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We look across the political landscape today, it sure feels like however important Iowa will be, it's gonna be a blip. A week from today, it will be all about New Hampshire. Candidates will leave Iowa that night and we'll go to ground in the Granite State where they will stay. They will live for the better part of a week here leading up to voting. We're going to be there with you through all of it. And of course everyone thinks
they know what's going to happen here, right. Of course, Donald Trump has been looking pretty comfortable in the polls, and there's been a great storyline behind the Nicky Haley campaign showing surging polling in New Hampshire. And we have two competing surveys today that will satisfy everyone depending on what you're looking for here. One of them is from Suffolk University the Boston Globe in USA. Today, Nicky Haley twenty points behind Donald Trump forty six to twenty six
in New Hampshire. A lot of folks would say a potentially insurmountable lead. Well, look at what CNN is talking about with the University of New Hampshire. The survey center they're at with their own poll shows Nicki Haley cutting it too. Donald Trump's lead in New Hampshire cutting it the lead to single digits, thirty nine percent to thirty two percent, with Nicki Haley up a dozen points since that last poll in November. That's the storyline we've been
hearing more about. And while we'll talk about this with Rick and Genie, had wanted to talk to Chris Galderi because he's there and we're going to talk to him when we get to New Hampshire, of course, political scientist and professor at Saint Anselin University. Chris, it's great to see you. I don't know if you're going to be leaning toward one poll or the other, but I wonder
if we're getting closer to reality here. You know, we were talking about national polls and a lot of pie in the sky stuff six months ago, but it's about time for people to vote. What's New Hampshire think, Well.
I think New Hampshire is at a point where the folks who don't pay that much attention or who are only sort of engaged with the process or actually starting to tune in. And that's one of the things that makes primaries so interesting. They can be volatile because you
have a lot of late deciders. If you look at polling from past years, there are a lot of folks who don't decide who they're going to vote for until they are getting in the car or closing the front door to go to their polling place, which means stuff like Iowa's going to matter what people say in debates, what they don't say in debates, if they have gaffes or inspiring moments or that sort of thing really can lead to big shifts late in the game.
Well, really interesting here, and I know that Iowa will have some level of influence. New Hampshire has its own brand here and as they say, Iowa picks corn, New Hampshire picks presidents. But to what extent does momentum coming out of Iowa impact the results in New Hampshire.
Well, I think a lot depends on what the story coming out of Iowa is. Right now, a lot of folks are speculating that Haley actually passed DeSantis for second place. If she does that, I think that again contributes to this narrative, the storyline that Haley is on the rise, and I think that will make there'd be a lot of pressure to look at New Hampshire as essentially a two candidate race, as between Trump and Haley. I think in those circumstances, we'd be having a lot of conversations, well,
what does Ron DeSantis do? What does Chris Christie do? So, you know, and think back to nineteen eighty four Gary Hart's big splash. He came out of Iowa down to walter Mondale by thirty points, but he was in second place and nobody expected that. So I think, you know, in a sense, the expectations game is kind of kind of goofy. That's a technical term, but I think it can really affect what we'll be talking about and how we'll be talking about this race in that week between Iowa and New Hampshire.
You think back to twenty sixteen, and I remember talking to you then how different the race was. Donald Trump was in New Hampshire a lot. He decided to really plant his flag there. It was town Hall every other weekend. How much time has he spent there in the state, because it's been a storyline that he's barely gone to Iowa and it looks like he may well win the caucuses.
Yeah, he has not been here a lot. I think the number of events he has held in this state is in the mid single digits. I want to say, like five, six, seven, something like that. But it's been nothing like the on the ground presence that he had eight years ago. That said, his campaign is much more professional, much more for want of a better term, normal, than it was in twenty sixteen. So there really is an organized Trump campaign in terms of phone calls and mailers
and door knocking and that sort of thing. His ads are all over TV and all over streaming. And you know, my five year old was watching a Minecraft video and got Trump and Haley videos during.
It, so you know they're really target voters there. Yeah, they're hidden Minecraft this off. That's pretty creative. I have to admit that you're getting young people where they're actually working here. And I was visiting family in New England, not even in New Hampshire, but in Massachusetts, knowing they have to buy the Boston market and I mean, it's every other commercial. I can't imagine the level of exhaustion right now when it comes to the ads. Who's on
TV the most right now? In New Hampshire, Chris.
I'd say it's a toss up between Trump and Haley. I've barely seen anything for DeSantis. I think I've seen maybe one Christy ad. But really, if you're just watching TV, it's it's at least the stuff I'm watching looks like a two candidate race.
How about that? Are you leaning towards one pole or the other here? That Donald Trump is in fact enjoying a single digit lead, as one pole would suggest, or a twenty point spread like we're seeing in the other.
You know, it's it's really tough. I can envision either one being being more accurate. You know, the Haley numbers aren't actually off that much between There's not that much difference twenty six thirty two is it's sort of like the far end of the margin of error. What I think is more interesting is you have one poll where Trump is under forty. If Trump is under forty on primary night, we're going to be talking about how much he underperformed. Why wasn't he able to close the deal here,
that sort of thing. If he's coming in forty six percent, we'll say, wow, he's nearly at fifty percent. If there's an anti Trump coalition, it didn't show up tonight. So I think, you know, depending on which one of these is closer to what we get two, I think two weeks from tonight, two weeks from tonight, we'll be having really different conversations about the race.
Yeah, I understood, And that's what is It's just incredible about this stage of the race and knowing that this could go in a couple of different directions here, likely in the next couple of weeks. Chris, last time we were there twenty twenty, it was, of course the Democrats we were really talking about here. And I'll never forget talking with Joe Biden, who was said to be on
the verge of dropping out of the race. Was supposed to be an exit interview and what happened between New Hampshire and South Carolina was remarkable as just one candidate after the other dropped out of the race. Are we going to see something like that? Not that there are that many lefts. What happens to this field after New Hampshire or could something happen before New Hampshire. Could Chris Sanunu, for instance, taught Chris Christine to drop it out of this race. That's a great question.
I think.
You know, with Christy, the vibe I get is that he's attracting the really dedicated anti Trump voters, the people who turned out and voted for Bill Weld in twenty twenty.
And I think that's a fundamentally different approach and a fundamentally different group of voters than the ones who were being drawn to Haley, who's not attacking Trump, but you's saying, you know, he was fine in twenty sixteen, but we need a new generation, We need a younger voice, you know, that sort of thing, and really being very gentle and hands off with her criticisms of him. You know, I think if Christy were to get out, you know, I
think that would probably boost Haley. I don't think there are many Christie voters whose second choice is Donald Trump. Then you've got Rond de Santis. You know, he was pulling I think five percent in one of these polls, I think the CNNU and h Pole. I don't know that there are many Rond de Santis voters whose second choice is Nicky Haley. Uh So if you're if you're Nicky Haley, you probably you know, you'd like Christy to
get out. Uh you wouldn't mind Asa Hutchison, who's still in there getting like one or two percent, to get out and endorse you. But you probably want DeSantis to stick around. You probably figure the guy who's running as Trump isn't without Trump is probably drawing, if drawing votes away from Trump and not from you.
When does it get crazy? Is it a week from today when all the campaigns will be there. You can't get a booth of the Red Arrow Diner.
Yeah. When you wake up on the Tuesday after the Iowa caucus, you will discover that your friends and neighbors have covered the state in signs for their preferred candidates. You will hear about which candidate had a you know, three am landing at Manchester Airport or the private airfield and in conquered. That is when the circus comes to town and sets up on Elm Street in Manchester. It's when people bring out the livestock with you know, shirts and sweaters with candidates names on them.
A are we going to get a Trump? A rally on the eve. Have you heard anything about it?
I have not heard anything, but that's what he did in twenty twenty. In twenty twenty, he held a rally at a at an arena in downtown Manchester and basically just sort of he didn't dominate coverage, but he took a lot of wind out of the sales of Democrats who were hoping that they would have the front page of the Union Leader and the Conquered Monitor and other local papers to themselves on primary day.
Hey, Chris, I'm looking forward to seeing you up there. I appreciate you coming on today, Chris Caldieri with two weeks to go st Anselm College political science professor. Great to see you as we asemble our panel. They'll be there too, of course. Rick Davison Genie Shanzano are with us here. Our signature panel back together again. And I wonder Genie your thoughts on these poles here, because this is the menu of options. Is Donald Trump going to
walk into New Hampshire with the commanding leader? Is Nicky Haley truly nipping at his heels as this CNN U n H pole would tell us, Yeah, I mean it is fascinating.
You know, when we look at where she has been and where she has come, her star is rising at just the right time. And so I do think Trump really can have a run for his money from Nicky Haley. Of course, the CNN poll one pole, but again, when you look at her trajectory over time, she really is
narrowing this gap. And you know, it's really in keeping with something that I've heard and I'm sure other pollsters have heard, which is when people have been door knocking in places like New Hampshire and South Carolina and elsewhere on of Nikki Haley, they have sometimes heard people who say, I do support the former governor. I'm not sure I want to say that publicly necessarily, because of course, to
go against Trump is to support a Democrat. I mean, that's how it's been laid out, and of course those people don't feel that way at all. So I keep wondering, do we see a growing silent majority who once this is unleashed and these polls come out and she does if she does better in Iowa then expected comes in a strong two, does that sort of unleash this for her? So I think there's real possibility and momentum with Haley at this point.
Rick, I know you're taking the Haley campaign seriously and you've told us that we all should here in New Hampshire. Does that mean that you buy into this single digit spread that we're seeing in one of two polls today.
You know that's a pretty aggressive poll. Part of what makes me concerned about that. You know, an h pole is Ramaswami at eight. We haven't seen Ramaswami above five since the campaign began, and so that one may be a little too close. Look the un H pole. You know, Trump has come down three points and Nicky has gone up too since the last poll UNH took. So the trend is the right trend if you're looking for a closing race, and I think both of those poles represent a narrowing of the field.
And Haley is up twelve since the November poll by U n H. Just to give people a sense of the field. By the way, we've been, you know, talking about the two front runners. If you will, it's Trump thirty nine in this case, as I mentioned, Haley thirty two, but then it's Christy twelve, DeSantis five. To Rick's point, Ramaswami has eight points in this poll, Rick, do you buy the logic that Chris Calderi was saying that it's actually good for Nikki Hailey to keep Roni Santis in this race right now?
Yeah?
I mean, thing is about the lanes, and when those lanes converge, those votes scatter. And Ron DeSantis I totally agree with Chris. His votes going to Trump. Uh, Christy's votes going to to to Nicky. And when you look at head to heads that I've seen, uh, it's it's a dead heat. And so uh yeah, the ideal scenario is Christy gets out and and and and Ron stays in and that advantages Nicki Haley. But of course none of that she can control. So she's just got to
do the best she can in Iowa. And and frankly, that may be the worst thing for her because if she beats Ron de Santis and Iowa, it could force him out of the race and all those votes in New Hampshire go to go to Trump.
Find an interesting DeSantis and Nicki Haley will debate tomorrow night in Des Moines. Genie Ramaswamy did not qualify after all the time he spent in Iowa. Is that campaign done?
Not According to Ramaswami, he has been out and so active. I think he went to all ninety nine counties twice, if I understand. So he says he's seeing this thing through and he doesn't care about this CNN debate, is what he says.
Well, I guess not. We'll see how that goes. With only two on the stage Tomorrow night, Donald Trump won't be there. He's going to counter program with the town Hall on Fox. And so the wheel goes round. We're gonna have a lot more with our panel coming up here because the deal on Capitol Hill to avoid a government shutdown, the so called deal, is now hitting the campaign trail. We'll have that next. This is Bloomberg.
You're listening to the Bloomberg Sound on podcast. Catch the program live weekdays at one Eastern on Bloomberg Radio, the tune in app, Bloomberg dot Com, and the Bloomberg Business App. You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station. Just say Alexa play Bloomberg eleven thirty.
So much for avoiding a government shutdown. We'll see there are eight legislative days to make it happen, and I'll let everyone know we're going to talk to Congressman Brian Style coming up at the top of the hour forty minutes from now. The Republican from Wisconsin is in the middle of all this, as House members returned to Washington today with eight legislative sessions to figure out the path
forward here. This of course would be funding the government, and we've got the staggered or laddered cr in effect now, so the first four bills will expire toward the end of this month and the rest at the beginning of February. We do not have a lot of time to play with. But there was a big deal around this time yesterday, as I told you, big agreement on top line spending levels,
an agreement between Chuck Schumer and Speaker Mike Johnson. The same exact agreement, or as Jack Fitzpatrick called it, reagreement that Kevin McCarthy made with Joe Biden back in June. Now, some say this is progress, helped to avoid a shutdown, helps the odds, But if you're on Dea Santis, no way. The governor of Florida, of course, Republican presidential candidate weighing in took video from an interview, wrote around it with a nice post on Twitter to let everybody know, this
is just top line spending levels. Now, this is not the budget that you're not even real Republicans.
This is just selling out everything that they ran on in twenty twenty two. You know, they said that they were going to change the way Washington operates. They said that they were going to hold these agencies accountable. You know, that's the thing the House of Representatives is supposed to because there are what the power of the purse be, the people's redress for when government misbehaves.
Did you get that? I don't know what Donald Trump is going to say about this either. He's talking to Speaker Mike Johnson. They say on an almost daily basis. Let's reassemble the panel for their take. Genie Schanzano and Rick Davis Bloomberg Politics contributors are with us here. Rick, it's an opportunity for candidates, I guess, to make some news if you're on the trail. But what does it mean for the debate here in Washington?
Yeah?
Look, I think that it scrambles a deck a little bit. The reality is that Ronda Santis has been a fading star for months. He's trying to find some mojo for his campaign in Iowa at the very last minute, and there probably aren't a lot of House members wondering what his opinions are on their legislative issues. So he's kind of doing this for his own self interests, his own campaign interests in Iowa, not to actually influence anything in
the House of Representatives. And I'm sure the House of Representatives look at it exactly the same way.
Well, he's certainly sounding a lot like Representative Chip Roy, who's endorsed Rhonda Santi's genie, has been traveling with him in Iowa and he has said the same thing. Close the border or close the government, it's one or the other. Well, other candidates weigh in on this, Yeah, and.
You know here we're seeing exactly what we fear. I mean, yesterday, we were kind of optimistic that maybe they could get this thing done in eight days now, but as the clash of twenty four and the budget process come together, it makes it all that much more difficult. And of course ron de Santis is one thing. But to your point, when when Donald Trump weighs in and he has already started talking about the fact he doesn't want to be Herbert Hoover. So let's just get this economic downturn done
right now. I mean, this is where we are headed. And I think this is very, very difficult for somebody like Ron Johnson. You just I feel like reminding Ron de Santis if he wants Republicans to control DC, they've got to win elections right now. Democrats control the how the Senate rather and the White House, and so you got to deal with them. And you know, Ron DeSantis seems not to want to acknowledge that. And of course Donald Trump doesn't either.
Hubert Hoover thing. I don't so who's Donald Trump? And he did somebody buy him a book that there's like a maybe an American history book. He's been We had the Civil War last weekend. Now this I don't know. I wonder if Nikki Haley will take a stand on it. She was asked a lot of questions last evening on Fox Rick it was a town hall. They're each getting their turn here and Brett Bhaer I thought it was pretty interesting because it's an issue that we don't hear
anything about. We talk a lot about Donald Trump, we talk a little bit about the border, talk a little bit about the economy. We never talked about the big stuff that could in fact supersede all of these issues like Social Security and Medicare. If you want to have a budget debate, let's talk about that. And I have to admit it was not lost on me when I heard our own interview be invoked here. We talked to Nicki Haley back the end of August, and that was
my question for her at the time. It came up in that town hall meeting on Fox last evening. Just a taste here from Brett Bhaer as he's talking to Nicki Haley.
So, Governor DeSantis is hitting you for claiming the retirement age is quote way way too low, he said, quote I don't know why she's saying that. So are you saying that?
I have never once said that?
Well, wait, any way, way in Bloomberg and oh yeah, that Bloomberg interview, did you not say that? Let's spin back the tape again to the twenty fourth of August when Nikki Haley joined us here on Bloomberg. It was on balance of power on Bloomberg TV.
Remember, we don't touch anyone's retirement or anyone who's been promised in but we go to people like my kids in their twenties when they're coming into the system, and we say the rules have changed. We change retirement age to reflect life expectancy instead of cost of living increases. We do it based on inflation. We limit the benefits on the wealthy, and we expand Medicare advantage plans.
What's the right age there that Investador?
Well, I think we have to do the numbers. We've got to figure out what it is. But what we do know is sixty five is way too low and we need to increase that. We need to do it according to life expectancy.
Sixty five is way too low and we need to increase that. I guess rettbar was onto something. We appreciate their watching and listening. By the way, and I wonder what the panel thinks about this, Rick, This is not something that's resonating on the campaign trail. How come we're not talking about it outside of these brief moments.
You know, I think Republics and the Democrats alke have gotten so afraid of mentioning entitlement programs that never comes up. I mean, wasn't that long ago when John McCain ran commercials in New Hampshire. Part of the run up to his victory and a comeback campaign was all about South, you know, say, solving social security problems. And so now it's like lock box is back. You can't touch it,
you can't talk about it. So look, as you point out very responsibly, when you don't talk about entitlement reform, you're not talking about really changing government, and you're just nibbling around on the edges. And and until we find a leader who's not afraid of tackling the hard stuff, we're stuck in that lock box.
I guess that's right. I think he's talking about al GORGINI are Democrats going to be the ones to open lock box?
You know, I am so proud of Brett Baer for listening to you, Joe and listening to Bloomberg. And you know who else I think is going to listen is Donald Trump, Because as Nicky Haley closes these polls, he will pull out that Bloomberg quote and throw it right back at her. This is, you know, like Rick Scott all over again. And I'll bet the Democrats as well, Joe Biden and the Democrats will hit her on this
should she continue rising in the polls. You know, Rick Davis is right, it is you know, the reality is good economics on her part, bad politics. This is an absolute loser. This is why Rick Scott walked back from it. Nicki Haley now walking back from it. But you've got her on tape, Joe, So I think they're all going to be pulling that tape.
Well, we'll see if they use it. I'd love to follow up on that conversation with her if the opportunity arises. We'll see you in Iowa, Madam, Ambassador Rick. No one knows New Hantral politics better than you. What does Nicki Haley do? Or on de Santis for that matter, when they arrive that morning after or even that night of the Iowa caucuses. You've got a week to play with. What do you do with the time?
Fundraising is over, So you've got to hit town hall after town hall, public event after public event. The good news is everybody's paying attention. As Chris said earlier, all the voters have tuned in, so walking into a cafe, going and doing a town hall. From what I'm hearing on the ground, her town halls are on fire. Her crowd size is double tripled and quadrupled, and she needs to keep that momentum up and that means six eight
events a day, a lot of drop ins. So she just needs to hope that the roads are clear, the skies are blue, and you know she can work it hard all the way to election day.
You know.
Talking about the weather, we hit this for a minute, Genie, and you actually broke my heart a little bit because I can see the pain as we look at the forecast for Iowa. Do you know that they're they're canceling campaign events today because they're getting a foot of snow or something there. This might affect your your packing plans.
It totally has.
Joe.
I've already been in touch with a friend of mine who's in Des Moines. She said, it's freezing. It's gonna get worse. I need to go out and get some more hats, gloves. I don't know long John's It's gonna be cold.
I'm not good with that, but I don't think James for mister James is opening us every morning in our little show chat here with the forecast. I'm gonna just look back. Daily des Moines forecast Monday, a high a high of minus four and a low of minus thirteen. That's not even with the wind chill. But we shall prevail. We're bringing the shows on the road, and we're gonna join you from both Iowa and New Hampshire six days to des Moines, two weeks to Manchester.
You're listening to the Bloomberg Sound On podcast. Catch us live weekdays at one Eastern on Bloomberg dot com, the iHeartRadio app and the Bloomberg Business App, or listening on demand wherever you get your podcasts.
Welcome to our two of Bloomberg Sound On. I'm Joe Matthew in Washington alongside Kaylee Liones, who just walked in the room. It's good to see you because we're looking for some news here on the very same story that we were talking about around this time yesterday, whether we can avoid a shutdown. The House is back today, yep, which is why we're glad to bring you a conversation
in a moment with Congressman Brian's style. Although I don't know, I get the sense that maybe he never leaves Washington. Is he one of those lawmakers He's got a family. I know he goes home. Either way, Eight legislative days to figure out a. I won't say the word stop gap because Mike Johnson said he didn't want to do that.
He did, yes, that he wouldn't do that, But will he have to? What do you know, well, Senator John thun So, this is in the other chamber. The Senate may be singing a different tune on this than those in the House, but he says lawmakers likely will need to pass a short term stop gap to avoid a government shutdown. Okay, so exactly what Mike Johnson said he
didn't want to do. And yet, knowing you have to reconcile for to appropriations bills between the House and the Senate with potentially conservative policy writers questions around the border as well, there might not be much of a choice in the matter.
You know who just got back from the border. As the aforementioned Brian's style, we should bring him in now. Kaylee, the congressman from Wisconsin is with us, of course, chair of the Admin Committee, serves on Financial services and a reliable voice here on Bloomberg. Congressman, it's good to see you. Welcome back to reality here. We've been defying odds and logic for weeks and weeks in the House. What do
you think about this idea. If there's something like a deal in place, could your speaker get away with a continuing resolution? Would you support it?
Well, our best case scenario is not have to kick the can down the road, But shutting the federal government down benefits no one hurts a lot of people, and at the end of the day, it costs more. And so I'd rather see us get to a deal. We've been allowing ourselves to kick the can down the road.
That's not productive. Hope full we have a deal where we can actually fund this year's appropriations bills, because it's not only the top line amount of money, which is a cut to non defense, non veterans discretionary spending that hasn't been done in about six years, but it's also the spending priorities that are in there we're breaking away and the priorities that were loaded in during Democrat at one party control.
Well, be that as it may, Congressman, there are plenty of your colleagues who are not satisfied with the top line figures. It seems this House Freedom Caucus certainly isn't. How do you expect Mike Johnson, the House Speaker, to navigate this and keep his job while doing so well.
A lot of us would like to see the funding continue to go down. Unfortunately, we have a Democrat in the White House and a Democrat run Senate that is going to continue to push back and push for higher spending levels. This is where the deal that was cut under the FRA is the numbers that are before us and getting the overall spending package done. And again it's not the top line numbers, it's also the broader policies
that are included in the spending build. Those details have yet to come out, but if we take a full step back, we also have to recognize that we're only having this conversation over about twelve point five percent of the entire federal spending over the course of a given year. If we want to really hammer out the broader challenge that we're facing from a spending perspective, we need to look at the seventy five percent of the spending that's
on autopilot right now. And I'd love to see us take this moment and really move forward with a debt commission and really force us to have the adult conversation about where we're at. From a physical perspective, you know.
It's funny with all the talk in Washington about aging politicians, we're not old enough to have that adult conversation. It feels like, Congressman, you'd be your heart would be warmed to know that we actually talked about Social Security and Medicare on this program last hour, and the point of the conversation was that no one will talk about it. It is the third rail. It's in the lock box. But those are the cards that you're adult right now.
And as you look down the barrel here of a difficult negotiating session, it looks like there's another uprising on the right. The Freedom Caucus does not like it. And now Ron de Santis, the governor and presidential candidate, is coming out against this agreement between the Speaker and Chuck Schumer, the FRA deal. Will that have an impact on the result in the House.
I don't know that the presidential politics over the course of the next few weeks will have a significant impact on the negotiations are going to take place on Capitol Hill. I think at the end of the day, a lot of people are frustrated with where we're at from a spending level. They take it out on the twelve point five percent of the budget that probably gets the most airtime. It's important that we cut that spending, which we're doing in this We could have the debate about how far
we need to cut it. I'd like to see it go further, but again, we're negotiating with Democrats in the White House and Democrats in the Senate, and shutting down the federal government at the end of the day is not a winning policy at the end of the dayay, when every time that has been done the end result is more spending rather than less spending. It's a path that at the end of the day doesn't lead you to the conservative goal that people are setting out to try to achieve.
And yet there are some members of the House who are currently saying shut down the border or shut down the government, no security, no funding, these kind of ideas. Congressman, that would suggests that if the House doesn't get what it wants in terms of border reform, they would like government funding at least for a time to cease. And you speak of negotiations that have to happen between the
White House and the Senate. The White House and the Senate are already trying to iron out a border security deal as part of this supplemental funding request. Can you commit to voting for whatever agreement they come to in the name of bipartisan cooperation.
But I'm hopeful that we see some form of an agreement come out of these negotiations. I want to read it before i'd commit to it. But there's clearly a need to restructure and reform our border policies. This administration has been very aggressive from day one, where they stopped border wall construction to send a global signal that the US Mexico border is unsecure and individuals are able to cross it. We got to end the abuse of the
parole system. We got to end catch and release, reinstate stay in Mexico, immediately restart border wall construction, and if we do that, we could get a significant handle on the border crisis that's playing out. That's impacting communities all across the United States, not just our nation's largest cities.
It's impacting smaller communities like a city called Whitewater in Wisconsin in my district, but has fourteen thousand people and now has it roughly estimated by the chief of police, one thousand migrants now living.
Where are they living.
All throughout the city there was you know, there's a housing that was available. Many of these individuals are living and reasonably unsafe living conditions.
Has been a huge.
Burden on the school district. We're over three hundred students have entered the school district. Again in the small town need English as the second lange, which some of the dialects some of the students speaks, primarily from Nicaragua in Venezuela, don't match some of the Spanish language teachers in the
broader area. To burden on the police department, and it's a huge challenge, and again the challenge that we see on a lot of our larger media networks that focus in on our nation's largest cities Chicago, New York, Denver missed the fact that this is impacting every community in the United States, including smaller communities in Wisconsin. Which is why my trip to the border, I think was so relevant. Is we got to change the policies that this administration continues to implement.
Let's just stick with that for one minute, because you mentioned parole, which according to all reports is the big sticking point here. If you managed to increase funding for security, tighten the definition of asylum and get some of the other elements you're talking about without the parole reform, would that be something that could pass the House.
Well, all of these pieces interact together, and again I want to be able to get to us by we can read the final negotiation. But reforming the prole system is really important here and the reason for that is many individuals right now or there's a catch and release policy being pushed by this administration. So after seventy two hours of after entering the country illegally, a vast number of these individuals are released with a freedom of movement with a date to appear in court, often three or
four years out. So what we need to do is actually adjudicate these cases on the spot. And the abuse that's occurring is the overwhelming majority of these are not actually valid asylum claims. The challenge is the ability to process those under our current system is delayed, often three, four or more years, which exacerbates the problem.
Well, there is a certain coorus at least in the House that is saying HR two contains many of these policies, Therefore HR two should be what passes or something very very similar to it. Yet we know that the HR two was actually dead on arrival in the Senate when
you passed it months ago go. Are you concerned that there won't be enough Republican members of the House that are willing to support not just a border deal, but potentially whatever funding agreement be a at a continuing resolution or actual appropriation bills, that once again it will be Democrats that carry this over the finish line, and that as a result, Speaker Johnson is going to be in jeopardy.
Well, an incredibly narrow majority like we have right now, getting anything done is incredibly difficult. I think people are aware the Speaker Johnston has been dealt to difficult hand, and he's negotiating valiantly to try to bring the spending down and address the border crisis. I would have loved to have seen the Senate take HR two and put it on the floor and amend it as they see fit.
What the Senate has really done has not allowed this to play out on the floor of the Senate so that people can see where their senators stand, has released to really important policy provisions. I'd also mention Kailey that the border crisis has gotten significantly works over the past handflow months, and so the political dynamic in the Senate has changed, and I think that is causing a greater sense of urgency and understanding that action has to be taken.
It was just last month that three hundred thousand individuals illegally entered the United States and Americans half the population of the city of Milwaukee coming in in just a month, and so we're in a situation where this is untenable. People are becoming more aware of that in maybe the political dynamic and the Senate as such, that we're going to be able to actually get substantive order security across the line.
It sure has been seeming like a kungressman. But Senator Langford was sound a pretty downbeat when he left a briefing with some House members yesterday, and he was specifically concerned about being able to craft something that Democrats could also vote for, knowing that there's going to be an effort starting tomorrow to impeach the Homeland Security Secretary, who was actually at the table with James Langford and the other negotiators here is this the right time to be
impeaching the secretary knowing that he's, as Langford said, simply carrying out the policies of this administration.
Well, he's done a pretty abysmal job of enforcing border security. He's been less than honest before Congress when he came before us and said in his own words that the border was secure when we know that that is not true. And so I think applying pressure onto the secretary is really important here to get the enforcement of the laws around the books, to put pressure on the Biden administration to change course. And so we're going to have to continue to push on DHS to change the policies that
they're implementing right now. But the one part that I think is relevant here is simply removing him doesn't solve the problem wholesale, because all it will do is allow a new individual to come in to continue to exacerbate the bad policies the administration. It's why actually passing this from the legislative standpoint at the end of the day is so imperative.
Congressman, we could talk to you about the border and those who are enforcing or not is security all day, but there is actually something else I want to get your take on. Knowing you sit on financial services and this is an issue that you pay a lot of attention to a spot Bitcoin etf rumor has that the SEC could actually approve one or many for the first time ever by the end of the day tomorrow. Would that improve your view of the SEC under Gary Gensler as a regulator.
What so much of the broader crypto industry needs is that actually simply rules of the road so they can operate, and continuing to allow the SEC and other agencies to create policy through enforcement is a really bad practice. So if we are in a position where're actually allowing companies to be able to operate here in the United States rather than pushing them abroad to conduct their business, that's
a step in the right direction. But broadly speaking, I think we'd be best served by having a set of rules in place that companies can then know that they're operating in the sandbox of regulatory safety, so they can do the innovation and development here in the United States of America. Failure to do that will continue to push this development in countries outside the United States, which will have negative long term consequences.
Well, while we're introducing new topics to our conversation here, Congressman, I have to ask you, as the chair of the Admin Committee, what your thoughts are, and I realized that you don't oversee the Pentagon, but your thoughts on this whole issue involving the whereabouts and the chain of command, the communication or lack thereof that has surrounded the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin. We've not been able to get answers to most any of our questions from the Pentagon.
Here there are a lot of folks wondering why days passed without anyone knowing that he had been admitted to the hospital. And I wonder, as chair of a House committee, if you have a plan, for instance, if you were incapacitated or sick, what happens when the chairman cannot attend work one day?
What played out of the Defence Department is incredibly concerning, and for particular a period of time where we have the global challenges that we're facing.
It's a clear.
Indication there's a significant lack of communication between the Defense Department in the White House. I think there needs to be significantly more transparency as to why this occurred and the House side. There's a simple chain of command. If the Chairman wasn't there, the next in line would be in the position to be able to step up and operate. But the failure and the lack of communication between our leading defense, the Chairman of Defense back with the White
House is concerning. I think there needs to be a lot more transparency about what occurred and why it occurred.
Congress, but it's good to see you, good luck in the debate, and we'd like to stay in touch with you as we learn more Congressman Brian's style of Wisconsin. Thanks for listening to the Sound On podcast. Make sure to subscribe if you haven't already, at Apple, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts, and you can find us live every weekday from Washington, DC at one pm Eastern Time. Bloomberg dot com