Live from Music Row Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed The Tennessee Star’s National Political Editor Neil McCabe to the newsmaker line to discuss the status of the Build Back Better bill and the fate of Nancy Pelosi.
Leahy: On our newsmaker line by the best Washington correspondent in the country and the National Political Editor for The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network, Neil McCabe. Good morning, Neil. How are you?
McCabe: Phenomenal, Michael. Great to be with you.
Leahy: So the bill back broker bill, it passed November 21st in the House. It’s before the Senate. The Congressional Budget Office says, oh, it’s going to cost $3 trillion extra or some big huge number. Where does that stand in the Senate, Neil?
McCabe: Yeah, I think that bill is on the morphine drip right now, and I think they’re just going to have to tell the family that it died in its sleep. I just don’t see Mitch McConnell doing what he needs to do.
And they’re going to have to break it up into some of its more popular components. But this idea that you could just basically throw everything into the salad bowl, mix it up and pass it, it’s just not going to fly between now and Christmas.
Leahy: Another failure for the Biden maladministration. Of course, they’ve been slapped down in federal court. A half a dozen federal courts have slapped down their vaccine mandates. But the good news for the Democrats, Neil, Nancy Pelosi has announced she’s going to run for reelection in San Francisco in 2022. Your thoughts. She’ll be 82.
McCabe: Well, let me talk about Pelosi for a second. I do want to point out that we’re focusing that tremendous leverage on the debt series. Every Republican senator voted against raising the debt ceiling, like yesterday.
But a week ago, the Republicans voted to basically allow it to go through without the filibuster. So they basically created procedural things so that the Democrats didn’t need their vote. Like yesterday they go ahead and pass it so that it goes through but a complete charade.
Leahy: That sounds like a Mitch McConnell’s special, right. That’s how he does things.
McCabe: The only problem is that she can’t stand Steni Hoyer who is the number two House Democrat. She will not step aside to let Steni Hoyer take over. She doesn’t want Clybourn to take over who’s the number three.
And basically, there is no successor. She’s been unable to groom a successor. So basically she has to stay on because otherwise, the whole thing will fall apart. She’s the only one.
Leahy: Now, she will run if she runs in 2022, as she says she will and she’s elected in San Francisco, which is a given. She’ll be 82 years old.
But, Neil, the probability that the Democrats lose the House is very high as we speak right now. If the Democrats lose the House of Representatives, will Nancy Pelosi stay on as minority leader in the next Congress?
McCabe: (Inaudible talk)
Leahy: We lost Neil there. Crom, let’s talk about this. I like what he said.
Carmichael: How do they break it apart, though?
Leahy: I don’t know.
Carmichael: Neil made an interesting point. But if they break it apart, then they lose the ability to lie about it. When I say that, I mean that in the truest sense of the word because they’re using 10 years of revenue to pay for 24 months of spending.
So they’re going to spend all the money in two years and then raise the money over 10 years. So if they break it up, then that tactic or that strategy becomes completely apparent. They can’t lie about it.
Leahy: Well, they can.
Carmichael: Well, no. Then it takes us 10 years to raise them. The one thing they can pass, and this is one that Trump tried to pass, but Pelosi wouldn’t let him and that is that Medicare can negotiate with Big Pharma. And that one actually makes great sense. And if they were to just simply advance that as a bill I believe that that would get bipartisan support.
Leahy: Well, you mentioned Big Pharma. I got to go with this. One of the problems that we have in the country right now is inflation, right? It’s huge. The highest it’s been in 40 years or so. And depending on the measurement, it’s from seven percent. I’ve seen others say wholesale prices are up 10 percent.
Carmichael: And if you just do rent, food, and energy, it’s close to 20 percent.
Leahy: Yeah, it’s terrible. And it’s all at the feet of the Biden maladministration.
Carmichael: Yes.
Leahy: Because they’re spending like drunken sailors with apologies to drunken sailors because they’re more fiscally responsible than Joe Biden is. But listen to this. This was a statement made by Jen Psaki yesterday.
Our Fox News correspondent, Peter Ducey asked her, how do you explain inflation? And her answer was this, wait for it…let me give you an example of why prices are going up. Here’s one. Why are meat prices going up? Well, this is due to, wait for it…the greed of the big meat conglomerate. Big meat. Who knew?
Carmichael: Well, you had big meat and big oil. Big something else. Everything has to have big before it.
Leahy: This is the worst possible propagandize you can ever see. This is Orwellian because it is an utter rejection of our free market system that has led to economic efficiency and lower prices over two centuries of time.
But now they are trying to vilify companies that have been producing goods and services at a decent price. Prices are going up because Joe Biden and the Democrats are spending like drunken sailors.
Carmichael: Yes.
Leahy: That’s why prices are going up, giving money away.
Carmichael: You have a whole bunch more money chasing a static, essentially amount of goods.
Leahy: But the villain and the piece, the big meat. The greedy big meat conglomerate. Who knew?
Carmichael: Bread prices are up because of big buns.
Leahy: Big buns. (Laughter)
Carmichael: Big buns.
Leahy: Or, big bacon.
Carmichael: Big bacon. Big bacon. (Laughter) Big chicken.
Leahy: Is there a more accomplished liar in the country than Jen Psaki?
Carmichael: Well, let me say this. Jen Psaki enjoys calling on Peter Ducey because she enjoys the back and forth. She thinks she’s smarter than Peter.
Leahy: Well she thinks in that back and forth that she is better. She thinks.
Carmichael: Yes, that’s what I’m saying. She thinks she’s smarter than Peter Ducey so she wants to best Fox News.
Leahy: And so obviously, when he asks about inflation and she blames the greed of the big meat conglomerate in her mind, she thinks she won that exchange.
Carmichael: She thinks she won the exchange.
Leahy: I’m all in favor of big bacon personally.
Carmichael: Yeah, I like big bacon, but it’s going to be interesting, but I want to get back to this breaking things up. If he breaks up Big Pharma, if he brings that one out, that would pass in a heartbeat.
But then the question is, if you pass that, then there’s really nothing else in it. There’s really nothing else in it that makes any sense. And if you pass the big Pharma that Medicare can negotiate, that actually doesn’t cost anything. It’ll save money.
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
