YouTube Transcript:
Is this the REAL reason Elon Musk SLAMMED the “Big, Beautiful Bill?”

Last month, the big beautiful bill uh
cleared the house by a single vote. The
senators now have been meeting for weeks
behind closed doors. Um they returned to
Washington late Monday. They revised the
package. Um Donald Trump just tweeted
out, "Passing the one big beautiful bill
is a historic opportunity to turn our
country around. Uh they need to work as
fast as they can to get this bill to my
desk before the 4th of July." Um, then
you have Elon Musk saying, "The massive,
outrageous pork- fil congressional
spending bill is a disgusting
abomination. Uh, shame on those who
voted for it. You know, you did wrong.
You know it." Mike Johnson then says,
"Well, that was disappointing. With all
due respect, uh, Elon Musk is my friend
and he's terribly wrong about the one
big beautiful bill." My gosh, my head
hurts from all of this. Now, the White
House is sending an additional $9
billion in cuts, which is nice, but uh
you know, we were hoping for like, you
know, $1 trillion in cuts, and
everybody's arguing over $9 billion in
in uh cuts. How is this thing going to
even pass? What is happening here? Uh we
have Chip Roy who is who voted for the
last one reluctantly. Uh and I don't
know where he stands now. Chip Roy,
welcome to the program. How are you,
Chip? Glenn, how you doing, brother?
I'm good. I'm good. Uh, must not be fun
being you right now.
Well, you know, here's the thing. When
you have a reputation for trying to do
the right thing, people do, I think,
want to come to you to try to figure
out, all right, like what's the score
here? What's the real deal? Uh, I'm
proud that I think people see me as
someone who tries to be honest and and
kind of, you know, work through this to
achieve what you and I, I think, and all
your listeners want to achieve. We have
an obligation to get this done, but we
have to get it done right. Um, you said,
"Thank you for saying that. I voted for
it reluctantly cuz I did reluctantly
vote for it. My messaging at the time
was reluctant." Right. We have to weigh
a lot of things right now. We have a
president who was given a mandate. a
president that you and I support what
he's doing, taking on the establishment,
taking on this town, um, you know,
rooting out all this DEI and woke
garbage, you know, pushing the barriers,
you know, you know, securing the border,
uh, all the things that we know are
happening. And we need to do certain
things in this bill. We do need tax
relief. We do need to extend the tax
cuts. We need economic growth by putting
more mana money in the hands and the
pockets of Americans. Um, those are all
important things, but we've got to cut
spending and the swamp creatures in
Congress aren't good at that. People
like me have been beating our head
against the wall trying to demonstrate,
hey, here's what we need to do. Here's
how we need to cut. So, now we got to
balance this thing. The reason I was
reluctant is because it does do some
really good things that we bled and
fought for for two months, Glenn. I
mean, the week before last, we were like
three straight days going down
negotiating with the White House,
negotiating with folks, and what we got
was good. Was it great? No, it was good.
We got the Inflation Reduction Act,
Green New Scam. We got a full repeal of
basically all future projects. But no,
we don't deal deal with the 400 billion
of existing projects. We got historic
Medicaid reductions. Reductions in the
increases, yes, but a trillion dollars
worth. That's never been done, Glenn.
Literally. But is that good enough for
the moment? Maybe not. I think we needed
to do better on FMAP and provider taxes
and all of the things about the
vulnerable versus the able-bodied. We
got Medicaid work requirements moved up
from 29 to 26. We fought like hell to
make the bill something that I think we
could be proud of certain elements, but
Elon's not wrong. Okay, Elon's not wrong
that for the moment, we need to do
better. We need more spending restraint.
We need to meet this moment with the
actual deficit reduction that is
necessary. We need to rebuild our
manufacturing base. And American Giants
started doing that 14 years ago. They
make clothing here at home with American
Cotton, American Hands, and American
Heart. It's quality you can feel. Go to
americaniantiant.com/glenn. Get 20% off
your first purchase. That's
american-giant.com/glenn. If we get
economic growth from the taxes, if we
get economic growth from the regulatory
policy, if we get economic growth
because the president is strong and
leading, then we can get out of this
mess. But it is that plus spending
restraint. Last point, I do think it it
is worth noting that I'm not sure that
Elon is really excited about the extent
to which we are killing the subsidies
across the board. All future subsidies
for EVs, for solar panels, for the wind
crap, all future subsidies we are mostly
killing. There's a few lingering
projects, but we tightened it down. The
left is losing their damn mind, Glenn.
So, there is a little of that that's
also at play. So, that's a long-winded
explanation. A lot to do. We're pushing
the Senate. They need to go further. We
I think we need to fix some stuff. But I
can promise you this, Glenn. If this
bill backslides, if they walk off of
what we got, which I don't even think is
necessarily good enough, I can promise
you I will oppose it in the House. So,
we'll see what the Senate does.
Your your speculation on what they're
going to do, are they making it worse
right now? Is it getting better?
I think there are forces at play that
are desperately trying to undo the
benefits we got with respect to
repealing the green new scam subsidies,
which by the way, the president of the
United States campaign fully and clearly
on terminating the Green New Scam
subsidies. There are forces in the
Senate who want to undo that. There are
forces in the House who regret voting
for those subsidy terminations. Um, I
think there are forces in the Senate who
uh are wary of some of our Medicaid
reforms, which were important on work
requirements, on eligibility to tighten
down and make sure that, you know, we're
trying to make sure the the able-bodied
aren't getting benefits, etc. Um, I
don't think it went far enough. So,
we're going to have to work hard just to
hold the line at the House bill, which
Glenn I would say is on the edge of
whether it's good enough to merit moving
forward and then hope we get three yards
in a cloud of dust. I will tell you that
if we can repeal the IRA subsidies, get
the Medicaid reforms, constrain the
spending, and get the economic growth
and the tax policy that net it is moving
the ball down the field. That's why I
held my nose. But if we were a truly
conservative Congress, we would cut
more. That's just the truth.
So I read all kinds of things from the
banking sector that uh we're talking
about our treasury bills that we are we
are so dangerously close. You raise the
debt ceiling yet again. We are
dangerously close to the rest of the
world saying I can't buy their debt
anymore. I mean, they're not serious
about anything. Do you believe we're
that close?
I think we're in a very Yeah, I believe
we're on a knife's edge. I think that
the bond markets are signaling that. I
think this is why Scott Besson has been
saying we need to get deficits down as a
percentage of GDP so we can signal to
the bond markets what needs to be
signaled. I think that we have an
obligation to get this right uh right
now in order to frankly so why is why
isn't anybody listening to that? Why
isn't anybody listening to to to Bessant
and to the bond market? That that that's
lights out for America if we don't get
that right. Yeah. And let me give you
another scary point, right? If we are
having to refinance our debts at higher
interest rates, which currently we would
be projecting, much higher interest
rates than the CBO is even projecting.
Putting aside the CBO, we all recognize
that they're flawed. Doesn't matter. You
got to just look at the model that's in
front of you. The current model projects
refinancing that debt at three and a
half%. But what if we have to refinance
it at the historic levels of four, four
and a half, 5%.
Right? We would have massively more
interest expense. Instead of a trillion,
it'd be a trillion and a half. Instead
of a trillion and a half, it' be two
trillion. We are going to gobble up our
entire government expenditure with
interest. I mean, Glenn, it is that bad.
And here's the problem. Is Congress
finally waking up to what you and I and
the Freedom Caucus and conservatives
have been saying now for a decade plus?
Yes. They're realizing that we're in a
real bad spot. So, all that's doing is
getting them to come to the table to do
the bare minimum, right? The Medicaid
reforms, the inflation reduction act
subsidies, the food stamp reforms, the
other things we just put in this bill,
all of which are good, but not as far as
I would go. And just be clear for your
listeners. They're finally getting to
the table to accept that and they're
getting there too late. So now what I'm
saying is we need to be doing more.
Let's talk about the recisions for a
second. The president is sending up
recisions and yes, it's just 9 billion.
The reason it's that small amount and so
everybody listening out there, why why
does this matter? The reconciliation
package can pass the Senate with 51
votes. The normal appropriations
process, which we still have to do this
year, will require 60 votes in the
Senate. Right? So that means it's going
to be hard to get through Democrats. So
this recisions process is a way to try
to cut some of these ridiculous programs
like USAD and other things um using a 51
vote threshold. So that is why we're
trying to move it that way. The reason
it's just a smaller $9 billion number is
it's a test case. Will Congress do its
job and do this first down payment, a $9
billion recision of PBS, NPR, and a
bunch of those USAD foreign uh
government funding uh foreign aid uh uh
wasteful program. You have to and now
we'll see. I'll of course vote for that.
You know, I will. You don't have to. So,
but will the moderates? We'll find out.
If they do, we'll get another recisions
package sent up right after that. So
this is all part of the process working
with Russ vote the OM the president.
Sorry I don't mean the filibuster but
that's the that's the update. Jib speak
about the process a little bit because I
it's fascinating to watch this bill try
to make its way through all of this.
Like for my at least my estimate so far
or my understanding is there's at least
two congress congressmen who who one
congresswoman I suppose who uh already
have said that their vote was a yes but
now it would be a no because they didn't
realize what they were voting for which
would already put you under the amount
that you need to get it passed. the the
salt people in the House are saying if
you get rid of salt we're done and the
Senate is saying we're getting rid of
salt or at least adjusting it. How does
this thing get across the finish line?
Well, I mean like everything else you
got to figure out how you navigate to
get 218 and to get 51. Um we've managed
to get it to this far. Uh look, you go
to war with army you got right. We have
the Congress that we have. We have the
president that we have who's trying to
get this done and we're trying to work
to do it. I think we're in the zip code,
but we're not where we need to be. So,
let's take the things you just you gave
some examples. Are there things in the
bill that some of us knew about and were
warning about that others are now just
kind of waking up and seeing? Yes.
Right. At the time, I said, for example,
there's a car tax in this bill, you
fools. I don't I don't support it. It
was a tax to make up for the fact that
EVs and hybrids can't, you know, pay
their fair share of the gas tax. They
needed $40 billion to pay for some Coast
Guard and other stuff. So, how did they
pay for it in the committee? What they
did was they added a car tax for EVs and
for hybrids. Now, do you think that we
conservatives of limited government uh
uh you know, views believe we should
have a car tax? I sure as hell don't.
Um, how about the AI restrictions?
Should we prohibit Florida and should we
prohibit Texas from being able to have
some sort of regulation on AI? From a
federalism standpoint, I'm not sure we
should. Right? So, there's lots of
things in this bill that I knew all this
was telling people about it, but man,
there's only like 40 fights you can
pick. My fight was you're going to
repeal these these damned subsidies uh
on the inflation reduction act that are
killing our grid, undermining our
national security, and destroying
natural gas and nuclear energy options.
My fight was trying to get Medicaid held
down. About 20 other fights, for
example, the car tax. Scott Perry and I
and a couple of others, we at least
killed the tax on the internal
combustion engines. They weren't going
to have a car tax on every car in
America, y'all. So, look, we're fighting
everything we got coming at us. There
are things that need to get fixed. To
answer your question, if they need to
adjust salt, I might try to call the
bluff of the guys in the salt caucus and
say, "Really, you're going to vote this
down because you didn't get more
subsidies for your great big blue state
tax jurisdictions, right?" But if they
want to try to call our bluff, I can
tell you if they repeal back the
inflation reduction acts stuff, which
the president campaigned on, then that's
going to be a real problem. So, we will
see. It is a fine line and I'm trying to
work with leadership, the White House to
deliver as close to my values as I can
and be able to look in the mirror and
say that I did enough. And I'm not sure,
gentlemen. I'm I'm always trying to
shoot straight. We're walking a line. It
could easily peel off and I can't
support it. It could move in the right
direction and I'll support it and say,
"Let's go fight tomorrow for the next
thing." I'm trying to work in good faith
with the president and his team to
deliver. There's a lot of good things in
this bill. Let's remember that. A
trillion dollars of real Medicaid
reforms. We've never done that before,
guys. Ever, right? The inflation
reduction act, Planned Parenthood not
funded, trans surgeries repealed for
adults and kids to defund that. The left
had gone so far, we're peeling a lot of
that back. So, let's remember the good
stuff while we're trying to, you know,
highlight some of our concerns.
Chip, I you're very reasoned and um I
really appreciate talking to you and I
really am so glad that you are
representing the great state of Texas.
Um you're a guy that at least I feel I
can trust. I you know, you say what you
mean and you mean what you say and that
is the number one thing I I look for in
a representative is somebody who will
say the same thing to me to my face as
they will behind closed doors. And I I
really appreciate all your hard work on
this. Thanks, Chip. Hey, I appreciate
it, Glenn, and thank you for exposing
all this to the American people and
being truthful about it. Like, because
this is hard for people like us because
you you want to be with the team to move
the ball down the field. We want to
succeed. We want to win, but you also
don't want to be you don't want to eat a
crap sandwich. So, I look, I promise
you, I will level set the good and the
bad and the ugly, and then you just have
to decide what's the best for the
country and vote and move forward. So,
that's where we are. Next time it starts
to move forward, you just you call in
and and you let us know what's in it.
Okay. Just make sure you get a hold of
me. As soon as you start to see things
moving forward, you let us know. Uh
because I'd appreciate your point of
view on that. Thanks, Chip.