Live from Music Row Monday 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 Congressman Tim Burchett (R-TN-02) to the newsmaker line to discuss the passing of the trillion-dollar infrastructure bill, how it will affect Americans and the Republican turncoats.
Leahy: We are joined on our newsmaker line now by our very good friend, Congressman Tim Burchett from Knox County, the East’s Second District of Tennessee. Good morning, Congressman Burchett.
Burchett:Â Hey, brother. Thank you so much for having me on.
Leahy: Well, I always enjoy having you on, Tim, because you’re a fun guy and you got a great sense of humor. Help me out here. I need some help, brother.
Burchett: I’m sorry that the people on radio can’t also see how good-looking I am.
Leahy: (Laughs) Well, we will vouch for that. This $1.2 trillion quote infrastructure bill passed. And then 13 Republican turncoats’ voted for to help it pass your friend Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez I guess was one who voted against it. (Burchett laughs) Can you tell us what happened there?
Burchett: I was sitting there talking to one of my Democrat buddies. I sit on the aisle and it’s always good. I was over talking to Jim Jordan, and I saw a group of Democrats huddled over near my Carhartt jacket, which I parked by the aisle. And so I walked over there and sat down to listen to what they got going on.
And they were just as ticked off as we were of the way this thing was run. And then I’m sitting there and we’re talking. And then they call for a recess, and I turned to one of them I said, Why the heck did they do that?
They said she doesn’t have the votes yet. And then his wife calls and he’s cussing about how disorganized this whole thing is and that he’s not going to get out tonight. And it’s too late and we’ll be flying in tomorrow.
We all flew at about 5:00 am the next Saturday morning. But the ridiculous nature of this thing was just the incredible spending. They’re claiming $1.2 trillion. Wharton School of Business, which they wouldn’t even let me up there, probably wouldn’t let me even mow their yard up there.
They said it’s more like $3.5 trillion. But then when you add everything in, I was talking to Marsha Blackburn, it’s over $5 trillion. There’s no telling what’s in this thing, brother. The most egregious part about it is all the crazy spending allowing 7 million illegal aliens to get amnesty, all this crazy stuff, but almost half a trillion dollars of it was money that was not accounted for.
Which means there is no way to pay for it in the bill. And the President just lied. And we all know that’s what he did. I don’t know if he intentionally does. And I go from anger to pity for that poor guy.
But the truth is, we’ve just passed this huge spending bill. And I can’t say this is an original thought because Jim Jordan told me this. Sorry, my dogs are barking. Every time I start talking about Pelosi, they go crazy. (Leahy chuckles)
But he said if you like the price of gasoline now wait till this thing gets impacted. If you like the price of beef now wait till this thing gets in it. It’s just incredible. It will be an inflation overdrive.
And it scares me for our country. We’re going into winter, and then they taxed propane, which a lot of folks use to heat their house. And it’s not just the wealthier folks. It’s the working-class folks, the poorer folks. And you’re going to see a huge tax on it.
Leahy: This bill includes a tax on propane?
Burchett: It apparently did.
Leahy: Oh, my goodness.
Burchett: What we don’t know is they said, well, they took the part out about beef. And I thought, well, that’s great. So I’m over there talking to some of my farmers that are in Congress with me, I have a farm, but nothing like these…
Leahy: Gentlemen farmer.
Burchett:Â Yes, I’m a gentleman farmer. I’ve never been accused of being a gentleman. (Leahy chuckles) But if you look in the rules portion of it, the rules, they tell you how things are made up within the bill.
In the rules portion and in the full body of the bill, they took out agriculture. But they would not allow the Republicans, they defeated an amendment that said that the rules portion does not apply to agriculture.
So you’ve got beef and pork, and you’ve got this amount of money that has to be raised. And if you do the math, your quarter pounder with cheese just went up substantially. It could double or triple the price.
And so we’ve got to really dig into this thing. Unfortunately, Pelosi, her words will be etched on her tombstone. ‘We got to pass it to know what’s in it.’ This is a perfect example of that, brother.
Leahy: Perfect example. My theory is that the Biden maladministration is intentionally driving up energy prices. Is intentionally creating inflation because they want chaos.
Burchett: Absolutely.
Leahy: You think that’s intentional, too? Do you agree with me?
Burchett: Oh, I agree. That’s what they do. I was just thinking about that this morning. They won’t let the real market take over. They won’t let our strong, robust economy drive things. What they do is they put fines on folks.
They can fine businesses up to $700,000. for not making people get their COVID tests. Electricity. They drive it up 30 percent. Because what happens then? Heck, we’ve got to put all this money in solar, and then we’re dependent upon the Chinese for those rare earth minerals.
Why would you bring in 8 million people greater than the size of the state of Tennessee and give them amnesty? And they’re not testing them for COVID. Yet, you and I, if we were to go out of this country, I mean, it’s sort of an anal probe…
Leahy: Of course, if you go out of the country and they don’t let you back in, it’s very easy. Just go down to Mexico and cross the border illegally. They’ll give you $450,000. (Laughs)
Burchett:Â I told my wife and daughter I said, Baby, we’re going to destroy all our identification and head down to the border and then come back in. Because it’s going to be a really nice Christmas for us.
Here’s something else I want people, everybody, to know. People will say Tim Burchett you’ve got your tin foil hat on. But Bill Gates has bought hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland, and he is a big investor in this vegetable beef. It’s a non-beef product they created in the lab. And what better way to make his product viable than to raise the price of beef?
Leahy: Yes. Exactly. I think that’s a lot of this. By the way, these 13 Republican traitors who voted for the bill that they didn’t read that’s got all this infrastructure ridiculous payment led by pretty boy Adam Kinzinger, what’s up with those guys?
Burchett: They’re mad at Trump. And, you know, everybody’s obsessed with Trump. Trump hasn’t been in the White House for a good while now and Biden mentioned him 24 times. All they say is we just have an ax to run with him.
Some of them have been redistricted where you’ve got to figure what’s in that bill for them. Some of them are not running again, and some of them have been redistricted into heavy Democrat areas. They cut all these deals for the Democrats, and then look what payment they got.
They’re going to get put into a heavy Democrat district or they’ll be running against a popular Republican. It doesn’t make any sense to me. I would never vote for something out of vengeance.
Leahy: So here’s a big question for you. Who’s a nicer person? Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Adam Kinzinger of Illinois?
Burchett: Cortez by miles. I know both well. Kinzinger, I was in foreign affairs and he’s a friend. But I would always listen to what he had to say because he usually had a pretty good perspective on things on foreign affairs and generally more of a hawk kind of thing where I was more of a, I don’t want to get our boys killed.
Let’s pull out and let’s develop it here in this country. And he was kind of a big world. Him and Liz Cheney. They were tight early on, and she was always taking him to the White House. Which I really found odd because he would immediately go on CNN and say something on the backside bad about the President.
And I got into it with the leadership, and I was told later by a bunch of members, and when I say a bunch, I mean, like half a dozen older members that said I was, in fact, correct and they were glad that I called her out.
I called Liz out one time in a caucus meeting and I said, you put this stuff out that you all are going to the White House, and then you bring a member who says something unkind about the President.
And I said you got Jim Jordan, and I go back to Jordan just because I like him and he really carries it well. And back then, Ford Gates was as controversial as he was. I said you’ve got all these other people that you could bring. And I said, but you brought Kinzinger. And she told me, she said, well, the White House picked that.
Leahy: I don’t believe that for a minute.
Burchett: Well, that’s exactly right. I called the White House, and they said, in fact, no. They just say bring four people. You decide. Or however.
Leahy: I’m shocked. I’m shocked that Liz Cheney was not honest and forthcoming. And on that note, Congressman Tim Burchett, we’re going to call it a day. Come back again soon. We always like having you on here.
Burchett: Brother, sorry I’m so wound up.
Leahy: Oh, you’re great.
Burchett: Fight for our country folks. They’re going to steal it.
Leahy: We’re going to stop it with your help.
Burchett: Go get them.
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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.
Photo “Tim Burchett” by Tim Burchett.
“I was sitting there talking to one of my Democrat buddies.”
Proving that this whole sideshow in DC, known as Congress, is nothing more than an illusion. We’re programed to think that this is a us vs them war, when in fact it’s more like an episode of Loony Tunes.
Remember the one where Wyle E Coyote and the Sheep Dog are punching in for work -work being- Wyle E tries to steal sheep, Sheep Dog catches and punishes him. Then at the end of the episode the punch out and say good night to each other like it’s ‘all in a days work’.
This exactly who Congress is. They are all in bed together. They are all corrupt. They are in it for themselves.