Democrats Want to Spend TRILLIONS! Senator Cotton Calls in to Discuss

you look at their votes in March on the last big spending boondoggle. But there's probably 3 or 4 other Democrats who, look, when the chips are down and the bill is on the floor, if it gets that far, they will vote for it, no doubt. But I think they're probably whispering in Chuck Schumer's ears right now that Joe Biden's popularity has plummeted over the last 2 months because of unpopular mandates from the CDC and from himself, and also his bungling of the Afghanistan withdrawal. Why don't we get some distance here? Why don't we 'Cut him loose and save ourselves. Let's campaign on the bill we passed back in March and pretend none of this ever happened.' Obviously, the far left in the Senate and the House is not going to allow that to happen, but I'll just say that the Democratic caucuses in the Congress right now are a hotbed of cold feet when it comes to this $5 trillion spending bill.

So it sounds to me, from what you're saying, Senator, like if I was a betting man, I should bet that that bill is not going to pass the Senate.

I don't think it'll pass at the full $3.5 trillion, or again, $5 trillion once you eliminate all the budget gimmicks. They're not gonna stop though, just 'cause they can't get $3.5 trillion, they're not gonna stop and try to get, you know, $1.5 trillion, $2 trillion, $2.5 trillion, what have you. And as important as what the bill spends is what the bill does as well. Some of these programs that it sets up totally roll back the welfare reform victories of the last 25 years. They reinstitute welfare checks for households without a single breadwinner, not even looking for work. They give out billions, billions of dollars to illegal aliens in public benefits. And of course, they implement much of the Democrats' Green New Deal. So in March— or I'm sorry, in January and February, and in March in Minnesota, John, everybody's gonna be shivering in a couple years when we don't have enough energy to heat our homes if this bill passes.

So is the most likely outcome here, Senator, that after the fiasco of the current week is over, the Democrats put their heads together and agree on a bill that can get through both houses of Congress, which will be less ambitious than the $3.5 or $5 trillion bill, but probably more ambitious than the $1 trillion?

That is, uh, that's probably what Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Joe Biden hope. But again, as long as they've got the different factions of their party fighting between themselves, they may not have 218 votes to pass any of these bills, which again would be a great outcome for the American people that we not waste another $6 trillion of needless spending on new welfare programs and spending for illegal aliens. But what they'll probably try to do, if that bill— if the infrastructure bill passes Thursday, is spend the rest of this fall trying to reach some kind of compromise between the House and the Senate, between the left and the right flanks of their caucus, and pass that bill before the end of the year.

Yeah, I would say between the left flank and the far left flank.

I'm sorry, I misspoke. Like I said, there are no moderate Democrats in Congress, only vulnerable Democrats.

Yeah, that's exactly right. And the other thing going on, of course, is that the government is slated to shut down on Friday, I take it, and the Democrats are trying to get a continuing resolution through, and they need to increase the federal debt limit, and Mitch McConnell is basically saying, "Well, good luck, fellas.

You're going to have to do it without us." Well, we're not going to have a government shutdown this week, John, for the simple reason that the party of government is in charge of government, and they're not going to shut down the government. What they hoped to do was to use this government funding deadline to force Republicans to vote for a new debt ceiling increase to help pay for their $7 trillion spending spree. And Senator McConnell has been right all along. We are absolutely not going to do that. They've been passing these bills and trying to pass these bills on a party-line basis all year long. If they want to pass on a party-line basis $7 trillion of new spending, then they can pass on a party-line basis a debt ceiling increase to accommodate that spending. And it's not a hypothetical. Theoretical proposal that they can pass it using the fast-track budget procedures. They are literally using those procedures right now to write a budget, so it's very easy for them to include a debt ceiling increase in that budget.

Yeah, the Republicans are being blasted by NPR and the New York Times and all the usual suspects for blocking the resolution and the increase in the debt limit. It came up for a cloture vote in the Senate, fell short, I think yesterday. 48 to 50, but the fact is if the Democrats have all 50 of their senators in line, they don't need any Republican votes.

That's absolutely right, John. They passed $2 trillion of spending on a party-line basis with 50 votes in the Senate in March. They're trying to pass $6 trillion of new spending as well on a party-line basis. They can pass a debt ceiling on a party-line basis. To spend the $7 trillion but then not raise the debt ceiling to accommodate the spending is the ultimate example, as the scripture would say, of eating camels and choking on gnats.

Now, I've seen some Newsweek accounts that the Democrats in Congress are unhappy that Joe Biden isn't working the phones and leaning on various people. But this comes back, comes back to the point you made earlier about Joe Biden's cratering approval ratings. And Senator, you probably haven't seen the latest poll here in Minnesota, but Joe Biden's favorability among men in blue state Minnesota is 28%.

Yeah, it's astonishing. And I mean, there's a poll out in Iowa last week that had him at 31% with the entire electorate. And if he's at 31% in Iowa, he's not gonna be much better in critical states like Minnesota and Wisconsin and other states around the country.

So we have just one minute now, Tom, in this segment. But how important is it that Biden has fallen in such low esteem with American voters?

[Speaker:DENNIS_PRAGER] Well, it certainly diminishes his influence in Congress. I will say this, John, the debacle in Afghanistan also hurt his credibility with his own elected Democrats in Washington who'd been told for 6 months to trust Joe Biden, trust his high command. They were old, wise in hands. They'd been through the wringer. They were seasoned and experienced and competent, and they would get everyone through these troubled times for their party. Just remember, the people planning this legislative strategy strategy for the Congress are the same people who planned that withdrawal strategy in Afghanistan. Just keep that in mind, because I can tell you a lot of Democrats who have to face the voters in 14 months are keeping that in mind.

All right. Thank you very much, Senator Tom Cotton, for being with us. We are now going to go to a break and be right back with your calls.