Congressman Mark Alford is a husband, father, former small business owner and a 25-year veteran news anchor, who proudly represents Missouri’s 4th congressional district.
Conservative Congressman Pat Fallon, represents the 4th Congressional district in the great state of Texas. He’s a veteran of the U.S. Airforce.
Transcribed by Otter.Ai
Chicken pickles your headquarters for family fun located at 2965 South state highway 161 and epic central chicken and pickle offers fun and friendly competition in our pickleball courts, outdoor yard games and plenty of space to kick back and relax with your favorite peeps known for our chef driven restaurants serving woodfired rotisserie chicken pulled pork and grass fed beef sandwiches, handcut fries, tasty tots, and more. There’s something for everyone in our Nast plus cold beer and seasonal cocktails make every hour happy hour there is no better place to enjoy good food, good friends and great fine than that chicken and pickles 2965 South state highway 161 and epic central you don’t need to be an expert to be a hero. You just need a passion for helping others in times of need. Join the Tarrant County MRC and be a local hero. You’ll join a network of volunteers who help out during emergencies and at community events throughout the year. Get started at Beale local hero.org. Or click the banner to learn more. Discover the hero inside you brought to you by Tarrant County Public Health you know the job was dangerous when you took it for him. I have a question. Be respectful of me you might even goes so far it’s it’s mediocre. I guess I should salute you with a worthy adversary and all that. But the truth is, I really did he had a single score podcast. So confused, I am so confused, folks, as you could probably glean your liberty loving Latino here was not at all happy about nothing getting done in the debt ceiling deal. No reductions in the rate of overspending. None zero, nada, we got bubkis We got less than bubkis Out of the debt ceiling deal. And what has even been more baffling has been how the Republican Party has tried to spin this. Now, for those of you who weren’t paying that close attention as your money was flushed down the toilet. Again, let me just remind you about some of the where we were, how everything transpired. Kevin McCarthy who was showing such wonderful promise, such great promise, he debated and passed a debt ceiling increase measure, which was for one year, these are the terms we raise it for one year $1.5 trillion. And we would shave off, not cut because there were no cuts being proposed by the Republicans shave off the overspending by about $5 trillion over 10 years. Now. Was that a huge cut? No, it was a modest, and it wasn’t even a cut. It was a modest reduction in the rate of overspending. But it was a step in the right direction. And it is head and shoulders over anything this government’s been cranking out for the past. Well, six years. And I mean that to encapsulate President Trump President Trump did not Institute or back any fiscal restraint inside of this government. I think it was one of his biggest mistakes. Because as the China virus showed, when we had an actual crisis, so called crisis, we didn’t have the money, and they just piled more and more and more and more debt. Folks, we’re at $32 trillion of debt. And we needed to start reversing course on that now. As I said, Kevin McCarthy debated and got a bill passed in the House, he had a he had a bill that was ready to go. That was the starting point in the negotiations. Beijing Biden, his starting point was I’m going to sit on my lazy ass or fall on my lazy ass and do nothing and do nothing. So that’s, that’s the two starting points of negotiations now meeting in the middle would have been okay, I’m not going to get $5 trillion worth of reduced spending, but maybe I’m gonna get $3 trillion, or maybe even $2 trillion over 10 years have reduced something. I’ve reduced spending something out of that deal. But Kevin McCarthy got nothing. He froze Joe Biden spending and it’s already unacceptably high level for next year. And the year after that he gave Joe Biden arrays by 1%. That is not reducing overspending. Now, the Republicans have been trying to put this lipstick on this pig. And they’ve tried to claim there’s $2.1 trillion of of reduced spending in this bill, folks, it’s there. It’s not in there. It’s not in there. There was nothing in that bill. And this is Have they asked the question? Is there something in the debt ceiling deal that mandates that $2.1 trillion not be spent by government? And then they will be forced to tell you? No, there are no mandates. There is no force of law that restricts its call force. It’s aspirational. It’s like, well, golly, gee willikers, the government would really like to spend $2.1 trillion less if this and if that and if Pisces and Virgo merge and if Jupiter is rising with Mars and whatever. That’s the kind of crap that’s in this debt ceiling deal. Now, people that you were used to supporting conservatives have come out with well, rather unique takes. Let’s just put it that way. rather unique takes on what the debt ceiling was like. Marjorie Taylor Greene, obviously this bill is more favorable to you than a clean debt ceiling increase. Is there in frustration that there were things left on the table that could have made a bigger dent in the deficit? Oh, there’s a lot of things that I would have liked to have seen happen. Of course, I again, I don’t fully support this bill. I voted for it for a few specific things. But the reality and I live in reality, not conservative fantasyland. Well, excuse me. Conservative fantasyland. Is is that where we conservatives are Congresswoman and conservative fantasy land by by wanting to reduce profligate irresponsible and existential spending overspending. Now listen to our explanation. Here’s here’s Marjorie Taylor Greene’s definition of reality. The reality is, is that we barely barely control one half of this house, which is only 1/3 of the federal government. Women. You control one half of the house, which is 1/3. of government. So women, I thought the Republicans were in charge of the house. Yeah, that’s true. So they control the House, they control 1/3 of government, not one half of 1/3. I don’t get the math. I don’t understand the math here. I’m not the only one. I’ll get to that in a second. So people that understand how to be successful and make deals that will actually work and are actually realistic. We this is why we supported them. Yeah. This is why we support this. Well. There’s a lot there to unpack, or a lot there to interpret. And I guess those who voted no, like conservative Congressman chip Roy said one day, I hope to understand, he linked to that. That soundbite and said, I just hope one day to understand how to negotiate good deals. I don’t know that we can say that when you started point A, and your opponent starts at point C and you don’t meet at point B. But you you you meet at point C you meet at your opponent that that’s how some somehow a successful negotiation. I don’t get it. I don’t understand it. I’m hoping one day to be explained. Like how Wait a minute Republicans controlling one half of 1/3 of the government and that that’s just I don’t understand how she gets that. So coming up next, I talk with not one but two members of Congress to find out how they voted on the debt ceiling deal, and why that’s coming up in a Salcedo store and podcast. And now a word from our sponsor. Does the state of the economy have your head spinning? Let American medical plans relieve one burden health insurance, American medical plan specializes and under 65 health insurance plans that have zero co pays and no deductibles you choose your doctors you choose your hospitals. These plans have nothing to do with your income and are 30 to 60% less than Obama care if you’re paying too much for your own health insurance call American medical plans you deserve better. They will customize a plan managed and chosen by you. Not the government a liberty loving American takes on Washington, Hollywood and the whole media establishment. He’s Chris Salcedo join his fight. Tune in to the Chris Saucedo show. Every weekday afternoon on Newsmax tired of cable news lying to you. It’s time the establishment media went the way of the dinosaurs and for free digital journalism to rise at Texas scorecard. We bring you real news for real Texas with no paywalls ever go to Texas scorecard.com Today Alright kids want to bring on two members of Congress to have some deep and substantive conversations about some of the issues confronting our country and frankly, how they voted on the debt ceiling deal and why Congressman Mark Alford is a husband a father, former small business owner and a 25 year veteran news Anchor, who proudly represents Missouri’s Fourth Congressional District and conservative Congressman Pat Fallon represents the Fourth Congressional District in the great state of Texas. He’s a veteran of the United States Air Force. Gentlemen, welcome to you both. Thank Well, Chris, thanks for having us on. So let’s look go down the list here. I have a series of questions for the both of you, Congressman Alford, since you are our guests from out of state. Let’s ask you how you voted on the debt ceiling deal? Yes or No? And why? Well, Chris, I voted no. There was a lot of pressure, I think on us to vote yes. I think in the end, I think the leadership respected our vote for No, we had good reasons to, from the very beginning. Speaker McCarthy has told me before I took office and after office, we need to vote our district, I listened to the district, we can not add another $4 trillion worth of debt on the backs of our children and grandchildren. The defense spending on this bill was anemic. 1% and 2025. We scoffed at the President’s budget, which pretty much amounted to the same thing, we have to get ready for a potential conflict with China. And we cannot do that by having anemic spending and defense. And lastly, I think, also important, you know, I campaigned on getting rid of this 87,000 IRS agents that the President was going to sick on the American people $80 billion. He wants to, in his budget to to form this army armed IRS agents, in some cases to go after everyday Americans. I could not stomach that. The deal that was presented to us in this after we passed limits, save grow to get rid of them, was only really repealing the first year of hiring these at $1.4 billion. It’s not good enough. Fourth Congressional District of Missouri said it’s not good enough, and I vote for my district. Amen to that. Congressman Pat Phelan. I know how you voted, it was a no, that the leadership of the Republican Party is saying that they’ve got $2.1 trillion in savings. But that’s just not true. It’s because there’s nothing in the bill that requires that that mandates Congress trim that money. So isn’t it rather disingenuous of speaker McCarthy to go around saying that there’s $2.1 trillion worth of savings in there? When there when there isn’t? Well, Chris, I didn’t vote no, I voted hell no. So as my good friend Mark was saying, the same reason why I couldn’t really bring myself to vote for Chris was the unlimited grow. If that is passing the law, which was the bill that we voted on a few weeks back to responsibly raise the debt ceiling, we would have taken the debt to GDP ratio from what it is now at roughly 180%, down to 106%, which is not where you want to land, but it’s a very good first step. And that was that excited me enough to vote for that. But we have to acknowledge some realities here. A $32 trillion debt. And $400 billion of that, Chris, we are spending every year on the interest to pay the debt. And the Democrats never want to talk about that. They want to say as Mark and I were here, oh, you’re gonna hurt, you’re gonna cut that veterans benefits? And what about security and all this other stuff? Hey, what could we what good can we do with $400 million? And what we can do some of that back to the American taxpayer, because after all, it’s their money in the first place. Right? And we’re burning that and wasted right now. So we That’s why I just no way ended up several other reasons. We could teach a college three credit college course on live, I don’t know. But the main ones where we weren’t addressing 100, half a trillion dollar illegal. I think our constitutional and expensive student loan giveaway, were requirements for welfare weren’t nearly strong enough. We wanted the REINS Act and for your listeners, the REINS Act is with force and compel Congress to approve new regulations by federal bureaucrats. Thank you. That was a great idea. You know, and as Mark So adroitly pointed out defense spending when you’re not keeping up with inflation year over year, that’s an effective defense spending cut. And it makes our military weaker right in the middle of it recruiting crisis that the Democrats will not talk about, and they refuse to address. Well, gentlemen, I’ve got to say that one of your points that you guys basically pointed to was the fact that the the bill that was voted on by the Republicans and was supported by conservatives, that reduced the debt ceiling for one year so that the presidential candidates could debate this to $1.5 trillion increase in the debt ceiling but trimmed nearly $5 trillion and spend over spending over 10 years, which was not a cut, and I’ve got to stress this, it wasn’t a cut. It was a reduction in the rate of spending. There were no cuts whatsoever. were proposed by the Republicans was a step as you guys sit in the right direction. Now I got to ask you both. How do you feel now that your leadership in the Republican Party now has made you co owners of the economic calamity because now we are we are saddled with Joe Biden’s unacceptably high spending for next year. And then he was rewarded by House Republicans, by a 1% increase the next year. So it was already unacceptably high. And he got rewarded for sitting on his Duff for 90 days and doing nothing by your leadership. Congressman Alfred, how do you feel having your leadership now having you co owners of a recession that is likely going to hit us high interest rate that’s going to hit us and more economic calamity that’s going to hit us because of these stupid fiscal policies? Well, look, I still have confidence in Kevin McCarthy, I stood up 15 times. That was the third vote by voice vote in January and I yield out his full name Kevin McCarthy, I believe in Kevin McCarthy. I think he and Gary graves, Patrick McHenry should be applauded for the efforts. The problem was the president united states dragged his heels of course, he stumbled over the sandbag or his own feet yesterday. But during this four month period, he dragged his heels he, this is what I am sick of. And I am a freshman there. Pat’s been doing it longer than I have. But I’ve seen it when I was in the news. These Democrats want to obfuscate gaslight delay until they get us in a corner. They did that last year where the omnibus bill and made a swallow the poison. And I I’ll be damned if I’m going to be a part of that. And that’s one of the reasons I voted no, I’m not going to be back in the corner. And I’m not voting out of fear. Well, I gotta say, gentleman, I supported Kevin McCarthy’s efforts that that bill that he passed and got passed, was a good step in the right direction. And I had high hopes that the speaker was at least going to get some reductions in the rate of spending, but he got zero, he got zero. So So Congressman fell, I’m gonna ask you the same. Now. Now the Democrats will be able to credibly say, because it was they who rescued this bill, along with Republicans who voted yes for it, they will be able to say, hey, everything that happens, we’re co owners, because the Republicans sign on to us with this with this vacuous, irresponsible spending. How does that make you feel, sir? Well, you know, what, many of my constituents have said, you know, when Ken McCarthy do Tim McCarthy this? Well, if you’re placing blame, I think we can place it where it belongs, which is, I’ll give me a list of names Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer and Kim Jeffers. And all of them, Democrats don’t acknowledge the fact that we’ve got a fiscal Armageddon and calamity awaiting us and we keep kicking the damn can down the road, I really believe that we’re better off. Now, if we didn’t raise the debt ceiling, we don’t have to default, we take in roughly 340 $350 billion a month, and the debt payments are about a little over 30 billion. So we should just pay that first, second, military, third transportation and go on down the line. Until what’s going to be left out there pan to the money that they pander they use for pandering to get four votes for the next election. Well, that’s what we really need to focus on. Chris, to be fair, though, he’s got a narrow majority in the House. We don’t own the Senate. We don’t own the White House. And I think everybody whether they voted for or against, it wanted a better deal for me. And for Mark and for 69. Other Republicans, we just couldn’t stomach this one. And we wanted an even better one. Well, just couldn’t vote. Yeah. The as a conservative guys, I can just tell you, that the people out here see when the Democrats are the minority, they’re still running the show, they would never have accepted, they would have gotten something out of this deal. And frankly, those who understand the threat of crippling debt got nothing out of this deal. And that that’s just the truth, no matter what the spin is. And we know when we’re being spun. And that’s that’s precisely what’s happening. Look, I and by the way, a congressman just so you both know, at the end of 22/4, quarter 2022, the the interest payment on the debt was $251 billion. That’s in one quarter, because of rising interest rates and the ever increasing principal. So that means we are quickly getting toward having $1 trillion in interest alone and the debt. That’s how bad it is, with these rising interest rates and this ever growing principle. And that’s why it’s a big threat. I want to graduate on if we can guys to the FBI, as you know, Christopher Ray, because he’s empowered to the Republicans in and the Democrats colluded in this debt ceiling deal to give a raise, to give a raise to DOJ to give a raise to FBI the very same DOJ and FBI who are targeting your party for destruction or illegally prosecuting your party. basically letting him Clinton off the hook. When we had evidence that she did something wrong, they let her off the hook. But as the Durham report revealed, prosecuting President Trump with this crossfire hurricane investigation with zero, no evidence, so the Republicans said, Hey, what a great what a great thing. Let’s reward the DOJ and the FBI with giving them an increased increased money. So now if the Christopher rea FBI says hey, I don’t have to listen to a Congress’s they’re gonna give me money no matter what the hell I do. So he’s telling your colleague, James Comer, no, I’m not going to turn over this document to you. And I asked you a congressman Alfred, the FBI. Should the Republicans have agreed to give a raise to the FBI when they are clearly targeting you as a Republican and your constituents? Not at all. We should not be giving the FBI any more money until we get some answers as to why they were in bed with this whole scheme to support Hillary Clinton and go against President Trump. Comer needs to have access to those documents, not just in the skiff, where they want him to come down to the FBI headquarters. We need to get this out. I know we need to protect sources. I’m all for that we do not need to de fund federal law enforcement but we need to rein them in. That is the job of Congress. That is the power of the purse. Until we stand strong as a party and as a nation on this. We’re going to continue to go down this road where our law enforcement federal law enforcement will not be respected. We don’t have respect for this institution, the Department of Justice, we’re lost as a nation. Amen. Amen. Congressman Fallon, and we’ve been down this road several times in our past where these rogue agencies believe they run the show and not our elected representatives. But we’ve never had a democrat party that is so committed to implementing Marxism and socialism. And they worked very, very hard to infiltrate these agencies and compromise them. My opinion is the FBI and the DOJ need to be torn down and built back up with these safeguards for our rights reinstituted What say you, Mark, the FBI and the Democrats are absolutely in bed. And the problem is they’re still smoking. You know, I mean, the phone flipping out, Barbara, it’s a two tier justice system. And the weaponization of the DOJ, that’s not late. That’s not the justice is not flying in this country. And we see that over and over. And that’s why in on the Oversight Committee, we are committed to going where the evidence leads us, visa vie the Biden crime family, and everything that we have found. circumstantial, listen, we had a derelict a human being Hunter Biden, to smoke crack, and you know, just to stop it right there that that’s his lasting contribution to American society. He smoked crack. But go ahead, continue, Congressman. Right. And and you know, he frequented prostitutes, and then suddenly, I don’t know where he becomes a multi millionaire international businessman. What changed in his life? Oh, that’s right. His daddy became vice president. Today, we know that he’s gotten $10 million from foreign nationals. And we can’t figure out nobody can even fact the Democrats can’t tell you and articulate to you what the family does. What good do they sell? what service do they provide? Why so many shell companies? Why would they get paid? Does a foreign national create a shell company give the money to that shell company, then to another one, then to one of the Biden associated shell companies? And then one other shell and then they kick it out to the Biden? Why did the Biden family form 20 LLC? Why did they pocket seed money? Well, you know, in 2019, why did Joe Biden lied to the American people and say, I don’t know what Hunter does? I’ve never met any of his businesses. He thought that firewall? No, we didn’t. He did. That family generated their activities generated 170 Suspicious Activity Reports, which is something that the financial institutions by law have to create when they suspect fraud, money laundering, sexual dropping and things of that nature. And if they have done nothing wrong, come clean. Just say hello. Look at all my bank records. I haven’t done a damn thing wrong. Mark offered and done damn thing. I found hazards. So if you ever accuse us of something, and we get accused of garbage from the far left, I say, horse horse Aki, here. You can look at my record. The baits haven’t done that they’ve done everything and they dragged their feet consistently. Yeah, dirty, but we go where the evidence leads us, unlike them, just making things and covered up by the FBI and covered up by the biased press. Folks, we’re having a conversation with two members of Congress Mark Alford and Pat Fallon. Now look, guys, the last series of questions and Congressman Alfred, I’m going to leave it up to you because I’m not sure how much you’ve been following what’s happening here in the great state of Texas with the impeachment of our conservative attorney. A general by a bunch of turncoats in the Texas House, who dare call themselves Republicans, but really they they gear themselves toward delivering for Democrats. And if you don’t feel comfortable talking about that, I do want to speak to you about about you being a veteran journalist, because I used to be on the anchor desk myself before I got into opinion. So I want to leave it up to you. Do you want to talk about Paxton? Or do you want to talk about the state of American media? I would rather save my bullets for the American media. I am a sixth generation Texan, by the way, I grew up in Baytown and I covered the state legislature for many years as a journalist, and I do know what’s going on there. But I’d rather leave that up to the expertise of the the Texans on the on the phone. No, no, that’s cool. So let me just ask you this about about the state of the press. I have long observed. They are not dedicated journalists, they’re dedicated Democrats. Their coverage is obviously biased. And the state of journalism, there are only a few people out there that I can actually say, are real journalists, meaning they cover the issues and then let the folks make up their to make up their minds. The state of the American press, I think is is shameful and disgusting. And these people who make their living off of the First Amendment to put out and be the voices of the people rather than this is the question, don’t you think the American press has turned itself into the PR representatives for the extremists left wing rather than being fair arbiters who call balls and strikes? I totally agree with you. Unfortunately, I grew up I wanted to be a journalist, TV anchor news reporter since I was in fifth grade, everything I did was geared towards that I got into the business went to the University of Texas, got my first internship at the ABC affiliate there in Austin was on the air as a junior had been in for 35 years. And about 10 years ago, I read a book maybe 15 years ago from Bernard Goldberg. I know bias. I love it. I read that I read that book, I thought this is what’s wrong, I couldn’t quite put my finger on his a lifelong conservative, like, what is going on? Because we would have scripts come across our news desk, and I would read them. And I’m like, this is not the complete story. And the older I got the more context perspective, I had on on things and information that are younger producers, who I don’t think a lot of cases these younger producers necessarily are bias. So much is just ignorant. And I don’t mean that in a pejorative sense, they have a lack of knowledge. But that does do you and in journalism school, they teach you to it is your job to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted that is not a journalist that is a social worker. Our journalists should not be social workers, they should not be taking sides. It’s the job of a journalist to tell the truth, no matter where it lies, remove your bias. And just tell the facts. We have lost that in America. We have lost the ability as Americans to determine what is editorial content and what is news content. I think that’s part of the problem. And we’ve got to get back and it’s going to be worse. Now with the AI coming in. Yes, it’s gonna replace a lot of journalists. And who’s going to run the AI it’s going to be the progressive, liberal woke community who wants to destroy our nation who wants to drive us towards communism and Marxism. Amen. And we better wake up now, folks, the name of the book is called it’s Bernie Goldberg. It’s it’s bias. If you want to know the traitorous treasonous nature of the American press, read bias, and you’ll understand where it all comes from. Now, Bernie, Bernie doesn’t. I think things have changed since he wrote the book because now you’ve got committed leftists committed Marxists who are populating many of these newsrooms around the country. But it will give you an insight to the foundations in which the infiltration of America’s newsrooms was built. So Congressman Fallon, the question to you about the past and impeachment it was, so it was so righteous, sir, that they had to do it in secret. It was so above board, that they couldn’t allow the accused to speak in his own defense. It was so above board, they’ve actually violated To my knowledge, a couple of provisions in the Texas code with your experience in the Texas State House. What are your thoughts on the this this impeachment out of nowhere from the Texas House? Well, Chris, and one quick comment, bias by Bernie Goldberg was an excellent book written in 2001 and needs to be updated. You know, we need it. We need another volume, as you said, but to talk about the impeachment process. We should impeach the impeachment process. There were 20 articles of impeachment. Why were there 20 Different votes? They were just you got to take it or leave it you got to swallow this, you know, this turn, and only 23 Republicans are now I guess they to the present, so 25 people said no, I don’t feel comfortable precedent had been has already been set. And I think it’s 9017. And then I can certainly that’s the right of the excuse was able to the accused was able to present their defense, because this isn’t a grand jury, although they there’s in part, they kind of act like it. But it’s not a grand jury. It’s the House of Representatives, I will say, served in the Texas House of Representatives for six years, and the Texas Senate for two years. So I’m intimately familiar with this. So I have a couple of questions. If the evidence of impropriety and this criminal behavior is so strong, why not simply let the judicial process play out? Why don’t they stay in their lane? If the whistleblowers complaints from three years ago are so compelling? Why hasn’t there been any criminal indictments handed down by the Feds or state authorities in the last three years? So I, you know, encourage the Senate now to do their due diligence, and now they have to act as the juror. So look at this, because nothing new has come out? It what based on what we know now, of the evidence and presented to date, if it’s so compelling, why why does the legislature have to eat essentially eat its own? Because let’s be honest, Chris, if the if they let the judicial process play out, and Ken Paxton or anyone else was found guilty, then this might be an avenue to exercise. But before that, it’s a rush to judgment and end date. And you know what, I think that the Senate ought to look at this as a trial not only have Ken Paxton on on fake charges, but also how to put that Texas House leadership on trial for their myriad violations of the Texas code and established norms. And I think that the Texas Senate ought to be doing that. I I wish I could get some insight but everybody over there in the Senate is pretty tight lipped because they want to remain remain fair and impartial. Congressman Mark Alford and Congressman Pat Fallon. Gentlemen, thank you for your time in the Salcedo storm podcast. Take care. Hey, Mark, I buy that there’s gonna do it for this edition of The Salcedo storm podcast. Do me a favor, kids visit a couple of websites, Texas scorecard.com and Chris salcedo.com, you’re gonna get different things from those websites, Texas. scorecard.com is where you find enterprising journalism that is focused on some of the deepest problems that we have here in the state of Texas, and those who are trying to actually exacerbate those problems are those trying to solve those problems? Also, head on over to Chris salcedo.com our prescriptions for most things, those are the solutions to a lot of our problems if more folks just listen to me, things would things would be so much better in these ones United States. While you’re there at Chris salcedo.com You can check out our social media hookups and you can also drop me an email or a voicemail until we visit again my friends remember this a societies worth it is not measured by how much power is stolen by an out of control government. We measure a society’s worth by how much power is reserved for its people. We the People, you stay safe out there, my friends
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
