1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:04,520 Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Elon Musk 2 00:00:04,520 --> 00:00:07,120 Podcast. This is a show where we discuss 3 00:00:07,320 --> 00:00:11,520 the critical crossroads, the Shape, SpaceX, Tesla X, The 4 00:00:11,520 --> 00:00:15,560 Boring Company, and Neurolink. I'm your host, Will Walden. 5 00:00:16,600 --> 00:00:18,840 Thank you, Chair Collins, Vice Chair Murray, members of the 6 00:00:18,840 --> 00:00:20,520 committee. This is the first time I've been 7 00:00:20,520 --> 00:00:23,680 on this side of the dais. I have to say the the altitude 8 00:00:23,680 --> 00:00:25,760 difference is, is affecting me a little bit. 9 00:00:26,760 --> 00:00:30,600 It really is an honor to be here to argue against this 10 00:00:30,600 --> 00:00:35,120 rescissions package on behalf of all of you, on behalf of all of 11 00:00:35,120 --> 00:00:37,600 you as appropriators. And now I want to be abundantly 12 00:00:37,600 --> 00:00:40,960 clear, I like Eric Schmidt a lot, but this is a very 13 00:00:40,960 --> 00:00:42,840 important point. And it's actually fatal to the 14 00:00:42,840 --> 00:00:45,840 rescissions package. Every single program that 15 00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:49,800 Senator Schmidt just mentioned has already been cancelled. 16 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:53,760 Every single program. And there's a longer list that 17 00:00:53,760 --> 00:00:57,240 was on a Fox News Chiron and Senator Graham and I have kind 18 00:00:57,240 --> 00:00:59,120 of gone over all of this. There are a bunch of different 19 00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:02,360 examples of of terrible sounding things. 20 00:01:03,960 --> 00:01:07,840 They are all done and they all belong in the previous federal 21 00:01:07,840 --> 00:01:11,240 fiscal year. So now that it's Marco Rubio's 22 00:01:11,240 --> 00:01:17,160 State Department and Marco Rubio's USAID agency, and now 23 00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:20,440 that it is Donald Trump's White House, none of these things are 24 00:01:20,440 --> 00:01:25,440 happening. This is a rescission of Trump's 25 00:01:25,440 --> 00:01:28,320 CR in the current federal fiscal year. 26 00:01:29,280 --> 00:01:33,080 And so if you have a problem with any of those programs, let 27 00:01:33,080 --> 00:01:38,640 Lindsay and I write a bill that prohibits the use of funds for 28 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:42,360 any of those seemingly improper uses of funds. 29 00:01:43,160 --> 00:01:48,280 That's the way to do this. Colleagues are being asked on 30 00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:53,600 this committee to cut programs that I know each one of you have 31 00:01:53,600 --> 00:01:57,120 personally prioritized because we get the letters, whether 32 00:01:57,120 --> 00:01:59,840 you're a chair or the rancor of a subcommittee, you get a letter 33 00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:03,440 from your colleagues saying could you please prioritize XYZ 34 00:02:03,760 --> 00:02:07,800 program and many of the programs that at this, I mean, I'm 35 00:02:07,800 --> 00:02:10,680 talking about right now in the same time period we are 36 00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:13,480 receiving letters, please save this, please save that, please, 37 00:02:13,480 --> 00:02:17,160 plus up that. That's what we're cutting right 38 00:02:17,160 --> 00:02:27,360 now in this rescissions package. We do not have to spend foreign 39 00:02:27,360 --> 00:02:31,080 assistance dollars in the same way that we always have been 40 00:02:31,080 --> 00:02:33,080 spending foreign assistance dollars. 41 00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:35,280 There's plenty of room for reform. 42 00:02:35,280 --> 00:02:39,120 You're pushing on an open door and in fact, the administration 43 00:02:39,120 --> 00:02:40,480 hasn't until the end of next year. 44 00:02:40,480 --> 00:02:43,960 This is 2 year money. There's no rush on this. 45 00:02:43,960 --> 00:02:47,600 This is 2 year money to align this funding with with its new 46 00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:50,560 priorities, but we're being asked to rescind billions of 47 00:02:50,560 --> 00:02:53,360 dollars without even knowing which programs are being 48 00:02:53,360 --> 00:02:54,960 cancelled. Just so you understand how this 49 00:02:54,960 --> 00:02:58,240 legislation works. It's big baskets of money. 50 00:02:58,680 --> 00:03:01,360 So you have no idea whether the program that you are 51 00:03:01,360 --> 00:03:04,200 prioritizing is going to be cut or not. 52 00:03:04,480 --> 00:03:07,400 And they are not providing any clarity about that. 53 00:03:08,720 --> 00:03:12,040 You would think that if you're asking the Congress to use this 54 00:03:12,040 --> 00:03:15,880 extraordinary authority under statutory law that you would 55 00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:18,120 have a line by line. Here's what we're cutting, 56 00:03:18,120 --> 00:03:20,000 here's what we're keeping. Here's what we're cutting, 57 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:22,920 here's what we're keeping. The answer that we are going to 58 00:03:22,920 --> 00:03:26,960 receive is let me take that under advisement or and get back 59 00:03:26,960 --> 00:03:30,320 to you or I don't know. That's none of your business or, 60 00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:35,240 or I'm not sure what it is. There is no reason not to have 61 00:03:35,240 --> 00:03:38,920 specificity other than the math doesn't add up. 62 00:03:38,960 --> 00:03:41,960 The things that you care about are being cut in here, and they 63 00:03:41,960 --> 00:03:45,720 don't want to specify it. And that brings me to what it is 64 00:03:45,720 --> 00:03:50,480 definitely in this package, $900 million in cuts from global 65 00:03:50,480 --> 00:03:54,000 health programs, including PEPFAR and efforts to combat 66 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:59,960 diseases like malaria, TB and polio. $1.3 billion in cuts to 67 00:03:59,960 --> 00:04:03,400 humanitarian assistance, which save lives, provide food and 68 00:04:03,400 --> 00:04:06,920 shelter and water, and support victims of sexual assault. 69 00:04:07,240 --> 00:04:10,640 And $4.6 billion in cuts to economic development assistance 70 00:04:10,640 --> 00:04:14,040 to key partners, whether it's Jordan increasing in with 71 00:04:14,040 --> 00:04:17,720 increasing regional tension, the Philippines as it counters 72 00:04:17,800 --> 00:04:22,600 Chinese aggression, the Burmese opposition, or Ukraine. 73 00:04:23,320 --> 00:04:26,480 And gone is a billion dollars in support for organizations like 74 00:04:26,480 --> 00:04:29,880 UNICEF. Everybody that was opposed to 75 00:04:29,880 --> 00:04:33,120 those things that were on that Fox chyron, everybody that found 76 00:04:33,120 --> 00:04:35,840 some of the things that Senator Schmidt talked about as 77 00:04:35,840 --> 00:04:39,400 objectionable also hastened to say, I don't want to cut UNICEF. 78 00:04:39,400 --> 00:04:42,280 I don't want to cut cut PEPFAR. I don't want to cut the World 79 00:04:42,280 --> 00:04:44,280 Food Program. Guess what is in this 80 00:04:44,280 --> 00:04:47,280 rescissions package? All of those things are being 81 00:04:47,280 --> 00:04:48,960 cut. And none of the things that you 82 00:04:48,960 --> 00:04:52,640 object to, they've already been eliminated. 83 00:04:53,680 --> 00:04:56,200 This is not just a question of policy. 84 00:04:56,600 --> 00:05:00,720 This is also a question of what this committee is even for. 85 00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:03,560 Being a Senate appropriator is an honor. 86 00:05:03,560 --> 00:05:07,080 It means something. It means that the executive 87 00:05:07,160 --> 00:05:10,400 branch proposes and the legislative branch disposes. 88 00:05:10,920 --> 00:05:14,320 It means that we, as the Article 1 branch, hold the purse 89 00:05:14,320 --> 00:05:17,160 strings, that that is subject to cloture. 90 00:05:17,760 --> 00:05:20,920 So what's at stake here is more than the particular provisions 91 00:05:20,920 --> 00:05:24,120 of the rescissions package. It is whether we're going to 92 00:05:24,120 --> 00:05:28,400 willingly set up a situation where bipartisan negotiations 93 00:05:28,960 --> 00:05:31,720 are ripped up whenever there is a trifecta. 94 00:05:32,720 --> 00:05:35,800 If that's what you want, I think you should vote yes. 95 00:05:35,920 --> 00:05:38,600 But if you want to preserve your prerogative for yourself, for 96 00:05:38,600 --> 00:05:42,960 your home state, and for this institution, then this is not a 97 00:05:42,960 --> 00:05:47,600 particularly close call. Why be an appropriator and just 98 00:05:47,600 --> 00:05:50,400 turn around and surrender your authority? 99 00:05:50,640 --> 00:05:55,880 Because it is S fobs today, but it's going to be T Hut it's 100 00:05:55,880 --> 00:06:00,600 going to be AG, it's going to be labor H, it's going to be milk 101 00:06:00,600 --> 00:06:03,960 on VA, it's going to be CJS tomorrow. 102 00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:07,680 So I encourage all of my colleagues on a bipartisan basis 103 00:06:07,680 --> 00:06:10,600 to think hard about the precedent that we would be 104 00:06:10,600 --> 00:06:13,320 setting if we voted yes on this package. 105 00:06:13,400 --> 00:06:14,920 Thank you very much. Thank you. 106 00:06:14,960 --> 00:06:16,640 Hey, thank you so much for listening today. 107 00:06:16,640 --> 00:06:18,680 I really do appreciate your support. 108 00:06:18,680 --> 00:06:21,520 If you could take a second and hit this subscribe or the follow 109 00:06:21,520 --> 00:06:23,720 button on whatever podcast platform that you're listening 110 00:06:23,720 --> 00:06:26,360 on right now, I greatly appreciate it. 111 00:06:26,360 --> 00:06:29,040 It helps out the show tremendously and you'll never 112 00:06:29,040 --> 00:06:32,000 miss an episode. And each episode is about 10 113 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:34,600 minutes or less to get you caught up quickly. 114 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:37,760 And please, if you want to support the show even more, go 115 00:06:37,760 --> 00:06:43,000 to Atreoncom Stage Zero. And please take care of 116 00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:45,360 yourselves and each other. And I'll see you tomorrow.