the border, restoring America's energy dominance, dismantling the deep state, growing our economy and ensuring we don't have the largest tax increase in U.S. history, as was just recounted here, and a return to peace through strength. We do not have time to waste. The American people are expecting us to deliver on this and we will. And House Republicans need to unite so we can keep this process moving forward and I think they all understand that. We're working right now to get everybody on board. I think everybody wants to be on this train and not in front of it, and so we are going to answer the remaining questions and get everybody on board. And we're going to deliver on that mandate that we told the American people that we would do. Then I'll take a couple of questions.
Speaker 4 (38:03):
Mr. Speaker?
Mike Johnson (38:03):
[inaudible 00:38:04]
Speaker 4 (38:04):
You said that this is just the start of the process. Can you say unequivocally that further down the line, there won't be any cuts to Medicaid programs?
Mike Johnson (38:13):
Yeah. So look, let me clarify what we're talking about with Medicaid. Medicaid is hugely problematic because it has a lot of fraud, waste and abuse. Everybody knows that. We all know it intuitively. No one in here would disagree. We had a hearing in budget just last week, or week before last, and they asked the experts and the estimate is I think it's $50 billion a year in fraud alone in Medicaid. Those are precious taxpayer dollars. Everybody is committed to preserving Medicare benefits for those who desperately need it and deserve it and qualify for it. What we're talking about is rooting out the fraud, waste and abuse. Every taxpayer, it doesn't matter what party you're in, you should be for that because it saves your money, and it preserves the programs so that it is available for the people who desperately need it.
(39:01)
That's what we're about and that's what you're going to see happen. We want to make sure that illegal aliens who do not qualify are not on the rolls and we know that they are in many places. We can achieve a lot of savings with that. We can eliminate all these fraudulent payments and achieve a lot of savings. What you're doing with that is you're shoring up the program, and you're making sure that the people who rely upon that have it and that it's a better program. That's what we're talking about. You've heard the president say that, you've heard members of the House Republican Conference say that. And no one else has said anything else except the Democrats who have ads out that are lying about the intention here. That's the fact. The leader just held up the resolution. Do a word search for yourself. It doesn't even mention Medicaid in the bill, so that's the important part.
Speaker 4 (39:47):
Just to clarify, some of the savings will have to come from Medicaid.
Mike Johnson (39:47):
I just explained those categories of savings. I just explained that. So watch how the process plays out over the coming weeks and you'll see what we're talking about. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (39:56):
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Should Elon Musk allow President Trump's cabinet to make their own decisions on personnel?
Mike Johnson (40:03):
I'm not going to tell the executive branch how to operate. I've got enough to handle over here in the legislative branch. But I will say that I think the vast majority of the American people understand and applaud and appreciate the DOGE effort, the goal to scale down the size and scope of government. Our party is committed to that as a core principle. We always have been. And the reason we're excited about what Elon Musk and the team at DOGE are doing, the end result of that is going to be achieving the goal that we've always had and that is to make government more efficient just as the name of that operation and that project implies. And if we can save a trillion dollars in fraud, waste and abuse, which Elon has said in recent weeks and told me in his office a couple of weeks ago, he thinks it's very possible this year to identify and eliminate a trillion dollars of waste of your taxpayer dollars. You ought to be standing up and applauding that, and we all do. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (40:53):
Mr. Speaker. On immigration, President Trump has long said that he wants to help the DREAMers. What is the Republican and the House GOP Conference plan to do that? Will DREAMers be part of the budget reconciliation?
Mike Johnson (41:06):
Yeah. Well, you can't do big policy changes in reconciliation. As you know, it's limited to what you do with the budget itself, but there's lots of talk about big changes to immigration policy. I came off the House Judiciary Committee before I was speaker of the house. For almost eight years I served there. And in my first two terms, we worked really hard on comprehensive immigration reform, and I learned firsthand how difficult and complex that is. So there'll be a lot of thoughtful discussion about that. We're not on those issues right now, but it will come, I think, later in this Congress because we understand the immigration system has been broken. Securing the border was the first and most immediate priority of the American people, and that's what's happened here. The president has done it with executive orders. We now have to codify that, when we get to that and we'll be addressing the rest of the issues. Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 7 (41:50):
Mr. Speaker?
Mike Johnson (41:50):
Yes.
Speaker 7 (41:54):
President Trump called Zelensky a dictator, has falsely claimed he was responsible for the war that Russia started its 2022 invasion. You guys were off when he made those comments. I haven't heard you respond, especially with the dictator comment. And I wanted to know what you think of Mr. Trump's comment and also how the administration's position on Ukraine, have you rethought your move to bring Ukraine into the floor last year?
Mike Johnson (42:21):
Well-
Speaker 7 (42:21):
Was that still [inaudible 00:42:22]
Mike Johnson (42:23):
The supplemental last year was to put Ukraine in the position where they are right now, to be in a posture where a peace negotiation could take place. I said for more than a year on the campaign trail that I knew that when President Trump was elected, he would be the changing agent. He would be the force who could come in and move both of those parties to the table to negotiate an end. Everybody in the world wants an end to this war. We need to restore peace there. President Trump is fiercely committed to that. Now, he operates in a certain way. He is a great deal-maker as everyone will have to acknowledge, whether they like it or not. He wrote the book, The Art of the Deal.
(42:57)
And I think of this, I liken this to my former law practice where we would be engaged sometimes in arbitration or mediation between two parties that were at war metaphorically. And when you begin an arbitration proceeding, you don't bring both parties into the meeting for that first table set because they're at odds, right? That wouldn't be productive. So you begin by meeting individually with the two parties. That's what President Trump is doing right now. It's very logical if you stop and think about it. He's met with the Russian side, with Putin's side through his representatives there, and he's spoken to Zelensky. He's speaking to both parties to set the table, so to speak, for what that negotiation is going to be. This is very productive.
(43:38)
He is the only person on the planet who has the ability to make that happen. You have to give the president room to work. His language and his actions and his decisions shouldn't be second-guessed step by step. You have to allow this process to play out. I think he's been very clear about what the objective here is, and when he speaks to those issues, what he's talking about is we want to get Ukraine back to a posture of peace. There's an idea on the table for them to actually be in partnership with the U.S. with regard to production of the precious minerals that are needed. And also we want to get back to free and fair elections. There just as we fight for here and we fight for around the world, I think those things are all consistent, and I think President Trump is moving the ball forward in a way that all of us should applaud. Third row. Yes, sir.
Speaker 8 (44:28):
How do you respond to critics like Tom Massie who argued that this budget resolution will make steps worse, not better? And are you committed to having a vote today or is that potentially going to get delayed?
Mike Johnson (44:39):
Yeah, so the budget resolution itself doesn't do any of that. The objective and our commitment has always been deficit neutrality, that's the goal here. If we can reduce the deficit, even better. But here's another thing everybody needs to consider. Not only are we working to find savings for the American taxpayer, to find a better, more efficient, more effective use of their dollars, which we are morally obligated to do, we also have a moral obligation to bend the curve on the debt. All of your children, all of our children and grandchildren are going to be saddled with the debt that we are spending right now. It's $36 trillion federal debt. The deficits have ballooned. We have to change that trajectory. Now, you don't turn an aircraft carrier on a dime.
(45:18)
It takes miles of open ocean to turn an aircraft carrier 'cause it's such a large vessel. I think the metaphor is obvious here. We can't do it all at once, but we're going to take a big bite out of that. We are going to make a big course correction in this process, and that's why the Republicans in the House and the Senate are so excited about this mission and what we can accomplish with it. So stay tuned on the details. We are going to do this methodically. We're going to do it in a very responsible manner, and we're going to achieve these goals. And we'll be working with all the members throughout the day to get to that. There may be a vote tonight, there may not be. Stay tuned. That's why you get paid. Hang around here. You'll have lots to report on, and what we're working on is to get to… We're working on that.
(46:00)
On approps, I'll leave you with that. Our House Republican appropriators have been working very hard and in good faith to negotiate with our Democrat counterparts. The necessary step, as you know for approps is to get to a top-line agreement. Chairman Tom Cole addressed the House of Republicans this morning on the latest developments about how we may be getting close to a number on that. The problem is the Democrats have added something new and different that's never been part of this before. They are trying to add to the appropriations bill a demand that they want us to somehow limit the ability of the executive branch to do its job. They want to limit, tie the hands of the President on what he is able to do with the expenditures in the executive branch. That's never been done before.
(46:43)
House Republicans, as egregious as the actions were of the previous President, Joe Biden, as unconstitutional and outrageous as they were, we never proposed using the appropriations process to tie the president's hands. It'd be, I think, a gross separation of powers violation and a terrible precedent for Congress to engage in. So that's a non-starter for us, and the Democrats know that. And so it looks like they're in a posture right now that they're making individual appropriations bills almost impossible. We'll find out soon. Stay tuned. There's more discussion today to be had. But we are nearing obviously the March 14th deadline, and I'm really hopeful that they'll back off of those outrageous demands 'cause it's unprecedented. And I think it's probably unconstitutional, and it's not anything we'll be a part of. Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 9 (47:29):
Given where you are, would you support a CR right now?